Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Great temperatures again with sunny skies.
Kansan
Online today
Wednesday
October 21, 1998
Section:
A
If you have money invested, or if you're thinking of investing, this site is a great resource for financial information.
http://cbs.marketwatch.com
Sports today
Vol. 109·No.43
Luke Axtell transferred to Kansas after a season playing on the Texas basketball team. He's singing a different tune as a Jayhawk.
SEE PAGE 1B
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Contact the Kansan
News: (785) 864-4810
Advertising: (785) 864-4358
Fax: (785) 864-0391
Opinion e-mail: opinion@kansan.com
Sports e-mail: matt@ukans.edu
Editor e-mail: editor@kansan.com
Individual schools make advising hard
(USPS 650-640)
Students have several options when counselling time arrives
By Melody Ard Kansan staff writer
For freshmen and sophomores stuck somewhere between the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a specialized school at the University of Kansas, advising can be a confusing experience.
Double advising, or co-advising between the University advising centers and the professional school advisors, is a solution for students caught in the middle
Kathryn Tuttle, director of the Freshman Sophomore Advising Center, said students who were classified as pre-professional had the choice of being advised by their professional school, by the general advising center or by both centers.
Pre-professional students are those who are considering majors in schools, such as business or education, that accept students as juniors rather than as freshmen.
"The process is not new, and students shouldn't feel confused by it," she said.
"For students considering pre-professional schools, it is an excellent choice for them to do both because they will have different prerequisites."
ADVISING
Tuttle said pre-professional students were not required to be co-advised, but she recommended that as a way to ease the transition.
Pre-Professional Advising
Freshmen may go to:
■ Their professional
school
The Freshman.
"It gives students two sources of information," she said. "We offer people who they can see and talk about things with throughout the year."
Both
The Freshman Sophomore Advising Center
Sophomores may go to:
Pam Houston, Director of Program Coordination of the
college, handles most sophomore advising. She said
encouraged students to make faculty contacts.
Their professional school
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office Both
college, handles most sophomore advising. She said she encouraged students to make faculty contacts. "It's important that students meet with faculty members, even if they are undecided, because they can help students explore their options," Houston said.
Houston said students were divided into three groups depending on how close they were to deciding a major: those who knew what they wanted to do, those who did not and pre-professional students.
Houston said the University encouraged freshmen to be undecided their first year and fine tune their interests as sophomores.
"We want freshmen to be as open as they can be and work with the faculty member," she said. "Sophomores can concentrate more on making decisions about their majors."
"I think they are taking the responsible approach to student advising. They could try and help everyone, but their services wouldn't be as good. I appreciate the thoughtful way they are not rushing into it."
KU bus driver cited for collision
Lawrence police cited a KU on Wheels bus driver for failing to yield the right of way after he hit a car yesterday afternoon in Lawrence.
The accident, which occurred about 4:15 p.m. at the intersection of Ninth and Indiana streets, took place when the bus — turning south from Ninth Street to Indiana Street — hit and damaged the front-right side of a black 1992 Acura. The Acura was traveling east on Ninth Street when they collided, police said.
Chris Ogle, director of the Lawrence Bus Company, said that there were two passengers on the bus.
No one was injured.
He said that they were taken to campus after the accident.
"It's not that big of a deal, especially with the amount of miles that we drive," Ogle said. "It was just a minor altercation."
By Jason Pearce
This 1992 Acura received damage from a collision with a kU on Wheels failing to yield the right of way after the accident, which took place at bus yesterday afternoon. Lawrence police cited the driver of the bus with Ninth and Indiana streets yesterday. Photo by Christina Kewan/KANSAN
Intellectual property up for change
SenEx to review Regents proposal
By Jason Pearce
Kansan staff writer
University of Kansas Senate Executive members will discuss incentives and possible changes to a proposed Kansas Board of Regents intellectual property policy tomorrow during its monthly meeting.
The proposal — if adopted by the Regents — would give University faculty and students more reasons to develop intellectual properties including student academic creations, copyrightable software and mediated courseware.
Provost David Shulenburger said the extended policy was needed to replace vague federal laws.
"Federal law can be interpreted to say that if a person is employed at a university, all the work they do belongs to that person." Shulenburger said. "It also can be interpreted as all work belongs to the institution."
"Not having a broader policy in place has probably stopped some people from developing certain works," he said. "The new policy would provide some incentives."
The Regents will act on the policy at its November meeting after university groups like SenEx get a chance to review the proposal.
The policy states ownership of student academic creations, including inventions and publications, would belong to the student. But Shulenburger said if a student created a work as an employee of the University, the ownership would stay with the University.
