VOL.101, NO.91
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1992
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NEWS:864-4810
KU seeks to recruit more minorities
By Jenny Martin Kansan staff writer
Although there has been a slight increase in the number of African-American students at the University in the past two years, there are fewer enrolled today than there were nine years ago.
But University officials say KU is making strides, despite a lack of money. University-wide and the fact that most students are only 5.8 percent African American.
No has increased minority scholarships and formed programs — from campus visits for high school students to a class for minority scholars — to try to create a more diverse University climate.
But, as one student put it, KU may still have a long way to go.
Marc Etrick, Brooklyn, N.Y., junior, and member of Black Men of Today, said he did not feel the University should continue to retain African-American students.
"The Office of Minority Affairs is doing a great job with what they have," he said. "But they are under-funded. I lot of responsibilities to take care of."
Ettrick said if the University gave the office more funding, it could expand and increase its recruitment and retention efforts through reach-out programs for high school students, learning centers and strengthened community relations.
"Many students come unprepared for college and need a place they can turn to to find minority role models," he said
Del Shankel, interim executive vice chancellor, said the administration
ority on minority recruitment and retention in recent years.
scholarships for minority students," he said. He also said that efforts to raise additional funds were continuing.
Shankel said that every office in the University could use more money, but that the administration was doing the best it could with limited funds.
Pearl Rovaris, representative for the Office of Admissions, said one goal of the office was to increase the number of students from under-represented groups at the University.
"I try to design programs to bring high school minority students to KU," she said. "My best recruiting tool is KU students."
Last fall, about 300 minority high school students visited the campus and experienced firsthand what the University had to offer.
"Most want to know if they would
feel comfortable at KU as a freshman,
not as a minority," Rovaris said.
"Minority students want to be recruited
for their academics, not for their
color."
The University knows it is important to continue to increase the number of graduates.
"When I look over what's been done, we're doing the best job we could do," Rovaris said.
She said the decline in enrollment of African Americans in colleges and universities during the 1980s was because of a lack of federal funding nationwide and was not unique to KU.
Sherwood Thompson, director of minority affairs, said it was difficult to attract African-American students to the University. He also spoke about African Americans living in Kansas.
He said colleges and universities must be aggressive in their plans and initiatives for retention and recruitment of minority groups.
Thompson said that during the Reagan and Bush administrations, fewer federal dollars were appropriated to higher education for minority students.
The price of a university education has skyrocketed and no additional resources or funds have been given to balance the cost, he said.
"The chancellor has generated a large sum of scholarship for minority students, which helps to attract high-graduate students. The KU faculty my tenure here, KU has articulated a
commitment to raise the number of minority students on campus."
He said the increase of African-American students during the past two years was because of several factors, including strong undergraduate programs that attract minority students and an increase in the status and prestige of the University.
"The increase is laudable, but we have a long way to go to bring the numbers up to a level that is respectable," he said. "Given the challenges that it faces, KU has done a credible job up until this point."
Bob Sanders, director of the minority graduate teaching assistant program, agreed that the main reason the numbers of African-American students dropped was because of a lack of financial aid.
"Financial aid is a key fact," r. *J* It's more significant than most people think.
Sanders said the majority of students did not know about programs available to them, such as a class for minority scholars and leadership seminars. The University has good and effective programs, but they could be strengthened, he said.
John Ramirez, head of the Student Senate Committee on Minority Affairs, said part of the problem was that no specific office for the recruitment and retention of minority students existed. When the numbers of minorities drop, there is no one office specifically responsible, he said.
Despite recent attempts to recruit African-Americans, their numbers are lower now than 1083.
Bouncing back?
Office of Institutional Research and Planning
Ramirez said the committee would continue to remind the administration that both the students and the University need to make an effort to increase minority recruitment and retention.
"The feeling in the past has been that the University recognizes the problem, but that nothing is specifically done about it," he said.
Student volunteers help house the homeless
Jamie Rodriguez, ElPaso, Texas, freshman (left), and Joe Harder, Sterling sophomore cut boards for the ceiling of the Habitat for Humanity home at 820 Indiana St.
Hundred join in reconstructing home
By Andy Taylor Kansan staff writer
About 100 KU students and local volunteers yanked rusty nails from rotten wood and hauled chipped plaster Saturday to help rebuild a Habitat for Humanity home at 820 Indiana St.
