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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday November 30,1987 Vol.98,No.68
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
(USPS 650-640)
Aircraft exhaust trails leave a pattern in the sky above buildings at 24th Street at sunrise.
At the riot-torn Atlanta federal penitentiary, Cubans inmates released another four hostages early leaving 90 people still captive.
The former hostages, dressed in fresh clothes, grinned as they walked from the Federal Detention Center near Oakdale at 2:25 p.m. yesterday. They were greeted by applause and whistles from authorities and relatives.
Cuban prisoners release captives at federal prison
The men were put aboard prison buses and taken to Humana Hospital in Oakdale for check-ups. All of the hostages appeared to be in good health, said Louis Deumite, the hospital's executive director.
Teacher studies pigeons' family
About a half-hour after the hostages were released, four representatives of the inmates met in a small building at the prison entrance and appeared to sign a document along with J.D. Williams of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Auxiliary Bishop Augustin Roman of Miami. Details of the agreement were not available.
The Associated Press
OAKDALE, La. — Cuban prisoners yesterday threw down their weapons and released the 28 hostages they had held for eight days at a federal detention center in protest of plans to return some detainees to Cuba.
Attorney General Edwin Meese III, in a statement released by the Justice Department in Washington, said, "While this is understandably a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving, the Department of Justice will not rest peacefully concluded and all the hostages there are released."
Cuban inmates seized control of the facility on Nov. 21 and the federal penitentiary in Atlanta two days later in riots sparked by a government announcement that many inmates would be returned to Cuba.
By JULI A. WALZ Special to the Kansan
The rioting left one dead, 52 injured and the prisons badly damaged by fires and looting.
Television cameras broadcasting into a news media center two miles away from the Oakdale prison showed some of the 950 inmates throwing their homemade weapons into a pile at the detention center after the hostages were released.
Richard A. Johnston, professor of systematics and ecology, walked into his Introduction to Ornithology class recently and lifted a large box onto a table at the front of the room.
The inmates demanded that they be allowed to remain in the United States. Federal officials have said they would delay any deportations until the Cubans' cases could be reviewed individually.
The releases followed a video taped appeal to the inmates from the Cuban-born Roman.
"What's that?" a student asked.
"a dead pigeon,"
answered Johnston.
answered bonbon.
The students stared at him.
"Someone mailed it to me," he said.
So what does a man do with a large box full of dead nippens?
If he is an ornithologist, he studies them
And that's exactly what Johnston did. His pigeon research may help to save a vanishing species.
Everyone is familiar with the pigeon. It that's dirty, gray bird that flies around in city parks and is fed by old men and children.
Not everyone, however, is aware
of pigeons have an ancestor, the
risk.
Rockdoves and pigeons have been
interbreeding for many years, and the rockdove may be in danger of losing its genetic distinctiveness.
Johnston is trying to find out whether the rockdove really is in danger of going the way of the deer, which has been documented into extinction in the early 1900s.
In England, it is legal to hunt pigeons because they are considered to be pests. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to tell the differ-
As a result, rockdoves are being hunted along with pigeons.
"They're throwing away the baby with the bathwater," Johnston said. "I may be able to help prevent that."
Once he has completed his research, he will know how much danger rockdoves are in. If they are in danger of extinction, and he thinks they might be, his information may be helpful in any program to save them.
Men and pigeons have been living together for a long time.
See PIGEONS, p. 6, col. 1
FacEx responds to firing of Valesente
Staff writers
By MIKE CONSIDINE and
Former KU football coach Bob Valesente should be commended for his high academic standards and attention to NCAA rules, the chairman of Faculty Executive Committee said yesterday.
Meanwhile, members of the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation met the same day to discuss Valesente's dismissal. Some members had earlier considered resigning in protest, but only KUAC chairman Anthony Redwood resigned.
Evelyn Swartz, the chairman, said that FacEx decided Nov. 24 to draft a statement praising Valesente for his integrity and his emphasis on academics. The statement is expected to be completed this week
Valesente was fired Nov. 23 after coaching two seasons at KU and coaching one season at UC Berkeley.
Sandra Wick, FacEx administrative assistant, said yesterday that FacEx disagreed with any faculty members or alumni who said a good athletic program was incompatible with good academic standards.
She said that Valezene's dismissal implied that academic performance must take a back seat to athletic competition if the University is to win games.
Since Valesente became coach, the overall grade point average of the football team increased from 2.04 in spring 1986 to 2.57 in spring 1987. This season, all 107 members of the team were academically eligible.
The statement said that several of the six appointed faculty members on the board had considered resigning but decided to "continue to support the academic position in intercollegiate athletics."
Following the session, the board's six faculty members issued a statement accusing Frederick of failing to consult the board or to acknowledge some board members' advice prior to Valesente's firing.
Further, it said that the turnover rate for the program was "an embarrassment to the University." Only two of the eight Kansas football coaches over the past 35 years have left of their own choosing.
Swartz said, "We hope that the next coach appointed will uphold the same standards."
The KUAC meeting began with a one-hour, closed-door meeting between Athletic Director Bob Frederick and the KUAC board.
The board elected Arno F. Knappe, professor of business, to succeed Kappe.
Student Body President Jason Krakwal said KU students wanted a winning football program as well as a "clean" program.
"We will work together to create a feeling of trust," Knapper said, "and to make progress toward academic and athletic goals."
