Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Monday, November 6.1989
3
Kansas businesses searching for skills
By a Kansan reporter
TOPEKA —Business leaders indicated that new employees are lacking basic communication skills in a study presented to legislators last week.
"There needs to be a development and increase in income for education," said Charles Warren of Kangas Inc., the group commissioned to conduct the study with the KU Institute of Public Policy and Business Research.
He told the Joint Committee on Economic Development that Kansas has ranked high for years among businesses for attracting businesses.
"There is no reason we can't be in the top five," Warren said. "Our premier advantage has been the attitude and work ethic of our workers."
He said the number of businesses surveyed was large, 618 statewide,
not only for a state study but for a national one as well. Some national studies had been conducted with 140 businesses.
Charles Krider, director of the Institute, told the Joint Legislative Educational Planning Committee on Oct. 30 that businesses were concerned with the communication skills of their new employees.
Krider said businesses no longer were looking at just the technical skills of employees.
Of the 618 businesses surveyed, 60 percent said new employees needed better writing skills and 43 percent needed to improve reading skills.
"They can give specific training on the job," he said. "They are looking for employees who are able to pick up a manual and read it.
"It's important that basic skills be taught. Employers don't want students that are narrowly trained, they want those with broad training."
Student, colleague testify in dismissal Both say Willner 'intimidated' them
By Doug Fishback Kansan staff writer
A colleague and a former student of Dorothy Willner told a Faculty Senate committee Friday of relationships with the professor of anthropology that began on pleasant terms but eventually became troubled.
Robert Smith, professor of anthropology, was the second witness called Friday by Rose Marino, the chancellor's legal representative during Willner's dismissal hearings.
Smith told the Faculty Senate Committee on Tenure and Related Problems that he and Willner had been "on friendly and collegial terms" during most of the 1970s. About 1890, however, he and Willner stopped communicating because she intimated him and other department of anthropology members, he said.
"I simply feel that she's destroyed the department," Smith said. "People in the department have felt intimidated. They know that she has slandered them locally and nationally."
"I have no concrete evidence," Smith said.
During cross-examination, Donald Koster, Williner's representative, asked Smith to provide the name of someone slandered by Willner or an example of slander she was said to have committed.
"I just had the feeling that if I looked crosswise at her, I'd get sued. The same thing goes for students," he said.
Smith said that the anticipation of being sued interfered with the regular duties of anthropology faculty, who spent a lot of time searching through file cabinets for documents that would help defend them.
When Koster later asked for concrete examples of insulting or demanding actions taken by Willner, Smith said he could give none.
Koster asked Smith to identify statements about Wilher he was said to have made for an April 22, 1988, letter from Robert Squier, former chairman of anthropology, to Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs. Smith claimed authorship of two statements that Squier had attributed to him in earlier testimony.
Koster asked Smith whether one of his statements reflected his own unwillingness to communicate with Willner.
"I think it eventually became that," Smith said.
He stopped communicating with Willner after she named him in a lawsuit and after she had, in his opinion, misstated students, he said.
Koster asked Smith whether he thought the difficulty department members had in working with Willner had been entirely her fault.
"Yes, in the sense that she created the conditions that made us extremely reluctant to deal with her," Smith said.
In other testimony, Sue Schuessler, an anthropology graduate student and a former student of Willner, told the committee that she would not recommend Willner's classes to other students because her "irrational behavior kind of makes the learning atmosphere a little difficult."
She said that Willner privately and falsely accused her in 1983 of plagiarizing on a midterm paper, saying that she was a bad student and that she "should never have graduated from high school."
"I cried all the way back to Kansas City, where I lived." Schuessler said.
During another class period, Willner asked her to present a paper to the class instead of later in the semester as had been planned, Schuessler said.
She said that when she told Willner she could not present the paper because she was to present a paper for another course that day, Willner "began yelling 'at me that I was giving favor to the other class over her class.'"
"We agreed that she was a very intelligent woman and that she had assigned good readings ... but that woman said, "In what one said or asked," she said.
Schuessler said that she had discussed Willner's classroom demeanor with some of her classmates and that they had tried to figure out how to avoid angering their professor.
Open hearings resume at 2 p.m. today at the Centennial Room in the Kansas Union.
