University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, September 26, 1990
Campus/Area
3
New group to combat stereotypes
By Holly M. Neuman
Kansan staff writer
Students are not the only people at the University of Kansas who are concerned about discrimination. Alumni are worried too.
Henry Schwaller is one of these alumni. He entered KU in 1984 and earned undergraduate degrees in business administration and psychology. He is working on his master's degree in business administration, but things other than studies keep him busy.
Schwaller is one of the organizers of a new alumni group called the University of Kansas Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association, or KU GALA, a group that Schwaller said he hoped could inform graduates who don't live in the area about KU happenings.
”
People have been looking forward to a group like this for a while.
— Liz Tolbert
GLSOK representative
GLSOK representative
"About two dozen area alums have expressed an interest in the group," Schwaller said. "KU alums are disturbed by recent events on campus, like the incident at the SAE house and the current thing with HOCUT. But KU alums have no idea about Jessian concerns or campus now."
Schwaller said he had discussed organizing a KU GALA group for about a year with two friends, Christina Woods and Jeffrey Woods. Woods is now deceased
Schwaller said advertising would be one of KU GALA's first steps. The group hopes to contact KU graduates by advertising in a couple of national magazines that cater to gay and lesbian readers.
Another initial goal is to spread information. Schwaller said he would like to start a newsletter, similar to the one from his high school and lesbian alumni about KU news.
He also would like to set up a trust fund that could be used for scholarships for gav and lesbian students.
"There is a problem and a need for scholarships." Schwaller said. "Lots of students come to KU, and it is the first time they come to terms with their sexuality. Then they go home and tell their parents that they are gay or lesbian. The parents say 'We won't pay for you.' That is a very common problem, and many students have their education out short of that. We want scholarships specifically for gay and lesbian students."
Liz Tolbert, Lay and Lesbian Services of Kansas liaison to the group Students Concerned About Discrimination at KU and the University of Missouri organization was long overdue.
"People have been looking forward to a group like this for a while," she said. "Any alumina group, especially those in the area, would have a positive impact on KU."
Schwaller said that the group might not have a visible, active role in day-to-day campus life but that it would concentrate on reaching out to KU graduates to let them know about activities and organizations that affect KU. Information would be included about Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week, speakers and film forums.
Jennifer Warner/KANSAN
Beauty Salon
Wen Wang, China graduate student, fixes her daughter Cindy's hair. The two sat in front of their Stouffer Place apartment yesterday afternoon.
Commission discusses educational structure
Bv Carol Krekeler
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — Members of the Governor's Commission on Reform of Educational Governance weighed their options yesterday in an effort to find the best structure for state education.
The commission, which is studying how primary, secondary and higher education is set up under the Legislature, met for the first time since Gov. Mike Hayden's appointment of the 31-member commission in August.
"I'm not certain that whatever changes we make here are going to make a difference," said Richard Carhartman, chairperson of the commission.
The commission was designed to review the structure of the State Board of Education, which is the governing body for state primary and secondary schools. The board of Regents is which the governing body for state colleges.
Kansas Constitution on the November ballot could change the structure of the two bodies.
A proposed amendment to the
The Board of Education is elected by representative districts and has self-executing powers. The Board of Regents is appointed from congressional districts and is mandated by the state.
The proposed amendment would give the Legislature full jurisdiction over the creation of educational bodies.
"The resolution, if passed, allows the Legislature to dissolve both bodies." Peckham said.
Peckham said that regardless of the fate of the proposed amendment, the commission needed to study a new amendment for the 1991 session.
He said the choices were to place the Board of Education under the control of the Legislature, give the Regents self-executing power or leave the boards intact according to the constitution.
Bill Musick, commission member,
said he was committed to having the
Board of Education elected rather
than appointed like the Regents.
"We are not hung up on the self-executing powers, but we are strongly committed to an elected state board," said Musick, district representative from the State Board of Education.
Robert Creighton, commission member, said the Regents were not overtly concerned about the proposed amendment.
"Right now, we have constitutional status, and they can't eliminate us," said Creighton, chairperson of the Regents.
Creighton said although the Regents had a good relationship with the state, it opposed the proposed amendment because of the uncertainty of the Regents future relationship with the Legislature.
Peckham said the commission would look at its options within the next two months and deliver a report to the governor's office Dec. 17.
