Coach: Marian Washington comments on her Olympic experience. Page 3B Travels: Chancellor Hemenway attempts to tour all 105 Kansas counties. Page 3A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1996
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.103,NO.8
(USPS 650-640)
Sex scandal tarnishes final convention night
CHICAGO — President Clinton's chief political strategist and author of his family values agenda resigned in a sex scandal yesterday, sourcing Clinton's shining moment on the final night of the Democratic convention.
The exit of Dick Morris tite a gaping hole in Clinton's election team on the eve of the fall campaign and threw the White House into a frenzy of damage control.
Morris fled home to Connecticut after publication of intimate details of an alleged year-long affair with a $200-an-hour call girl, Sherry Rowlands.
Morris supposedly invited her to listen on on telephone conversations with the president and showed her copies of convention speeches to be given by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
As the news swept through the convention, Morris left a seven-paragraph resignation statement in Chicago before leaving.
Orangutans escape enjoy brief freedom
WICHITA — A hole in the steel wire mesh of a Wichita zoo orangutan exhibit allowed a 60-pound ape and her 30-pound younger brother to slip out for about a half-hour of freedom.
The orangutans escaped Wednes day afternoon, prompting zoo officials to implement code red procedures. They put the rest of the orangutans into their night quarters, cleared visitors from the area and closed the zoo temporary.
but the two younger orangutans returned to their cage voluntarily, almost as if they wanted to escape the sudden attention of zoo officials who were trying to herd them back into their home.
His sister ran around the enclosure, then entered through a door that zoo keepers opened. No one was injured.
"All these animals wanted to do was get back inside," said Mike Quick, the zoo's mammal curator. "As soon as the youngster saw the zoo keepsers gathering around, he went right back in to his mother."
All of the orangutans are being kept in their indoor exhibit while zoo officials determine how the steel mesh enclosure frared.
The exhibit, part of the Koch Orangutan and Chimpanzee Habitat, opened May 24. The naturalistic enclosure is made up of a steel mesh canopy held up by a 35-foot pole and draped over four wooden platforms.
Plane crash in Arctic kills all passengers
OSLO, Norway — A Russian plane carrying coal miners to work at a remote, desolate arctic island smashed into a snow-covered mountaintop yesterday, killing all of the more than 140 people aboard.
In what the prime minister called the worst air disaster on Norwegian soil, the Tupelov 154 from Moscow crashed six miles from its destination — the airport on Spitsbergen, the main island in the Svalbard archipelago about 400 miles north of Norway.
Most of the passengers were Ukrainian men and their families, returning after time off to jobs at a Russian-run coal mine on the island. Waiting at the airport for them were 120 other miners, whom the plane would have taken home. After hearing the news, those miners were taken to a local town hall, where they spoke quietly to each other or sat in stunned silence.
Initial reports said there were 141 people aboard, including 12 crew members, but Norwegian officials said later that the plane might have carried a crew of 14.
The Associated Press
Med Center fined $265,000
Money will pay for malpractice
By Stephanie Fite Kansan staff reporter
Attorney General Carla Stovall announced yesterday that the University of Kansas Medical Center will have to pay $265,000 as a result of its malpractice.
Fifteen heart transplant patients and their families will receive $11,000 each, and the center also has to pay $100,000 for investigative fees and expenses according to a settlement for violations.
future, because it faces additional charges from private counsel.
The attorney general's office started its investigation in May 1995. The investigation ended December 1995, and the settlement for the violations of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act was announced yesterday.
The center may face more fines in the
Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the University disputed Stovall's conclusions, but accepted responsibility for the transplant program.
"This agreement helps us continue to move ahead," he said.
"It is beyond my comprehension that a distinguished institution with the reputation and stature of the University of Kansas Medical Center could allow this kind of egregious behavior to take place," Stovall said. "This is a means to penalize KUMC and seek restitution for the patients for what we believe were extremely serious problems."
Stovall said she was stunned that the violations occurred in a program involving patients with severe, life threatening medical conditions.
The Med Center voluntarily suspended its heart transplant program in April 1995, in response to reports in the Kansas City Star that no transplants were performed from early May 1994 through late March
1995. The Med Center continued to take heart transplant patients during this period, but reportedly refused 38 hearts for nonmedical reasons.
In addition, the Med Center did not inform its patients that the qualified heart surgeon quit on Nov. 4, 1994, and that the replacement surgeon wasn't qualified to perform heart transplants.
The attorney general's office based its conclusions on a review of information provided by the Med Center's counsel, records and correspondence from the Midwest Organ Bank, and interviews with patients and relatives.
Stowall cited deficiencies including inadequate communication with patients and insufficient coordination between all departments involved.
Donald Hagen, who began his job as executive vice chancellor of the Med Center after the investigation started, said he agreed with the settlement.
"This settlement is simply the right thing to do for KU Medical Center staff, patients and the people of Kansas," he said.
