THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
The University of Kansas Vol. 89, No. 88
Chinese entourage sees Texas rodeo See story page five
Tuesday, February 6, 1979
Lawrence. Kansas
Vietnamese refuaees
Nguyen Tit Quy and his family arrived in Lawrence yesterday, after living in a Malaysian refuge camp for 10 months. The
family relocated in Malaysia and then the United States after communist troops took over Vietnam.
Vietnam refugees begin new life in Lawrence
By DEB RIECHMANN
Staff Writer
The scene was confusing for the newcomers as they stepped off the alaaf of the Lawrence airport yesterday into a new life.
The newcomers, a Vietnamese couple and their two-week-daughter, three of thousands called "boat people," were greeted by their American hosts, Daniel and Jan Bays, who attempted to ask the family questions through a teenage Vietnamese in-
Daniel Bays is an associate professor of history and East Asian studies at the University of Kansas.
While the Bays appeared to be excited to learn abut the refugees, questions posed were awkward and the Two Vietnamese were outraged.
The family looked weary from having spent more than 30 hours traveling to the United States, stopping in Kansas City, Missouri.
The 19-year-old Nugent Tieft stiffened in a pair of deck shoes that were a few sizes too big, his coat hanging loosely.
HIS WIFE, THU, who wore a yellow parka with her head wrapped in a pink bath towel, later told her new American friends that it was important to keep her warm after just giving birth to her child.
The family has come to Lawrence looking for a new place to live after living their homeland, which came under the control of the government.
The Vietnamese will be staying temporarily with the Bayes, who helped coordinate the family's move to Lawrence.
"My wife just sort of volunteered our house," Bay said. "The need was there and we were in the position to meet it because we had a lot of people who were coming."
Harriet Shaffer, a member of the Lawrence Inter-Lutheran
Concluisal is helping the family relocate.
Shaffer has made arrangements for Quy to apply for work as a welder in Lawrence. If Quy get a job, he and his family will be able to take care of his children.
The South Vietnamese man answered questions through the
young interpreter, telling of the family's escape from their native country by boat.
The family escaped with about 40 others in a small fishing boat at night when no one would see them leave. Many of the persons aboard got seasick during the four days on the boat, he said. But although they ran short of water, there was enough
CONDITIONS DID not improve when they arrived at a refugee camp in Malaysia.
About 6,000 refugees already inhabited the camp where this Vietnamese family landed. They set up a make-shift home out of their backyard.
At first, Malaysian villagers attempted to push their boat back out to sea, but the buoys punctured a hole in the bottom of the river. The villagers tried to swim.
This is typical of the conditions that refugees are living in on the Malaysian coasts. More than 40,000 people have arrived on its shores and are living in shanty towns where water and food are scarce.
According to news reports, the Malaysian government has become concerned about the increasing number of refugees who have arrived in Malaysia. In one instance, Malaysian officials reported that 20 per cent of those ashore and left them stranded on a freelancer just off the coast.
The family is part of a group of about 400 Vietnamese who arrived in Los Angeles Sunday night aboard a chartered airplane.
The refugees are among the estimated 40,000 people from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam expected to retest in the United States by April 1, said Virginia Callanb of the sponsoring International Rescue Committee.
President Jimmy Carter is meeting with the prime minister of Thailand today to discuss the possibility of increasing the number of refugees who will be allowed to come to America this spring.
Despite some opposition in the United States to a large influx of refugees, the Carter administration has said it has no choice.
Scholarship halls reject proposal for constitution
By LAURA STEVENS
Staff Reporter
A proposed constitution for the All Scholarship Hall Council apparently has been defeated by the individual halls, Mike Webb, president of ASHC, said last night.
Of the eight halls, three halls voted on the proposal last week, three halls voted last night and two halls will have voted before Thursday's ASHC meeting.
According to ASHC procedures, all eight halls must approve any constitution. Guidelines need a simple majority to pass. The committee should have an unbiased guideline system. Webba said.
Webb said a review committee was appointed last year to revise the guidelines that ASHC had used since 1971. He said some members felt it was important to have a constitution that was more binding than the guidelines.
As of last night, Stephenson, Grace Pearson and Sellards halls had voted to accept the revision as a constitution. Battie was the only one who voted to accept the revisions as guidelines.
Watkins Hall voted to reject the revisions in any form that would not include an amendment providing for popular elections of ASHC executive officers.
MILLER AND PEARSON halls are to vote later this week.
Carla Hanson, president of Watkins Hall, said, "We accepted the concept of a constitution. We did not accept the constitution because of the voting clause."
Under the current procedure, ASHC officers are elected by the 16 members of the previous year's council. Each hall elects one ASHC representative and each hall president is automatically a member of ASHC.
