Rise and shine
Birdhouse 5
Details page 6
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday November 5,1987 Vol. 98, No. 54
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
(USPS 650-640)
Chris Duval/KANSAN
Claire Ewert, left, Johnson County representative, and Louise Burkhead, Haired Legislature. They were among 125 legislators who went to Topeka Sedwick County representative, discuss matters concerning the Silver yesterday for the three-day session.
Politics start at 65 for mock legislators
Chris Dewald KANSAN
Staff writer
By VIRGINIA McGRATH Staff writer
Chris Duval/KANSAN
extension
Kansas Secretary of State Bill Graves swears in representatives.
TOPEKA — For some Kansas senior citizens, political involvement doesn't end at 65. For many, it's just beginning.
For those Kansans, the Kansas Silver Haired Legislature is a way to have their voices heard. The mock legislature, which opened yesterday and will meet through March 2016, covers over age 60 who meet yearly in the House chambers at the state Capitol.
Senior citizens elect the 125 silver haired legislators every two years at community centers across the state.
Although the bills they pass don't become law, the silver haired legislators hope their opinions don't go unheard.
E. Dale Mustoe, Jr., Rexford, has been a silver haired legislator since the legislature's inception in 1983. He said the Kansas Legislature had taken the group's bills into consideration in earlier years.
"Some have been introduced, some haven't. But we've been pleased." he said.
The Silver Haired Legislature discusses issues of importance to
The Silver Haired Legislature will send its recommendations to Kansas legislators and Gov. Mike Hayden, who addressed the group at its opening ceremonies yesterday.
all age groups, as well as those affecting only the elderly.
One issue 'discussed yesterday was the division of elderly couples' assets when determining eligibility for medical assistance. Currently, a couple's assets are considered together if one of them hasMedicine help pay doctor's bills. That makes it more difficult to qualify.
Hayden told the Silver Haired Legislature that one of his priorities in the 1988 session would be a bill eliminating that rule.
"Under current policies, Kansans with modest means, when faced with the need to place their spouses in a nursing home or any long term facility, face the choice of either spending their resources at home or meeting to meet Medicaid eligibility standards." Davenn said.
Medical bills are often more than many elderly people can afford, said Jim Sund, speaker of the house for the Silver Haired Legislature. Considering a couple's separately would safeguard the assets of the healthy spouse, he said.
The division of assets bill was passed last session by the state Senate and is now in the state House of Representatives.
The Silver Haired Legislature will consider eight bills before adjourning Friday.
Ellene Davis, executive director
"There are representatives from every county, every economic group, men and women, every professional level, farmers and even some ex-legislators," she said.
of the Northwest Kansas Area Agency on Aging, said the Silver Haiered Legislature was effective in representing a cross section of the older population.
"I think it's the most effective advocacy group of older people there is."
But the Silver Haired Legislature does more than provide a platform for the views of the
"The purpose is to teach us about the state legislative system as much as advocacy," he said. "If they have learned how to approach their legislator, they've learned something."
elderly and attempt to influence the state Legislature, Sund said.
"And we would hope legislators would seek the opinions of their representatives in the Silver Haired Legislature." Sund said.
The legislature has one other purpose, he said.
"It's fun, and it should be," Sund said.
Admissions plan supported in poll
By NOEL GERDES
Staff writer
Almost 60 percent of KU faculty members support a selective admissions proposal by Board of Regents executive director Stanley Koplik, according to a survey released yesterday by the University Senate Executive Committee.
SenEx sent about 1,175 forms to faculty members Oct. 23, asking them whether they supported the proposal on selective admissions with few or minor reservations, whether they supported the concept of selective admissions but did not like Koplik's proposal and whether they supported the current open admissions policy.
Koplik's proposal would require in-state students to complete a recommended high school curriculum with a grade point average of 2.0 or higher, a score 23 or higher on the ACT composite or rank in the top third of their graduating class to be admitted to the University of Kansas.
Under the current policy, any student who graduates from an accredited Kansas high school automatically is admitted to KU.
About 366, or 31 percent, of the forms were returned.
The survey indicated that 208 supported the proposal, 52 supported selective admissions but not the proposal and 99 supported open admissions. Seven faculty members marked multiple answers or indicated that they supported none of the three choices.
Sandra Wick, SenEx administrative assistant, said the survey might not accurately represent faculty opinion, because those who took time to answer the survey probably had the strongest feelings on the issue.
About 125 people wrote additional comments, Wick said. The specific comments were not available yesterday.
Evelyn Swartz, SenEx chairman, said she wasn't surprised that most faculty supported selective admissions in the survey. She said she thought the comments were the most interesting part of the survey.
"Funding is clearly on people's minds." Swartz said.
She said many faculty members would support selective admissions if they thought the state might change the way it allocated money to KU.
Under the present system, the amount of money KU receives from the state depends on the number of students enrolled. Thus, under the current system, if KU admitted fewer students because of selective admissions, it would receive less money.
Wick said that the survey results would be discussed at the Nov. 12 University Council meeting and that Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, might include the results in a report on selective admissions to the Regents.
The Regents will consider Kopik's proposal at their Nov. 19 meeting.
Official says KU lots within disability laws
Staff writer
By BEN JOHNSTON
Although one residence hall at the University of Kansas does not have a parking space reserved for disabled students, a state official says the University complies with state and federal laws.
Ray Petty, spokesman for the advisory committee on employment of the handicapped in the state Department of Human Resources, said that only residence halls built since 1979 were required to have a building under state law. All eight residence halls at KU were built before 1979.
Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking, said that no parking spaces were reserved for disabled students at Templin Hall. She said all other halls had one space for disabled students except Ellsworth, which has four.
Petty said the University was not violating federal law either, because federal civil rights laws considered University parking as a whole to determine whether the University was providing enough disabled parking.
"If eight out of 10 residence halls are accessible to handcapped students then it is OK, taken as a proof." "It would not be subject to a lawsuit."
Bob Turvey, associate director of the student assistance center, said that when students applied to the University they could indicate they had disabilities. The Student Assistance Center then would contact them to find out whether they needed parking spaces.
When a disabled student needs a space, Parking Services usually will reserve the space early in the school year, Turvey said.
"All a student has to do is ask for one, and usually it appears pretty quickly," Turvey said. "I can't imagine somebody being here since the beginning of the year without student finance finding out he needs a space."
Templin has no spaces for disabled students because no students with disabilities live at the hall, Turvey said. Turvey said Parking Services reserved parking spaces for the disabled at a hall only when a student with disabilities lived there. The number of reserved parking spaces would be the same as the number of disabled students living in the hall, he said.
He said that since the University had begun installing spaces for disabled students in 1977 no student could walk through because he believed that a disabled space be reserved.
"The spirit of the law is that there be a spot that gives students with disabilities easy access to the building," Turvey said. "As far as I know, the university does have parking for all students with disabilities."
Turvey said that disabled students with state handicapped permits who visited Templin could park in the center of the hall without receiving tickets.
Petty, who is disabled, said he had received several parking tickets at KU. But, he said, he never had to pay any of the tickets because he successfully appealed them to Parking Services.
Stuck elevator traps 13 people in Wescoe
By JORN E. KAALSTAD
Staff writer
Andrew Wroblewski, Olathe sophmore and one of the people in the elevator, said that as the elevator ascended from first floor at 2:30 p.m. it started to shake up and down. It was between the third and fourth floors.
About 13 people were stuck in a Wescoe Hall elevator for half an hour yesterday afternoon before they were helped out by facilities operations workers.
Wroblewski said the occupants managed to open the elevator doors, but found a wall behind them. On the wall, someone had written that the elevator was stuck there in 1964.
Then they tried to open a trap door in the elevator ceiling, he said. When they couldn't, they pushed an alarm bell. But Wroblewski said none of the
"We put our initials there, too."
Wobblewski said. "It seemed appropriate."
occupants panicked. Some joked about being stuck.
"It was kind of fun," Wroblewki said. "We decided that it made all of us closer, even though we don't know each other."
Wroblewski said he wondered how he and others could have escaped from the elevator, in case of a fire, with the tran door shut.
Most of the students stuck in the elevator missed classes, and one missed a test, he said.
Police camera to monitor field house
"I would assume the trap door could be opened in cases of emergencies." Wroblewski said.
But Major Paul Findley of the Lawrence Fire Department said elevator trap doors were not intended to
See ELEVATOR, p. 6, col. 1
By JAVAN OWENS
Staff writer
KU police will monitor all varsity men's basketball games through a video camera at Allen Field House this season, Jim Denney, KU police director, said recently.
Monitoring special campus activities, such as commencement, demonstrations and athletic events, through a camera is nothing new for KU police, Denney said.
He said that the police had observed football games with a camera in the press box for several years, but that technical difficulties had kept them from monitoring basketball games.
The police bought a mobile command unit this summer that will sit outside the field house. A camera inside the field house will transmit a picture of activities to closed-circuit monitors in the mobile unit. The mobile unit, which also has taping capabilities, will replace a police command post that was in the building.
Denney said that the camera should not alarm students because it was a tool for observation more
Criminal action that could be taped would involve fighting, vandalism or burglary, he said. The mobile unit camera identified several car burglaries at Memorial Stadium this season, Denney said.
"People don't have to be afraid of Big Brother." Denney said. "We only tape if we believe a crime is imminent, and that taping is at the director's or assistant director's orders.
"Taping a game is too expensive for us and is not necessary."
Denney said that a uniformed officer would operate the camera on a platform in the southeast corner of the field house.
Denney said another safeguard against police misuse of the camera was a University regulation prohibiting them from using video cameras as devices for saving on individuals.
Persons with alcohol in the field house would not normally be taped unless they were unruly, Denney said. But, if a person was seen with alcohol, police would respond because the person would be violating state law. Denney stressed that the camera would not be used to spot people throwing toilet paper rolls, however.
However, Floyd Temple, assistant athletic director, said he was committed to curtailing alcohol consumption and toilet paper throwing at the field house. The camera spotted a spot some distance away works well.
"It is not supposed to be the spy in the sky," Temble said.
Security workers who are stationed throughout the field house will be looking especially for those
who violate the laws concerning alcohol in a state building and those who violate a one-year-old policy against throwing toilet nane
Manpower Temporary Services provides security for the games, including the ticket takers, who will confiscate toilet rolls and alcohol at entrances, Temple said.
"We don't want to detract from the enthusiasm of the fans. They add to the home-court advantage for our team." Temple said. "But we want them to limit their enthusiasm to verbal action."
"We are not trying to throw a wet wetow on these people, but we want fans who act in a sportsmanlike manner. And I think Larry (Brown) backs us on this one." Temple said.
Temple said that fans who threw toilet paper would be warned the first time and then opened it.
Since the rule was first enacted, many have complied but others have been taken toilet paper field.
Denney said that if fans were asked to leave and refused, they could be arrested for criminal trespassing.
"In basketball there is continuous action, and some people just get caught up in it," Temple said. "If they just stopped to think about what they were doing they wouldn't do it."