Drunk for science
The University Daily
Prof uses alcohol on mice to test seizure preventative. See story on page 3.
KANSAN
Cold, gusty High, 20s, Low, 10. Details on page 3.
Vol. 95, No. 82 (USPS 650-640)
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas.
Friday, January 25. 1985
Dilapidated and cramped facilities in Hoch Auditorium have Kansas. Chancellor Gene A. Budig said Wednesday that he kept professional performers from visiting the University of Iowa hoped to develop plans to build a new performing arts center.
Hoch ready for final curtain call
By MICHELLE WORRALL Staff Renorter
Staff Reporter
It's time for Hoch Auditorium to take a final bow as a performing arts center, but state money for a new facility is not included in the plot. KU officials say.
The estimated $20 to $30 million needed for a new performing arts center will have to be raised through private donations from donors and hancellor Gene A. Burdig said Wednesday.
Budig he hoped to develop "a plan for action" within the next year.
"KU desperately needs a new performing arts center because Hoch Auditorium is inadequate," he said. "My view is that the arts center is where arts members and community leaders."
Jonathan Becker, director of special projects-performing arts for the Mid-America Arts Alliance, said yesterday. In terms of overall facilities, Hoch is the child of the late David Hoch, who actually, aesthetically and acoustically — in the Big Eight and the Big Ten."
THE MID-AMERICA Arts Alliance is a Kansas City, Mo., organization that matches formers with audiences in Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
"The field of presenting the arts has improved and expanded in the past 20 years, and Hoch's facilities are obsolete," Becker said.
But until funds are raised for a new performing arts center, the show must go
The auditorium has functioned as a multipurpose auditorium since its dedication in 1927. The basketball team played in the 1950s. In 1955, Field House was completed in 1955.
"Hoch was not good enough for the basketball team in 1927," said James Moeser, dean of the School of Fine Arts. "No team would use Hoch's facilities, but we ask ballet and chorus members with black ties and tails to perform here."
Ochh Auditorium's exterior is imposing and ornate. But the interior is an open space.
guaranteed to ruffle the tutu of any performer. Moeser and his colleagues breathe a sigh of relief when a troupe doesn't pirouette back to the bus.
The performance area lacks the space needed for professional troupes. The stage measures 24 feet from the back wall to the curtain — eight feet short of the requirement of most professional dance companies.
A TOUR OF THE auditorium is
In 1961, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performed in blue jeans and T-shirts because Andre Previn, symphony boyfriend of Hoch and a surrogate with Hoch's dressing facilities.
"It was a bad experience. The orchestra performed poorly and Previn insulted the audience." Moeser said. "We'll probably never see him again."
The best dressing room in Hoch Auditorium shares an 11-by-7-foot space with a radiator, unfinished pipes, a sink, and other clutter. A large bathroom-glass window spattered with red paint graces
See HOCH, p. 5, col. 3
Students take product to a new high
Staff Reporter
By PATRICIA SKALLA
Staff Reporter
Forget about marijuana, cocaine and heroin. These drugs are too expensive and hard to get. A product on supermarket shelves can provide you with a new kind of high at a fraction of the cost.
Inhaling typewriter correction fluid to get "whited out" is the newest form of drug abuse among many junior high and some high school students, according to Susan Arnold, a nurse and poison control specialist at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Arnold said yesterday that students used the flu burden because it was cheap and easy to obtain.
or in plastic bags, then inhale the fumes, Arnold said.
"If you put the fluid in a plastic bag, you are breathing the same odors again," said J. Patrick Walker, a physician at Watkins Hospital, said.
Arnold said Xylene, a chlorinated hydrocarbon that stimulates the central nervous system, was the main ingredient in type I diuretic fluid and the chemical that induced the high
By doing this, Walker said, the inhaler gets an extended high.
Chlorinated hydrocarbons also are found in insecticides DDT and Chlordane, she said. DDT no longer is on the market and use of Chlordane is restricted
The short term effect of inhaling correction
Arnold said long term effects of inhaling the fluid ranged from seemingly minor health problems to death. Headaches, lethargy, dilated pupils, nausea, vomiting, breakdown of muscles, narrow psychological conditions, and other symptoms examples of the long term effects, she said.
fluid is euphoria followed by drowsiness, Arnold said.
"However, just like anything else, the central nervous system can only be stimu-
led through electrical impulses."
Walker said, "In essence, it is the same as sniffing glue."
See WHITEOUT, p. 5, col. 3
Arnold said that not all typewriter
Council votes 21-7 to remove program
By KATHY FLANDERS Staff Reporter
A recommendation to eliminate the radiation biophysics program from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was approved yesterday by the University Council in a 21-7 vote.
The recommendation, which also suggests that the program be transferred to another area in the University, now will go to Deanell Tacha, vice chancellor for academic affairs. She will send her recommendation to Chancellor Gene A. Budig.
Tacha said last night that she would have to receive the council's recommendation formally before she could make any comment.
On Jan. 14, the University Council Committee on Academic Procedures and Policies recommended that radiation biophysics be eliminated from the college and be transferred to an unspecified area of the University.
F. ALLAN HANSON, chairman of Academic Procedures and Policies Committee, said the committee recommended discontinuance because other programs in the
college wanted growth in areas other than radiation biophysics.
Kenneth Wheeler, professor of radiation biophysics who attended the council meeting, said, "I do not believe there is a high probability that radiation biophysics can be or will be transferred to another unit. We need to be informed in the recommendation as it stands."
