University Daily Kansai / Tuesday, September 2, 1986
3
News Briefs
Burglaries reported in four apartments
All the apartments in a fourplex in the 900 block of Alabama Street were burglarized between 11:00 p.m. Saturday and 2 a.m. Sunday, according to police reports.
The four apartments are rented by KU students
One resident, Scott Stevens,
Lawrence sophomore, arrived
home about 2 a.m. Sunday and
found that a light he had left on
had been turned off. He said he knew
something was wrong when the
door opened when he pushed it.
Most of the other residents of the building were out of town for the holiday weekend and had to be notified by police, he said.
According to reports filed with the Lawrence Police Department, stereo equipment, camera and video equipment, jewelry, a computer and typewriter, all valued at about $7,500, were taken.
"The figure will probably go higher," Stevens said "My roommate has not come back to town and hasn't had a chance to report his stolen stuff yet."
Local man hit by car
Samuel Jaimez, 34, of 1213 Ohio St., was struck Saturday night by a car while crossing Kentucky Street at 12th Street, police reports said.
He was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital where he was reported in fair condition.
The driver of the car, Chali A. Holt, 22. Lawrence special student, was charged with reckless driving.
Jaimez told police he was wearing headphones and listening to a cassette player when he was struck.
Holt told police she did not see Jaimez until he stepped in front of her car, too late for her to avoid hitting him.
Vonnequit to speak
Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. will speak on campus Oct. 22, a Student Union Activities spokesman said vesterday.
Vonnegut is the author of
"Slaughterhouse Five"
and
"Breakfast of Champions."
Victor Osmalok, SUA Forums Committee chairman, said that in addition to the speech, which will be at 8 p.m. in Hoch Auditorium, Navneugt would autograph books in the Oread Book Shop.
Vonnegut will talk about his work as an author for about 45 minutes and then take questions from the audience. Osmokla said
Executive to speak
The president of a Wichita public relations agency will speak tomorrow at an introductory meeting for the Public Relations Student Society of America.
Al Higdon, president of Sullivan Higdon & Sink, will speak at 6:30 p.m. in 100 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The firm is the largest advertising/public relations agency in Kansas.
Higdon will speak on public relations campaigns his agency has designed.
The speech is free and open to all interested faculty and students.
Weather
Today will be partly cloudy with a high temperature in the mid-80s. Winds will come from the southeast at five to 10 miles per hour. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low temperature near 60 degrees. Skies will be part cloudy tomorrow. The high temperature should be in the low 80s.
From staff and wire reports
Prof develops new AIDS detection test
A new method of testing for AIDS antibodies in the blood, developed by a KU professor, may lead to more accurate results, the professor said.
By JANE ZACHMAN
Staff writer
Charles Wood, assistant professor of microbiology, created the test which already has been introduced in Europe. It now awaits approval from the Federal Drug Administration in the United States.
"The tests have been almost 100 percent accurate in Europe," Wood said.
Scientists and physicians have been working in the United States for almost two years to find a cure, he said.
But inefficient means of testing for the disease and the varying forms of the virus have made finding a cure difficult. Wood said.
"The tests that are used now are designed to detect AIDS antibodies.
Current testing methods produce incorrect results about 50 percent of the time, he said.
"The problem is caused by the way the tests are prepared," Wood said.
The slides on which the blood is tested sometimes become contaminated and can disrupt the actual results.
In the tests now being used, the virus is broken apart and placed on a slide, Wood said. A sample of blood is placed with the virus. Scientists can detect whether antibodies appear and attach to the virus
Wood, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas 14 years ago, returned in November to teach at KU after working at the Abbott Laboratories in Chicago.
The test that Wood developed when he worked in Chicago would make it possible to get more accurate results than what scientists could get now.
While in Chicago, Wood began working to find a more efficient way to detect AIDS antibodies in blood samples. Wood's test, known as Env/Core, obtains the virus in a purer form than available in other tests.
His test uses gene splicing to find the purest form of the AIDS virus. The virus is then placed in bacteria that allows the virus to reproduce without being contaminated, resulting in a more specific test.
