Theft: A vital computer chip was stolen from the computer center. Page 3A
Softball: Shannon Stanwix will represent her hometown playing for KU. Page 7A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 1996
SECTION A VOL.103.NO.14
ADVERTISING 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
Man juggling fire sticks downtown gets burned
An 18-year-old transient man was badly burned on the face, arms and hands at 10:30 p.m. Sunday in the 900 block of Massachusetts Street, Lawrence police said.
Police said Andrew Wells had been juggling fire sticks in front of the Red Lyon Tavern, and was trying to blow fire by spraying lighter fluid out of his mouth and holding a lighter to his lips. As Wells attempted to blow flares out of his mouth, fluid left on his hands from the fire torches ignited.
Gary Frazier was sitting at the Red Lyon Tavern when someone noticed that a person was on fire outside of the bar.
Frazier immediately ran outside to help. The bartender called 911 and sent two pitchers of water outside to put out the fire, but Wells' friends already had him down on the ground on his stomach, putting the fire out. Frazier could see that the man was seriously injured.
"His friends said Wells had had a beard but it was burned off," Frazier said. "His hands were by far the worst. The skin was literally hanging off his hands, it was basically just muscle tissue left."
Frazier, who was trained in first aid in the military, calmed down Wells to prevent him from going into shock. Wells had said he really had screwed himself up this time.
"The kid was really scared," Frazier said.
Frazier said he had little time to do more for Wells. Frazier elevated Wells' feet and talked to him before help came.
"The police got there in a couple of minutes," Frazier said. "The fire department came right after."
Wells was transported by the Douglas County Ambulance service to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and then life-flighted to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City. Monday, Wells was listed in critical condition at the Med Center's burn unit.
—Kansan staff report
President Clinton launches tighter airline security
WASHINGTON — Promising safer skies, President Clinton issued orders yesterday to tighten airport security and challenged Congress to support a $1.1 billion anti-terrorism crackdown.
Clinton unveiled the proposals in an Oval Office ceremony designed to reassure Americans after last year's Oklahoma City bombing and the explosion of TWA Flight 800 less than two months ago.
The proposal that comes just two months before the presidential election will make Americans feel and be safer, the president said.
The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which unveiled its recommendations last week, formally presented them to the president yesterday.
The Associated Press
Hussein's Kurdish allies capture PUK stronghold
DOKAN, Iraq — Kurdish allies of Saddam Hussein captured the last stronghold of their rebel rivals yesterday, a rout that gives the Iraqi leader his greatest influence of northern Iraq since the Persian Gulf War.
As allied Iraqi forces trailed, the Kurdistan Democratic Party claimed control of the city of Sulaymaniyah after the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan left their posts, the United Nations said.
"The PUK had withdrawn and the KDP walked in," said Stafford Clary, the head of a U.N. guard unit in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan's second-largest city.
The city was quiet after the takeover, with about 50,000 of its 400,000 residents fleeing since Sunday night, Clarry said.
University invests in future
KU staffers take classes free of charge
By Lindsey Henry Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas will invest its money in a valuable commodity in coming months.
Chancellor Robert Memenway announced during faculty convocation on Wednesday his desire to expand the number of KU staff members who receive free tuition.
uses state allocated money to finance non-faculty members' tuition. For the past twenty years, about 30 staff members each semester took classes free. Beginning in the spring
The tuition assistance program
semester, the University will allow 100 staff members a chance to finish degrees or take courses for self-improvement.
Robert Hemenway
"I really think if we believe in education, trying to make students better employees for the work force, we need to invest in our own work force at the University." Hemenway
said. "These staff members take the empty seats in classrooms and take advantage of the knowledge."
"I believe this is proper expense for a university to invest in the training of its own work force," Hemenway said.
The price tag for an increase in the tuition assistance will be minor, said Lindy Eakin, associate provost for support services.
"Averaging 70 people, taking three hours at the in-state undergraduate rate, equals only about $14,000." Eakin said. "The relative cost for the real gain in staff improvement is minimal."
Janet Mears, bookkeeper for the
Comptroller's Office, has taken part in the tuition assistance program several times during her 11 years with the University.
Martha University.
Mears first attended the University for two-and-a-half years during the early '80s, and began working for KU in 1990. She will graduate in May with a degree in business administration and psychology.
"I think this program is fantastic. Everyone should try to take advantage of it," Mears said. "I may not have been able to take the rest of my courses without the tuition assistance."
