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Volleyball: Kansas wins two of its three games during the home opener. Page 1B Rockin': Geology professor designs rock displays for Lindley Hall Page 3A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS 864-4810
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
SECTION A VOL.103.NO.22
MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 23, 1996
ADVERTISING 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
250,000 people clean worldwide coastlines
MIAMI — It was a work day at the beach for more than 250,000 volunteers who cleaned up the world's shorelines Saturday.
People in 50 states and 80 countries raked through sand and dove into oceans and lakes to recover garbage as part of the Eighth Annual International Coastal Cleanup.
"This is the only Earth we have and if we don't take care of it, it's just going to be ruined," said 11-year-old Will McCarthy, a Boy Scout who took part in the cleanup at Rock Hill, S.C.
Volunteers at Key Biscayne, Fl., near Miami, were joined by Bruce Babbitt, secretary of Interior.
"I bet I picked up 150 cigarette butts today," said Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, one of about 500 volunteers who picked over the coast of Port Aransas, Texas.
U.S. military buildup persists in Kuwait
STOCKHOLM — U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry said yesterday that Iraq appeared to be backing off its threatening moves of a week ago. One of two U.S. aircraft carriers in the region might return to its home port next month, he said.
Still the U.S. military buildup has continued with 600 more American soldiers who arrived in Kuwait Friday and others on the way, said Lt. Col. Thomas Nickerson, another military representative.
The last of 3,500 soldiers arriving from Fort Hood, Texas, were expected by midweek, Nickerson said. The United States has some 30,000 soldiers, 200 planes and 35 ships in the region.
Perot to file lawsuit for exclusion from debates
But analysts also said that the absence of the Texas independent from the two debates would give Dole a chance to make up his double-digit deficit in the polls by going head-to-head with President Clinton.
WASHINGTON — By excluding him from the presidential debates, Ross Perot said yesterday that Bob Dole has poisoned the attitude of millions of independent voters, a group Republicans desperately need to win the White House and keep control of Congress.
Reform Party nominee Perot said he would file a lawsuit today to force his way into the debates, now scheduled for Oct. 6 and Oct. 16.
Yeltsin health problems go beyond heart ailment
MOSCOW — Boris Yeltsin suffers problems with his back, hearing and blood vessels in his brain, and has liver and kidney trouble that has been exacerbated by drinking, according to a former press secretary.
The claims by Pavel Voshchanov only deepened the intrigue Sunday surrounding the true condition of the 65-year-old Russian president's health.
Voschanov's disclosures Saturday to Associated Press Television followed suggestions that aides covered up a Yeltsin heart attack in the closing days of the summer presidential campaign.
Voshchanov said Yeltsin has possibly developed atherosclerosis in his brain. Atherosclerosis is a build up of fatty deposits on the inner walls of the arteries that can cause the affected area to degenerate.
The Associated Press
Geoff Krieger / KANSAN
After Pearson Hall residents sang their song, residents of other scholarship halls started a water fight. Participants used everything from water balloons to pitchers of water to drench people.
Hall's tradition is truly 'loopy'
Deff Krieder / KANSAN
Pearson residents sing a "Happy Loopy Day" song.
By Ashlee Roll Kansan staff writer
It starts with the kind of stillness that precedes a storm. A handful of onlookers wait for the excitement to begin. Suddenly, the fire escape begins to shake as about 35 men jump up and down and voll "Hammy Loovy Day! Happy Loovy Day!"
"It's just a fun tradition," said Mark Ashbrook, Illinois graduate student and hall director.
The ritual known as "Happy Loopy Day" is performed on a weekly basis by the residents of Pearson Scholarship Hall
at 11:45 p.m. every Thursday, 30 to 35 residents of Pearson gather on their fire escape, jump up and down and sing the Happy Loopy Day song.
The words to the song are "Happy Loopy Day! Happy Loopy Day! J a la Ja ja." renamed again and again.
Day! La, la, la, repeated again and again. The originators of Happy Loopy Day created the tradition more than five years ago as a drinking ritual and have long since graduated.
since graduated.
"Guys from the hall would get drunk and go outside and yell," said Paul Birkholz, Sheridan, Wyo., senior. "It just kind of turned into this."
Now, the tradition is alcohol-free and sometimes lasts for two hours or more.
