6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY,FEBRUARY 10,2003
Hard at work
Pilar Pena/Kansar
The art piece "Hostages," made by Rachel Schmidt, was part of the Senior Design Exhibition at the Art and Design Gallery. Schmidt used wire, raw wool and cloth to make this piece. The exhibition ran from Feb. 2-7.
Non-English law sparks problems
The Associated Press
ALTUS, Okla. — The Justice Department has agreed with Hispanic employees for the city of Altus, Okla., who say a rule that forbids them to speak Spanish, except of on personal breaks, is unfair.
Twelve employees filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after the policy took effect in July, said Rick Dovalina, a Houston lawyer and former president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Hispanic employees make up about 30 percent of the work force in the southwestern Oklahoma town, located about 15 miles from the Texas state line.
Altus City Attorney Catherine Coke said she questioned the strength of the Justice Department's finding because the department opted not to take action on its own.
Alts' mayor and city manager were unavailable for comment.
Coke said she knows of no problems with the English-only policy after an initial round of complaints. No one has violated it to her knowledge and few have complained, she said.
"The main thrust of it is we just want any communication on the radio or the telephone or in any official business to be in English." Coke said.
The law allows English-only policies in some instances, such as when safety is a factor.
"If you want to speak your language on break or if you're working with someone on the site, then you can speak Spanish. It's just a simple policy, really." Coke said.
In a letter from the EFOC, who referred the case to the Justice Department, the commission says Alus' policy has a "chilling effect" by singling out a nationality and promoting a feeling of exclusion.
Altus' English-only policy is "overly broad" and justification for the ban does not rise to the level of necessity, the letter says.
"The sole evidence provided by the respondent is that English-only speaking employees complained they are uncomfortable with another language in the workplace." according to the letter.
The policy was written after an Altus street employee was told to speak English on the city radio. That employee asked to see the policy requiring him to do so. A policy was drafted the next day.
To be sure, tenants are not required to sign the courtesy form. They can still draft their own intent-to-vacate letter before the 30-day deadline.
The lease would typically detail what damages the tenant is responsible for," said
Sandra Craig McKenzie, another property law professor. "From the tenant's perspective, you're supposed to read what you sign."
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The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the bill and the full Senate is scheduled to consider it for passage in two to three weeks. The bill would then have to make its way through the House in order to pass.
Tenant
Schmidt has urged that consideration be postponed while he meets with the landlords association to possibly make changes to the bill.
"It's common process around here to reach consensus on things," Schmidt said. "The key for me is solving the problem."
Jaskinia said the landlords association likely wouldn't support Schmidt's bill even with bet
ter wording.
"We just want to make sure it's absolutely correct in what he is trying to accomplish," he said. "For any of the tenants out there on KU campus, their worst nightmare is to open that landlord/tenant act, because there are a lot of things in there that protect tenants."
Edited by Ryan Wood
'The Kiosk'lets writers fill pages
By Nicole Roché
nroche@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"It just came to me really quick," Heinen said. "I didn't think it would be published."
Heinen, a junior from Lubbock, Texas, said he was surprised when his short story was chosen for last semester's edition of The Kiosk, the University of Kansas' literary and art magazine.
Bill Heinen spent thirty minutes with "Barbara on the Beach," but he never thought she'd see the light of day.
Tabatha Beerbower, editor of The Kiosk, said the magazine prided itself on intriguing fiction, poetry and design. She said students could submit entries for the spring edition until Feb. 21.
"Everything we've published has had a very realistic feel to it," Beerbower said. "What we really look for is honest writing."
Each semester, students enter about 70 to 80 fiction pieces and more than 100 poems. Beerbower said. The magazine's editors pick the top eight, she said, and then decide on the finalists.
"It's just like English class," she said. "We analyze what stories mean and what makes a story good."
The Kiosk staff is a tight-knit group. Beerbower said. Hiring is mainly done by word of mouth and all the positions are unpaid.
"We're not a traditional student organization," she said. "We operate out of our own homes and apartments."
Beerbower said she had a poem published in The Kiosk her freshman year, "Impurities," which was about a woman
The Kiosk operates on an estimated $7,000 budget to print about 2,000 copies each semester. Beerbower said. The magazine's sponsors include Coca-Cola and Student Senate, she said, although several other organizations contribute.
metaphorically cleansing her sins. She said the assistant editor at the time asked her to join the staff, which was mainly composed of English and journalism majors. The magazine has nine members on its staff.
Bernard Hirsch, advisor to The Kiosk, said the magazine evolved since he became the undergraduate coordinator for the English department in 1996.
"It's very free flowing," Hirsch said. "They are as concerned about the visual form and content as much as they are about the verbal."
He said although he gave advice for the student editors, he wanted the publication to be excelusively the work of undergraduates.
"I trust their judgment," he said. "Obviously there's a little more license than there would be on the front page of the Kansan."
The Kiosk is typically 96 pages and includes four fiction pieces, seven poems and various art selections. Beerbower said this spring's edition, which will be printed in April, would be the 28th edition of The Kiosk. Students can pick up copies of the fall 2002 Kiosk outside the English department. 3114 Wescoe.
Heinen said it was an important outlet for student writers.
Edited by Ryan Wood
"It's a chance to get your voice out," he said.
Another fragment of Columbia thought to be found in Texas
HEMPHILL. Texas
The Associated Press
Searchers trudging through the East Texas mud yesterday found a charred hatch door with a hydraulic opening mechanism believed to have been part of the space shuttle Columbia.
"The hatch for the most part was intact," said Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss. "It does have some tearing of the metal and several protective
shields had been dislodged from the door, but some of those were still in place."
Kerss said the door measured 3 feet by 3 feet and was "fairly heavy." It wasn't immediately clear what part of the shuttle it may have come from.
Two other large pieces of shuttle debris located yesterday remained in a remote area where recovery teams planned to retrieve them today. Kerss said.
So far, the most significant
finds have been a 2-foot long section of Columbia's wing and a covering for a landing gear hatch.
Searchers began their second week in a cold rain, struggling through mud and braids and up steep grades amid the ticks and other bugs of the Texas woods and bogs.
"I don't think any one thing really hurts you all that much," said Timothy Palermo, a National Guardsman from Port Arthur,
Texas. But he said it can be frustrating: "You can spend all day hacking your way through an area and not have gone two miles because of the terrain."
Richard Bradley, a doctor with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Urban Search and Rescue, is monitoring one person for a cough that may have been triggered by a toxic substance on shuttle debris. But for the most part, he has been seeing cuts and sore muscles.
"We treat a lot of blisters, remove a lot of ticks, put lotion on a lot of scratches and see a lot of bruises," he said.
At the Toledo Bend Reservoir, on the Texas-Louisiana border, the weather has kept divers from searching areas where sonar detected what could be shuttle debris.
They hope to send divers in later this week, but in the meantime are using a small, self-propelled device that beams back television pictures to help see through the deep silt and fallen pine trees that cover the floor of the reservoir.
"We have at least one area that looks good," said NASA astronaut Steve Bowman. "It was brought to our attention by a witness and backed up by sonar sweeps that revealed some sizable debris there. Now, we just need to verify that it's from the shuttle and not a door from a '49 Chevrolet."
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