SPORTS: The Kansas women's basketball team defeated Kansas State 65-54 Saturday in Manhattan. Page 10.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.103.NO.110
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANSAS STATE
HTSTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28,1994
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
Texas, Texas Tech agree to join Big 8, er ... 12?
The Scattered 12
Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M have agreed to leave the Southwest Athletic Conference and join the Big Eight conference.
Dave Campbell / KANSAN
Four SWC schools jump ship in total
By Michael Holmes The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — After saying thanks for the memories, regents of the University of Texas and Texas Tech voted unanimously Friday to bolt from the Southwest Conference and join the Big Eight.
Their moves followed decisions earlier last week by Texas A&M and Baylor to leave the SWC. The decisions at all four schools were unanimous.
The exodus will leave the 80-year-old SWC with just four members when the new "Big L2" begins play in 1996. But SWC officials say they already are talking with potential new members. The four remaining SWC schools are Houston, Rice, Southern Methodist and Texas Christian.
The history and tradition of the Southwest Conference is interwoven with the
COLUMN: Sports editor David Dorsey
discusses the benefits of the new Big Eight Conference. Page 10.
very fabric of our state and our lives," UT system chancellor William Cunningham said. "The change is both sad and painful. Nevertheless, in this case, the change is inevitable."
Cunningham cited the failure of several SWC schools to boost attendance and to strengthen women's athletic programs. But the conference had been weakened by a series of NCAA probations, including a "death penalty" which halted intercollegiate football at SMU for 1987 and 1988.
The decisions were expected but no less welcomed by Bir Eight members.
The Big Eight had been the only major
"Certainly, the addition of these four outstanding institutions of higher education to the Big Eight family will enhance the academic and athletic reputations of our conference," said Colorado chancellor James Corbridge, chairman of the Association of Big Eight Universities.
conference in the NCAA not to undergo a change in membership the past 30 years.
Texas, Texas A&M and Baylor were charter members of the SWC, which was organized in 1914. Texas Tech joined in 1956.
"The reality of the present environment is that intercollegiate athletics is undergoing considerable evaluation and adjustment." Big Eight commissioner Carl James said.
Cunningham told the regents there were several major reasons for accepting the Big Eight's invitation.
The arrangement allows four state schools to go to the same new conference rather than having Texas move on its own. It groups the Austin school with other large state schools committed to big-time men's and women's sports.
The deal also keeps a more homogeneous geographic alignment, because all 12 schools in the expanded conference are in the central part of the country.
"We tried very hard for many years to make the SWC a strong and competitive vehicle through which our student athletes could attain a position of national prominence in intercollegiate athletics," Cunningham said. "Regrettably, it has become clear that the SWC can no longer provide those opportunities."
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.
Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb.
 Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
University of Missouri, Colombia, Mo.
Oklahoma State University, Norman, Okla.
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla.
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.
Texas A&M University, Galveston, Texas.
Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
KANSAN
The Big Eight's proposal is meant to find the best possible television contract beginning in 1996-97. The Big Eight, with other conferences already signed with networks, decided that having the four SWC schools would make for a more lucrative package.
Revue closes a record season
Rock Chalk '94 raises $43,000
By Frank McCleary Kansan staff writer
Sean Harris, Overland Park freshman, expresses his joy at winning by hugging other performers in his production. "For Whom the Will Told," performed by Delta Gamma and Lamda Chi Alpha, took the most awards at Rock Chalk Revue Saturday night.
Nancy and Drew Hardy investigated their way into Rock Chalk Revue history Saturday night.
They were the main characters in Delta Gamma and Lambda Chi Alpha's production of "For Whom the Will Told." The show won six of
the nine awarers presented Saturday night, including best show, best actress for Kara Meysenburg as Nancy Hardy and
Page14.
AWARDS:
See who won
best show and
other honors.
rhardy and best actor for Jamey Welch as Drew Hardy.
"For Whom the Will Told" was a mystery about a murdered hotel owner, J.R. Frump, a spoof of Donald Trump. Nancy and Drew Hardy were lounge singers-turned-private detectives who investigated the murder.
Welch, Dallas senior, said that he had been involved with the revue for four years but that this year's show was special to him.
"This was the icing on the cake," he said.
Welch, who helped direct the show, said that he and the other directors went through several ideas before they decided on the final one.
"We were pounding out a lot of ideas," he said. "We decided to play off the Trump Towers idea. We thought we could get a lot of peculiar characters for that subject."
The revue, which sold out two out of three nights, also tied or set records for money raised and for community service.
The revue's three-night run con-
included its first year in the Lied Center with a record-tying $43,000 raised for the United Way of Douglas County. The 1992 performance raised the same amount. The revue raised $26,000 last year.
The donations primarily come from ticket sales, but they also come from program advertisements and Friends of Rock Chalk Revue, a national mailing campaign.
Tad Gomez, Wichita senior and executive show producer, said he was surprised by the money raised.
Revue participants also donated time to the United Way. The 19,464 hours donated set a revenue record for the four-year history of the service program. Students donated time from September through February to service projects throughout Douglas County.
"The community service directors built me up like it wasn't going to be this big," he said.
Lee Saylor, technical director for the Lied Center, provided technical assistance for the revue. He said he
"They were willing to listen to what I had to say and vice versa," he said.
Saylor said the revue was as important as the other acts that performed at the center.
had had a good working relationship with the students.
"You don't get treated differently because you're a student group," he said. "Each individual performance of Rock Chalk Revue is just like 'The Secret Garden' or other shows."