Grissom's attorneys lose plea
Judge will allow evidence found in car
to be admitted in October murder trial
The Associated Press
OLATHE — Bank cards belonging to two missing Johnson County women and other circumstantial evidence linking Richard Grissom Jr. to the women will be allowed at Grissom trial, a judge ruled Monday.
the summer of 1989 in a Grandview parking lot.
Johnson County District Judge William Gray denied a defense motion to suppress the search and seizure of Grissom's car after it was found in
He determined that Grissom abandoned the vehicle, effectively giving up any claim of privacy pertaining to the car and its contents.
Grissom is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the disappearance of Theresa Brown, a 27-year-old Whitman County woman. Joan Butler — all of Johnson County.
15.
Gray also gave prosecutors preliminary approval to use evidence of DNA tests, ruling the scientific methods used for testing in the Grison case were reliable and were properly followed.
He is scheduled to go on trial Oct.
But Gray still is awaiting word from a laboratory hired by defense attorneys to determine whether additive vaccines were effective. The sample already tested for the state.
Gray said he needed that information before deciding whether DNA tests could be used at Grissom's trial.
Judge says act assists minorities
Judge Constance Motley speaks about minority opportunities.
Kansan staff writer
By Amy Zamierowski
Recent modifications to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 may increase the number of minority judges in the court. Justice Barker Moyle said yesterday.
About 150 people attended Motley's lecture titled "Opportunities for Minorities in the Law" in the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium last night. The School of Law sponsored the lecture...
Robert Jerry, dean of law, said the significance of the interpretation of the Voting Rights Act was that it required all members to be administered in the United States.
"Early in the next century, a majority of the people in the country will be people with color." Jerry said. "It is important that minorities not be underrepresented in the judiciary and legal profession."
The Voting Rights Act eliminated devices such as literacy tests that traditionally had been used to restrict voting by Blacks. It also authorized the enrollment of voters by federal registrars in states where fewer than 50 percent of the eligible voters were registered or voted.
Motley said that according to American Bar Association literature,
Black lawyers first applied to the ABA in 1911. They were denied acceptance until 1943.
But the number of Black judges has increased since the 1944 U.S. Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, she said.
"Except for a few exceptions prior to the Brown decision, African Americans had little status or visibility," she said.
Motley said that when she finished law school at Columbia University in 1946, there were about 2,000 Black lawyers in the United States. Now
Two Blacks served as federal judges prior to the case, she said.
there are about 25,000 Black lawyers nationwide and 60 Black federal judges.
Motley became the first Black woman appointed as a United States District Judge in 1966. She is a chief judge on the Southern District of New York.
Moley was an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and helped James Meredith become the first Black man to gain admission to a university. She also helped write briefs for the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case.
Telephone customers to get new services
By Chris Oster
Southwestern Bell Telephone announced Monday that beginning Oct. 1 it will make six new services available to its Lawrence customers.
Kansan staff writer
The services will make it easier for customers to control who is able to call them, according to Southwestern Bell officials.
"These calling features provide customers peace of mind in knowing they can block, trace, and screen harassing or unwanted phone calls." Dave Nichols, community relations manager, said in a prepared state-
Lawrence is the first city in Kansas to have these services made available.
"Lawrence has the advanced telephone network necessary for call-control options." Nichols said.
While the new services will be available to Lawrence residents, they will not be available to on-campus customers.
Prefixes that will have the services are 748,749,841,842,843 and 865.
The new services offered are:
Call Cue, which automatically re-dials calls made to a busy number
Call Return, which allows customers to call the last number that called them, even if they do not know who called.
Dave Nichols
Southwestern Bell community
relations manager
Call Trace, which allows customers to trace the last call they received and make the number available to police.
'Lawrence has the advanced telephone network necessary for call-control options.'
Priority Call, which allows customers to designate up to three incoming numbers with special rings.
Call Blocker, which allows customers to block up to three numbers from getting through on their line.
for up to thirty minutes
Selective Call Forwarding, which allows customers to designate three incoming numbers that may be forwarded.
Jan Weller, KU telecommunications department director, said that while the new services would not be available on campus through Southwestern Bell, some similar services soon would be offered on campus.
"Our users do not need all of those services on campus." she said.
Weller would not discuss which services would be made available.