Wood is continuing his research at KU.
If antibodies appear, then the donor's blood is unusable but the donor does not necessarily have AIDS.
Some people naturally have AIDS antibodies in their blood. Wood said, but they do not have the AIDS virus. Only 15 to 20 percent of those who have AIDS antibodies in their blood actually develop the disease, he said.
Another problem among the tests that have been developed so far is that the AIDS virus varies a great deal. Wood said.
"We want to identify components of the virus that do not vary and that
do become good targets for antibodies," he said. "We need a test that detects all different strains of the virus.
As of last month, 35 cases of AIDS have been reported in Kansas, he said, and more than 24,000 cases have been confirmed in the United States.
The AIDS virus attacks the immune system, which fights diseases within the body. Wood said.
"I think this new test will eventually replace the first screening tests."
"The virus attacks the 'T' cells, within white blood cells, which are a major component of the immune response system." he said.
Antibodies are produced by the immune system to fight off a foreign substance or disease in the body. Wood said. They will only recognize a specific foreign substance.
Testing for AIDS began in blood banks about two years ago when AIDS was found in samples of donated blood, Wood said. Doctors began screening donors for the antibodies when they discovered that the disease was being transmitted through donated blood.
"Antibodies against the AIDS virus don't protect us the way they would against influenza." Wood said.
"Before screening centers were set up, there was the risk that people would give blood to have their blood tested," Wood said. "Now they have an alternative with cities that have screening centers."
Douglas County now has a blood screening center.
Mike Horton/KANSAN
Charles Wood, assistant professor of microbiology, works in one of the research labs in Haworth Hall. Wood has developed a new test to detect AIDS antibodies in the blood.
Docking proposes pre-paid tuition program
By NANCY BARRE
Staff writer
A candidate for Kansas governor is advocating a tuition investment program for state schools that may be difficult to carry out, according to state and KU officials.
Lt. Gov. Tom Docking, Democratic nominee for governor, has suggested in his campaign platform a tax break program for educational investment.
The program would allow parents to pay for their children's college educations years in advance.
The program could help to prevent the present phenomenon of "brain drain," where many of the state's brightest students go out of state for education and employment, he said yesterday.
Parents interested in the program could make either a series of payments or a full payment into a state fund for their children's college education.
He calls it the FUTURE Program. FUTURE stands for Full University Tuition Undergraduate Reward for Excellence.
When children reached college age, they would be able to use the money toward education at a state university.
If children decide they want to go out of state, they may receive a refund, but may forfeit the interest developed over the years. Docking said
"There is already support in the legislature for this program," he said.
Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa., started a program a year ago similar to the one Docking is proposing. Eight more private Eastern universities also have begun similar programs.
Kansas House Speaker Mike Hayden, the Republican nominee for governor, doesn't include an official stance on higher education in
his platform.
But, Kelley Hayden, Mike Hayden's press secretary, said that Docking's FUTURE program didn't take the federal government into account.
"Unless they got the feds involved, the Democrats wouldn't be able to offer a significant (tax) exemption," said Kelley Hayden, who also is a KU instructor of English. "Under that program, you make the state a banker — it holds people's money for them. I can't say whether that's good or bad, but it's a matter that needs further study."
Gerald Bergen, associate director of academic affairs for the Kansas Board of Regents, said this type of program had not been discussed officially at a Regents meeting.
Although he hasn't studied the matter in detail, the type of program that Duquesne has might be difficult to achieve at a state school, he said.
"First of all, it would take legislation to do it," he said. "Somebody would have to be in
trusted with state funds, and if the investments didn't pay off, the state would have to come up with additional dollars."
Jerry Rogers, director of student financial aid at KU, agreed that further study of the matter would be necessary.
He said it probably would take a great deal of work to make a tuition investment program successful in a state school.
About 600 children are signed up for Duquesne's program, said Pat Folina, director of the alumni office at Duquesne. Parents pay a lump sum to the university for their child's future education. The parents tell the university what year their child will enter school.
