Section A · Page 20
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, August 21, 2000
Two suspects indicted in graduate's murder
Social welfare student was stabbed last year during robbery in NY
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Two suspects were indicted earlier this month on murder charges in the fatal stabbing of a University of Kansas graduate in March 1999 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Amy Watkins, 26, was killed in a robbery as she was walking to her home in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn.
She was stabbed in the back with a 10-inch kitchen knife on March 8.
David Jamison, 27, was charged Aug. 17 with first-degree murder for the allegedly stabbing Watkins. Felix Rodriguez, 20, was charged Aug. 8 with second-degree murder for allegedly helping Jamison.
District Attorney Charles Hynes has 120 days from the time Jamison is arraigned to decide whether to pursue a capital case. No date for the arraignment was set. Hynes has sought the death penalty in seven cases.
Lawrence Watkins told reporters he wanted a severe prison sentence for his child's killer.
"The death penalty would almost be an easy way out," he said.
Police said a third man, a Haitian immigrant, was involved, but no charges had been filed against him. Officials said he might be deported.
After more than a year on the case, police arrested the three men on Aug. 2 after receiving a Crime Stoppers tip that Jamison had bragged about killing Watkins.
Prosecutors said that Jamison agreed, during an interrogation, to give a videotaped confession. Jamison's attorney, Samuel Gregory, said he would challenge that statement and that his client denied the charges. Rodriguez denied the charges as well.
According to police:
According to police On the night of her death, Watkins
"Nothing brings her back, but it's better that they aren't out there preying on people."
Alice Lieberman Associate professor of social welfare
had taken the subway home from the Bronx, where she was an intern at a community center.
As she was walking to her apartment from the subway, Jamison, Rodriguez and the third man saw her and decided she would be easy to rob.
One of the men stood as a lookout while the other two approached Watkins. One of them tried to take her handbag, and she struggled with him. Jamison then stabbed her in the back. The men got away with only a few dollars from the robbery.
Watkins was raised in Topeka and moved to New York in 1997 after graduating with a degree in social welfare from the University.
Alice Lieberman, associate professor of social welfare, said that Watkins was committed to helping others.
"You can't describe Amy and do her justice." Lieberman said. "She very clearly saw the inequities in the world and was very committed to doing something about them."
Lieberman said she was surprised when she learned that arrests had been made, but that it did not provide a sense of closure.
"Nothing brings her back, but it's better that they aren't out there preying on people," she said.
Watkins was a graduate student at Hunter College School of Social Work in New York studying community organizing and planning. Irene Schaefer, assistant to the dean at the school, said that a scholarship fund of more than $50,000 had been formed in Watkins' name.
The school is in the process of awarding the first scholarship.
Derek Prater contributed to this story — Edited by Erin Adamson
Series offers leadership training
KU Lead aims to unite student organizations
By Keeley Thurston Special to the Kansar
Students at the University of Kansas who want to develop leadership skills can go to the Student Organizations and Leadership Development Center in the Kansas Union for help.
"Any person can use the skills taught in leadership training, whether he or she will be a leader or a follower," said Aaron Quisenberry, assistant director of the center. "A person will need them to survive."
The Organizations and Leadership Center sponsors three leadership conferences and a lecture series during the academic year.
hour programs about every two weeks throughout the year, alternating Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 6 p.m. in the Kansas and Burge unions. The series will begin in October.
The lecture series has one-
The first of the conferences, the Student Leadership Institute, is a one-day conference for established leaders at the University and will be Sunday, Sept. 3, in Topeka.
The conference focuses on community development, and students can learn new communication techniques, attend workshops and expand their network of other KU leaders.
The LeaderShape Institute is for students who already have become leaders at the University.
Students must apply through the Organizations and Leadership Center. It will take place for one week in January, tentatively set for Sunday, Jan. 7, to Friday, Jan. 12, at the Paul Oaks conference center north of Desoto. The conference emphasizes the key leadership issues of vision, partnerships, integrity and results.