Webb said ASHIC was not a governing body, but a body to promote cohesiveness and stability.
"I'm not for popular elections, and I know my hall isn't." he said.
"The issue of whether to accept a constitution or a set of guidelines is not that crucial to me, and it shouldn't be to the government," she said. "It past and will continue to work in the future."
"I THINK WATKINS is up in arms because they want the one man, one vote principle. I don't think it's necessary in a system small."
About 400 people live in scholarship halls.
Hanson, who co-sponsored the proposal before the council last semester, said that
the only ties between the halls and ASHC were the representatives.
"It cannot be as effective as a double bond with representatives and popular election," she said.
"All it does is change voting from a 16-member council to all scholarship hall residents. Right now, ASHC is not viable because it does not represent the halls," she said.
"I'm not cutting down the opposition, because they are the people who have done the most for ASHC. We're all concerned for the halls. They think we have good leadership, so why change it? I say we can make it a bell of a lot better.
Jim West, procter at Stephenson Hall, said he was opposed to popular vote because he thought the candidates were known by all the residents and not necessarily by all the hall residents.
Kate Pound, ASHC representative from Sellards, said her hall approved the constitution, but did not rule out the possibility of amendment to provide for open election.
Webb said if the revision was not accepted as a constitution or as guidelines, ASHC would continue to operate under the old guidelines.
Hiring of lawyer delayed
By CAROL BEIER
Staff Renorter
Although the office of affirmative action cannot stop the legal services search committee from hiring a lawyer, the committee plans to wait for approval from that office before continuing interviews.
Bob Rocha, chairman of the committee, said yesterday that approval was not mandatory, but that it was a precaution against the spread.
Interviews for two of the candidates for the job were canceled last week because of an overnight in the procedure for hiring a new position.
The committee did not submit a pre-interview summary to the office of affirmative action before beginning interviews Jan. 24.
The program will provide prepaid legal services, other than courtroom representation, to all KU students.
The search committee met yesterday to choose from among four options to correct the oversight. The options were outlined in a Jan.
31 letter from Clarence Dillingham, acting director of affirmative action.
The committee decided to offer another interview to the first two candidates. The other two candidates also will be interviewed.
Other options included holding interviews with the two remaining candidates, re-evaluating the entire hiring procedure, and conducting a second search period that included advertisements for the position.
Recha will submit written verification of the committee's decision this morning to Dillingham. Dillingham said last night that she had met with the committee.
"Paperwork really presents no obstacles when it's done," he said. "If there were ever a summer of the program, it was me."
Dillingham said he had no reason to intentionally delay the legal services program.
Recha said he was optimistic that the committee would receive Dillenham's approval.
The committee will meet again Thursday to decide how to contact the two candidates already interviewed and to schedule a hearing.
Staff Reporter
Bv BRUCE THOMAS
Gas named as possibility in blast
A board of inquiry investigating last week's explosion at the Leavenworth federal penitentiary honor farm has turned its attention toward a possible natural gas explosion, Richard Seiter, executive assistant to the warden, said yesterday.
"The board has been investigating the possibility that some sort of gas was involved in the explosion, the source and the problem," the gas has not been determined," Seiter said.
Once the four-member board receives lab tests and reports from assisting agencies, its findings will be sent to Norm A. Carlson, director of the FedEx Prisons in Chicago for review of official said.
At the request of the board, Health Consultants Inc., a private firm specializing in healthcare informatics, will be conducting
Late last week the board had asked for assistance from the Missouri Fire Marshal's office and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Pipeline Safety.
and dirt samples for evidence of gas Sunday.
LAST TUESDAY'S explosion occurred in a farm machinery building at the penitentiary's honor prison farm, which is owned by three miles from the main prison building.
The explosion leveled the west end of the machinery building, a two-story brick structure originally built as a dormitory for the minimum working at the minimum pressure in prison.
Nine men were trapped by the explosion, six of whom died. One of the injured, Andrew C. Payne, is hospitalized at the hospital after the crash. He was listed in fair condition last night.
Cattle and swine are raised on the farm to supply food at the prison.
Warden Irl Day had said last Tuesday that he thought a gas leak had collected in a three foot crawfish under the building's first floor and had ignited.
IF THIS IS true, Tuesday's explosion was similar to the explosion at the prison farm's honor slaughterhouse next to the main prison in Leavenworth on October 14, 1960.
Seiter said that the explosion 19 years ago occurred when gas undergone the first floor of the slaughterhouse ignited from a door and all of the inmates turned on an electric light.
The 1960 explosion killed two inmates and a staff member.
Setter said there had been no indication from the board that the recent explosion had occurred.