By Cheryl Cadue Kansan staff writer
Statues not diverse students contend
Krista Morgan, St. Louis senior, said she saw a lack of monuments to minority students every time she walked on campus.
"I notice it, and it's in the back of my mind," Morgan said. "It bothers me because this is suppose to be a multi-culturally diverse university. There's nothing that represents that."
Morgan said she would like for that to change.
"For years, there's been talk about making it a more multicultural campus," she said. "And I'm tired of hearing people talk, and I want to see something happen."
No statues, monuments or plaques commemorating a nonwhite person stand at the University of Kansas, said Sherwood Thompson, director of the Office of Minority Affairs. But he said the University of Kansas should have had statues or markers that recognized the contributions of people of color to the University.
"They are a way of identifying and acknowledging the diversity of the campus," Thompson said. "And they are also a way to give a signature to the type of place we are."
Thompson said that because a diverse group of people helped make University history, marking those contributions would show that the University was accepting of all cultures and recognized the roles that all people have at the University.
Thompson said statues or symbols that recognized white contributions expressed attitudes of an era that had no longer existed at the University.
"Education transcends textbooks, classrooms and research laboratories," he said. "Education is part of the environmental impact that a person is confronted with on a day-by-day basis."
Andrea Norris, chair of the Art and Public Places Committee, said that even though the KU campus had no sculptures that portrayed minorities or women, the absence had not been noticeable because there were only a few sculptures on campus.
Oread Forum
Do heritage celebrations help?
The Kansan wants to know what you think about the effectiveness of heritage celebrations such as Black History Month, which ends today.
Please call the Oread Forum at 864-9040 and share your ideas. The Oread Forum will stop taking calls at 6 p.m. today. Responses will be printed Wednesday.
KANSAN
were 100 sculptures and none were of a minority," Norris said. "The absence is not conscious or intentional because there's not much public art in the first place."
James Banning, editor of Campus Ecology, said the institutional values of a university could be seen in statues, architecture and other physical features of the college campus.
"Statues and other physical features on a college campus are basically cultural artifacts," said Banning, who studies the physical features of campuses across the United States. "These artifacts communicate institutional values. Especially in regard to historical features, you can give a message that is unwelcoming."
"It would be a lot different if there
Banning said campus statues and architecture could be racist, sexist or homophobic, and these kinds of messages made a university setting uncomfortable.
"We put things in our culture, and we typically don't spend time thinking about the message were giving minorities, women and the physically disabled," he said.
Arthur Jackson III, third-year law student, said he would have liked to see a statue recognizing an African American for academic contributions rather than athletics.
"If they decided to put one up, I'd want it in front of Wesco Beach or somewhere that will give the white student population a chance to see it and know who it is and why it's there," Jackson said. "I just don't want to have it in some corner."
In the shadows
Backstage moments on opening night show the essence of Rock Chalk Revue.
Page 6.
NASA leader: Military research no longer flies
By Stephen Martino Kansan staff writer
Director spoke at KU, pushed general aviation
NASA's leader, Daniel Goldin, came to the University of Kansas to learn what headway the school was making in space- and aviation science research.
However, at the end of the two-hour presentation, Goldin was the one who had given the lesson.
Often using a terse and pointed tone, Goldin, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, delivered several chastisements when discussing the future of general aviation in the United States.
Goldin met with University professors, administrators and students Saturday at
the Adams Alumni Center. The meeting was arranged by U.S. Rep. Jan Meyers, R-Kansas, who was in attendance.
Goldin spoke forcefully after a presentation by Steven Smith, Lawrence graduate student in aerospace engineering. Smith had explained a military airplane model, which had won first place in a national contest.
"It's wonderful you're designing military planes that will never fly, but you could make a wonderful impact in general aviation," Goldin said. "General aviation is becoming a national disaster. Soon we will be training our pilots in French planes."
As recently as 1978, the United States produced about 18,000 general aviation planes, Goldin said. But it produced only 899 in 1992 and 644 in 1993, he said.
had to use what technology was available.
But Goldin disagreed with Roskam.
Jan Roskam, distinguished professor of aerospace engineering, said that the emphasis in the aerospace industry was not on the design of general aviation planes but on military aircraft and that designers
"You have a self-fulfilling prophecy for failure," he said. "That's why American industry is lagging so far behind other nations."
Roskam said he understood Goldin's concerns, but manufacturers of planes would rather see quicker results than develop new technology.
"What the director did not know is that since 1981 most of the contest projects have been for military designs," Roskam said. "We have participated because I've always felt students deserve a chance to win national championships."
The University's aerospace engineering students participate in three major national plane design competitions each year, Roskam said. The contests are sponsored by manufacturers such as United Technologies, Lockheed and Pratt and Whitney. The University has won first in at least one competition every year since 1981.
Goldin said that NASA could be more involved in designs. He said it would try to plan a national competition focusing students' efforts on general aviation design.
The proposed contest would promote long-range general-aviation design, said Robert Whitehead, deputy associate director for aeronautics for NASA.
Whitehead said that even though the contest idea was a product of Saturday's discussion, NASA would work hard to see it happen.
"The idea came from the director, the very top," he said. "That's a pretty good place to have an idea come from."
Goldin said that he did not like being an irritant, but his style was necessary to get the United States moving in the right direction for general aviation.
Chancellor Gene Budig, who spoke at the forum, praised Goldin's idea.
A
"You are a refreshing irritant," he said.
"We would welcome such a competition."
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