Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Warming up for tomorrow with periods of clouds and sunshine.
Kansan
Monday
October 5,1998
Section:
A
Vol. 109 · No. 31
Online today
Remember MagnaDoodles and Etch-a-Sketch from childhood? Now, the same concept is online and you can watch what other people are trying, too. http://www.etchinghill.com/whiteboard/index.shtml
Sports today
The Kansas football team lost another heartbreaker to Texas A&M Saturday. The team is now 2-3 after the three-point loss.
SEE PAGE 1B
Contact the Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
News: (785) 864-4810
Advertising: (785) 864-4358
Fax: (785) 864-0391
Opinion e-mail: opinion@kansan.com
Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com
Editor e-mail: editor@kansan.com
WWW.KANSAN.COM
(USPS 650-640)
Fall break could meet opposition
A lightning strike illuminates Daisy Hill during last night's storms. Severe storms moving through the Lawrence area caused several power outages. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
Calendar must pass Regents, Legislature
By Jason Pearce
Kansan staff writer
Even if University of Kansas governance approves a new school-year calendar including a fall break and intersession period, it may be met with opposition at the state level.
At least one member of the Kansas Board of Regents, which would have to approve any calendar changes, said that the changes might get a bad public reception.
Phyllis Nolan, Regents member, said that the University's drive to implement the calendar changes seemed like faculty and students wanted more time off from school.
A fall break, if approved by University Governance, would have a two-day break in October by shortening the final-exam periods; intersession would extend winter break for short study abroad trips and research classes. The Calendar Committee is working on the details.
"I think the general public's feeling on this would be one of less time in school," Nolan said.
Nolan's primary concern with the calendar proposal is related to the Regents' push to increase faculty salaries to a level on par with universities across the nation.
"Right now, we are trying to get the Legislature to approve the pay increase, but this proposal may not help that," she said.
Bill Tsutsui, chairman of the Calendar Committee, said that any new calendar proposal would not hinder the salary increase and that it would not reduce the number of days in a school year — 150 days plus 10 days for final exams.
The pay increase, which will be discussed by the Legislature beginning in January, would give professors and faculty at Regents' schools a 7 to 8 percent increase for three consecutive years.
"Hopefully, when we get a final calendar proposal, it will show everyone that it is beneficial to students and faculty." Tsutsui said. "It is important to get a proposal that we can defend well to the University community and the Regents."
Nolan said that she also was concerned that a fall break would interrupt the flow of the semester.
Provost David Shulenburger, who first recommended the intersession idea, said that the University's final proposal should address all the Regents' concerns.
"If fall break started on a Thursday, how many students would take off on Tuesday?" Nolan said.
address in the registry." "Phyllis Nolan is a wonderful regent. She is just giving a caution," Shulenburger said.
Rep. David Adkins of Leawood said that issue was not only a matter of giving students an added break.
"We would have to ask if the breaks add value to their education and increase costs to students." he said.
depts, he said. Adkins said that although the idea of a fall break and an intersession sounded like a good idea, students and faculty would have to persuade the Regents.
"There is no need for the Legislature to micro-manage the Regents decisions," he said. "If the Regents adopted this as a priority, I would not be one to second-guess them."
Storms hit hard in Lawrence area
But, Adkins said, the Legislature as a whole has tended to second-guess state agencies more than in previous years.
Violent weather brings hail, floods
By Seth Jones Kansan staff writer
Students try to study yesterday had to compete with Mother Nature herself.
compete with Storms caused the fire alarm to go off at Watson Library about 7:30 p.m., forcing students to evacuate the building. The power also was knocked out at Learned Hall around 11 a.m., leaving students in the dark for more than five minutes.
Sgt. Gayle Reece of the KU Public Safety Office said that the power of the storm caused alarms to go off yesterday evening in Watson Library, the Spencer Art Museum, the Baehr Audio-Reader Center and Dolph Simons Biosciences Research Laboratories on West Campus.
"It's the lightning. That much power sometimes causes the alarms in the buildings to activate." Reece said.
George Norton, manager of public information for Kansas Power and Light, said that 500 customers in Lawrence lost power from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Norton said that most of the outages were in the perimeter of West 15th Street and West
Sixth Street, between Iowa Street and Kasold Avenue. He also said that more than half of Kansas Power and Light's customers had their power back by 9:30 p.m.
Eric Renner, meteorologist for KTKA News Source 49 in Topeka, said that the Doppler Radar system estimated rain totals for Douglas County at 5 to 7 inches at 10:45 p.m. Lawrence Memorial Airport showed 4.53 inches at 9 p.m. One-inch hall also was reported in and around Lawrence, Renner said.
Reece said that besides responding to alarms, KU police also were busy responding to calls for stalled cars. Streets were closed all across the county because of flooding. Reece said.
