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NATION/WORLD: President Bush raises questions about Bill Clinton's activities during the Vietnam War, Page 5.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.102.NO.34
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
THURSDAY OCTOBER 8,1992
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Freshmen risk arrest for campaign
Students receive noise complaint
Holly McQueen / KANSAN
By Christine Laue
Kansan staff writer
But not without almost getting arrested.
Freshmen of the Check Us coalition not only won attention from people on campus yesterday by yelling from the top of the information booth in front of Bailey Hall, but also won the Board of Class Officers election.
But not without almost getting arrested. A KU police officer motioned for campaigners Lee Johnson, Bartlesville, Okla, freshman and Alan Stiglic, Overland Park freshman, to get down from the information booth's roof. They did, but after the officer left, Johnson and Brian Goeser, Omaha, Neb., climbed atop once again.
Ann Eversole, director of the Organizations and Activities Center, received a phone call from a person complaining about the disruptive hollering, she said.
About five minutes later, at 10:49 a.m. another police officer told the two freshmen to get down because the police had received a noise complaint.
But it was disturbing some classes on campus, like Wesley Riggs' curriculum and instruction class in Bailey Hall, Riggs said.
"We're just expressing what we think," said fellow campaigner, Andrew Stout, Fayetteville, Ark, freshman. "I don't see that it's hurting anybody."
Lt. John Mullens of the KU Police said the police officer who first motioned for the freshmen to get down did so because they were violating University policy relating to safety by on the roof. The officer could not act on the noise issue, because from a legal standpoint a police officer could not be the complainant.
He said the freshmen only could have arrested if they had refused to get off the train.
Mullens said the students complied after they were warned.
"It would be an arrest on noise." Mullens said. "It would be an arrest on criminal
Standing on top of the information booth across from Bailey Hall at Jayhawk Boulevard and Sunflower Road, Lee Johnson (left), Bartlesville, Okla. freshman, and Alan Stiglic, Overland Park freshman, urge members of the freshman class to vote for the Check Us coalition. Members of the coalition stood on the booth yesterday and were eventually warned by KU police to get off it or they would be arrested.
Stout said they were able to stand on University Daily Kansan boxes and tables in front of Wescole Hall because the Board of Class Officers elections rules sheet did not outlaw it.
However, Katy Regan, senior class president, said that because the board revised the rules every year, it could add a rule preventing such action.
"It wasn't like we were encouraging them, but we couldn't tell them not to do it because it wasn't in the rules," Regan said. "It was strange, that someone's going to do until they do it."
Fire alarms cry wolf in scholarship halls
Faulty systems in Stephenson, Douthart halls may not be effective, hall administrators say
By Bryan Shelby Special to the Kansas
Special to the Kansan
Faulty fire alarms in the middle of the night have awakened Stephenson Scholarship Hall residents three times since the beginning of school.
Stephenson, as well as Douthart Scholarship Hall, have been experiencing difficulty with their fire alarm systems for more than a month. The alarms, which have sounded at Stephenson about eight times, have gone off randomly day and night.
The alarms have sounded at the most
annoying times," said Vic Ullom, Stephenson Hall Director. "College students get so little sleep as it is that the missed half-hour to hour of sleep is a huge inconvenience. Several students had exams the following day."
"Residents aren't even getting out of bed anymore when the fire alarm goes off," he said. "I'm afraid we've developed a 'boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome.'"
Even though the alarms have not sounded in a week, Ullom said he was not confident the problem had been solved.
The fire alarm sounded at Douthart five times in one night, between 10:30 p.m. and
4 a.m. leaving residents skeptical about the effectiveness of the fire alarms.
Maintenance officials have dusted detectors and cleaned wiring systems, searching for an answer. At Douthart, dust mites were found and removed and the alarms have not sounded since mid-September.
"I'm afraid the system may not detect fires," said Sheri Plenert, Douthart's student proctor. "I think they should change the alarm system when they renovate the ball."
Ken Stoner, director of student housing,
said that the fire alarm detectors generally
did not fail. But he did say that generally
"I think the problem has been solved," said Quivale Roberts, Douthart's director. "But I think we need an upgraded fire alarm system."
there were glitches in new alarm systems.
"If the alarm has gone off eight times, there isn't much more the maintenance people can do," Stoner said. "Our people should have found the error by now. It might be in the electrical system itself. The situation is completely unacceptable."
If the problem continues, the company that manufactured the fire alarms. Simplex, will be called to repair the system. The imperative could not be reached for comment.
One scholarship hall resident said he would take matters into his own hands if the situation was not corrected.
"If the alarms are not fixed by Christmas, I'll get a petition to replace the whole system," said Brian Aikins, Wichita sophomore.
Chrisy Kaiser (standing), director of the Best Buddies program at KU, displays a T-shirt the group is selling to raise money. Stephanie Martell (seated), buddy director, and other members attended the group's meeting last night at the Dole Center.
Program pairs 'Best Buddies'
By Stacy Morford Kansan staff writer
Friendships remain group's goal
"We talked on the phone, and I was really excited," Martell said.
