The University Daily
Battling for life
KU's housing director helps run house for recovering alcoholics. See story on page 3.
KANSAN
Chance of rain High, 70. Low, 50s. Details on page 3.
Vol. 95, No. 143 (USPS 650-640)
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Wednesday, May 1, 1985
Sit-in adopts festive atmosphere
By CINDY McCURRY Staff Reporter
The sit in in the lobby of Strong Hall has turned into a regular slumber party.
Dennis Highberger, one of the organizers of the sit in, sent from 20 to 40 people
About 20 people yesterday, who were continuing their protest against the Kansas University Endowment Association's ties to South Africa, spent the night on the cold, tile floor Monday and last night. They came equipped with blankets, radios, guitars, food, games and textbooks.
THE SIT-IN BEGAN at about 9 a.m. Monday as part of a national day of protest against the country's progression toward world war. Demonstrators took advantage of the "No Business as Usual" day to begin a protest against the Endowment Association's investment in companies that do business in South Africa
Protesters continue their sit-in in the lobby of Strong Hall to protest the Kansas University Endowment Association's ties with companies that do business in South Africa. About 20 protesters took part in the sit in, which began Monday morning.
Last night the lobby was buzzing with activity. In one area, a group of students played hacky-sack. Other students painted signs for the protest.
However, Seymour said, the Endowment Association would honor a donor's request not to invest his gift in a particular company
EARLIER THIS MONTH, the University Council approved a resolution calling for the Endowment Association to divest its business interests with companies doing business in South Africa. Last week, in a statement presented to the University Council on Friday, the institution did not think dividend was the best way to change apartheid in South Africa.
Ungerman said, "It's amazing the number of people who have joined us. Some people just come sit for an hour or two, or spend their lunch time with us."
Todd Seymour. Endowment Association president, said the Endowment Association would continue its policy of basing its investment decisions on return and security, provided the investments were in line with state and federal law.
Chuck Munson, Leawood sophomore, said that the sit-in was increasing awareness of the issue of investment in South Africa.
Black nightmare grips 2 S. Africans
Staff Reporter
By DeNEEN BROWN
Aparthief is only a vague and foreign concept to many KU students. But for two South African students, aparthief is a black nightmare from which they cannot awake.
"If you understand slavery, then you'll be able to understand that apartheid is a name used for the exploitive separation of races." Sidon Sisson, a black student from South Africa.
Michael, a white South African student,
agree that apartheid was subdue slavery
and was the result of racism.
Jason and Michael are not their real names. They said they did not want to be identified for fear they would be charged with treason for denouncing apartheid. In some cases, the crime is punishable by death in their country.
"Some people have been hanged for treason." Jason said. "I have to be cautious. You have to know there is danger."
MICHAEL SAID IT was possible that the South African government had agents on campus, because a South African military officer had suggested that Michael keep an eye on students while he was in the United States.
"When I applied to leave, he suggested to me to let him know on a regular basis about
other South African students on campus," he said.
"If they are, I am probably in big trouble because I got to African parties, I dance with black women and I have black South African friends," he said.
Michael said he would not act as a government informant but said there might be more.
Jason has been a student at the University of Kansas since 1982. He left South Africa to get a better education, he said. Michael also has been a KU student since 1982. He left South Africa to study set logic, a discipline not offered in his country.
He also left to get a breath of freedom, he said, and hopes not to return to his country
"I AM ACTUALLY planning to stay in the United States," Michael said. "I will not go back until things have changed. I'm living in California, I live here." I either have to forget myself or the law.
Unlike Michael, Jason is driven to return to his native land to help his people rid their country of what he calls an evil plague — apartheid, rule by the white minority.
"If a snake comes into your house, you don't run away from the house," he said. "You try to kill the snake. It's just that way with my country."
Rule by the white minority in South Africa began in 1652, when a group of white settlers
In this case, the snake has been choking his people for 300 years, he said.
from Holland, exiled from their country because of their religious beliefs, came to South Africa and determined to make the land their own.
BECAUSE THEIR guns were superior to African spears, they defeated the natives and established two republics, Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Much later, they were conquered by the British, who established the Union of South Africa in 1910.
According to a theory, Michael said, the settlers believed the black people of Africa were descendants of the cursed son of Noah who had looked upon his naked and drunken father. Consequently, they regard black people as heathens.
Michael said his family had been in South Africa since the Dutch invasion. His parents, who still live in South Africa, uphold apartheid.
