Tomorrow's weather
A B E
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Great temperatures again tomorrow with hazy sunshine most of the day.
Kansan
Tuesday
September 1, 1998
Section:
A
Vol. 109 • No. 10
Online today
Is your writing out of practice? Need to know when to use who or whom? Since or because? Until the writing centers open, turn here for help. http://www.eagle.cc.ukans.edu/~editone
Sports today
The secondary sports new faces,but the Kansas defense has to stop the passing attacks of conference rivals to have a successful season.
SEE PAGE 10A
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The fire that destroyed the building at 1605 Tennessee St. is under investigation as an arson. Officials said they had leads, but would not comment on them. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
Police use dog in arson case
Investigators narrow case leads
Keith Burner
Today, fire officials are interviewing people and getting photographs from local media as they look for leads in the investigation of an Aug. 23 fire in Lawrence.
Tennessee St. and caused $150,000 in damages. "The fire is being investigated as an arson," said
Lawrence Fire Marshal Richard A. Barr said arson was suspected from the beginning.
Bart said his son was injured when fire investigators brought in Holmes, a dog from the Topeka Fire Department trained to sniff out material used to start fires.
"We brought Holmes in, and he targeted several locations that were exposed to accelerators," Barr said.
Investigators then took samples of the materials that Holmes had pinpointed.
Stock market update
Barr said they usually sent materials to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Topeka for testing but, because of the months that it would take to get results back from the KBI, they were considering using
See POLICE on page 2A
Dow falls 512 points
Problems with Russia's economy fuel market scares worldwide
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Dow industrials plummeted a near-record 512 points yesterday, tumbling below 8,000 for the first time in seven months and more than wiping out all of this year's gains.
It was the second-largest point drop ever, closely trailing the record 524.26 points of Oct. 27, 1997 and just above the 508-point "Black Monday" swoon of Oct. 19, 1987, when the market had its biggest percentage fall, a tumble of 22.6 percent.
Today's loss was 6.4 percent, the biggest daily percentage drop since last October. The Dow ended at 7,539.07. The last time it closed below 8,000 was on Jan. 30.
Broader indicators also plunged and the Nasdaq composite index was registering its biggest point drop ever.
in last week's global stock market rout, the Dow plunged 481.97 points, or by 5.6 percent, its biggest percentage drop for a calendar week since 1989.
At July's peak, when the Dow was at 9,337.97, it had been up 18.1 percent. The drop of 19.3 percent from the July record is the biggest retreat since a 21.2 percent slide triggered by the Persian Gulf crisis in the summer and fall of 1990.
In the heady bull market that began in October 1990 and saw the Dow nearly quadruple, setbacks were routinely viewed as buying opportunities. Lately, however, traders have been viewing any attempts at a recovery as a selling opportunity.
the world. Russia's parliament yesterday overwhelmed rejected the appointment of Viktor Chernomyrdin as prime minister.
Share prices fell in Europe, undercut by Wall Street's sharp morning retreat. Major stock indexes fell sharply earlier in Hong Kong and Singapore, but Japan posted a modest gain after dropping to a 12-year low Friday.
Doubts about Russia's economic and political stability kept pressure on financial markets around
In Europe, a key index of German stock prices closed down 2.3 percent and leading market gauges also finished lower in France, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Markets in London, the largest in Europe, were closed for a holiday.
Hong Kong's key Hang Seng Index tank 5.7 percent in the first seven minutes of trading today and ended the day with a 7.1 percent decline, falling 554.70 points to 7.275.04.
In Singapore, the benchmark index fell 28.83 points, or 3.25 percent, to a new low of 856.43 after ending below the 900-point level on Friday for the first time in 10 years.
However, stock prices rose on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, where the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock average gained 192.26 points, or 1.38 percent, to close at 14.107.89.
100 per cent. Elsewhere in Asia, the key stock index in Taiwan fell 2.8 percent to finish at a 22-month low and prices fell 1.4 percent in Australia, but stocks ended up 1.8 percent in South Korea.
Even though stock prices seemed far more stable in Tokyo yesterday, signs of gloom and fear about the world's economic future also remained high in some areas.
Wipeout
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell again Monday, plunging more than 500 points and wiping out this year's gains.
8/31/98
SOURCE: News reports
R01-09 KRT
"I'm worried," said Kazuomi Kobayashi, a 52-year-old Tokyo barber as he stood in front of a large electronic board in downtown Tokyo showing the latest Nikkei numbers. "I've lost so much. When I buy, it goes down. When I buy again, it goes down again."
