THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.131
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING:864-4358
MONDAY,APRIL 13,1992
(UPS5 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Complaints may be filed in Student Senate election
By Jay Williams
Kansan staff writer
The final ballots were cast Thursday in Student Senate elections, but some questions linger.
The Vision coalition dominated the election, winning 51 of 64 Senate seats available and electing Brad Garlinghouse and Lance Wright as student body president and vice president, respectively.
After the election, Unless presidential candidate Jean Winter said she was considering filing official complaints against Vision because she thought the opposing coalition overspent their campaign budget, drove voters to polling places and watched votes vote.
Chris Stong, Unless vice-presidential candidate, said the coalition was considering filing complaints, but had not decided. The deadline for filing is 5 p.m. today.
He said the coalition would decide after Winter returned to Lawrence. She spent the weekend in her hometown of Emporia visiting relatives.
Chris Thomas, elections commissioner, said no complaints were filed Friday against either coalition and only one complaint was filed for the entire election.
"Until it is filed, it's all just rumor and inumuoro," he said.
Gatlinghouse said his coalition did not overspend and drive people to vote, but that it was not in violation of the Student Senate Code.
Vision set its campaign spending limit at $2,400. Thomas said the coalition reported spending $2,330.15 on the campaign spending $1,684.64 out of $10,804 bedrooms.
According to the elections code, each coalition must report all campaign expenditures and the dates the money was spent. Thomas said both coalitions turned in their financial
Students claim booths closed early, denied vote
Kansan staff report
Two KU students said if they had had the chance to vote Thursday afternoon, a tie-breaking coin flip to determine who is elected to the fine arts seat of Student Senate would not be necessary.
Steven McBurney, Vision fine arts candidate, said two fine arts students told him they were turned away from the Kansas University voting booth before the scheduled closing of the polls.
But, Kelli Zuel, member of the Student Senate Elections Commission, said the polls closed after the scheduled closing time of 4:30 p.m.
Becky Harrin, Prairie Village freshman, said she and her roommate Liz Parker, Leawood freshman, left Gertrude Sellars Pearson-Corbin Hall on the 4:20 bus to vote at the Union. She said they arrived at the Union at 4:23 p.m. and were at the voting booth at 4:24 p.m.
Harrin said workers at the booth told them the polls were closing so the ballots would be ready to be picked-up by commission officials at 4:30pm.
Zuel said she left her office in the Union at 4:30 p.m. and closed the booth at 4:31 p.m. She said when she arrived at the booth, one man was completing his ballot.
"We may ask to see the receipts if it becomes a big deal." Thomas said.
Harrin said both she and Parker would have voted for McBurney, giving the Vision candidate a two-vote margin of victory.
statements on time. Although not required, Unless turned in receipts for all expenditures. Vision did not.
Chris Thomas, elections commissioner, said the Student Senate Elections Commission would investigate the claim, but said he doubted any polling location would close early.
The coin flip between McBurney and Renee Rosen, Unless fine arts candidate, will be at 12:45 p.m. tomorrow at the Office of Student Life, McBurney said.
As for driving voters to polling locations, Thomas said he did not consider it a violation. No mention of driving voters to the polls is in the election codes.
The one complaint filed was against Vision senator-elect John Shoemaker. The complaint alleges that Shoemarker campaigned for himself close to罢
the polling location at Wescoe Hall.
Thomas said the alleged violation would be considered as a major one. The penalty could be a $50 fine, dismissal or the election or dismissal from office.
Shoemaker said that he had walked with a woman to the polling place, but that he was not campaigning and left behind all election materials.
Thomas said no date would be set to hear the complaint until the filing deadline had passed.
Fooled! Space-junk prank tricks troopers, ensnares experts
By Ranjit Arab
Kansan staff writer
What began as a prank between two Kansas Turnpike Authority maintenance workers almost ended as an exhibit in the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson.
On Friday, a turnpike maintenance worker admitted to burning a small patch of grass and placing a foot-by-foot piece of scrap metal along Interstate 35, about 80 miles southwest of Lawrence, said Lisa Callahani, direc-tor of the local authority. The worker placed the metal by the highway on Tuesday.
Officials at the Cosmosphere speculated last week that the metal scrap, which was printed with red lettering, fell from a launched Russian booster. They thought it had traveled hundreds of miles an hour through the Earth's atmosphere before landing in the grass field, causing the fire.
The speculation increased when the North American Air Defense Command confirmed that a Russian spacecraft was launched on Tuesday.
Callahan said the worker had meant for the piece of metal to be a practical joke. However, when the co-worker spotted the burning metal scrap and the grass fire, he called a state highway trooper who notified the captain of the highway patrol. The joke ended up on the police scanner and was picked up by the media, she said.
"The intent of the employee was not to fool the news media or the Kansas Cosmosphere," she said. "It was the kind of prank between two employees."
Callahan refused to release the name of the employee.
Callahan said she thought the incident was blown out of proportion.
"I do not think any discipline will be taken other than a tough talking to," she said.
Mark Ary, executive director of the Cosmosphere, said that the practical joke was harmful to scientific research.
Ary said he did not find the practical joke amusing. Scientists would have discovered the fraud by today when they found it had been completed. The scrap would have been completed.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Rob Brooks, collections manager at the Entomological Museum in Snow Hall, shows Eric Purtee, 3, of Lawrence, how different species of bees change color under direct light.
