A living dull
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday November 20,1987 Vol.98,No.65
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
(USPS 650-640)
Presidents back admissions plan
Endorsement marks their first formal stand on the issue
Staff writer
By MICHAEL HORAK
TOPEKA — The president of the Regents universities yesterday endorsed a plan to require Kansas students to take certain high school courses to be admitted to state universities, but the plan would not consider class rank or standardized test scores.
Wichita State University President Warren Armstrong, speaking on behalf of all seven presidents during the Board of Regents monthly meeting in Topeka, said the presidents unanimously agreed that the plan was the type of selective admissions that would be best for the state.
The presidents' plan, based on proposals submitted by the chief academic officers at each Regents school, would extend admission requirements to all of the Regents' four-year schools.
The plan would require that Kansas high school seniors receive a 2.0 grade point average in four years of English; three years of math, social studies and natural sciences; and two years of foreign language. Out-of-state students would have to receive a 3.0 GPA in that same curriculum, but could also gain admittance by receiving an ACT
composite score of 23 or ranking in the upper third of their class.
Each school will have the authority to determine the number of exemptions it will give to students who don't meet the requirements, as long as the exemptions comply with Regents guidelines.
The plan also specifies how students who receive GEDs, foreign students, students over 21 and transfer students could be admitted to Regents schools.
The Legislature must approve any change in the state's 72-year-old open admissions policy, which now allows all Kansas high school graduates to attend state universities.
Yesterday's endorsement by the presidents was the first time they have taken a formal stand on selective admissions. It was also the first time that Chancellor Gene A. Budig has indicated support for any selective admissions proposal.
In the past, Budig has been cool toward selective admissions, stating that he did not think Kansans would support it.
Last week, Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, said in a written report to the Regents that KU could live with selective admissions, but stopped short of endorsing it.
After the Regents meeting, Budig directed inquiries about KU's position to Ramaley.
"There is no disparity about what you were reading in August and what is happening now except the difference being that in September, we got a specific program to look at and analyze." Ramaley said. "We asked what would be the significance of selective admission. Would it in fact remove access to the University? We concluded it would not.
"After all is said and done, this is a good proposal," she added.
In a selective admissions plan proposed in September by the Regents staff, in-state students could also gain entrance to Regents schools by attaining a certain class rank or ACT test score, but the requirements would apply only to KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State.
Another difference in the revised plan is that it moves the date selective admissions would take effect to 1992.
The Regents reaction to the revised plan was generally positive. Most agreed that some minor problems still needed to be ironed out.
The student body presidents from the Regents schools also approved the revised plan, saying it resembled
a plan they submitted to the Regents two months ago.
Jason Krakow, KU student body president, told the Regents that the revised plan put more emphasis on college preparation instead of rankings and test scores.
mostly because he thought the criteria gave an admissions advantage to out-of-state students. He said he was worried that students who did not receive the required curriculum in other state were rely on class rank and test scores to go into Regents schools, while Kansas students could not.
Budig defended out-of-state requirements. "This entire requirement . . . is not dissimilar with what other schools require of out-of-state students," he said.
The Regents will consider the revised proposal and the staff proposal during their December meeting. They are expected to take a position formally on the issue before the Legislature convenes in January.
An interim-Legislative committee turned down two different selective admission proposals this week.
Regents eliminate reciprocal fee plan
By BEN JOHNSTON
Staff writer
TOPEKA — Beginning in the fall semester of 1988, Missouri residents entering the KU School of Architecture will no longer pay the tuition as Kansas residents.
The Board of Regents eliminated the reciprocal tuition agreement for the School of Architecture at a meeting yesterday. The vote also eliminated reciprocal tuition for Kansas residents who attend the dental school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
See related story, p. 5.
The program for KU architecture students was eliminated because 117 dentistry students from Kansas
Kansas does not have a dental school. Martine Hammond, Regents director of academic affairs, said the state needed to help Kansans study dentistry so the state would have enough dentists. To do so, the state will pay UMKC $50,000 in 1988 and 1989 so 25 students in 1988 and 50 students in 1989 can attend the dental school while paying resident tuition. Hammond said 88 percent of the dentists in Kansas were UMKC graduates.
attended dental school at UMKC, while 650 architecture students from Missouri attended KU and Kansas State University, Hammond said. The result, she said, was that KU was losing about $1.5 million a year.
