4A
CAMPUS/AREA
Wednesday, August 18, 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Work ends on Union renovation
Plastic fences are no more; the building has a new look
Paul Kotz/KANSAN
By Christoph Fuhrmans
Kansan staffwriter
After $11 million and 10 years of planning, students no longer have to walk around plastic orange fences to get to the Kansas Union.
Construction of the Union master plan renovation project is finished, much to the delight of both University officials and students.
"It's nice to able to go to class without hearing jackhammers all morning," said Erik Nyberg, Wichita junior.
Pat Beard, manager of building services for the Union, said they had not received many student complaints about the construction.
The renovation project began when a survey was mailed to 2,500 students, staff and faculty members in 1983 asking for suggestions on how to improve the Union. Their answers, along with plans from an architecture and design class, were used in the final plans.
the Architecture Barriers committee, a group that advises new architectural projects and is associated with the KU Student Assistance Center, also provided input for the final plans.
As a part of the new plans, all the bathrooms were made handicap-accessible, braille was added to signs, a pay phone for the hearing-impaired was added, and automatic door openers at the main entrances were installed in the front and back of the building.
Despite the long wait and the inconvenience from the construction, both students and faculty agree that the improved Union was well worth the wait.
Jim Long, director of the Kansas and Burge Unions, said, "We've had a tremendous reaction from the visitors to the building about the changes."
Tim Combs, Loveland, Colo., sophomore, said he liked the additions to the Union.
"It feels more like KU, more KU style." Combs said.
The final phase of the renovation of the Kansas Union is finished. One of the new features is the depiction of the history of the Jayhawk in the tile on the lobby floor.
There will be two dedication ceremonies for the Union. The first will be Oct. 1, and it will be a memorial to the 130 students, staff and faculty that died in World War 1 and for whom the building was dedicated to in 1926. Relatives of the 130 will be invited to a private ceremony.
The original memorial time capsule of 1926, a copper box that contains the names of the 130 who died, war newspaper headlines and dried rose petals, will be placed in the right pillar of the arch over the entrance to the foyer.
The second dedication ceremony will be for the students during homecoming weekend on Oct. 15. A new time capsule will be placed in the left pillar of the arch. Student Union Activities is making a list of the contents for the new time capsule. Some sug-
The final phase of the renovation of the Kansas Union the history of the Jayhawk in the tile on the lobby floor. gested items include a safe sex packet, a 12 compact disc and the recipe for Joe's doughnuts.
The landscaping of the Union, which involves planting shrubbery and flowers, is all that remains of the renovation project. Bid opening for it will begin Aug 27.
Construction at the Union will be minimal now that the renovation project has been completed. Beard said.
The next construction project at the Union will be the renovation of Woodruff Auditorium, he said. When money becomes available, carpet, tiles and seat covers will be replaced, and the stage will be enlarged.
Union construction phases
PHASE I began in Spring 1987. This $6.5 million phase included renovating the bookstore the student organizational activities office, and installing a new food court
PHASE II began in Spring 1992. The $4.5 million phase included moving, expanding and renovating the lobby, Student Union Activities offices, Union administrative and business offices, banking services, travel services, art gallery, information center and front plaza on level four. Some of highlights of the work on level four are the arch over the entrance to the foyer and the tile replicas of the six different Jayhawks on the floor.
Tonkovich firing OK'd after review
He maintains his innocence
By Lisa Cosmillo
Kansas staff writer
KANSAN
Kansan staff writer
Emul Tonkovik, former KU professor of law, said jealousy was at the root of what he called a "witch hunt."
On July 30, by a 3-2 vote, a faculty review committee upheld Chancellor Gene Budig's recommendation that Tonkovich be fired on grounds of sexual harassment and moral turpitude.
In a press conference on Aug. 2, Tonkovich once again insisted he was innocent. He announced his intention to appeal the decision to the Board of Regents and possibly to bring suit against the University.
"The committee's decision endorsed the chancellor's vindictiveness," Tonkovich said.
