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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Tuesday. October 17,2000
Sports: The Kansas water polo team enjoys competing in a unique sport.
SEE PAGE 1B
Inside: Members of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity hold Homekoming week events.
SEE PAGE 3A
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 111 NO. 36 For comments, contact Nathan Willis or Chris Borniger at 864-4810 or e-mail editor@kansan.com
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Brenda VanHynyng, Lennex senior, holds a letter that she has given to each of her professors explaining her continued health problems. VanHynyng says the office of Services for Students with Disabilities has helped students, but still has a long way to go. Photo by Joanna Fewins/KANSAN
Students take on daily uphill battles
By Leita Schultes
writer @kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
For about 500 University of Kansas students with disabilities, college presents various types of challenges.
Rachel Magario, a blind sophomore from Brazil, stood on Jayhawk Boulevard yesterday afternoon, waiting for a ride from the University's transportation system.
It's a big problem, she said. If she has to stay late or talk to a professor after class, she has to cancel her ride the day before. If she doesn't, it's a no-show, and three no-shows mean no more rides.
Then there's Brenda VanHyning, who says being a student with a disability can mean lower grades. VanHyning said she was usually an A or B student, but during Fall 1995, she didn't have note-takers and her graded skipped to C's and D's.
"I was frustrated, all because I didn't have the help I needed," she said.
The office of Services for Students with Disabilities tries to provide that help. The office's director, Lorna Zimmer, said its relationship with the University's nearly 500 students with disabilities was not a one-way street.
"I think this is all a partnership, and not just between our office and the students, but also with the faculty," she said.
When 'sick' means more than missing class
Zimmer has faith in the office to help University students with disabilities, but she said there was room for improvements. VanHyning agreed and said those improvements needed to be campus-wide.
At 36 years old, VanHyning has had 34 surgeries on her right hand and 14 on her left. Doctors have performed 16 procedures on her stomach and esophagus, and during the summer, doctors removed a malignant tumor from her body. While they were operating, they found skin cancer on her back.
VanHyning, Lenexa senior, has a progressed stage of gastro esophageal reflux disease, which was diagnosed in 1996 and causes the reflux of stomach contents into her esophagus. The debilitating results of a 1981 car accident don't help her physical condition.
VanHyning has a hard time writing and can't keep up taking notes in class. Her thought processes are a little slower than most students' because of a 1997 stroke, and she has struggled to get tests done in time. Her immune system is
See OFFICE on page 5A
Assault victim agrees with report
Professors doubt new procedures will be adequate
By Katie Hollar and Lauren Brandenburg writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writers
The soccer player allegedly assaulted by two Kansas football players last spring agrees with Barbara Ballard's assessment of her situation.
ations.
In a report released last week, Ballard, vice-chancellor for student affairs, said the Athletics Department tried its best to handle the assault, but didn't have the policies or knowledge to do so. Ballard outlined 12 steps the department could take to properly handle any similar situ-
The victim said she liked Ballard's ideas.
"All I'm hoping right now is that something good will come out of this," she said. "If something similar ever happens again to someone else, it is my belief that the department will handle it much differently."
But report aside, she said that what happened to her could never be undone.
The department has said it would follow the procedures suggested in Ballard's report, but Ted Frederickson, professor of journalism, who took the soccer player to the police station last spring, said he did not think it was enough.
"I have two opinions." Frederickson said. "One, they really need to have policies and procedures, and I think Barbara Ballard has provided them with some good ones. But there is one glaring omission: They needed to say that the athlete who's been sexually assaulted go to police first. She has them going to Amy
Perko [an associate athletics director], and I think anyone within the Athletics Department has a severe conflict of interest when any athlete is sexually assaulted by another athlete."
Frederickson said his concern was that the Athletics Department still had room to keep the complaint within the department.
"I don't think sexual crime is the business of the Athletics Department," Frederickson said. "I don't think a system that makes sexual assault the business of the Athletics Department is a good system. I'm probably the first person outside the Athletics Department that she talked to, and I took her to the police station."
Carol Holstead, associate professor of journalism, spoke out against the department last spring for its handling of the soccer player's situation.
Holstead said the department took a step in the right direction by asking Ballard to look into how the department handled the incident, but she said she still could recognize "what might be perceived as a loophole."
After reading the report, she said she shared Frederickson's concerns.
Frederickson said he still thought the female soccer player's complaint had been overlooked.
"As for her case, I don't think they've really handled that case," he said. "The player who did this is starting for the football team every Saturday, and as far as I know, the only thing that's ever happened to him is he's had to run stairs at Memorial Stadium."
"The mentality the Athletics
Department has shown is to keep things under wraps," Holstein said. "No one wants to reveal embarrassing incidents, but what happened last spring was way beyond an embarrassing incident. A law was broken. It was not handled anywhere near sufficiently."
