KANSAS INDIANA
For complete coverage see Page 7.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.102.NO.72
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4,1992
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Hispanics question standing at University
By Mark Martin
Kansan staff writer
A year-long feud between several Hispanic students, University of Kansas faculty members and the Office of Minority Affairs has many in KU's Hispanic community questioning the University's commitment to minority issues.
the feeling that KU's administration is not concerned with minorities, particularly Hispanics.
Twenty-one Hispanic students signed a petition last spring stating that the Office of Minority Affairs was insensitive to their needs. Many of the students say the root of the problem is
"One of our biggest concerns from the start was the fact that there are no Hispanic administrators," said Angela Cervantes, a past president and current member of the Hispanic American Leadership Organization. "And we weren't only concerned with Hispanics. There are so few African Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans."
these problems always have existed at KU, the tension that now exists with the office stems from a meeting in the spring.
While Hispanics on campus say
African-American issues and programs at KU.
On April 22, four students representing HALO, including Cervantes and then HALO president Suzanne Racine, met with Sherwood Thompson, director of minority affairs. The students had a list of concerns regarding the Office of Minority Affairs including the lack of Hispanics employed at the office and what they believed was a preference toward
The four students and Thompson disagree about what went on in the meeting. According to the students, Thompson was hostile toward them and they harsen when they said they believed the office was insensitive to Hispanics.
"We were very shocked by Dr. Thompson's behavior during the meeting," Cervantes said. "He was very unprofessional and unethical. The meeting had started at 4:30, and
we just walked out at 6 because we didn't feel that anything was being accomplished.
"When they said they felt the office was unfriendly to them, I said their perceptions were misled," he said. "They then stood up and walked out. Since that meeting, we have only met one other time, Sept. 24. Have always been willing to meet other times."
Thompson said that he always had been concerned with Hispanic issues.
Since the April meeting with Thompson, HALO members have met with several administrators and deans, including Chancellor Gene Budig, to discuss their initial concerns. A flurry of letters and memos has continued through the fall, but many Hispanics believe that steps have not been taken to address their concerns.
Continued on Page 6
Old center proves value of new one
**Above:** The recently completed KU Regents Center, 12600 Quivira Road in Overland Park, was dedicated last night. (The observers at the dedication
sesses the observers at the dedication.
The photos by Kansan photographer Richard Devinki
Kansan staff report
To like the new Regents Center is to know the old one, an almost 117-year-old elementary school in Linwood.
When comparing the two buildings, it's easy to see why Regents Center students, faculty and staff are excited about the new center, as if it were an unopened present on Christmas Day.
Most of the classrooms in the old center hold about 40 students and sometimes are cramped. Some of the projection screens need chairs or hangers to keep them down.
"Enter at your own risk," cautions the center's public relations director, Linda Booth, the front door to the building that has the look, feel and even smell of ... well, an old elementary school. "Feels like you're going back in time, doesn't it?"
The older rooms are musty, and the old chairs are small. Fortunately, the water fountains and toilets have been raised to adult height.
Still, it is an atmosphere more appropriate for PTA meetings than graduate study.
The student lounge is an isolated alcove, complete with four vending machines and a dozen yellow, green and orange chairs linked together by a metal frame.
The new lounge will feature a microwave, refrigerator, television set and even a health-food vending machine. And there are plenty of adult-size tables and chairs that move around.
"It will be a nice respite for the student that's been working all day," says Robert Senecal, acting director of the center.
Regents Center ties technology to instruction
New facility to broadcast classes to home and work
Kansan staff writer
The new University of Kansas Regents Center — KU's educational emissary to Kansas City — has its own hill to rest on.
Below the center, Overland Park's suburban tracts and downtown's corporate skyscraper sprawl out over Kansas City.
Out there are the center's 1,400 students, mostly working professionals, and the countless business employees that this custom-made building will serve beginning in January.
"When they come here, I think it'll be an environment they'll appreciate," says Linda Booth, the center's public relations director and official tour guide for the new building.
The center will move from its home of 17 years, the more than-a-century-old Linwood Elementary School, to a state-of-the-art building that will marry teaching and technology. For Regents Center officials, it's as if they were stepping off a paper airplane and onto the Concorde.
Booth's tour crosses the rose, mauve and blue tiles of the sun-stroked lobby to the three lecture halls, where one remote control manipulates the lights, the projector screen, the VCR and the cable and satellite transmission that beams into TVs in all 26 classrooms.
