THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101,NO.138
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING:864-4358
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1992
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Outsider named as computer science head
New chair comes from psychology
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
James Muyskens, dean of liberal arts and sciences, said yesterday that Dennis Karpowitz, associate head of psychology, would take over as interim head of computer science on June 1.
*Professor Karpowitz's integrity, commitment to academic values and respect for people make him especially well-qualified for this assignment," Muvksens said.
Karpowitz will replace William Bulgren, who resigned April 2 as department head. Bulgren said when he resigned that turmoil in the department made it impossible for him to perform his job.
In a confidential report dated Jan. 10, two outside consultants suggested that both Bulgern and Zamir Bavel, professor of computer science, be removed from the department because of their history of personal conflict. The report also suggested that the department be eliminated
because of, among other factors, low research and grant activity and poor management.
Muyksens yesterday said that he sought a person outside the department of computer science to act as interim head.
Karpowitz has been at the University of Kansas since 1972. He has served as associate head of psychology since 1984, but has never worked in the department of computer science.
would stay at the University as professors of computer science and that they were pleased with Muysken's decision.
"We needed someone from outside to help us solve some of the problems that exist." Muvskens said
"I don't know that much about Professor Karpowitz, but I think that's best," Bulgren said. "He is an excellent manager, and his leadership will help us work our way through some of our problems."
Both Bulgren and Bavel said they
Bavel said, "I trust Dean Muyskens did the very best for the University and the department."
Muyksen said that Karpowitz would be asked to review the department's curriculum, help write departmental bylaws, develop academic policy and prepare for a return to full autonomy.
"I'm delighted that Professor Karpowitz agree to serve in this capacity, because it shows the department that the entire University respects computer science as a crucial field," Muyskens said.
Karpowitz said he wanted to get to know the faculty and students in the department.
"I want to know their aims and concerns," he said, "I consider my role to
be an interim, temporary one. My job is to prepare the department for autonomy."
Karpowit said he hoped to bring a new perspective to the department.
"An outside person doesn't share the history of the department," he said. "That can be helpful in terms of looking ahead and establishing new policies. But I want to talk to the people who have been in the department about what they want."
"Change is needed, but now it's a question of how to solve these complex problems."
Allowing capital punishment
States allowing capital punishment and method of execution used:
Lethal drug injection Gas chamber
Electrocution Choice of method*
Nailless
*A:k. Those sentenced before 1983 can cause drug injection or electroction Del: Those sentenced before June 1986 can cause drug injection or hanging N.H. Drug injection or hanging; no one has ever been sentenced Mont: Drug injection or hanging Idaho, Utah. Drug injection or firing squad N.C. Drug injection or gas chamber
SOURCE: American Civil Liberties Union
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Man's execution ends death penalty battle
The Associated Press
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — Double murderer Robert Alton Harris was put to death in the gas chamber yesterday after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a dramatic last-minute stay that had blocked California's first execution in 25 years.
"You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper." Harris said in a final statement, released after he was executed for the 1978 murders of two San Diego 16-year-old boys.
Harris, 39, died quietly at dawn after an extraordinary night of cross-country judicial duels between the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The gas was released at about 6:05 a.m., and shortly afterward Harris' head jerked from left to right before
falling slowly to his chest. He appeared to be unconscious about 6:12 a.m., and was pronounced dead at 6:21 a.m.
After the filing of four stays by the 9th circuit on Monday, frustrated justices in Washington voted 7-2 to order the appeals court not to issue any more stays without permission.
Harris' case galvanized debate about whether California should have a death penalty, and if so, how it should be performed.
With Harris' execution, California became the 20th state to resume capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 allowed states to do so. He was the 169th person put to death since the ruling.
Please see related story, Page 9
Unpredictable weather leaves campus housing in frigid state
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
Unseasonably cold weather has left KU students complaining and KU housing officials serambling.
Shaunda Wenberg, Stillwell junior and Jayhawker Towers resident, said, "One of our rooms feels like a refrigerator or an igloo, as my roommate 84V5."
The KU department of student housing turned off the heat in its buildings last week, when high temperatures reached the 80s, and planned to turn on the air conditioning. Instead, maintenance workers yesterday began the day-long process of turning back on the heat.
"We're just standing here shivering," said Greg Hockenberger, Topeka freshman and Ellsworth Hall resident.
