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Tuesday August 26,1997 Section:
Online today
Check out the redesigned website of the "University Daily Kansan."
Section:
Sports today
Vol.104-No.5
http://www.kansan.com
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Kansas football coach Terry Allen holds his final press conference before the team opens the season Thursday night at home.
SEE PAGE 1B
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Stray golf balls invade stadium
(USPS 650-640)
Police investigating practice interruptions
Mary Corcoran
Kansan staff writer
KU police are investigating why Memorial Stadium looked like a driving range instead of a football field last week
On Wednesday, three windows in the press box of the stadium were broken when members of Delta Tau Delta fraternity allegedly hit golf balls from the roof of their house toward the football field, said KU Police Set, Chris Keary.
The east side of the fraternity building,
at 1111 W. 11th St., faces the stadium.
The balls reportedly came from that direction, entered the stadium, broke windows, interrupted practice and almost hit a KU football player, police said.
KU police contacted the fraternity and the athletic department about the incident. A meeting will be scheduled between both parties, police said.
Athletic department officials voiced concerns about the safety of people in the stadium.
"It really disturbed us last week when a ball came sailing out of the stands and could have hit a player," said Darren Cook, director of facilities for the athletic department.
Cook said the stadium had a history of broken windows from drives coming from the direction of Delta Tau Delta.
"It's been an ongoing problem," he said. "Last week I found two balls in the field. Our main concern is that someone is going to get hurt. I don't think they realize the harm involved."
Cook said the problem existed before he came to the University of Kansas in 1981. During the years, the projectiles have ranged from water balloons to golf balls, he said.
"One time a person was walking through a press box hallway and a water
So far, Cook said, nobody has been injured by a flying object, but there have been close calls.
balloon came in, hit a window and shattered the glass. It missed him by just a few seconds." Cook said.
Delta Tau Delta representatives said they were still investigating whether any of their members had hit the balls toward the stadium.
"If we find out that it was one of our members, we will talk to the athletic director to figure out what they want to do," said Chris Perry, Delta Tau Delta treasurer and Overland Park senior.
Cook said he did not want to prosecute the fraternity because new students join each year and do not realize where the golf balls land.
"What I'd like to see is for Delta Tau Delta to pay for the damage," Cook said.
Andrew Rohrback / KANSAN
Recycling bins for plastic Coke bottles will pop up at KU
Storage space concerns University officials
By Matthew Friedrichs Kansan staff writer
Now that the initial Coke invasion is over, prepare for a wave of mutant green Sprite bottles.
Recycling bins made out of recycled plastic bottles have been ordered, said Tom Hutton, director of University Relations. The green bins look like a big Sprite bottle, he said.
One set of bins will hold plastic bottles, while another will be for glass and aluminum containers, Hutton said.
There is a Klinkenberg, University Director of Administration, said the bins could be delivered to the University as early as next week.
Issues yet to be resolved for beverage con-
"There is no space for storage for recycling materials right now," said Mike Richardson, director of facilities and operations.
The University has not yet decided how the materials will be handled, Klinkenberg said.
If KU administrators choose to sell used containers directly to recycling processors, KU must be able to store about 40,000 pounds, or a semi-trailer load of each material in order to be prepared for the recycling market, Silva said.
stored, or hauled, Silva said.
Of course, students must also correctly use the recycling bins.
"I'm very concerned with the litter issue," Richardson said.
"If we have a million and a half bottles sitting aroundit won't be long before we have a less than beautiful campus."
In addition to considering bin placements, the University must now adapt to a comprehensive recycling program.
Klinkenberg said bin placement also was a key issue. Bins and vending machines must be in compliance with fire codes.
"Recycling is far more complicated than putting a bin next to a machine," said Victoria Silva, environmental specialist in the department of Environment, Health and Safety at the University.
tainer recycling include transportation and storage of used containers and student usage.
Richardson said that recycling plastic bottles has been a problem on other campuses.
Mike Richardson
Richardson facilities and operations director
The University of Missouri, which also has an exclusive soft drink agreement with Coca Cola, has not faced recycling issues, said Phil Shocklee. assistant director for campus facilities at Missouri.
Used containers must either be
A beverage container ordinance in the city of Columbia requires a five cent deposit be paid on all beverage containers.