Consumer Protection Act Laws
These are a few of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act laws the University of Kansas Medical Center, the University of Kansas Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Foundation and the University of Kansas Internal Medicine Foundation allegedly violated.
They continued to promote the heart transplant program although it was in threat of cancellation.
They did not inform patients that donor heart offers were consistently refused for nonmedical reasons.
They did not inform patients that no surgeon was available to perform heart transplant for at least two months following Nov. 4, 1994
They told patients they had been added to a waiting list when they had not been. Patients were given false information about positions on the waiting list and false information about reasons for rejections of donor hearts.
Yield to traffic delays
Chris Hamilton / KANSAN
Officer Brad Bernhardt, Kansas Highway Patrol state trooper, directs traffic off of the Lawrence and I-70 exit before the football game last night.
Construction slows fans
By Cameron Heeg Kansan staff reporter
The drive to the KU football game last night turned out pretty well, at least for motorists who took K-10.
Construction on the I-70 Turnpike from both Topeka and Kansas City leading into Lawrence slowed down fans on their way to the Kansas football game last night.
"Getting to the games is tough, all the construction slows you down," said Bob Calvin, Denver resident. "Denver doesn't compare to this. There is lots of construction on the Turnpike."
There are three major construction
projects on the Turnpike, with the West Lawrence turnpike being the most recent. Construction stretches for about one half mile near Bonner Springs. Three miles between Lawrence and Topeka is reduced to single lane traffic flow in both directions.
"We will have the interchange done soon," said Tom Wurdeman, division engineer for the Kansas Turnpike Authority. "We are pushing the projects as hard as we can."
Lawrence resident. "You have to slow down three miles before the construction, and it takes 50 guys in orange to tell you. The Tumpike developed as a temporary funding resource for tolls, and now it has become a permanent funding hole."
Some of the fans in the Memorial Stadium parking disagreed with the pace of construction.
Road construction is a reality for motorists, but there are ways to combat the lills associated with it, such as leave early or taking K-10.
"It is the usual frustration of a constant traffic battle," said John Esau,
"Traffic wasn't as bad as I initially expected, but I left Kansas City at 4:45," said Kris Bruso, Kansas City, Mo., resident. "The single lane traffic was at 50 to 55 mph. Well, I guess that is the speed limit."
CHANCE OF RAIN
TODAY
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.
www.kansan.com
INDEX
TV ...2A
Opinion ...4A
National News ...9A
Features ...10A
Scoreboard ...2B
Classifieds ...8B
Football on B1
Council approves revision in faculty evaluations policy
By Lindsey Henry
Kansan staff writer
Placing criticisms and concerns aside, the University Council voted last night to accept a revised policy on faculty evaluations that allows for the termination of tenured faculty members.
Following an hour of questions and comments from about 70 faculty members and student senators, the council voted 21-12 to accept the policy. The new policy includes detailed actions to evaluate, assist and possibly terminate faculty members that continually fail to prove their competence in the classroom.
The University's policy was redrafted in response to the Kansas Board of Regents demand last May that all state institutions establish an explicit policy on performance evaluation, Provost David Shulenburger said. All institutions have until Sept. 20 to reissue their policy to the board. If the Regents do not approve of the directives, they will issue a policy for the University.
The new version of the document says that dismissal policies will include a faculty member's chronic low performance despite all University assistance as an indicator of the employee's incompetence.
"This kind of stuff is too important to get stuck in protocol," Draper said.
To ease faculty frustrations, the council extended an open invitation to the faculty to attend the meeting in Alderson Auditorium, said Lawrence Draper, council president and professor of microbiology.
"I read this draft of the policy as explicit." Shulen-burger said. "The University will put forth full effort to make sure no one falls into this, but I don't believe the Regents want us dismissing faculty."
Despite the open forum to suggest improvements, the only proposition amended was one to modify certain wordings. Concerns about the policy's ambiguous time frame for evaluation were not addressed in the final vote.
Whereas the University's policy does not state the specific amount of time a faculty member has to improve after a negative evaluation, Kansas State University's policy has an exact time frame for dismissal.
Chris Hansen, student body president of Kansas State, said its policy explained that three negative evaluations in five years would be cause for dismissal.
"We have a three strikes and you're out policy," Hansen said. "We feel confident this will pass the board. We feel our plan is more specific and task-oriented."
Kansas State's decisive plan was one that had impressed the Board of Regents, Draper said.
"I am frightened, however, of a policy like Kansas State's," Draper said. "I felt a delineation of time was unwarranted."
Betty Banks, council member and associate professor of classics, said she thought allowing time to assist a faculty member improved the University.
"We are preserving academic freedom," Banks said. "I am proud of a document that is not buckling to a 1,2,3 strikes you're out policy. But if the Regents want to micromanage, they are going to micromanage."
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