On the mild side
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Details page 6
Thursday September 17,1987 Vol.98,No.19
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
(USPS 650-640)
Med workers are more wary of infections
By AMBER STENGER
Staff writer
Lisa Jones/KANSAN
More health care employees at the University of Kansas Medical Center are making an effort to protect themselves from contracting infectious diseases, especially AIDS, employees say.
The Med Center has not changed its infection control policy because of AIDS, said Marcia A. Gillianl, infection control coordinator. It's just that more employees are complying with its recommendations.
"Our philosophy really hasn't changed in regards to precautions," Gilland said. "We've always taught that all blood and body fluids can be potentially infectious. What has happened is that people because of AIDS are more careful. And so somebody who used to be very lackadaisical when they got a little blood on their hands, is using gloves more now."
Campus pigeons, such as this one on a window ledge at Strong Hall, are facing a new adversary in BirdX, a bird repellent.
The AIDS virus can not be contracted through casual contact. The virus is transmitted through blood and body fluids
The national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta recommend that health care employees wear gloves whenever they may be in contact with a patient's blood or body fluids. When health care employees are in a situation where blood could splatter, such as treating a serious injury, they also are urged to wear protective gowns, masks and goggles. Blood, body fluids, mucous organs and unattached skin are potentially infections.
Gilliland said gloves were the most common protective clothing employees wore.
One indication of employees' increasing concern is the number of rubber gloves they are using.
Jim Mathes, left, of Baldwin City, and Bill Medlen, Lawrence resident, apply Bird/X to the ledge above the Natural History Museum's main entrance. The chemical, which creates a sticky surface, is designed to prevent pigeons from landing on building ledges.
"Gloves will probably be the No. 1 thing that health professionals will use. In the past, I don't think the physicians and health care professionals considered eyes and mucous membranes as exposure," she said. "So, you are going to see more masks and, depending on the procedure, more goggles being used."
The Med Center has spent an additional $7,626 on gloves this year, Barbara Lockhart, director of the purchasing department, said yesterday. Demand for exam gloves increased by 35 to 40 percent in the first eight months of this calendar year, compared with the same period last year.
Lockhart said $50,658 was spent during the first eight months of this year to purchase five types of exam and utility gloves.
Jim Strobel, director of student health services, said the demand for gloves had doubled at Watkins Hospital. He said four cases of gloves lasted for three or four months in the past. Now, Watkins uses eight cases in that same period of time. Each case contains 1,000 pairs of gloves and costs about $40.
Kathryn West, purchasing manager for Baxter in the Kansas City area, said, "In the last four months, the demand has doubled in some cases and tripled in others."
One of the hospital's suppliers, Baxter Hospital Supply Division of Overland Park, has seen an overall increase in the demand for latex exam gloves in the Kansas City area.
But, Suzanne Shaffer, hematology clinical nurse specialist and a nursing service employee at the Med Center, said some nurses chose to risk infection to have personal contact with patients.
"There's been a reliance with nurses in particular to use gloves because we were taught that touch is very important." Shaffer said. "Gloves are a barrier. But what I have found lately is that the public is
See MEDICAL, p. 6, col. 1
KU tries new bird repellent
By BRIAN BARESCH
Staff writer
Pesky pigeons on the University of Kansas campus are facing a new weapon in facilities and operations' arsenal.
Landscape workers have started putting Bird/X on building ledges around campus. Bird/X is a sticky, unpleasant bird repellent that birds don't like to land on, said Mike Richardson, associate director of garage and landscape facilities operations.
Already this week, Bird/X has been applied to ledges at Dyche and Stauffer-Flint lhats. Richardson said the applications were preliminary, to see how the new employed work.
Strong Hall also will get a treat ment this week, he said.
At Dyche, the pigeons milling about over the main entrance had created enough of a mess on the sidewalk below that people were tracking the droppings into the building.
Bob Porter, associate director of physical plant facilities operations, said pigeons might carry mites and diseases in addition to
having sloppy personal habits.
"We have been trying to find some humane, ecological way of getting rid of these critters," he said.
At noon yesterday, several pigeons were cooing around Dyche, but none were near the treated parts of the entrance. Stauffer-Flint was similarly bird-free.
Bird/X is new to the market, and it doesn't hurt pigeons, Richardson said. If it works, it will be applied more, he said.
