Section A·Page 3
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, December 7, 1998
Student's car burnt in fire; cause still unknown
Burning rubber smell alerted man's neighbor
A Ford Escort in the 1300 block of Ohio Street caught on fire Friday morning. The police still do not know the cause of the fire. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN RIGHT. Andrew Loos, Shawne senior, shows the damage to his car. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
By Steph Brewer and Keith Burner
Kansas staff writers
Early Friday morning, a University of Kansas student returned from a night out to find fire trucks and police cars in front of his house. Someone's car was on fire.
"I asked what kind of car it was, and he said '88 Ford Escort, and that's when my stomach dropped," said Andrew Loos. Shawnee senior.
Police responded to a call about the fire in the 1300 block of Ohio Street at 1:37 a.m. Friday, said Lawrence police Sgt. George Wheeler.
The car was parked unlocked, Wheeler said. Investigators are studying the cause of the fire.
"It might have been a cigarette butt," he said. "It was so burned up by the time they got there, they couldn't discover the cause."
Ryan Grace, Loos' neighbor, said he was working on his computer when he smelled burning rubber.
"The odor kept getting stronger and stronger," Grace, Muskogee senior, said. "I went outside and saw this car burning up."
Loos said he didn't know why anyone would set his car on fire.
"It might have been a sick prank," he said. "I don't have bad blood with anyone in town."
He said that because The Hawk.
1340 Ohio St., was across the street, there was constant activity.
Someone broke into Loos' car a couple of weeks ago and stole his backpack, but he said he didn't report it to the police.
Grace said that there were often problems with cars being broken into and beer bottles being thrown in the neighborhood.
Loos said he wasn't too upset about his car because it was only worth about $1,000. Still, Loos said
he took many trips with the car, and the car had been by his side for four years.
"It's been a reliable car, and now it looks like a bomb hit it." he said.
Because his car had high mileage, Loos only had liability insurance, which means his insurance company will not pay for the damage.
"I'm going to be on foot for a while," he said.
Loas said he would probably buy a new car next summer.
Complaints spark requirement to manually renew dial-in e-mail
By Chad Bettes
Kansan staff writer
Students and faculty who previously relied on automatic renewal of their computer dial-in accounts for access to the University of Kansas network received notices last week that they need to renew their accounts manually for next semester.
Wes Hubert, associate director of academic computing services, said the decision to end automatic renewal was made because some people complained that they were billed for continued service when they did not want it.
He said those people did not realize they had signed up for automatic renewal.
"They got bills for service, and they were surprised," Hubert said.
The accounting department then had to take time to cancel service and reverse charges to accounts.
The manual renewal process is
quite easy, said Lindsay Michalck, Tulsa, Okla., junior. She said she received an e-mail last week notifying her of the process.
"I just clicked on the Internet address, and it took two seconds to renew," Michalcik said.
Students and faculty can access www.cc.ukans.edu/account.htm on the Internet for renewal. To
renew, account holders need to know their current account names and passwords.
Hubert said account holders who wanted to renew should do so by Jan. 31. On
accounts will be removed from the computer system, Hubert said. Then, a new account would have to be created for someone who wanted to renew. There is no guarantee people would get to select the same user names they had used before.
Hubert said many of the system's 8,000-plus users had already
"Ijust clicked on the Internet address, and it took two seconds to renew."
Feb. 1, accounts that have not been renewed will be deactivated. There will be a one-week grace period in which account names will be reserved, although the account holder will not have dial-in access.
On Feb. 8, non-renewed
Lindsay Michalcik
Tulsa. Okla.. junior
renewed
t he i r
accounts
manually.
resources from places like home. For instance, the KU Libraries allow access to research databases.
Dial - i n acc ount s allow people to use some of the University's comp uter
This is convenient because users are not restricted by hours of operation at the libraries or by waiting times for terminal use on
DIAL-IN ACCOUNTS
- Computer dial-in accounts will no longer be automatically renewed
- E-mail accounts are not affected
Any account holder who wants to
ensure just move manually.
Any account holder who wants to renew must do so manually at http://www.cc.ukans.edu/account.htm
The deadline is Jan. 31 for uninterrupted access
campus.
Michalcik said she used her dial-in account nearly every day for checking her e-mail, conducting research or using the Internet.
In the spring of 1998, about 110,000 hours were logged by dial-in account users.
The first 50 hours of access per month on each account are included in the $35 dial-in fee. The fee pays for six months of access. Additional usage over 50 hours costs 50 cents an hour, but computing services does not bill for the first 20 hours above the limit.
A striking effort
After picking up a spare, Dede Preno, Prairie Village sophomore, is congratulated by Parker McConachie, Wichita sophomore. The two were participating in a bowl-a-thon to benefit "The House that Greeks Built" program, which is an effort to raise $40,000 for Habitat for Humanity. Preno was the only participant to stay at Jaybowl for the full 24 hours from 11 a.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday. Photo by Jay Sheperd/Kansan
Classes ending semester with student evaluations of professors
By Carolyn Mollett
Kansan staff writer
Instructors have spent the semester evaluating and grading students' performances, and now students will return the favor.
With the semester winding down, students have the opportunity to evaluate their courses and instructors.
"The first thing I think is, 'Oh my God, we have to do that"
Jennifer Dziuvenis, Olathe sophomore, said she was weary of filling out evaluations in every class.
again," Dziuvenis said.
She said that it was important that instructors receive student feedback but that she wasn't sure the evaluations were effective.
Allan Cigler, professor of political science, said it bothered him that evaluations were the sole means of evaluating an instructor in some people's minds.
Dziuvenis said that she usually gave only positive feedback and that she was not honest on her evaluations because she felt bad being critical.
"Because it's quantifiable, it's easy to point to." Cigler said.
Jeannette Johnson, assistant to the provost, said every school had specific rules regarding the procedure followed to administer evaluations. For example, instructors are not allowed to be
He also said the evaluations were flawed because their questions failed to consider the differences among instructors.
in the instrument, 'Cigler said. Every course at the University must be evaluated by students, according to the Handbook for Faculty and other Unclassified Staff.
"There's not enough variation in the instrument." Cigler said.
present while students are completing evaluations.
She said the Office of the Provost had reviewed and approved all of those procedures and had them on file.
Melissa Fast, assistant director of Testing Services, said that about 20 University departments used the Curriculum Instruction Survey. She said that about 10 departments devised their own evaluations, which the Office of the Provost must approve.
Testing Services scans the Curriculum Instruction Surveys and provides each instructor with a
summary of their students' feedback, Fast said. Instructors receive a mean score, a standard deviation and a department-wide mean to compare their evaluations with other instructors'.
Doug Denney, professor of psychology, said his department had tracked the evaluations of every course since 1993.
"We've built quite a little database." Dennev said.
For every undergraduate psychology class with 20 students or more, there are scores that judge each instructor's competence their effectiveness in communicating the information - and each instructor's fairness and availability to students, Denney said.
He said the department converted the scores to standard scores based on a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. This enables the faculty to compare themselves with their colleagues, Denney said.
He said that although this information was not available to students, it was considered by the committee within the department that deals with promotion, tenure and merit.
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