Joel Pile, Fort Hays State University senate president, said the policy would allow students to come up with an invention based on what they learned in class.
"If a student were taught something in class, she could go back home and use that knowledge to invent something practical and then sell it." Pile said.
Pile said the Student Advisory Council, which includes student senate members from the six Regents universities, developed the proposal to protect student interests.
The proposal also states that mediated courseware — works created by professors to be used in a class — are to be owned by the faculty member as long that faculty member does not create a completely new course.
But if a faculty member did create a new course of study, they could sell the
"Federal law can be interpreted to say that if a person is employed at a university, all the work they do belongs to that person. It also can be interpreted as all work belongs to the institution."
David Shulenburger
Provost
rights to other institutions with the consent of the Provost, Shulenburger said.
"For example if the dean of CLAS asked some faculty members to design an online Math 002 course, KU would own it," he said. "But they may be able to sell it to other universities."
The proposed policy also states that:
The proposed policy also states that:
■ All articles, novels, non-fiction works, artistic works and other printed materials would belong to the creators, and they would keep any revenue derived from their work.
People who develop copyrightable software will retain ownership rights and up to a projected market value of $10,000.
Small town big city life topic of speech
By Angela Johnson
Kansan staff writer
East coast journalist Buzz Bissinger reflected on the differences between city and small-town life last night, drawn from his biographies, "Friday Night Lights"
and "A Prayer For the City."
A crowd of about 150 gathered in the Kansas Union Ballroom to listen to Bissinger talk about moving from his job at the Phila-
Bittinger: Compaes the big city to a small Texas town.
alphia inquestor to Odessa, Texas, where he lived for one year to write "Lights."
for our selves to write in big letters.
Bissinger said by living in the western Texas town, he discovered more serious issues surrounding high school football, such as racism.
See AUTHOR on page 3A
Not so itsy-bitsy
A spider is sillhouetted as the sun sets during another nice day. Yesterday's high temperature reached 70 degrees, and the forecast for today is for sunny skies and a high temperature of 61 degrees. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Online catalog to make libraries searches easy
By Chad Bottes
Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas Libraries are spending $1 million in an effort to modernize the online catalog by next May at 12 locations in Lawrence, Kansas City and Wichita.
The new online catalog, called Voyager, would replace the current computerized system, which was implemented 15 years ago, said Rob Melton, library publications coordinator.
Voyager not only will be an online card catalog, but an entire library system as well.
"It will be the keystone of our KU Interactive Library Systems," Melton said.
Students will notice several changes in the online system. Voyager includes a modern, Windows-type interface, keyword search capability and multiple search term capability.
ONLINE CATALOGS
Students can limit their searches by date, language and location. They also may limit searches to journals or reserve materials.
The library staffs will receive additional benefits because Voyager will streamline some behind-the-scenes library operations.
What: New online catalog for University libraries
Where: All University library locations, including general, law and medical libraries
John Miller, assistant dean of libraries, said a big benefit of Voyager was the electronic compatibility it would allow the University to have
When: Should be operational by the end of the 1998-99 academic year; project has been in the works for three years
Why: Moderize interface and search capabilities; streamline library operations; expand availability of data from libraries nationwide
Doug Bates, chairman of access services at KState, said he was pleased with the system and the response it received at his university.
"It's been a good experience and product. It's a powerful public catalog." Bates said.
Kansas State University was one of the first colleges to purchase Voyager. It started using the system in January 1996.
with other research library systems. This may even extend to the Library of Congress, which recently signed a contract for the same software.
He said the only problems K-State had with the system were related to testing they agreed to do for new versions of the software. He
described the system as otherwise very stable.
Voyager tentatively was scheduled to be installed here by the end of this academic year, but Miller said the transition was complex. New computer hardware must be purchased, and library data must be converted for the new software. Infrastructure improvements such as new wiring already have been completed.
Miller said that when Voyager is being installed, students' convenience will be a priority. One option is for both the old and new systems to run concurrently until students are comfortable with the switch.
This is the second time the University has contracted to update the online system. In Summer 1996, the University signed with another company to provide a new system. In March 1998, the University broke the contract because the company was not fulfilling it in a timely manner.
Voyager, which is sold by Endeavor Information Systems of Des Plaines, Ill., was brought back into consideration because it had been the University's second choice. After a review of Endeavor's proposal, the University signed a contract with the company.
After installation, Endeavor will provide ongoing maintenance and support of the software for an annual fee. The first year cost will be $84,000.