CAMPUS / AREA
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, February 4, 1992
3
Lawmakers discuss state commitment to education
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
More professors may leave the University of Kansas and other Board of Regents universities if state support for increased funding will increase, local legislators said last month.
But one lawmaker said Kansas' support for Regents universities was strong.
Michael Gaines, KU professor of biology, and Donald Robertson, KU professor of microbiology, announced last week that they were leaving the University.
The professors, who each taught at KU for 22 years, said part of their reasons for leaving was a lack of state support for higher education.
A subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to begin hearings today on the Regents budget. The KU budget will be considered separately by the subcommittee later this month.
When Gaines announced his plans to leave KU to lead the biology department at the University of Miami in Florida, he said that he 'money the anti-higher education governor'
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said Finney was doing what she could for higher education. He said the state's lack of resources was a problem that had been compounding since former Gov. Mike Hayden's administration.
During Hayden's term, $100 million was taken out of the state's general fund to pay for highway improvements and to return excess tax dollars to taxpayers.
Betty Jo Charlton
"At least part of that money should have gone to higher education," Solbach said. "State government, including the legislators and the governors, need to realize that higher education is an
investment that will pay dividends in later years."
State Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Shawe, in the Kansas lawmakers were supported of her.
"All states in the nation are facing this same budget crunch that we are facing," Bogina said. "Those professors have their own reasons for leaving, but I don't think their anger should be directed at state government. We are doing all we can under right budget constraints."
"This kind of thing is what the Margin of Excellence was all about," Charlton said. "We were doing better at keeping faculty members when the Margin was financed. But when we didn't provide the funds for the Margin's last year, we were inviting faculty to go elsewhere."
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-D Lawrence, said the resignations were legitimate to the legislature would have to pay for not financing third year of the Margin of Excellence.
The Margin was the Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 95 percent and faculty salaries to 100 percent of their peers. The Legislature financed the first two years of the plan, but the funds for the third year were not appropriated last session.
Philp Meiring/KANSAN
My Children! My Africa!
Ramona Curtis, Lawrence resident, and Peter Ukpokodu, assistant professor of theatre and African-American Studies, perform a staged reading of "My Children My Africal" In the play, the lives of isabel Dyson, a South African schoolgirl, and Mr. M., a teacher, are brought together in an Eastern Cape Karoo town. The play was presented last night in Smith Hall by the English Alternative Theatre.
Turner expected to testify this week
Jury selection ends for Morris' murder trial
By Michelle Betts
Kansan staff writer
James "Skip" Turner, former director of the Office of Affirmative Action at the University of Kansas, will be called to the stand this week as a witness for the prosecution in the murder trial of Kenneth L. Morris.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys chose a 12-person jury yesterday in the trial of Morris, a transient charged with the Aug. 8 murder of Danny Davis, of Lawrence. Eighty-six prospective jurors were asked if they knew, through social or business relationships, anyone from a
list of about 18 witnesses, including Turner.
In October, Turner was included in the prosecution's original list of about 160 witnesses.
Douglas County District Attorney Jerry Wells asked prospective jurors if they would be unfair or partial in the trial because of any biases toward anyone on the witness list.
One prospective juror, who identified herself as an employee of the University of Kansas, was excused by the district court judge because she said she could not listen to Turner's testimony impassantly.
hearing that Turner sold drugs to him on the night Davis was bludgeoned with a golf club.
Turner has said that he was with Davis on the night of the murder but that he did not sell Davis any drugs. Turner has not been charged in connection with any of the allegations.
Morris testified in a preliminary
Pat Laws, Douglas County district court clerk, said the number of jurors called by a judge depended on the type of trial. Because of the pretrial media coverage of the trial, more jurors were called for potential duty than in most trials, she said.
Turner resigned from office Dec. 17 after he used the words "fat Indian chick" and "faggot" in an interview Oct. 23.
Wanda Kring, deputy secretary of the district court, said there were no guidelines for the number of men, women or minorities in the jury.
Of 86 potential jurors, 36 were chosen by random drawing. The number of jurors then was narrowed to 12 by the prosecuting and defense attorneys, who each asked the jurors peremptory challenges or questions.
The questions are supposed to determined if prospective jurors would be unfair or impartial in making a decision about testimonies.
Minority numbers rise at Med Center
More minorities in med school
By Katherine Manweiler
Kansan staff writer
Increased minority admissions at the University of Kansas Medical School has placed the school one step closer to fulfilling a commitment to minority education, said Shadrach Smith, associate dean for minority affairs at the medical school.
The University of Kansas Medical Center has increased its minority recruitment significantly this year. Here's how the recruitment stacks up.
