RAVEN
Tomorrow's weather
Warmer and becoming mostly sunny.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Tuesday
September 28, 1999
HIGH LOW
62 42
Section:
Inside today
Dan Quayle called it quits this weekend when he dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
A
SEE PAGE 5A
Kansas Soccer
Vol. 110·No.28
The Jayhawks shut out Drury College and Creighton University in the KU Credit Union Jayhawk Invitational.
SEE PAGE 1B
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Student Senate hopes fund raising will replace fee
By Chris Borniger
Kansan staff writer
Depending on how Chancellor Robert Hemenway's chooses his priorities, a new campus recreation center approved through a student referendum last spring could cost students a lot less.
If the upcoming Capital Campaign raises enough money, a $49 fee increase to fund the recreation center might not be implemented, said David Ambler, vice chancellor of student affairs.
"We could forget about taxing students," he said.
Student Senate's Capital Campaign Task Force submitted a list of the student body's wishes to administrators last week. The report included proposals for more scholarships, fellowships and improvements to buildings and student life.
The campaign is a major fund-raising drive that is expected to continue for four years. Senate's wish list is only one of many sent to the administration, including those from academic departments and schools.
The last fund-raising campaign, which was from 1988 to 1992, raised $265.3 million.
Ambler said the chancellor would prioritize projects that benefited a majority of people at the University.
Student Body President Korb Maxwell, the task force's chairman, said the upcoming campaign had great potential to benefit the University.
"Some things will get funded," he said.
"Some things won't."
"It's getting big," he said. "We have the chance to get money outside of the University and plan for the long term. We're trying to take a proactive step to do that."
The task force recommended that the University use $1 million from the campaign to create an endowed lecture series that would bring top-tier international and national speakers to the University. Moreover, the task force proposed using funds to help pay for the new recreation center, which students approved by referendum last spring, and to build bus shelters and a science lab building solely for undergraduate use.
underge-
Senate also could authorize allocating money from its reserve account to the University. Nonetheless, Maxwell said, the University should first look to the Endowment Association, and not to students.
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
The following are projects the Student Senate Capital Campaign Task Force recommended that University administrators include in the campaign:
Campus Life:
Endowed lecture series
Campus recycling
Community service center
University information center Scholarships
Service scholarships
Service scholarships
Minority and international scholarships
Alternative break program
Study abroad scholarships Facilities:
Undergraduate science building Student learning
Recreation center
Pur shalters
Graduate Student Support:
- First-year doctoral student fellowships
- Disposition fellowships
- Distinguished graduate teaching assistant positions
positions
Faculty Teaching and Research Supports
Ministry faculty recruits
Distinguished professorships
International curricular development
“There are a lot of things students already put money into,” he said. “We want to leverage some of that. Students are not the answer to the funding crises of the University.”
Aravind Muthukrishnan, Finance Committee chairman, said any expenditure from Senate's reserve account must warrant a worthy cause.
"I don't have any reservations about spending it, I just don't want it to be for frivolous things," he said. "Students shouldn't expect to have things handed to them. I just want to make sure students are involved in the process."
John Scarfe, director of communications for the Kansas University Endowment Association, said student involvement in fund-raising campaigns was rare.
occasionally, students rally around a cause and raise funds for their school or a competition," he said.
Still, Scarfe said administrators would take student concerns into consideration.
"The chancellor will have to work with students just like he would have to work with faculty members," he said.
- Edited by Mike Loader
Stormy weather
A bright spot amid the gray- Amanda Yencic, Overland Park junior, made her way home down Jayhawk Boulevard through scattered rain and cool temperatures. Photo Jamie Roper/KANSAN
several plants and algae grow on the edges of Potter Lake because of a building of silt and dissolved nutrients. Potter Lake has been declared
Algae growing in Potter Lake may be harmful for fish, pets
By Mindie Miller
Special to the Kansan
The lake, located just west of the Campanile, was one of approximately 120 bodies of water in the Kansas-lower Republican basin, the area of the Kansas River that Potter Lake is located in, to be classified by the state in June as impaired.
Potter Lake has made the list. But this is not good news.
Shari Stamer, City of Lawrence water quality manager, said impairment of a lake referred to whether its designated uses were being fully supported.
"Water quality monitoring assesses the level of pollutants present in the water against the applicable standards," she said. "If such assessment shows consistent non-achievement of the standards, the water is deemed water quality impaired relative to its designated use."