With violent weather pounding Lawrence most of the day, students had a hard time finding an easy environment in which to study.
After more than five minutes of darkness, the power came back on, just to be knocked out a few minutes later.
Janel Harting, Wichita senior, was in Learned yesterday morning when the power went out.
"It was pitch-black in there," she said. "We were in the computer lab, and there were no emergency lights and no windows. After the second time I just went home."
Casey McLiney, Overland Park freshman,
lost his paper when the power went off at Watson.
Anna Attkisson, Watson circulation desk student supervisor, said that students waited in the lobby for the fire department to come, and then they were evacuated.
"I was almost done, and now I've learned the hard way to save often," McLiney said.
"We also smelled what we thought was gas, but we're not fed natural gas, we're fed steam,
so we still don't know what was going on there," she said.
The National Weather Service in Topeka is forecasting that storms will continue this morning.
Chad Bettes contributed to this article.
Ani DiFranco strums a final chord as the lights go down. DiFranco sang in front of a sold-out crowd Sunday night at the Lied Center. Photo by Jeff Severin/KANSAN
Singer DiFranco takes to the stage
Nearly 1,800 fans sucht their
from the rain in the Lied Center last
night to see folk-alternative artist
Anti DlFranco perform.
By Angela Johnson
Kansan staff writer
She performed in front of the sold out crowd that rose to its feet once the musician took the stage.
University of Kansas students attending the concert said they admired DiFranco because she was different from mainstream pop artists.
"We have a couple of new tracks to try out on all you sonic guinea pigs out there." DiFranco said at the beginning of her set.
"She's so true to herself," said
Kelli Graves, Overland Park junior.
"She doesn't have to sell to anybody. She has the final say in what she does."
Almas Sayeed, Wichita sophmore, said she could relate to DIFranco because of the social and political issues she supports.
The independent musician often has spoken about issues such as abortion and equality for women, both in her lyrics and to the media.
"We're drawn to Ani because she's uncompromising." Sayeed said. "We're drawn to her strength. I try to do that for myself in terms of raising awareness and social consciousness."
See FOLK on page 2A
Tapped for citations
Each of these local bars has received a citation from the Alcoholic Beverage Control. The first-offence citations require the bars to have a day of alcohol-enforcement training or suspend business for one weekday. Photos by Augustus Anthony Piazza and Matt Daugherty/KANSAN
Seven bars busted for serving minors
By Augustus Anthony Piazza
Konson staff writer
Kansan staff writer
At least one local bar owner took measures this weekend to prevent underage drinking after receiving citations last week from the Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Control.
Kaelif Agu, owner of Coco Loco Mexican Cafe, said that he met with his crew to discuss possible measures that could be taken to prevent minors possessing or consuming alcohol to get in the bar.
"We identified weaknesses in our system, and we are targeting how to do something about it." Aguil said.
Coco Loco Mexican Cafe, 943 Massachusetts St., was one of seven bars that received one first-offense citation from ABC, the agency responsible for monitoring 2,000 state-licensed bars and liquor stores.
The six other bars that received citations were Bleachers Sports Bar. 806 W. 24th St. The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St.; Brown Bear Brewery, 728 Massachusetts St.; Fatso's, 1016 Massachusetts St.; Granada Theater, 1020 Massachusetts St.; and Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Massachusetts St.
All the offenses took place in August when ABC officials checked the compliance.
It was the first offense for each of the Lawrence establishments since the new policy went into effect on July 1. The first offense is one weekday suspension or ABC alcohol-enforcement training. The bars have 15 days to appeal the citation.
Aqui made two major changes this weekend. First, he had his doormen mark both hands of people entering the bar instead of marking just one. He also had his bar staff monitor people near the
Sheila Walker, public information officer for the ABC, said that if the bars didn't appeal, Oct. 26 would be the day for the license suspension or training.
Aqul said that he didn't know whether he would appeal because he was not notified of the offense before last week's citation. He was also unsure about what exactly happened on the night the ABC checked his establishment.
restrooms in order to prevent underage patrons from going to the restroom and washing the "X" off their hands. The mark indicates that they're not 21.
Jerry Neverve, owner of Red Lyon Tavern, said that he had not decided whether he would appeal the citation.
"I just got my letter in the mail," he said. "I have called ABC to see what the deal was. There were some circumstances about that night that I want to discuss before I make my decision."
Neverve said that he didn't make any changes monitoring IDs this weekend.
Paul Hayward, manager of Fatso's, said that he thought the owner would appeal the citation.
The owners of the four other bars were unavailable for comment.
Lawrence bars weren't the only ones to be cited by ABC. Three bars and one liquor store in Manhattan also received citations last week.
Walker said that ABC officials could be back in the near future to do compliance checks in local bars
40