---
Thursday, January 29, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Twinkies pulled off local shelves
By Lisa Stevens John
john@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Hostess Twinkies are on the recall.
A Kansas City-based producer of Hostess products, Interstate Brands Corp., announced a voluntary recall of its products Tuesday. The recall came amid concerns that the snacks might have been contaminated by asbestos fibers from insulation removed from a boiler at a plant in Schiller Park. Ill.
The recall includes 13 Hostess products, most of which have expiration dates from Jan. 22 through Feb. 13. HoHo's have expiration dates from Jan. 29 to Feb. 13.
By yesterday morning, Lawrence grocery stores had pulled. Hostess snacks off the racks.
"They totally off the shelves," said Bridgette Franklin, food stock manager at Hy-Vee. "We were told to pull all our Hostess products
off the shelf, whether it had the specific date or not."
Franklin said that it was difficult to estimate the amount of Hostess products Hy-Vee sold but that the store usually sold 15 to 20 boxes of Twinkies in two days. Each box holds 12 Twinkies.
"Our sales of these definitely pick up when KU is in session," she said.
Megan Herring, Bonner Springs sophomore, sat in the sun outside of Wescoe Hall reading a newspaper as she bit into a Dolly Madison chocolate doughnut, which was not one of the recalled products.
Herring said she was aware of the Hostess recall.
"I'm not ritually into eating Tinkwinks, but I do have one occasionally." Herring said.
Randall Rock, physician and chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said students began questioning him about Twinkies
vesterday morning.
Lisa Oller, co-director of the poison control center at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said her department had received about 50 phone calls yesterday from physicians and consumers.
"Basically, we're just giving them the lot numbers." Oller said.
"At this point, they have not isolated any asbestos in the product itself. It's just in the plant. This was a voluntary recall by the company; this was not something that anybody insisted on."
Many students were not affected by the recall. Ian Hamilton, Paola senior, said he was not a Twinkie jumkie.
"I eat Twinkies," he said. "But if I went to the store to buy some and they didn't have any, I could probably deal with it. It may be America's favorite snack cake, but it's just a Twinkle."
Program offers assistance for teachers
By Gerry Doyle
gdoyle@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
Fred Rodriguez, associate professor in the School of Education, is the director of the Center of Teaching Excellence. Rodriguez works at his desk in the Anschutz Science Library. Photo by Lizz Weber / KANSAN
A new program is centering on developing better teachers for the University of Kansas.
The Center for Teaching Excellence, which began operations last fall, is housed at a small office in Anschutz Science Library. It offers assistance to professors, ranging from rousing up hard-to-find materials to offering new teaching techniques, said Fred Rodriguez, director of the center.
"We're here to support and encourage excellence in the classroom," Rodriguez said. "Whether it's individual conferences, requests for articles or new strategies — we'll help. We're not here for remediation or rehabilitation."
The center, which cost more than $20.000, can have as many as four individual conferences a day and has more than six requests for assistance a day.
The center arose from a national trend to help educators develop, Rodriguez said. During the last 10 years, many universities have instituted programs to assist teachers in providing better instruction for students.
He said the center would move next semester to Budig Hall, where it would incorporate more staff and at least two faculty members who would focus on developing aids for teachers.
The University had created focus programs to help teachers — such as Media Services and ASTUTE, a place where professors can go for technology training — but never combined all areas of assistance into one entity, Rodriguez said.
Garth Myers, assistant professor of African-American studies and geography, said that the center offered faculty a way to expand their educational abilities. Rather than imply that a teacher is unskilled or behind the times, the center helps faculty develop in a way that benefits both teachers and pupils, he said.
"It gives us a forum for discussing issues that relate to teaching," he said. "So many times, the job of teaching is taken up by research and service. We now have a greater chance to understand student concerns and approaches."
Students directly profit from the center as ideas and practices help them learn better, Myers said.
"We share different strategies that work effectively with classes," he said. "That would filter through to students in their classrooms."
