SPORTS: Oklahoma names Kelvin Sampson as its new men's basketball coach. Page 13.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.103.NO.146
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
TUESDAY APRIL 26,1994
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
Historic building may get funds
Finney proposes $3.8 million more to rebuild Hoch
NEWS: 864-4810
By Stephen Martino
Kansan staff writer
Gov. Joan Finney has included an additional $3.8 million for the reconstruction of Hoch Auditorium in her final budget amendment to the Kansas Legislature.
The Legislature will reconvene tomorrow for the veto session. At this time, the Legislature will consider possible overrides to all of Finney's vetoes and a last spending measure known as the omnibus appropriations bill. In this bill, legislators
consider appropriating money for the measures that they have passed throughout the session.
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee agreed with Finney's recommendation about Hoch and forwarded it to the entire House for consideration.
Hoch Auditorium, which was opened in 1927, was struck by lightning in July 1991. At the time, it contained the largest lecture hall on campus. The lightning caused a fire that destroyed the entire building with the exception of the front facing. The destruction of Hoch eliminated about 7 percent of the University's class space.
Finney recommended, and the Legislature appropriated, $18 million throughout a three-year period to rebuild Hoch in 1992. The money came from a $185 million refund that the state was paid by the federal government.
Reconstruction bids were announced in December. All of them were about $3 million more than the cost of the original plans.
University officials had lobbied for the additional money because of the need for new library space. Many pointed out that the state would be better off building the underground floors now instead of waiting until the library-space situation hit a crisis point.
The planned reconstruction of Hoch included a 1,000-person seating lecture hall and two 500-person seating lecture halls, said Allen Wiechert, university architect. In addition, he said, two underground library floors are to be built that will hold the government documents, now located at the sixth floor of Malott Hall.
"It is a good investment for the state to build library space now because underground construction is less expensive than above-ground," Wiechert said.
In March, a state committee on building suggested that the governor add an additional $3 million to Hoch reconstruction.
Finney said she had gone beyond the recommendation because she thought that Hoch was essential to the state.
"What that new building is going to do is dramatically improve education at KU," Finney said.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence and member of the appropriations committee, said that nothing was for sure but that the recommendation was a good sign.
"Hoch was going to have to be remodeled anyway, so if there is any good to come out of this, it is that we never could have afforded this much money to just remodel it," she said.
Orr receives life sentence for killing
By David Wilson Kansan staff writer
Abraham Orr, the 18-year-old Topeka man convicted of shooting 29-year-old Edward Lees of Lawrence in the head while attempting to steal his Isuzu Trooper last year, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday by the County District Judge James Paddeck
Orr also was sentenced to 32 months in prison for attempted aggravated robbery. He will not be eligible for parole until 2012.
Defense attorney Randy McGrath asked for a new trial and an arrest of judgment because, among other reasons, Orr was 17 at the time of the murder.
Paddock denied both requests. He also denied McGrath's request that Orr's murder and robbery sentences be concurrent and not consecutive.
Dana Chang, Edward Lees' girlfriend who was in the car at the time of the murder with her two children, made a brief statement.
She said that her children did not want to hear the name Abraham Orr because it reminded them of the shattered glass and blood.
According to police records, Orr and three friends had been driving to Topeka on Sept. 18, 1993, when their car broke down on I-70 near Lawrence. The three friends were James Wadley, Courtney Crockett and Adrian Perkins. All four were juveniles.
After the car broke down, Orr and Crockett walked to Riverfront Park while Perkins and Wadley waited by the car. Orr was carrying a 457, and Crockett was carrying a 9 mm, which Wadley had given to him.
In a statement, Orr said that he had approached Lees to ask for directions. When Lees attempted to back the car up, Orr shot him in the head. Crockett was convicted in Douglas County Court of first-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to confinement in the Youth Center at Topeka until the day he turns 21.
Valerie Bontrager/ KANSAN
Wadley was convicted of attempted aggravated robbery in Douglas County Court and sentenced in Shawnee County Court to two years' probation.
Perkins was not charged
Brett Koch, Topeka senior, and Oscar Marino, Lawrence security officer at Robinson Center, return the ball during a pickleball game. Pickleball, which is played with wooden paddles and a whiffle ball, is similar to tennis and badminton .
Pickleball netting fans across KU
Invented 30 years ago, the game is catching on
By Heather Barnes Special to the Kansan
The game was getting intense. Both players were hitting hard at the net when one got snapped in the face with the ball.
What is pickleball? Many KU students may not know about this racquet sport, said Tim Willett, graduate assistant of intramurals and pickleball player since 1980.
But no one got hurt because the people were playing with a whiffle ball in a game called pickleball.
Willett said that John Colgate, director of campus recreation at Western Illinois Uni-
versity, had invented the sport 30 years ago.
Now, pickleball is played throughout the United States. Willett said he knew of people who played in Massachusetts, Florida, New Mexico and Illinois.
Pickleball is played with wooden paddles and a whiffle ball. Its rules are similar to tennis, but players must serve underhanded. The game is won by whoever wins the best two out of three games, played to 11 points. The court is the size of a badminton court, but the net is on the ground.
"Pickleball is a fairly easy racquet sport to play," said Rick Rosenstengel, assistant director of intramurals. "You don't have to be a good tennis or racquetball player to be good at pickleball."
However, it can be a fast and exciting sport at the net. Rosenstengle said.
dove and rolled to get the ball.
Willett said that sometimes people even
Although the University doesn't have a pickleball club, recreational services offers singles and doubles tournaments throughout the year.
The last Intramural Pickleball Double Tournament consisted only of staff members from recreational services.
Willett, who enjoys sports such as flicker ball and inner-tube water basketball, said he encouraged people who liked to learn new sports to get involved.
