SPORTS: The Kansas baseball team defeated Missouri Valley 12-3 for its sixth consecutive victory. Page 7.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL. 102, NO. 119
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1993
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
Groups challenge candidates' diversity
Minorities want more diversity
By Jess DeHaven Kansan staff writer
Of the five candidates, one is an African-American man, three are white women, and one is a white man.
Members of several campus organizations say they are concerned about minority representation among the candidates interviewing for director of affirmative action at KU.
James Baucom, Topeka senior and president of Black Student Union,
was upset about the racial composition of the candidates.
"Institutional racism at this university is so fine tuned that they are able to get away with that," he said.
Baucom said he was concerned BSU was not represented on the selection committee, as other minority affairs campus groups were.
The interview process should include visits to minority-affairs groups by candidates, he said.
"I don't think the candidates even visit the Office of Minority Affairs," Baucom said. "We say things like that are important, but they never take the time to come by and talk to us."
Harold Washington, assistant pro-
ressor of social welfare and head of the Black Faculty and Staff Council, said that although he did not know much about the candidates, he thought the minority representation could have been more varied.
"I would assume that minority candidates would be well represented in the group," he said. "Anything else would be questionable."
"It seems to me that there really hasn't been much effort to recruit minorities," he said. "We need to seriously question the commitment of each candidate to minority issues."
"As much diversity as possible in that composition is highly desirable because that office will be dealing with concerns on campus that are diverse," he said. "It's conceivable that there could have been a different blend. It could have been more diverse."
Octavio Hinojosa, Hutchinson junior and president of Hispanic American Leadership Organization, said he also had doubts about the selection process.
Sherwood Thompson, director of the Office of Minority Affairs said that he had not had time to study the candidates for the position but that he did plan to review each of them.
"Of course I'm concerned about diversity, be it ethnic, gender or geographical," Thompson said. "It's real."
by the equity of the process that I'm concerned about."
Jackie McClain, who heads the search committee, said earlier this week that she was not concerned that only one of the candidates was an ethnic minority, because it was not necessary for the director to be a minority to be effective in the position.
"We want someone to create an environment that encourages diversity," she said.
Women, people who have certain religious preferences and war veterans were considered minorities by affirmative action, McClain said. Each of the candidates falls under one of these categories.
The director of affirmative action is responsible for making sure the University's hiring procedures and employment statistics comply with federal equal opportunity and affirmative action laws. The office also handles grievance procedures.
The interviewing process began on Feb. 24 and will continue until March 18. The committee will vote on which candidate or candidates it will endorse when the interviewing process is complete.
That recommendation will be reviewed by the Office of Affirmative Action before Executive Vice Chancellor Ed Meyen makes the final selection.
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Dances with drums
Nikole Hendricks, Overland Park junior, and Kim Reyes, Fairway sophomore, members of the Campus Pagan Alliance, dance in front of Wescow Hall. The alliance was passing outliers to students yesterday. The alliance's first meeting will be at 8 p.m. Thursday in Partors A, B and C of the Kansas Union.
Council votes to ban smoking in campus buildings
By Ben Grove
Kansanstaffwriter
Students and faculty who head for the stairwells and lobbies for a smoke may have to keep going and head out the door.
University Council voted yesterday to ban smoking in campus buildings. The ban would not include residence halls and privately owned campus buildings.
The proposal will go to Ed Meyen, executive vice chancellor, who will make a final decision. If approved, the ban would go into effect before next fall, he said.
Before yesterday's vote, a KU graduate student in political science told council members she had developed an allergy to smoke. Tara Calhoun said she had to make mad dashes through the lobby and stairwells of Blake Hall, where she had all her classes.
Meyen said discussion of tightening smoking restrictions in campus buildings had come up because complaints about second-hand smoke had increased.
"I spend a great deal of my time trying to hold my breath in going through these areas," Calhoun said.
"This developed in part because there is growing evidence of second-hand smoke and the effects it has, and that has caused more students to be more concerned about their health," Meyen said.
The total smoking ban was proposed two weeks ago by a smoker, council member Lynn Nelson, professor of history.
"I disliked the whole host of petty rules for smokers, such as you can only smoke in designated areas, and you look around and there are no such areas," Nelson said. "I remarked that these were a lot of little measures working toward a larger goal of eliminating smoking altogether in campus buildings. We recommended that smoking be banned, period. Though I am a smoker, I do not want to put anyone at risk that doesn't want to be at risk."
Smoking is now restricted to designated areas in campus buildings.
