THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.105
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1992
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Residence hall rates to jump 14.8 percent
Residence hall prices increase, occupancy decreases
By Erik Bauer Kansan staff writer
Student housing rates at KU residence halls will increase 14.8 percent next school year, said Ken Stoner, director of student housing.
To accommodate decreases in residence hall occupancy due in part to a decrease in freshman enrollment, living costs have increased steadily. Hashinger Hall and single-room rates are not included.
"Part of the increase is to offset the previous loss of income," Stoner said. "We're sharing the same expenses over a fever number of students."
The increase is the latest in a string of rent bikes at KU residence halls.
Residence hall room and board rates increased 8 percent in 1991 and 7 percent the year before.
Although student housing will save money next school year by leasing Joseph R. Pearson Hall to Haskell Indian Junior College and by consolidating food services at its five Daisy Hill halls, Stoner said the increase was necessary.
Housing has to cover its costs with the money it raises from student room and board, he said, because the department does not receive state or University financing.
Room and board for double-occupancy in a residence hall for the 1992-1993 school year will be $3,080 - up from $2,844 in 1991.
mail occupancy: total number of students living in residence halls (taken 20 days into semester)
He cited increased maintenance costs, inflation and a lower occupancy rate at the University's eight seats as reasons for the rise in residence hall costs.
Cost: double-room occupancy rates per year
Stoner said that this year, food costs had increased 7percent, utility costs had increased almost 6 percent and water bills had increased more than 10 percent.
Source: Ken Stoner; director of student housing; Dept. of Educational Services
Student housing also has had to cope with decreasing occupancy at the halls in the past few years.
The floors and wings of some halls have stood vacant,some semesters since then.
In the fall semesters of 1985 and 1986, the University of Kansas had 1,500 freshmen each year whom it could not accommodate in its residence halls. Stoner said housing had to turn students away then.
"Our market was traditionally freshman and sophomore," Stoner said.
But since KU in 1988 began its effort to stabilize enrollment, the number of freshmen at the University has declined steadily, thinning the prospective pool of hall residents.
Freshman enrollment
Dave Shulenburger, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs, said the University had sought to stabilize enrollment by imposing stricter admissions standards for out-of-state students and by setting application deadlines.
Shulenburger said the recent smaller freshman classes had more to do with the fact that there are less graduating high school seniors than with the University's goal of stabilizing enrollment.
"This year, we'll reach a trough," Shulenburger said. "It is the smallest graduating class in nine years."
But Shulenburger said that beginning with high school classes graduating in 1993, the number of graduating seniors would increase
and that the University was expecting a boom in freshman applicants.
Shulenburger said the Legislature had not financed the University according to the Regents formula for enrollment growth.
"It scares me to death," he said. "We hope the state will fund the enrollment growth."
With the leasing of JRP to Haskell in the fall and the consolidation of Daisy Hill food services in Spring 1993, student housing will save some money next school year, Stoner said. Both changes will result in an eventual decrease in staff, thus saving more money.
Revenues also have dropped because of a depressed state and national economy. Stoner said. The adjustments made in both federal and state government have effected the University and, in turn, student housing.
"The changes have rippled all other areas," he said.
The Haskell plan is still being developed and student housing has not released the price of the planned one-year lease.
But the amount is minimal compared to the revenue generated by the 14.8 percent increase in residence hall living costs, Stoner said.
Jennifer Switzer, president of the Association of University Residence Halls, said AURH had voted against the price hike earlier in the semester and had sent a letter to housing officials emphasizing possible alternatives to the measure, such as leasing JRP to Haskell students.
"We're trying to alleviate some of the shock," said Switich, Witich sophomore. "I think the communication was good, but we're just unhappy with the result."
Teresa Capsey, Abilene sophomore, said that she that would stay in Lewis next year but that the price increases were ridiculous, especially since off-campus housing was cheaper.
Van crashes, injures woman
"I really don't think it's fair that residence halls have to take the bulk of the rate increase to balance the budget," she said.
Charlie Reed, Coffeville sophomore, said that he almost left the residence hall system because of the prices but that his failed plans to live off-campus kept him at Ellsworth Hall.
"Naturally, I don't like it for the simple fact of the costs," Reed said. "I come from a rural community, and money, even 15 percent, makes a big difference."
