SPORTS: The Kansas baseball team rallied yesterday to defeat Kansas State 6-3, Page 9.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.102,NO.147
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY,APRIL 28,1993
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(UPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
The disappearance of Alexis Dillard
The KU senior was last seen on Dec. 10 walking toward the Kansas River Bridge Today, nearly five months later, questions about that night remain unanswered.
Felicie Dillard sensed something was wrong when she saw the blinking red light on her answering machine.
Few people called her unlisted telephone number during the day. The messages sounded urgent. Her son's roommates wanted her to call them. They said it was important.
"I knew it was serious" she said. "I was very worried about his well-being. Very worried. Terrified."
When she called her son's roommates, her fears were realized. They said her son Alexis was missing. He had gone out with friends Dec. 10 to celebrate the end of the fall semester. When he still had not returned by 5:30 p.m., the next day, his roommates reported him missing to the police.
The remainder of that Dec. 11 night is a confusing blur to her now. She called her brother, Hillaire Lavigne, and they made a quick trip to Kinko's to have 500 fliers printed. Then they drove from her Wichita home to her son's apartment on Alabama Street in Chaos. Chaos reigned – ringing telephones, pleas from the press, students coming and going.
often come in handy.
"It was a nightmare," she said. "It was just so confusing. Everything was happening at once."
The next day she returned home, made arrangements to take time off from her job as a sixth-grade teacher at Curtis Middle School and waited for her two other children to fly in from Chicago and Arizona.
On the cold, rainy morning of Dec. 13, accompanied by her daughter Eugenie and her son Hardy she drove back to Lawrence.
Throughout the next week, Alexis Dillard's family and friends distributed fliers all over Lawrence and out of town - to as far away as Colorado
"It was just going from one place to the next but not seeming to get anywhere," she said. "I think I was in a state of shock. It was like when you look in a cage of mice. They're all kind of running around, and they don't seem to be going anywhere."
Though Dillard's girlfriend and fraternity brothers remain too upset to be interviewed about him, his mother did talk.
Today, almost five months later, there is still no trace of Alexis Dillard, the 22-year-old KU senior who was to graduate in May.
She recalled that the last time she saw her son was during Thanksgiving break. She spoke with him by telephone a week later. He and his friends
were going skiing during the winter break. It was the last time she heard his voice.
"It's just so startling when someone so healthy with so much to live for and so much to offer just disappears," Felicie Dillard said.
Petele Dulafia said,
"The worst thing is not having him.
Then comes not knowing what happened. To this very day, we have no idea. We are exactly at the same place we were Dec. 11."
The disappearance
"I remember seeing him come in,but I don't remember seeing him."
leave.
Jim Dorlac
Doorman at Johnny's Tavern
O in the afternoon of Dec 10, the last day of, classes. Alexis Dillard
day of classes, Alexa went to the Student Union Activities office, where she was a part of the staff. About 3:30 p.m., Frank Burge, retired director of the Kansas Union, came in asking for a favor.
Dillard volunteered to make the trip.
Burge had been hit by a car while he was riding his bicycle a year before, and he wanted someone to take cookies and presents to his doctor at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. He offered to pay $50.
with a co-worker, Donelle Meyer.
Ginord drove Meyer's car to Kansas City. Meyer and Dillard joked about how fast they were going. He was driving about 80 miles an hour, Meyer recalled, "Lex," as Meyer calls him, in a hurry to start celebrating.
By 5.20 p.m. the two were back in Lawrence. Meyer dropped Dillard off at BullWinkle's Bar, 14th and Tennessee streets. His car was parked at the stadium. He said he would pick it up later.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Dillard told her.
At BullWinkle's, Dillard began drinking with about 15 friends and Ph Gamma Delta fraternity brothers. They were on a pub crawl, said Tisha Stone, an Olatte junior who was working that afternoon at the bar.
Three hours later, Dillard picked up his car and drove some of his friends to the Sandbar at Eighth and New Hampshire streets. It was a familiar hangout for the Fijis, the fraternity's nickname.
