Tomorrow's weather
Cold and cloudy with a chance for scattered showers.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
ansan Election day
Online today
Going home for the Holidays? Here is a way to find inexpensive travel rates for many different forms of transport.
http://www.espedia.com
Sports today
Guard Ryan Robertson will be the court leader for the men's basketball team both as a senior and as the player who brings the ball up the court.
SEE PAGE 1B
Tuesday
November 3, 1998
Section:
A
Vol. 109 · No. 52
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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"My vision of KU is that of a great university. To be a great university ... KU must fulfill its statewide missions in all its service responsibilities, from the Geological Survey to Continuing Education. We have a special statewide responsibility for the health and well-being of the people of Kansas. We have the only medical school in the State, and the only academic health center in the state. We serve not only Wichita and Kansas City, where our medical school is located, but the entire state through our outreach in nursing, allied health and rural medicine. This is KU's special mission, and we must help Kansas recreate its health-care delivery system. Especially, we must do everything in our power to insure that the 375,000 patient visits per year to our medical center and to our rural clinics meet a standard for patient care which cannot be challenged. We must be patient-friendly and patient oriented in
Improving the University
Chancellor Robert
University tries to focus on statewide community
Chancellor Robert Hemenway
1995 Faculty Convocation address
By Sue Franko
Kansan staff writer
In Chancellor Robert Hemenway's 1995 Faculty Convocation speech, he charged the University of Kansas with a tall order — serving people in every Kansas community.
So far, because of the University's individual efforts at its many campuses, the University's service to communities has been disjointed. Until last April, a formal definition of service as a unifying principle did not exist.
oping a philosophy of service for the University and a plan to implement it.
In 1997, in response to the lack of coordination of service efforts between campuses, Hemenway formed an "Initiative 2001 Task Force II; Serve Kansans." The task "force was charged with devel-
Don Steeple, distinguished professor of geophysics, was asked to co-chair the task force, with Joseph Meek, dean of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita. The task force defined service, in part, as active outreach that meets the needs of diverse constituencies within the state with emphasis on under-served communities and disadvantaged populations.
Steeples said the University's performance was good, but the University needed to do a better job publicizing and informing people about what it does.
One option is a plan to create a University of Kansas Center for Public Service. Hemenway said establishing the center was one of the
"The amount of service that goes on is absolutely staggering, but people on campus don't know it, and people out in Garden City don't know it," Steeples said. "It's an educational and public relations issue."
"We also need to take advantage of existing services and ask the University Relations department to work even harder to get the word out on what we do," he said.
task force's recommendations and a spinoff committee had been formed to look into creating a center.
Ken Davis is chairman of the KU Health Outreach Program, which was created to coordinate all the health care outreach efforts in the state.
Educational outreach includes the Primary Care Program in cities such as Hays, Garden City and Pittsburg, in which physicians take medical students out into in those communities to teach them about rural medicine.
A consortium meets quarterly to organize efforts and let people in the community know about programs. Those programs include things such as going to the State Fair in September in Hutchinson to conduct mammograms, cholesterol checks and meet with people about the services the University of Kansas Medical Center offers.
Davis said these many outreach programs are part of Hemenway's large initiative to serve Kansas. Davis said there is not as much of a dialogue with communities as the University would like. That is why the Outreach Program consortium meets quarterly to identify opportunities within communities and determine how healthcare experts can help.
See UNIVERSITY on page 2A
Davis said he would rate the University's service high,but said it could do a better job of coordinating its outreach efforts.
Programs try to get votes
By Seth Jones Kansan staff writer
Instead of complaining about voter apathy in the United States, some people are tackling the problem head-on right here in Kansas.
Two programs that aim to increase voter participation in today's and future elections are the Kids Voting Kansas and Honor a Vet with Your Vote programs.
Kids Voting Kansas has a simple mission, said Debra Hiebert, executive vice president of the program. The program is dedicated to increasing lifelong voter participation through education.
The program, in cooperation with teachers, educates children of all ages on how our democracy works and how they can be involved in the system.
"People expect things to change overnight." Hiebert said. "Things are changing all the time, but it all doesn't happen overnight."
She emphasized that students are taught how small changes become significant in the long run.
Diana Carlin, associate professor of communications studies and chairman of the Kids Voting Kansas board, said the culmination of the education effort is kids going to vote with their parents.
