Female theologian
KU graduate Cathleen Chittenden leaves Thursday to study for three years in Illinois to become an ordained priest in the Episcopal church.
Story, page 6
A change of place
The youngest fraternity on campus has moved three times in the last two years and now is settled and growing in membership.
Story, page 3
Your drip is showing
A chance of morning showers will be followed by warm temperatures in the 80s today. Tonight and tomorrow should bring more of the same.
Details, page 3
Vol. 97, No. 17 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Tuesday
September 16, 1986
KU women a grade up from male counterparts
By ALISON YOUNG
Staff writer
KU women consistently receive higher grades than their male counterparts, according to University statistics.
Not much higher, but enough to baffle some University officials.
Last year, the grade point average for KU men was 2.60, compared with a 2.77 for women. A 4.0 GPA signifies a straight A average.
The figures were published in the 1985-86 Student Profile, which was prepared by the office of student affairs.
file, which was prepared by the office of studies. John Poggio, associate professor of educational psychology and research, said women tended to score higher than men on reading comprehension tests. The amount of reading involved in University courses, he said, could be a factor.
However, most other University officials could only speculate about the difference in GPAs.
Robert Lineberry, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said he did not know why women would have higher GPAs.
He jokingly hypothesized that either women were brighter than men or that men tended to take harder courses than women.
"But neither one of these seems to make a lot of sense." he said.
he said. Others have different theories.
"I think women are a little more studious," said Barbara Ballard, director of the Emily Taylot Women's Resource Center and associate dean of student life. "But I have no way of checking this out."
Since at least 1972, women's GPAs at KU have been higher than men's. In 1972, freshman men averaged a 2.98 and freshman women averaged a 3.11.
This trend seems to be a continuance of high school performance. In 1985, the mean high school GPA for entering freshman men was 3.0, compared with a 3.08 for freshman women.
Mary Townsend, assistant professor of psychology, said she didn't know why women would have higher GPAs. Townsend teaches a course in the psychology of women.
However, Townsend said research indicated that when women did succeed, they attributed their successes to external factors, such as luck while men attributed successes to their own abilities, she said.
Ballard said women might work harder on their studies than men because of the way they were raised.
"Their roles are reinforced differently," Ballard said. For men, she said, there is an emphasis on extracurricular activities, such as sports. Women, however, receive praise for good grades, said Ballard.
Because of the nature of the job market, Ballard said, women may feel more pressure to achieve.
"Since the white male makes the most money and seems to have a stronger network of contacts, I think the woman knows she will have to work harder," said Ballard. "I think they realize they have to come out with any advantage they can."
Caryl Smith, dean of student life, said she didn't think the University had ever studied why KU women had a higher GPA than KU men.
Killer bees Prof says he can stop bees
By CRAIG HERRMANN Staff writer
Orley Taylor Jr., professor of entomology and of systematics and ecology, has been doing research on the African honeybee, or the so-called killer bee, for the last 12 years.
A professor at the University of Kansas says he has a way to stop killer bees from coming to the United States by the end of the decade, but he also says no one in the government seems interested.
"The potential problem with the Africanized honeybee is very real," Taylor said. "Unfortunately, our government, like so many others, is reactive; it waits until the problem is obvious before it does something."
scientists brought African honeybees to Brazil for experiments in the 1950s, and thousands of bees escaped from a laboratory in 1957. Since then, the African bees have been mating
with the native European bee population, and the resulting strain — the killer bee — has ever since been moving north.
Taylor said the more aggressive African bee drones overpower the European drones and mate with European queen bees, producing as the hybrid an Africanized honeybee. And those bees still are very aggressive and less productive, Taylor said.
"Research indicates that African honeybees are by nature more aggressive than European honeybees, those native to the Americas," he said.
Taylor's solution is to alter the genetic makeup of the killer bees.
predicts that could happen by 1989.
Taylor wants to breed a European honeybee drone that would be strong enough to infiltrate killer bee colonies and reverse the breeding trend.
He wants to breed the African bees out of existence before they reach the U.S. border. Taylor
predicts that could happen by 1987. "We have also found that African queen bees mate only with African honeybees." The net effect is that pure European honeybees are being bred out of existence."
In the summer of 1985, Americans got a glimpse of the killer bee.
Apparently, a swarm of Africanized bees stowed away on a shipload of oil drilling equipment that passed through the Panama Canal and ended up in California.
