THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL 100, NO.2 (USPS 650-640)
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
MONDAY AUG.28,1989
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NEWS: 864-4810
Grissom was a nice guy, KU students recall
By Lisa Moss Kansan staff writer
When Katherine Arenal met Richard Grissom Jr., she thought he was a nice guy.
Arenal, El Paso, Texas junior, met Grissom at Pizazz, a bar at Ninth and Mississippi streets, near the beginning of his name was Ricky Cho, Anarai said.
"We started hanging out." Arenal said. "We played tennis and racquet-ball."
Grissom was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Christine Rusch, 22, and Theresa J. Brown, 22, both of Lenexa; and Joan M. Butler, 24, a 1987 University of Kansas graduate from Overland Park. No bodies have been found.
Butler was reported missing June 18, said Maj. John Round of the Overland Park Park Police Department.
Five months later, on Aug. 16.
I the week Joan was missing, Ricky (Grissom) came over in her car. We drove around in it.'
Lt. David Burger of the Lenexa Police Department said Rusch and Brown, who were roommates, were reported missing June 27. They were assumed missing with foul play suspected on June 26, he said.
El Paso, Texas, junior
A reward of $18,000 is being offered for information about the three women, said Jim Graham, managing director of the Kansas City Crime Commission.
Grissom also is a suspect in the
death of Terri Maness, 25, of Wichita,
Round said.
Grissom faces numerous other charges including one count of aggravated, kidnapping, four counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated burglary. Bond has
been set at $1 million. Round said.
In 1977, a juvenile court judge ruled that Grissom strangled 72-year-old Hazel Meeker of Lansing with a hair net and a rope and bludgeoned her from railroad spike, said Capt. Ellen Hanson of the Lenexa police.
"The worst thing I ever would have said about him is that I thought he was boring." Carolyn Masston, 24, wrote in the *New York Times*. "I just seemed like your average buyer."
Masinton, Arenal's friend, also met Grissom at Pizazz.
"We noticed him because he had never seem him before," Masinont said. "He had presence about him. He was an incredibly good dancer and he was very good looking."
She said Grissom liked being in Lawrence because the people were friendly.
"When I first met Ricky (Grissom) I thought he was cute," Lyn Nye, Highland Park, III., senior, said. "I remember hearing on the news that Joan Butler was missing, but I never
KU prof interprets data from Voyager
By Derek Schmidt Kansan staff writer
When the data transmitted from Voyager 2's pass by Neptune reached the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., a KU professor was there to study it.
Tom Armstrong, professor of physics and astronomy, is part of the team of scientists studying radiation from Neptune's magnetic field.
"It's an interesting and complex place," Armstrong said of Neptune. He said the planet's magnetic field was weaker than that of Earth, a surprising fact because Neptune is larger. The planet's magnetic radiation is most similar to that of Uranus, but Neptune's magnetic field is tilted from its axis of revolution, Armstrong said.
"That makes for some pretty complex geometric calculations," he added.
Scientists can learn about the circulation and conductivity of the materials that compose the planet by studying its magnetic field, he said.
"Clearly it's got a lot of materials that can carry electrical currents," Armstrong said, adding that those materials were not too deep below Neptune's surface.
Armstrong said he did not attend Friday's space policy address by Vice President Dan Quayle, which drew more than 1,000 scientists, because he was working on interpreting the Voyager data.
Armstrong is six months into a two-year leave from KU to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington, D.C. He spent a few days in California when the Voyager 2 data arrived.
"I was walking back and forth past this crowd as I went about my duties, he said. "I was not part of it." He was just working on wearing a working scientist's hat."
Raymond Ammar, chairman of the department of physics and astronomy, said Armstrong's experience would benefit KU in two ways.
Armstrong has been involved in the Voyager project since 1975, and has worked with data from each planet the probe has passed.
First, it will foster Armstrong's professional development, which will contribute to the overall quality of the faculty.
Second, Armstrong will bring back first-hand data from Voyager 2.
