THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.101
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
MONDAY, FEBRUARY24, 1992
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Subcommittee recommends $1 million for Hoch
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
Money to plan the rebuilding of Hoch Auditorium was inserted back into the Board of Regents budget Friday, but Chancellor Gene Budig and other KU administrators said Saturday the battle for the money was far from win.
As part of its recommendations for the Regents budget, a House Appropriations subcommittee voted Friday to include $1 million for planning the rebuilding of Hoch, which was gutted by fire June 15.
Gov. Joan Finney did not recommend in her budget proposal that the
Budig said he was pleased with the subcommittee's action.
planning be financed.
"It proves that the Hoch issue is very much alive," he said. "More and more legislative leaders are convinced that something meaningful must be done in this session."
Jon Josserand, KU's legislative liaison, said the Legislature was treating the issue as a top priority.
"They took this action in an unusual circumstance," he said. "They didn't even have to consider Hoch at that time. We weren't discussing capital improvements.
"We still have a long way to go on this issue, and we would expect that the issue will not go through without hitting some hurdles. But at least we are seeing lawmakers recognize a need."
State Rep. Bob Vancum, R-Overland Park, made the motion to include the money in the subcommittee's recommendations, said State Rep. George Teagarden, D-LaCyge.
"I think we all felt that it was the responsibility to do." Teagarden said. "We think that it's the state's responsibility to replace Hoch."
State Rep. Rochelle Chronister, RNeodesha, said she voted against
"The money is just not there," she said. "I don't think I can support any increases in the budgets when we don't know where the money will come from."
putting the $1 million back into the Regents budget.
Teagarden said the subcommittee's recommendation on Hoch was subject to review by the State Building Commission.
"It's routine for us toask for the opinion of the commission on capital improvement projects," Teagarden said.
He heads the House Appropriations
Committee and is a member of the commission, which comprises three senators and three representatives.
The Appropriations Committee is not bound by the recommendation of the Building Commission but will consider it carefully. Teagarden said.
After the House Appropriations Committee considers the recommendations of the subcommittee and the commission, the full committee will vote to make recommendations to the House of Representatives.
In other business Friday, the sub-
committee:
concurred with Gov. Joan
Finney's salary-increase recommendations, which included a 2.5-percent merit increase for classified and unclassified Regents employees.
■ concurred with the governor's recommendation for a 100-percent fee waiver for graduate teaching assistants.
■ recommended that Regents universities receive the average of their enrollment adjustment for the last two years. The subcommittee's action would increase the governor's recommendations for KU by more than $200,000.
With 30 hours leftbefore the game, Katie Cook, Salina freshman, triesto keep herselfdryyesterday.
Die-hard fans sacrifice warm beds for best seats
By Greg Farmer Kansan staff writer
Katie Cook huddled yesterday within the walls of her nylon home.
Rain drops hitting the walls created an echo that kept rhythm with the muffled melodies of the women's basketball pep band.
As the Kansas women beat Kansas State 67-49 yesterday at Allen Field House, Cook and 10fans of the Kansas men's team listened from their tents to the cheers that came from within.
Cook and the others anticipated the yells and screams that would be heard tonight if the Kansas men, who could move up to No.1 in the Associated Press poll released today, defeat the Oklahoma Sooner ESPN.
"This is great," said Cook, Salina freshman. "We can sit outside Allen Field House and imagine being inside. That place is going to rock."
"We watched that game here in the tent," Cook said. "We just about decided to go home, but we stayed. I don't know why. Maybe we're a little nuts, but we love KU basketball."
Some of the people have worked out an informal shift schedule so they can attend classes.
Cook and the others have been camping outside the field house since Wednesday, the night the Kansas men to nebraska on Jamar Johnson's last-second, three-point basket.
Cook said she and her friends wanted the best seats possible.
"ESPN is going to be here, and they always aim those cameras up into the stands behind the goal," he said. "Getting good seats and getting on television are the biggest goals."
Jake Powell, Salina freshman, said the best seats were behind the goal at the north end of the gym.
"Greg Ostertag came by the other day," Powell said. "He said we were nuts. But he said that was OK. We may be nuts, but Kansas basketball deserves us. We're die-hard KU fans."
"After tonight's game, we'll come out here and go to sleep," he said.
"Next Monday is Oklahoma State on ESPN. That's only one week away."
"We have cords and they let us plug them in inside Allen," he said. "We have cable TV, Nintendo and electric blankets. We're living pretty good, but it still gets kind of cold."
Powell said some of the players came by and talked to the campers before practices.
Powell said the tents would stay up during tonight's game.
what about Missouri on March 7?
"We'll be out here for four years," Powell said. "We're only freshmen.
We'll be around awhile."
Powell said the campers waited in comfort.
What about Missouri on March 8?
See related stories. Page 8
After a week in which Kansas lost at Nebraska in overtime and escaped Manhattan with a 54-52 victory, the Jayhawks may lose their No. 3 ranking in The Associated Press men's basketball poll.
