CAMPUS/AREA: Artisans from 60 different tribes will display their wares at the Fifth Annual Indian Market this weekend. Page 3.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.103.NO.15
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1993
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
UNDER THE BIG TOP
Above left, Jim Zajacek washes Barbra the elephant after she helped poke the poles into place for the Culpeper and Merriweather circus tents are set up yesterday. Above right, David "Stu" Volponi, tail man for the circus, tackles the challenge of moving around ordinary places in his extraordinary height.
It's home to the few performers who still live for the circus circuit
By Traci Carl
Kansan staff write
David "Stitits" Volponi stood high above the small crowd of children and parents yesterday morning belting out the names of Snickers the miniature horse and Hamhock the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig as they arrived at the petting area.
"Can I touch your legs?" asked 4-year-old Davy Frick.
"Sure!" Volponi said.
Davy cautiously approached the wooden stilts shrouded in red and white pants and quickly poked at the wood underneath.
"He has big knees. Davy said as he backed up to get a better look at Volponi, who was the first person to walk 10 miles on stilts when he performed the feat for the March of Dimes.
The public was invited to watch Barbra the elephant help put up the circus tent yesterday morning and many stayed to watch the animals and visit with performers. Ninety-minute shows were performed at 7 and 9 last night. The circus is in its ninth season.
Goponit was one of the 38 members of the Culpepper and Merriweather Great Combined Circus that performed last night at the Douglas County 4-H Furgrounds, Lawrence Masonic Lodge No. 6 sponsored the circus.
The circus, which is one of about 10 tent circles left in the United States, travels from California through Colorado and Nebraska to Chicago, down
to Texas and over to Arizona, said Red Johnson, the owner.
Johnson joined a circus in 1976 after he lost his job. He started Culpepper and Merrweather in 1984 with fourpeople, he said. They performed in campgrounds and passed a hat around for money.
One of the circus veterans, 85-year-old Darrell Davis, said he ran away with the circus six years ago to make balloon animals.
"They came to my town and I left with them that night," he said.
He learned his trade by studying books and watching other people, he said. Even so, he does not rely on lung power to blow the balloons up.
"At my age I'm not wasting air on balloons," he said.
This is not Davis' first experience with the circus.
He said he remembered riding in the carback of Gargantua the Gorilla on the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus train. The gorilla rode in a refrigerated car.
"He's mean lookin'," he said. "I've seen him many times."
Jef Gates, a mechanic with the circus,
said he joined because he needed a job.
"It's a paycheck," he said. "I get to see
the country."
His 14-year-old son lives in California, he said, but he is not impressed with his father's occupation.
him many times."
J. Gates, a mechanic with the circus.
"He thinks it's kinda strange," he said.
"Nobody else's dad is in the circus, he says."
Lester Burrage put the remaining poles of the main tent in place yesterday for the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus. The tent, when completely raised, was three stories high.
Home-court advantage
The Kansas volleyball team will defend its Kansas Invitational Tournament title this weekend at Allen Field House.
Page 9
Look before you leap: Injuries from bungee jumping a danger
Steinberg, Memphis, Tenn, freshman, was on vacation in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., when, on the spur of the moment, she decided to bungee jump. She paid a bungee company $30, watched a demonstration jump, was briefed on safety measures and signed forms that released the company of liability if she was injured.
Besides parasailing and getting a tattoo on her right hip, bungee jumping is the scariest thing Jennifer Steinberg has ever done.
Steinberg was then strapped into a vest and had ropes around her arms and legs. Before plumming 70 feet, Steinberg experienced the usual pre-bungee emotion fear.
By Liz Klinger
Pamela Hite, associate director for emergency medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said people should be aware of the risks of bungee jumping.
"I think people should take more seriously the potential dangers involved and understand that they're participating in a sport that could cost them their life or permanent disabilities." Hite
"My initial thought was' Oh my God. What am I doing? I'm going to die." Steinberg said.
Hite is one of four authors of "Injuries Result"
The article described the injuries that a 19-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man sustained while bungee jumping. The woman suffered abrasions when the bungee cord wrapped around her neck and caused a temporary hanging. The man was paralyzed from the neck down because of a spinal-cord injury sustained during a reverse jump. Before he was injured, he had completed 100 jumps.
ing From Bunge-Cord Jumping," an article in the June 1993 issue of *Annals of Emergency Medicine* that outlines the potential dangers of bungee jumping.
Hite said the sport should be regulated more closely. The article said that neither bungee equipment nor instructor certification were regulated by the government.
People are always looking for something that will give them a feeling of excitement or a rush
Hite said people who jumped described feeling their stomachs go 30 feet above their bodies. That thrill is what seems to draw people to the soot desiite the potential injuries.
Josh Ediger, McPherson sophomore who bungee jumped during spring break in the Padre Islands, said he liked the potential danger.
