University Daily Kansan / Thursday, September 17, 1987
Campus/Area
3
Local Briefs
Back aneurysm leaves student partly paralyzed
A KU freshman is in critical condition at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., after suffering an aneurysm in his back Friday.
Craig Nowatzek, Prairie Village freshman and Hashinger Hall resident, is in intensive care, para-
diatomologist, said he said his father, Robert Nowatzek.
Craig Nowatkze was riding his bicycle in front of Templin Hall when he suffered the broken blood vessel in his spinal cord. An unknown driver of a restored sportscar found him in the street and drove him to Watkins Hospital.
"Craig could very possibly have died right where it hit him," his father said.
The family would like to find the driver to thank him, his father said.
Nowatzke was transfered immediately from Watkins to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He transferred Monday to St Luke's.
rite probably won't require surgery, his father said, but doctors can't determine whether he will have permanent damage or how long he will need hospitalization.
"It's very likely he's going to have to withdraw this semester," Robert Nowatke said.
Whistle turned off until repairs made
Because of a computer malfunction, the whistle that signals the end of classes has been silent since Monday, and facilities operations officials don't think it will resume its hourly duty yet this week.
"I wouldn't count on it," Bob Porter, associate director of physical plant maintenance, said yes and did what it supposed to do."
The whistle, which normally blows for seven seconds at the end of classes, started acting erratically earlier this month. Porter said it did midnight twice and in the minute before a worker shut it off.
The whistle was shut off Monday when it began malfunctioning minutes after workers replaced a circuit board that they thought was causing the problem. Porter said.
The whistle will likely be off for the rest of the week while officials wait for computer repairmen
Jackson cancels
three Kansas stops
CONCORDIA — A planned trip to Kansas by Democratic presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson this weekend has been canceled, but an organizer for one of the appearances says it may be rescheduled for early next spring.
Charles Meek, state coordinator of Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, said he was notified that the Kansas stops in Wichita, Concordia and Topeka were called off because Jackson was exhausted.
Correction
Because of a reporter's error, a story in yesterday's Kansan incorrectly reported that Ann Weick, acting dean of social welfare, wasn't teaching any classes this semester. Weick is teaching this semester.
From staff and wire reports.
Student Senate OKs finances
Bv BRAD ADDINGTON
Staff writer
The Student Senate last night approved overwhelmingly a bill allocating $7,000 to this year's Jayhawk Jazz Festival and approved after much debate a bill allocating $5,650 to the Higher Education Rescue Operation campaign.
The KU jazz singers were on hand to do what some considered musical lobbying for the Jazz Festival bill. The group sang "Not Like This" and "Like Ron McCurdy," and Ron McCurdy, jazz coordinator for the department of music and dance.
McCurdy said Senate was largely responsible for the growth of the festival over the last 10 years.
"The event has grown from a one-day event with a budget of about $300 to a three-day event with a budget of about $12,000." McCurdy said. "The festival has gained a national reputation."
The Senate also passed a bill allocating $3,400 to help the KU Jazz School. It finance a "Tribute to Kenton" concert planned for November.
the Senate debated for more than an hour before passing the bill for the KU Higher Education Rescue Operation (H.E.R.O.) campaign. The campaign will support for higher education through the Board of Regents three-year
Martine Aaron, campus director for the Associated Students of Kansas, spoke in favor of the bill. She said the campaign needed Senate financing and its special funds had been used to operate the campain this summer.
Margin of Excellence plan.
"The strapped child is coming for an infusion," she told the 57 senators.
Student body vice president Stephanie Quinney pointed out that an item in the bill violated Senate regulations by allocating money to be used for food at a reception. This sparked debate as to how well the Senate Finance Committee had reviewed the legislation.
Frank Partnoy, off-campus senator and finance committee member, said that perhaps the finance commission should have given the committee had more experience.
"It was not a collection of individuals," Partnoy said of Tuesday's finance committee meeting. "It was a rubber stamp of approval."