Ryan Randolph, Norton senior, said although the effect might not be readily noticeable to students, the ideas the center adheres to are important
"It sounds like a good idea," he
said. "There's a need for it, but I'm not sure if it's being taken advantage of. There are a lot of things I like in teachers that can't be taught, like a passion for the subject."
Student records join computer age at last
Aaron Knopf
aknopf@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A mammoth project to replace student-records information systems, which would modernize class-enrollment processes at the University of Kansas officially began this month.
In mid-January, employees from PeopleSoft Inc. and the University's computing services performed the initial installation of PeopleSoft Student Administration, a software package that will manage academic records, course enrollment, admissions procedures, student billing and financial-aid processes.
"It is going to touch every part of the way we do business," said Vice Chancellor William Crowe.
The University purchased the student-administration package and PeopleSoft's financial software last fall for $2.3 million.
"My desire is that we do it right rather than do it fast," Morell said.
Richard Morrell, University registrar and project implementation leader, estimated that the whole project, which will take place in phases, would take as long as 48 months.
Morrell said the project would bring several benefits to students. Students would be able to perform many tasks online that now require human assistance such as registering for classes, accessing course schedules and grades, and changing address information.
Alumni also might see benefits such as the ability to order transcripts online.
Morrell said a lot of work had to be done before students would see these benefits.
Morrell said the departments that will use this package were organizing teams of people to analyze the software's capabilities.
He said the teams would determine instances when the software would need to be modified to fit the University's needs and instances when the University would need to modify its practices to work within the constraints of the software.
"Every little process that we have throughout the whole system someone will have to sit down and figure out," Morrell said.
Team members could spend as much as 15 percent to 50 per cent of their work time on this project, Morrell said.
On the technical side, John Dillard, computing services assistant director, said he would add four new employees to his staff of 12. He said that the staff still would maintain the existing systems while installing the PeopleSoft software.
Dillard estimated that members of his staff would each need about a month of training to use the new software.
Not only will the application developers on his staff have to work with the new system, but they also will have to program interfaces into other systems that are not replaced as a part of this project, such as the student-housing systems.
Dillard said the new system eventually would replace the functions of nearly 1,700 mainframe-based programs now in use.
Crowe said the obsolescence of the University's student-record systems was the driving force behind the University's commitment to the project.
"The way KU enrolls people is not that much different than the way I was enrolled in college in 1964," Crowe said. "It's embarrassing."
DREAM OR DREAM JOB
Wouldn't you want to know who's calling before you pick up?
Take the calls that really matter avoid the ones that don't.
Know who called, how many times, from what number, at what time - even if they didn't leave a message.
You get all this FREE with Caller ID when you CALL NOW:
FREE Caller ID Display Unit a value of over $70.00
FREE first month of Caller ID service $7.50 value
FREE TWA Value Certificate
a $30 - $100 value Caller ID purchase not necessary
FREE Connection ~ a $6.00 value
Offer is good through Februarv 28th.1998
FREE Shipping ~ a $6.95 value
= An immediate total value of over $90.00
plus A chance to WIN valuable prizes in
including your choice of one of four 1998 vehicles. 'Sponsored by InteliData
Offer made by IntelliData, an independent agent of Southwestern Bell. Caller ID is not available in all areas on all calls. Some calls may be blocked or unavailable. 'Caller ID ($6.50 per month) can be purchased separately from Anonymous Call Rejection (50¢ per month). Anonymous Call Rejection stops callers who block their names and numbers from appearing on your display screen (they receive a recorded message and your phone won't even ring). Anonymous Call Rejection is not available in all areas. If Anonymous Call Rejection is not available, the monthly rate for Caller ID is $6.50. Offer is available only for first time users of Caller ID. Offer is good through February 28, 1998. Free display unit and shipping are courtesy of IntelliData. Free month of Caller ID service and connection are courtesy of Southwestern Bell.
Call Toll-Free 1-888-801-5599
钟
Southwestern Bell Independent Agent