Wednesday, October 13, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
South Lawrence Trafficway could face detour
Pemina Yellowbird speaks before the Haskell Indian Nations University Board of Regents urging it to veto the proposed South Lawrence Trafficway. Nearly 100 students appeared before the board in protest of the highway. Photo by Joseph Griffin/KANSAN.
Haskell board to decide about vetoing plan
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Derek Prater
The South Lawrence Trafficway may have had its last rites read yesterday amid drumbeats and traditional Native-American songs.
The Haskell Indian Nations University Board of Regents met yesterday at the Haskell campus to conduct a hearing on a proposed extension of the trafficway that would cross Haskell land and the Baker Wetlands. A decision on the issue from the Haskell Board of Regents could come later today.
The board can veto any proposal that impacts Haskell land.
Nearly 100 Haskell Indian Nations University students, faculty and alumni rallied before the meeting in protest of the extension. Members of
the student-led Wetlands Preservation Organization beat a drum, sang honor songs and held signs to show solidarity against the trafficway, said Carol Burns, secretary of the organization and Haskell student.
Stan Ross, Haskell faculty sponsor for the organization, said the debate about the trafficway had gone on too long.
"It makes me angry that we have to keep coming back and telling these people no." Ross said.
Representatives from the Douglas County Commission, the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the Kansas Department of Transportation and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation were on hand to provide information to the Haskell Board of Regents.
The idea for the trafficway was conceived in 1986 to relieve growing traffic congestion on 23rd Street. State, county and federal governments have spent $53 million to complete the western part
The initial route chosen for the eastern stretch of the trafficway crossed Haskell land over what is currently 31st Street.
of the trafficw that reaches around the southern end of Lawrence.
In 1994, former Haskell president Bob Martin raised concerns to the Federal Highway Administration about historic lands being affected by the project.
The highway administration decided that a supplemental environmental-impact study concerning the historic and environmental impacts of the eastern leg of the trafficway would need to be completed before the project could go further.
The department of transportation tried to defederalize the eastern leg of the project to avoid the need for a supplemental study, but a lawsuit by the preservation organization brought about a judge's ruling that the entire project had to meet the highway administration's specifications.
The highway administration determined that the trafficway would affect historic Haskell lands and granted the Haskell Board of Regents veto power on any proposal that crossed Haskell lands.
"It makes me angry that we have to keep coming back and, telling these people no."
Stan Ross
Wetlands Preservation Organization
State and federal officials provided information to the board about the 31st Street route, alternate routes to the south and a mitigation plan that would be attached to the 31st Street route.
Dean Carlson, secretary of transportation, said the department would not build on alternate routes at 35th Street, 38th Street or south of the Wakarusa River.
Carlson said Haskell either could accept the 31st Street route and the mitigation package or maintain its position against the route, in which case the trafficway would not be completed.
"You hold the key to the trafficway in your hands," he said.
The package totals about $5,000,000. Carlson said.
The mitigation package would include land from the Baker Wetlands to be given to Haskell, noise mitigation in the form of earth mounds or noise walls, a pedestrian crossing and an archeologist approved by Haskell to oversee any possible artifacts or burial sites encountered during construction.
Prentice Crawford, who as Haskell student body president is a fully-privileged member of the Board of Regents, said the mitigation package would not change Haskell's stance.
"They cannot offer us anything that will change our mind." Crawford said.
However, Mamie Rupnicki board president, said that the board would not make a decision until today at the earliest and that it was keeping an open mind.
"An old quote says, 'A rumor is halfway around the world, while the truth is still putting on its shoes,'" Rupnicki said.
Bill would ask Regents for nondiscrimination policy
Edited by Jamie Knodel
By Chris Borniger
By Chris Borniger
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
In 1970, then-University of Kansas Chancellor Laurence Chalmers vetoed a bill making the Gay Liberation Front an official student organization.
In fact, he vetoed it four times after the Student Senate passed it four times.
Nearly three decades later, in 1998, Emporia State University President Kay Schallenkamp removed a sexual orientation clause from the university's non-
discrimination policy. She later included a non-legally binding companion statement that did include sexual orientation.
These two incidents in the history of higher education in Kansas, Korb Maxwell, student body president, said, should not be allowed to happen again.
Senate will consider a bill tonight, sponsored by Maxwell, that would petition the Board of Regents to embrace a statewide nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation.
"We need to be national leaders
on this issue," he said. "Inequality anywhere is a danger to equality everywhere."
Other than the University, Kansas State University and Wichita State University are the only Regents schools with similar legally-binding clauses.
Maxwell said he would lobby the Regents to consider the policy
The petition mirrors an initiative by the Students Advisory Council, a board composed of the student body presidents of all six major Regents institutions. Maxwell is chairman of the group.
regardless of whether Senate passed the legislation. However, he said getting the Regents to approve it would be difficult.
"I hope they're enthusiastic about it, but I don't expect them to be," he said. "I get the feeling they don't want to confront it right now."
