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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Mostly sunny and continued warmish temperatures.
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 66601-3585
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Tuesday
October 28, 1997
Section:
A
Vol. 108 • No. 49
More information on the Dow Jones crash is available on the UDKi.
Online today
http://www.kansan.com/news/nation
Vol.108·No.49
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Sports today
After her third knee surgery, redshirt freshman Casey Pruitt is ready to play for the Jayhawks.
SEE PAGE 1B
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THUD:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 2.3 percent of its value, leaving investors and KU students scratching their heads
（USPS 650-640）
Dow's drop biggest since 1981 crash
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 550 points yesterday, forcing the stock market to shut down for the first time since the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan.
The market's best-known barometer fell 554.26 points to 7,161.15, surpassing the 508-point Black Monday crash of 1987 as its biggest point drop ever.
But on a percentage basis, Monday's 7.18 percent drop by the Dow only ranked as the 12th biggest ever and didn't come close to the 22 percent loss on Oct.19.1987.
Although the Dow still is up 11 percent since the beginning of the year, the sell-off put the Dow's losses at about 900 points over the past four sessions and 1,100 points since it set a record high at 8,259.31 on Aug.6.
"It's a bloodbath," said Arnold Kaufman, a market analyst at Standard & Poor's. "It scares you because when you get a decline this fast, there's a risk it will keep snowballing."
The Dow's drop triggered two circuit breakers on the New York Stock Exchange that had never been set off since they were put in place after the 1987 sell-off. The first circuit breaker, at 350 points, closed the market for 30 minutes. The second, at 550, halted trading for the day.
Some analysts insisted the drop was for the better, bringing the market back within reasonable limits.
"It's very healthy to shake some of this out," said Larry Rice, chief investment officer at Josephthal, Lyon & Ross. "We have a very sound economy here. We're going to survive."
Another Black Monday
The Dow Jones Industrial Index lost 554.26 points yesterday, forcing built-in emergency safeguards to be used for the first time in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.
Andrew Rohrback / KANSAN
Class sees market drop as learning experience
By Tim Harrington tharrington@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Though yesterday's record-setting stock market drop may send high-rolling investors to their high-rise windowsills. KU investors remain calm.
Brian Carney, St. Louis, Mo., senior, is more worried about grade points than stock points.
Carney is one of the few undergraduates in the University of Kansas' Applied Portfolio Management class which allows students to invest roughly $60,000 per semester in the stock market.
"I've been watching this for the past three hours," Carney said of the blitz of stock market television coverage. "Worst case scenario is we lose a little more than a $1,000."
The portfolio class is divided into six groups that each receive $10,000 to invest during the course of the semester. They meet in the Regents Center in Overland Park.
Josh Selzer, Prairie Village graduate teaching assistant for the class, said that the crash was great from an educational perspective.
"I think this is a great learning experience for the class," Selzer said. "It shows how volatile the market can be. They can see how some people were wiped out and others recouped."
Mark Hirschey, professor of business, said the market was long overdue for a wipeout and that recouping may be a long time coming.
Hirschey said the market runs on a fairly regular fluctuating cycle of five percent, 10 percent, 15 percent and 20 percent point falls.
Yesterday's drop was about 13 percent.
He said that the last time the U.S. market fell more than ten percent was 1990. This drop was about seven years overdue.
"What makes this unusual is that we had been in the rosiest period in stock market history ever," Hirschev said.
Robert Schwartz, Chicago, Ill., senior, is betting that the market will get its rosy hue back soon.
Schwartz said his father owned several brokerage firms in Chicago and his brother, who also attended the University, was chairman of the pit on the Chicago exchange. Schwartz said that he had traded moderately for two or three years now.
He said that he didn't think the recent crash would be too hard on him, but he wanted to know for sure.
Schwartz said that he had been trying to get his broker on the phone all day.
"He's dealing with people with much larger problems than I've got," Schwartz said. "What I do is small compared to other clients."
Fear follows meningitis' appearance
By Sarah Chadwick schadwick@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
After Robert Brogi, Deerfield, Ill., sophomore, died Oct. 21 from a meningococcal infection, Watkins Memorial Health Center was inundated with callers and visitors who had questions about the illness.
Despite the concerns, all students who were in close contact with Brogi have been treated, and no other cases have been reported, said Randall Rock, Watkins chief of staff.
"We did have a lot of calls, but it's calmed down today," said Candyce Waitley, Watkins health educator. "It seems like hopefully we've gotten the word out and students are more educated about how it spreads and whether or not they are at risk."
Doctors are usually brought on the floor. Meningococcosis is caused by a form of meningitis, but it does not affect the brain and spinal cord like meningitis does. One in every 100,000 people acquire the infection. The
Doctors are unsure how Brogi contracted the infection.
infection commonly runs its course in a matter of days, or hours, as in Brogi's case.
Meningococcal infection is spread by close contact, such as kissing and sharing food, drinks, or utensils. Rock said. Sitting in the same class as someone with the infection or riding the same bus is no reason to worry. Rock said.
Many students have called about a meningitis vaccine, Waitley said.
"There has been some misinformation," Waitley said. "They think if they get the vaccine now they are immediately immune from it. The vaccine takes 10 to 14 days to build up antibodies. I think it would be a very good idea for students to consider it."
