Tuesday
October 1, 2002
Vol. 113. Issue No. 29
Today's weather
90°
Tonight: 62*
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KANSAN
Kansas water skiing team advances to national tournament p.10A
Minority enrollment increases
Recruitment, retention cited as keys to largest increase in KU history
By Katie Nelson
knelson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Minority enrollment rose 12. percent this fall from Fall 2001, the largest percentage increase in KU history.
There are 280 more African-American, Native-American, Hispanic and Asian students on the Lawrence campus this fall. The 20th-day figures, released by the Board of Regents yesterday, shows there are 2,606 self-identified minority students at KU. Last fall there were 2,326.
The percentage increase in minority enrollment tops KU's overall enrollment percentage increase of 9 percent on the Lawrence campus.
Charee Fits, an African-American junior from Kansas City, Kan., said she had noticed a drastic difference in the number of minorities on campus since she started at KU three years ago.
Fitts is the vice president of the KU branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights group, and a member of the Black Student Union. As a result of increased diversity, attendance at meetings for both organizations has increased over the years, she said.
"More people are taking the initiative to make that happen, which is good," she said. "But don't get me wrong, there is still more work to be done."
The increase in minority students is the result of more recruiting, said Lisa Pinamonti, interim director of Admissions and Scholarships.
"There is more contact, more programming and more students coming out to visit," she said.
Increasingly, admissions counselors are tapping into high school minority scholarship programs in Wichita, Topeka and the Kansas City area. The counselors are also sending prospective students recruitment letters from student minority groups to help entice them to come to KU.
A low freshman-retention rate has long been viewed as a weakness in increasing minority enrollment, but that rate also jumped this fall. About 80 percent of those freshmen who enrolled last year came back this fall, whereas 75 percent of minority freshman came back for a second year in 2001.
—Edited by Lauren Beatty
Research quest loses player
Med Center administrator leaves hole that some say will take time to fill
By Lindsay Hanson
Ihanson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The departure of a top administrator at the University of Kansas Medical Center could hamper KU's pursuit of a top 25 ranking as a public research university, some Med Center faculty members say.
2002-03 KU research funds:
$224 million, including $140 million from grants and other external sources and $84 million from tuition money
1995-96 KU research funds (the year Chancellor Robert Heinemway took office)
$124 million, including $94 million from grants and $30 million from tuition money
University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute president Michael Welch will become the president of the
Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School.
Welch, a nationally renowned brain researcher, announced his resignation Sept. 18. He came to the University in 1998.
Jeff Radel, board member for the Research Institute, said losing Welch would take time to overcome.
"I don't think it's fatal," said Radel, associate professor of occupational therapy. "The answer is that we have to get past it with someone who has equally substantial vision and I don't think that will take just a day or two."
Richard Hawkins, current president
of Finch/CMS, sat on the selection committee for the school's new presidential position. He said Welch carried a résumé full of experience that would be valuable to their school.
"There's going to be some restructuring and there's going to be some loss to KU Med, absolutely," he said.
Radel said one of Welch's most notable accomplishments was the launch of the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, which is scheduled for completion next spring. The center will allow clinicians to map the brain's processes in motion.
SEE RESEARCH ON PAGE 6A
Scholarship hall residents gather together to pay their respects to Juanita Strait, a neighbor and friend to students Juanita lived at 1346 Louisiana adjacent to scholarship hall resident housing
University neighbor Strait dies
93-year-old woman took students into home had friends of all ages
By Matt Stumpff
mstumpff@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
friend on Sunday.
The University of Kansas lost a good
Juanita Strait, who lived on the corner of 14th and Louisiana streets for almost 60 years, died of natural causes. Strait, who was 93, was known to have been a good neighbor and friend to countless students through the years.
Bob Hammer met Strait in 1944 when he came to the University. He rented a room from her and her husband, Reginald, who passed away in 1979, and stayed in their house for five years.
"I was walking up the 14th Street hill one day, and I'd always admired this house," Hammer said. "In the window there was a sign that said 'room for rent' and there was this vivacious young woman at the door. She showed me the room, and I loved it. It was the beginning of a 58-year friendship."
Strait continued her strong relationships with students despite deteriorating health during the last couple years. Hammer said he was grateful that students had an opportunity to give back to her.
"A multitude of people helped her in her declining years," he said. "It was
SEE STRAIT ON PAGE 6A
Nine KU students protest World Bank
By Lindsey Hodel
lhodel@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Nine KU students took part in a demonstration at the gathering of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this past weekend in Washington, D.C.
The World Bank is now the biggest organization offering financial assistance to nations. So far this year, the World Bank has given almost $20 billion in aid to other countries, according to the Gannett News Service on Sept. 27.
They were among about 20,000 protesters who marched from the Washington Monument to the U.S. Treasury, protesting the World Bank and IMF's actions toward Third World countries.
But, the World Bank and IMF loan this money with strings attached, said Shaun Morrell, Salina graduate student.
Morrell helped organize KU students to travel to Washington D.C., and said protesters followed these organizations wherever they met.
"The World Bank and IMF use their financial agreements with other countries to enter into the country's economy and exploit the cheap labor and environment," he said.
The World Bank and IMF were created after World War II destroyed the global economy, leaving many cities in Europe and Asia in economic turmoil. These institutions were developed to prevent another Great Depression.
Morrell said one of the most important accomplishments of this weekend's protest was making a physical presence to demonstrate opposition to the institution.
*When these institutions see and hear
Contributed Photo
Tyler Longpine, Hays sophomore, Amanda Flott, Omaha, Neb., sophomore, and Maggie Beedles, Lawrence senior, hold a large syringe with "justice vaccine" written on it in Washington, D.C. Demonstrators protested corporate greed, calling it a disease for which justice is the only cure.
SEE PROTEST ON PAGE 6A
Trust fund lawsuit in mediation
By Molly Gise
mgise@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A Douglas County District Court judge ordered mediation in the lawsuit involving the Elizabeth Miller Watkins trust yesterday.
Judge Jack Murphy did not rule on any of the pending motions filed by Watkins Scholarship Hall residents or by the University of Kansas and Bank of America. He required the lawsuit's parties to seek mediation by Oct. 29.
The goal of mediation is to help the parties of the lawsuit find a middle
SEE LAWSUIT ON PAGE 6A
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