Richardson said he was not sure exactly how much the repellent cost.
"Compared to cleaning up the mess from the pigeons, it's not very expensive," he said.
Students favor tougher policy for admissions
By NOEL GERDES
Staff writer
A student advisory committee today will recommend to the Board of Regents that Kansas high school students be required to complete certain courses to be guaranteed admission at the six state universities.
The recommendation would require freshmen, in addition to graduating, to have taken four years of English and three years each of science, social studies and math from an accredited Kansas high school.
the student advisory committee consists of the student body presidents of the Regents schools.
The Regents schools now have an open admissions policy, which means any Kansas resident who graduates from an accredited state high school is admitted automatically to any state university.
mandatory to stay safe and attend school. The Regents will meet at 9 a.m. today in Topeka to discuss tightening admissions requirements. Their own proposed requirements include a high school curriculum similar to the students' recommendation, but with two years of foreign language. The Regents proposal also includes an ACT score of 23 or better, and ranking in the top third of a class.
The advisory committee considered the Regents proposal before making its own. Jason Krakow, KU student body president, opposed part of the Regents proposal.
"I think to say a student has to have a 23 on the ACT to be successful is ridiculous," he said.
be succession isihuohua, he said.
According to the students' recommendation, to be admitted to a state university in fall 1991, freshmen would have to:
- complete in high school four years of English and three years each of science, social studies and math with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale; or
- earn a minimum 2.0 GPA in nine hours of prescribed summer session college-level work before their first freshman semester; or
earn a pass grade in make-up courses (high school or college level) for subjects in the Regents recommended curriculum that were missed in high school.
The students' recommendation also states that freshmen who don't take two years of foreign language in high school must do so while attending the university.
Each university could make exceptions for special students, but those exceptions could total no more than 10 percent of the number of entering freshmen. Admissions would remain open for Kansas residents 21 or older with a high school diploma, and admission requirements for out-of-state students would be left to each university.
Mark Tallman, legislative director for Associated Students of Kansas, a student lobbying group, said he did not consider the students' recommendation to be a selective admissions policy.
"To me, requiring courses that you can choose to take is not closing admissions," Tallman said. "It's still a student choice."
Tallman said there were two schools of thought behind tightening admissions standards. The first is that the University of Kansas needs to restrict admissions because it has too many students and not enough money. The second is that some students who enter state universities are not prepared for college, so they need to be prepared. He prepared. He said the student committee made its recommendation to help freshmen become more prepared.
Kent Bradley, student body president at Kansas State University, said, "I'm concerned that the Regents are trying to spot-solve problems at KU."
However, Kevin Amack, student body president at Fort Hays State University, said he was not opposed to different standards for different schools.
Democrats focus on Watergate while questioning Bork
The Associated Press
Law students oppose Bork's nomination
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork, responding to interrogations of his integrity by Democratic senators, said yesterday that he acted honorably and legally in 1973 when he fired special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox.
Group sends petition to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to voice opinions
In a dramatic retelling of what Bork called "an enormous governmental crisis," he said that as soon as Cox was dismissed, "I did promptly act to safeguard the special prosecution. I understood from the beginning my moral and professional lives were on the line if something happened to the special prosecution force."
the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Bork in the same marble-columned room that was the site 14 years ago of hearings that helped lead to President Nixon's political demise. This week the room is the setting for a nationally televised confirmation hearings.
The questions on what has become known as the Saturday Night Massacre marked an interruption of the inquiries on Bork's political and judicial ideology as opponents sought additional grounds to defeat his confirmation.
Some KU law students opposed to the nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork want their opinions to be known by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Hemphill said about 33 students had signed the petition at the University of Kansas.
By VIRGINIA McGRATH Staff writer
Bork spent much of yesterday responding to questions about his views on such subjects as civil rights, abortion and privacy.
The proceedings generated few sparks as Bork spelled in calm, measured tones his conservative legal approach that has evolved in a 25-year career as lawyer, Ivy League scholar and judge.
The students are signing a petition urging the Senate to reject Bork's nomination. They plan to send it to the judiciary committee.
Dwaine Hemphill, third year law student, is president of the local student chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which is a liberal alternative to the American Bar Association, he said. The guild, located in New York City, national Rights, is sponsoring the petition drive nationwide.
ion on how the Constitution should be interpreted. He thinks the Supreme Court should follow a strict interpretation of the original intent of the Constitution.