Dillard and his friends didn't stay long at the Sandbar. About 9:15 p.m., they headed for Johnny's Tavern at 401 N. Second St. It's a popular bar with a 247-person occupancy, but every weekend there are long lines — sometimes with as many as 400 people waiting to get inside. The night of Dec. 10 was no different.
"I remember seeing him (Dillard) come in," he said, "but I don't remember seeing him leave. I didn't notice
DEC 19, 2014 NORLANDCITY, Mo.
Jim Dorlac, Kansas City, Mo.
senior, was a doorman at Johnny's
that night.
MISSING:
Large Cash
REWARD
BIOGRAPHY
BLOOMS 10
White male
Age: 22
Height: 5'11"
Associations:
Phi Gamma Delta.
SUA, KU,
former ROTC,
Wichita H. S.A.
ALEXIS DILLARD
Kim Brown, a Lawrence senior who has known Dillard since high school in Wichita, was also working at Johnny's that night as a waitress and bartender.
anything unusual about him."
Brown remembers something strange about that night in Johnny's.
"I remember feeling a cold burst of wind coming from the side door (the door that faces Second Street)," she said. "People sometimes try to sneak in through that door, so when I felt the cold breeze I looked that way. I saw the door closing, but I didn't see anybody."
Scott Weitzman didn't know Dillard before that night. Now he thinks he
Story continued, Page 7.
Learning through insults
After insulting his audience with racist and sexist remarks during his "Black, White and Gray: A New Look at Color" presentation last night, Theodore Paynter explained his point: to demonstrate stereotypes and prejudices.
See story. Page 3.
Social sciences to utilize foreign languages
Bv Terrilyn McCormick
Kansan staff writer
Students who want to take history, eco
n economics and anthropology classes in a foreign language do not have to leave the country anymore.
The goal of the program is to increase students' language proficiency while allowing them to progress towards their degrees, said Terry Weidner, associate director of the Center for International Programs.
Starting this fall, a new program will offer classes taught in Spanish that are not part of the Spanish department. The classes are a part of Language Across the Curriculum, a program that will offer more classes in other languages in the next four years.
"We come at this from the belief that an increasingly global economy requires knowing a language," he said. "You just have to learn the level if you do not know the language."
Weidner said the program would have
other benefits in addition to students becoming more proficient in a language. He said the program would help generate more interest in studying abroad, bring more visiting professors to the University and generally make the University more international.
Professors who will teach the courses must have native or near-native proficiency of the language and must be qualified to teach the subject of the course.
teach the student Weidner said he hoped the program would appeal to people who were interested in foreign language but not necessarily in literature, the focus of most upper-level language courses.
Jon Hoopes, assistant professor in anthropology, will be teaching an Ancient American Civilization: MesoAmerica discussion class in Spanish this fall. He said the program would apply directly to the subject of his course.
"The students will be able to read literature written by Latin-American anthro-
nome."
The practical applications in the classes also will be helpful. Weidner said.
oists first hand in the original language," he said. "The other students will be reading first- or second-hand translations of the literature.
Another goal of the program is to stop the trend of students only taking a foreign language until they fulfill their 16-hour requirement, Weidner said.
"Students will learn the course matter as they improve their language in a very real way," he said.
In 1985, classes taught in French and German will be introduced as part of step two. Classes will be taught in Russian in 1996 and Japanese the following year. Specific courses for 1995 and 1996 have not yet been determined.
The program's installation is taking part in several steps. Starting Fall 1993, two classes and one discussion will be taught in Spanish. Three more classes will be taught in Spanish in the spring.
Course listing
The following courses will be taught in Spanish for the 1993-94 school year.
Fall 1993
History 400: Economic History of Latin America
Latin American Area 700 Introduction to Latin American Library Resources
Anthropology 506: Ancient American Civilization: Mesoamerican discussion class
Spring 1993
- Latin American Area 500: Patterns of Sociolinguistic Inclusion in Latin America
- Latin American Area 503: The History of Political Ideas in Latin America
Latin American Area 501: Multilingualism and Multiculturalism in Latin America