University Daily Kansan / Thursday, November 15, 1990
Campus/Area
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Students' petition backs Jayhawk Bookstore
Bv Debbie Mvers
Kansan staff writer
About 1,000 students have signed a petition against the possible closing of the Jayhawk Bookstore, saying that a lack of competition with KU bookstores would cause textbook prices to rise.
Robin Valetutto, Jayhawk Bookstore employee, said that she would work this week to get more signatures before she and other students distributing the petition sent it to the Princeton City Commission next week.
If student access to the second floor
of the bookstore is not physically blocked by Dec. 1, the city has the power to cut the store's utilities and force the closing of the store, Bill Muggy, owner of the bookstore at 1420 Crescent Road, said.
When a KU student walks into the Jayhawk Bookstore, pens, pencils and paper are easy to find. The textbooks for sale are not so obvious.
Students must ask clerks for the books they want from a 5 foot by 3 foot space at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor, Muggy said. They are allowed to shop for books by themselves for seven weeks
each semester.
This oddity arose because Muggy's property is not zoned for commercial use. For the last 17 months he has negotiated with the City Commission for approval of site changes. The commission voted against Muggy's attempt to zone the property as a commercial site.
Valetutto said the commission should work with the bookstore instead of against it.
"It is very important that the bookstore not be shut down," Valtutto said. "I don't think it's fair because it has been a service to the
Mike Reid, manager of the BUM Union Bookstore, said that if the Jayhawk Bookstore closed, textbook prices at the KU bookstores in the Kansas and Burge unions would not increase.
students and faculty who have shopped there for years."
"Why would we want to do that to our main customers?" Reid said. "We've been in business since the mid-40s, and we haven't based our prices on other businesses in Lawrence."
He said that the KU bookstores prices were determined by the bookstores' expenses and that any extra money made by the bookstores was returned to the students.
Muggy said it was speculation whether textbook prices would increase if his store were closed.
"I'm certain that supply and demand dictates prices in general." Muggy said. "Just as the University currently uses a rebaite program to try to overpower the Jahyah Book that rebate would probably cease."
Muggy said he hoped the City Commission would take the petition seriously.
"I think it points out that students' rights and even their economic options have not been considered by me during the past two years." Muggy said.
City commissioner Mike Randle said that the city had given Muggy a lot of leeway with the building expansion, dismissed many site plan violations.
Rundle said that students might not understand the city ordinance regulating the use of Muggy's property and that he could not determine what effect the petition would have because he had not seen it yet.
College men can't avoid draft
Congress eliminated Vietnam era policy excluding male students
Kansan staff writer
During the Vietnam War, men often could avoid the draft if they were in college.
But today if the United States declared war on Iraq, men in colleges across the nation, including the University of Kansas, could be drafted to fight in the Middle East.
Richardson said the law had been changed in 1971 because it was not fair.
In 1971, Congress banned a policy that exempted men studying at universities from the draft, said Barbie Richardson, public affairs director at Selective Services in Washington, D.C.
"I think the decision was made for equitable reasons," she said. "Young men that could afford to go to college were exempted from those laws, those that could not afford college were not."
Because a draft is not in effect, Congress must approve a temporary emergency bill to restore the governor's authority.
If a draft were instituted, collegiate men could be required to take up arms at the end of the semester they were enrolled in, she said.
If a man were drafted in his senior year of college, he would be allowed to finish that academic year and graduate before he would have to fight. she said.
Richardson said that every year after a man turned 20, he moved down on the Selective Service priority list, until the age of 26, when he became ineligible for the draft.
During the year of his 20th birthday, a man is classified as most eligible for the draft.
Because the draft scale moves from ages 20 to 25 first and then selects 19- and 18-year-olds, the two youngest ages of draft eligibility are the last to be chosen, she said.
Thomas Kaminski, a 20-year-old Chicago sophomore, said it would be his civic duty to join troops in the Middle East if a war broke out and he was drafted.
being drafted," he said. "But I wouldn't fight around it if it happened."
U. S. Rep. Jim Slattery, D-2m district, said in through the gulf crisis would not escalate into
Linda Mullens, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs, said University administrators would not deal with the draft issue unless they had to.
"I think that right now we already have too many people in the military" he said.
"Although I think I one of the few, I don't
think we will go to war in the Middle East,
but it is a real danger."
Slattery said he thought a draft was unlikely because not all of the enlisted military personnel in the United States were needed.
"It's scary to think about the possibility of
"I really can't speculate," she said "I think that we would develop some kind of policy and look to see if this were a valid reason for a policy to be established."
