Tomorrow's weather
X
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 66601-3585
---
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Tuesday
October 7, 1997
Section:
A
Vol. 108 - No. 34
Cool air with cloudy skies
Students and residents relax by flying radio controlled planes at club's fly-in on Saturday.
Inside today
SEE PAGE 5A
Sports today
Three Kuk Sool Won club athletes place at world championships this weekend in Houston.
SEE PAGE 10A
Contact the Kansan
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
News: (785) 864-4810
Advertising: (785) 864-4358
Fax: (785) 864-5261
Opinion e-mail: opinion@kansan.com
Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com
Advertising e-mail: onlineads@kansan.com
(USPS 650-640)
elevating ACCESS TO ALLEN
By Mike Perryman
Kansan staff writer
After nearly 50 years of sweating out the stairs at Allen Field House, fans and workers will have access to an elevator for the 1998-99 basketball season.
the south side of the field house to hold the elevator and new restroom facilities.The elevator will make the upper
levels of the building more accessible not only to disabled or debilitated individuals, but also to concessions and maintenance workers who often have to carry heavy materials and equipment up the flights of stairs, said Patrick Warren, assistant athletic director of intercollegiate athletics.
"One of our major concerns has always been taking care of disabled season ticket holders," Warren said. "But the elevator is an effort to create an accessible route for all fans to the second and third floors."
The tower, which is scheduled to be completed in November of 1998, will house a 3,000-pound, hospital-size elevator that will hold 15-20 persons comfortably, said Warren Corman, University Architect. C i n d y McNicoll.
Lawrence resident and KU basketball fan, said her mother had a difficult time walking up the field house stairs because of heart problems.
McNicol said it was time that the University of Kansas took some steps to make the upper levels of the field house more accessible.
"They're putting the elevator in to accommodate their own needs," she said. "It just happens to be convenient that disabled individuals will be positively affected by it."
Allen Field House is way behind the rest of the University in its efforts to accommodate disabled persons. McNicoll said.
Handicapped accessibility is a major concern, but accessibility for maintenance and concession workers is also a large consideration. Corman said.
Graphics by Andrew Rohrback MMSAN
Week of visibility celebrates gays
Queers and Allies sponsors activities
By Ryan Koerner
rkoerner@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Clean off the glasses, the windshields and the contacts. Oct. 6 to Oct. 10 is the week of visibility.
KU Queers and Allies has begun celebrating October as National Queer History Month by designating this week as the week of visibility. The events of the week will culminate with National Coming Out Day on Saturday.
Visibility week began yesterday with "Wear Blue Jeans if You're Gav" dav.
Queers and Allies chose that theme yesterday to catch people off guard, said Rob MacRae-McKie. Queers and Allies office supervisor.
"Yes, we were being deliberately sneaky," he said. "One reason for the day is to point out the lengths to which certain people will go in order not to be perceived as queer. As if anything was wrong with that."
C'mon out, y'all
Week of visibility
■ Wednesday; "Queer T-Shirt" Day
- Monday: "Wear Blue Jeans if You're Gay" Day
- Tuesday: Wear a necktie for "Homophobia Ties Us Down" Day
Thursday: Wear black clothes or a black arm
band in memory of gay bashing victims.
Friday, "Ocean Girl"
Friday: "Queer Gear" Day
Out Shopping" at noon at the South Park gazebo.
Saturday: National Coming Out Day: "Come
The theme today is "Homophobia Ties Us Down." Members of Queers and Allies encouraged students to wear a neck tie as a symbol of this theme.
"There are a lot of queers who feel that they are being pressed by homophobia," said Corrina Beck, Kansas City, Mo., junior and Queens and Allies member. "This is a way for them to show how they feel."
Wednesday and Thursday, Queers and Allies
See WEEKLONG on page 7A
By Tim Harrington tharrington@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
GTA health care plan may exclude partners
Having voted last week to accept a contract offered by the University of Kansas, graduate teaching assistants are now legally bound to adopt the health insurance plan soon to be provided by the University.
However, there is concern that domestic partners will be left out of the GTAs' insurance plan.
Domestic partners are couples who live together but are not married.
Christine Robinson, a GTA in the department of sociology and a member of Gay and Lesbian Academic and Staff Advocates, said that nothing was certain about domestic-partner coverage for GTAs.
Last week Robinson voiced her concern to
Robinson said her biggest fear was that GTAs would be made to use the same policy that faculty and staff use, a policy which does not carry provisions for domestic partners.
