THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.123
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL1, 1992
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NEWS:864-4810
Student leaders voice concerns about vice chancellor finalists
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
The search committee passed the names of three finalists for the executive vice chancellor position at the University of Kansas to Chancellor Gene Budig under a cloud of secrecy yesterday.
But several students said that the seven men interviewed by the committee for the position would not help increase diversity at the University. All of the candidates are white.
The seven candidates were:
Robert Altenkern, dean of engineering at Mississippi State Universi-
Del Brinkman, KU vice chancellor for academic affairs;
Samuel Conti, vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst:
Edward Meyen, KU dean of edu-
cation;
Del Shankel, KU interim executive vice chancellor;
Dave Shulenburger, KU associate
dave chancelor for academic affairs;
and
- Kenneth Tolo, professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin
Frances Ingemann, head of the search committee, said she would not release the names of the three finalists.
Ingemann said she thought Budig would talk with each finalist before he made his final selection.
Budig said he hoped to end the search within the next several weeks but would not comment further.
Two off-campus student senators said yesterday that limiting the competition for the position primarily to graduate students and prospects for diversity at the University.
James Baucom, off-campus senator, also is the president-elect for Florida.
"I think the University has a habit of filling the most important positions from the inside," Baucom said. "If you only hire internally into higher positions, you are not getting outside people who would bring new ideas. I'm concerned that this University is being run by a good-old-boy system that will make progress impossible."
board member of Black Men of Today
Baucom said he was not as concerned that none of the candidates were African-American or women.
"That doesn't bother me as much as this apparent refusal to attract new and innovative thinkers," he said.
Carlos Fleming, off-campus senator, also is a member of Black Men of Today and Black Student Union.
"If we are trying to make change on campus, it doesn't make sense to select candidates from on campus," Fleming said. "The lack of minority candidates doesn't surprise me, but bothers me. I feel like if the University was interested in making change it
would have found qualified minority candidates."
Kristin Lange, student body vice president, was a founding member of Women's Student Union. She said she was disappointed that no women candidates were among the seven interviewed.
"I don't know if there just weren't qualified women or what," Langesaid. "But I wish the University would actively solicit women's applications."
Ingemann said the committee determined that the candidates it interviewed were the most qualified.
"Whether the candidate is internal or external, we want to choose the best candidate," Ingemann said. "Both internal and external candidates have a lot to offer, and the committee and chancellor need to match the needs of the University with the abilities of the candidates."
Marnee Dietnch / KANSAN
Timber!
Creating a shower of sawdust, Bill Medlen, facilities operations employee, cuts off limbs from some trees outside of Watson Library. Medlen cut off limbs yesterday that were affected by tip blight.
Mother of Ryan White urges AIDS involvement
By Katherine Manweiler
Jeanne White does not claim to be an eloquent speaker.
She addresses her audience as a mother whose goal is to put a face on the disease that claimed the life of her teenage son.
A standing-room-only crowd of more than 700 last night in the Kansas Union Ballroom listed to White's anecdotes about her struggles in watching her son, Ryan, fight against AIDS.
But the White family fought another battle against the violence and prejudice aimed at them by members of the small Indian community who did not want Ryan to attend public school.
"Ryan used to say, 'Well, Mom, they're just trying to protect their own kids like you're trying to protect me,' and I would say, 'Ryan, why don't you ever get mad?' she said. "But Ryan understood. He wanted to change their minds and educate them."
White said she knew she needed to move her family from Kokomo, Ind., after attorneys for Ryan's school
attempted to have Ryan placed under court custody.
"He held no bitterness for anybody, never blamed anyone," she said. "But at the same time, I saw a kid grow up in this disease. He was much older than me."
"The attorneys representing the school, they tried to say I was an unfit mother because I would allow him to go to school, kill other kids and be killed himself," she said. "That's when I realized that with every ounce of energy I had in my body, I was going to fight these people."
So White moved with Ryan and his younger sister, Andrea, to Cicero, India, 25 miles away. Ryan's physical growth was stunted by AIDS, but White said her son steadily grew more mature.
White said that she thought Ryan would be pleased with some of the progress that had been made in the department, and that it had a long way to go. United States still had a long way to go.
"I think he would still feel very upset that there's still a lot of discrimination against me."
"I think it time Mr. Bush said the word AIDS. The voters now are going to be people in your everyday communities that are being infected by this disease. And it's time now. You can't wait any longer, because when you are epidemic,emic in communities, you've got a real problem."
Kelley Price, Lincoln, Neb., sophmore, fought back tears as she said she was shocked by the prejudice that the White family faced.
the issues of AIDS," she said. "People are not pushing forward like they should. It's just been too slow of a process. Don't wait until it affects you or infects you to get involved.
"I learned about AIDS from Ryan White," Price said. "I cannot believe how mean and ignorant people can be so much it takes to stand up to them.
Dennis Velasquez, Lawrence
senior, we wanted to help people
who were afflicted.
I think it's an issue that affects us all, whether we know it or not," Velasquez said.
Jeanne White speaks to a standing-room-only crowd in the Kansas Union Ballroom about the life and death of her son Ryan White.