Winter survival tips-take shovel, woman
By DAVID SIMPSON
Staff Reporter
"It is my theory that women tend to be better at handling stress situations than men," Risk said. "Women stay calm while men tend to get upset and are not able to make decisions as well."
Having a woman in the car is one of the safety precautions drivers could take in severe winter weather. Paul Risk, assistant professor in park and drive at Michigan State University, said recently.
"Perhaps some of the women's ability comes from their family background and other experiences they've had," he said. "It's my theory that men are not so conscious."
Risk said that there was no positive evidence for his theory and that it was based on tests he had run using it.
Kent Houston, KU professor of psychology, said he had not heard of any evidence that woman handled the procedure.
Yankee Rock, community relations officer for the Lawrence police department, also said he had not seen any evidence of crime.
“*STRESS HAS a lot to do with experience.*” Rock had own experiences with helping people in bad weather.
"Survival in severe winter weather is largely the ability to stay calm when conditions are extreme," Risk said. "The average person in suburbs is not prepared for the severe weather when it strikes. The individual is only prepared to live in his climate home and isn't prepared for the emergency."
Risk is a biologist who has been teaching winter survival techniques for 20 years. He has been making his studies known because he thinks people are becoming less competent in emergencies.
"There aren't many severe blizzards in eastern Kansas so most people are not prepared for snowtype driving." Dahlquist said. "Drivers in town don't anticipate steep hills and rather drive three to five bikes to go around the hill, they try to make it up the hill and end up setting stuck."
RON DAHLQUST of the Lawrence police
had been required were not prepared for
confrontation or severe weather.
Dalhiquit said college students were in the class of drivers who had accidents most frequently. However, most winter accidents are fender-benders and not too costly.
"Six out of 10 drivers on the streets are between the ages of 16 and 25," Dahlquist said. "This age group drives three times as much as other drivers and because of this their accident rates are higher."
RISK, HOWEVER, said many of the accidents and deaths that occur because of severe winter weather could be averted if people were aware of survival techniques.
"In Alaska, elementary school children are required to take a course in winter survival." Risk said. "The formal education system in other states, especially those in the Midwest, need to address
One need that Risk said should be stressed was that they should carry additional clothing in case they get hurt.
"Few drivers have the proper clothing available to protect them from the cold," he said. "Many lives are lost each year because people are not aware of the tremendous amount of heat the body loses when high winds and extremely cold temperatures are present."
RISK SUGGESTED that additional clothing, such as insulated boots, a baggel wool pack of pants, a heavy coat and additional head and hand coverings be placed in the car for emergencies. He said it was very important for a person's head to be well covered.
"One half of the heat the body is producing is lost at 40 degrees Fahrenheit through an uncovered head."
Risk said motorists stranded on highways often
took unnecessary risks because they were not aware of survival techniques.
"In the snow cave the driver would be much warmer than if he stayed in his car. Snow is a good insulator, while automobiles are poorly insulated and it's much harder to stay warm."
Under blizzard conditions on highways, the driver, especially with insufficient clothing, should stay in his car. In weather conditions like this driver becomes disoriented and shouldn't be out walking to
Risk said there had been instances when a truck or car was covered with snow and the snow had provided sufficient insulation for the driver to survive.
"IN MAN INSTANCES that may be snow drifts that are higher than the car so the driver could build a snow cave. The snow can be hollowed out and the driver could put a cushion in the cave to rest on.
Risk said if the driver thought he would be stranded on the highway for an extended period, he should construct a shelter on the side of the car away from the highway.
"There was a truck driver in Ohio during the recent heavy snowfalls who survived a week in his truck after it was covered with snow," he said. "The driver spent most of his time sleeping in the cab of the truck and the snow cover kept enough heat in to keep him alive."
"When a blizzard shuts down everything, helicopters are sent out to be stranded motorists," he said. "The 'M' is the international symbol of safety. It signifies the stranded motorist to the airborne 'Y'ower."
RISK SAID another survival technique for a motorist stranded on a highway was to trample a large animal.
For winter driving, Risk suggested that drivers carry a shovel, sleep bag, a mixture of sand and salt and put additional weight in their cars to help get around in streets and highways.
"These all would be helpful in situations where the motorist was stuck in the snow," he said. "Another thing the driver could do would be to reduce the air pressure in his tires. If the tires are muffy, the tires get more traction and the driver might be able to get the car moving again."
Dahlquist said that survival courses were offered in Lawrence and that the police would give the free course.
He also said that during severe winter driving conditions, the police urged motorists, through radio and newspaper announcements, to use caution when driving.
"We'd be fine if we could predict when the snowfalls would hit Lawrence. Usually though, it's an afterthought when we put out safety tips for winter driving and survival."