University Daily Kansan, March 8, 1985
CAMPUS AND AREA
Page 3
NEWS BRIEFS
Prof nominations being taken
The University of Kansas is taking nominations for two endowment teaching professorships at the Lawrence campus, Deanell Tacha, vice chancellor for academic affairs, announced earlier this week.
Professors or associate professors who have taught at the University for at least 10 years are eligible for the award. Each faculty member chosen for the award will receive $5,000 a year for as long as they teach at KU.
Nominations for the positions will be accepted from students, faculty and administrator. They should be sent by April 20th to office offer for academic affairs, 127 Strong Hall.
Strong Hall to lose its power
Electricity is scheduled to be shut off between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at Strong Hall so that the lines of a new power center can be connected to the building's electrical system, the facility and opera-electrician supervisor said yesterday.
The new power center will add 600 amps to the power capacity of the building's electrical system, Ray Patterson, the supervisor, said. The building needs the additional power because new computers are installed in the building's air conditioning system.
As a result, the air conditioning system was tripping the main breakers and causing power outages, especially in the summer, Patterson said.
Donations aid KU minorities
AT&T Information Systems has donated five $50 scholarship for minority freshmen entering the KU School of Engineering next fall.
The donation was given to SCoRMEBE, the Student Council for Recruiting, Motivating and Educating Black Engineers. In addition to recruiting minority engineering students, SCoRMEBE provides support services for them while they are in school.
High school students were told of the scholarships last semester, and were encouraged to apply.
Developer to name mall store
Applicants must demonstrate financial need, have a 5.5 high school grade point average, have ACT scores of 20 or higher rank in the top 10 percent of their classes.
The name of the department store expected to be the main store in the proposed riverfront mall was to have been announced at 7:30 a.m. today during a Lawrence member of Commerce break at the Holiday Inn Holdstone, 20 McDonald Dr Dryden.
Steve Clark, the developer of the project, has said the planned store would cover 60,000 square feet. The mall, which would consist of many smaller shops in addition to the department store, is planned for a site just north of City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.
School bills unlikely to pass
TOPEKA - Three measures that would legalize home schooling in Kansas appear to be dead for the 1985 legislative session, a House education committee leader said yesterday.
The leader, Donald Crumbaker, R-Brewster, said the measures had been tabled after questions were raised about property tax loopholes in schooling opening property tax loopholes.
The deadline for consideration of the bills is Wednesday, and Crumbauer said he doubted that the committee would have passed the tax question before the end of the session.
Weather
Today will be mostly sunny and the high will be in the mid- to upper 50s. Winds will be from the north to northeast at 5 to 15 mph. Tonight will be clear. The low will be in the mid-30s. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny and the high will be in the low to mid-60s.
Compiled from Kansan staff and United Press International reports.
Couple may honeymoon behind bars
By PATRICIA SKALLA
Staff Reporter
John Blatz, Seaford, N.Y., third-year law student, may spend his wedding day with his
Blatz and Stacey Merkt, who is from San Benito, Texas, and is active in a national movement to smuggle Central American refugees into the United States, are planning to marry in August. But those plans may be altered if Merkt is sentenced to prison after her Feb. 22 conviction on one count of conspiracy.
Stacey Merkt of San Benito, Texas, and her fiance, John conspirary conviction. Merkt, an member of the Sanctuary Blatz, Flascon, N.Y., third-year law student, speaks about her Movement, was convicted Feb. 21 in federal court in Houston.
"I still plan to get married on Aug. 24," Merkt said yesterday. "I take one day at a time. If I'm in jail Aug. 24, we'll make it Aug. 25."
Merkt, a member of the Sanctuary Movement, faces up to five years in prison and could be fined $10,000 when she is sentenced March 27.
The Sanctuary Movement is an organization of 200 U.S. churches that provides refuge to Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurasians. Their countries to avoid political persecution.
MERKT MET BLATZ last year when they were both working at Casa Oscar Romero, a border shelter for the refugees in San Benito. The school has a large Catholic Diocese in Brownsville, Texas.
Blait said. "After sitting through that part of it, I don't see where they found the evidences."
The court found Merkt guilty of the conspiracy charges for allegedly transporting alienils into the United States on Nov. 21, 1984, she said. But Merkt said she was with Blatz at his brother's wedding in New York at that time. She said seven witnesses testified that she had been in New York.
Merkt said, "It's incredible to me that one could be found guilty when I was innocent. I feel I have a clear conscience and a clean bill of slate.
"I'M NOT JUST angered on my account, but that the whole courtroom scene existed. Anyone brought into the court system for
helping a refugee is wrongfully accused. It's obvious to me that the Sanctuary Movement is being targeted."
She said the Sanctuary Movement offered protection to the refugees and challenged the Reagan administration's policies on Central America.
The government refuses to grant the refugees political asylum. Merkt said, because they are considered economic refugees, rather than political refugees.
The movement is trying to obtain extended voluntary status for the refugees, which would allow them to remain in the United States legally, she said. The status is granted to refugees who flee political persecution in their countries.
"The people we work with at Casa Romero have every right to be here," Merkt said.
MERKT SAID SHE was outraged at her conviction not for selfish reasons but because she thought the government's treatment of refugees was unjust.
"I see the injustice of the situation and the fact that the government is saying the people have no right to stay," she said. "Don't we realize we are all immigrants here?"
Merkt said she first became involved with refugees when she worked with them in Colorado. It was there that she first met Central American refugees.
Merkt said her faith also had prompted her to become involved in the movement.
"I've been very clear that I'm going to continue working with refugees," Merkt said. "It's mandated by my faith and it's perfectly legal."
