3
Thursday, Nov. 14, 1985
News Briefs
Campus/Area
Firefighter resigns after cocaine arrest
Tommy Teague, a Lawrence firefighter who pleaded no contest. Nov. 5 to a charge of conspiracy to possess cocaine, resigned yesterday from the fire department, Fire Chief Jim McSwain said.
Teague was suspended without pay after his arrest in June for suspicion of possession of cocaine.
McSwain said the resignation was accepted and was considered effective yesterday.
He was originally charged with possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
John Flory, Douglas County District Attorney, amended the charges in exchange for Teague's no contest plea.
SUA position open
Students interested in applying for public relations chairman for Student Union Activities may get an application at the SUA Office on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union
Applications will be accepted until noon Nov. 21. Applicant interviews will be held beginning at 6 p.m. Nov. 21.
or more information, contact the SUA office.
The University of Kansas Collegium Musicum, an early music ensemble of instruments and voices, will present "Christmas Story" by Heinrich Schutz at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Spencer Museum of Art.
Oratorio to be given
Daniel T. Poltosk, professor of music history and director of the Collegium, said recently that "Christmas Story" was Schutz's most mature and elaborate example of a 17th century form of the oratorio. The performance celebrates the 400th anniversary of Schutz's birth in 1585.
The concert includes several choruses, solos for the angel and King Herod, vocal ensembles representing the shepherds, wise men and high priests; and a tenor evangelist who tells the story of the birth of Jesus.
The Kansan is accepting applications for spring semester editor and business manager.
Kansan jobs open
Applications are due by 5 p.m. Tuesday. They are available in the Kansan business office, 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall, the journalism dean's office, 200 Stauffer-Flint, and the Student Senate Office, B-105 Kansas Union.
Applicants will meet Dec. 2 with the Kansan Board, the governing body of the newspaper. The editor and business manager will be chosen afterward.
Applications for other news and business staff positions are due by 5 p.m. Dec. 2 in 200 Stauffer-Flint.
Weather
Today will be cloudy with a 50 percent chance of rain or thunderstorms. Highs will be in the mid- to upper 40s and winds will be northeast at 5 to 15 mph. Tonight will be cloudy with a 70 percent chance of rain or thunderstorms and lows around 40. Tomorrow will be cloudy with a 60 percent chance of rain or thunderstorms and highs in the mid- to upper 40s.
Ruling sought on closed meeting
University Daily Kansar
The student body president and vice president Tuesday asked University general council for a formal opinion on whether the Student Senate Elections Committee violated the University Senate Code by closing a meeting on Nov. 6.
By Bonnie Snyder Of the Kansan staff
Yesterday, the leaders of both Chrysalis and Common Sense coalitions said they would sign a document waiving their coalition's right to appeal the outcome of the elections based on "irregularities" that have occurred.
night.
Polack and William Easley, student body president, gave a copy of their request for a legal opinion about the closed meeting to each member of StudEx. They said they did not know when they would receive a reply.
regularities. Common Sense leaders had already signed the waiver, and Chrysalis leaders plan to sign it, Jeff Polack, student body vice president, told the Student Senate Executive Committee in a meeting last night.
"The bottom line is we've got a runaway subcommittee," Polack said, referring to the Elections Committee, "and no one has explicit authority to question it short of the Elections Review Board."
Senate rules give the student body president the power to enforce the Code but do not specify how he is supposed to do that, Polack said.
From staff and wire reports
Easley did not comment on what, if any, action be planned to take.
Alison Young, Senate Executive secretary, Sam Easley, as president, was in a difficult position. She said he would be criticized if he tried to stop the election, which could extend his term in office until another election was held.
On the other hand, she said, he could set a dangerous precedent if he ignored the irregularities.
The coalition leaders waiver, which was written by Polack, listed ten specific "irregularities" in the elections process that had occurred this semester, including:
the decision by the Elections Committee to close its Nov. 6 meeting while discussing Senate seat apportionment.
the Elections Committee's failure to provide Senate seat distribution figures until Nov. 6.