Above, Thor Holmes, collection manager of mammals for the Natural History Museum, displays the skull of a bottlenose dolphin to children at the "Oceans Full of Mammals" workshop. The workshop was part of the "Super Seminar Program." The programs are scheduled before every home football game as activities for families from out-of-town. Left, Kevin Gratham, 9, Kansas City, Kan., draws a picture of a whale during Saturday's workshop in which 14 children participated.
Recycling planned in KU halls
By Lisa Moss Kansan staff writer
Students living in KU residence halls soon will be able to coordinate recycling efforts through the Association of University Resident Halls.
Cotter Brown, president of AURH,
created on Thursday an environmental
chairman position on the
executive board.
The position would help coordinate residence halls recycling efforts. Nobody has been chosen to fill the position, he said.
I think there are a lot of people who would like to use recyclable objects, but they don't know where to get them.'
— Cotter Brown AURH president
The environmental chairman would be responsible for working with hall managers regarding environmental issues, starting a systemwide recycling program and possibly conducting programs in the halls dealing with environmental concerns, Brown said.
He said the chairman also would be responsible for informing the AURH general assembly about recycling options and insuring that products used by the residence halls were biodegradable.
"I think there are a lot of people who would like to use recyclable objects, but they don't know where to get them," Brown said.
If residents of the residence halls would like to purchase recycling bins, they could now request money from AURH, he said.
Brown said future plans for the chairman could include working with academic program directors to put on programs that could be funded by AURH.
Maureen Beary, secretary of AURH, said individual floors at some residence halls were recycling some materials now.
She said River City Recycling Co. would not pick up recyclable objects at the residence halls because the recycling efforts were not yet large enough.
The AURH environmental chairman could coordinate residence hall floor efforts with all-hall efforts and AURH. Beary said.
She said individual floors still would get the money they earned from recycling if the efforts were coordinated through AURH.
"The chairman could be a liaison between AURH and Environs. We would like to get feedback from them," Beary said.
Haskell summer school may be offered in 1990
By Jennifer Metz Kansan staff writer
Summer school could be offered this summer to students at Haskell Indian Junior College for the first time in more than 12 years.
The Department of the Interior fiscal year 1990 Interior Appropriations Bill includes $175,000 to begin a summer school session, said Sara Belden, press spokesman for Senator Bob Dole's office in Washington, D.C.
The bill, which was signed by President Bush in late October, will allow Haskell to implement a five-to eight-week summer school session this year.
Bob Martin. Haskell president, said the goal was to implement the program by this summer.
He said program organizers would like to see two types of programs in the session. The first type would have remedial courses for incoming freshmen, which would be basic college
Denise Low, instructor of English at Haskell, said a summer school session would give students better academic continuity. The program will be taught in the college because many Haskell students live far from home.
preparatory courses. The second type of program would have courses that allowed students to continue work toward their degrees.
A remedial program for incoming freshmen would offer courses such as
basic speech and basic composition courses, she said. New students at Haskell have to qualify for English 101 and pass placement tests before they enroll in college-level classes.
"A summer school program gives students a chance to catch up." Low said. "Then they can start in the fall graduate on time with their class."
Martin said the summer school program still is in the planning stages.
NATURAL WAY
It Pays To Be A Hero!
Donate Plasma and Win Big Bucks!
$1000 in cash and prizes to be given away
Register for drawings by donating 7 times or more between Nov. 1 and Dec. 14.
Each additional donation after your 7th, enters your name again.
Donate up to twice a week
ALSO
Earn cash every time you donate.
Earn cash every time you donate.
New donors receive $15 for first two donations
Return donors earn up to $22 a week
LAWRENCE DONOR CENTER 814 W.24th-Corner of 24th & Alabama
CLEAN & HOT
All New Washers 50¢-wash
Improved Hotter Dryers 25c-dry
Independent Laundromat 9th & Miss. 24hrs. other local laudromats 75¢ or $1.00 per wash
It's No Secret.
It's Good Food.
2700 Iowa
SOCIAL WORK Compassion, Caring, Commitment
—SOCIAL WORK HAS IT ALL—
Come to Social Work Career Practicum Fair Day and hear about career and educational opportunities.
Friday, November 10, 1:30 Kansas Union Ballroom