The home construction was part of local activities for Homeless Awareness Week, which ended yesterday.
Brother Benignus Scarry, a member of the Lawrence Habitat for Humanity chapter, said that Saturday was not the only time when volunteers worked on the home.
"There is one student who works herewise a week," he said. "And there are a couple of local church groups that help periodically."
Building the home is one of three housing projects this year for the local branch of Habitat, a national organization that attempts to find decent housing for people who cannot afford it.
Katie Bosol, Mount Prospect, Ill., sophomore, spent the afternoon nailing siding to an exterior wall. She joined about 10 volunteers from her
Scarry said money for the construction of the house, which is expected to be finished in May, came from private donations.
sorority, Chi Omega, in helping with the project.
"We came up here because of Homeless Awareness Week," she said. "We do community service throughout the year, so we came down here as a group."
The volunteers were rewarded with slices of pizza and pats on the back from the future home owners, Bobby and Lucinda Helm.
"I don't know who recruited the volunteers, but they are doing a wonderful job." Lucinda Helm said.
She said Saturday's work consisted of applying siding to the exterior walls, tearing plaster from the interior, pulling deteriorating boards from the floor and putting new shingles on the roof.
Helm said that the housing payments would be interest-free and that the only labor costs would be for tasks that required contractors. Although the house is not legally owned by the Helms, they work on the house during their free time, Lucinda Helm said.
"We haven't signed any papers yet," she said. "We'll take possession at the dedication of the house. But since we will be the home owners, we have to put in 350 sweat equity hours. We spend quite a bit of weekend time here."
Harkin's grip on home state eliminates rivalry in caucuses
The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa—Democrats holding more than 2,000 precinct caucuses across this state today have only one question to answer: How big a victory will they give home-state Sen. Tom Harkin?
Republicans have even less to decide in the caucus meetings, traditionally the much ballyhooed kickoff to the presidential campaign season.
Harkin jumped into the Democratic presidential field in September, and his grip on the Iowa Democratic Party's machinery kept other candidates from challenging him in the caucuses.
The presidential campaign season Not this time.
Only Harkin has opened an office and hired a campaign staff. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown ventured into the state but complained that the caucuses were rigged in Harkin's favor.
"The caucuses are dead," Brown said.
Even Harkin focused on New Hampshire until the final weekend before the caucuses.
The Iowa campaign trail has been intense in the past. House Majority Leader Mike Huckabee,
more than two years running for the 1988 caucuses, which he won. The Republicans have campaigned equally hard in the past.
The absence of a fight this year led political leaders to predict that many lowlands would find something else
Yesterday, Harkin zipped across the state, caloling voters to top the low-turnout projections and give him a victory big enough to push him toward the top of the slate in New Hampshire and the South.
"We're going to win the caucuses, I know that. But I need to do it right," he said in Ottumwa, about 100 miles southeast of Des Moines.
to do today. They said only about 5 percent of the state's 482,880 registered Republicans and 579,875 registered Democrats would show up.
"I've never taken you for granted. I never will. I need you to get out."
Richard Schwarm, who heads the Iowa Republican Party, said the party thought that Duke was not a real Republican and that Buchanan's challenge was merely symbolic. To ensure a Bush victory, Republicans will elect local party officials, fight about platform issues and go home early.
President Bush faces a challenge from conservative commentator Pat Buchanan and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. But Republicans decided not to collect presidential
State campaign manager John Norris said spending on the caucuses will total about $250,000. He conceded that Harkin must do better in Iowa than any Democrat has done before or be embarrassed.
preferences of those attending GOP caucuses.
Carter piled up his total after a bitter fight, while Harkin faces only apathy and isolated activism likely to back Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton or Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. Neither made an effort in the state.
Jimmy Carter has won the most in Iowa so far, with 59.1 percent in his 1980 fight against Sen. Edward Kennedy.
