Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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Sunny. . . continued warm and dry.
Kansan
Wednesday October 1, 1997 Section: A
Vol.108-No.30
Online today
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http://www.kansan.com/lounge.html
Sports today
The Kansas volleyball team will try for its first conference victory against in-state rival Kansas State at 7:30 tonight at Allen Field House.
SEE PAGE 1B
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GTAs OK contract; it moves to Regents
(USPS 650-640)
By Mike Perryman
Kansan staff writer
Graduate teaching assistants voted yesterday to ratify the firstever GTA contract achieved through collective bargaining at the University of Kansas.
Of about 180 GTAs eligible to vote, election officials expected a 50-percent turnout. GTAs needed 63 "yes" votes out of the 94 votes submitted to approve the contract. Seventy-six approving votes were received.
Richard Buck, head of the GTA negotiating committee, said contract approval was necessary to move on.
"Everyone put a lot of hard work into it, both the GTAs and the University," Buck said. "I'm ecstatic that the first step in the process is done."
After four years of union meetings and two years of negotiations
regarding the contract, GTA representatives said that they were pleased with the turnout but that it was time to take the next step.
"We are gratified by this vote and believe it signals a mutual trust between the parties," Chancellor Robert Hemenway said.
The next step involves the Kansas Board of Regents.
"I have every confidence that the Board of Regents will approve the contract," Provost David Shulenbur said.
Although the contract included important issues such as GTA wage increases and tuition waivers, most GTAs expressed that their main consideration was health care, said Mark Horowitz, organizer and president of GTAC.
Buck said the GTAs probably would get a pretty good health care deal in the contract.
"The approval of the contract is testament to many GTAs' trust that the administration will provide for them and establish a good working relationship." he said.
Angela Crow, English GTA, said it was important to vote because the University needed to see that the GTAs supported the union.
Scott Hendrix, head of the GTA membership committee, said it was time the University established a working relationship with the GTAs to stay competitive with other major universities that already supported GTAs.
"GTAs needed to establish better working conditions," said Helen Sheumaker, GTAC secretary. "But the effort was also put forth to strengthen the University. Taking this step was one of the keys to keeping the University a competitive, quality institution."
Michael Schmitt (right), a psychology graduate teaching assistant from Harrisburg, Va., and Matt Hayes, a GTA in American studies from Middlesbrough, England, vote on the newest contract proposal. Photo by Eric B. Howell. KANSAN
Two yellow jackets crawl on an apple core in a campus trash can. Yellow jackets have taken control of parts of the campus, swarming around trash cans and stisting students. Photo by Eric B. Howell/KANSAN
A walk to campus: beauty and the bees
By Tim Harrington tharrington@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Let me tell ya 'bout the birds and the bees.
Well, just the bees actually, but lots of the insects.
Bees are getting a bad reputation around campus — around Wescoe hall, around the residence halls, around the students and more than anywhere else, around the garbage.
But the insects not bees. They are yellow jackets — same biological order, hyenoptera, but different family.
"I've been stung twice today," Rayton said. "It's been bad like this for about three weeks now."
To Clarence Rayton and James Reed, facilities operations workers, it is nothing but semantics.
Reed had not been stung yet yes-
terdav. but he had been bullied.
Rayton and Reed empty the garbage cans on Wesco Beach in the morning and then pick up litter there in the afternoon.
"We didn't even try to get those pop cans over there." Rayton said, while pointing to a small cluster of black-and-yellow bandits swarming around a pair of Coke cans. "After two stings, it's just not worth it."
Rayton said they emptied the trash in the morning because the yellow jackets did not swarm as much then. But at noon, when Wescoe draws its biggest crowd, the scene is reminiscent of a low-budget horror movie about nature taking its revenge upon mankind.
She was inside the classroom."
"It is really bad," said Sarah Blahut, Overland Park sophomore. "My roommate got stung behind her ear in her Western Civ. class."
Charles Michener, a retired KU professor of entomology whose specialty is honeybees, said it was important to distinguish between bees and yellow jackets.
"One of my students couldn't turn in her work because she said she got stung," Catila said. "She got stung on her writing hand. I accepted it as an excuse."
Michener said that aside from being blamed for the poor manners of the yellow jackets on campus, honeybees were busy worrying about survival.
Ann Catila, Lawrence graduate teaching assistant, said the aerial pests had affected at least one of her student's class work.
Michener said the yellow jackets swarmed toward garbage and beverage containers to ingest sugar for energy.
"I think that the number of bees on campus this year is way down because of bee mites that are killing them off," Michener said.
Professional bee keepers use thick smoke to pacify bees. Could smoking cigarettes help somebody avoid being stung by yellow jackets?
He said yellow jackets could sting repeatedly, unlike honeybees. To avoid being stung, Michener said people should not act aggressively toward the yellow jackets.
Maybe the best way to keep from crossing paths with disgruntled yellow jackets is to not bother the insects, a tactic that Doug Patterson, Marion, Ind., graduate teaching assistant, has found effective.
"Not as far as I know," Michener said. "I don't think that kind of smoke affects them."
"If you don't try to sting them, they won't try to sting you," he said.
Wescoe Hall loses its cool
Broken air-conditioning system also affects Stauffer-Flint, Malott halls
By Daniel E. Thompson
dthompson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
It is going to be a warm one today at the University of Kansas. In three halls, however, it will be hellishly hot.
Wescoe, Stauffer-Flint and Malott halls are without air conditioning today. If everything goes as planned, the cooling system will be back on sometime tomorrow. Yesterday, doors were opened and fans hummed through the halls in an effort to bring in cooler air.
A motor in the chiller building south of Stauffer-Flint shut down at 3:30 p.m. Monday because of a failed ball bearing, said Bob Porter, associate director for physical plant maintenance.
The chiller building cools the three halls by cooling water, which the motor pumps underground to those buildings.
"Animals and instruments come way ahead of people." Porter said.
Porter said the motor still was under warranty.
The faulty 1,500-pound motor was removed and loaded onto a truck by Huxtable and Associates Inc., the contractor for the University's air conditioning.
David Hodges, a Huxtable technician, was one of six men helping load the motor onto a flatbed truck.
He said the motor would be fixed by a motor-repair shop in Johnson County.
"We're going to try to put it back in on Thursday,"Hodges said.
"This is the second time it has gone out since they put it in a year ago." he said.
The new motor had a sticker stuck to the side with "13 Feb 97" printed on it.
It is the second motor in a year. Shawn Smith, Huxtable technician, said the first motor had a cracked housing inside and was replaced.
Smith blamed the two breakdowns on nothing more than bad luck.
Family, friends gather today in Ulysses for student's funeral
By Mary Corcoran
mccororan@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Memorial services for Angie Griffin, Ulysses freshman, who died Friday in her room in Ellsworth Hall, will be conducted at 2 p.m. today at the Patterson Avenue Church of God in Ulysses.
Griffin was found dead Friday in her 10th floor residence hall room by her roommate and her roommate's parents. Douglas County coroner Erik Mitchell performed an autopsy the same day but has not released the results.
said yesterday that the coroner's office had told him his daughter might have died from an allergic reaction to medicine, a bacterium taking advantage of her weakened condition or an irregular heartbeat.
Wayne Griffin said his daughter always had been an active person, participating in a range of sports from basketball in eighth grade to rowing at the University.
Griffin's father, Wayne Griffin, said she had been sick with mononucleosis. He
The cause of death will be determined by lab tests, which should be back in six to eight weeks, Wayne Griffin said.
"I took her to the KU freshman orientation in June, and she saw the rowing team practicing," he said. "She wanted to do it. She was working pretty much fulltime to prepare."
Assistant Kansas rowing coaches Heather Galvin and Maggie Romens and many of Griffin's KU friends, will make the six-hour drive to southwest Kansas for the funeral.
Rob Catloth, Kansas rowing head coach,
said Galvin and Romens were attending
the funeral because Griffin had worked
with them on the freshman team.
"They started spending a lot of time with each other, at least two hours a day. It had started to form many relationships," Catloth said.
Catloth said the freshman team had been cut to about 40 women, and the prosec-
tive rowers had become good friends.
"Everybody was affected in some way," he said. "A few of the women that knew her in high school were very upset, but the whole team felt the loss."
KU counseling services will hold a counseling session in Ellsworth Hall this evening for the students unable to attend the funeral.
Kitchen telephoned Griffin's parents Friday to tell them of their daughter's death.
"The meeting will let them talk about how they feel. It will let them grieve but will also provide them with a chance to look on a more positive side," said James Kitchen, dean of student life.
"Somebody had to do it. It's not easy. I've had to do it more than once, and it doesn't get any easier." Kitchen said. "Your heart and sympathy has to go out to the family at a time like this."
The University had offered to fly the Griffins to Lawrence from Ulysses in the University's new jet. The Griffins declined, however, because Wayne Griffin does not feel comfortable riding in small planes.
Tom Hutton, director of University Relations, said the University also had offered the Sunflower House as a free place to stay while the Griffins were in Lawrence. The Griffins decided to stay in a hotel instead because hotel rooms were available.