Meningitis
The vaccine consists of iust one shot.
Vaccine is available at Watkins for $59 for full-time students. Others must pay $69.
It takes 10-14 days for the antibodies to build up a resistance.
The vaccine is strongly recommended for college students because they live in large groups and often have close contact with many others.
idea for students to consider that. That way they would be protected in the future."
Full-time students can get vaccinations at Watkins for $59; others can get it for $69. It consists of one shot.
To make sure that people who had been in contact with Brogi do not develop the illness, his friends have been treated with Rifampin, the most commonly used medication to treat the infection, Rock said.
This medication is given in four doses of two 300-milligram tablets.
"The purpose of this is in case they came in contact with the infection, hopefully it would wipe it out." Rock said.
The overwhelming number of calls from concerned students and parents prompted Watkins to set up Waitley's voice mail specifically to answer calls she could not get to while talking to other students.
Watkins also gave basic meningitis information to KU Info to help the information center with the calls that came while Watkins was closed at night.
"We've had quite a few calls," said a member of the KU Info staff. "From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., we're telling them to call Watkins for more information. Otherwise, we have books here where we give out information on the symptoms and things like that. If it's anything remotely serious we tell them to go to the hospital. I think we've calmed quite a few fears."
Provost chips in for technology change
Funds allocated for equipment upgrades
By Mike Perryman Kansan staff writer
The $472,161, which was awarded yesterday by Provost David Shulenburger's office, came from a half-percent increase in students' tuition this year and the Provost Office's Instructional Technology fund, used to improve classroom technology. Thirty-nine requests for the funding totaling $648,931 were submitted Oct. 1 by College of Liberal Arts and Sciences departments, nine professional schools and the Regents Center.
Nineteen of 39 University of Kansas schools and departments will receive a total of more than $400,000 in instructional technology funding this semester.
Shulenburger emphasized the fact that the half-percent tuition increase was a one-time increase and that further technology funding probably would have to come from legislative funding.
Shulenburger decided that more funding was necessary, so the $346,000 from the half-percent tuition increase was augmented with $122,000 from the fund.
Assistant Provost Rich Givens said he felt that a minimum of half the submitted proposals deserved funding.
Among the 19 recipients of technology funding were the departments of communication studies, political science and psychology. They requested and received $17,630 to upgrade the Fraser computing lab, said Howard Sypher, professor of communication studies.
"The other 20 proposals had merit, and we would have liked to have funded them all," he said. "But we only had so much to distribute."
"There seemed to be a trend and a lot of desire for getting into using computers for classroom and laboratory work." he said.
Most of the technology requested consisted of computer upgrades, Givens said.
Sypher said the lab's computers needed to be converted into multimedia systems with memory upgrades, soundcards and CD-Rom capabilities so that students from different departments could use them for several purposes.
"We are excited because it will make it a much more useful facility for many students
and instructors," he said.
The biology department received a total of $63,419 in funding for basic laboratory needs.
"Six years ago, we only had 600 biology majors, and today we have about 1400," Stetler said. "We've had to use old microscopes from the '40s, '50s and '60s because the technology funding has not increased at the same rate as our student enrollment," he said.
Dean Stetler, director of undergraduate biology, said the department's requests centered around very basic needs.
The undergraduate computer lab in Snow Hall was the focus of the mathematics department's proposal.
The department proposed $82,391 and was awarded $20,000, said Charles Himmelberg, chairperson of the mathematics department.
"We cannot complain," he said. "This will only partially cover what we want to do, but we can certainly make improvements."
The department will only be able to replace one-third to half the computers it wanted to.
"Although the University was able to give some money for instructional technology improvements, it is evident that it needs more money than students probably are willing to accept in tuition increases," he said.
Nebraska storm freezes Internet
By Sarah McWilliams
mcwilliams@kansan.com
Kansan staff
backed up for hours and clogged the University's e-mail systems, Niebaum said.
Snowstorms that knocked out power in much of eastern Nebraska on Sunday also knocked out Internet connections at the University of Kansas and around the Midwest.
The University is connected to the Internet through phone service provided by a local phone company in Lincoln, Neb., said Jerry Niebaum, director of academic computing services at the University.
The power failure and consequent Internet failure started about 3 a.m. yesterday morning and was restored by 11:40 a.m. The failure left e-mail
He said the phone service, as well as much of Lincoln, Neb., was cut off by a power failure caused by snowstorms which blew through the state Sunday. Lincoln received between 10 and 12 inches of snow Sunday. The storms left thousands of homes and businesses without power.
"The campus e-mail service was hung up until the power came back on." Niebaum said. "We've not seen that before."
Carole Rich, associate professor of journalism, said she was worried about how she would teach her online journalism class yesterday if the Internet was still down. The power in Lincoln was restored by the time class started. Rich said.
"It makes you realize how dependent you are on technology and on computers." she said.
The University was not the only school affected by the power failure.
Tammy Tyler, secretary at the Academic Computer Center at Washburn University in Topeka, said the Internet went out at the same time yesterday morning but still was not up as of 5 p.m. yesterday.
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"It's a big disadvantage for students, teachers, for everyone," Tyler said.
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