SPORTS: Kansas senior pitcher Jamie Splittorff leads the Jayhawks with an 8-0 record. Page 14.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.103.NO.137
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 6612
FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 1994
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Deadline today for May degrees
Kansan staff report
Today is the last day to fill out an application for graduation in May. Anyone who does not apply by today will not receive a May diploma. Applications can be filed at:
Business, 206 Summerfield Hall
Architecture — 205 Marvin Hall
CLAS, 109 Strong Hall
Education, 102 Bailey Hall
Education, 102 Bailey Hall
Engineering, 4010 Learned
Hall
Fine Arts, 300 Art and Design Building
Journalism, 201 Stauffer-Flint Hall
Law, 202 Green Hall
Pharmacy, 2056 Malott Hall Social Welfare, 212 Twente Hall.
Men dressed for LesBiGay awareness
By Cheryl Cadue Kansan staff writer.
More than 200 people watched three drag performers take center stage in front of the Kansas Union yesterday afternoon and lip-synch to songs such as Madonna's "Express Yourself."
The drag show, which was part of LesBiGay Awareness Week, celebrated the beginnings of the modern day gay rights movement, said Eric Moore, Lawrence senior and co-coordinator of the week's events. He said drag queens historically had played a significant role in the movement.
"It is important that this part of our culture be brought out." he said.
Chad Morrell, who dressed as a nun for his first song, said the response from the audience had been fabulous.
"I'm having a blast," said Morrell, whose stage name is Chantal. "It's kind of fun being the center of controversy."
Though he hoped that his performance was entertaining, Morrell said, he came to educate the audience.
"We all have to get along," he said. "We all
have to get together and work together."
Richard Martin Jr., whose stage name is Gizelle Bevon Ashton, said he appreciated everyone who attended the show.
"We had a mixed crowd and a mixed reaction," said Martin, the reigning Miss Gay Kansas-USA.
Within LesBiGay SOK, some controversy surrounded the decision to invite drag performers. Moore said.
"Some felt that we would be portraying a negative stereotype," he said. "The stereotype that all gay men wear dresses or that all gay men want to be women. That simply is not true."
The Rev. Fred Phelps of Topeka, whose church has protested the organization's activities all week, said he had expected a larger crowd at the performance.
**SERVICES:** LesBiGay SK can help with counseling for anyone interested. Page 5.
"Basically, I don't see anything wrong with it," he said. "It's creative. In this day and age, people have to practice what they want."
Marlon Sanders, St. Louis senior, said that he had never seen a drag performance but that he had found yesterday's performance entertaining.
Terry Bell, Tampa, Fla., senior and outgoing Black Student Union president, said the performance was an important display of campus diversity at the University. Bell also said it was phenomenal entertainment.
"I think it's an outstanding show," he said. "This performance should be in Vegas or something."
Gilbert Ye, Lawrence junior, said that the performers had looked like Las Vegas showgirls but that the show would have been better if the performers had not lip-synched.
"It's not like they're showing a talent other than that they can cross-dress," he said.
Valerie Bontrager / KANSAN
YOU dominates Senate elections
Chad Morrell, who uses the stage name "Chantal," performs some convent comedy before a crowd in front of the Kansas Union.
Agony of defeat sweet victory is a part of elections
Newly elected Student Senate vice president Eric Medill, president Sherman Reeves and campaign treasurer Jeff Russell explode with the announcement of their victory. The YOU coalition took 38 Senate seats and IGNITE finished with 12.
By Stephen Martino and David Wilson Kansan staff writers
Mixed among the champagne, beer and sweat that was flung throughout the Sigma Chi fraternity house, nothing that rolled down the face of Sherman Reeves last night was sweeter than his tears of joy.
Reeves, Manhattan junior, rolled to victory in the race for student body president with his running mate, Eric Medill, Sedan junior.
Medill said that his victory as vice president of Student Senate had made it the best night of his life. It contrasted to this time last year, Medill said, when he lost his bid for re-election to Student Senate.
Amy Solt / KANSAN
"This feels so good," he said. "It has been a goal of mine to be some kind of executive member of Senate, but now we have a lot of things to do."
Focusing on their campaign platform, such as lobbying in the Legislature and a Student Economic Union, is what Reeves and Medill said would be their priority.
In addition to Reeves and Medill's victories, their YOU coalition captured 38 Senate seats, including a sweep of all 14 in Nunemaker, representatives of freshman and sophomore liberal art students. Besides the 38 seats won, YOU's two candidates for the School of Law tied and will have the contest decided by a coin flip.
"We are very serious about our issues," Reeves said.
The YOU coalition captured the majority of the 3,446 votes cast in the elections. That number is down from 3,995 last year.
Jennifer Ford, election commissioner, said that a lack of controversy surrounding the coalitions accounted for the decrease.
"If nothing particularly special or interesting is happening in the election, people just ignore it," she said.
Thirteen percent of this year's 26,127 Lawrence campus population voted in the elections.
At the IGNITE coalition party at the Triangle fraternity house, sharp screams pierced the air when IGNITE coalition winners were announced.
But when Reeves and Medill of the YOU coalition were announced as president and
vice president, the only noise was the sound of a cup being slammed to the floor in anger.
IGNITE presidential candidate Chad Taylor, Silver Lake sophomore, broke the sullen silence.
"Hey, we've got a lot of future senators in this room," he said.
The 12 members of the A.S. W.E. GO! coalition gathered around a radio in a small upstairs room at Free State Brewery, 636 Massachusetts St. They were subdued while they heard the results of the elections. None of their candidates won seats
IGNITE vice presidential candidate Tonya Cole, Edwardsville junior, sat storically under the supportive arm of a friend.