Erin Simpson, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator and a cosponsor of the petition, echoed that sentiment.
"I'm cynical but hopeful at the same time." she said.
Protecting gay rights at the university level is definitely a priority, Simpson said. Even if the University already has a protective policy, she said, it was important to set an example.
"It affects our school inclusively," she said. "Ultimately, we want to guarantee that no university can do what Emporia State did."
The Multicultural Affairs and Student Rights committees acclaimed the petition last Wednesday.
Full Senate will convene at 6:30 tonight at the Delta Gamma sorority house, 1015 Emery Road.
- Edited by Brad Hallier
STUDENT SENATE
In other business, Senate will consider:
A petition requesting the addition
A petition requesting the tuition of a course repetition policy to University Senate rules and regulations.
A bill to restructure Student
School of Engineering receives low ranking Adapting teaching styles topic of talk
$910 to fund the KU American Civil Liberties Union's special events
reignite/Awareness/badra
Senise also will review bills to allocate
$292 to the Medical Ethics Club
Kansan staff writer
By Amanda Kaschube
The Aug. 30 edition of U.S. News & World Report placed the University of Kansas School of Engineering toward the bottom of the ladder.
In a ranking poll by the magazine, the school received a 2.9 on a five-point scale, placing it number 74 out of 85 schools in the "Best Undergraduate engineering schools with Ph.D. programs."
Carl Locke, dean of the school, said he was bothered by the study because on a point scale, the school was actually No.20.
all impressions of the school.
"People are not enamored with the surveys," he said. "I wasn't going to respond, but I did so in self defense. I would do the survey again, but not liking it."
Deans and senior faculty members at all of the universities were polled by the magazine to rate the 93 accredited engineering programs in the country. Eight schools did not respond.
Locke said the surveys were based on perception only — individuals who were polled were not asked to rank individual components of the school, only their over-
The magazine has been publishing top undergraduate and graduate programs for more than 10 years, said Celeste James, director of public affairs at the magazine.
"Because it's based on perception, it's hard to know what's going on at other institutions because they change from time to time," he said. "It's a difficult position to be in."
"It's a fair ratings system," she said. "We offer a listing of excellence. People look at the top, but it's not suggesting that the schools at the bottom are the worst."
Several chairpersons of the school share Locke's sentiments.
Mark Ewing, chairman of the aerospace engineering department, said he gave little value to a subjective poll.
"It's like the ranking of all Division I football teams — top to bottom, after 25, it's not that important," he said. "No one should care beyond Top 10 in an objective poll."
The University was tied with 11 other schools for 74th, including Texas Tech University. Of all the Big 12 Conference schools, the University of Texas had the highest ranking at 32 (3.5 points).
Locke said most of the programs in the Big 12 were the same size, with the exception of the University of Texas.
"Those rankings all are equal," he said. "Six were in at 3.0 and 2.8; the programs are all comparable."
John Gauch, chairman of the electrical engineering and computer science department, said the University of Kansas should have been ranked higher.
"It's because Kansans are too modest," he said. "Everybody on the East Coast that can do anything stands on a bridge and yells."
The top engineering program was Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which earned a 4.8.
However, some students are not that concerned.
Michael Randall, Spring Hill junior and engineering major, said he didn't think the school's reputation would be hurt by the rankings.
"KU will still be seen as a good institution even though they were ranked low," he said. "I've had a positive experience here."
- Edited by Brad Hallier
By Iring Rodriguez
Special to the Kansan
Easier classes do not necessarily correlate with good teaching and are not terribly liked by students, said George Enders, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology. Enders, a winner of a 1998-1999 Kemper Award in Teaching Excellence, was one of the five Kemper Award winners at a discussion about changing teaching styles at 3:30 p.m. yesterday at the Jayhawk Room in the Kansas Union.
The five winners, out of the 20 faculty members who won the award this year, led a discussion titled "Different Teaching Styles for Different Times." Sharing their experiences were Dennis Prater, professor of law; Jan Sheldon, professor of human development and physical education; Chris Haufler, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; and Bruce Twarog, professor of physics and astronomy.
"Students come to expect higher-quality presentations and do admire tough teaching standards," Enders said.
Greater use of technology, grade inflation and increased classroom were mentioned as factors affecting changes in
teaching and learning styles.
Haufler said he had been teaching at the University for more than 20 years and had seen the change in the student body.
"When I started, MTV was born," Haufler said. "It spawned a great implication of images, and that put an increased weight on us to integrate images in lecture material."
He said his perception of students also changed.
"In the '80s, they were more introverted and self-aware; currently they respond better to a greater variety of teaching tools," Haufler said.
Prater said he was concerned with the communication skills of students. He said he was giving students more written assignments and oral presentations. Prater said he videotaped the oral presentations so he could show his students their mistakes visually.
Sheldon said she thought today's students were more stressed.
"Their age is the same, but they look older." Sheldon said. "They work more outside of school, more of them have children, and they are worried about their grades."
Edited by Juan H. Heath
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