Vehicle rams wall after passenger tries to drive
By Ranjit Arab
Kansan staff writer
A 34-year-old mentally disabled man crashed a van into a Lawrence drug store yesterday, injuring a 67-year-old woman who was walking in front of the store, policesaid.
A gray and white Dodge Ram van struck Kathryn Poole before it slammed through the south wall of Raney Hillcrest Drug, 925江水St., about 11:30 a.m., said Sgt. Mark Warren of Lawrence police.
abilities.
Warren said the van was owned by Community Living Opportunities Inc., 2113 Delaware St., and carried several passengers. The nonprofit agency provides services to Lawrence adults with physical and mental dis-
Pooley, Lawrence resident, was taken to the Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for a facial fracture and facial lacerations. Shelater was transferred to the Olathe Medical Hospital.
Pooley was listed in serious but stable condition last night at Olathe and was being treated for multiple trauma injuries, said Cole Hargett, nursing supervisor at the hospital.
The van had been parked at the Hillcrest parking lot, where the passengers were picking up trash as part of a weekly supported employment program, said Diane Bannerman-Juracek, associate director of Community Living Opportunities Inc.
the passengers were getting into the van, the driver, Thomas Ganim, went into a nearby laundromat to retrieve one of passengers, Warren said.
Ganim returned to find that the van had crashed into the drugstore wall. One of the passengers apparently started the van. Warren said.
Sgt. Ron Dalquest of Lawrence police said no charges had been filed yet in connection to the accident and that a decision about whether to press
The van had moved north about 60 feet, striking Pooley before it crashed into the drug store wall, Warren said. Police said they did not know how fast the van was moving.
Bannerman-Juracek said no one in the van was injured. She said the passengers had developmental disabilities ranging from mental retardation to autism.
charges would be made by the Douglas County District Attorney's office.
In response to the accident, Bannerman-Juracek said the supported employment program would be reviewed but not eliminated.
"I am sure that our training and supervision will be evaluated, and I am sure we will improve that so this will happen again," Bannerm-juraceksaid.
Gregory Keenan, a customer at the store, said he was standing about two feet to the left of where the van crashed into the wall.
"I theard the van reup and the glass on the top of the store broke and the shelves moved, so that gave me a clue that something was about to happen," Keenan said.
He said that he turned away and covered his face to avoid the impact but that afterward he saw the van inside the store and a pair of legs under its front end. He said he told an employee to call an ambulance.
36F
Sheila Chaffee, manger of Raney's, said that it was too easy to estimate the damage to the store but that the staff would remain open during business hours.
"My concern is not with the business right now," Chaffee said. "My concern is with the person injured."
Penny Woods/KANSAN
Some tanning methods have risks on side
By Katherine Manweiler
Kansan staff writer
The southern wall of Raney Hillcrest Drug, 925 Iowa St., gav way to avan from Community Living Opportunities.
Jennie Middleton, Fort Collins, Colo., freshman, tans at The Sun Deck.
It may not be warm enough to lie outside in the sun, but many KU students are finding other ways to look tan.
Susan Vielhauer, Shawnee senior, uses a tanning cream to dye her skin twice a day several times a week. She said that she used to go to a tanning salon but that she no longer had the time.
"I can just put it on in the morning and go through the whole day," Vielhauer said. "It gives you a little color enough to wear shorts in the winter."
According to health professionals, Vielhauer has chosen the safest way to look tan. Suntanning, tanning booths, pills and accelerators are other options to look tan. But these methods may prove ineffective or even harmful, health officials say.
Ultimate Tan sells four brands of accelerators at an average cost of $8 a bottle. Laing said she sold up to 50 bottles a week.
Jannah Laing, owner of Ultimate Tan, 2449 Iowa St., said tanning accelerators were effective. Accelerators are lotions or creams thought to increase the melanin production in skin cells, but they do not work if people are not out in the sun or going to tanning salons.
"I feel that people tend to plateau after a certain degree of exposure, and accelerators help them get past that." Laing said.
Jett Sattler, owner of The Sun Deck,
said about 330 people tanned at his salon each day. About 85 percent of his customers are KU students.