Stephanie Martell, a 21-year-old Lawrence resident, met her best buddy last week.
She and her buddy, Jann Barr, a Chicago senior, met through an international not-for-profit organization called Best Buddies. The group has paired 31 mentally disabled people, most in junior high and high school, with college students at the University of Kansas.
Martell, who is mentally disabled, joined the program last year. This year she became the group's buddy director. As buddy director, she keeps in contact with the other mentally disabled members and makes sure their relationships run smoothly.
Because Martell works in the special education office in Dole Human Development Center, she and Barr see each other every week.
"I like visiting with Jann, Martell said. "it just seems to sparkle mw day when I see her."
The college students take their buddies to movies, sports events and other activities throughout the year. They plan to throw a Halloween party for the group Oct. 17 at a pumpkin patch on 15th Street, take them on an outing Nov. 22 and have a Christmas party Dec. 6.
Best Buddies is partially financed by Student Senate, but most of the money they need will have to be raised by the group. They plan to sell Best Buddies T-shirts designed by artist Keith Herring, and they discussed soliciting funds from local businesses and sororities last night at their first meeting of the year. Chrisy Kaiser, Best Buddies director, said the key to Best Buddies success was for the students to spend time together talking one-on-one.
"Our goal is to form real friendships," Kaser, St. Louis senior, said. "So I say: 'I'm going to go call my friend Nicole', not 'I'm going to call my mentally retarded friend Nicole.'"
Eric Freund, Newport Beach, Calif., senior, met his buddy Chris Biggers for the first time yesterday.
"It was cool," Freund said. "At first he was really quiet. We played catch for a while and then sat down and talked, and he opened up some. He said he'd never seen Allen Field House, so I took him by there on the way back."
Freundt said he also planned to take Chris to a KU football game. He said that friends who previously had been involved with Best Buddies had convinced him to join the group.
Jenny Meier, Lenexa junior, will meet her buddy Hillary Metzger for the first time next week. Metzger invited Meier to eat lunch with her at her elementary school.
Husked again
The Kansas volleyball team could not overcome No. 5 Nebraska as the Cornhuskers beat the Jayhawks in straight sets 15-12, 15-8 and 15-10 in Kansas' return to Allen Field House. The Jayhawks have never beaten the
Julie Larkin
Nebraska is now 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the Big Eight Conference. Kansas falls to 15-7 and 1-2.
American Indians want new focus for Columbus Day
See story, Page 9.
By Mark Martin
Kansan staff writer
In 1892, 400 years after Christopher Columbus landed in the new world, Americans celebrated a man President Benjamin Harrison called "a pioneer of progress and enlightenment."
Statues of Columbus were unveiled in New York and Washington. The U.S. Mint issued its first commemorative coin, which featured Columbus. And the College of Columbia Exposition opened in Chicago, attracting more than 24 million visitors during the year.
This year, Oct. 12 marks the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage, a voyage which dramatically changed the world. The quincentennial will be observed in the United States and numerous other countries.
But there will not be an expo or a commemorative coin.
Many events relating to the anniversary will not be celebrations. American Indians,
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
as well as many other people, argue that the Columbus landing, in a world which was not new to its inhabitants, marks 500 years of oppression, slavery and even genocide.
Today's American Indians can point to many examples of a 500-year-old legacy of intolerance that continues to this day: an 80 percent unemployment rate on some reservations, teenagers who are twice as likely to commit suicide than other teens in the United States and continuing legal battles over religion and sacred grounds.
"For Native Americans, it's not something to celebrate," said Dan Wildcat, chairperson of the natural and social sciences department at Haskell Indian Junior
College. "The consequences of the last 500 years have been to catastrophic for that."
Scholars at KU and around the world continue to argue about the occurrences and consequences of early European dominance in the Americas.
you could not (help) calculate upon it.
Wildcat is not alone in his use of the word catastrophe.
chapters.
In a speech delivered Sunday as part of Peace with Justice weekend in Lawrence, Gustavo Paraquon, president of the council of evangelical churches of Nicaragua, said that more than 65 million people were killed in the Americas in the two centuries following the landing of Columbus.
"The Black Legend, as it is often called, has been agaggered," said W. Stitt Robinson, KU professor emeritus of history. "While there were a lot of atrocities committed by the Spanish, I don't think they
"Native lives were worthless to the Spanish," he said. "More than 100 Indians were traded for one horse. A young Indian man was traded for a hunk of cheese. These were just some of the cases."
were to the extent that some say."
From Columbus' first journal entry in the Americas, which suggests that the Indians "ought to be good servants," to the 1901 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Oregon Employment Division vs. Smith, which restricted the use of the drug peyote, an integral part of many tribal religions, American Indians have remained a part of the United States that many do not understand or even care about.
Donald Stull, associate chairperson of anthropology at KU, said that most Europeans did not set out to destroy American Indians.
"All through history, Europeans tried to act in good will," he said. "But one of the reasons that Native Americans are so bad off now is that they've had so many friends who thought they knew what was best for them. Few people actually ever asked the Indians what they wanted."
See COLUMBUS, Page 6.