THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101, NO.119
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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THURSDAY.MARCH26.1992
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Finland says Russians delayed leak report
The Associated Press
HELSINKI, Finland — Radioactive iodine from a leak at a Russian nuclear power plant entered the atmosphere for five days before the leak was reported, a Finnish scientist said Wednesday.
Hannu Koponen said iodine levels near the Leningradskaya plant in Sosnovy Bor, a city west of St. Petersburg, were five times above the accepted level, which is .04 curies, yesterday morning. Koponen said the iodine level found was 0.2 curies, which is high enough to be retained by the human body.
Officials at the plant Tuesday reported a leak, caused by damage to the reactor's main fuel line. Radioactive gases were emitted into the atmosphere through the building's ventilation system, which is designed in a manner that Western officials have urged the Russians to change.
But air samples taken in southeastern Finland from March 19 through Monday indicate that the reactor was releasing iodine for five days before the accident was reported, said Koponen, deputy director of the Finnish Center for Radiation and Nuclear Safety.
He said the iodine was discovered in routine air samples gathered in Imatra, 43 miles west of St. Petersburg. They were analyzed yesterday, and tiny iodine particles were found.
"it's an indication that a leak could have taken place at the plant before the accident reported on Tuesday by the Sosnovy Bor officials," Koponen said. Because iodine is not normally detected in the air, Koponen said, something must have gone wrong at the plant.
He said that the particles gathered in Imatra were so small that they might have a slight
curiosity value but that they posed no danger.
Lennart Meri, Estonia's foreign minister,
said that radiation levels over his country,
is which is south of Finland, had doubled by Tuesday night. Meri gave no figures.
At yesterday's meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, conducted in Helsinki, Meri demanded that Russia immediately supply exact data on the levels of radiation from the plant. He also complained that Moscow had not told his government about the accident.
The Sosnovy Bor plant is 62 miles northeast of the Estonian border. Koponen said winds had started blowing toward the south Tuesday night, after blowing west for the past few days, which could account for the radiation increases in the air over Estonia.
He said that the same types of particles were released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in the then-Soviet Union but that the levels released by Chernobyl were 100 times greater than those released by the Sosnovy Bar leak.
No Russian reaction was available.
Japan-bashing does not help U.S., panel says
By Janet Rorholm
Kansan staff writer
Using Japan-bashing to encourage people to buy U.S.-made products, especially cars, has no place in today's move toward globalization, members of a panel discussion at the KU School of Law said yesterday.
The discussion, attended by about 20 people, was sponsored by the Student Bar Association and the Center for East Asian Studies
"Buy American. Who are we kidding?" said Ray Morgan, a writer for Nihibie News, a U.S. monthly publication dedicated to U.S.-Japan relations. As a former reporter for the Kansas City Star, Morgan visited Japan often
Morgan said companies were so intertwined that it was impossible to call one American or Japanese.
"We've got to put down the redneck concept of Japanbashing."
Rav Morgan
Companies such as
Reporter for the Nichibet News
Companies Chrysler and Mitsubishi invest in foreign car maker stocks, he said. Companies also assemble products in different countries, including the United States.
"We've got to put down the redneck concept of Japan bashing," he said.
he said.
Part of the blame for this attitude can be attributed to the media, Morgan said. The events of World War II have made Japan and Germany an easy target for U.S. citizens.
One idea that needs to be understood is the difference in work ethics between the United States and Japan, he said. The Japanese work longer, up to 16 hours a day and six days a week. They often run from one place to another to work faster.
Some deaths in the past few years in Japan have been connected to overwork. Morgan said.
"There is no way American workers would put up with this," he said.
Clyde Stoltenberg, co-director of the Center for East Asian Studies, said that the two work ethics were different because of the two different cultures.
"It seem to me that the problem between the United States and the Japanese was not a problem of exchanging goods, but a breakdown of ideas," Stoltenberg said.
Kristen Petty/KANSAN
Breaking away
Tyler Kilroy, Leawood sophomore, lounges in the grass at Buford M. Watson Park. Kilroy was enjoying yesterday's weather while reading about Africa for a coming visit.
tory test. According to KU Weather Service, the forecasted high for today is 57 degrees under partly cloudy skies.
Panelists discuss feminism's future
Speakers urge women to redefine movement
Marmae Dietrich / KANSAN
Liane Davis, left, and Ann Weick answer questions during the panel discussion.
By Shelly Solon
Kansan staff writer
At a Women's History Month panel last night, KU women faculty members discussed the ways in which the future of feminism and the women's movement depended on incorporating a variety of issues and global concerns into the movement.
However, Emily Taylor, who was dean of women at KU from 1956 to 1974, reminded the panel and audience that throughout the history of the women's movement, women have taken on other issues and put women's issues aside.