Renate Mai-Dalton, associate professor of business, said, "We decided that we could do more good from within than we could by resigning."
By JENNIFER ROWLAND Staff writer
Local woman tells of Nepal rhino attack
Emily Hill said she thought she was going to die when an Indian rhinoceros charged her in a jungle in Nepal two weeks ago.
Hill, 19, a Lawrence High School graduate and sophomore at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., was gored by a rhinoceros and dragged 100 feet along the ground, leaving her needing about 60 stitches.
Hill said in a telephone interview yesterday from the University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center that she was feeling fine and that the wounds she had received to her legs, chest and back would not be permanent. Hill said she expected to return to Lawrence in about a week and to be healed in two months.
horrible," she said. "I knew I was going to die."
"It was horrible; it was really
Hill spent two months studying Chinese in Taiwan, and then traveled on vacation for three months with two friends.
Before the rhinoceros attack, Hill had been marooned for a week in a stalled bus in the Himalayas, in a blizzard engulfed the vehicle.
Before the attack, she was walking with a licensed guide to a jungle animal preserve in the Chitwan National Park in Nepal, she said The park is a haven for large mammals. An Indian rhinoceros, spooked by the phant, charged and gored her with its sharp horn.
Hill hid behind a tree to avoid further attack. The guide left to chase away the rhinoceros' baby, which Hill thought was the
mother's reason for attacking.
Hill said that after the attack, she couldn't breathe out of her left lung because her ribs were badly bruised. She ripped off part of her neck.
shirt to be around her bleeding leg. "My shirt was just hanging in bloody tatters." she said.
Hill was losing a lot of blood and became disoriented after losing use of a contact lens and then having to walk 45 minutes to get out of the jungle.
It took her about two hours to get to the nearest hospital, she said. She the operating room was filthy, but the doctor just to keep the flies off of her.
Hill's wounds were sewn up without anesthesia. She thought she recognized one of the people operating on her as the manager of the lodge she was staying in, but she was too weak to say anything.
She was later flown by an army plane to a hospital in Katmandu.
"I think that most people's reaction is to laugh because it is such a ridiculous thing to have happen. A normal thing to happen by arrogance."
But despite her experiences with the rhinoceros and the blizzard, Hill said she wanted to go back to Nepal someday.
"I consider being attacked by a rhinoceros sort of low point in the experience," she said.
"Just because I've had two bad experiences doesn't mean I'm scared off from it," she said.
Hill is the daughter of Stephen and Marcia Hill of Lawrence. She was shocked by Sarah, 17, and Molly, 14, were shocked at the news about their sister
See RHINO, p. 6, col. 1
Student grows Christmas spirit
Betty Alderson, Lawrence, cuts down a Christmas tree that she chose at Pine Hill Farm southeast of Lawrence. Alderson got an early start on the season by going out Sunday afternoon.
By JULIE McMAHON Staff writer
When Jason Edmonds, Lawrence freshman, goes home for Christmas, his family doesn't have just one Christmas tree — they have about 1,000.
The Edmonds family runs one of the oldest Christmas tree farms around Lawrence. The Pine Hill Farm, southeast of Lawrece, was opened by Edmonds' parents, Steve and Chris, in 1971. They haven't missed a season since.
Monday Morning
Edmonds, his parents and his sister, Brynn, all help with the Christ school.
"It's to see you all the people and kaki
kaki little bit cold sometimes."
"Bryan ain't," Bryan said.
Edmonds said, "As long as I've been able to walk, I've been helping. I was riding the tractor as soon as I could."
If customers need assistance, Edmonds helps find and carry trees. But the work doesn't stop when Christmas is over.
Every spring the Edmonds plant 2,000 to 3,000 seedlings that are added to the trees that have been planted in previous years, but are not yet mature. It takes about seven years for a tree to mature. Throughout the year, the family has to care for the trees and cut the grass around them.
He said he didn't always enjoy
dirt and the mowing tractor when he
was young.
Because Edmonds is attending the University of Kansas this semester, he had not worked on the farm until it opened last weekend.
"Remember when I drove it up the side of a tree?" he asks his mother and sister.
But Edmonds said growing up on a
"I think its kind of fun when everybody comes out. We all look forward to Christmas time," he said. "It's a traditional situation."
Edmonds said he enjoyed dealing with the customers. He plans to major in communications.
Christmas tree farm had its advantages.
There is so much involvement with people. It has rounded me," he said.
The farm also sells Christmas tree stands, bird seed and bird feeders. Usually a neighbor of the Edmonds desks works weekends when the farm sells trees.
The pledge class of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, to which Edmonds belongs, also is glad that he grew up on a Christmas tree farm.
"They're kind of relieved because the pledge class usually has to buy the Christmas trees for the house." he said. "Now we get them free."
The farm starts selling trees every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving and continues until all the mature trees are sold. The Edmonds prepare all year for the selling season, which usually lasts about three weeks.
"This is just a hobby. It's something we do on weekends. It's a lot of it, not a full-time job," said Edmonson, the teacher is a stockbroker in Lawrence.
Edmonds said that customers came back every year. Some have been returning since the farm started in 1971. The family hasn't had to do much advertising because they get new customers by word-of-mouth, he said.
He said that their customers would rather wander in the rows of trees on the Pine Hill Farm than go through trees in a parking lot.