W. Max Lucas, dean of architecture, said that even though 45 percent of the students in the school were from Missouri, the change would not decrease enrollment because the school admitted only 144 of the 800 to 900 students who apply each year.
But Scott Branton, Florissant, Mo., sophomore, said low tuition was the main reason he decided to attend the KU School of Architecture.
Branton said his friends from Missouri, who were architecture students at KU, came for the same reason.
"Whenever we sit around and talk about the schools we were going to go to, we mention the tuition at KU," Branton said. "For most of us, if it was not the reason we came here, it was in the top two."
Bob Dunn, Viburnum, Mo., senior,
said that if the tuition had been
higher before he decided to attend
the KU School of Architecture, he
might have decided to attend another
school.
Quiet moment
Spencer Venard, Laurie, Mo., sophomore, looks out over construction behind Hoch Auditorium. Venard was standing on a Wescoe Hall balcony yesterday afternoon.
Geology enrollment down though jobs are open
By JENNIFER ROWLAND Staff writer
Enrollment in the department of geology has been declining by about 30 percent a year, despite record enrollment increases Universitywide.
Tony Walton, chairman of the geology department, said undergraduate enrollment in the department's sophomore-level minerology course, Geology 311, had declined 30 percent a year for the past five years. The number of geology majors is gauged by enrollment in Geology 311.
Despite enrollment decreases, demand for geologists in the oil industry has increased. Walton said.
"There's more opportunity to work now," he said. "I don't think
that people realize that the opportun ites are there."
The industry's situation is reflected in the department's enrollments, Walton said. In 1975, there were 100 undergraduate geology majors, and in 1981 there were 250 undergraduate geology majors. But in 1987, there are 40. Graduate enrollment has increased from five to 10 in past years to 15 this fall.
"Demand for geologists is cyclical. It increases with the price of oil and it decreases with the price of oil," Walton said.
In January 1982, there were projections of increased oil on the market because of exploration efforts, Walton said.
Then the price began to fall and the
industry started to hire fewer geologists.
In 1981, when the price of oil peaked, the enrollment in Geology 311 was about 100. The Geology 311 enrollment peaked in fall 1982 at about 115, but this year it fell to its lowest level of 15.
"But our enrollment increased even that year," Walton said.
Walton said that the price of oil reached its lowest expected level, under $10 a barrel, in fall 1986. But the department's enrollment was still dropping, he said.
He said the increased job opportunities for geologists and geophysicists were evident this year by the increased number of companies interviewing at the University of
Kansas.
Walton said that with the enrollment decrease in the department, faculty have had more time for research. Also, the department will add a faculty member next fall.
When the price of oil rises, the income of oil-producing nations remains stable because higher prices cause people to conserve or find oil substitutes, such as coal and natural gas.
The stabilized prices make it easier to evaluate the oil market and to make investments, which means more geologists will be hired, Walton said.
Oil prices began climbing in 1973 during an Arab-Israeli war. Then in 1979, the Iran hostage crisis caused
prices to rise again to around $3 a barrel and the industry is booming.
Because of the high oil prices, 1979 to 1981 was a peak hiring time for geologists, Walton said.
"Keep us some students up there, we're going to need them," Walton said.
He said the industry had bounced back after thousands of workers in Midwestern oil-producing states were laid off two years ago, when the price of oil dropped from $25 a barrel to $11 a barrel.
Astronaut speaks about past, future of shuttles
By VIRGINIA McGRATH
Staff writer
TOPEKA — NASA will be ready to put a space shuttle back into orbit by June if all goes according to schedule, former astronaut Joe Engle said yesterday.
Engle, a crew member on the 1983 voyage of the space shuttle Discovery and the 1981 voyage of the Columbia, spoke to about 200 people at the Ramada Inn Downtown as part of the Governor's Industrial Safety and Health Enge. Engle is now a brigadier general in the Kansas Air National Guard.