She said special voting booths are set up for children at regular polling places. Younger children are given ballots for the major races, while high school students get a ballot similar to an official one with all races and issues listed.
About 200,000 students in 16 Kansas counties will be a part of this year's effort. Lawrence schools are participating, and University of Kansas students are volunteering to help out at the polls.
Chris Hess, Wichita junior and co-director of the Center for Community Outreach, said more than 100 University students would
See PROGRAMS on page 3A
Most registered voters in Douglas County are under the age of 30. The percentages below are rounded to the nearest whole number. While the greatest number of
are under 30 only 17 percent of 18-20 year-olds and 22 percent of 21-24 year-olds actually voted in 1994, according to Project Vote Smart.
Source: Secretary of State's office Kristi Elliot / KANISAN
Student voting turnout low
By Seth Jones
Kansan staff writer
In 1971 the 26th amendment was adopted and granted 18-year-olds the right to vote, but members of the Student Legislative Awareness Board are concerned with the dwindling number of students who take advantage of their right.
It is election day and SLAB representatives are hoping to see the KU student body make a strong impact at the polls.
The number of students who get out and vote has an effect on the way politicians treat the University, said Heather Yates, lobbying coordinator.
"Students need to know they have a voice, regardless of what legislators in Washington
and Topeka say," Yates said. "Apathy in students is conveyed from the people we vote for. If that's the message they send us, we need to send them a larger message so they'll start caring about us."
Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan group that provides election information nationally since 1992, said that in a poll conducted in 1994, only 18 percent of 18 to 20-year-olds and 22 percent of 21 to 24-year-olds said they voted.
Bryan Caskey, administrative
assistant in the elections division of the secretary of state, said college students who were registered in Douglas County could not be narrowed down, but 34 percent of the voters registered in Douglas County were under the age of 30 as of May.
Tom Moore, campus director of student legislative awareness board said when students did not vote, they got lost in the shuffle.
"No one's going to pay attention to a group where only 29 percent of the constituency votes," he said. "This year SLAB got 400 students registered to vote, up from 300 when we had a registration drive during the spring semester. We need students to get out and vote."
SLAB is not the only group try ing to get young people to vote.
KLZR, 105.9 the Lazer, spent all day yesterday offering listeners free CD's if they promised to get out and vote.
Melia Clark, disc jockey at the Lazer said it was to raise awareness among their listeners.
'It's part of 'Rock the Vote', Capital and Virgin records have donated CD's for us to give away to try and get our listeners to be aware of the election,' she said.
Diana Carlin, associate professor of communications studies, has done research on college aged voters.
"Last year's freshman class was reported by the SAT as the least interested in politics that they've ever recorded," she said. "They have a negative attitude, they feel the elections don't apply to them."
Hiding from the rain
Mackenzie Roberts, Olathe freshman, finds shelter from the weather on the terrace at Wescoe Hall. Rain and colder temperatures have slowed activity on campus this week. Photo by Jeff Severin/KANSAN.
Thanksgiving move-out date falsely printed
Kansan staff writer
Bv Carolyn Mollett
Students should tell their parents not to be concerned about moving out of residence and scholarship halls before classes are out for Thanksgiving break.
The wall calendar printed and distributed by University Relations misprinted the time of day on Tuesday. Nov. 24, that students must be out of the halls for Thanksgiving break. The calendar says students must leave by 8 a.m.
"That 8 a.m. time is incorrect," said Lynn Bretz, associate director of University Relations.
en Stoner, director of KU Student
Ken Stone, duHousing, said he had received calls from concerned parents who wondered how they would move their students out of the residence and scholarship halls while the students were supposed to be close.
MOVING OUT
Scholarship and residence halls will not close at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24. They will close at 11:30 p.m.
"We've had a lot of calls, but we've put it out with KU information and as many places as we could." Stoner said.
Classes will still be in session that day, and the residence and scholarship halls will not close until 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 24, said Stoner.
"If we had to be out at 8 in the morning, I don't think I'd be up. So it would be tough," said Michael Shafer, Des Moines, Iowa, freshman, and McColum Hall resident.
Bretz said the calendar was distributed by U.S. Mail to 14,750 parents. An additional 5,000 copies were distributed to KU faculty through voluntary pickup and campus mail, she said.
University Relations printed corrections in the Oread and on the University web site.
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