- possible conflicts of interest for voting members of both the Elections Committee and StudEx.
the decision by the Elections Committee and the Student Senate Executive Committee to use Oct. 21 enrollment figures rather than the full-time enrollment figures required by the Code.
David Day, chairman of the Elections Committee, said all the irregularities did occur, but only the first two could be the basis for an appeal by coalition leaders or candidates.
"Some of these are just Jeff and William reaching for something to put down here," Day said.
"I don't mind if an appeal comes from the coalitions, but if it comes from within the Senate, it makes the whole Senate structure look bad."
Med Center would like write-off
By Gary Duda Of the Kansan staff
Marvin Burris, the associate director, said Med Center officials would ask the Regents at tomorrow's meeting in Topeka to authorize them to apply to the division of accounts and reports for permission to write off the uncollected money.
The University of Kansas Medical Center is asking this week to have more than $3.3 million in unpaid bills written off as "uncollectable," the Kansas Board of Regents associate director for the budget said yesterday.
Burris said that when efforts to collect overdue accounts failed, the last resort was to write off the loss, which is provided for by state law.
While the Med Center writes off the accounts, Burris said, the state will absorb the actual loss, because the Med Center is a state agency.
Keith Nitcher, KU director of business affairs, said the money the Med Center wanted to write off was from unpaid accounts beginning in 1800, from either delinquent accounts or accounts with individuals who had applied for bankruptcy.
Before the University writes off unpaid accounts, Nitcher said, it makes several attempts to recover the money. He said the University would first try to collect the money on its own. If that effort failed, he said, the University would turn the matter over to the state.
Nitcher said the state would try to get a payment from an individual's income tax returns.
Even after writing off the loss, Nitcher said, 'the Med Center kept the names of people who did not pay their bills, hoping they eventually would pay.
Burris said the delinquent accounts amounted to $2,850,325, and accounts with individuals who had filed for bankruptcy amounted to $341,133.
Burris said that the Med Center wrote off uncollected accounts twice a year, in November and December. He said this year's write offs would surpass those of past years.
In a normal year, Burris said, $3 million might be written off. He said that this year, the loss would be equal to about 10 percent of the Med Center's accounts.
Burris said increased losses this year and last year were due to a recent change in a collection policy. He said the Med Center was attempting to clean up its backlog of overdue accounts.
The Med Center wrote off losses of $3.7 million last November and $1.8 million last December.
Wilfredo Lee/Special to the KANSAN
Mike Stevens, Overland Park senior, wants to make trash dumpsters into works of art. Stevens is currently working on a dumpster behind McCollum Hall.
Trash bins double as canvas
By Bob Tinsley Of the Kansan staff
Some artists first envision their masterpieces in a flash of brilliant inspiration.
Mike Stevens, a sophomore in the school of fine arts, conceived of his latest work during a walk to the grocery store.
grocery store.
"I saw those trash bins," Stevens, Overland Park sophomore, said Monday.
"There's lots of surface there and it's not even being used."
if it is not even ground.
The result is that McColum Hall has been graced with a very avant-garde trash dumpster.
stevens has smothered the sterile brown metal of the bin beneath a vibrant coat of fiery orange and cool turquoise paint. Box-like designs, in white, wreathe the trash bin like popcorn strung on a Christmas tree. And the creating continues.
yellow fabric in 1977. Too many artists isolate themselves, he said, and bring out their works for viewing only when they are complete.
However, he said, some of the public told him that his work — in short — was a mess. Is it vandalism, or artistic expression?
"I'm trying to reverse that and do my work in public," he said.
"The work isn't really complete. It's kind of evolving," Stevens said.
Stevens takes his cue from the Burlington-born artist, Christo, who swathed the sidewalks of Kansas City's Loose Park in yards of
"My view is that it's expression, and they think it's on a line between expression and vandalism," he said.
"I guess maybe I am a borderline vandal. I get legal permission, but I'd love to have a bridge or subway to do my own thing with."
Stevens got permission from the office of student housing and Max Shankard, Lawrence assistant director of public works.
The trash bins are city property and Shankard said Stevens' request was the first of its kind that public works had received.
"I don't think it will hurt anything as long as he doesn't cross out the cautions and warnings on the cans," Shankard said.