Student Senate votes not to finance honorarium for anti-apartheid talk
By Jennifer Schultz
Kansan staff writer
Student Senate last night voted against a bill that would have allocated $1,000 to help homeless individuals.
The department of African and African-American studies is bringing Randall Robinson, the director of the TransAfrica forum, to speak during its apartheid conference, said Greg Hughes, Associated Students of Kansas director. Eight senators asked Senate to subsidize the speech with a $1,000 partial honorarium.
Hughes said that if Senate subsidized the speech it would be free to the entire student body. If not, students would have to pay $15 to attend.
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The bill failed by a 15-26 vote.
Pat Warren, Student Executive Committee chairperson the company would charge students a fee.
"I don't dispute that Randall Robinson is a good speaker," he said. "But I have a real
problem with a group that is having a conference to ask Senate for a subsidy. If we set a precedent by funding a partial honoraria by bankrupt by financing honorarums.
Warren said the purpose of the University was to broaden students' minds.
"Why isn't the African studies department opening the speech up to students, regardless of race or ethnicity?"
Darren Fulcher, liberal arts and sciences senator, said he did not think it was the department's goal to have Student Senate pay the honorarium.
"I think it was just an argument used to play on students' emotions" he said.
Hughes said that by not financing the bill, Senate actually was punishing the student body.
He said the central issue was whether Senate thought the problems of apartheid in South Africa were serious.
Todd Boerger, senior senator, said he did
He said the speaker would be relevant to KU because of investments KU had in South Africa.
Fulcher said the Kansas University
Federal Association had investments in
South Asia.
not think Senate would set a precedent by financing the honorarium.
He said KU also indirectly invested in South Africa through Coca-Cola machines on campus. Coca-Cola Corp. invests in South Africa.
In other business, Mike Schreiner, student body president, said the Student Executive Committee would conduct a forum Nov. 26 to discuss a proposed engineering fee.
He said the purpose of the forum was to inform students about both sides of the issue.
The engineering students will conduct their own forum about the fee before they vote on a referendum requested by the Board of Regents.
Safety trim
Jennifer WarnerKANSAN
Bill Medlen of facilities operations trims a crab apple tree west of Malott Hall. He said facilities operations was trimming trees on campus to allow more light to pass through the limbs. He said the pruning would permit better lighting at night and also help the grass grow.
KU Med Center programs helping to break language barriers
By Courtney Eblen
Kansan staff writer
Four separate pleas went out Tuesday from the emergency room at the University of Kansas Medical Center for anyone who could speak Spanish.
Patients who knew little or no English had been brought to the Med Center for treatment, but they could not hurt or what had happened to them.
Although Med Center employees fluent in Spanish were found and translated between doctor and patient, many foreign languages are needed to
assist with two translation programs at the Med Center.
Buckley said that about 12 million people in the United States spoke languages other than English. Languages are often difficult for the health care system.
Van Buckley, university relations official at the Med Center, said the AT&T Language Line service, which gives health care professionals interpreters of 144 languages and diags, was instituted two weeks ago.
For example, physicians who speak no Vietnamese cannot understand complaints of pain in that language, Buckley said. The patient, in turn, is unable to understand the explanations of treatment procedures.
The Language Line supplements a volunteer translator program at the Med Center coordinated by Linda Murray and Mark in Med Center nursing services.
Bishop said most of the volunteers were Med Center employees. They are called whenever they are needed and receive no pay.
"It seems like almost every day we get calls from people who need someone who can speak Spanish or Vietnamese," Bishop said.
Other languages in demand are Thai, Lao and Hmong. Employees volunteering speak a variety of other languages, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and Hebrew.
If a patient who does not speak English is brought to the Med Center, an attempt is made to find an interpreter. Bishop said employee files often were used to find employees who spoke foreign languages.
Another service offered by the Med Center is the Kansas Relay Center.
In addition to Language Line and the Med Center's volunteer program, the Med Center employs people fluent in Universal Sign Language to translate for hearing and speech-impaired patients.
Bishop said all interpreters must be certified through a program at Jackson County Community University. A certification in sign language is offered.
Trained operators relay messages between speech and hearing-impaired patients and the Med Cen
ter via the Telecommunication Device for the Deaf, a computerized voice and printout machine that enables speech and hearing-impaired people to "speak" on the telephone.
Messages are relayed back and forth on the TDD's owned by patients and the one at the Relay Center.
The Kansas Relay Center, which operates on a 24-hour basis, can be reached by calling 1-800-766-3777.
Persons interested in becoming volunteers for the Med Center's interpreter program may call Linda Bishop at (931) 588-6550.