As a result, most containers on Missouri's campus are recycled, Shocklee said.
"We do not have, nor is there a need for a beverage can recycling program," Shocklee said.
But without deposit incentives, students in Lawrence just might pitch their empty beverage containers.
"If we have a million and a half bottles sitting around, it won't be long before we have a less than beautiful campus," Richardson said.
Plastic soda bottles stack up in this trash can and others around campus. Although Coca-Cola has agreed to give recycling bins to the University, there are not且e. Photo by Steve Paupe (KANSAN)
Coca-Cola leaves its mark: Plastic recycling inadequate
By Daniel Ethan Thompson
Environmental impact on campus questioned
Kansan staff writer
Tossing 85 cents into a Coke machine leaves two post-consumption choices for the bottle: take it to Wal-Mart or toss it in the trash.
Although Coca-Cola has agreed to give recycling bins to the University of Kansas, no one is sure whether they are willing to help start a recycling program for the bottles. KU environmentalists are sure, however, that the University will suffer both environmentally and economically by attempting to recycle the plastic bottles.
For now, there is no place on campus to recycle it.
"I thought aluminum was the cheapest thing around," said Matt Caldwell, Overland Park senior and KU Enviros president. He said the plastic bottles would
have to be shipped miles and there wasn't much of a market for them.
"I think it's really upsetting that the University allowed Coke to put all these plastic bottles on campus," Caldwell said. "No wonder they went through with it in the summer."
Kevin Yoder, Hutchinson senior, is also disappointed. Yoder was the Student Environmental Awareness Board chairman last year and wrote a resolution to counteract soft drink companies from switching vending machines from aluminum cans to bottles made of a type of plastic known as virgin "PETE" resin.
The resolution was passed but ignored after the administration agreed to the deal with Coca-Cola.
Yoder said there were several reasons to stick with the aluminum cans. Money that comes into the recycling program at KU is generated by the revenue of selling back aluminium cans.
Course guide
See Plastic on page 7A
Several years ago, Student Senate published a compiled list of evaluations of courses and instructors. Students were asked, on a scale of one to five, how accurately these and other statements described their professor.
Dealt reasonably with students
Observed skillfully student reactions
Encouraged students to ask questions
Was authoritarian
Andrew Rohrback / KANSAN
By Tim Harrington
By Tim Harrington
Kansan staff writer
History of faculty evaluation debate rooted in 1970's course guidebook
Faculty evaluations: Some people in the KU community want them to be released. Some people don't. It may be something for a group of lawyers to decide, anyway.
There is, however, a history to the issue. It goes back to the early 1970s, and it may shed some light on who wins, who loses, how faculty evaluation guides can be done, and why they failed in the past.
On August 26, 1971, a book called "Feedback: A Guide to K.U. Courses" was published for the first time. It contained data compiled from an extensive student survey regarding the overall performance of KU instructors.
The 99-question survey, distributed five different times before publishing to test for accuracy, asked students to grade their instructors on four different levels: Quality of instruction, student-teacher interaction, career and practical orientation of material and relevance and usefulness of class texts
The data was then compiled and published in "Feedback," which lasted nine years.
The response "Feedback" generated is difficult to gauge, and the book undoubtedly had its problems.
In early-70s editions of the "University Daily Kansan," the editorial writers and letters to the editor sharply criticized the program for being too costly. "Feedback" had a $30,000-aye price tag which was picked up entirely by Student Senate.
Also, some people doubted "Feedback's" validity because they saw a lack of instructor participation.
For example, no instructor was forced to distribute "Feedback" evaluation forms to students. Further, instructors could withhold the results from publication if they didn't like what they saw.
Even though instructor participation was voluntary, the first edition of "Feedback" was 86 pages long and covered almost 650 courses, about one-third of the total number of courses offered at KU at that time.
Scott Sullivan, this year's student body president, has made access to faculty evaluations one of his primary causes, but he is not looking to resurrect "Feedback."
He said he considered "feedback" to be fundamentally flawed because of the program's high price and voluntary nature.
"Feedback' really isn't like what we're proposing at all," Sullivan said. "We want to use the statistical data that's already gathered by the University. It would be much less expensive and much less labor-intensive."
In addition to its structural and financial problems, some people
See Faculty on page 7A