Wonders of nature
Taking cover from enemy fire, Deana Morford, Hutchinson junior, hides behind a blockade at the paingun battlefield southwest of Lawrence. Morford's team, representing Alpha Delta Pi sorority, met members of Sinma Alpha Enflation fraternity in the finals of the interfraternity fundraising event yesterday.
Kristen Petty/KANSAN
Greek students fire away; Relax—it's only paint
Tournament raises funds for minority scholarships
By Brady Prauser Special to the Kansan
As Kevin Dunn crouched in the woods clutching his rifle, a bullet came from out of nowhere and pierced his right shoulder, tearing away flesh. Dunn began bleeding profusely and knew he was a dead man
Well, not exactly.
The "bullet" was actually a soft, round plastic pellet, and he was covred with paint instead of blood.
Dunn, Edina, Minn., freshman, was one of about 80 students who gathered south-west of Lawrence yesterday to play paintball, a game that resembles guerrilla warfare.
Participants tried to eliminate their opponents by shooting them with small plastic capsules filled with washable paint. The painballs were launched from guns powered by air cartridges and doused the victim with colorful paint as they exploded upon impact.
Panhellenic, Black Panhellenic and the Interfraternity Council sponsored the tournament in an effort to familiarize the groups with each other and raise money for two scholarships to be awarded next year.
Scott Dialrymple, a representative of Interfraternity Council, said the painball tournament was the first step in a fundraising drive designed to provide an academic scholarship for one minority male and one minority female to be awarded for the 1993-1994 academic year.
Only sophomores are eligible for the one-year scholarship, and new recipients will be chosen each academic year.
Thirteen six-person teams competed in the tournament, and each team paid a $86 entry fee to use the fields and equipment. Ken Farris, owner of The Drop Zone, a group of four painball fields where the tournament was held, refunded about two-thirds of the money to use for the scholarships.
The Drop Zone is located near Globe, Kan., about 18 miles south-west of Lawrence.
Juanta Cothine, St. Louis, sophomore, and president-elect for Black Panhellenic, said the amount of the two scholarships was contingent on how much money was raised before the spring 1993 semester. The three organizations have received donations from Lawrence businesses and will sponsor other
fundraisers to supplement the donations.
"The scholarships are designed to give KU minorities more incentive to stay in school," Cothrine said. "Minority retention is a problem and hopefully this will help."
Cal Jones, president of Black Panhellenic, said that besides providing funds for the scholarship drive, the painballtournament was beneficial because the groups who organized it learned more about each other.
"We've worked together to break down some of the misconceptions and stereotypes of different cultures," he said. "There are Greek houses from different backgrounds and races here, and we want to show other organizations that we can work together."
We'retryingtobeleadersoncampus."
Kristi Lind, Hinsdale, II, sophmore and member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, said she was intimidated at first by some of the male paintable players, but she still had a great time.
"I was a little scared because everyone looked like G.I. Joe," she said.
Professor asks SenEx to address dwindling faculty
By Jenny Martin
Kansan staff writer
Lawrence Sherr, chancellors club teaching professor of business administration, suggested to SenEx members that they keep an eye on the number full-time professors employed as opposed to the number of graduate teaching assistants and unclassified professional staff.
The University Senate Executive Committee was asked Friday to address the problem of dropping numbers of full-time faculty at the University of Kansas and passed a statement questioning the administration's commitment to affirmative action.
Sherrn said that in 1980 there were 1,044 full-time professors at the Umi-
versity, while in 1991 there were 939. In a memo distributed to SenEx, Sherr said that between 1868 and 1991, undergraduate enrollment increased 7.28 percent, while the number of full-time faculty decreased 2.29 percent.
versitv. while in 1991 there were 939.
During the same period, the number of GTAs increased 25.78 percent, and the number of unclassified professional staff increased almost 13 percent.
Sherr said yesterday that the increase in GTAs was because the University had been hiring unclassified staff instead of full-time professors.
"There has been an increase in the percent of GTAs teaching freshman and sophomore level classes," Sherr said. "We also have more GTAs teaching during their first semester of grad-
Sherr said that not only was the lack of full-time professors hurting undergraduate programs, but that it also was placing an unfair burden on graduate programs.
"I'm not criticizing GTAs, but your first semester in graduate school should not be the first time to start teaching," he said. "I think this is a great disservice to GTAs almost even more so than it is to freshman and sophomores."
Del Shanker, interim executive vice chancellor, said the University
Sherr said it would take five to six years to make dramatic changes in the system, but it was important to closely monitor the situation.
Because of financial pressures, the University has been forced to increase the number of GTAs and decrease the number of faculty during the past five years, he said.
administration agreed with Sherr's position and the University needed more full-time faculty.
In other business, SenEx passed a
Shankel said that as KU's enrollment had increased, the state had not provided any enrollment adjustment financing and had to employ more GTAs.
He said the University was hopeful that it would receive enrollment adjustment financing from the Legislature this year so it would be able to add more full-time faculty.
statement concerning the recently appointed positions of executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and public service. Both appointees were white males.
The statement said, "SenEx regrets that with the two most recent appointments at the level of vice chancellor, the central administration on the Lawrence campus will be composed exclusively of white males. SenEx questions, therefore, the commitment of the University administration to affirmative action principles and to an educational environment where the composition of the administration reflects the diversity of its constituencies."