After the singing, the students wish a Happy Loopy Day to their scholarship hall neighbors by yelling "Happy Loopy Day"
See LOOPY, Page 2A
Senate amends process
Groups seeking funds submit expense records
By Spencer Duncan Kansan staff writer
The finance committee unanimously amended its regulations last week. Groups requesting funding now are required to provide their spending history to the committee. The committee is interested only in how organizations spent their Senate money.
Spending histories of campus organizations now will be presented in more detail to Student Senate's finance committee when groups ask for money.
The change was presented by committee member Sean Haley, who said it was a necessary regulation for the committee. Too much time was spent asking groups questions that could be answered if the committee had past financial records, Haley said.
The finance committee does not have the final approval on who receives student money. This amended regulation serves to scrutinize each funding request before it reaches the full Senate. The committee can deny or amend a request. Senate has $60,611.06 remaining to spend this year.
"Through my experience with Senate and the finance committee, it seemed like we were spending lots of debate on monetary issues that could have been answered if we had background on the group," Haley said. "Instead of inquiring a group on how they have spent money, we will have the numbers from our own treasurer in black and white."
Jade Shopp, Senate treasurer, is in charge of presenting past financial records of organizations.
It is an important change, Jade said. However he is not sure of what impact it will have when a group requests funding.
"For the most part I don't think that the dollar amount a group asks for is for that big of a deal as long they can justify it and show that they have used money in the past properly." Shopp said. "It will help in the sense that the committee will have a historical perspective on what the groups have done."
Finance committee member Art Judelson said an understanding of where a group spent money would increase the committee's effectiveness.
"We are the committee that decides where groups get money. I think that this enforces what we do," Yudelson said. "I think it's going to be more of an issue with big ticket items than with the smaller items."
Junior high student enrolled at KU
14-year-old honor student takes college math course
By Eric Weslander Kansan staff writer
As John Sheu stood on Jayhawk Boulevard last week, a campaigning student walked by, thrust a flier toward him and asked if he was a freshman.
Sheld, 14, stook his head.
He is actually a ninth-grade student who is enrolled in Math 321 this semester. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he takes a yellow school bus from Lawrence West Junior High to Snow Hall to take an honors class in differential equations.
class in the university.
"Ikind of tested out of math classes," said Sheu, who scored a 36 on his math ACT when he was in seventh grade.
Sheu.14. shook his head.
Although high school students take mathematics courses at the University, it is rare to see a junior high student enrolled in such a high-level class, said Robert Brown,
who teaches the differential equations course.
While a college campus might intimidate some junior high students, Brown said the age difference did not affect Sheu's performance in class.
"He's particularly advanced, I guess," said Brown, professor of mathematics.
Sheu said his confidence around older students was due to his previous experiences at Lawrence High School, where he took advanced placement physics as an eighth-grader.
"He participates, and he's not shy in class," he said. "He seems very enthusiastic."
Janette Schwartzburg, gifted education teacher at West Junior High, said Sheu's gift for math came partly from his father, Albert Sheu, who is an associate professor of mathematics at the University.
"I'm kind of used to it," he said. "It's just a little bit different, something out of the ordinary."
She said John Sheu, who was ready to take geometry when he was in fifth grade, always was modest about his often extraordinary
accomplishments.
"He's the most advanced student we've had in mathematics for at least as long as I've been here," she said. "He's going to be one of those people who are going to make a difference in our world."
Sheu recently helped his junior high computer club win $20,000 in a national school Web page contest sponsored by Microsoft. He conceived and designed the page with the help of other club members.
"I was very confident that our page would win," he said.
Sheu said he spent his most of his spare time working with computers. In addition to the school's Web page, he created a home page for his own software company, Lawrencesoft.
The page contains a variety of software written by Sheu, from a physics tutoring program to a war game.
Geoff Krieger/KANSAN
John Sheu, a 14-year-old junior high school student, stands on Jayhawk Boulevard after his math class in Snow Hall.
www.kansan.com
INDEX
Features...6A
Scoreboard ...2B
Horoscopes ...6B
Classified ...5B
Campus news ...3A
TODAY
Rastafarianism: it's a religion...
According to Jason Strickland, Lawrence resident, too many people feel his faith is only about marijuana. It's not.
Story on 6A
4.