"You played it straight and right," she said, referring to the campaign. "You can spend thousands of dollars of Daddy's money and win, but you lose your soul."
Student senator Ami Hizer, Lawrence junior and member of the IGNITE coalition, gave a fiery impromptu speech.
Daron Sinkler, Shawnee senior and the coalition's presidential candidate, said he thought his coalition would have gained more votes had more students voted.
"I'm disappointed with the student body," he said. "They don't understand that these issues are vital to them. It's their money."
After his reaction to his loss, Gist said that he was disappointed with voter turnout reports from Wednesday.
The mood was jovial in the independents' headquarters at the apartment of presidential candidate Bill Gist, where about a dozen supporters gathered to await election results.
"In the words of a former election commission member, 'If all the independents voted, we'd win in a landslide,' Gist said.
Thefinaltally
The YOU coalition won the Student Senate presidential and vice presidential races last night. In the election, 3,446 ballots were cast. All 26,127 student on the Lawrence campus were eligible'd vote.
The election results were:
YOU — Sherman Reeves, 1,524
IGNITE — Chad Taylor, 1,083
Tonva Cole
INDEPENDENT — Bill Gist, 526
Scott McDaniel
A.S. W.E. GOI — Daron Sinkler, 106
Jonathan Cancer
WRITE-IN—BJ Crofton 22
KANSAN
Watkins fee approved by wide margin
By Jamie Munn
Kansan staff writer
MANHATTAN — While students were voting yesterday to approve a Watkins Memorial Health Center fee increase, KU officials already were presenting it to the Board of Regents.
The proposal, which passed by a 2-to-1 margin, will add a $15 fee for the fall and spring.
$10 fee for the car spends $9
semesters and a $7.50 fee for
the summer terms, beginning
this fall, for an undetermined
number of years. The fee will
be cut off when funds are
adequate to finance the expansion.
The fee will provide money for additional physician examination rooms and quadruple the size of the Urgent Care Clinic.
David Shulenberger, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the Watkins fee had been proposed this year as part of a first reading of increases presented to the Regents every April.
Referendum
The fee will go before the Regents for approval at their next meeting in May.
KU students approved a referendum yesterday that would increase student fees by $15 in the fall and spring semesters and $7.50 in summer semesters to finance a 20,000-square foot expansion of Watkins Memorial Health Center. The proposal will go before the Board of Regents at its meeting next month.
Yes — 2,033
No — 1,110
KANSAN
Shulenberger said the increase had been proposed before the Regents because it had been approved by Student Senate. Students voted on the measure because a 1988 state statute required a student vote for fee increases concerning student-financed health care, he said.
Tonya Cole, Edwardsville junior and author of the referendum was pleased with the outcome of the vote.
"We set out for better service," she said. "We got what we wanted and what the students deserved."
Jill Bechtel, Hutchinson junior, also supported the fee increase but said she was worried that it would not pass because students didn't hear much information about it.
"If this hadn't passed, students in the future would have been hurt," she said.
But other students thought that the vote had been unfair because of lack of information about the increase.
Daron Sinkler, Shawnee senior and former A.S. W.E. GO! presidential candidate, said the University should not ask students for money without better explaining the issue.
Godwin Mchau, Riverside, Calif., postdoctoral student, said he did not support the Watkins fee.
"The people who voted today, about 10 percent of the student body, are going to affect 100 percent of the student body," he said.
Disaster over Iraq
Two U.S. fighter jets mistakenly shot down two U.S. helicopters yesterday, killing 26. Of those killed, 21 were military officers from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.
Best-selling author addresses society's ills
Five Kurd passengers also were killed. The jet pilots mistook the UH-60 Blackhawk choppers for Iraqi "Hind" helicopters. The Blackhawk choppers were flying north of the 32nd parallel in the "no-fly zone" over northern Iraq.
Page 9.
Bv Roberta Johnson
Kansanstaffwriter
Multiculturalism runs much deeper than the question of white or Black, yellow or red, said Cornel West, author of the best-selling book "Race Matters."
"The whole country is full of rage," he said last night. "We move from womb to tomb with feelings of powerlessness and cynicism."
West said that all too often people found a scapegoat for their problems, which ranged from economic troubles to an overall decay of culture.
West, who said deeper problems influenced the lack of multiculturalism, spoke to members of Black Student Union and KU Hille yesterday afternoon and to about 1,300 people at the Kansas Union Ballroom last night.
"America is a conservative nation," he said. "We solve problems with economic growth. Have problems? Grow the economy. The kids' spirits are empty? Grow the economy."
But the problem is that more people are working harder for less pay, West said, and this has led to a decrease in human spirit.
"The increase in poverty has led to escalating levels of paranoia, and this paranoia has led to escalating levels of distrust." he said.
Distrust is one of the roots in the breakdown of human relations, he said.
"We need to acknowledge that as we push through life, we need someone to rely on who makes life worth living," he said.
West said the need for compassion and communication had been replaced by the desire to obtain material goods.
"There is an erosion of a nurturing, caring system for young people across the board," he said.
West said this lack of support, combined with the demise of the American Dream, had shattered the younger generations' hopes for a good life.
"They are experiencing futurelessness," he said. "Their spirits are empty. Many people reach the conclusion that life is not worth living."
West said that although pain might come in different forms for different ethnic groups, no single group was hurting the most.
"A Polish person's pain is no greater than a Black person's pain," he said. "Human pain is human pain."
14
Cornel West speaks about understanding multiculturalism in the modern age. West spoke to about 1,300 people last night at the Kansas Union Ballroom.
West urged his listeners to return to some form of spirituality to see themselves through hard times.
"Never let misery get the last word, even if you have to sing a song," he said.