In August 1991, Tarnum McVey, a former student of Tonkovich, told University administrators that in Summer 1988 Tonkovich pressured her into performing oral sex after a discussion about grades.
After Budig recommended that Tonkovich be dismissed, Tonkovich requested a formal hearing with the tenure and related problems committee.
"This case is about one professor's exploitation of his position as a faculty member, his exploitation of students for his own private benefit," said Rose Marino, associate general counsel who represented the University.
The testimonies of 49 witnesses produced an 8,176 page transcript.
Tonkovich
The committee's 250-page report released July 30 said that the committee had reached a unanimous conclusion that a sexual encounter
jonkovich and Tammy McVey did occur.
Tonkovich denied that the sexual encounter occurred.
"I was fired for having the audacity to assert my innocence," Tonkovich said.
He said he thought that the other professors in the law school had relationships with students and that he was being singled out for persecution because of his political conservatism and superior knowledge of the law.
"Professors are in a lot of ways jealous of me," Tonkovich said. "When I taught a course more students, women and men, wanted to take my courses."
Tonkovich is the second tenured professor in the University's 128-year history to be fired. In 1990, Dorothy Willner, former professor of anthropology, was dismissed for willful failure to perform academic duties and behavior that violated professional ethics.
Tonkovich said his future plans were uncertain.
"Maybe I'll be digging ditches," he said. "I don't know."
Tonkovich timeline
July: alleged
incident
between
and
Tonkovich
Tonkovich
August:
Mcvey
files
complaint
Two years of investigation into the accusations against Emi Torkowik came to a close July 30, when the faculty review committee released their recommendation to hold the review.
April 17:
second
complaint
filed by Budig
May 12:
hearings
conclude
August 2: Toniokvich announces his intention to appeal to the Board of Regents
1988 1991 1992 1993
FALL 1993 KANSAN STAFF
KCTRAUER, Editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
JOE HARDER, CHRISTINE LAUE Managing editors
September: Budig's fi
complaint; Tonkovich
placed on paid leave
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
AMY CASEY
AMY CASEY Business manager
AMY STUMBO Retail sales manager
July 30: committee voted 3-2 to uphold Budig's recommended dismissal of Tonikovich
August 27 evidentiary hearings begin
Assistant to the editor .. J.R. Clairbone
News .. Stacy Friedman
Editorial .. Terilyn McComick
Campus .. Ben Grove
Sports .. Kriati Fogier
Photo .. Kip Chin, Renee Kneeber
Features .. Era Wafle
Graphics .. John Paul Fogel
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
John Paul Foger/KANEAR
photographed The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be resold to the Kansas newroom, 111 Stauffer-Fint Hall.
Business Staff
BUSINESS STAIR
Campus sales mgr  Ed Schager
Regional Sales mgr  Jennifer Perrier
National sales mgr  Jennifer Evenson
Co-op sales mgr  Blythe Focht
Production mgrs  Jennifer Blowey
Kate Burgess
Marketing director  Shelly McConnell
Classified mgr  Jane Davis
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and homework, or faculty or staff position.
**Guest columns** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be
Service adds $48 to room and board
Cable television installed in residence halls
By Shan Schwartz
Kansan staff writer
Students moving into KU residence hall this week are finding the same cinder block walls and hard floors, but they are discovering a new luxury.
"We've been wanting to do this for several years," Stoner said, "but it was a complicated transaction. It took so many different agencies — student housing, telecommunications, purchasing, facilities planning. It took a lot longer than I would have liked."
Cable television hook-ups were installed this summer in each room of every residence hall except Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall, said Kenneth Stoner, director of the Department of Student Housing.
All residents have to do is provide the televisions.
Stoner said that the complicated room layout in Corbin caused delays and that he hoped that GSP-Corbin might have cable next晨
Last year, residents of other halls had access to cable TV only in some of the hall lobbies.
Stoner said that $48 of the residents' yearly room and board rates paid for the basic cable service in their rooms. GSP-Corbin residents pay $48 less than residents of other halls this year.
Stoner said that residents also could pay for premium channels, such as HBO and Cinemax, by ordering them from Sunflower Cablevision, 644 New Hampshire St.
