Staying alert
Caffeine keeps students awake but also can lead to problems. See story on page 3.
The University Daily
KANSAN
Sunny, warmer High, 35. Low, 15. Details on page 3.
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 95. No. 96 (USPS 650-640)
Students are stung in pyramid scheme
A mere $20 could earn a student more than $10,000, according to a letter that has circulated through some residence halls and fraternities in the last month.
Staff Reporter
Unfortunately, the letter's plan is a pyramid moneymaking scheme and is illegal, the general of consumer protection for the attorney general's office said yesterday.
A pyramid scheme is similar to a chain letter. It uses funds from new investors to pay returns to previous investors. The pyramid requires an endless supply of new investors, and it doesn't sell any product or service.
Wayne Hundley, the chief, said that the scheme at the University of Kansas violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act and that statement violated in the plan to be arrested or fined.
People who mail letters, money, checks, bills or money orders to continue the pyramid scheme also violate the U.S. Postal
and Lottery Law, Bill Lawrence, assistant
nastmaster for Lawrence, said.
A RESIDENT OF Naismith Hall, who asked not to be identified, said he was involved in the plan when it first began at KU, but had received no money yet.
He estimated that between 100 and 200 residents of Naisthmall had invested in the plan. Members of some fraternities also had participated, he said.
had partcipated in he said.
He explained the scheme this way: For $10, a person buys a copy of the letter, a list of 10 names and a $5 money order. The buyer then mails the money order to the first person on the list.
The first name on the list is deleted and the buyer's name is placed on the bottom of the list. The buyer then makes two copies of the new list and letter and buys two $5 money orders to sell to two people.
orders to sell to two people.
If the process continues without a break, the buyer should receive money orders from other investors in a few weeks.
THE STUDENT SAID, "Theoretically, it
See PYRAMID, p. 5, col. 3
Snow drifts, fog cause road closings, pileups
Veda Owens/KANSAN
Blustery winds yesterday piled snow into drifts as deep as 12 feet, closing 800 miles of Ohio roads and forcing National Guardsmen to man bulldozers to break through and drive doctors to hospitals and nursing homes. Thick fog caused the second fatal chain-reaction pileup in Utah in two days.
By United Press International
There was little new snow but brisk winds also whipped up drifts that blocked highways in Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and West Virginia. The snow blanketed the hills in sheer armories and truck stops.
Friday, February 15, 1985
Michigan authorities warned of possible roof collapses caused by heavy snow. The Sparta, Mich., police department had to fire a police station when the roof started to crack.
"It just started to crack," said a dispatched worker. The women were watching the man with a lot of water alone.
The weather has been blamed for 43 deaths since Saturday.
FOG BLANKETED UTAH for a second straight day, caused a 30-car pileup that killed a 63-year-old man when his car was struck by several cars. Another motorist was killed Wednesday in a 35-car pileup near Salt Lake City.
"I can hear it (the snow) melting on the roof now," she said. "That's good but the problem we're all worried about in this area is foods. We had a lot of rain before the roof."
were snowed in but were fine," said Delores Dotson, of Delfort, Ky., near the West Virginia line. "There might be 15 inches. They would be bad. And I live lived around here all my life."
Some mail delivery was canceled in Ohio, where snowdrifts stood 12 feet deep, and the National Guard pushed through southern streets with balloons and wheel-drive trucks.
"WeVE MADE SEVERAL runs back and forth to hospitals and nursing homes, taking doctors to patients," said National Guard
Capt. Corbett Phipps. "We have to move one lady to a hospital today for a Caesarian section. She's been having problems."
Drivers have been banned from roads in 57 of Ohio's 88 counties and state police say they will ticket motorists on non-emergency trips.
Nearly 800 miles of county and township roads were closed in Adams County in southern Ohio and another 71 U.S. and Ohio routes were impassable statewide.
Snow emergencies were in effect in 60 counties, and schools closed in Cleveland and Coambus. The Lawrence County Sheriff's Department delivered kerosene to blacked-
One-fourth of the county remained without power and authorities predicted electricity would not be restored until Monday.
A DOZEN PEOPLE bunked in the National guard armory at Utica, about 40 miles east of Columbus, while they waited for electricity to be restored and another 100 camped in the army in Hocking County. Guardsmen shuttled in water to Perry County.
The Indiana National Guard said 431 people were housed in 13 armories. Thirty school districts shut down and a state police unit was deployed to the area widespread there were "too many to count."
Travelers' advisories were issued for western Pennsylvania, portions of western and central New York, northern and central Virginia, and all but the handpainel of West Virginia.
Light snow lingered over the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. Travelers' advisories were posted for all of Michigan and blowing and drifting snow closed state road 28 between Marquette and Munising as well as a handful of side roads.
The thick fog enveloped northwest Utah, causing two major fatal traffic pileups Wednesday night and yesterday morning near Salt Lake City. Travelers' advisories were posted for the northwest valleys due to near-zero visibility and patches of black ice.
Southern Californians continued to bask in record summer-like warmth, with highs inching toward the 90s.
Valentine's Day brought a flood of balloons and flowers to residence hall. Nancy Rehfield, hall desk assistant and Prairie Village freshman, prepares tags for Val O-Grams that were delivered to Gertrude Sellards Pearson and Corbin halls. The Val-O-Grams were a project of Sigma Kappa sorority, 1325 W. Campus Road. Sorority members sold about 500 of the balloon gifts for Sigma Kappa's philanthropy. See story page 9.
Bomb threats to buildings keeping KU police on call
By KATHY FLANDERS
Staff Reporter
Tuesday, police said Lindley Hall and Robinson Gymnasium both received terroristic bomb threats Tuesday morning. KU police said.
