University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, November 17, 1987
Campus/Area
3
Local Briefs
Theatre group to perform free outdoor show
Members of the company will perform at 5:30 p.m. today, tomorrow and Thursday in the open area east of the Military Science building. They will perform "Picnic On The Battlefield" by Fernando Arabal.
Starting today and running through Thursday, the KU Free Theatre Company will provide students with an opportunity to see theater in its natural setting.
Anthony Richards, Exeter, England, graduate student and director of the show, said the company was not part of the department of theatre and media arts. "It's an organization which exists to enable any student in the University to be involved in making theatre," he said.
SenEx to discuss add-drop period
The University Senate Executive Committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. today in the Regents Room of Strong Hall to discuss changing the add-drop periods and institutional assessment.
The office of academic affairs has proposed shortening the add-drop period to two weeks. Student Senate has proposed changing the drop period to three weeks and the add period to three weeks and two days.
This fall, the add period was two weeks and the drop period was five weeks.
University Theater to have auditions
Call-back auditions for some University Theater spring productions will be at 7 p.m. in today in Theater at Murphy Hall.
Names of students who are being called back and sites for call-backs are posted in the Green Room of Murphy Hall. The auditions are for productions including "Monkey, Monkey," "Three Kyogen Plays" and "Getting Out."
Call-backs will continue through the end of the week. Updated lists will be posted by noon each day after auditions.
Auditions for other spring theater productions are Jan. 18 to 22. In those, casts will be selected for "Carousel," "The Wake of Jamey Foster" and "Top Girls."
Former astronaut to talk about safety
Former astronaut Joe Engle is scheduled to speak at 10:15 a.m. Thursday at the 38th Annual Governor's Industrial Safety and Health Conference at the Ramada Inn Downtown in Toneka.
Engle will talk about safety measures used by the space program and about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986.
The conference runs today through Friday.
Correction
Because of a reporter's error, Peggy Scalley's name was misspelled in yesterday's Kansan. Because of incorrect information supplied to the Kansan in the same story, Kid Words, 200 Mount Hope Court, was not included in a list of Lawrence centers that are licensed to care for infants.
From staff and wire reports.
Audit pleases KU faculty, classified employees
Legislative committee to draft report on health insurance contract
From staff and wire reports
Yesterday, the Legislative Post Audit Committee ordered the legislature's Division of Post Audit to draft a report on the contract and the process used to negotiate it. The contract is set to go into effect Jan. 1.
TOPEKA - Representatives of KU faculty and classified employees said they were pleased that the state's employee health insurance contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be audited.
Meredith Williams, director of the division, said work would begin on the report today and should be ready on Dec. 2 for a meeting of the Legislature's Special Committee on Ways and Means.
The special committee was ordered to review the contract last week by legislative leaders, who met as the Legislative Coordinating Council. Also, the post-audit committee will study the report at its Dec. 7 meeting.
The health plan has prompted protests from state employees, including many KU officials, because, for the first time, employees will have to pay a monthly charge to participate. The policy also requires employees who smoke to pay a additional $10 a month, with the money going to start "wellness" programs.
employees. It was negotiated by the Health Care Commission, comprising Secretary of Administration H. Edward Flentje, Insurance Commissioner Fletcher Bell and Robert Harder, former secretary of social and rehabilitation services.
The new plan covers about 37,000 state employees and 6,000 retired
Mel Dubnik, presiding officer of KU's University Council, said he was pleased to hear about the audit.
We'll have more information and know, where the mistakes were made.
"This whole thing is so outrageous," he said. "Anything that keeps the issue under the microscope of examination is a good thing
John Brothers, president of KU classified senate, said an audit was
precisely what classified employees asked for in a letter to the Health Care Commission last month.
"I think it is a significant development," he said. "It implies that legislative leaders realize there is a problem out here.
"I would like to see Blue Cross internal business practices come under scrutiny and see how they compare with other carriers in the industry."
Williams said his agency planned to visit Blue Cross and Blue Shield officials and would assign four or five people to the audit full-time, with others lending support as needed.
The post-audit committee also had a proposal to do an in-depth study of
employees' use of the health care plan and state policies surrounding it. However, members said they wanted to wait until they saw the results of the first report. The result is:
The report will study:
- how coverage for Kansas state employees compares with coverage for employees of other states.
- how doctors were recruited or selected to participate in the new plan.
- ■ what changes were proposed in the contract during negotiations and why they were proposed.
- how companies bid on the contract.
Author and director John Waters talks about the pleasures of watching "Pink Flamingos," spoke to about 500 people last night in the Kansas Union trashy and tasteless movies. Waters, who directed the films "Polyester" and Ballroom.