"They believe if God wanted people to be one people. He wouldn't make them two
"WE USUALLY disagree when we start talking about politics," he said. "In South Africa, I kept my mouth shut to basically keep myself in one piece. It isn't an easy thing to be in an Afrikaner community and be different."
The policy of separate races existed unofficially in the country for 300 years, but
Sanctions sought against Nicaragua
WASHINGTON — President Reagan, rebuffed in his effort to provide aid to Nicaraguan rebels, notified Congress yesterday of his intention to impose a trade embargo and other sanctions against the Marxist-led government in Managua.
By United Press International
Administration and congressional sources said the sanctions, decided upon after Congress refused to provide $14 million in aid to the contra rebels, include an embargo on trade and a suspension of airline service to Nicaragua.
See S. AFBICA, p. 5, col.1
Reagan authorized his top aides to brief key members of Congress on the impending action just hours before he took off on a 10-day trip to Europe. An announcement was expected today after his arrival in Bonn, West Germany.
The proposed sanctions drew quick response from Nicaraguan leaders.
"They wish to conquer us by hunger, to put us on our knees with economic difficulties, but they will never achieve this," said Cmdr Bayardo Arce, political coordinator of the ruling Sandista Front, in a television address last night.
Official Radio Voice of Nicaragua said the trade sanctions would be “a new step in the war of aggression against Nicaragua by the world's most powerful imperialist power."
RICHARD LUGAR, R.I.N., and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the ban on trade and investment in Russia was maintained in an executive order that may be
effective May 7. He said the move indicated that the United States did not want to trade with Nicaragua until it fulfilled its promises about democracy.
"The efficiency of this as a policy tool is arguable." Lugar said.
But he said that the action — similar to a move taken by Reagan earlier against Libya — reflected American displeasure with Managua.
Critics and supporters of Reagan's Nicaragua policy called on him last week to emphasize economic sanctions against Nicaragua instead of aiding an estimated 15,000 rebels intent on toppling the Sandinista government.
After Congress refused to give Reagan $1 million in aid for the contrais, the administration reviewed the option of a trade embargo against Nicaragua.
A SPOKESMAN FOR Sen. Lloyd Rentles, D-Texas, said Secretary of State George Shultz had recommended the economic steps required of maintaining pressure on the Sandstorms.
The only formal trade sanction now in effect against Nicaragua is an October 1983 reduction in the sugar import quota. However, two-way trade has declined sharply since the 1979 Sandmista revolution right-wing Leader Anastasio Somoza.
The value of U.S. imports from Nicaragua has plunged from $211 million in 1980 to $57 million last year. U.S. exports to Nicaragua have increased from $121 million to $121 million during the same period.
Sugar imports have plummeted from $23 million in 1980 to just $2 million last year.
Senate approves plan to cut federal deficit
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Senate yesterday tentatively approved President Reagan's budget to trim $2 billion from the federal deficit, but senators immediately began trying to restore popular programs, prompting one Republican to call the plan a "turkey."
It was a significant victory for Reagan to take with him as he left yesterday for the European economic summit. But more than 50 amendments were still pending to the package, most of which would restore money in the bank and pending blueprint, especially Social Security.
“This budget is a turkey,” said Sen. Mark Andrews, R-N.D., immediately after the 50-49 vote. Andrews predicted it would eventually look different from the version approved yesterday, after the amending process was through.
THE VOTE CAME just several hours before Reagan left on a 10-day trip to Europe, expected to include some critical talk at the seven-nation economic summit on large U.S. budget deficits and high interest rates.
In a written statement, Reagan congratulated the Senate for showing "foresight and responsible leadership" and hailed the action of his team to defend pitting our nation's fiscal house in order.
He also urged the Senate to oppose a series of amendments "that would weaken the package, split the coalition of senators who are involved in the ultimate do grave damage to our economy.
Only two Republicans, Sens. Charles Mathias of Maryland and Robert Kasten of Wisconsin defected from the Republican side. Both face re-election next year. Sen.
John East, R-N.C., was ill. Vice President George Bush was on hand to break a tie if necessary.
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING the vote, Republican leader Robert Dole announced his intention to take up an amendment to restore money for Social Security as the first order of business today, though he said he opposed it.
Many senators, both Republicans and Democrats, were sensitive to the portion of the budget that would limit Social Security cost-of-living payments next year to a 2 percent increase. A 4 percent that recipients would otherwise get that saves $3 billion in fiscal 1986.
