FEATURES: News of the Weird, Page 5.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL. 102, NO. 122
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANSAST STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
(USPS 650-640)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1993
Living without guarantees
NEWS: 864-4810
Betty Visser has learned to live with schizophrenia, a mental disorder. She says that she constantly hears voices that tell her to die and that she occasionally sees things like monks in her room or blood on people's faces. But she is coping with the illness and functioning in society with the help of medication, family and friends.
painting and doing volunteer work at a library. She also struggles with demons that have been with her for 21 years.
By Vicki Bode
Kansan staff writer
jetty Visser chuckles as she lights another cigarette.
"Sometimes I think that if I smoke, it will kill me faster than the demons will." she says.
But the demons are no joke. For Visser, the demons are real.
The demons have veils covering their heads or wear monk's robes. They speak with the voice of a medieval chorus. Sometimes they speak to her from outside her window. Usually the voices clamor from within her head.
"One night I saw the demons coming for me and I knew I didn't have the energy to fight them off," she says. "I wanted to run. I've learned to turn off the demons most of the time. But sometimes I'm just in the world of demons."
Her delusions are the symptoms of a schizoaffective disorder that Visser, 41, has lived with for 21 years. Visser is a schizophrenic.
She has learned to cope with voices that constantly harass her and hallucinations of bloody figures. Visser fights the delusions. Unlike many who suffer with her disorder, she is able to live alone in a small, scarcely furnished apartment in Lawrence. She spends her time painting and as a volunteer at the Lawrence Public Library.
"Their voices all the time and they tell me that I am really terrible and I should quit making my paintings," Visser says. "The voices will say, 'God, that painting is sickening. Do you really think anybody would want to see that?' Sometimes it makes me
But every day is a struggle
The voices say, "Cold water. Visser's doctor told her to keep a radio turned on so she did not sit in silence. But that does not stop the hallucinations.
cry and other times it isn't so bad *
The voices say: 'Cut yourself and die.'
"I have monks that come and walk through my apartment and chant," Visser says. "They tell me that I am ugly and useless."
The one thing that allows Visser to hold on to reality is her medication, Clozaril, but there is no guarantee that the medication will always be available. Clozaril costs $10,000 a year.
Manuel Pardo, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said that without Clozaril Visser would be back in a hospital.
In October 1900, Visser challenged the state policy that instructed Kansas Medicaid not to cover the cost of Clozaril. Visser prevailed in a preliminary hearing and forced Medicaid to pay for the medication.
But Visser keeps her fingers crossed that the decision won't be reversed.
"If she was taken off of her medication, there's no question about it: She would absolutely be put in an institution," Pardo said.
"Betty would not be sitting here today if she wasn't strong-willed," her mother said. "She has strength and a will to survive. Betty is extraordinary."
Virginia Visser, Betty's mother, attributes Betty's ability to cope to her intelligence and determination to survive.
"Betty toughs through all of it. That has always been her personality."
With the medication, Visser can and does live a life that resembles normalcy.
"I wish more mentally ill people could do what Betty does," Pardo said.
As a teenager, Betty Visser was gifted and
highly intelligent. School was always easy. When she was 16 years old, she graduated from high school.
isser's first symptoms appeared at age 20
Sebphromia is a d
young, college-age adults. Seventy-five percent of people with schizophrenia develop symptoms between ages 16 and 25.
"It's so hard to accept the fact that someone that is so won-derful could have something wrong with her," her mother said. "I saw this bright person, and she was just struck down."
Schizophrenia is a disorder that usually strikes
Visser started eating only white foods, thinking that other foods were impure.
"Her first episode was in the 1960s when every teenager was acting bizarre," her mother said, adding that she and her husband probably just didn't recognize something was dreadful wrong.
Pardo explained that Visser's psychotic disorder included depression and schizophrenic symptoms.
but the disease is not completely understood. Every year, 100,000 people are diagnosed with schizophrenia. Every day, 600,000 people are treated for schizophrenia.
"There is still a lot of mystery surrounding schizophrenia."
Story continues, Page 9
Budig asks for faculty salary raise
Chancellor, Meyen defend KU, Regents budget requests
By Ben Grove Kansan staff writer
Chancellor Gene Budig urged state representatives yesterday not to override the Board of Regents recommended tuition increases, as the Senate did last week.
Budig called the Senate's action "disconcerting."
"I would respectfully request that the Legislature allow that to remain under the Board's jurisdiction," he said.
Budig and Ed Meyen, executive vice chancellor, traveled to Topeka yesterday to defend KU and the Regents budget requests before a House Appropriations subcommittee that considers University issues. Those issues include tuition and faculty salary increases and requested money for Dyche Hall and Allen Field House improvement projects.