"We've had some complaints about the cold, but people just don't understand the process we go through to turn the heat off and on," said Marion Temple, assistant director of housing finance. "We can't just flip on a switch."
In fact, the process of turning off the heat and on the air conditioning , or vice versa, takes two to three days, Temple said.
"We have to turn off the boilers, then let the water cool for a few days," he
said. "After the water cools, we can fire up the air conditioners. I wish it was simple like a thermostat in a house. But it's not, and we have to plan the heat and air conditioning around unpredictable weather."
Temple said yesterday afternoon that all student housing complexes, except Templin Hall, would have heat by late last night.
Craig Clair, a student forcaster for the KU Weather Service, said the high today would be 63, with hights in the 75 to 80 meters below and lasting through the weekend.
"Templin needs to have a part replaced before we can restart the system."
But, according to a KU Weather Service representative, air conditioning may be more useful than heat this weekend.
"No more snow and no more daytime highs of 30 degrees, that's my prediction." Clarksaid.
Fred McElhenne, associate director of student housing, said the department's plans to expand its services.
"But I know as sure as I'm sitting here that as soon as we get the heat fired up and running, the weather is going to turn hot," McEhlene said. "Then, we'll start the process all over again. It's just a matter of unpredictable, Kansas-style weather."
Smoke got in their eyes, nose...
Mock fire drill puts students in trailer with fake fire
By Janet Rorholm
Kansan staff writer
Some architecture students donned fire fighting garb and entered a smoke-filled trailer on their hands and knees yesterday.
Their mission was to find a body and get out as quickly as possible.
The students were participating in a mock fire experiment, which is part of an 18-week life safety course in the School of Architecture and Urban Design. The body was a raggedy resuscitation Annie attached to a stuffed corduroy body.
This is the first semester the school offered a life safety course.
Ken Menken, director of the class who once worked as a firefighter, said the purpose of yesterday's experiment was to show students that fire prevention was easier than fire fighting. He started the course at KU because no life safety classes were offered for architecture students.
Menke said he went back to school to earn a bachelor's degree in architecture because a lot of buildings had collapsed around him as he fought fires.
The purpose of the course is to teach students the basic characteristics of fire and how prevention and safety codes can be applied to design, Menke said.
He said he thought the fire fighting and building industries should be combined.
Students will go to Fire Station No. 2, 19th St. and Haskell Ave., Saturday to play with fire, Menke said. They will learn what agents are the most effective in extinguishing different types of fires.
Former firefighter Ken Menke, helps Scott Shulda, Shawnee junior, into regulation fire fighting gear for the simulated rescue.
Alan Walker, director of fire service training for the division of continuing education, said the trailer in yesterday's experiment was used to train about 10,000 people yearly in the state.
Mazes can be set up inside the trailer, and it is equipped with two-way communication and tracking devices to follow trainees through the maze. A nontoxic smoke made from banana extract fills the trailer creating an environment similar to most house fires, Walker said.
Rod Eisenhauer, fifth-year architecture student from Topeka, said he learned firsthand the difficulties firefighters faced entering smoke-filled buildings.
You couldn't see anything," Elsenhauer said. "It was scary. The first 30
Eisenhauer and his partner, Mike Schmidt, fifth-year student from St Louis, said they stumbled across the body immediately, but got lost about three feet from the exit as they tried to
seconds you just tried to get acclimated and all you could hear was yourself breathing."
leave.
"It was hard to know where we were because there was nothing there," Schmidt said. "It felt like we were going in circles."
Eisenhauer said he learned that fire codes architects followed in their
designs were only the minimum requirements. He said he thought architects should be more stringent.
"It all boils down to how much money is provided for safety requirements," he said. "Often these are cut first when the money runs out."
Christine McFarland/KANSAN
Before the freeze
Harvesting a crop of asparagus before the temperatures drop, (left to right) Chris Tevis, Wilton, Conn., sophomore, Julie Jacob, Kansas City, Mo., senior, James Roundtree, Coffeyville junior, and Marsha Green, Coffeyville sophomore, pick the last two rows of the day at Pendleton's Country Market, a mile and a half east of Lawrence. Karen and John Pendleton began asparagus season at their farm April 11th and will continue to harvest and sell the vegetable until the end of May.