Two bomb threats to academic buildings kept the KU police department busy Tuesday, police said yesterday.
Lt. Jeanne Longaker of the KU police said threats to academic buildings usually occurred at exam time and most frequently during finals.
She said the number of bomb attacks at KU had decreased over the past four or five years. But so far this year KU has received a higher number than usual, she said.
"In 1984 we received 18 bomb threats." Longaker said. "We've had six so far in 1985. That's rather high for no further than we are into the year."
"What happened the other day hasn't happened for a long time," Longaker said.
resident last year, was charged with making seven threats of terrorism last year after seven bomb threats had been called in to the hall's front desk in one night.
"We've had more calls than people getting caught." Longaker said. "We have a suspicion that those calls in the residence halls are from a neighbor at the halls. On occasion that has proven true.
STEVEN CARL SMITH, an Oliver Hall
"We have a method to trace some of the calls — not all, but some. It takes time."
calls — but not that many.
She said police responded to every bomb threat. In academic buildings, the officers enter and make a walk-through search for anything that looks suspicious. They usually use the fire alarm to evacuate the building.
"It DEPENDS ON the building, but a general decision is made to pull the fire alarm, and then it's up to the people in the building if they want to evacuate or not," Longaker said. "You can't tell the difference between a fire alarm and a bomb threat, but
See THREATS, p. 5, col. 3
Senate bill aims to help ticket buyers
By NANCY HANEY Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
The KU Athletic Department had told some ticket holders that donations might be required if they were to retain their seats next season.
Season ticket holders would not be required to contribute to the Kansas University Endowment Association to keep their choice seats, and to pay the Kansas University Wednesday in Topeka.
NEXT SESSION.
The bill was introduced on the last day for legislators to do so individually by State Sen. Eugene Anderson, D-Wichita.
Anderson said yesterday the bill would prohibit any actions by universities in the state to require donations to an endowment association for season tickets to sports
Anderson said he wanted the bill passed because the requirement discriminated against people who could not afford to make donations that could afford to purchaseanson tickets.
The KU Athletic Department sent a letter to season ticket holders in November, along with basketball tickets, that said ticket holders might have to give up their seats in the priority area if they didn't contribute $750 for bleacher seats or as much as $5,000 for other seats to the Williams Fund, the source of KU athletic scholarships.
"THE WAY I SEE it, donations to an endowment association should be given on free will." Anderson said.
The seats in the priority area are the bleachers and are four to eight to up to ten in Allen Floor.
The letter was signed by Monte Johnson, athletic director, and Bob Frederick, executive director of the Williams Fund and assistant athletic director.
No final decision has been made on the requirement, and probably won't until after the basketball season, Frederick said yesterday.
State Sen. Wint Winter, Jr. R-Lawrence,
said the "ill probably would not face any
opposition when it reached the Senate
Education Committee hearings in two weeks.
People who hold season tickets now will probably happily about the proposed Walmart, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart.
JOHNSON WAS UNAVAILABLE for comment yesterday.
"When the Athletic Department announced in place letters to the editor columns in outlets such as the Washington Post,
Anderson said the proposed bill hadn't been written with KU solely in mind.
"I see a trend starting in the universities," he said.
Another bill concerning athletic events at universities in Kansas is expected to be introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee later this year. Winter said.
The bill would prohibit ticket scalping at university athletic events, Winter said. He said he thought the legislation should include the regulation of university athletic events and not just the universities.
Frederick said this bill would interest the department.
"We sure could use some help on ticket scaling," he said. "We don't have any way to stop people from selling tickets outside the Field House.
"We will certainly be watching this bill with considerable interest." Some information for this story was provided by Kansan reporter Cecilia Mills.
Libraries rewrite tradition with books on videocassette
By HEATHER R. BIGGINS Staff Reporter
Make room for the book of the 21st century. A book that speaks in sounds and images and that has helped create an evolution in entertainment now shares space with its traditional counterpart on public library shelves...
After six months of deliberation, the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St., last summer joined the ranks of public libraries around the country that lend videocassettes for the cost of a library card. The library now has about 30 cassettes.
Move aside printed word.
"Books, today, communicate less and less," said Jean-Pierre Boon, professor of French and Italian. "More information comes to us on the screen, so the video is less disturbing than the general public understands. The videocassette is the book of the 21st century."
BUT WHEN LIBRIARIES consider the acquisition of videocassettes, the role of a library is inevitably reassessed: Should videocassettes be made a permanent member of an institution that traditionally lends printed material?
"Yes, if videocassettes are used properly," said Pattie Armbrister, head of adult circulation at the Lawrence Public Library.
"A library must carefully consider the reasons why it would begin a collection of
videocassettes. There are a lot of ways to look at movies, and we have selected cassettes that would provide more than just entertainment.
Armbrister said classic films had been selected because they appealed to a wider audience and didn't "step on the toes" of video retailers, who carried more recent Hollywood films.
"That is why we drew the line at classics. Many of them are based on literature and may make the viewer inquire about other things."
SOME LOCAL VIDEO retailers don't see the library's new acquisitions as a threat to their businesses.
As video grows, there will be more sources for people to get their video," said Steve Rhodes, owner of Video Biz, 832 Iowa St.
Rhodes said Video Biz rented only 12 classic films in a stock of more than 800 titles. Most video entrepreneurs rent the modern films, he said, but libraries provided old movie buffs with films that might not be found at stores.
"It doesn't surprise me that libraries would begin to handle cassettes. As long as they stay in classic and Disney titles, I doubt they will ever dominate the video business."
Watson Library acquired four video cassettes more than a year ago at the request of Boon, who used them as a teaching tool in one of his classes. Watson Library officials are considering investing in more cassettes.
Charles Peters, 2901 Westdale Road, browses through the videotapes at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.