Partnoy said he did not vote on the bill because he was on the finance committee.
The Senate approved the bill with an amendment that decreased money for the reception from $300 to $150, with the provision that no money be used to buy food. The rest of the money will be used for mailing and advertising.
Unidentified body may be KU student
Bv IAVAN OWENS
Staff writer
Colorado authorities have not identified the body of a man found Sept. 3 at the bottom of a waterfall near Telluride, Colo., who they suspect was a KU student.
San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said yesterday that his office had been trying to link the man to the University of Kansas after numerous interviews with people who said they had spotted him at a bar in Tucson. The man was also seen at a Harmonic Convergence festival near Telluride.
The search for the man's identity has been complicated because police found his body naked and decomposed.
People who told the man before his death told police that he identified himself as Eric, an art student from KU. The man was 5 feet 7 inches, had a stocky build, and possibly was of Middle Eastern descent, police said.
Through several interviews, police have gathered pictures and a two-minute video tape of the man at the festival.
The caller said he had picked up the man, who was naked, in his camper because the man said his money had been stolen at the festival.
Masters said a man from South Dakota called the sheriff's office yesterday after seeing the story in the Telluride newspaper.
"We have had numerous people who spotted him. Masters sand. "The team has," he said.
"Many people had to have seen the guy because he needed three or four people to help him move the thing out of the way he went somewhere." Masters said.
Masters said the man had been carrying a colossal tree-like sculpture with clumps of hair hanging to it. Police learned from interviews that he had named the sculpturian harmonic Convergence Tuning Fork.
James Larson/KANSAN
"The limb was about 25 feet long. And as the story goes, he got the limb from a tree near Kansas City that had been struck by lightning. He made this thing and hitchiked out here with it."
Tom Docking, former Kansas lieutenant governor and 1986 Democratic gubernatorial candidate, speaks to a group of students at Robinson Center. Docking's talk yesterday was part of the School of Business Executive Lecture series. See story p. 16.
Faculty and staff to pay fee to get health care coverage
New policy begins Jan. 1, will range from $11-$20 a month
By MICHAEL HORAK
Staff writer
TOPEKA — State employees, including KU faculty and classified personnel, for the first time will have to pay a monthly fee to receive health care coverage, the chairman of the state's health care commission said yesterday.
H. Edward Flentje, Kansas Secretary of Administration and head of the three-member commission, said the state had agreed to accept a bid from Kansas Blue Cross-Blue Shield that would cost more than the state had agreed to pay. Shortfall, he said, will have to be paid by state employees. Last year, the state contributed $39 million toward insurance for 23,000 employees.
Increased use of benefits and the rising costs of hospitalization are the main drivers.
who can prove they do not smoke.
"Unpleasant choices faced the health care commission this year." Flentje said. "Prices for health care services nationally were increasing by 10 percent, and Kansas costs mirrored the national trends."
The new policy will begin Jan. 1 and will immediately affect KU employees. Those who earn up to $17,000 will have to pay $11 a month, those earning between $17,000 and $24,999 will have to pay $18 a month, and those earning more than $30,000 will pay $20 a month. A monthly $10 discount will be given to employees
The new policy also creates a waiting period before new state employees can obtain health insurance coverage. Flentje said the waiting period would be 60 days, but could be waived under special circumstances. That may occur if state agencies have no plans to recruit new employees, he said. Exemptions will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Some KU faculty said yesterday that they were concerned the new insurance policy would hurt faculty recruitment. They also saw the insurance charges as a cut in their benefits.
"It itses a precedent that makes me nervous," said Evelyn Swartz, chairman of the Senate Executive Committee. "We've had this fine benefit." Charging a user fee for insurance is an erosion of those benefits."
Swartz said she and several other faculty members had met this week with KU administrators to express concern about the increases.
Today, Mel Dubnick, president of University Senate and associate professor of public administration, will ask the Board of Regents at their monthly meeting to make a statement asking the health care commission to reconsider its insurance contract.