Edited by Clay McCuistion
A light-hearted approach
Shawn Decker and Gwenn Barringer, a Charlotteville, Va., couple, share a laugh while discussing their sex life with a crowd at the Lied Candent last night. Decker, a hemophiliac, contracted HIV in sixth grade because of a blood-clotting factor. Since then, the virus has developed into AIDS, and the couple spoke to students about coping with AIDS and ways of preventing its spread. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
Missouri governor Carnahan feared dead in plane crash
The Associated Press
GOLDMAN, Mo. — A plane believed to be carrying Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan crashed about 25 miles south of St. Louis last night, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department said.
"We believe that it may be the governor's plane," said Sgt. Ed Kemp, of the department. "We're still searching."
Earlier in the evening, Jerry Nachtigal, the governor's spokesman in Jefferson City, refused to comment on televised reports that Carnahan was on the plane.
"A plane has crashed in Jefferson County, and that's all we know," Nachtigal said.
Missouri
high way
Patrol Sgt.
T i m
McDonald
said a plane
crashed in a
hilly wooded
area and that
Carnahan:
Believed to be on plane that crashed south of St. Louis
debris from the crash was scattered making identification of the plane difficult.
Around 12:30 a.m., authorities said they had called off the search for the night because it was too dark and too dangerous, and they have secured the area around the crash.
"It's a very rural area, heavily wooded with rock bluffs," Kemp said.
McDonald said the governor's security staff was on site because they had not heard from Carnahan and tensions were high that it was the governor's plane.
The plane went down about 7:30 p.m. in an area near Goldman in Jefferson County
"We have found some remains we cannot identify at this point."
Sgt. Ed Kemp Jefferson County Sheriff's Officer
The area is thick with trees, scattered farmhouses and fields.
"We found wreckage in very small pieces spread over a large area," Kemp said. "We have found some remains we cannot identify at this point." He said it was unclear if the remains were those of one or more people.
Carnahan, who is completing his second term as governor, won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in August and has been engaged in a heated battle with Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., a race considered one of the top ones in the nation.
According to Carnahan's travel schedule, the governor was traveling to Parks Bi-State Airport in Illinois across the river from St. Louis.
He was to leave from there and head to New Madrid County Memorial Airport to attend a southeast Missouri Democratic minority coalition rally at 8 p.m.
Police said Lambert Airport was tracking the plane, which took off about 7 p.m. from Parks. It went off the radar screen at 7:33 p.m.
Jefferson County Sheriff Oliver "Glenn" Boyer said several witnesses reported a low-flying plane about 8 p.m. and a short time later heard what they thought was a plane crash and explosions.
Both Carnahan and his son, Randy, are licensed pilots. Randy Carnahan normally flies the campaign plane on political events.
KU Green Party will make St. Louis trip in protest of debate
Bv J.D. McKee
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By S.D. McKee
Members of the KU Green Party will travel to St. Louis tomorrow to participate in a protest of the final presidential debates.
The protest will take place in a park near the Washington University campus, the campus on which the debate will be held. Nader is scheduled to speak to the crowd at 5 p.m.
The party is protesting the exclusion of Ralph Nader, the Green Party presidential candidate, from the debate.
"We were planning on going anyway," Hoskinson said. "But the Kansas City Green Party said they were renting a bus."
Members of the Kansas City Green Party organized the trip, said Sarah Hoskinson, KU Green Party president and Burton junior.
Hoskinson said she expected about 25 University of Kansas students and about 15 members of the Kansas City Green Party to attend.
There also will be a smaller protest on the campus of Washington University, but Dalyn Cook, a member of the KU Green
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Party and Colorado Springs, Colo., sophomore, said the group would not attend.
"There's a lot of rules for it," Cook said. "There's going to be a lot of police and it's going to be a very tense situation."
Members of the KU College Republicans and KU Young Democrats said they would not go to St. Louis for the debate.
Joe Walberg, KU College Republican member and Omaha senior, said there would be a rally for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, but the group decided not to go.
"The Secret Service requires tickets and background checks," Walberg said. "It's for good reason. It's to protect the candidates, but it's not feasible for an organization like us."
The group instead will attend a debate-watching event at 8 tonight at the Kansas
The KU Young Democrats have no formal plans, said Julie Merz, president of the organization and St. Louis senior. Merz said the organization would not attend the event sponsored by DebateWatch because it was not interested in debating the issues again.
Union ballroom. The event is sponsored by DebateWatch, a national research project that sponsors debate watches and organizes discussion forums for students.
"We've seen the first two debates and we know who we're going to vote for," she said.
Edited by Amy Randolph
DEBATE WATCH
DebateWatch 2000 will show the third and final presidential debate at 8 tonight at the Kansas Union ballroom. A discussion will follow.