CAMPUS / AREA
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, April 7, 1992
3
Program celebrates women
Ashli Cunningham, 8, and Nancy Crane participate in a GALA-week vigil. Ashli was taken to the vigil last night by her mother, not shown, to educate her on alternative lifestyles.
Candlelight vigil finishes GALA event
By Shelly Solon
Kansan staff writer
Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas celebrated women's poetry and song last night, but the program ended with a candlelight vigil memorating a more painful side of Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week.
GLSOK sponsored the "Womyn's Show," which featured singing, poetry reading and a short play. About 70 people attended the program at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1243 Oread Ave.
"We want to make sure we have a program with a special women's focus every once in a while," Hayes said.
Michaela Hayes, GLSOK member and the show's organizer, said most of the activities for GALA Week revolved around men or the ROTC policy.
Janet Pryor, co-director of GLSOK, said that like many organizations, GLSOK had more male than female members.
"We had the time and an open night this week so we wanted to give the women a chance to express themselves," she said.
Pryor said many of the women who attended were not GLSOK members.
Amy Cranch, Little Rock, Ark., senior, said people paid little attention to women's art.
"If you watch TV, listen to the radio, anything, it's male voices, male faces," she said. "That's fine, but there's a whole other genre to be recognized. It isn't to replace men's music or art, but simply in addition to it."
In the program, Nancy Crane, Lawrence resident, and the band Los Custos provided musical entertainment; Paula Schumaker, Lawrence resident, and Amy Wiese, Lawrence senior, read poetry; and about 20 audience members acted out a short play by Schumaker.
About 40 people remained for a candlelight vigil to reflect on the meaning of GALA Week. GLOSK members and others sang "We All Overcome" and other songs to begin the vigil.
Arthur Satterfield, member of the GALA Week committee, asked everyone to remember those who could not be present.
"Think of those of who can't be here because they cannot come out, and those we know who are no longer physically with us because they have passed from AIDS," he said.
Satterfield said the candles symbolized the struggle of gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
"Especially as the wind is blowing, as the candles flicker and go out and then get started up again, we have to remember that no matter what happens to us, we can rely on others to get started up again," he said.
Scott Manning, GLSKO member,
said that during GALA Week, the
realities of being openly gay, lesbian
or bisexual, were realized.
"Because we are out in the open, it is empowering, but we can also feel more exposed to discrimination," he said. "It can be a frightening thing."
Ribbon Day raises awareness, money in drive to help hungry
One KU student took time out from a Frisbee game in front of Strong Hall to donate change that he said was burning a hole in his pocket.
Kansan staff writer
By Michelle Betts
Another student pushed a bill into the can because she said she would have felt guilty if she had not contributed.
Like many on campus, these students donated money yesterday for the Ribbon Day Campaign, a kick-off event for War on Hunger week '92, which is sponsored by KU Students Against Hunger.
Yesterday the organization raised $185 in its campaign, falling short of its $500 goal, said Annie Mak, president of Students Against Hunger.
But Mak said the organization's goals involved more than money.
"Our other goal is just awareness of hunger," she said. "We're trying to get people to eat."
A student who donated money during the campaign received a ribbon and a button that urged students to join the fight against hunner in Lawrence.
Organization members worked at booths in front of Wesco Hall and outside the Kansas Union, telling passersby about the organization and asking for donations.
Hallmark donated the silver ribbons.
Eighty-five percent of the money collected will be donated to the Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen, which serves more than 90 free meals to needy people from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays and the last Friday of each month in the basement of the First Christian Church, 1000 Kentucky St.
Bob Shuler, Students Against Hunger treasurer, said that many people in Lawrence were homeless and impatient and that the problem was seasonal.
in the summertime, it's not so bad,
be in the winter it's the worst, "he
looks."
Jarrett Steele, Prairie Village junior, dropped his donation into the coffee can and said he hoped people would realize that hunger was a worldwide problem that needed attention for longer than one week.
Steele said he hoped people would start thinking about it in the larger scheme of things.
Greg Ostertag, Duncanville, Texas, freshman, pins a button on his shirt and talks with Annie Mak, president of KU Students Against Hunger.
Groups plan Gayhawk scholarship fund
By Shelly Solon
Kansan staff writer
Threecampusorganizationsyesterday announced the official start of Campaign Gayhawk, which will raise money for a scholarship fund for gay and lesbian students.
Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association and Gay and Lesbian Academic and Staff Advocates joined together to begin the scholarship drive, but the groups have different reasons for creating the scholarship.
Maggie Childs, member of GLASA,
said the group focused its efforts on
the need to educate girls.
"ROTC has scholarships exclusively and explicitly for straight people," she said. "Although we will not be able to balance our scholarship with theirs in dollars, we can symbolically balance it by having a scholarship exclusively and explicitly for gay and lesbian students."
The goal of Campaign Gayhawk is to raise $10,000 by Oct. 11, 1993, which is National Coming Out Day.
Troy Aldaffer, co-director of GLOSK, said GLOSK had received a $500 donation and had set up a committee to plan fund-raisers.
Ten percent of the money earned from the Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week dance Saturday will be used for the scholarship. he said.
Alldaifer said the group would sponsor fund-raisers during the summer season.
Kansas University Endowment Association will handle the investment and distribution of money once the $10,000 goal is reached. As with all university scholarships, the association and Chancellor Gene Budig have approved it.
The groups will make guidelines for who receives the scholarship.