Next to the library, the three computer labs feature 43 brightly colored screens that light up the rooms in a playful blue glow. The 12-seat seminar room upstairs sports a corporate board room flavor and boasts a 30-foot, floor-to-ceiling window framing the Kansas City landscape.
The price tag for the center: $6 million — not including the technological hardware.
Signs of the building's architectural modesty pop up here and there. It's hard to tell that the marblelike tiles in the lobby are actually ceramic. Many of the chairs, recycled and reupholstered, will be brought over from the old building. And the walls are cinder block, but paint speckled with KU's crimson and blue mask their concrete nature.
"We had to be economical at what we did," says the center's acting director, Robert Senecal. "But at the same time we got a good product."
It's a product designed for the adult working professional, who will make up the majority of the people using the center, mostly for its 10 master's degree programs and continuing education seminars.
"Their most precious commodity is time, so this type of facility has to be tailored to that person's needs," Booth says.
In many cases, saving time means saving a trip to Lawrence. Classes taught on the main campus can be telecast to the center, and the new library's computers access KU's online catalog and data bases.
A 150-foot tower will help the center broadcast classes within a 10- to 12-mile radius, allowing students at their homes and at work to tune into the classes, depending on their location and equipment.
Senecal says he hopes the center soon will be able to transmit classes back to KU as well, allowing students in Lawrence to take advantage of some of the center's exclusive programs, such as engineering management.
It is this kind of technology that could make the new KU Regents Center king of its own hill.
Nun breaks the mold
See story, Page 8.
Sister Pat Lynch is altering students' opinions of nuns as vice president of KU Religious Advisors.
Fake agent follows women to apartments
Campus thefts
When students leave their doors unlocked or their property unattended, they are likely to fall victim to
See story, Page 10.
Man posing as ABC official approaches female drivers
By Joe Harder
<ansan staff write>
Aman falsely claiming to be an agent of the Alcoholic Beverage Control followed two Lawrence women home and accosted them near their apartment complexes, Lawrence police reported yesterday.
Intwo separate cases, which occurred less than two months apart, a University of Kansas junior and a 20-year-old Lawrence woman told police that while driving east on 23rd Street, they were followed by a car flashing its headlights, signaling them to pull over. When they did not comply, the driver of the car followed them home and approached them in the parking lots of their apartment complexes, claiming to be an off-duty ABC agent.
The women described the man as a clean-
shaven, white male of medium build in his early 20s, about 6 feet tall, with dark blond or brown hair, brown eyes and wearing a baseball cap. One of the women reported that the man drew a dark gray 1980s model hatchback car from her closet and bought a brown, four-door Chevrolet Spectrum.
The KU student told police that at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, a car followed her from 23rd Street to her apartment complex in the 1300 block of Kentucky Street. A man claiming to be an off-duty ABC agent approached her in the parking lot, saying her vehicle had swerved once and asked her if she had been drinking. After replying she had not been drinking, she entered her apartment. Police said the woman did not have physical contact with the man.
After hearing knocks on her door she called the police. The man was not there when police arrived. The woman said she thought the man had left because he had heard her talking on the telephone.
The man has not been identified.
The man left without incident.
Police reported a similar case about 1 a.m. Oct. 13. According to police records, a man with a description similar to the one reported Wednesday followed a 29-year-old Lawrence woman home and told her he was an off-duty ABC agent. She asked the man for identification, which he was unable to produce.
Li. Mark Brothers said that because of the similarity of the cases and descriptions, he believed the man was the same in both cases. He said the night could account for the differences in the women's description of the car's color.
Jim Conant, ABC's chief administrative officer, said that all ABC agents carried badges and wallet identification cards. While the cars used by the agency are not equipped with the mounted roof lights typical of police cars, they have portable red lights that can be placed on the dash and visible through the windshield, he said.
Beware of followers
Lawrence police advise you to be alert and use caution if you notice someone in danger. Sgt. Mark Warren had several tips to help drivers stay out of danger.
Stay on well-traveled, well-lighted streets.
Drive to the police station or a place guaranteed to have people present, such as a convenience store.
Get the tag number of the vehicle following you, if possible.
Do not get out of your vehicle in a dark area.
All law enforcement officials carry a badge and identification with them. Beware of someone who claims to be an official without verification.
Source: Lawrence police
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