Student Senate, which she said responded with the kind of support she was honoring for.
"Student Senate has been a great ally with this," Robinson said. "I took the issue before the Student Senate and got an immediate response."
Scott Sullivan, student body president, said that he understood the GTAs' concern and that Senate was in favor of a health care initiative involving provisions for domestic partners.
"Given the traditionally conservative ideological composition of the Regents and the Health Care Commission, I do think that it's a possibility it would be left out." Sullivan said. Dan Stanley, state health care commissioner, said that the plan was still in its infant stages.
“There been no thought to the internals or construct of the plan as of yet,” Stanly said. “Whether these policies will include family members or domestic partners will most likely be up to the individual employer.”
In this case the individual employer is the University.
Revue limits spending, skit length
Changes designed to level competition
By Sarah McWilliams
smcwilliams@kansan.com
Kansas staff write
Kansan staff writer
Rock Chalk Revue advisory board members announced last week that the 14 living groups that will audition for the spring variety show will not be allowed to spend more than $600 on demonstration tapes for the show, said John Laing, promotions coordinator for the board.
Less money, less time. Those are two planning changes in this year's Rock Chalk Revue.
The change was an attempt to level the playing field for groups that would not or could not spend as much money to audition, said Kyle Evans, executive director of the advisory board.
The demonstration tapes include background music and lyrics for the groups' skits.
The revue raises money for the United Way of Douglas County.
create a tape in a studio, Evans said.
This year, he said, only the five groups selected for the show can spend more than $600 on their final tapes. Those groups will be selected after auditions end later this semester.
"These groups would spend so much money, and they didn't even know if they were going to get in," Evans said.
Besides the cut in money, the board also plans to shorten the show's length. Evans said.
He said the five skits in the show will be limited to 23 minutes because the show had been going too long.
In previous years, some groups had spent as much as $1,800 just to
In previous years, when the revue was performed in Hoch Auditorium and later in Lawrence High School, the in-between acts were important because scene changes took a long time. Laing said.
The board will also eliminate the small variety acts that used to be performed in between the show's main variety acts.
"People don't want to go and sit for three hours." he said.
But now that the revue is in the Lied Center, more space and
Rock Chalk
The 14 group auditioning in Rock Chalk Reve will not be allowed to
spend more than $600 per group on their demo tapes.
Skits in the spring revue can't run longer than 23 minutes.
Acts in between skits will be eliminated because scene changes won't take as long as in previous years.
improved technology backstage allow quick scene changes, so the acts aren't necessary. Laing said.
Mariah Ness, Carmel, N.Y., senior is one representative of the scholarship halls auditioning in the show. She said the scholarship hall residents were pleased by the changes.
"The All-Scholarship Hall Council is on a small budget, so it's a great opportunity to save money and not to panic about the demo tape," Ness said.
Aimee Mitchell, Ballwin, Mo., junior and representative of Delta Gamma sorority, said the funding change was a good one because it allowed groups to channel more money into the United Way.
"I don't think it will diminish the quality of the show in any way," Mitchell said.
Student design showcased on 1998 spring timetables
By Carrie Moore
The spring timetable of classes is now available at the Kansas and Burge Union bookstores, and for the first time, it displays a KU student's cover design.
Last spring, the Office of the University Registrar, which produces the timetables, and Student Union Activities co-sponsored a student competition to design the cover of the timetable. In the past, University Relations had designed the cover.
cmoore@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Andrew Rohrback, Andover junior, won the competition last semester. His design is displayed on the new timetable, and he was awarded $100 from SUA.
The competition, which will be held again this spring, is open to any student who is enrolled at the University of Kansas. Students who enter the competition submit three designs, one for the fall, spring and summer issues.
He said that he entered the competition for the challenge but that receiving the money did not hurt, either.
Applications for next year's competition will be available at SUA sometime in early November, but the designs do not have to be submitted until April 3.
"It was a lot of fun," he said. "I liked designing it."
Brenda Selman, associate registrar, said that the registrar's office had wanted to do the student competition for a long time.
"We thought it'd be nice to show off their work," she said.
The Office of the University Registrar distributed 32,500 copies of the 1998 spring timetable.
The timetables cost 28 cents per copy to print, and the price does not include the staff time.
The registrar's office begins working on timetables about a year in advance.
40
"We are already working on the preliminary work for the fall of '98." Selman said.
---