Some residents are happy to have cable TV in their rooms.
This is a step in the right direction
for housing," said Jamie Cutburth. Hillsboro, Ore., senior and president of the Association of University Residence Halls "Everyone pretty much wanted it, and we got a good deal."
Cuturbth said residents were beginning to expect more services in their residence halls.
"The demographics are changing" Cutburth said. "And it's new generation of students who come from smaller families and are used to some of the luxuries they have at home."
of the theater Anjella Kosanic, Leavenworth sophomore who lives in Oliver Hall, said she had bought a television this summer so she could have full use of the cable service.
"I was planning on buying a TV because of cable, but I wouldn't have otherwise," she said. "I knew I'd be paying for cable, so that's why I bought a TV."
"I figure the rates are going up anyway," she said. "At least I have something to show for it."
Kosanic said she wasn't upset that room and board went up to pay for the cable.
Not all students, however, are happy having cable in each room. Anna Marasco, Omaha senior and resident assistant at Corbin, said she thought that more television in the rooms would lead to less productivity from residents.
"A residence hall is supposed to be an academic community." Marasco said. "In my opinion, nothing is worse for community or academics than cable TV in each room.
"If they're watching the Discovery Channel or PBS, that might be OK, but I think a lot of them will be watching Beavis and Butthead."
Dining commons delicious change for Daisy Hill residents
By David Stewart
Monday's opening of the Lenoir Ekdahl Dining Commons at Lewis Hall offers a new approach in college dining for Daisy Hill residence hall tenants, said Peggy Smith, associate director for dining services for the department of student housing.
Carpeted floors. A selection of more than 20 entrees daily. A panoramic view of the campus. Even soft serve New York cheese-cake frozen yogurt.
Kansan staff writer
Manhattan sophomore Melanie Schreiber lived in Elsworth Hall last year and usually ate at Columll Hall's dining hall.
"I was going into a basement to eat. What can you expect out of a basement?" said Schreiber as she left from brunch Tuesday. "This seems a lot more professional."
A 1988 survey helped KU decide to consolidate the five dining halls in the basements of the Daisy Hill dorms into one central facility. Smith said. Students indicated they wanted more choice in the meals offered and extended serving hours.
food dining hall with seating for 725 diners. The glass-and-brick, semi-circular structure has three levels of tables and stairs, connected by ramps and stairs. The standard serving line that dushed out only two or three entrees daily has been replaced by a "food court" design, similar to those found in shopping malls, said Randy Timm, informational writer and spokesperson for the department of housing.
The result is the $2.5 million, 30,000-square
KU designed the food court with the intent to cut long student lines, with two serving lines and five distinct serving areas including a pizza and pasta bar, a place for instantly prepared stir-fry, and a grill for hamburgers. Tum said.
"Before this place opened, we served four main entree items a day." Tzmun said. "Now we have about 21 every day."
Aaron Summer, Alton Ill. junior, appreciated the increased variety of food.
"This arrangement allows for students to get what they want. If they want pizza every day, they can get it." Timm said. "We give students so many more choices. That's a change a lot of people had asked for."
"Before, if you didn't like the two or three things they were serving, then you were out ofuck," said Sumner, an Ellsworth resident. "But now they give you so many selections. It's hard to go wrong."
Two other important changes that coincided with the new dining commons are longer serving hours and the option of a 15-meal plan instead of the previously required 19-meal plan.
The 19-meal plan costs $808 and the 15-meal plan is $768 per semester. Smith said that one-third of the students who had a meal plan had signed up for the 15-meal plan.
The only complaint Smith had anticipated was from students living in Ellsworth and McColum residence halls because of the distance they would have to walk for their meals.
Sumner said the walk from Ellsworth wasn't so bad. But he said students don't worry about the walking in August.
"Maybe wintertime might change their tune about that," Sumner said.
Daisy Hill residents ponder the culinary offerings of the new Lenoir Ekatha Dining Commons at Lewis Hall. The commons allows students to choose among about 21 main entrees each day.