KU distinguished prof named vice chancellor of graduate studies
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Andrew Debicki, director of KU's Hall Center for the Humanities, was named yesterday as the vice chancellor designate for research, graduate studies and public service.
Debicki, a distinguished professor in Spanish and Portuguese who has been at the University of Kansas since 1968, will assume the position's full responsibilities in July 1994.
"I think this is a very important position that speaks for scholarship at the University," Debicki said. "To keep the University developing new ideas and new insights is the most important task and my biggest goal for the office."
Howard Mossberg, interim vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and public service, will continue to serve in the interim position until 1994.
Debicki, 57, will begin a one-year sabbatical this summer during which he will finish a book about 20th-century Spanish poetry with the help of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.
Andrew Debicki
"I need to finish my book so that I can dedicate myself fully to the vice chancellor position when I take it over." Debicki said.
Debicki said that he looked forward to learning about his new job from Mossberg.
Debicki will return from his sabbatical and serve one year as the dean of the graduate school and vice chancellor designate for research, graduate studies and public service.
Del Shankel, interim executive vice chancellor, said that he was very pleased that Mossberg would continue in the position until Debicki took over.
"I am deeply grateful to Vice Chancellor Mossberg for his willingness to continue to serve during a time of critical transition and to Professor Debicki for his acceptance of the continuing responsibilities for research and graduate studies,"
"I have a lot to learn, and I feel very lucky to have someone to help me along." he said.
Shankel said. "The office will be in good hands now and in the future, and the team will provide for a smooth transition during the year when both will serve."
Debicki said that he would be a strong advocate for graduate students.
"I don't want to address specific issues until I have had the time to learn more about specific concerns," he said. "But I consider graduate students as very important junior colleagues. We all learn by working with them. It's very important that we get and maintain their support and outside support for them."
Chanceller Gene Budig said that Debicki knew what was important to the University concerning research, graduate studies and public service.
"Professor Debicik is especially sensitive to the issues facing graduate education in the challenging years ahead," Budig said.
Dan Murtaugh, graduate teaching assistant in English, said that he hoped Debicki would focus his attention on solving graduate employee problems.
"I hope that a philosophy will develop that says GTAs are crucial to the University and deserve support," Murtaugh said. "I think this vice chancellor position could be key to the future of graduate students at the University."
A likely explanation
April fooling probably began in France after King Charles IX adopted the modern calendar in 1564, changing New Year's from March 25 to Jan. 1. Under the old calendar, people had visited each other and exchanged gifts on April 1, the last day of a week's festivities. When conservatives bemoaned the change, jokers ridiculed them by sending mock gifts.
A fool by any other name
A tool by any other name
- In Scotland, an "April fool" is called the April "gowk," the Scottish word for cuckoo, the emblem of simpletons
- In England, the fool is an April "gob." "gawby" or "gobby"
- In France, the hoax is called a "poisson d'avril," an April fish, perhaps because April fish tend to be easily caught
SOURCE: "The American Book of Days" by George William Douglas; Research by PAT CARR
INSIDE
Knight-Ridder Tribune/JEFF DIONISI
Aph photo spread salutes the Kansas men's and women's championship seasons.
A basketball farewell
Pages8 and 9
Security Council votes unanimously for sanctions against Libya
Brown wins Vermont and may come to KU KU Young Democrats are preparing for his arrival.
Pages 3 and 14
The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council yesterday voted to ban flights and arm sales to Libya. It branded the country a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Air Flight 103 and a French airliner.
Wearing black for mourning, relatives of some of the 270 victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing watched from the visitors' gallery as the council imposed
the sanctions by a 10-0 vote.
"Libya has been indicted," said George Williams, whose son Jordy died when the plane blew up Scotland. "The finger has been pointed at them as having been deeply involved in the bombing of Pan Am 103."
The sanctions are scheduled to take effect April 15 but will be withheld Col. Moammar Gadhafi's government surrenders the six suspects sought by France, Britain and the United
States and takes steps to cease all forms of terrorist action and all assistance to terrorist groups.
The resolution also calls on member states to expel most Libyan diplomats but includes no broad trade embargo. Some questioned whether it would have any effect because Libya's oil exports would not be affected.
"It'snotnearlyenough,"said Susan Cohen, whose 20-year-
It was only the second time the Security Council had imposed punitive sanctions on a country for flouting its demands on peace and security. The first was after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Previous arms embargoes against South Africa and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, expressed the council's condemnation of racial oppression.
Libyan Ambassador Ali Ehlouderi predicted the resolution would be the beginning of a series of measures that would impose an economic siege and military measures against a smaller country.
Hours before the vote, Western diplomats said Libya was preventing these foreigners from leaving the country, raising fears that they could be held as hostages. Libya denied it was interfering with departures.
The State Department said none of the 500 to 1,000 Americans in the country was having trouble leaving Libya.
The ban on flights to and from Libya means those wishing to leave would have to take boats — there is a ferry to Malta — or drive either to Cairo, Egypt, or Tunis. Tunisia