Blatz said, "If *Stacey* goes to prison, we just wait it out. I still plan to work in Texas. We both plan to return there and start our lives there."
Merkt said she thought her conviction had strengthened people's commitment to the mission.
"What goes through my mind in response to the closeness of prison is one can be inside of prison as well as outside, and the work continues," Merkt said.
Wake-up service rings up alternative to alarm clocks
Staff Reporter
By JULI WARREN
Diane Forbes, 3604 Lakecrest Court, is counting on students having this problem because the school district doesn't
Buzzzzz. The student's hand emerges from the warm blankets and slaps the alarm. He rolls over and goes back to sleep, perhaps to his first class or an important appointment.
realize that. Only sometimes they do sleep through them. You always wake up to the
Forbes, 24, has started a daily wake-up call service. For $6 a month, she will call sound sleepers every weekday to rouse them at the time of their choice. She also will provide the service for fewer than five days a week at a reduced charge.
Forbes, who recently moved from Shawnee to Lawrence with her husband and in month-old daughter Amanda, said she was on the verge of moving from an advertisement she saw in Shawnee.
"I THOUGHT IF it worked there, it would work here. I so tried I" she said
"People have alarm clocks," she said. "1
Only three customers have subscribed to the service since she began advertising on campus three weeks ago, but she said she hoped increased advertising would help.
Forbes said yesterday that she would decide a week after spring break whether to discontinue the service if she still didn't have enough customers to make a profit.
Forbes said she didn't have any trouble
waking up herself she gets up with the help of the alarm or Amanda, whichever is first.
Forbes said she thought 5:30 a.m. would be the earliest she would agree to call someone. "I can't imagine anyone having to get up earlier than that," she said.
SHE ORIGINALLY thought she would let the phone ring 10 times before giving up, she said, but her first customer warned she might have to let it ring for five minutes. She believed when he answered about five rings on the first day and every day since.
"I don't think I would let it ring more than two minutes," she said. "After that, a few more rings wouldn't make that much difference."
Forbes said she started this service, as well as a typing service she began last semester, to earn money while staying home with her daughter.
call back in five minutes, just as she would if the line were busy.
If no one answered, Forbes said, she would
She said she hadn't had a problem with customers being rude to her on the phone — just sleepy.
"YOU KNOW HOW you sound when you first wake up," she said.
She is planning to get an automatic dialer for her phone if she gets more customers, she said.
Forbes said she had advertised her service on campus because she thought students would be most interested.
City, students cut deal over dead grass
KU buildings will stay open during break
It may be spring break, but some campus buildings and offices plan to stay open next week.
The Kansas Union plans to open during its regular hours, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., today and tomorrow. On Sunday, the Union will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Starting Monday the building will be open only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will be closed March 16, but will be open March 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Burge Union will be open only for the office of Legal Services for Students, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
By KATHY FLANDERS
Staff Reporter
Playing football used to be a cheap way for students to spend their free time. But eight students paid yesterday for the football game they played on campus in December.
The students, all members of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, yesterday entered into diversion agreements with the city in response to charges of harming plants on campus.
Each student agreed to pay $10 in court costs, to do five hours of community service and to not break the law for the next six months. If they comply with the agreement, the charges will be dropped at the end of six months.
The students could have been fined up to $500 each and sentenced to 180 days in jail.
The students are: Bennett Cook, Oklahoma City junior; Bob Fee, Hutchinson sophomore; Samuel Jones, Kansas City. Mo. sophomore; Kevin Kelly, Hutchinson sophomore; Robert Hense, Leawood sophomore; Michael Wakeford, Mission Hills freshman; William Hampton, Mission Hills sophomore and Jeff Eurignac, Shawnee sophomore.
The students were playing football in front of Fraser Hall on Dec. 15 when KU police arrested them on charges of harming plants by ordering them to appear in municipal court.
Jim Mathes, assistant director of landscape maintenance for facilities operations, said this had been the first time anyone had clicked it while playing on campus grounds.
Mathes said the students had caused between $27 and $30 damage to the grounds.
"The kids were willing to help an pay for the damages," Mathes said. "They were willing to cooperate with us.
"The Fraser area isn't a recreational area, but students use it all the time. Even the kids from Hilltop (Child Development Center) play there."
"There was too much moisture in the ground from the rain. It's unfortunate that they didn't stop to think about the kind of time they played on the area."
Mathes said the yard in front of the Phi Delta Theta house, 1621 Edgehill Road, had been too rough to play on that day and wasn't big enough for football games.
"If this had happened during a regular early fall, the grounds people would be coming and by and by."
SPRING BREAK IN Steamboat.
The Overlook Hotel is offering a spring break special in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Here's how it works:
Check in any Sunday or Monday and stay a minimum of 3 nights and the 4th night is free. OTHER DISCOUNTS apply to longer stays. CALL TOLL FREE for all the details.
From $16.69* per person per night
THE OVERLOOK HOTEL Indoor Pool Hot Tub Restaurant & Lounge Free Shuttle Service
1 (800) 752-5666
- Price is per person based on maximum occupancy — four people per room. The quoted price reflects four nights for the price of three beds.
Enjoy a Delicious Dinner at The Eldridge House for
only $7.95. Your choice of:
8 oz PRIME
RIB served with rice or potato, house salad and rolls and butter.
Special good all month
Elegant dining at affordable prices
The Eldridge House 7th and Mass. Call 749-0613 for reservations
Fresh Salmon with a nape of Hollandaise served with rice or potato, house salad and rolls and butter.