Former senator donates papers
For example, parents now may pay $6,300 for four years' tuition if they expect their child to enter college in 2004, Folina said.
Then, investment counselors for the university declare a sum for each succeeding year based on inflation and on the return they expect on the investment, she said.
Staff writer
By BRIAN SNYDER
Project records black history
About 18 years of Billy McCray's political career became a part of the KU Black History Collection Project on Saturday.
McCray, a former state senator and representative from Wichita, donated 15 to 20 boxes of public records, private letters, photographs and newspaper clippings to the project.
The collection is part of the Kansas Collection of KU's Spencer Research Library.
It comprises documents, such as letters and journals that record the history of Kansas black community and its role in the development of the state.
"The collection documents an aspect of black leadership that scholars know little about," said Deborah Dandridge, field historian and archivist for the project.
The papers must be organized and identified before the public can see them, which will probably take two months, Dandridge said. All information must be placed in the card catalog system.
McCray, whose papers are among the first received by the collection
project from Kansas' black legislators, said he decided to donate his papers to the collection for several reasons.
"Blacks should know where their roots come from," McCray said. "They should also understand the thinking of leaders working for the black cause."
The collection program, he said, provides greater awareness of what blacks have done in the state. Kansas would lose a dimension of its black history without the program, he said.
McCray faced many different issues during his years of service in Topica. He served three terms in the Kansas House of Representatives, starting in 1966, and served as a state senator from 1972 to 1984.
He said he was proudest of supporting financing for sickle cell anemia testing in public schools.
Opposition to reinstatement of the death penalty.
A resolution supporting the teaching of ethnic history in Kansas schools.
Some of the other issues recorded in McCray's napers are:
Support of legislation that would have earmarked a percentage of state contracts for minority businesses.
McCray left the Kansas Legislature in 1984 to become director of the Office of Minority Business in the Kansas Department of Economic Development.
"The Office of Minority Business offers a type of educational workshop for minorities," McCray said. "It teaches blacks how to bid for state contracts and secure loans to start businesses."
- Addition of fair housing provisions to the -Kansas civil rights statutes.
McCray recently stepped down from the directional and is running for a seat on the Sedgwick County Commission.
Spencer Library staff are in the middle of a three-year program to collect pieces of black history from all parts of the state. Dandridge said Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita are the first targets of the program Spencer library staff will next investigate small towns and rural areas for historical documents.
Good sources for material include teachers, churches, black social organizations, community workers and families, Dandridge said.
By CRAIG HERRMANN
Telephone customers to get local calls free
Lawrence telephone customers will receive free local telephone service for the month of September and a discount on some long distance calls for four months, a telephone company official said last week.
The Kansas Corporation Commission ordered the discount this summer after deciding that Southwestern Bell Telephone was overcharging its customers
Southwestern Bell will reduce the basic monthly telephone rate by about 124 percent for this month, said David Nichols. Southwestern Bell community relations manager for Lawrence
The company also will reduce the charges for Southwestern Bell long distance calls within the state by almost 21 percent from September to December, he said.
Nichols said that, based on a local rate of $10.70 for basic residential service, customers in Lawrence should expect a credit of $13.62 on their September bills.
vice is more than 100 percent, the excess amount will be applied to other charges on the bill, he said.
Since the refund for basic ser-
Nichols said the rate reductions for local and long distance services will appear on customers' monthly bills in the form of credits and automatically will be subtracted from the total amount due from each customer
Savings on long distance calls will vary according to the amount of usage. Nichols said For instance, if a customer's Southwestern Bell long distance bill is $24 a month, his monthly savings would be about $5, resulting in a total savings of $20 for the four months of the discount.
This summer, the Kansas Corporation Commission ordered Southwestern Bell to refund $27 million in depreciation costs plus interest, for a combined total of $32 million, to its 800,000 Kansas customers. Nichols said.
"Depreciation costs are the recovery of Southwestern Bell's original capital investment, like tools and heavy machinery," he said.
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