"We need to come out of Iowa smoking." Harkin warned support-
"A lot of people will just show up undecided," said Steve Lynch, who heads the Chickasaw County
Iowa: The nation's first voters in 1992
The Iowa caucuses are the first date on the 1992 presidential campaign calendar. Favorite son Sen. Tom Harkin is expected to win the most Democratic delegates. A look at the state's voters:
1988 presidential vote
1988 presidential vote Turnout rate: 59% of voting age population
Bush ___ 45%
Dukakis ___ 55%
Population, demographics
White 97% Hispanic* 1%
Black 2% Urban 59%
Asian 1% Rural 41%
Work, money and education
White-collar ___ 47%
Service jobs 14%
Median family income: $20,052
Spending per pupil: (23rd $4,124
in million)
SOURCE: "Politics in America 1992"
Tax burden per person: (31st $800 in nation)
*Can be of any race
Democrats "Nobody's talking."
With this year's outcome a foregone conclusion, many were thinking more about the role the caucuses would play in future campaigns.
Knight-Ridder Tribune /JUDY TREIBLE
Iowa Republican Party representa Randy Enwright said the caucuses would return to the political limelim in 1996.
Alot of Republicans who have been mentioned as successors to Bush have found their way to Iowa over the past several months, he said.
Some Democrats, assuming Harkin will neither win the White House this year nor make a second try, are also optimistic about the caucuses' future influence.
"We always have candidates out there looking for an initial bump," said Democratic Party representative Joe Shannahan. "Politics is a very competitive business and if you find yourselves slipping behind, your competitive juices will start to flow."
KU game does not attract all students
By Jay Williams Kansan staff writer
For the Wichita senior, that meant studying for a history exam.
Attipoff of Saturday's Kansas-Oklahoma State basketball game, Quinn Oppenheimer sat in a near empty Union with her medieval history notes.
While most eyes in Lawrence were glued to televisions Saturday afternoon — anywhere from sports bars to apartment living rooms — Oppenheimer and other students spent their time differently.
"I enjoy it when KU wins, but I'm here for an education," she said, sitting in a booth nowhere near a television or radio. "My boyfriend is having a party to watch the game. I was invited, but I thought I should study for my test."
He said he did not mind working during the game.
Jennings said he sold nine tickets for the 4 p.m. show. Normally, the office would sell 30 to 40 tickets.
As Kansas guard Adonis Jordan hit a three-point shot with time running out in the first half, Joe Jennings listened to the game on a radio at the Student Union Activities office. The St. Louis senior was selling tickets for the 4 p.m. movie, "Straight Out of Brooklyn."
"It doesn't matter," Jennings said. "There are other things that need to be done."
Murray did not want to know how the game was going. He said he was videotaping it and would watch it later in the afternoon.
"I thought about staying home," Murray said. "But if I tape it, I can fast forward through the commercials."
At Watson Library during game time, Greg Murray, Laguna Beach, Calif., graduate student, was reading a book about Soviet studies.
Mike French, San Diego graduate student, packed up his books in the library as the game neared its conclusion.
French said he came to the library to avoid distractions around his apartment and to avoid the game.
"There is always the chance I could get called to a party, and it's hard to remember."
And then there were those who focused their Saturday afternoon on Kansas basketball. Plenty of students in local establishments to watch the action.
Reed Brinton, owner of Benchwarmers Sports Bar and Grill, 1601 W. 23rd St., said a line formed outside of the bar before its doors opened at 11 a.m.
One hour before the beginning of the game, Benchwarmers was at its crest.
"The matchup between No.2 and No.
3, the main reason we 're so packed so"
*we are more likely to win.*
Molly McGee's, 2429 Iowa St., also planned for a large crowd, said Pam Kunkleer, host at the restaurant.
Kunkleer said the employees could watch the game despite having to wait.
"People don't want during the game, maybe a beer," she said.
Many people at the Brass Apple, 3300 W. 15th St., had to watch the game until one minute, 14 seconds remained in the game. At that point, people started heading for the door.
'Hawks stumble at OSU
NO. 1 was not meant to be this week for the Kansas men's basketball team.
Had the Jayhawks defeated No. 2 Oklahoma State on Saturday, the Jayhawks would have taken a two-game lead in the Big Eight Conference race and most likely would have vaulted to No. 1 in The Associated Press college basketball rankings.
Instead, the Jayhawks fell into a first-pace tie in the Big Eight after the Cowboys defeated Kansas 64-56 in Stillwater, Okla.
Game coverage, p. 9