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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, August 18, 1997
Death count during break stuns campus
Dean says students' activities increased campus awareness
By Mary Corcoran
Kansan staff writer
Overland Park senior James Park's car drifted into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a 15-passenger van. Memphis, Tenn., senior LaTina Sullivan suffered a severe asthma attack in the parking lot of Meadowbrook apartments. Prairie Village junior Daniel Hamman was overcome by smoke from a fire that started in his Lawrence kitchen.
LaTina Sullivan
An unusually high number of KU students died this summer, according to University of Kansas officials. Although he did not have figures from previous summers and the University does not keep an official death count. James
Kitchen, dean of student life, said that more students died this summer than in the previous three summers he has worked at the University.
"We've had three prospective students and two or three students die this year," Kitchen said. "It's quite alarming. We were all wondering when it was going to end."
However, he said, the University, with a student and faculty population of more than 30,000, is like any other community or town where deaths occur on a regular basis.
Tom Hutton, director of University Relations, agreed.
Kitchen also said that the number of deaths in the student community this summer was comparable to death rates at other universities in the United States.
"Other campuses over the country experience the same tragedies," he said. "I know that the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has had a large number of students die this year."
The fact that many of the students who died this summer were well-recognized and involved with University activities made the impact of the deaths more widespread, Kitchen said.
For example, Park was house manager and treasurer of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. Sullivan was, among other things, editor of "The University Daily Kansan", a participant in the McNair Scholars program and a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
Kitchen also said that extensive media coverage seemed to prolong the issues.
The University provides many counseling services for students who have lost loved ones or friends and are trying to get through the grieving process. Contact Watkins Memorial Health Center at 864-9500 for more information.
Kansan Classifieds Get the Results You want
Bag sisters
Dave Morantz / KANSAN
Renee Plumlee, left, Cupertino, Calif., senior; Emily Smith, center, Lenexa senior; and Karii Pigg, Topeka senior, hold rusheks' purses while waiting for them to exit the Pi Betaphi sorority. Rusheeks left their members with the active sorority members yesterday so therushecks could 'talk with members of the house without being burdened.
CLAS braces for increased new-student enrollment
Summer enrollment patterns
By Jennifer A. Yeoman Kansan staff writer
Increasing enrollment of firsttime students and transfer students at the University of Kansas has not taken the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by surprise.
"We have worked closely with all the sectors to ensure that classes would be open for the incoming students," Frost-
Angle Kuhn / KANSAN
More than 4,500 first-time and transfer students enrolled during the summer. That number is up from last year's 4,481, and it has risen steadily since 1994.
Source: Erin Spiridigliozzi
"We were expecting the increase," said Sally Frost-Mason, dean of the college, in to which freshmen are automatically enrolled. "We have been closely monitoring admissions, so we knew to expect more students this fall."
In order to provide enough class openings for the new students, the college added extra sections of popular courses, such as English 101 and Math 101. The college also increased the number of students allowed to enroll in each section by one or two.
Mason said.
The increase could cause problems for upperclassmen who want to add freshman-level courses, Frost-Mason said. However, administrators hope the new linear tuition system, which charges students by the credit hour, will decrease the number of students adding and dropping classes this fall.
Pam Houston, director of CLAS Undergraduate Services, said that she thought fewer students were class-shopping, or signing up for extra courses knowing they will drop one in the fall, because of the cost of tuition.
Houston said that she expected the growth in firsttime and transfer students to continue as more and more students graduate from Kansas high schools each year.
"In the past, students would sign up for 18 hours in the spring," Houston said. "And then in the fall they would attend the classes and drop the one they liked the least."
The number of honors students at the University also increased. In the past two years, there has been a 42 percent increase in enrollment in the honors program, according to Barbara Schowen, director of the University Honors Program. The number of incoming freshmen in the Honors Program increased from 309 last fall to 375 this fall, she said.
The Honors Program also added courses for this semester.
"We planned ahead, but I don't know if we ever thought we'd have this many students," Schowen said.
College welcomes a number of new faculty this term
Twelve different departments welcome 23 new instructors
By Jennifer A. Yeoman Kansan staff writer
There are a few new faces around the College of Liberal Arts and Science this fall. The college has hired 23 new faculty members in 12 different departments to serve as assistant and associate professors.
Of the new faculty members, half were women and a third were minorities, said Sally Frost-Mason, dean of the college.
"I think that our hiring pattern speaks very highly about our college," she said.
The search for new faculty members begins in the fall when departments petition for new faculty members to help with new courses and increased enrollment, or to replace faculty members who have left.
Erin Spiridigliozzi, assistant dean of the college, said departments conduct their own searches after they have been given approval to hire new faculty. To avoid favoritism, departments usually don't hire KU graduates, she said.
But there are a few exceptions. For example, John Tibbettis, the 1982 KU graduate, accepted an assistant professorship in the department of theatre and film. Tibbettis has been teaching at the University since he graduated.
The other 22 new faculty members come from universities across the country.
Kathryn Conrad, assistant professor of English, came from the University of Pennsylvania.
"I'm excited to be here," Conrad said. "It's exciting to be able to work with a whole new group of students. The students at KU seem to have a lot of energy."
Most of the new faculty members are young, Frost-Mason said. However, the College also is searching for several senior-level positions which it hopes to fill between January and next fall.
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