University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, January 15, 1992
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Whittaker donation bolsters funding for leadership award
by Janet Rorholm
Kansan staff writer
Former U.S. Rep. Robert Whittaker contributed $500,000 to the Kansas University Endowment Association, David Amber, vice chancellor for student affairs said yesterday.
Because the money guaranteed a permanent existence to the leadership scholarship fund, the University named the scholarship after Whittaker to show him the University's appreciation for his generosity. Ambler said.
Amber said the University previously had to select yearly contributions to maintain the scholarship.
The University now will not have to look for funds each year because of the size of Whittaker's contribution, he said.
The money will benefit 20 incoming freshmen each year. The students will receive $300 for their first year at the University.
To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be a resident of Kansas, have an ACT score of 26 or higher and a 3.0 minimum grade point.
Bob Whittaker
must demonstrate outstanding leadership qualities from their high school careers, Amber said
Wittaker served two terms in the Kansas House of Representatives and six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before retiring in 1990.
He attended KU for two years and is a professional-in-residence in the department of political science. He assists with KU's Washington Semester Program that gives students an opportunity to study national politics.
"I wanted the funds to go to a good cause, preferably one that would benefit young
Kansans who were going to become the future leaders of our state," Whitaker said in a written statement.
The donation brings the total of Campaign Kansas to $237.3 million, which is greater than the $177 million goal, said John Scarife, director of communications for Campaign Kansas.
"It's a great gift," Scarife said. "It definitely falls into the category of major contributions."
F-16 fighter crashes in Wichita
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. — An F-16 instructor pilot wrestled his failing jet fighter away from populated areas Monday before ejecting safely about 150 feet from the ground.
"He was trying to steer it away from houses and people," said Judy Riley, a motorist who picked up the pilot, Maj David Ternes, just after the crash.
"He did a great job of pointing that airplane away from any dense population areas," said McConnell Air Force Base Fire Chief Edward Kearn said. "It could've been a lot worse if the plane came down farther north."
Air national Guard pilot Ternes' unmanned aircraft did clip a rural home before skipping across a road andexploding into flames. It impacted just after passing between a pasture fence and overhead electrical transmission lines without, damaging either.
Lucy Ramsey was at home when the plane took off the corner of her house, collapsing a two-room addition. But she was at the other end of the house and wasn't injured, Kear said.
*She said she felt lucky — a minute
later and she would have been stand ing in that room where the fighter camethrough. "Kear said."
Ternes told witnesses the plane's throttle froze and he also lost other controls. An investigation of the crash began immediately, but results won't be announced for months, an Air Force spokesman said.
Termes was part of the 18th Tactical Fighter Group, said Joy Mosier, representative for the Kansas National Guard.
"I looked like he was trying to land," said Rick Sallee of Wichita, who was driving his pickup nearby the rural area about a mile south of Wichita when he saw the plane going down. "I heard the roar, but I'm used to hearing that out here."
The crash site is about a mile from McConnell. The Kansas Air National Guard operates from the west edge of the base.
Sallee said he saw the plane clip a back wall at the south end of the Ramsey's one-story wood frame house. He watched as the pilot's parachute descended north of the crash and
talked with Ternes briefly after he landed.
Sallee said the pilot told him the throttle on the aircraft froze up and that he was unable to move it.
The plane snagged clothes, pink insulation and sticks of furniture and building materials when it hit the house, scattering them in a nearby pasture.
Mrs. Ramsey quickly left the scene with relatives and could not be immediately located for comment. Her husband, William J. Ramsey, was not at home at the time of the crash, officials said.
Sedgwick County fire crews quickly extinguished the burning wreckage of
F-16 and B-1 bomber training flights continued Monday as crews removed fuel, ammunition and some debris from the crash site.
The Kansas Air National Guard unit at McConnell is the largest National Guard fighter pilot training center in the United States, flying mostly F-16s.
A Guard instructor pilot was killed Jan. 24, 1991, near Piedmont when two F-18s collided over a pasture during a training exercise about 50 miles east of Wichita.
And a pilot fitted safely from another F-16 before it crashed near Fall River about 70 miles east of Wichita on June 28, 1989.
Since June 1989, four Kansas Air National Guard F-16s, including Monday's, have gone down.
On Monday, Ternes had returned to McConnell after a practice run over a firingrange near Salina. His plane still was armed with 500 rounds of 20mm ammunition and dummy Sidewinder missiles.
Ternes and a second pilot were practicing approaches at McConnell.
Just after 1 a.m., Ternes, known by his call sign "Zoot 61," flew a practice instrument approach to McConnell. Instrument approaches are landing approaches used when visibility is poor.
At about 11:06 a.m., Ternes was about to begin practicing approaches used in good visibility when he started experiencing problems, first with the throttle, then with the flight controls: ailerons, rudder and elevator.
Teaching assistants say scholarship fund does not cover costs
By Kris Belden
Kansan staff writer
Former Kansas Gov. John Carlin donated $30,000 from his 1990 campaign fund to provide scholarships for graduate teaching assistants, but GTAs at the University of Kansas say that donations will not solve their problems.
Campaign Kant as announced Carlin's donation Jan. 8.
John Scarfle, director of communications for Campaign Kansas, said Carlin's contribution was the only GTA scholarship fund at the Kansas University Endowment Association.
Carlin said he donated the money because he heard that GTAs were in need of recognition.
The $30,000 will be invested and the interest will be awarded as scholarships in the fall, he said.
"It's a bandage," said Kenny Kincaid, GTA in Western Civilization. "Until the University gets a commitment within the system rather than from sporadic contributions, higher education will be in trouble."
Kincaid and other GTAs said that although they appreciated the donation and the recognition for GTAs in the form of scholarships, bigger problems in the University's system needed to be addressed.
Kay Chapman, GTA in Western Civilization, said the federal government needed to provide more money for education and that would eventually help GTAs.
"The they are trying to do more and more with less and less," Chapman said. "We've got the feeling that we are being taken advantage of here. We're cheaper than paying an associate professor or a professor, and they're saving about $20,000 each year on each of us. You could call us the migrant worker of the academic world."
She said more financing and more GTAs would make it easier for students to get into the classes they needed.
David Reidy, GTA in philosophy,
Kenny Kincaid graduate teaching assistant
said many GTAs had to take second jobs to pay expenses.
"That greatly dimishes their ability to teach effectively," he said.
Although GTAs' salaries vary from department to department, Reidy said they ranged from $4,000 to $10,000 per nine-month term. He said this wage was not comparable to the pay for GTAs at other universities.
Reidy said GTAs also faced a number of other problems. The University gives GTAa 75 percent tuition and fee waiver, but some universities waive all fees and tuition.
He said because GTAs were so economical for universities to hire and were so numerous, many GTAs feared they would not have jobs when they finished school.
Reidy said the only way to solve these problems was to change the entire system.
Dan Murtaugh, English GTA and member of the union, said the reception to unionization had been positive. He said the KU administration had been cooperative with the union because they shared a common goal: improving education.
"Though Carlin's donation was a step in the right direction, a lot more steps need to take place to better our situation," Reidy said.
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