Bork holds a conservative opin-
I think some of his opinions could really gut the Constitution. He would take us 10 steps backwards. He has a lack of respect for precedent.'
He acknowledged that some of his views "have evolved and changed," and he sought support for that by quoting Benjamin Franklin as say-
- Laurie Blackburn first year law student
Greg Rohy, third year law student who signed the petition, said, "I understand his points from a legislative position, and they are
present. Scott Gesner, first year law student who signed the petition, said, "It's always helpful to let elected representatives know what people are thinking."
Martie Aaron, first year law student, also signed the petition. She said it was important to let lawmakers know.
Laurie Blackburn, first year law student, also signed the petition. "I think some of his opinions could really gut the Constitution. He would take us 10 steps backwards. He has a lack of respect for precedent," she said.
very true. They are academic and scholarly. But, I don't think it's appropriate for a continually changing society."
"You have to make your position known. That's part of the democratic process." she said.
No law school faculty members have signed the petition. Michael Davis, dean of law, said he hadn't seen the petition.
The Center for Constitutional Rights has helped collect signatures opposing Bork's nomination from all 50 states, said Dorothy Zellner, coordinator of the center's Campaign for a Just Supreme Court in New York City.
Gesner said he did not think
The center gave petitions containing 10,000 signatures to the judiciary committee Tuesday.
Bork would be confirmed. "If the Democrats for a change would stick to principles and show a little courage and decisiveness, he won't be confirmed," he said.
"We'll have to wait and see what the bearings bring," he said.
But Bork said he has never changed an opinion in order to win confirmation to a judgership or for any other reward.
"These petitions are a tiny fraction of a lot of other petition campaigns," Zellner said.
ing, "Having lived long I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration to change opinions even on important subjects."
Until his nomination last July, Bork was best known by the general public for his actions the night of Oct. 20. 1973.
That Saturday night, Nixon ordered Cox fired when the Harvard professor insisted the president surrender White House tapes to the special prosecutor's office. In quick succession, then-Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned, his top deputy, William Ruckelshaus, was fired. Richardson and Bork, the third-ranking justice Department official, carried out the president's order.
Bork, noting he has frequently explained his role in the Cox firing before, revealed yesterday that he rejected a White House request in the midst of a turbulent department post of solicitor general to become Nixon's chief defense
lawver.
Bork acknowledged, as some critics have charged, that he did not "instantaneously" move to replace Cox with a new prosecution.
He said he persuaded then-White House Chief of Staff Alexander M. Haig that "I was not the right man for the job," and said that Nixon indicated he harbored no hard feelings about the rejection.
"We realized the need to appoint a new one because the American people would not be mollified without one," he said.
He said that initially he and others in the Nixon administration thought Cox's deputies could do the job of summoning the Watergate investigation.
Metzenbaum, showing Nixon administration memos, said there was evidence Bork helped the White
Responding to painted questions from Democratic Sens. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Judicary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Bork denied he ever weighed any actions that would terminate the Watergate investigation.
House devise a strategy to "stonewall" by defending the principle of executive privilege.
DeConciyn, a key swing vote on the committee, also suggested Bork's positions on poll taxes, integration of public accommodations and other issues over the years might cause blacks some alarm.
"I never advised the White House how to meet, how to deal with the Watergate special prosecution force," Bork said. He said he did act on orders from then-Attorney General Richardson to seek a compromise between Cox and the White House over executive privilege.
Watergate aside, Bork also sought to reassure Senn. Dennis DeConciin, D-Ariz., that he is not antagonistic to the rights of women. "As solicitor general I argued positions for the protection of women broader than the Supreme Court would accept," Bork said.
"We never achieved an accommodation." Bork testified.
Bork responded, "If I were a black man but knew my record, I don't think I be concerned because it's a good civil rights record."
Still, Bork said he is troubled by the constitutional rationale for a Supreme Court ruling ordering the desegregation of public schools in the District of Columbia in 1954.
"I have not thought of a rationale for the ruling, Bork said. But after a brief recess, he said he wanted to make it clear he does not support the ruling of the court's central and wouldn't "ever dream of overruling" the 1954 decision.
Bork received kind words during the hearing from Senate Republican leaders.
"It seems to be the extremism has been in the rhetoric of opponents of Judge Bork," Simpson said.