Volcanoes spotted on Neptune's moon
The Associated Press
PASADAH, Calif. — Voyager 2's close-up photos of Neptune's moon Triton reveal what look like active ice volcanoes that erupt explosively, spewing nitrogen ice particles and gas nearly 20 miles high, a scientist said Sundav.
"I believe they are active," or erupted at least within the past 100 years," said Larry Soderblom, U.S. Geological Survey geologist and member of the Voyager photographic imaging team at NASA's J. Propulsion Laboratory. "There's 10 or 20 volcanoes—one
"This is a crazy idea. It's probably wrong, but it's the best we
See TRITON, p. 5
See GRISSOM, p. 5
"There are students who will be doing Ph.D. theses on some of these data." Ammar said.
When Armstrong returns to KU, he intends to "parade information to the public at large about Voyager" by speaking and writing.
Armstrong said it was too early to draw solid conclusions from the Voyager program and noted that humans had now explored all the known planets in this solar system except Pluto.
"Now we enter a region of digesting all that information." he said.
In addition to his work on Voyager, Armstrong is dealing with several other projects at NASA. He works in research management to define and select for funding various research projects.
Among the other projects he works with are:
> A joint U.S./Japanese launch.
> A U.S. craft that would study the polar region, including collecting data on the Aurora.
▶ Placing U.S. instruments aboard a Soviet craft called Regatta Equator. The project would orbit the Earth and send back various data about the planet.
► A project called U.S. Wind, which will send a probe to the interplanetary area between Earth and the sun.
Andrew Morrison/KANSAN
Juggling time
Entertaining a crowd at the Jayhawk Arts and Crafts Festival is Lawrence professional juggler Duzne Smith. Smith, who has been performing for seven years, jugged everything from a Cabbage Patch doll to Chinese firesticks at Saturday's festival. See related story, page 5.
Plastic foam products are banned from campus Memorial Corporation takes step toward eliminating CFCs
Kansan staff writer
By Melanie Matthes
You can't see them, smell them, taste them or touch them, but they are dangerous chemicals and the University of Kansas Memorial Corporation doesn't want them around.
However, customers who do not want to use plastic foam products then may use their own coffee cups or squeeze bottles for refills at campus cafeteria, be said.
Wes Williams, chairman of the merchantising policies and practices committee of the Corporation, said that the policy would take effect as soon as the current plastic foam inventory was depleted around the first of the year.
The Corporation adopted a policy Saturday calling for the discontinued use of all plastic foam products, commonly called Styrofoam, by Union Food Service and KU Compression.
Williams said that the changes would cause some increase in food prices at campus food services but he hoped the increases would be nominal. He said the committee felt that the university community's acceptance of the
Williams and Roger Templin, president of the Corporation, commended the efforts of Environs, a student environmental organization, and the KU environmental studies program in educating the Corporation and the campus of the dangers in using plastic foam products.
The Corporation decided to accept a general policy that set the directions and let Environs and the committee decide on a substitute product and recycling program, Templin said. The ban will be evaluated by the Corporation after one year.
Bob Richeson, manager of food services of the Kansas and Burge Unions, estimated a minimum increase of 5 cents and a maximum increase of 10 cents on the price of a soft drink because of the switch.
new policy would comply with the price increases. A replacement product has not been chosen.
Brian Schwegmann, Salina senior and the Enviroman who led the campaign against the use of plastic foam, said that he began circulating a petition in January and that the group made several appeals to the Corporation last semester.
"This is the happiest day of my college career." Schweppmann said.
He said that at the last meeting with the corporation the members had not been very pleased.
"It seemed like nothing was happening and everything took forever," Schwegmann said. "It was like getting blood from a rock. Man, today it really bled!"
Linda Johnston, a Eudora graduate student who works for the environmental studies department, said she felt good about the new policy. She agreed with the Corporation that a major issue continued to be increasing campus awareness of the problem.
The policy also encourages Environs and the environmental studies program to continue to inform students of the problems of plastic foam production and waste and to study the most efficient ways of recycling for the campus.