"If someone wants to get these tablets, they can go to their salon and ask about them," she said. "The salon can refer them to us or they may start carrying the pills."
Joyce Leonard, marketing manager for Image Solution, a company that manufactures and distributes Infinit, a brand of tanning pills, said Image Solution did not currently sell tanning pills to Lawrence tanning salons.
"They haven't come up with a dosage that is safe to the skin," she said. "The FDA won't let you sell them."
Leonard said Infinit was safe and
Laing said about 400 people a day used tanning beds at Ultimate Tan in late March and April.
Leonard said that tanning pills containing food dyes had been banned by the Food and Drug Administration.
"If you take tanning pills, you have 'had the benefit of research by the FDA to find out if this chemical is safe' and dosages are safe," Kestenbaum said.
Thelda Kestenbaum, dermatologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said dye-based tanning pills had not been tested by the FDA.
Over-the-counter tanning creams that dye the skin temporarily could be a safe option for people seeking a shortcut to a suntan, she said.
that it accelerates melanin production in the skin.
Julie Huntsinger, health educator for Watkins Memorial Health Center, said there were risks to using tanning booths, because people who use them are exposed to ultraviolet rays that can cause skin cancer.
Kestenbaum said tanning creams that promised to enhance the effect of sun exposure.
"I don't know of anything that will accelerate your tan," she said.
Russian reactor oozes radioactive gas, iodine
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — A Chernobyl-style nuclear power reactor near St. Petersburg leaked radioactive gas yesterday, but Russian atomic energy officials said the small amount that escaped into the atmosphere posed no threat to the public.
Despite the official assurances, some St. Petersburg residents took precautions, including keeping children indoors.
Swedish experts who visited the Leningradskaya plant last year had urged it be closed immediately because of safety concerns. U.S. officials said yesterday they remained worried about the safety of all Soviet-built nuclear plants.
Since the Chernobyl disaster spewed radioactivity across Europe in 1986, serious questions have been raised about aging and poorly designed reactors, poor maintenance and operator errors at nuclear plants in the former Soviet Union.
power plants because of persistent energy shortages. Three of the plants—with 11 reactors —share the same design as the Chernobyl station.
Despite those concerns, Russia must rely heavily on its nine nuclear
Russian officials said filters rendered the radioactive gases and iodine harmless yesterday as they escaped from the reactor building. Soviet nuclear plants do not have sealed structures designed to contain leaks from reactors, which are mandatory in the United States and other nations.
Yelena Miryushenko of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy called the leak a third-class incident on the seven-point International Atomic Energy Agency scale. The explosion and fire at Chernobyl in Ukraine rated seven, she said.
Neighboring Finland has appealed for international action to improve the safety of Russian nuclear plants. But the Finnish government said that only one of its monitoring stations detected a minute rise in radiation at high altitudes yesterday and that others registered no increases.
Knight-Ridder Tribune
"There is no danger at all," said Lar-
isa Khuddiokova, a mayoral representative in St. Petersburg, a city of 4.5 million people 50 miles east of the plant in Sosnovny Bor.
Still, school officials ordered kindergartens to keep children indoors today and advised parents to put iodine in their children's milk. The thyroid glands of young children are particularly vulnerable to radioactive iodine but can be made less susceptible with doses of normal potassium iodine.
Winter hints Senate still may debate abortion
A local lawnmaker said yesterday that the Kansas Senate could debate the issue of abortion before the legislative session ends April 10.
Kansan staffreport
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., RLawrence, said a group of Republican senators yesterday had discussed the possibility of adding an abortion amendment to an unrelated bill.
"I would say at this point there is increasing discussion among all the
senators here and it is increasingly likely that the Senate will debate the issue of abortion," Winter said. "There are any number of bills that are possible as technical vehicles for adding an abortion amendment."
in Kansas if Roe vs. Wade, a landmark case that legalized abortion, was overturned.
The Senate came under fire from the House of Representatives last week for dodging debate on House Bill 2778 by striking the enacting clause, which is necessary for a bill to become a law. The bill would have kept abortion legal.
"The Senate, given the botched way this was handled before, needs to let people know we can handle this issue," Winter said. "It's a matter of integrity."
Winter said he did not have any plans to offer the amendment himself, but said he would support any effort to get the issue debated.