Gene Budig
The Regents had asked that tuition for Fall 1993 be increased 8 percent for both in-state and out-of-state students at KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State University. Last week, the Senate approved a bill that would increase tuition 8 percent for residents and 10 percent for out-of-state students.
The House committee is considering the Senate bill before it moves to the full House for final action.
The Regents have questioned the right of the Senate to change the Regents request for tuition increases. The Legislature typically votes to approve or not approve the requests but does not change them.
The chancellor also asked the committee to at least restore Gov. Joan Finney's recommendation for a 3 percent raise in faculty and student employees' salaries if it could not restore the Regents original request of 3.5 percent increases. The Senate passed increases of 2.5 percent.
Even if the governor's recommendations are restored, the institution will continue to lag behind in the national salary market," Budig said.
Meyen outlined reasons why the University was requesting $700,000 for Dyche and $1.9 million for the field house to bring the buildings into accordance with state fire codes.
According to a state fire marshal's report submitted last spring, the field house needs three new stair towers because upper balcony capacities exceeded the number of people that could exit the building safely in an emergency.
The Dyche request is for the construction of a storage facility for many of the animal specimens that are stored there in ethyl alcohol, a flammable liquid.
After the hearing, committee members said they were impressed with KU's presentation but could make no predictions about what actions the House would take on the Regents' requests.
State Rep. Melvin Minor, D-Stafford, said legislators were worrying about a shaky economic year following the announcement of massive layoffs at Sears and Boeing in Wichita and about the effects those layoffs might have on state income and sales tax revenues.
"Tight as they are, it'll be tough," Minor said. "I'd like to say otherwise, but with the budget constraints the way they are and the governor saying there will be no new taxes, we'll have to live within our means."
But Minor said there was good news as well. He said Kansas books were doing well, for instance.
Another committee member agreed that it was too early to say how the state's economic situation might affect the Regents budget.
regress base
"We're not in crisis," said State Rep. George Teagarden, D-LaCygne. "But we can't catch up with our peers very quickly, either."
The House may take action on the requests Friday or early next week.
NCAA Tournament at Allen Field House
Elections Commission to campaign for voter turnout
The Kansas women's basketball team will play California tonight in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The coaches and players want your support.
Game time: 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $3.50 students
$5 adults
See pre-game coverage. Page 11.
By Shan Schwartz Special to the Kansan
In the next few weeks, candidates seeking election to Student Senate will be campaigning to earn votes for themselves and their coalitions.
The Student Senate Elections Commission, a body independent from Senate which governs Senate elections, will be running a campaign of its own. Its goal is to get more students to vote.
The "Get Out and Vote" campaign, which will begin March 29, is intended to educate students about the candidates and encourage all students to vote in the April 14 and 15 election, said Kelli Zuel, elections commission member.
Zuel said the commission hoped to increase voter turnout by 10 percent from the 3.501 votes cast last year. In recent years, turnout has remained at about 15 or 20 percent of the
Lawrence campus.
The campaign will include bulletin boards in the Kansas Union and throughout campus that contain information about the candidates. Zuel said the campaign would target campus buildings that house specific schools and contain candidate information relevant to those schools.
The campaign will also use newspaper and radio announcements featuring Kansas men's basketball coach Roy Williams and high-profile students and administrators encouraging students to "Get Out and Vote."
vate to vote.
have vote to vote.
Low voter turnout largely is due to students' apathy and ignorance about Senate, Wright said.
Lance Wright, Student Senate vice president, said that candidates typically targeted organized living groups and large student organizations because that was the easiest way to reach a large number of students directly. Wright said that off-campus students, which make up the majority of students at KU, were difficult to reach and even more difficult to motiago the schools built.
"Everyone complains that the greeks run the elections," he said. "They mobilize themselves and vote."
"Students just don't know what Senate does," he said. "They just pay their tuition and fees and don't even realize that they pay an activity fee or that Student Senate is directly in control of it."
Wright said another complaint often heard from students was that greek living groups controlled the outcome of the election. That complaint does not make sense. Wright said, because greeks made up only a small percentage of the student body.
Apathy in Senate elections
The Elections Commission is not specifically responsible for recruiting student voter turnout, Zuel said, but it was in the best interests of Senate for more students to vote.
Apathy in Senate elections Despite efforts by the Elections Commission and individual Student Senate coalitions to increase voter turnout, the number of Student Senate votes cast in spring elections fails to increase, and has dropped since a peak in 1990.
Source: Student Senate Elections Commission and Kranjan files
Dave Ganspit / KANBAR