"That's part of the fun," Ediger said.
Satellite labs key to breaking logjam at computer center
Many students don't know what's available computing director says
By Shan Schwartz
Kansan staff writer
Lee Grimes walked through the KU Computer Center labs yesterday afternoon, and seeing no computers available, sat down in the hall.
"We could definitely use more computers," she said. "At other universities, it seems like there are computers all over the place. It's a pain to walk all the way down here from GSP."
Grimes, Manhattan freshman, said she went to the center every day and often had to wait for a computer, sometimes for 20 minutes or more.
What Grimes did not know was that there was a lab in Fraser Hall, much closer to her residence hall, that could provide the same services she needed at the computer center.
Niebaum said he was beginning to contact computer lab coordinators, academic affairs officials and student government representatives to discuss how to better meet student needs.
The real challenges, he said, were keeping the computers modernized, keeping a staff able to support the new computers and software, and keeping students informed of the availability of those computers.
Students can get specific information about the labs from KU Information or the Computer Center, Niebaum said.
Jerry Niebium, director of academic computing services, said computers were in abundance at KU. However, many students do not know about all the labs on campus, and many problems arose from the fact that each lab is independently managed and maintained by academic departments close to the labs.
Until recently, the labs in Fraser, Strong, Summerfield and Learned halls were maintained by the computer center, Niebaum said, and were undated consistently with the center.
But in the last couple of years, those labs were turned over to academic offices in those buildings. Other labs also were created and developed by departments throughout campus.
"The departments were getting
Computer labs
The following labs are open to all students:
Having labs are also available to students:
■ Fraser Hall, room 121 and 122*
■ Snow Hall, room 210
■ Strong Hall, room 17*
■ Summerfield Hall, room 418
Restricted labs are also available in Art & Design, Balley, Dole, Green,
Learned*, Lindley, Marvin, Stauffer Flint, Twente, Wescoe and all residence halls.
* Labs open 24 hours
Source: Academic Computing Services KANSAN
funding and creating labs, so this was the way to go," Niebaum said. "It solved problems for us, because it's difficult to manage labs from a distance. It made sense that the departments there in those buildings took care of them."
However, by decentralizing control of those labs, Niebaum said, other problems arose for students. He said the rapid advance of technology made consistency between the labs difficult.
"You normally expect a product life cycle to be five to seven years," Niebaum said. "But the life cycle in the microcomputer area is two to three years."
After that time, Niebaum said, computers are often obsolete because of new software and the high cost of maintenance. Because each lab is independent of the others, frequent upgrades are not consistent from one lab to another.
"So students are finding the projects they worked on in one lab are incompatible with software in other labs on campus," Niebaum said.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for the student government to have a say in this instruction aspect of the University," Niebaum said.
Niebaum said that lab coordinators he had spoken with also were interested in more communication and said that student input would be a key to improved services.
John Shoemaker, Student Senate president, said that he had just made appointments this week to the Academic Computing Committee and that those students would be working on improving computer services on campus.
Club helps students invest in the market
KU grads want to open world of stocks to novices
By Emily Gibson Special to the Kansan
KU graduates Brian Boeger and John Baker have made it their mission to help college students succeed in life—at least financially.
Boeger and Baker are founders of Investors Quarterly, an investment club designed to teach its members how to understand the complex financial world.
"We want them to be able to make intelligent, informed financial decisions on their own," said Boeger, a licensed financial counselor. "We want them to know and understand all the options available to them."
At quarterly meetings, members of the Kansas City, Mo.-based group will be given information on how the stock market works, how to decipher business news and will learn a few key financial terms, Boeger said.
The group had its first Lawrence chapter meeting last night. They plan to have one more meeting Oct. 7 before they hold a voting session Oct. 30 to decide what stock the group will invest in.
Three days before the session, members will be given stock choices and information about the stocks. They will vote at the session during a breakfast meeting.
Boeger said that to help members build an investment portfolio, the
group would allow them to invest in the stock market with little or no commission charges.
There is a $45 annual fee to be a standard member, which Boeger said was to cover the cost of the meetings.
"When I got out of college, I had no idea where to invest my savings or what investment options were risky or not," Boeer said. "We want to give these people a firm foundation and a good base of knowledge."
Spencer Marquardt,a business major, said that experience with a group such as Investors Quarterly would be valuable career training.
"It sounds like a great idea that would let people get an idea of how to play the stock market." Marquardt said. "It would be a good opportunity to see if that's something you'd want to go into."
Boerger emphasized that Investors Quarterly, which operates in association with the family-run Boerger Financial Group, is intended for college juniors, seniors and recent graduates.
"We want members who are at a point in their life when they need to be thinking about the future." Boeger said.
For more information about Investors Quarterly, call 1-800-726-9308.