"For the University, the most
damaging thing is the 60-day waiting period," Dubnick said. "How would you like to come to a job and hear the story of your life?" dollar for health care right away"
Dubnick said the University hired many graduate students to teach. Those graduate students will come into new jobs having to pay for health insurance at a time many can't afford it, he said.
He doubted that any other university in the nation makes new employees wait to receive health care benefits, he said.
"The state is working against itself," Dubnick said. "On one hand, they are pushing to increase faculty wages throughMargin of Excellence. Then they turn around and take that money away through our health care plans. It just doesn't make sense."
Margin of Excellence is the Board of Regents three-year plan to lobby the state Legislature to, among other things, bring average faculty salaries up to 100 percent of those at peer institutions.
Flentje said the health care commission knew of faculty concerns and did not take them lightly.
"I think they have a legitimate concern and the members of the commission did not ignore it. We still have a Cadillac or near Cadillac which was very generous compared to those in most states, he said.
Budget cuts silence Wichita State marching band
Staff writer
By MICHAEL MERSCHEL
The Wichita State University marching band may have played its final song, but the effects of the program's demise will be played out over the next few years, the former director of the band said.
Brad Bone, assistant director of bands at Wichita State, said the school might have problems recruiting students to its music program without a marching band and also would have to cope with the loss of an important public relations tool.
Budget cuts forced the school to cut its football program and marching band this year. Bone said that from the beginning the idea to use the football band in-hand with the idea to eliminate football.
Bone will stay at Wichita State until the end of this year, after which his position will be eliminated. Bone, who has directed at the 1978, doesn't know what he will do after that.
He said he tried to show the need for a marching band without a football team but to no avail.
"Their minds were so set that without one you don't need the other," he said. "It was very hard."
Bone said his primary concern over the loss of the band was for music education majors who planned to teach at junior highs and high schools. He said his first tasks would be to direct marching bands.
class that would teach show design. Students in the class would work with high school bands
Bone said the band had been good public relations for the school by marching in parades before hundreds of thousands of people and by doing other public performances.
To compensate for the experience students would miss from marching. Bone is creating a
Without a band, Bone said, it would be harder to recruit people to the school's music program.
He said he knew several incoming freshman had decided against Wichita State because it didn't have a marching band, although he hadn't lost any veteran players.
Rob Johnson, Derby freshman, said he might have considered Wichita State if the school had a marching band. Because it didn't, he looked elsewhere and now marches for the University of Kansas.
Johnson said he thought one effect of the end of the marching band at Wichita State would be that high school marchers in the area would no longer have a role model.
Bone said Wichita State used to sponsor high school band competitions that introduced students to the university and brought bands in the area closer together.
Bone said Wichita State still had several programs that would appeal to music students, such as its music collective, an assortment of bands and friends to play where the marching band used to.
One part of the band that lives on is the drum line. J.C. Combs, professor of music and percussion teacher, said the drum line would continue to compete at international competitions just as it had for the past several years.
ROCK CHALK REVUE
In Between Acts Director
is looking for an
Good organizational skills and some dance experience is required. Pick up applications in the Student Organizations Office, Burge Union.
Deadline: 5 p.m. Monday
By Richard Stra In English
DER ROSENKAVALIER
FUN FILLED WEEK #1
Saturday, September 19, 8:00 p.m.
Monday, September 21, 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, September 23, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, September 25, 8:00 p.m.
PHONE: 816/471-7344 FOR TICKETS
Single tickets priced from $5.00
Student Rush 30 minutes prior to curtain - $3.00 with student ID.
Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Hair and Central
The hair is a dense feature of restraint from
The National Endowment for the Arts The Missouri Archt Council U.S.AIR The Official Lice Opera
al Center
STUDENT ALUMNI ASSOCIATION "Membership Meeting"
7:00 p.m.
Adams Alumni Center
1266 Oread Avenue
You are invited to learn more about SAA and our plans for the year!