Taylor started the center, at the time called the Women's Resource and Career Center, in 1970. It was renamed the Emily Taylor Resource and Career Center for Women in 1974.
Taylor and about 20 other people attended the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center program, "Revisioning Feminism for the 21st Century."
"Some people prefer 'womanist,' or 'woman-centered.' Kwole-Foeland said. "We have to approach issues and have the ability to openly about ways we can make being woman-centered more complicated. We have to look at issues with an international perspective and think about global issues. We will all have to practice respecting, listening and considering a wide variety of perspectives."
Angel Kwolek-Fland, assistant professor of history, said that even the term "feminist" needed to be reconsidered.
Charlene Muehlenhard, director of the women's studies department and associate professor of women's studies, said feminism itself consisted of various outlooks and opinions.
"The author of an article in the Oreaa Review recently said women's studies was only about one thing, feminism, and that a subject like economics had a variety of concepts like capitalism, socialism and so on," she said. "But when I look at feminist theory, I see such diverse opinions and writings. There is liberal feminism, socialist feminism, Marxist feminism, post-modern feminism and so on. And in each of those, there is a lot of diversity."
"We need to move beyond the common threads of the women's movement," Weick said. "We need to change our culture to be more globally nurturing and need to be open to radically revising the world. We need to
Ann Weick, dean of social welfare, said that women needed to move to the promises of earlier decades but that women also had to get beyond their identity as women.
move toward collective action."
However, Taylor said focusing on issues outside the women's movement had hurt the movement throughout history.
"For 150 years, women have turned to other issues such as children or the Black movement," she said. "Women keep putting the women's issues behind like the other problems were greater. This will go on forever if we keep taking on other's issues. We're worrying about other issues when we have not solved the basic problems of obtaining economic, social and legal justice for women.
"One time I was a National Organization for Women meeting and we debated the agenda from four in the afternoon until one in the morning because some people felt it was more important to fight the Vietnam War than work on women's problems."
Many types of scholarships are subject to income taxes
Bv Svala Jonsdottir
Kansan staff writer
The April 15 deadline for filing tax returns is just around the corner, but students who receive a lot of scholarship money can be unaware that their awards may be subject to income tax.
Louie Lopez, Kansas City, Kan, senior, said he received scholarships that helped pay for his education, including room and board.
"My understanding was that if you use the scholarship money for anything related to education, it was not taxable," Lopez said. "This year was the first time I received a sheet of paper from the Endowment Association which listed the scholarships that might be taxable."
the schoolships that he declared those scholarships on his income tax form this year but that it was the first time he did so.
"I was not aware of the fact that scholarship money could be taxed, and it really surprises me," he said. "I do not think it is fair. A scholarship to me is something that you do not have to pay back."
The Internal Revenue Service recently conducted a test at Harvard University to see whether students were complying with the 1986 tax law, which states that students receiving awards need to declare what they receive in excess of what they pay for tuition, books and fees. Tuition waivers are not taxable.
The IRS has not released the results of the test. James Manuszak, representative for the IRS in Kansas, said that there were no current plans to test student compliance in Kansas but that it was always possible.
"Various check stubs and financial award letters they receive state that, but they may not always notice it," she said. "It is up to the students to keep track of their awards, since the University does not give them miscellaneous income forms listing the total amount received."
Michele Kessler, staff attorney with KU Legal Services for Students, said some students who received tax assistance were not aware that their scholarship money could be subject to income tax.
"In the instructions you are told to add scholarships to other income, but not everyone reads the instructions as carefully as they should," she said. "The international student tax form, however, does have a separate line for scholarships."
Legal Services has three full-time attorneys who serve about 100 people each week during the two months before the April 15 deadline to file tax returns. Kessler said.
Students' ignorance of the law also could be a result of the fact that the income tax form for residents does not include a specific line for declaring scholarships, Kessler said.
Andrea Davis, Salina freshman, said she received a number of scholarships that she declared on her income tax form.
"I did not know before that I would have to pay taxes on my scholarships," Davis said. "The people who do my family's taxes told us that I would have to declare them."
Davis said the fact that her scholarship money was subject to income tax had surprised her.
I was not expecting to have to pay a part of it back, but it was not that much compared to how much I got and how much it helped," she said. "I would rather have to pay taxes than have no scholarships at all."
Chava MacPhee, assistant director of the Office of Student Financial Aid, said the office did not inform students receiving scholarships whether they could be subject to income tax.
"I do not really think it is a part of what we need to do," MacPhee said. "I certainly hope students read their tax return instructions."
John Scarffe, director of communications with the Endowment Association, said the association did not offer students information concerning taxes at the time they received awards.
"The ultimate determination of what should be declared lies with the students and the persons who prepare their taxes," Scarfe said. "All we do is make the scholarships available."