Volleyball: Moira Donovan named Big 12 Player of the Week. Page 1B
Acting: Don Knotts presents scholarship to KU student. Page 6A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1996
SECTION A VOL.103, NO.34
ADVERTISING 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
Student returns to class after Midol incident
FAIRBORN, Ohio — An eighth-grade honor student expelled for giving a Midol pill to a classmate returned to school yesterday in a white limousine. Her punishment was reduced to the days she already had missed.
Clutching balloons and grinning jubilantly, Kimberly Smart went back to Baker Junior High School, where cheering classmates waited outside the school for her to arrive.
"I feel really happy," Smart said. "I'm just going to be in all the activies I was in and continue how it was and don't ever have to think about this again."
Smartt was allowed to return to school after the school board decided late Monday to reduce her 80-day expulsion to the three days she already had served. The board upheld a 10-day suspension she already had served.
Smartt was expelled after she took two Midol pills from the school nurse's office Sept. 6 and gave one to Erica Taylor.
Smokers more likely to suffer loss of sight
CHICAGO — New research gives smokers one more reason to quit: Pack-a-day-or-more puffers double their likelihood of developing the most common cause of blindness among the elderly.
Age-related macular degeneration, a usually untreatable affliction, impairs the vision of an estimated 1.7 million Americans and causes more new cases of blindness than any other ailment among people age 65 or older, according to the government.
Smoking already is blamed for promoting cataracts, another major cause of vision loss. Cataracts threaten the vision of far more people than macular degeneration but cause much less blindness because most cataract sufferers keep their sight with treatment.
American economist to share Nobel prize
NEW YORK — An American economist with unorthodox ideas shared the Nobel economics prize with a British professor yesterday.
William Vickrey, professor emeritus at Columbia University, and James Mirrlees of Cambridge University in England were cited for explaining how governments as well as consumers use incomplete data to make decisions.
Vickrey and Mirlees will split the $1.12-million prize for innovative studies on asymmetric information.
The theory, used to explain human behavior, refers to the way in which everyone — from governments and giant corporations to small businesses and consumers
— makes decisions based on varying kinds and amounts of data.
IRA claims responsibility for double car-bombing
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility yesterday for the double car-bomb attack on the British army's headquarters in Belfast. The attack wounded 31 and brought Northern Ireland back to the brink of conflict.
It was the outlawed group's first bomb attack in Northern Ireland since mid-1994. In February it broke a 17-month cease-fire with a deadly bombing in London. Attacks followed elsewhere in Britain and on a British army base in Germany.
The Associated Press
A telephone caller using a verified codeword told RTE, the Irish national broadcasters in Dublin, that the IRA committed Monday's strike inside Thiepval Barracks, heart of the 18,000-strong military presence in the British-ruled province.
Parking woes examined
Task force studies solutions for old campus problem
By Lindsey Henry
Kansan staff writer
After years of headaches, complaints, towed cars and little pink parking tickets, the University of Kansas administration is considering improvements for the campus' parking and transportation plans.
"I am assuming there is a reasonable plan, or a clear direction for a plan," Chancellor Robert Hemenway said. "We have to seriously consider other parking areas."
Earlier in the semester, Hemenway assigned Richard Mann, director of University administration, to evaluate the University's limited-parking and bus problems.
Mann said he had coordinated members of the faculty and student body to examine what needed to be done in the future. He said the group's proposals to heal the University's parking ailments would be on Hemenway's desk within one month. Hemenway said he hoped to have a plan in place by the end of the school year.
Thomas Mulinazzi, professor of civil engineering and a member of the task force, said he was selected to the committee because of his experience teaching courses about public transportation.
"Parking is absolutely a problem here," Mulinazzi said. "We've been brainstorming, throwing out some crazy ideas. Someone in Strong Hall is going to have to approve a solution."
Mann said the group was considering plans to build parking lots around the perimeter of campus and establish a shuttle system to take students to the center of campus.
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"These are, however, just ideas," Mann said. "We still have to consider the legislation money we'd like to get for projects like these."
Having to deal with crowded parking lots like this one may not be a problem in the future because of a task force that is pushing for more parking space. Chancellor Robert Hemenway said he hoped to have a parking plan in place by the end of the school year.
"Anytime you start messing around with park, people are going to get upset," Mulinazzi said. "There are always political ramifications with the city, the students, residents and the campus."
Mann said the group's investigation included means for additional parking, modes of campus transportation and the money to finance it.
Mulinazzi said he was curious to see what the administration would accept.
KU, city look at joint busing system
Bv Spencer Duncan
Kansan staff writer
The discussion about a joint transportation system between the City of Lawrence and the University of Kansas is escalating.