Nineteen percent, or 47, of the students who were accepted into the school were minorities. Last year, 8 percent of accepted students were minorities.
This year, the admissions criteria included non-cognitive factors, such as leadership skills and motivation, along with grade point averages and MCAT scores.
Smith said the biggest difference in this year's admissions process was the decision to interview more minority students. Almost 10 percent of this year's applicants were minorities, and nearly one-fifth of the applicants who made it to the interview stage were minorities.
Smith said only five of the minorities accepted to the KU Medical School this year were from Kansas, which reflected the relatively low minority population of the state. Kansas has an 8.9 percent minority population, according to 1990 U.S. Census figures.
| | African-American | American Indian | Mexican-American | Puerto Rican | Other Hispanics |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1992 | 14 | 9 | 18 | 3 | 3 |
| 1991 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 9 |
"We interviewed all of the minorities on the same day," he said. "It showed that we have a strong commitment to minority education."
Fewer than 90 African-American physicians have graduated from the KU Medical School in the past 50 years, he said.
Although the number of minority medical students is increasing, the number of minority faculty members at the medical school remains low, he said.
One Mexican American and five African Americans are faculty members at the medical school. No American Indians are on the faculty, Smith said.
One of Smith's future goals is to develop solid peer and faculty support systems for minority students so minorities will not feel isolated, he said.
Lovie Bey, a second-year medical student, said that when she first came to the medical school, she fell isolated as she was a member of a minority group.
"There are not that man of us, he
said that has been kind of hard," she said.
Bey said it was important to include non-cognitive factors in the admissions criteria for medical school.
"There is more involved in life than grade point averages and MCAT scores," Bey said. "When you deal with patients, you have to have more than grades."
Back-door access hinders disabled
Architecture students try to find better way
By Svala Jonsdottir Kansan staff writer
When Jayne Loulos had a class in one of Wescoe Hall's auditoriums, she had to knock on a locked door in the back of the building and hope that someone would let her in.
To get to the front of the room in her wheelchair, Loulos had to enter on the ramps for the disabled in the back of the building because there were steps inside the auditorium. The back doors to the auditorium were locked all semester, even though this was the only way for Loulos to get to her desk, she said.
This is just one of the many challenges that disabled students at the University have to face every day to get to class.
"The disabled have been forced to enter buildings by side and back doors," said Tony Chapman, instructor in architecture. "That is what we need for our students. They have the right to enter a building on the same level as everybody else."
Chapman's students in Architectural Design II completed a project yesterday titled "Entering a Building." They
studied 21 campus buildings and suggested solutions to make each building more accessible to disabled students.
"What we have been trying to do is recreate main entrances, so everybody comes in on the same level." Chapman said. "People with disabilities should not have to feel they are considered second-rate."
Some of the solutions the students came up with were to add ramps to the front of buildings, relocate bathrooms, create new pathways on campus and add elevators to buildings to make all floors accessible.
"Disabled students going to the Art and Design building have to go from Jayhawk Boulevard to Marvin Hall, go around the building, take the elevator from the lower level and go across the walkway between the two buildings," he said. "Again, it is the back-door approach."
Other campus buildings also are difficult to enter, although they are supposed to be accessible, Chapman said. Strong and Fraser halls have back and side entries for the disabled, and in both cases, students suggested putting ramps by the main entrance of each building.
The problem with having ramps on the side or back of a building is that disabled students take longer to get to class when they have to go around the building, said Loulos, Kansas City, Mo. senior.
"You're just always late," she said,
yay (the University) are not success-
ful.
Wescoe, Blake, Strong, Learned and Malot halls were among those Loulos mentioned as difficult to enter.
The ramps are steep and the doors heavy, and wheelchair users often have to go around the building to enter, Loulos said.
Allen Wiechert, director of facilities planning, said there was no plan to add ramps to the front entrances of campus buildings.
"In 1973, we established a plan of action to make buildings more accessible for the disabled." Wiechert said. "It dealt with parking space, routes to buildings, accessible entrances, vertical accessibility, restrooms and safety of programs. We were almost all the goals outlined in the plan."
Wiechert said wheelchair ramps often were put by a side or back door because such placement was easier and more inexpensive than modifying the main entrance.
Classes Now Forming! MCAT GMAT GRE LSAT
CLASS START DATE EXAM DATE
MCAT February 11 September 19, 1992
GMAT February 10 March 21, 1992
GRE February 5 April 11, 1992
LSAT February 11 June 15, 1992
February 13
February 12
Call Now To Register 843-0800
708 W. 9th St. Suite 6