CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
1
Thursday, December 3, 1992
3
Watkins' facelift hinges on student fee increase
By Tiffany Lasha Hurt Kansan staff writer
The proposed $4.8 million facelift for Watkins Memorial Health Center remains stagnate as it awaits Student Senate approval. If Senate does not vote to raise student fees to pay for it, the plan will be scraped.
Steve Vogelsang, charperson of the student health advisory board, a Senate subcommittee, said Senate might vote on the fee increase in January. He estimated that KU students would see a $5 to $10 increase in student fees. The board remains in favor of the renovation.
"I would be willing to bet we'll have a unanimous decision," he said. "The overall response of the first set of plans was very positive. We are looking for the most building for the least amount of money."
If Senate approves the fee increase, the Board of Regents will review the
proposal in March, said Brad Garling house, student body president.
James Strobi, director of Watkins, said the renovation would increase the quality and speed of service to patients by creating more physician exam rooms and enlarging the Urgent Care Clinic.
The new exam rooms would include a three-room complex for each of the 10 physicians at Watkins, he said. An office in the middle of two exam rooms would allow physicians to treat a patient in one room while a nurse prepared the next patient for treatment in the other.
Charles Yockey, chief of staff, said the new rooms probably would not increase the number of students treated at Watkins, but it would decrease the waiting period for students.
Yockey said the Urgent Care Clinic needed to be quadrupled because 25
percent of Watkins' business took place there. The enlargement would allow space for about eight more beds. The cramped clinic currently holds three.
Other renovation changes include:
factor or prescription services
- increased patient confidentiality;
- more parking space;
growth in the sports medicine clinic, gynecological clinic and allergy and wart treatment clinics.
Jim Boyle, associate director of Watkins, said the 22-year-old building warranted a facelift because patient needs had changed. In 1974 the building was built for necessary inpatient treatment. Now the building specialized in more outpatient treatment.
"We feel we're a very good health center," he said. "And for our quality and to increase and to continue to grow, there are some changes that need to be made to the building."
Daron J. Bennett / KANSAN
Pizza! Pizza!
During the all you can eat buffet before JKHK's annual auction, a little Caesars pizza is snatched up in less than five seconds. Most restaurants participating in the event ran out of food in minutes while lines stretched the door and included approximately 300 people. After the food run out, JKHK staff members ordered more pizzas from Pizza Shuttle, Domino's, Little Caesars and Pizza Hut to appease the hungry crowd.
Student Senate approves spending limitation
Paul Kotz/ KANSAN
String 'em up
Dan Coester, a museum exhibit technician at the Spencer Museum of Art, strings lights on the Christ mase tree in the Spencer Exhibition Hall.
By Stacy Morford
Kansan staff writer
Student Senate's finance committee last night approved setting a cap on Senate's yearly spending and voted to finance two guest speakers and a club for students involved in cross-cultural relationships.
The University affairs committee voted to create a Senate note-taking service, and the student rights committee voted against raising student activity fees.
Senate treasurer Kevin Sigourney presented what he called "the long awaited how-much we-have-to-spend bill." It would require the treasure to review Senate's entire budget at the first Senate meeting of each year. A two-thirds vote of the Senate executive committee then would be required to set the cap at no less than 25 percent of the final balance from the previous fiscal year.
"Right now there's nothing stopping us from spending all our reserves without me recommending you not to do it."
Sigourney said.
This year, $250,000 rolled into Senate's unallocated account from last year and about $39,000, or 16 percent of that, was targeted as unallocated. SenEx recently announced that all but a mandatory $40,000 reserve, including roll-over money and fall activity groups, was available for Senate to allocate to student groups. If Senate had set a cap at 25 percent as it was suggesting, $62,500 would have been available instead.
The finance committee also agreed to allocate $284 to form the Cross Cultural Relations Organization, a support group for couples that come from different countries, races, religions and cultures.
Liberal arts and sciences senator Brian Buechele added $175 for more advertising to the Babu'i Club's $1,600 fund.
Black Men of Today received $3,000 to pay for speaker Susan Taylor who was editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine.
In other Senate business:
Graduate senator David Gawell's bill to raise student fees from $25 to $45 was shot down by members of the student rights committee.
Gawell's argument in the text of the bill was that Senate's budget was too small for Senate to adequately and responsibly finance all the groups that ask Senate for money.
■ The University affairs committee generated a bill to add a Senate note-taking service to Senate's rules and reg-
"Students don't need to be paying an additional $20 — they're paying already," said Marisol Romero, off-campus senator. "We don't want to put the burden on the students to be more fiscally responsible. That's why we killed it."
Students would be paid to post their class notes. Developmentally disabled students would get the notes free and other students would pay less for the notes then, for other local note services.
Commission nearing decision on power line dispute
By Kristy Dorsey
Kansan staff writer
The Kansas Corporation Commission is coming closer to making a final ruling on the power line upgrade dispute between the Pinkney Neighborhood Association and Western Resources Inc., formerly KP&L.
The commission staff has a written recommendation waiting for final approval from the KCC's director of utilities and general counsel, said Ramona Becker, KCC director of public affairs and consumer protection. If they approve the staff report, the recommendations will be made public and a date will be set for corporation commissioners to rule on the issue.
The Citizens Utility Ratepayers Board, a citizen's watchdog group, filed a complaint Sept. 8 with the KCC on behalf
of Pinckney after the KCC gave Western Resources permission to increase voltage in a one-and-a-half-mile section of lines in the neighborhood.
Residents from the neighborhood north of Sixth Street and west of downtown claim that increasing the power in those lines from 69,000 volts to 115,000 volts will increase exposure to electromagnetic fields, or EMFs. Some studies have linked EMF exposure to various forms of cancer and depression.
Western Resources representatives say the upgrade is necessary because the lines running through Pinkney neighborhood are the only ones in Lawrence which do not carry 115,000 volts, making them a weak link in the system. In addition, Western Resources claims its proposed upgrade will actually decrease EMF levels in Pinkney.
Becker said the KCC staff spent more than two months
developing the recommendations because of the complexity of the Pinckney issue.
"The issue raises a lot of questions, and the staff is just trying to evaluate every aspect thoroughly," she said.
Becker said she did not know exactly when the commissioners would rule on the staff recommendations. Because the KCC regulates utility companies, the commission's decision will be the final ruling on the matter.
Western Resources representative Michel' Quakenbush said the utility company would like to see the matter resolved soon because delaying the project could increase its cost. Western Resources initially planned to upgrade the lines last summer.
"That's one of the risks that go along with postponing a project," she said. "Waiting is part of the process and part of the frustration we all have to deal with."
---
Thursday Special!!!
Large Pizza
2 toppings
2 drinks
Open 7 days a week
---
KANSAN CLASSIFIED WORK
COMPANY
15% OFF
EVERYTHING!
- Weekend Wear
- Casual Wear
- Anywear!
(Yes,We're now Open!)
939 Mass. 865-1355
Get Ready For the Holidays!
20% OFF Bodywear
Thursday through Sunday
Heat up
your
workout
with hot looks
from
BatyshaKov...
2201-J.W. 25th Street (913) 749-2993 Boarding Available
Jarrett Small Animal Clinic
Country Club Plaza
816-753-2747
Seville Square
928 Massachusetts