Director talks about making his movies
John Waters delights in disgusting and offending his viewers
Kansan reporter Michael Horak contributed information to this story.
By JULIE McMAHON Staff writer
The director prides himself as a student of regurgitation in the cinema. Liberace personifies everything in America the director believes in, and he wants to make a movie about the Manson family reunited called "The Big Kill."
Those were a few of the thoughts of film director John Waters, who spoke last night at the Kansas Union Ballroom. A crowd of about 500 heard Waters speak about his influences and his movies. He also answered questions.
Waters said he had always been fascinated by how the disgusting became humorous.
"How can something so horrible magically become funny on the screen?" Waters asked. "I love anxiety-provoking humor."
'T
Waters said he made movies that were purposefully trashed. He said his movies had been confiscated at some video stores and stopped at some
They should show Ghandi but close the concession stand and let the audience starve. Or let people in free to Ishtar but make them pay to get out roopout quote.'
- John Waters film director
In one of his most famous movies,
"Pink Flamingos," a 300-pound transvestite named Diva eats defecation. in the movie "Polyester."
Waters used a gimmick called odorama. The audience was given scratch and sniff cards to sniff when the number on the card appeared on the screen.
theaters.
Gimmicks were part of the influence of movies Waters saw when he
was young. He said gimmicks should be brought back.
"They should show Ghandi but close the concession stand and let the audience starve. Or let people in free to fshitar but make them pay to get out," he said.
Movies he saw when he was young gave Waters his taste for trash. He said nuns in the Catholic school he attended listed movies that would cause him to go to hell.
"I went to all of them," Waters said. He cited "I Dismembered Momma" as a favorite.
Waters' taste for humor was enthusiastically shared by much of the audience. Cecil Simmons, Lawrence resident, said he had watched many of Waters' nine movies 30 to 50 times each.
"They are a tension release," he said. "I laugh a lot."
Waters' movies have names such as "Hag in a Black Leather Jacket," "Eat Your Makeup" and "Mondo Trasho."
David Yonally, Overland Park junior, said "Pink Flamingos" was his favorite Waters film because people couldn't watch it without being offended.
"People treat it like a litmus test to see how much they can take without wretching," he said.
When he began making movies in the early 60s, Waters used friends from his Baltimore neighborhood, and he still uses them in his movies. Divine was one of those friends. Waters describes him as a nice, shy man who doesn't dress as a woman except for movies.
Waters has written two books, called "Crackpot" and "Shock Value", and has a new movie called "Hairspray", starring Divine and Sonny Bono, that will be released in January. He said "Hairspray" was a civil rights comedy that was more mainstream than his past movies.
"I always wanted to sell out, but nobody would buy me," he said.
KU Senate to focus on policy of attendance
By BRAD ADDINGTON Staff writer
The Student Senate attendance policy and ways it might be improved will be the focus of a new Senate task force, Jason Krakow, student body president, said yesterday.
Krakow said that yesterday he had mailed letters to six student senators asking them to be members of the President's Task Force on the Student Senate Attendance Policy.
Krakow said he did not want to release the senators' names until they had accepted the appointments.
Krakow said he would like the task force to report on its findings by the end of the semester. However, he said he would prefer that changes in the attendance policy not be made during the current Senate session, which lasts until April.
The Senate attendance policy became a topic of debate this semester after some students said that it eliminated against student athletes.
Kevin Pritchard, KU basketball player and Nunemaker senator, said earlier in the semester that the attendance policy discriminated against student athletes because their game and practice schedules often were in conflict with Senate meetings.
According to Senate regulations, senators with two unexcused absences or four absences of any kind during their terms are suspended automatically. Suspended senators have a week to appeal a suspension to avoid dismissal. Senators who successfully appeal suspensions will be dismissed automatically if they receive two more absences of any kind.
Pritchard has received three excused absences. And Kelly Donhoe, KU football quarterback, was dismissed from Senate earlier this semester for excessive absences.
However, some Senate officers have pointed out that the attendance policy applies to all senators. Three students not involved in sports have been dismissed this semester, and two other students not involved in sports were reinstated this semester after being suspended.
Krakow said of the people we selected for the task force. "These are senators who have expressed different opinions on the attendance policy. I don't think the group has a bias one way or another."
The Arab Students Organization Cordially Invites You to Attend a Lecture Titled
"ZIONISM and PALESTINE"
bv
RITA SHUKAIR
The American lady who was attacked by the Zionist Kahana during his latest visit to Kansas City. She is on the board of directors for the Palestine Human Rights Campaign and has been involved with the Palestine issue.
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 1987
PLACE: 100 Smith Hall
(Smith Hall is located across from the Kansas Union)
Remember to vote your professional future depends on it.
Vote KU-NEA November 17 or 18
Paid for by KU-NEA.