CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Xi4v
Tuesday, September 15, 1992
3
Survey reveals perception of bias at KU School of Law
sixty-five percent of students say sex discrimination exists
By KC Trauer
Kansan staff writer
The School of Law, more than any other school at the University of Kansas, has had to wrestle recently with the issue of sex discrimination.
Sexual harassment allegations against Emil Tonkovich, law professor, led to this semester's ongoing dismissal hearings, which have featured former law students testifying about harassment.
A March 1991 survey of 335 KU law students found 65 percent thought gender bias was a problem in the law school. About 30 percent thought gender bias occurred occasionally, frequently or always.
Since these issues have emerged, students, faculty and administrators
in the school have worked to find solutions to sex discrimination problems, said Robert Jerry, dean of the law school.
Law faculty voted last spring to adopt a policy banning romantic relationships between professors and students. This policy is more strict than the policy recommended by the Association of American Law Schools, Jerry said.
"I think it has made clear where the appropriate bounds are," he said.
Jerry also created a committee on gender issues, which comprises faculty members, administrators and a student.
He said one of the responsibilities of the committee was to make students and faculty members aware of gender bias in classroom and professional
settings.
The formation of the committee follows one of the recommendations to combat sexual discrimination printed in a Kansas Bar Association report, which included the findings of the student survey on gender bias in the law school.
"It's clear to me our profession in general and specifically our schools had to take more progressive steps to deal with it," Jerry said.
The report, which researched the status of women in the law profession, found gender bias existed in both Kansas law schools, KU and Washburn University, and spurred law schools to address the issue.
While faculty and administrators work to address gender bias in the law school, many students prefer not to talk about it. Those students who do comment are careful about what they say.
Frank West, president of the Student Bar Association, said most stud-
dents wanted the issue, including the allegation against Tonkovich, resolved as early as possible.
"What the students fear at this point is adverse damage to the value of their degree," he said. "They're worried how this is going to affect the reputation of the law school."
The emergence of the sexual harassment and gender bias issues has affected professor-student interaction. West, said.
"There's just less social interaction between professors and students," he said. "There is a desire on the part of professors to avoid any contact on a social level."
Nancy Graven, president of KU Women in Law, said any tension between teachers and students that resulted from the gender bias issues had eased.
"The relationship between student and professor is actually quite good," she said. "It's a comfortable relationship at the law school right now."
Law school harassment survey
Source: Report of the Kansas Bar Association Task Force on the Status of Women in the Profession
Sean M. Tevis / KANSAN
Plastic money can buy food at grocery store
By Kristi Fogler
Kansan staff writer
Questions at the checkout line are a predictable end to a trip to the grocery store. Paper or Plastic? Cash or Check?
But in Lawrence, one grocery store asks another question. Visa or Mastercard?
Alvin's IGA, 901 Iowa St., is one of many grocery stores nationwide that accepts credit cards. While this might make shopping more convenient, it may not help consumers with managing their credit.
"Right now we have an advantage over local groceries because no one else is doing it," said Alvin Schmidtberger, the store's owner. "Big chains are sitting back because they don't want to dive into new concepts. This way they get to bypass all the negative effects of the program."
Kellie Thompson, credit counseling supervisor for Consumer Credit Counseling of Topeka and Lawrence, said using credit cards to pay for groceries could tempt those who already have credit woes. The credit counseling agency helps people with credit problems get themselves out of debt. She said no one should ever charge groceries.
"Students having credit cards is like putting kids in a candy store and telling them not to eat candy for four years," she said.
If a student charged groceries and could not pay the monthly balance in full, the student would have to pay 18 percent to 21 percent interest a year on the groceries until the balance was paid in full. Thomson said.
But for students who can pay the monthly balance, it's a good deal,
Schmidtberger said. He said charging groceries allowed students to delay payment for 28 days. Alvin's IGA has a Mastercard for the last three years.
Credit cards are advantageous to grocery stores, Thompson said. Rather than bouncing a check, customers could pay for groceries by credit card. This guarantees payment of the goods by the credit card company.
"People who can't afford groceries have to deal with the credit card agency," Thompson said. "The grocery store still gets its money."
Schmidtberger said it was more cost effective to accept credit cards, partially because banks charged him 10 to 12 cents per check he accepted.
Schmidtherger estimated that about 5 percent of the students that shop in the cafeteria ate at his store.
"Using Mastercard or Visa is no different when you check a book," he said. "If you are bouncing checks, you shouldn't have a Visa. If you can't manage money, you shouldn't have a Visa or a bookcheck."
Dillons is testing a similar program in three stores in the Kansas City area, said Ken Keefer, director of advertisements for Dillons stores in Kansas.
In the highly competitive business of grocery stores, where the average profit is 40 cents for every $100, it is important to offer extra customer services like alternative payment methods, said Michael Layne, representative for The Kroger Co. Dillons stores are owned by the Kroger company.
Layne said he anticipated that more stores would accept credit cards because of the heavy competition in the grocery industry.
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Travis Gross, Anchorage, Alaska, sophomore, attempts to catch a ground ball thrown by a friend. Gross was playing catch behind Ellsworth Hall yesterday afternoon.
Ball hop
Students await orbiting project
Their experiment is on board Endeavor
By Muneera Naseer
Kansan staff writer
As the space shuttle Endeavor blasted into space Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center, students and faculty members from the University of Kansas heaved a sigh of relief.
They had just witnessed years of work and patience head for a week
Five students, one faculty member and two administrators from the School of Engineering witnessed the launch that carried a KU experiment.
For the past six years, members of the Kansas University Space Program have developed a space-bound project on protein crystallization, cell membrane formation and the effects of cryopreservation and increased growth for the shuttle's mission.
Chris Wittenburg, Tulsa, Okla,
senior, said he learned a lot about per-
severance from working on the project.
"If it comes back and the experiments didn't work, we'll still have learned and experienced a lot," he said.
KUSP members have already started planning for a project in a future space mission, sad Tom Miller, Leawood junior and KUSP president.
Miller said that once the shuttle reached an altitude of 80,000 feet, an automatic switch inside the shuttle would initiate the experiment with
out assistance from the astronauts.
"The shuttle gets into orbit in about three minutes. It was the quickest three minutes of my life," Miller said.
Kim Lowe, Colorado Springs, Colo., junior, said she was eager for the shuttle's return.
"I want to see how everything worked and what we've got," she said. She said the seeds used in the experiment probably would be given to a high-school or junior-high student who would plant them and study any effect of zero-gravity on their growth. Paul Fiesheer, KUSP's founder and a 1988 alumnus, works for NASA in Houston. He reserved a place for the KU project when the group began the project.
"I was very happy that students after me continued with the project and I got a lot of feedback."
Fireselter said that he would be able to watch the project, which is enclosed in a metal canister, on a television screen at NASA.
Carl Locke, dean of engineering,
said he was impressed that students
took up the responsibility and
finished the project.
About $1,000 for the trip came from unrestricted funds donated by the school's alumni, and about $500 came from the Kansas Space Grant Consortium, an agency formed by NASA.
BILLIARDS LEAGUE
The shuttle's crew of seven astronauts, two fish, four frogs, 180 hornets, 7,600 flies and 30 fertilized chicken eggs will return Sept. 19 to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Organizational Meeting
The KU project will be retrieved from NASA on Oct. 9.
Tuesday, September 15
7 pm in the Jaybowl
Level 1, Kansas Union
more information, contact Mike Fine at 864-3545
Pre-Nursing Club Meeting September 17 7:00-8:30 p.m. Parlors A & B Kansas Union Topics: 1) Intensive Care Nursing 2) Application Process
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