Henry Schwaller, GALA co-director, said his group already had sponsored informal fund raising
He said the money mostly would come from donations.
tify with having different feelings about what it was like to be gay on the campus. People who were here in the '70s remember what it was like to be gay and out much differently than those in the '50s who remember it as repressive and difficult."
"We're looking at it as investment for the future for alumni," Schawler said.
He said Campaign Gayhawk was a takeoff on Campaign Kansas.
"It made millions of dollars and not a penny went to a gay and lesbian scholarship, gay and lesbian studies or establishing a gay and lesbian professorship," Schweller said.
Eric Barnhart, member of GLOSK,
said the scholarship would go to an
openly gay, lesbian or biseuxal stu-
dium that necessitably a leader
of an organization.
"Many people lose support," he said.
"We are starting the scholarship almost primarily for that reason. When someone comes out in high school, the story usually goes that they are kicked out cold from their homes with no money and no place to live. If they thought about going to college, those dreams can be destroyed."
Commercial insurance may be more reliable, less expensive
Continued from Page 1
We just never have had the disaster that woke everybody up. I think the Hoch tragedy may have."
other states in Tornado Alley woke up a long time ago. Higher education buildings in Nebraska have been insured for more than 20 years, and all state buildings in Oklahoma have been insured since 1988.
Linda Manley, risk management specialist at the University of Oklahoma, says fear of tornado damage and hurricanes have state's decision to preserve its buildings.
topayinsurancepremiumseachyear.
Corman, DeBusman and Hostetler want the Kansas Legislature to do this.
According to current Kansas statute, state agencies cannot purchase insurance unless bondissuers or the federal government require it.
Ed Ahrens, fiscal analyst for legislative research, says the Legislature decided in 1957 that it would cost the state less to replace its own losses than
ance premium each year.
In 1973, legislators established a $10.10-
million insurance reserve fund,
which was to back the state's
self-insurance policy
But Ahrens says the fund's current
compensation is not凑够了,凑
into the whole general fund.
"What basically happened was the Legislature decided the fund was not serving its purpose," he says. "No one had requested money from it, and when balances in the state's general fund dwindled, the balance of that reserve fund was lessened."
In other words, the Legislature raided the fund for operating money, and the state's self-insurance policy will be backed by the state's general fund.
in the Legislature, a request to replace a catastrophic loss is considered along with requests for all new projects. Both houses must agree that replacing Kohs, Kansas State's McCain Auditorium or Nichols Gym is
"If a state agency suffers a loss, they request an appropriation from the Legislature to replace the loss," Ahrens savs.
more important than faculty pay raises, welfare benefits or a new prison.
Ahrens says that most legislators will establish a loss to the top priority and not the bottom.
To understand that kind of logic, look at such a policy this way:
The Legislature is your father. Your father says, "If you wreck your car, I'll buy you a new one." But when you total it and go to your father for help, he says, "I've decided that your sister needs a car worse than you, so I'm buying her a new one. You'll have to wait until I get more money."
Luckily, Kansas benefited from a $5-million windfall from the federal government.
Were you insured? No. You were self-insured.
Ahrens says replacing an $18-million loss out of the state's general fund would have been difficult.
"In these tough budgetary times, it's hard to come up with $1 million, let alone $1 billion."
Hostetter says the risk of suffering another loss of more than $18 million is too great not to buy insurance.
Ω
Some legislators agree with Hostetler.
Turnquist, head of the House Insurance Committee, has introduced House Bill 3194, which would require that all state buildings be insured. But his bill includes neither funding nor an estimate of what insurance would cost.
Turnquist says the process of changing bad policy begins with the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives 112-12 on Thursday and now awaits action in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
"Right now we are going bare and taking the chance that our losses will not be too high," he says. "We are gambling."
Turnquist says the cost of insurance is not too high, and he agrees with the Regents that the problem is bigger than Hoch. He says the risk of a larger loss is too great not to insure.
So, how much would insurance on Regents buildings cost?
Because the Legislature has not decided to purchase insurance for
state buildings, insurance companies have not bid competitively for the state'spolicy.
Corman says representatives of the insurance industry have told him that premiums on a statewide insurance plan would be about half as heavy competition between companies.
"We've heard numbers from 1 cent per $100 of value to 4 cents," he says.
The Regents are responsible for buildings valued at more than $2.4 billion.
If the insurance premium is figured at 3 cents per $100 of value, the 1991 premium would have been about $750,000.
What if the state had bought insurance after the Washburn disaster in 1967?
Using an average annual premium of $425,000 during the 25-year period, the Regents would have paid about $10.6 million for insurance. During the same 25-year span, the Regents losses totaled $21.9 million.
Oklahoma insures 6,000 buildings valued together at $5.5 billion at a cost of $2 million a year, or 3.6 cents per $100 of building value, according to Larry
Evans, administrative officer for the state of Oklahoma.
The Nebraska Board of Regents pays an annual premium of about $255,000, or 1.4 cents per $100 of building value, to insure all of its higher education buildings, according to Greg Clayton, director of risk management and benefits for the University of Nebraska system.
"I was on campus the afternoon Hoch was hit by lightning, he says. "It was a really tragic thing."
Mother Nature can devastate a campus, says R.H. McIntosh, executive vice president of First Excess and Reinsurance Corp. in Overland Park.
McIntosh admits insurance would not have avoided the tragedy of losing a historic landmark. But he says there would have been some sense of comfort.
"Insurance really needs to be considered," he says. "Devastating tragedy awaits if something isn't done."
In front of the Kansas and Burge Unions, April 7th and 8th,9 a.m.-4 p.m.