Wheeler said the radiation safety service, which ensures that radiation and isotope sources on campus conform to University, federal and state regulations, would be affected by the discontinuance of the radiation biophysics program.
Faculty and students in the radiation basin program now make the radiation balancer service.
BENJAMIN FRIESEN, radiation safety officer for the KU nuclear reactor, said the safety service would need to hire backup workers.
"We would be short-staffed. But we would somehow have to meet the standards," Friesen said
He said he didn't know whether KU administrators would hire more workers.
See SHUTDOWN, p. 5, col. 1
Director declares war on Hashinger roaches
By TAD CLARKE Staff Reporter
In response to complaints from residents, the director of housing on Wednesday began a massive assault on the bug problem in the dining areas of Hashinger Hall.
J. J. Wilson, the director, said Hashinger was being sprayed for bugs daily. All residence halls normally are sprayed with insecticides; other halls has not been increased he said.
The extra spraying of the cafeteria costs
about $20 each day, Wilson said. He said he expected it to continue through the weekend. Officials then will re-evaluate the situation and determine whether spraying is still needed.
Wilson said he had decided to increase the spraying after hearing complaints from three Hashinger residents who found bugs in their food.
The residents tailed their feelings at a meeting Tuesday night with Wilson, Lenoir Ekdahl, director of food services for the
See BUGS, p. 5, col. 3
Discovery's spy satellite to tune in on Soviet Union
By United Press International
CAPE CANALERAL, Fla. — America's first military shuttle streaked into orbit yesterday under a veil of secrecy, carrying a cargo plane and satellite to eavesdrop on the Soviet Union.
Discovery roared away from its launch pad at 2:50 p.m. EST following a clandestine countdown that was only made public during its final nine minutes.
Breaking a two-decade tradition of openness at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, all communication from Discovery's five military officers was encoded and blacked out from public airwaves at the request of the Air Force.
Mission control spokesman Terry White said the ship had performed normally, casting a twin booster rockets two miles ahead after launch and tank seven seconds later. Discovery fired its
riot twinkets at 3:30 p.m. EST to achieve a safe orbit more than 115 miles high.
THE DOORS TO Discovery's 66-foot cargo
ship are scheduled, exposing the
secret satellite to space.
"The 51-C (mission designation) flight crew is in good spirits and has settled down to the housekeeping chores of the first day in Paris." After blastoff — the last advisory of the day
The mission is expected to last four days.
It is issuing censored status reports
every day.
White said an apparent hydraulic system problem that developed during the final portion of the countdown had cleared itself, allowing the launch to proceed. Operations team members were refreshed to discuss indications that the problem had briefly interrupted the countdown.
Passengers get bird's eye view for $140 an hour
The launch marked a new step in the
See SHUTTLE, p. 5, col. 5
University employees flying high with air service
By KEVIN LEATHERS Staff Reporter
The next time someone tells you that the KU athletic program, or any other program for that matter, is really getting off the ground this year, you might just want to question them a little further.
Bob Custer, one of the planes' three full-time pilots, said flights departed almost every day from Lawrence Municipal Airport, where the planes are kept. He said one plane was for general University use and the other was used primarily by the University of Kansas Medical Center.
That's because the University of Kansas has two of its own airplanes that will fly any University employee anywhere he or she likes. As long as it's on official business, that is.
"They're often used by the Alumni Association, the Athletic Department, the administrative offices, the minority affairs office, by any department that has a travel allowance included in their budget." Custer said. "I also usually fly the chancellor somewhere at least once a month. It really keeps me busy."
"Although the one plane is used by the Athletic Department a lot," he said, "it's really not big enough to carry any of the teams."
"It costs somewhere near the $140 hourly charge in fuel and labor alone to use the plane," Custer said. "The state picks up the rest of the expenses, such as insurance, maintenance, storage and whatever other costs."
The University charges $140 per hour of flying time for use on the planes.
But the life of continual travel — sometimes with famous people — isn't as glamorous as it may seem, Custer said.
"Probably 80 percent of my flights are within Kansas — picking up Board of Regents members or taking coaches somewhere," he said. "I also fly to Chicago a lot, and sometimes to Phoenix or Pittsburgh, but that's really about as exciting as it gets."
"BUT I GUESS now that I think about it."
Custer said, "I do have a kind of excitement trip
scheduled for this weekend. I'm taking the cheerleaders to Boulder for the game. I'm really forwarded to that. I think it will be great, but from what is generally pretty routine work."
Robert O'Brien, Olathe junior, is in charge of maintaining and keeping the planes clean. As a meteorology major and airplane enthusiast, O'Brien feels he's found the perfect part-time job.
"I've been taking care of the planes for almost a year now and I love it," O'Brien said. "I spend about 10 hours a week working on them. I'll come out here a couple nights a week with a radio and have the entire hangar to myself. I really enjoy it. Besides that, it gives me a little extra spending money so I can practice up on my own flying skills."
Custer said that when he began flying for KU, virtually anyone who had some sort of affiliation with the University could use the planes.
"USE OF THE planes is much more carefully checked these days." Custer said. "People who didn't really have a formal trip request would come out and ask to use the planes. In 1979, Chancellor Dykes set up a rule that there wouldn't be any more flights without a trip request. We watch it a lot closer now."
Robert O'Brien, Olathe junior, examines the condition of one of the University of Kansas' two airplanes. O'Brien, who checked the plane at the Lawrence Municipal Airport yesterday, maintains and cleans the planes. KU officials and employees use the planes for official University business.