The last conference of the year, the Blueprints conference, will be Saturday, March 3, in the Kansas Union. Students can apply for this in the Organizations and Leadership Center. They will learn the fundamentals of leadership, enhance skills they already have and learn new skills.
Jacob Eastman, Lawrence senior, and Jeff Geurts, Oklahoma City, Okla., junior, started KU Lead in Spring 1999 after they attended the LeaderShape conference.
"These students are the young Jedi," Quisenberry said.
KU Lead is an organization in the Organizations and Leadership Center that promotes existing leadership opportunities for involved students and tries to help unite student organizations.
"Leadership is a process, not a person," said Diana Carlin, professor in communication studies and dean of the Graduate School and International Studies.
Carlin and other faculty members have proposed a leadership studies minor through the Department of Communications Studies.
The course of study would emphasize understanding and appreciation of cultural differences.
Students would take classes in five areas: leadership studies, communications, ethics, community development and leadership, and diversity and culture.
The requirements for students to be accepted into the program would include completing 28 hours of college credit, evidence of leadership interest and potential based on school and university activities, grade point average and an essay.
- Edited by Kimberly Thompson
Schools expect few changes in standards
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — The State Board of Education's expected ideological flip-flop on evolution is likely to have limited impact on Kansas' 304 school districts.
to undergo a major change for the second time in less than two years.
The board's vote a year ago to play down the importance of evolution in public schools was the big issue in the primary election on Aug. 1, but local districts had largely ignored the decision.
And now, with the defeat of three conservative GOP candidates in the primary election for state board seats, the board's majority is likely to be made up of moderate Republicans or Democrats who have vowed to overturn the new standards. Five members will be elected to the board Tuesday, Nov. 7.
The standards are guidelines for what should be taught in science classrooms and serve as the basis for statewide student tests, scheduled to be introduced next year. And when a new board is seated in January, the standards are expected
Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said he had heard of no school district that changed its lesson plans or science textbooks after the board's 6-4 vote to de-emphasize evolution.
After the primary, Marjorie Kaplan, superintendent of the Shawnee Mission school district in Johnson County, said there would be no change in what students there were taught if the board reversed its decision.
Kaplan said biology teachers in her district, the state's second largest with 31,000 students, continued to teach evolution.
"We're trying to teach what we think our students need to learn," she said. Even the Pratt district, whose school board is considering adopting curriculum standards allowing discussion of alternative theories to evolution, is not worried about having to make changes.
Last fall, Pratt's school board considered including as a supplement to its science curriculum a textbook that includes intelligent design, the idea that the universe requires an intelligent creator.
Superintendent Ken Kennedy said the district intended to keep evolution in its curriculum.
Although the board did not vote on whether to add the textbook, Kennedy said it was considered because of requests from people in the community.
After the Aug. 1 primary, Sue Gamble, a moderate who defeated incumbent Linda Holloway, said she already had discussed with other moderates the future of the standards.
"We expect to have a very busy January." Gamble said. "This has been a bone of contention among all of us as we've talked over the past several months."
- Edited by Amy Randolph
Get Connected
ResNet
ResNet.ukans.edu
Who: -KU Residence Hall Students (Towers and Scholarship Halls too)
What:
-Sign up for Resididence Hall Network Connections for Internet service
-Ethernet card sale (necessary for your Network Connection)
-RCC's (Residential Communication Consultants) will provide on-site help with your Network Connection.
-Information about Campuslink, KU personal long distance calling
Where RCC's will be in each Residence Hall move-in weekend from 10am to 7pm
& When:
-Jayhawker Towers (Hawks Nest)
Aug. 17, 10am-7pm
-Scholarship Halls (Amini I Lobby)
Aug 19 & 20, 10am-7pm
Contact RCC's directly @ 864-9320 or learn more at Resnet.ukans.edu