"The guys in the office and myself like to play as often as we can," Willett said.
The pickleball players tried to set up a demonstration game in front of Wescoe Hall, but they didn't have the time or the opportunity. The recreation staff still is trying to come up with ideas to promote the game to students, Willett said.
The percentage of KU students graduating in five years is double the percentage graduating in four.
VIII Gunderman/KAMSAN
Money woes major changes keep students at KU longer
By Roberta Johnson Kansan staff writer
Editor's note: This is the second of five stories that examine how higher education is changing.
Entering freshmen have only a one-in-four chance of graduating from the University in four years,but their graduation rate doubles after five years.
Although some attribute this graduation rate to laziness, students often have other reasons why they are still in the University.
"A lot of people drop classes" said
Giavonni Brewer, Omaha, Neb., sophomore who said she would graduate in four years. "You just need to know how to manipulate your time. College is a full-time job."
The increase in the cost of college — the University's instate tuition has increased by more than 9 percent every year since 1983 — also has kept many of today's students out of the classroom and sent them into the workplace to pay the bills.
"It's a lot of stress worrying about how to pay my rent and electricity and at the same time have to worry about how to pass," said Erik Gnaggy, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore.
Tim Swenson, Overland Park sophomore, said he agreed that working hurt his education. Swenson, who works in Overland Park as a manager of a sporting goods store, said he would not graduate for four years.
"This University is unwilling to cooperate with working students," he said. "I have to work 40 hours a week to pay for a limited education."
Swenson said he would like to see more night courses that fulfill requirements and different discussiontimes.
"In some of my freshman-sophomore classes, I can only miss three classes," he said. "It's not like I don't want to be there and I'm out playing Frisbee. My loanpay for classes, but I have to work to survive."
In addition to money woes, students may find that changing majors means spending extra semesters in school.
Troy Gallagher, Topeka junior, already has been in college four years.
"I was in engineering first and then physical therapy," he said. "I've basically taken a bunch of useless classes."
Some students never had a choice of how long they would stay at the University. A few schools, such as the School of Architecture and Urban Design, mandate five-year programs for graduation.
The School of Pharmacy soon will require even more time. It will have phased out its five-year bachelor of science degree by Fall 1996 in favor of a doctorate of pharmacy degree that can be earned in one six-year interval, said Gary Grumewald, acting dean of pharmacy.
"The whole profession of pharmacy will have the Pharm. D. degree by the year 2000," he said. "There will no longer be a bachelor of science degree."
Grunewald said the programs now included two years of pre-pharmacy work and two or three years of pharmacy work.
"We need more training for the job's function," Grunewald said. "The current trend is involving pharmacy with patient care. A few schools are going to a seven-year program. We have not considered it yet."
Pickin' up
From commercials to movies, pick-up basketball recently has gained popularity.
Day of mourning to be held for Nixon
Page 9.
YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Residents of this quiet suburb are preparing for the mourners who will come to pay their last respects to native son Richard Nixon.
The Associated Press
Former president's funeral tomorrow
"I think the city is going to stand still for two days," Mayor Barbara Kiley said Sunday. "It's just going to be locked down."
Thousands are expected for the public viewing of former president Nixon's closed casket today and tomorrow. A much smaller group of dignitaries, friends, family and news media from around the world will attend tomorrow's funeral.
Police will work overtime patrolling the community of 56,000 located about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles, which boasts Orange County's lowest crime rate.
Stores will be closed, as well streets surrounding the Nixon Library & Birthplace.
No offices at the University of Kansas will be closed tomorrow, the national day of mourning for Nixon, who died Friday after a stroke. Most federal offices will be closed. However, none of the Lawrence post offices or banks will be closed.
The coffin bearing Nixon's remains will be flown from New York to California today aboard the same Boeing 707 jet that took him home after he resigned the presidency in 1974, said Maj. Mark Tolbert at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y.
President Clinton has declared tomorrow a national day of mourning. Federal offices and major stock markets will be closed. The New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange in New York observed two minutes of silence in memory of the nation's 37th president.
Nixon will be buried on library grounds next to his wife, Pat, who died last year.
J.
Clinton and the four living former U.S. presidents will be here, as will many foreign dignitaries. Television news producers expect to park at least 50 satellite trucks near the library.
Nixon was born Jan. 9, 1913, in a wood frame house his father, Frank, built from a kit on a 9-acre citrus ranch alongside Yorba Linda Boulevard.
"Now, the circle is complete," Kiley said. "We were proud of him while he was president. We celebrated the day the library opened. Now we tend to his memory. Now it becomes our responsibility."
"I believe he will become one of America's important, if not great, leaders," Dexter wrote.
The family struggled to make lemon trees grow in the poor soil and sold the farm at a loss in 1922, moving to nearby Whittier. There, they operated a grocery store and gas station. Nixon graduated from Whittier College, earning a scholarship to Duke University law school partly on the recommendation of then-college president Walter F. Dexter.
Despite the 37th president's rocky career, Yorba Linda residents hold a special place for him in their hearts and see the funeral as a historic day for the city of tract homes, mini malls, condominiums and horse trails.
Hundreds of people streamed to the library on Sunday, leaving carnations, roses and lilies. Flags flew at half-staff while workers completed bleachers in the parking lot.
Dedicated July 19, 1990, the $37 million Nixon library operates not on taxpayer dollars but rather on souvenir sales, ticket fees and donations. The restored white clapboard house where Nixon was born sits next to it.
Down the street, the congregation at United Methodist Church was led in a prayer for the Nixon family by pastor Todd Ehrenberg. Hotels in nearby Fullerton and Brea were selling out their rooms.