Engle said that although a space mission could never be risk-free, the next space shuttle flight would be the safest yet. NASA now has the advantage of knowing dangers
But improvements need to be made to the solid rocket boosters before the shuttle will be ready to fly again, Engle said. Solid rocket boosters provide the force that propels the shuttle into space. NASA will perform three demanding tests on the boosters before they are declared ready for flight.
"That's not to say it's going to be a no-risk situation. You've always got to accept a certain amount of risk," Engle said.
Engle talked about his experience as a member of the Discovery crew and showed a film made when the shuttle was in orbit.
that weren't recognized in the beginning, he said.
"The most heavy thing that sticks with you is the unpliated part of the trip, when you're in
"It sent shivers up and down the spine of even the most hardcore guys in the program. You look back at your own planet is incredible."
orbit," Engle said. "You have time to float over to the window and see the Earth below.
He said seeing the atmosphere made him think about the importance of controlling pollution and protecting the environment.
Engle said that seeing the Earth from so far away also made clear the vulnerability of the Earth's atmosphere. "You could see our whole planet sitting there, with just this thin little protective shell that is our environment."
Engle compared the feeling at take-off to riding in a big old pick-up across railroad tracks with tools rattling in the back. He said
the solid rocket boosters' power was incredible.
"It's not a very comforting feeling while that thing is going. It pounds and shakes. You wish like hell it would quit but you hope like it doesn't. Then the liquid fuel he said to it is a smooth ride." he said.
The Discovery shuttle's mission was to launch two small satellites and one large satellite and to make repairs on satellites already in orbit. The need for repairs was discovered only three months before the mission began. So NASA had to scramble for ways to make the repairs.
Some of that repair work is pretty basic, Engle said.
When they weren't sure how they would hook two parts of the
Engle, a native of Chapman and 1956 KU graduate, now lives in Houston, but he is trying to sell his house, and he plans to move back to Kansas.
satellite together, they built something resembling a trailer hitch. For tools, they bought pliers at ACE Hardware, made some adjustments and used them, Engle said.
"We made them look real spacy, but they were just $2 pliers from the hardware store." Engle said.
Although his name has been mentioned recently as a possible candidate for public office, Engle said he was not interested in politics right now. He said he wanted to fly and do engineering work in the near future.
Business in Kansas bolstered by center
By JULIE McMAHON Staff writer
The Mid-America World Trade Center, called the United Nations of world commerce by its president, is trying to make Kansas and nearby states more competitive in world trade by introducing Kansas businesses to international buyers and sell-
The Mid-America World Trade Center in Wichita is a non-profit partnership between private business and the state governments of Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota.
"Our mission is to promote regional exports and attract foreign imports to this region," said Roger Johnson, president of the center.
The center opened in January and is now beginning a drive to sign up local businesses, Johnson said.
The trade center in Wichita is part of the World Trade Center Association, which links 123 world trade centers in 48 countries in six continents.
The trade center works with the State Commerce Department.
Harland Priddle, Kansas secretary of commerce, said the state looked at the trade center as a way to expand opportunities by connecting Kansas business with the trade centers throughout the world.
The Mid-America World Trade Center also advises businesses on customs laws, helps companies find overseas distributors and prepares companies for exporting.
"You never know when you might get a million-dollar dinner," he said.
The World Trade Center Association has an electronic bulletin board that displays international advertisements on computer terminals of member companies.
In addition to helping local businesses, Johnson said that the World Trade Center Association was becoming an increasingly powerful voice in international commerce because it had speaking power with organizations such as the International Monetary Fund.
He said that international connections could help Kansas and surrounding states get more international business. Johnson said that the Mid-America World Trade Center helped bring in $3.5 million with agriculture deals. The trade center also is working on a deal with some large South Korean companies that could mean 5,000 jobs in Kansas. Johnson said he couldn't elaborate on the deal.
He said that Kansas was at disadvantage compared with coastal states that have deep-water ports. But he said Kansas also was far behind other landlocked states.
"In Kansas we have 20 to 30 foreign companies," he said. "But in Illinois they have 300 Japanese companies alone."