CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 25, 1993
3
Admissions plan riles opponents
Officials denounce bill as depriving capable students
By Ben Grove
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA—Kansas is doing just fine without qualified admissions at its Regents universities, opponents of a state Senate bill said yesterday.
The qualified admissions bill would require incoming students to meet at least one of three requirements. High school students would need either a 2.0 grade point average, a composite ACT score of 24 or be in the top third of their high school class.
A familiar argument against the bill was championed by Phyllis Chase, a Topeka school board representative, as debate over qualified admissions continued in the Senate Education Committee. Chase said qualified
admissions would deprive able students of an education.
She cited a 1955 KU study that found that about 20 percent of the University's graduates in that year would not have met any of the qualified admissions standards when they entered the University.
"What would we find out about the students in our state if they were subjected to the same requirements today?" she said.
David DePue, executive director of the Kansas Council on Vocational Education, said he opposed the qualified admissions philosophy that remedial education should be moved from the Regents schools to vocational and technical schools.
A state school board representative also said the bill's time had not come in Kansas. He reminded the committee that the state does have a qualified admissions standard — possession of a high school diploma.
DePue said the Regents universities were not wasting money and resources by providing remedial education to students unprepared for a college curriculum. He said students drop out of college primarily because of social, personal or financial problems, not because of academic unpreparedness.
"We would not object if the Regents agreed to try qualified admissions on pilot basis," said John Koepke, executive director of Kansas Association of School Boards, after the meeting. "Of course, the most logical place to begin would be at KU or K-State."
The committee also reviewed a related bill that would require high school students to pass a basic skills
test to be admitted to a Regents university in addition to meeting one of the three qualified admissions standards.
"I read the applications," he said. "They can't spell. They have difficulty writing a narrative. We do not have time to take them by the hand as industries had the time to do 30 years ago."
Vernon Nikkel, a Hesston business representative, said if high school graduates did not have basic reading, writing and math skills that they were not employable.
But Topeka schools superintendent Gary Livingston said the basic skills test was not an accurate indicator that a high school student could fall at a university.
"I don't believe a traditional, one-time paper and pencil test is going to lead us to those kinds of kids," he said. Hearings on the bills continue
lead us to those kinds of kids, he said. Hearings on the bills continue today.
Hearing draws few voices of protest
Psychology faculty oppose proposed department merger
By Dan England Kansan staff writer
Despite expectations of a large crowd, only four faculty members showed up at a hearing last night to speak against a proposal that would merge two psychology departments.
The public hearing was designed to give students and faculty a chance to speak either for or against a proposed merger of the department of counseling psychology with the department of educational psychology.
Rich Simpson, who heads the committee, said he expected more speakers at the hearing.
"We thought people might have been overflowing the room," Simpson said. "But we really didn't know what to expect."
The merger, a result of program review, was proposed as a way to save money by eliminating a chairperson in one of the departments, said David Shulenburger, acting vice chancellor of academic affairs. That person would be free to teach again, giving both the departments an added instructor, he said.
Edward Heck, professor of counseling psychology, said the added responsibilities for the faculty after the chairperson was eliminated
would take away from an instructor's ability to teach.
"I know of a lot of faculty who are disturbed at the possibility of an added burden with no additional compensation," Heck said. "These people don't want it."
Robert Hohn, professor of educational psychology and research, said that combining the programs would complicate any future problems in the school.
"A large monolithic structure may be slower to respond to a problem than two little divisions." Holn said.
Dick Tracy, associate professor of educational psychology and research and head of University Council, said that if faculty members wanted to work on a project or research together they would have done so by now.
"They have been within shouting distance of each other for a long time." Tracy said.
E. P. Johnson, professor of educational psychology and research, said that two departments' faculty members, because of their separate interests, probably would not be able to work together effectively.
The committee will hold an additional hearing at 8:00 to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the same location.
Snow day?
Call 864-SNOW
A new telephone number, 864-SNOW, is available to inform faculty, students and staff when classes will be canceled. The recorded message will be updated by 6:30 a.m. when the University's inclement weather policy is in effect. The policy allows employees an extra hour to report to work.
Irene Lanier / KANSAN
Dan Schauer / KANSAN
Ash Wednesday
Suzy Heim, Topeka junior, receives the imposition of ashes from Rev. Joe Allford, chaplain at the Canterbury House, during Ash Wednesday services in Danforth Chapel. Yesterday marked the first day Lent.
Source: Kansan staff research
Class provides forum for writers
Students examine creative process in writing workshop
By Terrilyn McCormick
Kansan staff writer
Writing a short story is difficult, but reading it to a class of students who are going to critique it may be worse.
Mons Benson's voice cracked as he readhis untitled short story yesterday to his fiction writing class. One of his shaking hands twirped a pen as the other held a manuscript about a psychiatrist who eagerly prescribes lithium and then becomes hooked himself.
After reading the story, Benson, Lawrence senior, took a jab at his story before his classmates got a chance.
"I think it sucks," he said, throwing the story down. "Just to let you know."
Benson is one of 110 students enrolled in Fiction Writing I who write short stories for a grade instead of taking tests and writing research papers.
because they enjoy writing, and are deciding if they have the talent for a professional career.
Benson said he took the class because he had done a little bit of writing on his own before taking the class. He said he did not have any immediate plans to have his work published.
"If I got confident enough to submit my work, it would be really nice," he said. "But that really isn't a goal right now."
James Gum, professor of English,
said that most students take the class
Opportunity for publication at KU for these students is slim. Gunn said, The Kiosk, a KU literary magazine, is published twice a year. It is the one forum the creative writing program in the department of English offers to students.
Even though the opportunity for publication is limited at the University, publication is important for a writer, Gunn said.
"The only way to improve as a writer is to write with the intent of getting published," he said.
Gum said the structure of the class focused on evaluation, another important aspect of the creative process of writing. The class is set up like a workshop where each student has to write a story and critique other students' stories.
Benson said this peer critique meant more than the professor's.
"Here you are really putting it on the line," he said. "I wouldn't have missed this class for my critique today for the world."
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