KU Jayhawks prime for TV
Kansanstaffreport
The Jahawks will take their ranking into tonight's nationally televised game against Oklahoma at Allen Field to up-off is set for 8:38 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPN
Nine of the top 10 teams in the poll, which will be released today, were defeated last week. No. 1 Duke (20-2), which has held the top spot all season, lost to Wake Forest 72-68 yesterday. No. 2 UCLA (21-2) lost Saturday to Notre Dame 84-71.
The 'Hawks (20-3) may be ranked higher this week.
Kansas point guard Adonis Jordan said the Jayhawks would be ready for the Sooners.
KU computer department should be cut, report says
"We have to be ready to play," Jordan said. "It's Oklahoma, it's on ESPN — who wouldn't be ready to play?"
By Ranjit Arab
Kansanstaff writer
A confidential report conducted in the computer science department by outside consultants suggested that the entire department be eliminated and two rivals be removed, a professor said yesterday.
Zamir Bavel, professor of computer science, said the report, which was sent anonymously to the Lawrence Journal-World, suggested that he and department head William Bulgren be removed from the department because of their history of conflict.
Bavel said some of the findings of the report were that:
Research productivity was low.
Grant activity was low.
The department had handled personnel matters poorly including inviting inferior candidates for interviews last year when there was a strong market.
According to the six-page report conducted by Clayton Lewis, professor of computer science at the University of Colorado, and William Kubitz, professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, classes currently in the computer science department should be redistributed between the math and computer engineering departments, Bavel said.
He said James Muyksen, dean of liberal arts and sciences, commissioned Lewis and Kubitz to conduct an objective report in response to faculty complaints.
They interviewed every faculty member in the department for about 30 minutes within a 24-hour period in December, he said.
Bavel said he and Bulgren were the only professors mentioned by name in the report.
Bulgren was appointed by the former CLAS dean in 1983 as acting head of the department.
Bavel said he thought Bulgren did not represent the faculty in the department because he was not elected by faculty members.
The same year Bulgren was appointed, the bylaws for selecting faculty applicants were discontinued, Bavel said.
"I made up my mind when he was appointed that the University wanted a dictator," he said.
However, Bulgren said the bylaws were discontinued because they were too cumbersome. He questioned Bavel's motives.
"It sounds like he is desiring to be chairman of the department," Bulgren said. "He has not communicated through me. He has communicated through the press, but he has done this sort of thing in the past."
Although Buigren said he could not comment on the details of the confidential report, he said that it cited several positive points within the department.
Because the report was conducted in a 24-hour period by two people unaware of the department's past, it was not completely correct, Bulgren said.
Aside from a need for more research and papers published by full professors, Bulgren said he was pleased with the department's performance.
"I think we are producing some good students at the undergraduate and master's levels," he said.
Muyskens said the suggestions of the report were only options for solving the department's problems.
He said that he was taking to faculty members as well as graduate and undergraduate students about the fate of the department.
No decision will be made until all discussion is completed. Muvksen said.
"Whether we follow their advice or not depends on the discussions we have right now," he said.
The option to discontinue the department is not a matter of money, Muyskens said.
He said he was frustrated the confidential report had been leaked to a reporter at the Lawrence Journal World.
"The report gave us some strong advice, and it should have been kept within the faculty where all the options could have been discussed," Muyskens said.
Ailing Kansas health care
Physician shortage results in underserved counties
Editor's note: This is the first of two stories about the shortage of rural health care in Kansas. The Legislature is considering a bill that would require the University of Kansas Medical Center to graduate more family practitioners in Kansas or lose some state financing.
By Gayle Osterberg
Kansan staff writer
There is no substitute for being happy with your doctor.
That is the philosophy of Dean Lasser, the only pediatrician in Atchison.
He has been in the town of 10,600 since August 1990,and he fears for the future.
Atchison is served by seven family practitioners, and two are approaching retirement age, making a difficult situation worse.
The only pediatrician in Atchison, Dean Lasseter, treats about 25 children a day
"This community has a huge need," Lasseter said.
But Atchison, which is about 40 miles north of Lawrence, is better off than communities that do not have any doctors. Some have one family practitioner who serves thousands of residents in surrounding areas.
Hospitals in western Kansas may be forced to close if they cannot recruit new doctors to replace their aging, overworked staffs.
The most recent figures available, compiled from a study completed in 1990 by the University of Kansas Medical Center, show that of Kansas' 105 counties, 13 are underserved and 51 are critically underserved.
The study defined a critically underserved area as a county with one full-time, primary-care practitioner per 3,000 residents. Primary-care physicians include those in family and genital diseases, pediatrics and internal medicine.
60 percent of the state's counties do not have adequate access to the most basic health care.
What this means to Kansans is that
Don Babcick, senior vice president at Weatherby Health Care, a physician placement service in Norwalk, Conn., said medical school graduates typically remained in the regions
where they came from.
In a recent survey of 3,000 students who had just completed their residencies, Weatherby found that Kansas ranked among the 10 least popular states for physicians to practice.
Continued on Page 5