SPORTS
No. 2 Nebraska defeated the Kansas volleyball team 15-6,15-2.15-2 last night.Page 1B.
CAMPUS
More KU students are treated for genital warts than any other sexually-transmitted disease. Page 6A.
PARTLY SUNNY High 73° Low 45° Weather: Page 2A.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY TOPEKA, KS 66612
VOL.104.NO.42
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE 19
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20,1994
(USPS 650-640)
Paul Kotz / KANBAN
NEWS:864-4810
As director of KU's Institute of Haitian Studies, Bryant Freeman has been the source of many interviews about the troubled country.
rreeman, director of KU's Institute of Haitian Studies, said the phone hadn't stopped ringing since Haiti became the news tonic du jour.
KU's Haiti specialist in demand
Vast knowledge proves useful for local expert
"It's really no credit to me." Freeman said. "There just aren't that many Haiti specialists around."
Freeman has been interviewed by more television stations, newspapers and radio stations than he can count, he said. On Oct. 6, Freeman wrote a guest column for USA Today's editorial page.
Life has been pretty hectic lately for KU Haiti expert Brent Freeman,
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
"I've gotten several calls from USA Today," he said. They always refer to me as one of the foremost experts on Haiti."
Freeman is an expert on Haitian language and culture. He has made numerous trips to Haiti during the past 35 years. Most recently, he assisted a 1993 joint United Nations/Organization of American States mission to educate the Haitian people to coupe
"There just aren't that many Haiti specialists around."
Bryant Freeman KU director of the Institute of Haitian Studies
crimes against them. His extensive experience in Haiti has proven useful recently, Freeman said.
"It's like you you're training your whole life to do something, and then it finally happens," he said. "Any professor who has done a lot of work in a field could have this happen. It's just what comes up in the news."
Freeman said he had answers ready and waiting for reporters, who tend to ask the same questions in each interview.
"I pretty much know what they're going to ask before they ask it," he said. "I've been asked the same questions again and again."
The worst day, Freeman said, was Sept. 19, the day after the United States signed an accord with Haiti.
See FREEMAN, Page 6A.
Students sue landlord for tapping into water
Workers used water that tenants paid for
By Manny Lopez
Kansan staff writer
After unsuccessfully trying to resolve problems with their landlord about the use of their outdoor water spigots, two KU students and their current roommate have taken their case to court.
They are seeking more than $50,000 in damages from Steven L. George, their former landlord and the owner of Northwinds Apartments, 1311 George Court. The two KU students were roommates in an apartment at the time, and the third lived in a separate apartment. The third person in
ADVICE: Legal Services for Students offers tips when dealing with landlord-tenant disputes. Page 3A.
the lawsuit is Lisa Ross, 25, a dental hygienist. She did not live with Combes and Ferder at the time, but she said her water also was used without her permission when she lived at Northwinds Apartments.
The three are claiming:
"The main purpose for us suing is to annoy him and make his life difficult like he made ours," said Bill Combes, Long Island, NY, senior. "He is going to have to spend money, and even if we lose the case there will be some satisfaction."
that George and Northwinds Apartments improperly gave a construction company permission to use their water soots.
that George and Northwinds Apartments did not abide by the parameters of the leases.
George refused to comment on the case, but his management agent, Crystal Harris, said she thought the case was absurd.
About a month before the water problems started, Combes, Ferder and Ross wrote to Northwinds Apartments saying they wanted to renew their leases. They said they even received thank-you letters for the renewal commitments.
that George and Northwinds Apartments stole their water by illegally taking control of their spigot, which interfered with their rights to control their water.
Jake Ferder, Bonner Springs senior, said he and Combes were overcharged about $100, which was spread over water bills between May and August.
The former tenants are seeking more than $50,000 from George and Northwinds Apartments for the water bills, moving expenses, lost days of work, payment of the difference of their new rent, emotional
But they said that a month later, when the time came to sign their new leases, they were told they could not renew.
distress and other punitive damages.
Ferder said he had lived in the apartment complex since August 1991, and he said he had never been late with his rent payment.
Ferder and Combes said they thought the
See LANDLORD. Page 6A.
RESPECT OR RACISM?
File Photo / FLORIDA STATE MEDI RELATIONS OFFICE
NATIVE -AMERICAN MASCOTS TAKE HEAT ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
About 100 students from Haskell Indian Nations University huddle in the rain for a recent 27-12 drizzly drubbing of Mid-America Nazarene College's junior varsity.
Sparse cheers follow the Haskell Indians, the orange and white spears on their football helmets glistening in the rain, as they trot off their home field.
"Indians, explode!" the cheer-leaders vell.
From the center of the scoreboard, Haskell's mascot, a warbonneted Sioux warrior, watches the scene, his expression unchanging.
At Haskell, a university exclusively for members of recognized Native-American tribes, the issue of its mascot rarely pops up. But even there, where a Native-American mascot is undeniably politically correct, the question is asked: Are the Haskell Indians or any of the more than 120 junior colleges' and universities' Native-American mascots racist? Are the mascots symbols of respect for the tenacity of Native Americans? Or are they a mixture of both?
"If we're going to do something about it, we should change our names, too," says Yvette Hernandez, a Haskell sophomore and an oglala Sioux watching the game.
The drive to expunge Native-American mascots from college sports first flared in the 1970s on reservations, in Native-American communities and in Native-American newspapers. Even today, the
"It demeans and denigrates a
most virulent opponents of Native-American mascots often are the civil rights leaders of that decade.
living people's culture and symbols," says Vernon Bellecourt, president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media. "It trivializes a culture,
which breeds intolerance."
Chief Osceola appears at halftime at Florida State University home games.
Bellecourt, a Native American from the Anishinabe nation, has dealt with the issue of Native-American college mascots
since he joined the American Indian Movement in the late 1960s. He since has filed suit against the Washington Redskins, protested the Atlanta Braves at the World
tened the Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead Stadium "Narrow Stadium."
Many fans still don't understand what the dispute is all about.
But William
Means, president of the International Indian Treaty Council, understands it well. One of his
See RESPECT, Page 8A.
Republican candidate desires 46th district seat
Editor's note. This is the second of two stories profiling the Republican and Democratic candidates for the 46th district of the Kansas House of Representatives. The Kansan will be profiling all the candidates and issues on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Eric Schmidt, Republican candidate for state representative from the 46th district, has held a lot of jobs.
By David Wilson Kansan staff writer
reporter for KLWN, account executive for a Topeka television station, camera operator for a Wichita television station, and at this time is financial advisor for Berthel-Fisher, an Overland Park financial advising firm.
He has been a computer store owner, radio
founded two years ago.
Almost every Thursday night, Schmidt and other volunteers at the East Lawrence Recreation Center organize sports, games and other activities for area children.
Schmidt, 34, is running against Troy Findley, the Democratic candidate, and Ena Wheeler, the Libertarian candidate.
"It's positive interaction between adults and kids," Schmidt said. "It's a matter of affecting lives."
But one of Schmidt's favorite jobs — one that does not yield a paycheck — is as director of the East Lawrence Youth Program, which he
Schmidt said that reaching out to children was his way of taking stock in the future, something
he said was an important part of leadership.
"Part of leadership is looking ahead and seeing trouble spots," he said. "I have my finger on the pulse of what needs to be done."
Schmidt grew up in Cheney, a small farming community in south central Kansas. He gradu-
9
Daron Bennett / KANSAN
See SCHMIDT, Page 6A.
Eric Schmidt is the Republican candidate for the 46th district of the Kansas House of Representatives.