Giving Stevens permission was easy enough, Shankard said, but a
mood of similar requests might necessitate some sort of office policy.
"There have been similar projects undertaken in cities across the country," he said, "and some of them have produced quite spectacular works."
Dear Milroy, assistant d'lector of housing, said, "I guess I was receptive to his idea because I don't see anything attractive about the can anyway. I don't think anybody does."
The designs on the bin looked much like graffiti when Stevens began, Milroy said, but as Stevens worked they began to take shape.
"We have had some people who don't like it, but you can't please everybody," he said.
The impressions Stevens' art leaves on McCollum kitchen staff include ghosts and skyscapes. Sheryl Kidwell, McCollum dietitian, said the bin brought an image of Daisy Hill viewed from the air to her mind.
Stevers said, "It's not a picture of anything. There's no verbal connection; it's color."
Congress considers cuts in aid
By Bengt Ljung Of the Kansan staff
Financial aid for students, which has been eroded by inflation the last five years, may now be severely cut, as Congress struggles to reduce the federal budget deficit, a student lobbying organization said yesterday.
Programs such as Pell Grants, College Work Study and Guaranteed Student Loans are in the middle of the current budget battle.
Kathy Ozer, legislative director of the United States Student Association, a student lobbying organization in Washington, D.C., said yesterday that a proposal in the Senate, sponsored by Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Warren Rudman, R-N.H., would result in massive reductions of financial aid.
"This is the most drastic attack on student aid in the past five years," she said. "It would mean a dismantling of Guaranteed Student Loan and a cut of the Pell Grant by 15 percent."
Yet the final result for students is difficult to determine in dollars and cents, said John Allen, director of legislative affairs for Associated Students of Kansas in Topeka. The many proposals in both the Senate and the House of Representatives will be amended and the houses need to reach an agreement before the final bill becomes a law.
"A statute doesn't mean anything until it gets to the funding process. And there's no way of telling now how the statute will affect the funding," he said.
Christina Bolton, legislative director for Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., said the United States Student Association were jumping to conclusions. Dole supports the Gramm-Rudman proposal.
"Their figures are from a worstcase scenario," she said. "There's nothing in the plan that will affect students in a negative way."
No conditions, such as requirements for eligibility, will change. Bolton said.
"This plan will enable Congress to do something everybody doesn't want to do. The current system obviously isn't working." Bolton said.
Ozer said the House passed an authorization bill to increase the maximum award for Pell Grants from $2,100 to $2,300 Tuesday.
Jerry Rogers, director of financial aid at the University of Kansas, said he did not expect more money. The pot remains the same.
Allen said that while Pell Grants had remained constant, the higher education price index, which includes cost-of-living and tuition changes, had increased 7 to 8 percent annually the last five years.
College Work Study programs also have been eroded, Allen said, because the minimum wage has remained the same since 1981.
Rogers said Guaranteed Student Loans had become more available because more lenders had entered the market. The GSL has picked up the slack when fewer students are awarded grants.
Although lending money to students is labor intensive, it is profitable for banks because the government adds a special allowance of 3.5 percent on top of the interest. Bolton said the Gramm-Rudman proposal would save $200 million by reducing the lenders yield.
Allen said reducing the lenders' incentive would threaten the GSL.
"What's dangerous is that we're moving in the wrong direction," he said. "We're forcing over reliance on borrowing and increasing students' debt loads."
842-1212 Pizza Shuttle says:
Get it together!
10—1 item 10" Pizzas
$2500
Additional Pizzas $2
Additional items 50*
16 oz. Pepsis 25*
Feed your
fraternity, sorority, office, dorm floor,
groups of any kind!
Pizza Shuttle
1601 West 23rd Southern Hills Mall
842-1212
Homemade CHOCOLATE,CHERRY LEMON OR BLUEBERRY Cheesecake
No coupons accepted with this offer.
reg $1.50
95¢
£1.50
Offer good through Nov.30
Also: 50° Pitchers 11 a.m.-3 a.m. $1 cover
the Sanctuary 7th & Michigan 843-05
recip focal with over 300 clubs
843-0541