A task force on KU parking and transportation is studying problems with parking and transportation at the University. It will send its first recommendations to Chancellor Robert Hemenway within one month, said Richard Mann, director of University administration, who is heading the task force.
The City of Lawrence has commissioned Chance Management Advisors Inc. from Philadelphia to study citywide public transportation.
Fred Sherman, member of the Lawrence planning staff, said Chance would turn in its ideas by spring.
"We expect their view on this in March, if not before," Sherman said. "Some city commissioners want to make transportation a campaign issue."
At the heart of the issue is the campus concern about the bus system's future. The idea of creating a citywide bus system and combining it with the campus system is not new. Mann said.
The campus system is run by Student Senate through KU on Wheels. It is not run by the University administration.
Grey Montgomery, student body president, said combining the two was up to the students.
cooperation."
"If the students' share is unreasonable, then it is a bad thing." Montgomery said. "If the fee for the students is reasonable, then we'll see."
Bob Grunzinger, KU on Wheels coordinator, said that the University was interested in Lawrence having public transportation but that combining the two was not appropriate right now.
"We're participating with the city, but we are not going to use them as a crutch," Grunzinger said. "Right now it would be a logistical nightmare for us to try to meet their needs. We are interested in them getting in a system, and we are willing to help them, but we have to focus on the campus problems right now."
Sherman said he wanted to see some sort of cooperation if Lawrence created a public transportation system.
"There are a lot of factors involved," Sherman said. "The best thing for everyone is to work together. But that doesn't have to be in using the same system. There are a lot of different ways we can work together. We need to do what is best for the city, the people and the University, and that will happen through
The task force and Chance Management will consider each other's situations, those involved said. But each group will offer input based on what is best for itself.
"Basically, everyone is doing their own thing," Sherman said. "The main thrust is to get everyone together and see what solutions we can come up with."
How it will end is anyone's guess, Sherman said.
Former professor Charles Oldfather dies
Love of acting kept retired University employee busy
By Bradley Brooks
Kansan staff writer
Mr. Oldfather was born in Crawfordsville, Ind., on February 10, 1920, but at the age of 6 his family moved to Lincoln, Neb., where his father eventually became Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska.
Mr. Charles Oldfather Jr., former KU professor of law, died yesterday at 1:31 p.m. at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He was 76.
His wife, Hortense Oldfather, said he had died of complications from emphysema.
Mr. Oldfather is survived by his wife, whom he married on May 14, 1942; a sister, Rebekah oldfather of Lincoln. Neb.; seven children,
Felicia, Timothy Stephen, Christopher, Jonathan and William Oldfather, Melanie Robinson, and 17 grandchildren.
Mr. Oldfather earned a bachelor's degree in political science and Greek from the University of Nebraska in 1941 and a law degree from Harvard in 1948.
Charles Oldfather
He served in the Navy from 1942 until 1945. Mr. Oldfather came to the University of Kansas in 1950 and served not only as a professor, but also as University Attorney from 1971 until his retirement in 1974. He was appointed to the KU Athletic Board in 1958 and served there until shortly before his retirement. He also served as faculty representative of the University in the Big Eight conference and the NCAA.
In 1969, Mr. Oldfather played an instrumental role in the writing of a new Student Code, which gave students more participation in University affairs.
Del Shankel, professor of microbiology and Chancellor Emeritus and a close friend of Mr. Oldfather, said that he would be missed.
"He was a very witty, bright, interesting individual who made tremendous contributions to KU in every way," Shankel said. "He was one of KU's truly great citizens.
"He and his family have been very important benefactors to the University."
In 1911, the Oldfathers presented the University with $500,000 to assist in purchasing the old Centron Corporation facility, now the home of the Oldfather Studios, 1921 W. Ninth St.
Since his retirement, Mr. Oldfather was involved in many things, but his love for theater and acting took up most of his time, Mrs. Oldfather said.
"He was an amateur actor and has been in many community theater plays," she said. "That was his big, time-taking occupation."
In Mr. Oldfather's vitae, he wrote that he enjoyed playing folk songs on guitar, camping and hiking, ice skating and skiing and that he was a "gentleman farmer and repairman, and a pragmatic idealist."
Hortense Oldfather said that the family will be holding a private inurnment at the Pioneer Cemetery on West Campus and that a celebration of Mr. Oldfather's life will take place at Liberty Hall, which he co-owned.
She also said that Mr. Oldfather was an avid golfer and sports enthusiast.
TODAY
www.kansan.com
INDEX
Opinion ... 4A
World News ... 7A
Features ... 8A
Scoreboard ... 2B
Horoscopes ... 4B
Classifieds ... 7B
WINDY
Weather: Page 2A
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents.