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Nation/World: Flooding continues in the already soaked Mississippi Valley, page 5.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.102.NO.146
WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1993
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
County pays thousands to junior colleges
In-state status of nontaxpayers costs residents
By Carlos Tejada Kansan staff writer.
By taking classes at Johnson County Community College last semester, Pat Flaherty, Arlington Heights, Ill., sophomore, inadvertently cost Douglas County taxpayers $360.
Flaherty said that last year, after failing Math 101 and being academically dismissed from the University of Kansas, he was not left with many options. A housing contract with his roommate and a desire to finish his education at KU limited his future possibilities.
"I had to stay in Lawrence," he said. According to University policy, academically dismissed students may be readmitted after taking a year of additional classes. Without classes, students have to wait four years before becoming eligible for readmission.
But state law forced Douglas County to pay for part of it.
Flaherty said his best option was to attend classes at JCCC.
The policy, called out-district tuition, allows community colleges to charge counties $24 per credit hour for each student enrolled from that county. The law is supposed to spread the cost of building and maintaining a community college to nearby counties.
So instead of paying $83 per credit hour, plus $6 fee as an out-of-state student at JCCC. Flaherty was charged the in-state $33 per hour because he listed Lawrence as his permanent address. And Douglas County was billed $300, or $24 for each of his 15 credit hours.
Many Douglas County officials said the law hurts Douglas County because students such as Flaherty, whom KU considers an out-of-state student, declare the county their home without paying taxes or living there permanently.
Flaherty said the charge to the county was unimportant to him.
"I don't really care how they feel," he said. "I just had to go back to KU."
tuition charged to Douglas County comes from JCCC, said Craig Weinaug, county supervisor.
The largest chunk of out-district
Rounded figures showed that in 1900, out-district tuition from JCCC accounted for $218,000 of the total $315,000 out-district tuition bill. That charged Douglas County included Washburn University, Neosho County Community College and Kansas City Kansas Community College.
In this year's figures, JCCC's share of the $484,000 out-district tuition bill to Douglas County was $333,000. In three years, the bill from JCCC has increased by 53 percent.
Douglas Dues Douglas County taxpayers give money to 19 other counties for their community colleges. Johnson County receives more than 67 percent of all money distributed
Weinaug said the increase came from KU students who take classes at JCCC. The students place their Lawrence address on their application as their permanent address, though they still may be legally dependent on their parents or residents of another county or state.
"We feel we get hit with a disproportionate bill for out-district tuition," he said.
"Everybody who signs up who lists Lawrence as their address is billed to us." Weinaug said.
These students, he said, create the impression that a lot of Douglas County residents take classes at JCCC.
John Paul Fogel / KANSAN
On the other hand, the same students who are considered Douglas County residents by JCCC are not considered county residents by the
U. S. Census, Weinaug said. While they cost the county in out-district tuition charges, they do not count when federal and state funds are allocated.
"We subsidize their tuition at the
community college, with highway funds we can't count them," he said.
Doug Hesse/KANSAN
Story continues, Page 6.
Acar floats in a pool of water near the entrance of the Malls Old English Village apartment complex, 2411 Louisiana. The car was washed away from the curb it was parked by Friday, during the storm when intense rains slowed drainage by sewers. See story, Page 3.
Arabs misrepresented as terrorists by media
By Muneera Naseer
Kansan staff writer
President Clinton's decision to bomb an Iraqi intelligence center on June 26 carries the support of some KU students but has brought condemnation from some Arabs living in the United States.
Kelvin Whisenhunt, Lawrence senior, said he supported what he called a successful bombing mission. The bombing was in retaliation to the Iraqi government's alleged plot to assassinate former President Bush during his visit to Kuwait in April.
("The bombing) was a great idea," he said. "If we don't show other people how we feel about things they will try to run over us."
No Parking
Kathy Hornbrook, Lawrence senior,
said she was upset about the attack
because she did not expect it to happen.
She feared that the bombing
could be viewed as a terrorist attack
by Arab countries.
"I would like to think that our attack was an act of defense, as opposed to terrorism," she said.
Abert Mokhuber, president of the Washington, D.C.-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American organization in the U.S., said the specification of Arabs and Islam in certain media reports had made Arab-Americans fearful of harassment in
the United States.
"There is a fear and it is valid, based on history," he said. "There was a 300 percent increase in hate crimes against Arab citizens during the Gulf War." His organization has received hate mail since the World Trade Center bombing on Feb. 26.
"We read 'Muslims arrested in New York,' but not Jews or Christians. And we shouldn't," he said.
He said people in the United States should not think that Arabs abroad and in the United States support acts such as the Trade Center bombing.
"We absolutely and unequivocally condemn all forms of violence and terrorism," he said. "But we also believe in innocence until proven guilty."
Naser Alazayed, Saudi Arabia graduate student and president of the Muslim Student Association, said he had not experienced any threats or harassment in Lawrence. But he still hopes Americans will become more aware of bias against Arabs in the U.S. media, as well as the sufferings of Arabs in their own countries.
Tim Graham, associate editor for Media Watch, a publication of the Media Research Center in Alexandria, Va., said that although his center had not done much research on Middle East issues, he did not observe any effort by the media to denigrate Arabs in general.
To market to market
The Lawrence Farmer's Market has a different feel than other stores. It is a social place to buy a variety of items.
NBAbound
The items all have something in common. Everything is local and natural, with no insecticides used.
See story, Page 8.
Adonis Jordan,
left, and Rex
Walters have
found new
places to play
basketball—the
NBA.
See story Page 9.
Baltic journalists visit KU
Journalists discuss media differences between the U.S. and the Baltic states
Bv Susan White
Special to the Kansan
Prit Hobemagi, an editor from an Estonian newspaper, turned on the television in his hotel room and saw a familiar sight.
"I came all the way from the other side of the world to experience American media and turned on the television to "The Cosby Show." a show I have seen at home," he said.
The United States Information Agency brought the journalists to the United States so they could learn more about how various American newspapers function.
Hobemag, one of eight journalists from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia visiting the University of Kansas, illustrated how the media in the United States and the Baltic states are not that far apart.
The journalists spent yesterday at KU talking to journalism students and faculty about the Baltic states' newspapers and the changes that have taken place since they gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.
The Baltic states' newspapers have reconstructed their formats to keep with the times and to deal with their freedom.
Hobemagi said the newspapers were starting to gain a whole new generation of writers. The old writers, along with the old ways, are disappearing.
"One-third of the hard-core Communist journalists quit
the field altogether and are now in new lines of business," Hobemagi said.
In addition to losing Communist journalists, newspapers that had names with either a Communist theme or with the words "The Soviet Union" in them were changed in order to more accurately represent the free states.
Hobemagi also said that the government had lost much of its control over the newspapers, making life a lot different than the past.
Ruta Kanopkaite, an editor from a Lithuanian newspaper, said some of the changes have created negative results
"Some journalists of Baltic newspapers mix too many of their own opinions with the news," Kanopkaite said.
The United States and the Baltic states differ somewhat in the content of their newspapers.
Arimus Drizius, a reporter from Lithuania, said the two countries felt differently about whether news or advertising held more precedence.
"Three-fourths of our income comes from advertising," he said. "For example, my paper has 24 pages and only 8 to 12 pages are used for news."
The biggest difference between the two countries is the importance of a journalism degree when applying for a job at a well-respected newspaper, Hobemagi said.
"In our country, television is not a strong competitor for newspapers," Kanopkaite said. "There are five channels to choose from, that are only on from 7 to 12 at night."
The two countries also vary in the competition between television and newspapers.
"I does not matter if a student graduates from college,"
Alvar Jame, right, and Tina Soon, middle, both of Estonia, and Alvar Pastinski, of Latvia, talk to Paul Wenske's Reporting II class yesterday. The visiting Baltic journalists visited the university in connection with Marco Micco to learn more about American journalism.
he said. "Journalism is more than just getting an education."
While the United States and the Baltic states differ tremendously in the layout and operation of their newspapers, they both share one common goal, Hobemagi said. They both are concerned about producing a paper with newsworthy stories that are of interest to the public.