As tournament nears, ticket prices rise
By Will Lewis
Kansan staff writer
Ticket brokers rolled in the money yesterday as ticket-hungry fans paid big bucks for a seat at the Big Eight Conference Tournament in Kansas City, Mo.
"They pour in from all over the country," he said.
Pat McCarthy, ticket manager for the Big Eight Conference in Kansas City, Mo., said the only way to purchase a ticket for this weekend's sold-out tournament at Kemper Arena was from a scaler.
"Other than through a scalper, it's impossible." McCarthy said. "We certainly don't condone that because you'd be paying three to four
times the face value."
Ticket scalping is illegal in Kansas City, Mo.
"The average caller really doesn't care about the price." Gray said. Most of the buyers were professional business people ranging in age from 27 to 60, he said. Gray said people had called from as far away as California wanting tickets.
Prices at Premier Tickets, an independent ticket brokerage in East St. Louis, Ill., ranged from $150 to $650 for the whole tournament, said Steve Gray, owner. Face value of the tickets ranged from $110 to $190.
"Students don't have that kind of money to spend on that," he said. "It's obviously quite a bit of money to pay for four days of basketball."
Golden Tickets, a business in Plano,
Texas, was sold out yesterday of lower-level seating and was offering
tournament tickets in upper-level
seating for $250 and individual game
tickets for $95.
Ram Silverman, owner, said most of the demand from callers this time of year was for the Big Eight, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference tournaments.
That means ticket holders of the tournament will not be the only ones benefiting.
Many students were scared off by the high prices, Silverman said.
Ken Wallace, owner of the Jayhawk Cafe, 1340 Ohio St., said business at the bar would increase with every round of the tournament, depending on how KU played.
But the Big Eight Tournament would not bring in as many fans as the NCAA Tournament, partly because of the time of day the games were played.
"It's not nearly the kind of go-out-and-hit-the-bars kind of thing partly because they're afternoon games," Wallace said.
Road to the Big Eight championship
The Big Eight tournament is held each year at Kemper Arena in downtown Kansas City, Mo. Kansas plays Colorado in the first round of the tournament today. See page 7 for complete details.
Andrew Hodges / KANSAN
Final Confirmation
Janet Reno
The Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno yesterday as the nation's first female attorney general.
See story, Page 5.
Debate teams qualify for national competition
Debate team KU duo receives at-large invitation
By Terrilyn McCormick
Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
The KU men's basketball team is not the only team at KU to be ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
Debate partners Tim Howard and Josh Zive also hold this honor and will compete in the National Debate Tournament March 26-30 at the University of Northern Iowa.
Howard, Derby senior, and Zive, Reno, Nev., junior, received an at-large invitation to the tournament.
An at-large invitation automatically qualifies the pair for the tournament without going through district tournaments. Only
rns is something Josh and I have been working for since we were freshman," Howard said. "It is a real big honor."
16 teams in the nation received this invitation, Howard said.
Scott Harris, assistant professor of communications and KU debate coach, said he was not surprised that Howard and Zive received the at-large invitation.
"At the beginning of the year I said that they definitely had the talent to go to the finals," he said. "But they have exceeded my expectations."
KU also has two other teams competing in the national tournament. Chris Baron, Lawrence junior, and Kirk Redmond, Wichita sophomore, qualified for the tournament at the district tournament, and Angie Letts, Lincoln, Neb., sophomore, and Ryan Boyd, Independence sophomore, received an invitation to the tournament because of their performance record
Only four other schools in the nation qualified three teams for the tournament. Howard said.
Harris said all the teams had potential to make it to the final rounds of the national tournament.
"All three of these teams have shown themselves capable of beating any team in the nation," he said.
The three teams will debate the topic, "Resolved that the United States should substantially change its development assistance policies toward South Asia."
The KU debate team is also sending the team of Jon Pevehone, Coffeyville junior, and Andrew McGlone, Emporia sophomore, to the Cross Examination Debate Association Tournament March 25-29 at Towson State University in Baltimore. Teams do not have to qualify to participate.
Some KU debate squad facts:
The case for KU debate
This is the 24th consecutive season that a debate squad team has qualified for the National Debate Tournament.
It is the 20th season that two debate squad teams have qualified for the National Debate Tournament.
In the 1982-93 season the debate squad competed at 14 tournaments. At every tournament, the squad had at least one team qualify for the elimination round. They placed second four times and placed third once.
The 1083 season was the last time the KU debate squad won the National Debate Tournament.
The last time a KU oebate team received an at-large invitation for the tournament, which is given out to the top 16 teams in the nation, was in 1980.