Stamer said Potter Lake made the list because it was eutrophic. Eutrophication occurs when dissolved nutrients saturate water, often causing undesirable plant growth and dissolved oxygen depletion. Eutrophication can lower water clarity and cause the proliferation of nuisance organisms, such as certain species of
algae.
Tom Stiles, chief of planning and prevention for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said if these toxins were present, they could cause illness in dogs that drank from the lake.
algae.
Stamer said one such group, blue-green algae, could produce odors and metabolic toxins that could be harmful to organisms both on land and in the water.
Despite the possible presence of these algae, Kris D'Atri, Canton, Ohio, graduate student, said she would continue to bring her 5-year-old dog, Kiymi, to the lake. She said she and other dog owners frequently talked about the water quality at Potter Lake.
"We wonder about it," D'Arri said.
"The consensus is that it's okay."
Dogs aren't the only animals that could be affected by the lake's eutrophic condition. The problem also hurts the lake's fish.
Stiles said the lake's fish may be somewhat stunted, but they would not hurt humans if eaten.
He said cleaning up Potter Lake was a low priority for the state because it was not a source of drinking water, and it was within the University of Kansas' jurisdiction. He said campus officials
controlled the assessment and treatment of water quality issues at the lake
"The grounds people could evaluate how they're putting fertilizer in the areas that are draining into the lake." Stiles said. "Reducing that could go a long way in dropping the productivity of the lake."
Mike Russell, director of the department of environment health and safety at the University, said he did not think there was any excessive fertilization in that area. He said eutrophication was a natural process that was part of the evolution of a body of water.
"Being a storm water retention pond, and being there for so long, it's probably got a lot of silt in it and that shallows out the water," Russell said. "That allows plants to grow around the edges. There's not a lot you can do about that."
He said he was surprised Potter Lake ever made it on to the impaired list.
Stamer said private ponds were not included on the list and that although Potter Lake was a low priority, officials on campus would eventually have to address the impairment of the lake.
"My contention is that there are thousands of ponds across the state, and they're not on that list," Russell said.
— Edited by Ronnie Wachter
Hemenway defends seal with vigor
By Clay McCuistion
Kansan staff writer
The University seal has been challenged, and the chancellor has answered.
The KU chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union received a response from Chancellor Robert Hemenway yesterday defending the University of Kansas seal.
— which shows Moses kneeling before the burning bush, surrounded by a Bible verse in Latin — was appropriate in the context of a public University.
KU ACLU had questioned whether the seal
The chancellor, in emphatic terms, wrote that the seal was indeed appropriate.
"I view the seal of the University as one of its valuable assets, one that has served the University well for over 120 years." Hemenway wrote. "I will not hesitate to defend fully the continued use of the seal."
The chancellor's letter also included a brief history of the seal and cited court cases, concluding "Even if an observer of the University of Kansas seal recognized the depiction of Moses before a burning bush, and even if the observer can translate the Latin phrase, that observer, aware of the purpose, context and history of the development of the seal could not reasonably consider its use to be an endorsement of religion."
Kevin Simvits, president of KU ACLU, and Buddy Lloyd, its media director, signed a Sept. 9 letter to the chancellor questioning the seal. They received the reply at 11 a.m., yesterday.
"The nature of the response; the
totally expected they said. "We appreciate the dialogue."
He said KU ACLU was now working closely with the Kansas-Western Missouri affiliate of the group. The University chapter was under the affiliate's jurisdiction, and any decide about possible
action would come from the affiliate.
"At this point, it will be primarily in their hands, if they want to take it on." Sivils said.
He said the group's next step would be to write another letter, citing court cases which supported the contention that the seal inappropriately used religious symbols. The letter would be composed in collaboration
with the Kansas-Western Missouri affiliate.
"When we respond,we definitely have to do more research than just asking a question." Lloyd said.
Sivits said he was glad the University responded to ACLU's letter.
"We appreciate the University's response and the fact they're taking this issue seriously" Sivits said.
Lloyd agreed.
"We have absolutely no vendetta against the administration. We are simply pursuing a legitimate concern," he said.
Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the Kansas-Western Missouri ACLU affiliate, said the group closely followed the KU chapter.
"We are intimately involved in matters that they get involved in," he said.
Kurtenbach was unwilling to speculate how the investigation into the seal would proceed.
"It's really too early to say, to speculate how it may develop," he said.
What will KU ACLU do next?
What will KU ACLU do next?
"Only time will tell." Lloyd said
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Edited by Matt James