Nancy Sherman, vice president of public affairs for the Food Service and Packaging Institute in Washington, D.C., said that because plastic foam is a non-biodegradable product, each year it contributes about 113.3 billion cubic feet to the solid waste stream.
She said that manufacturers recycle poly-styrene frequently. Producers use the leftover plastic foam like cookie dough, Sherman said, so that nothing goes to waste. The foam that is left after one production is reused in future productions.
"There is a lot of misinformation about polystyrene," Sherman said. "It certainly is recyclable. It is one of the most recyclable products."
She said that the biggest problem-with recycling was collection. Nationwide, plastic recycling is estimated at 1 to 2 percent while aluminum can recycling is estimated at 50 percent, according to a 1988 report by the Polystyrene Packaging Council, Inc.
The National Polystyrene Recycling Corporation has set up five recycling centers across the country, Sherman said. The first of these centers is scheduled to open on Oct. 25 in Massachusetts.
Schwegmann said that many universities had very successful recycling programs and that he hoped KU would be able to follow in their footsteps. Environ conducted a recycling feasibility study in Wescoe Hall last semester that he said proved that campus-wide recycling was possible at KU.
Templin said the Corporation had not decided on a definite alternative but the use of new products would be more beneficial.
The Corporation's policy calls for the use of substitute food ware that is degradable, recyclable or reusable.
Many plastic foam substitutes, such as cardboard, are equal in quality to plastic foam, said Wayne Kiser, environmental scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency in Kansas City, Kan.
"You don't have to go out and invent some new chemical if you don't want to," Kiser said. "There are available substitutes."
Secure cab reinstated for safety
By Beth Behrens
Kansan staff writer
Charles Bryan, KU on Wheels coordi- nator, has announced the reinstatment of the Secure Cab program beginning tonight.
Secure Cab is a taxi service for students who need a ride home. The ride is free with a valid KUID. Students can call Secure Cab at 842-2432 from 1 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. seven days a week.
A-1 City Cab & Shuttle Corp. won the contract for the service. Student Senate will pay the company an hourly rate.
He said priority would be given to calls received from campus.
B. Jake White, student body president and North Plateau, Neb., senior, said the contract called for 64 hours of service a week at $18 an hour or $43,545.60 for the 1988-80 school year. He added would be given /t
Bryan, Lawrence graduate student, said the transportation board's main concern was that students would abuse the program.
To keep students from abusing the service, Bryan said students would be asked for their KUID number and the address where they ask to be left.
"The purpose of Secure Cab is to give people who are in trouble a ride home," Bryan said. "It's not for normal transportation. We're there when they had one beer too many or their friends left them at a bar or tavern, or they are on campus and think someone is following them. People still need to be responsible for their own transportation."
Sororites at the University of Kansas received their pledges Saturday, and all but four houses reached quotas set for this year.
Sorority rush finishes with 901 pledges
By Bryan Swan Kansan staff writer
Although the number of women going through rush this year decreased, the percentage of pledges accepted increased by about 5 percent.
"There have been open-house parties with about 900 women, and this was much less than last year," said Kristin Renfow, Overland Park junior and a member of Alpha Chi Omega, 1500 Sigma Nu Place. "All the houses set their quotas at 54 members this year. There have been considerably less people going through, though, than last year."
The per-house quotas set by the sorority system have remained fairly stable the last few years. Two years ago the quota was 68, and last year it was 52. Despite last year's closing of the Alpha Phi house, 1602 High Drive, the quota remained about the same, said Trisha Harris, Tulsa, Okla., junior.
"If we had a larger number of people going through one might think the closing mattered, but it really didn't make a difference," said Harris, a member of Pl Beta Phi. 1612 W. 15th St., and vice president of sorority affairs for the Panhellenic Council.
She said the number of women who pledged last year was 800, compared to this year's 801.
"We're pledging more than usual." Harris said. "It's a smaller number than last year, but the percentage of pledges accepted is larger. We usually pledge about two-thirds, but this year it were around 73 percent."