The stowaways were discovered in June, and quarantine procedures began. Officials in California lifted the quarantine in December, saying that all suspicious bee colonies had been destroyed.
If the bees had not been controlled, however, extensive damage could have resulted. California's
See BEES, p. 5, col. 4
Bees kill student in cave
By CRAIG HERRMANN
Robert Holt, associate professor of systematics and ecology, was teaching a program this summer in Costa Rica for the Organization for Tropical Studies. The course involved about 25 students from across the United States. On July 31, when a group of students was on an outing at the Palo Verde biological reserve, one student was killed by a swarm of African killer bees.
Killer bees exist only on the movie screen for most people, but one KU professor has seen them kill a man.
Staff writer
The African honeybee gained its nickname — the killer bee — because of its aggressive behavior.
"After several days of intensive field work, we took a break." Holt said. "Some of the students and faculty decided to explore some bat caves in the area."
Among those students was InnSiang Ooi, a 24-year-old biology graduate student from the Univer-
See ATTACK, p. 5, col. 1
Diane Dultmeier/KANSAN
Willie Mosconi, IS-time world pocket billiards champion, will demonstrate his pool-table prowess at 7:30 tonight in the Kansas University Ballroom.
Pool is Mosconi's lifelong game
By BRIAN SNYDER
Sports writer
Rack the potatoes and chalk up the broomsticks. Willie Mosconi is in town
The Philadelphia native learned to shoot pool by sneaking to a pool table in his father's billiard parlor at night. Because the cues and balls were locked up, he used potatoes and a broomstick.
"There are still stains on the cloth from the potatoes." Mosconi said.
Mosconi, 15-time world pocket billiards champion, is in Lawrence to exhibit his skills at 7:30 tonight in the Kansas Union Ballroom. The exhibition is sponsored by Student Union Activities
The 73-year-old Mosconi gave up competition in 1957 and now works in
During a practice session press conference yesterday in the Kansas Union Ballroom, Mosconi told stories about the Depression years, competitors and billiards.
public relations for Harah's Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.
He said no rivalry existed among top billiards players, but his comments about Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone did not support his claim.
"Fat who? He never saw Minnesota in his life." Mosconi said. "He's never beaten anyone in his life, never! He might win a game here or there, but if he does, it's luck."
Mosconi said Wanderone took his nickname from the 1961 movie "The Hustier."
Wanderone tried to get on the set of
"He didn't have anything to do with the movie," he said. "People believe him when he says the movie is about him, but it's not."
the movie, Mosconi said, but the set was closed to him.
Mosconi was the technical adviser for the film and set up the trick shots made by its stars, Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman.
"I worked with Gleason for two months in the bottom of a girl's finishing school," Mosconi said, "trying to make him look like a shooter. He had never picked up a cue in his life. Gleason was peanuts."
However, Gleason was known to have played a few billards games himself. A 1946 incident that involved
See M0SCON1, p. 5, col. 6
Low attendance hits Senate
By SALLY STREFF
Staff writer
Low attendance at the first meeting of the year is not worrying Student Senate officials, who said they were still organizing the Senate for the semester.
Only 57.5 percent of the Senate — 38 senators — attended Wednesday night's meeting. The Senate has 66 seats, not including the president and vice president. As of yesterday, 15 seats remained vacant.
semester."
"We weren't really concerned about it," said Kris Kurtenbach, student body vice president. "There are problems specific to the first meeting. People are still getting organized, getting themselves together."
"We'll be more surprised if attendance is low later on in the
senteer.
Part of the reason for low attendance at the first meeting is the number of resignations that occur each fall, she said. The Senate has not started to replace empty seats.
Senators are suspended if they receive two unexcused absences or four excused absences. However, they may appeal suspensions to the Student Senate Executive Committee.
Michelle Roberts, the Senate's executive secretary, said the 15 Senate seats were vacant either because senators resigned or because they had been removed for too many absences.
Roberts said senators had been notifying her of their resignations almost daily within the last week.
The Senate does not contact
members during the summer to ask whether they will be returning in the fall, Kurtenbach said.
"It's understood that your term is a 'yearlong thing.' she said. "Unless we're notified by someone, we just assume they're an active member."
Kurtenbach said most senators resigned because they graduated. Other senators return in the fall and realize they don't have enough time for Senate that year.
The Senate's decision to change elections from November to April may eliminate some of those resignations in the future, she said. The three-month summer break will occur early in a senator's term instead of toward the end.