Mears said after graduation she hoped to remain at the University in a higher position.
With additional slots open next semester, Eakin said he encouraged any interested staff member to
apply. Full-time staff members who wish to apply for tuition assistance must have been with the University for one year, and part-time staff members are applicable after three years with the University. The tuition assistance program is not open to student-employees of the University.
Eakin said a committee of faculty members and human resource officers review applications to select each semester's participants.
"We use a point system to select participants, and basically the less education someone has had, the more points they will get," Eakin said. "We look for those with a plan for college, or those who want to get a better job."
Sunshine day
Pam Dishman / KANSAN
Cory Balsavais, St. Louis, Mo., senior, purchases a sunflower from a stand at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. The Farmer's Market is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6:30
p. m., and every Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The outdoor market is on the corner of 11th and Vermont from mid-May through early November.
Naked man shocks 2 women
Kansan staff writer
By Andrea Albright
The freshmen roommates were returning home to Corbin early Saturday morning from the Daisy Hill residence halls. The women tried unsuccessfully to find a space in the parking garage, and headed east up 11th Street from Indiana Street to look for a space in the parking lot at the top of the hill.
A man exposed himself to two KU roommates near the parking garage west of Corbin Hall at 4 a.m. on Saturday.
As the women drove up 11th Street, a man stood on the north side of the road with his shirt pulled up and his pants open and pushed down.
"he was sort of attempting to cross the street," one of the victims said. "Everything was exposed, and he had
police.
KU police Sgt. Chris Keary said police searched the area but found only one man in the neighborhood. Police took that man to Corbin about 5 a.m., but the women were unable to positively identify him as the attacker.
a smirk on his face."
The women quickly parked the car, hurried into the lobby of their hall, and asked someone to call KU police.
"He fit the description," one of the victims said. "But we couldn't tell if it was him. We were kind of scared to look him in the eyes."
Keary said this was the first incident of indecent exposure this semester. He said the attack was strange because the man was standing on the side of the road
see NAKED, Page 6A
Student senate seat still empty
International Council needs representative
By Spencer Duncan Kansan staff writer
The International Council's Student Senate seat is sitting empty because the group has no members.
The University of Kansas International Council, which appoints one senator, has not done so yet, said Gerald Harris, director of International Student Services, because the council is not in operation.
"All of last year's officers graduated, and the organization has not been reconstituted," Harris said. "Obviously, something needs to be done about the situation."
international Council was established three years ago. The group is supposed to represent international students and develop strategies for approaching issues affecting them.
"We tried to get in touch with them at the end of last year and through the summer," Lafferty said. "But if nobody contacts us and we can't contact them, then there isn't anything we can do. That seat will be empty."
Kevin Lafferty, Senate Executive Council chairman, said Student Senate had tried to contact someone about filling the seat.
Harris said that Gustavo Alvarado, San Raman, Costa Rica, senior, would sit in the seat until the council could be started again.
However, Alvarado is not taking on that responsibility.
"I'm graduating in December, and I don't want to start something I won't finish." Alvarado said. "I'm trying to get the International Student
Dudu Cohavi, International Students Association president, would put someone in the seat.
Association to appoint someone."
"Right now there is no one representing the needs of international students," said Cohavi, an Israel junior. "I want to put someone in that seat."
However, Lafferty said the International Student Association could not appoint someone.
This confusion has lead to a broader discussion about the council's future.
"The only way they could do that is if we wrote new legislation changing our rules," Lafferty said. "I'm all for that if they want to do it, but right now, that seat can only be appointed by the International Council."
"We created the International Council because the International Students Association had become a social group," Harris said. "The council is a political group. However, recently we have considered combining the two."
Alvarado, the International Council's senator last year, said he wanted the groups together.
"We tried it last year but some people were opposed to it," Alvarado said. "These kinds of issues need to be addressed."
In the meantime, the seat remains empty.
Harris said elections for new International Council officers would be held soon. A senator can be chosen then.
"But right now it is hard to tell when that will be," Harris said.
Cohavi is waiting.
"I don't want to have anyone dreaming that the seat will not be filled," Cohavi said. "One way or another it will be."
TODAY
INDEX
Horoscopes ... 2A
Lotto ... 2A
Television ... 2A
Weather ... 2A
Opinion ... 4A
Sports ... 7A
Classifieds ... 9A
Scoreboard ... 10A
www.kansan.com
SUNNY AND WARM
High 86°
Low 60°
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.