Even in Singapore, where newspapers often work with the government to keep people calm, signs of panic prevailed.
world markets sent reeling: World faces global meltdown as its leaders fail to find solutions to Russia's worsening crisis," said the front-page headline in Saturday's 'The Straits Times.'
"Fear of complete meltdown rules markets," said a headline in The Business Times yesterday.
Bookstores hope to sell texts online next year
Store owners wonder if system requires too much effort on the part of students
The Kansas and Burge Union bookstores and Jayhawk Bookstore now sell general merchandise on the web and sell textbooks for independent study courses. Within the next year, they hope to sell textbooks for all University of Kansas courses, said Mike Reid, manager of the Kansas and Burge Union bookstores.
By Liz Wriston
Kansan staff writer
Long lines of students waiting to buy their textbooks may shorten as a few Lawrence bookstores turn to online book selling.
University bookstores are currently competing with online textbook companies that specialize in selling school textbooks.
Rhea said the Union bookstore websites now only offer books for independent study courses because of their limited number. He said the Union bookstores are hoping to catch up with the online textbook companies, but there are simply too many courses for the current computer system to handle.
system An updated system will allow the bookstores to store more course data. Reid said.
Students may pre-order their textbooks at the Kansas and Burge Unions at www.joyhawk.com or through the Jayhawk Bookstore at www.joyhawkbookstore.com.
TEXTBOOKS
The option to buy textbooks online will be available at the Kansas and Burge Unions within the next year, and at Jayhawk Bookstore within the next couple of years.
Reid said the Union bookstores
Students interested in buying or selling their books online may visit the KU Book Exchange website at http://www.ukans.edu/~kube.
have been looking at software packages that would enable the bookstores to sell books online, but the programs are expensive. A new system could cost the University around $38,000. However, Reid said an online book-buying program would probably be available within the next year.
Students may pre-order their textbooks at the Kansas and Burge Union bookstores and at Jayhawk Bookstore, but they still must go to the bookstores to pick up and purchase their books.
See ONLINE on page 3A
Dancin' machines
Lawrence sophomore Aimee Martinez, front, and Leawood senior Lindsey Larson, right, dance with the Crimson Girls in Memorial Stadium. Photo by Joseph Griffin/KANSAN
Students fined $100 for missing tuition date
By Jason Pearce
Kansan staff writer
A new University of Kansas policy to fine students $100 for failing to pay their tuition on time is more appropriate than dropping them from class rosters, students and faculty say.
The additional fine appeared on 1,275 students' bills this semester when they missed the Aug. 13 tuition deadline. In previous years, students who missed the tuition deadline were dropped from enrollment and fined between $25 and $100 depending on how soon they re-enrolled.
However, students will have to pay the fine and their tuition by Sept. 8 or be dropped from all classes, said
Brenda Seman associate registrar.
Diane Goddard, University comptroller, said the University had to deal with numerous students in the past — between 1,200 and 1,300 per semester — who were dropped from their classes.
Late fee policy
- 1,275 students were assessed the fine this semester.
- An average of 1,200-1,300 per semester have been dropped in year's past.
- First payment deadline was Aug. 13.
- Final deadline is Sept. 8, with the $100 fine.
Kristen Flintt / HANSAN
"Not only was it an incredible hassle for the students to re-enroll, but it was an incredible workload for us," she said.
their classes.
Of those people, Goddard said, approximately two-thirds would re-enroll in classes after paying the tuition bill, making late-enrollment lines longer.
Selman also believed the new policy had improved the enrollment process
"Most of the students who were dropped in the past did intend to be here," Selman said. "But to re-enroll they would have to be re-advised, ask faculty members if they could get back in the class and sometimes miss out on the first week of school."
Selman, a member of the University fees policy committee helped in the development of the new policy. She said the new fine alleviated those problems.
"One hundred dollars is a lot of extra money, but it is worth it to those people to maintain their schedule as it was when they initially enrolled," she said.
Tuyen Nguyen, Kansas City, Kan., senior, received the fine. He said he thought the fine was a better solution than re-enrolling students but felt the monetary penalty was too stiff.
"I think it is a little ridiculous that students who also work part-time and don't receive any financial aid have to pay more money just for being a day late," Nguyen said. "That money could be spent on books or gasoline, so I can commute to school."
commute to school.
Money generated from the fine will be used for improvements to the enrollment and fee payment system, said Lindy Eakin, associate provost for support services.
Kris Tuck, Topeka junior, found out about the fine when he went to pay his tuition bill a couple of days after the due date.
"It is really a better policy than the alternative, because you don't have to go through the trouble of re-enrolling." Tuck said.
Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, associate provost for academic services, said the fine was not meant to suck more money out of students' wallets.
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"But we need some way to make sure students are paying their bill on time," she said.
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