Two Republicans up for re-election next year who had fought the Social Security provision. Sens. Alfonse D'Amato of New York and Paula Hawkins of Florida, held out until the very end of the voting before agreeing to the budget.
Members of both parties jockeyed back and forth earlier yesterday trying to be seen.
THE CRUCIAL COMPROMISE by Dole allows him to offer an amendment early today to restore the Social Security money, which would have otherwise would not support Reagan's budget.
In addition to Social Security, the Reagan budget cuts or eliminates dozens of federal programs like Amfrak, the Job Corps, education loans, and agriculture funds. It would make for military spending, down from the 6 percent increase Reagan originally wanted.
Earlier Dole, R-Kan., said some changes in the budget already had been made to restore $220 million for aid to the handicapped and to improve for the Rural Electrification Administration.
Life's pulse beats rapidly for heart transplant surgeon
By GREG LARSON
Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Kan - Thomas Bixler and his transplant staff had tailed through the early morning April 5 at the University of Kansas Medical Center's Bell Memorial Hospital to transplant a new heart in 44-year-old Felton Odom.
It was 6 a.m., and the heart transplant surgeon and his staff were putting the finishing touches on the ninth heart transplant at the Med Center.
But sleep would not come to Bixler until he had performed a scheduled heart bypass surgery and had monitored the progress of his patients that afternoon.
BIXLER'S LONG DAYS and sleepless nights at the Med Center are numbered. Beginning July 1, the 37-year old chairman of the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the Med Center plans to transplant his surgical skills to the Tahlaasshee Regional Memorial Medical Center in Tahlaasshee, Fla., his hometown.
"It was a long, difficult day," he said.
Everybody slept a long time after that. That
Bixler is prepared for the continuing demands of his profession no matter where he works.
APRIL 14 HAD begun normally for Bixler
a new heart surgery; administrative
need a brief instruction for researchers
kept him busy but made sense,
came told him Odom would need a heart.
'When your patients get sick it doesn't matter what you had planned, whether it be your daughter's wedding or a vacation with the family.'
"You've got to realize early in your medical career that you'll never be in control of your life again," he said. "For the rest of you, you will be at the mercy of your patients."
Before the operation could begin, Bixler and the transplant board, consisting of cardiologists, administrators, anesthesiologists and nursing staff, had to review Odom's health to determine if he would be able to receive a heart transplant.
Potential recipients must be in the advanced stages of heart disease, must be under 50 years old and must have healthy lungs and blood vessels.
The Midwest Organ Bank matched Odom to a donor of comparable blood type, height
and weight. Matching donors and recipients with similar characteristics decreases the risk of post-operative rejection of the donor heart.
AFTER BIXLER IS told where the donor is — a fact that is usually confidential — he travels there by jet or helicopter to remove the donor organ.
With Odom or any other heart recipient, the frenzy begins for Baxier and his staff.
The recipient — in this case, Odom — already had his chest split open by another Med Center surgeon, but the diseased heart had not been removed. When Bixler returned, he cut out the diseased organ and sewed in the donor heart.
In a matter of hours, a new heart was in place and pumping.
"Generally, when you do any open heart surgery, you make the patient better," he said. "Transplant patients are very sick, and surgery gives them a second chance for life."
"1] enjoy heart transplants. They aren't even the hardest surgeries to perform. Some patients have been treated."
PATCHING BABIES' beards and trans-
planting organs requires split second thinking and a firm grasp of surgical procedures Bixler's colleagues say he possesses both.
Marvin Dunn, dean of medicine at the Med Center, has worked with Bixler daily since his arrival four years ago from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
"Dr Bixler is an extremely competent surgeon," Dunn said. "He is a tireless worker who uses his time efficiently."
"I've had the privilege of working with a lot of surgeons, and I would say he is the
WHEN BIXLER ENTERED the scene at the Med Center, the cardiac surgery residency program and the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery were weak, Steve Tosone, an anesthesiologist for the Med Center, said.
He pushed and he pulled and worked day
Tosne said, "There was a gut fresh out of his training, with a whole department under his supervision, and cardiologists were referring patients with all types of problem."
After being at the Med Center three months, the chairman of the department resigned. Bixler was appointed to fill the position.
See BIXLER, p. 5, col. 1
Thomas Bixler
1