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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PO BOX 3585
TOREKA, KS. 64601 DEAF
[OPEKA, KS 66601-3585]
Tuesday November 25,1997
HIGH LOW 60 43
Online today
After press deadline, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia saved the satellite referred to on The Inside Front. Details are on UDKi.
http://www.kanac.com/pnews/nation
http://www.kansan.com/news/nation
Section:
Vol. 108·No.69
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Sports today
The women's basketball team faces a busy Thanksgiving break, as it will play three games on the road.
SEE PAGE 1B
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'Kansan' editor fired by board
(USPS 650-640)
Duncan ousted with eight issues left in semester
By Tim Harrington tharrington @kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Amid claims that "The University Daily Kansan" had offended its readers and tarnished its reputation, Spencer Duncan, Topeka senior and editor of the "Kansan," was held ultimately responsible and fired from the staff.
The decision to fire Duncan was made by a vote of the "Kansan" Board, which is made up of three journalism school faculty members, the general manager of the
paper, the marketing adviser, the editor, the business manager and one Student Senate representative, who was not present at the meeting yesterday.
"After careful deliberation, the 'Kansan' board has agreed upon this action in response to a series of decisions made by or influenced by the editor," said John Ginn, board chairman and Knigh
distinguished professor of journalism, in a prepared statement.
concerned that Duncan's decisions would become even more questionable as his stint as editor came to a close.
One journalism faculty member said that in his 25 years at the school no editor had been fired.
Editors at the "Kansan" are selected by the board to serve one semester.
Duncan said to claim that he would make poor editorial decisions toward the end of his tenure was ridiculous and that he would
never hurt the "Kansan" in such a way.
Duncan said he stood by most of the examples that the board considered to be
not hard to be a Kansan in such a way. Ginn said that in making the painful decision, the board reviewed specific examples of actions involving headlines and graphic material that were offensive to the University community.
in poor taste. Duncan was offered a chance to resign and refused. The board then voted him out of the editor position.
"I refused to resign because that would have been acknowledging that I was a bad editor. That is not true," Duncan said. "I'm stunned by the decision and amazed by the unprofessionalism shown to me by the board."
"I don't think that anyone in the newsroom was calling for this," Duncan said. "And I don't think that the student body as a whole was either."
Duncan said that during the semester he had not been informed by anyone on the "Kansan" board that he was doing a poor job as editor.
Duncan had worked at the "Kansan" for three and a half years and had six different positions including editor, sports editor and Student Senate reporter.
"This is not a reflection of the people in the newsroom that work hard and have always supported me," Duncan said. "I
"I'm stunned by the decision and amazed by the unprofessionalism shown to me by the board."
Spencer Duncan former "Kansan" editor
still love this paper and will continue to work for it until I graduate."
Taking over for Duncan is Lindsey Henry, Overland Park junior and formerly the paper's managing editor.
Henry had been chosen by the board two weeks ago as editor for next semester. She said she was not pleased about having to take the job of a close friend who was fired.
"I decided to step up as editor out of concern for the 'Kansan,'" Henry said. "I just want to make sure the papers keep coming out."
And the winners are ...
Members from Delta Chi fraternity and Gamma Phi Beta sorority react to the selection of their group to compete in Rock Chalk Revue. Selections for the revue were announced yesterday evening and include Delta Delta Delta and
Sigma Phi Epsilon, Alpha Delta Pi and Lambda Chi Alpha, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Phi Gamma Delta, and Pi Beta Pi sorority and Phi Delta Theta.
See story on page 5A. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
Burglar damages West Campus labs
Equipment worth more than $15,000
By Mary Corcoran mcorcoran@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A man who broke into a West Campus laboratory Sunday morning caused more than $15,000 worth of damage to the laboratory and equipment.
The man broke the glass front door of the Kurata Thermodynamics Laboratories, KU police Sgt. Chris Keary said. Once inside, the man began to destroy lab equipment. The incident took place between 2:25 and 2:40 a.m.
"He tore phones off the wall, threw a computer on the ground, broke a number of chemical bottles." Kearv said.
Among the items destroyed were a meter balance worth $10,000 and a $5,000 MicroTech central processing unit, police said.
A 29-year-old Lawrence graduate student in engineering was working in the lab when the man broke in.
He told police he heard a noise but didn't pay attention to it until he heard it a second time. The man saw the suspect and decided to leave the building before he called the police.
The man had left by the time KU police arrived at the laboratory.
The student described the burglar as a 5-foot-8-inch male with black curly hair in his 20s weighing about 180 pounds. The student said the man was wearing a light-colored shirt and black pants.
Kristi Elliott / KANSAN
Police think the man may have cut his hands or fingers in the process of destroying some of the equipment.
Kurata Laboratories is a low-temperature research building related to the department of chemical and petroleum engineering.
Keary said police were continuing to investigate the incident. The total damage estimate was not available because reports were not complete, he said.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact CrimeStoppers at 864-8888. Keary said. A person that provides police with information that leads to an arrest may be eligible for a cash reward.
KU on Wheels, Safe Ride will not run during break
Kansan staff report
KU on Wheels buses and Safe Ride services will be changing their schedules for the Thankaiving break.
Safe Ride services will not be available tomorrow night and will not resume their regular hours of 11 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. until Nov. 30.
Buses will run regularly today, but after 5:30 p.m. they will stop and not resume their routes until Dec. 1.
"The bus system is oriented toward student needs, and there won't be any students here," said Scott Kaiser, transportation coordinator.
"We haven't had anybody call us about that. But if it's the case that somebody is getting left out in the cold, then we like to hear about it so we fix the problem." Kaiser said. "Usually, the rule is that we run the buses when class is going on."
Kaiser said that so far no students have complained about the abridged bus schedule.
Museum has saber-toothed tiger by the tail
The Natural History Museum is studying a pair of unique sabertoothed tigers that are presumed to be among the last of the large animal fossils resurrected from the North American Ice Age.
By Mike Perryman Kansan staff writer
The fossils, which originally were unearthed in 1981 at a limestone quarry in northwestern Florida, date back about 1 million years and are the first large animal fossils to come out of the North American Ice Age since 1977.
The museum is reconstructing the skeletons, and if everything works well, it will publish a name and skeleton description by February, said Larry Martin, paleontologist and senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum.
The tigers at the museum are significant because they are not like the other saber-toothed tigers from the Pleistocene Epoch, Martin said.
The striped cat lived in the tallgrass areas of Florida, was about the size of an African lion and probably fed on peccary, a type of wild pig, Martin said.
"This one is a new design of saber-toothed," he said. "It has short legs and was most likely a very slow ambush predator."
There are now three kinds of saber-toothed tigers that have come from the North American Ice Age including the Smilodon, the Homotherium and the museum's tiger, which has not yet been named.
"It's tough because every time you say it's the last one, another pops up," Martin said. "But I think there are probably not
many of these animals left."
Naples has been describing the head structure of the tigers.
"It is a very interesting animal because it is so different," she said. "It's exciting. These animals are a relatively recent find."
Babiarz, a private fossil collector, obtained the fossils from the University of Florida and donated them to the Natural History Museum about two years ago.
"In the past 20 years, no one has found a large animal from this time period, and it's not often that something lies concealed like this for that long," Babiarz said.
Larry Martin, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum, holds the skull of a saber-toothed tiger. The fossil is thought to be the last of the large animals to come out of the North American Ice Age. Martin is helping to describe the differences between this tiger and others of its time.
Photo by Pam Dishman/KANSAN
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