CAMPUS
A KU graduate will leave Saturday for Denver to work in President Clinton's Americorps. Page 3A.
FEATURES
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Fashion is more than just coordinating colors. For some, it is a window into the personality. Page 4B.
COOLER High 86° Low 70° Weather: Page 2A.
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA, KS 66612
VOL.104.NO.17
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 1994
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
GTAs wait for judge's ruling on work status
By Colleen McCain
Kansan staff writer
For graduate teaching assistant Dan Murtaugh, the past year has been a waiting game.
Hearings to determine whether Murtaugh and other University of Kansas GTAs are public employees concluded Sept. 27, 1993, but Murtaugh says GTAs and University administrators can do nothing now but continue to wait
"Initially we hoped to receive a decision this summer, and then we were told that we would have a decision around Labor Day," Murtaugh said. "Now we could get a decision any day, but we don't know. The Kansas Public Employees Relations Board has a backlog of cases, and that's delaying the decision."
The week-long hearings, which pitted the GTAs against University administrators, were conducted by Monty Bertelli, a hearing examiner for the Kansas Public Employees Relations Board. Based on testimony and evidence presented in the hearings, Bertelli will recommend whether GTAs are public employees.
Murtaugh said the GTAs believed they were public employees and should be allowed to unionize.
"We believe that we work for the state, but the University disagrees," Murtragh said. "If we are public employees, then we can form a collective bargaining unit and negotiate contracts and employee benefits."
According to Public Employer-Employee Relations Acts of the Kansas statutes, a public employee is any person - excluding supervisory, professional, elected or confidential workers - employed by any public agency.
During the hearings, the University maintained that the nature of the relationship between the University and GTAs was academic and not employer-employee.
Andrew Debicki, vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and public service, said GTAs were primarily students who were in training to be the teachers of the future
"We are trying to make them into better teachers, and classifying them as public employees would hamper our system of apprenticeship." Debicki said.
After the hearing examiner makes his recommendation, both the University and the GTAs have the option to appeal to the entire Kansas Public Employees Board. Debicki said that he could not speculate whether the University would appeal.
"If the decision is not in our favor, no one person will make the decision to appeal," he said. "Legal opinions are rarely a flat 'yes' or 'no', so we will have to study the decision."
"At this point there's nothing to say until we have the decision," Shankel said. "Obviously, we'll review the decision and go from there."
Chancellor Del Shankel said that he, the executive vice chancellor, and the vice chancellors would review the decision to determine what action, if any, would be appropriate.
Scott Stone, chief counsel for the Kansas Association of Public Employees, represented the GTAs during the hearings. He said that he anticipated a decision in the GTAs' favor.
"I would be surprised if the decision did not support us." Stone said. "This will set a precedent in Kansas, but the trend in other states has been toward allowing the GTAs public employee status."
David Reidy, Lawrence graduate student and former GTA, said the GTAs' recourse would be simple if the decision sided with the University.
"There are two possible outcomes, and we simply will appeal if the decision is not in our favor." Reedy said.
If the decision favored the GTAs, and the University appealed, Reidy said GTAs would consider taking action against the University.
"A walkout would be a possibility," he said. "A long-term walkout is unlikely, but a less disruptive walkout for, perhaps, a day would make a practical and moral point. It would make a strong point about our solidarity."
Vice chancellor Debicki said a walkout would be the wrong mode of action for GTAs.
"A walkout puts our relationship in the context of a labor situation, not a university," he said. "But I suppose they can do whatever they want."
Slow, but sure
Organizers of the club sports rugby and soccer have shown their dedication while battling for practice space and student interest.
Jay Thornton / KANSAN
Get-well card makes many sick
Page1B.
Muhammed Saeed, a Sunni Muslim, is on a hurger strike protesting a greeting card made by Recycled Paper Greetings of Chicago. He has not eaten for seven days and said he planned to continue his strike until the company had made a public apology.
Muslims offended by 'bigoted' card; boycott pending
By Nathan Olson
Kansan staff writer
Fighting hatred is becoming a potential life-and-death struggle for Muhammed Saeed.
Saeed, a Lawrence resident who is Muslim, has been on a hunger strike since Sept. 5. He is protesting a get-well card produced by Chicago-based Recycled Paper Greetings.
The front of the card shows a woman in a black robe. A white veil covers her entire face, except for her eyes. The type reads: "Rather than confront her morbid fear of germs, Millicent changed her name to Yazmine and moved to Tehran."
Inside, the card reads: "So you're feeling like Shiite. Don't Mecca big deal out of it."
Violence against Muslims intense
Saeed is the only person upset about the card. Campus and University Muslim organizations have planned a rally at 10 a.m. today in front of the Kansas Union to protest the card.
Saeed said the card was offensive to Muslims because it degraded Muslim women, equated the second-largest sect of Islam with excrement, and demeaned the importance of Mecca by turning the city into a pun.
By Nathan Olson
Kansan staff writer
Aminah Assilmi understood how far-reaching violence against Muslims had become the day the United States became involved in the Gulf War.
See CARD, Page 5A.
"My son, who was in fifth grade, was beaten up that day because his name was Muhammed," she said.
Asslimi, Lawrence resident and director of the International Union of Muslim Women, said the incident was indicative of the increasing violence against Muslims in the United States.
"Even U.S. government documents warn about the existence of an Islamic state," she said.
"The World Trade Center bombings were not done by any Islamic population," she said. "No Islamic organization."
Assilmi said that last year's World Trade Center bombing provided an example of how Muslims often are stereotyped. Many people assumed that because the bombers were Arabic, they were acting on behalf of an Islamic organization.
tion has claimed responsibility for it."
"Communism is dead, so who does America have to hate?" he said.
Increasingly, Muslims are being stereotyped as radical fundamentalists. Assilmi said.
The card is part of a larger hatred of Muslims, Saeed said.
"But Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland are not considered fundamentalists even though there is terrorism there," she said.
Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., said that the national media had not been covering incidents of violence against Muslims.
The problem is that the United States is a very ethnocentric country, said Muhammed Saeed, a Lawrence resident who is Muslim.
"If there's no one to hate, we'll find someone," he said. Saeed has been on a hunger strike since Sept. 5 in protest of a greeting card which uses the word "Shite" as a pun for human excrement.
Muslims in the United States
Muslims in the United States Percent of U.S. Muslim population by ethnicity
States with most Muslims Estimated population
Ken Marshall and Steve Little / Knight-Ridder Tribune
Just two weeks ago, Hooper said, a mosque in Yuba City, Calif., was burned, causing nearly $1 million in damage. The media did not report the incident nationally until Hooper contacted news services.
"The card and the mosque all fit into a cultural milieu in which its OK to be hostile to Muslims," Hooper said. "Muslims only appear on the cultural radar screen when they do something bad."
Museum director will miss the university lifestyle
By Shannon Newton
Kansan staff writer
Philip Humphrey loves his animal collection.
And in his 26 years as director of KU's Museum of Natural History, Humphrey has worked to expand the collection and many other aspects of the museum. Humphrey, who will retire June 1, has overseen the museum's growth in funding, research and technology.
"When I arrived in 1968, technology was beginning to emerge," he said. "Now everyone in the museum has access to a computer."
Humphrey said that throughout his tenure, the museum had received grant money from the National Science Foundation to allow for a larger concentration on research.
"The faculty can spend more time doing research, and the money allows for more graduate assistant positions," he said.
Humphrey began working at the University of Kansas in August 1968. He came from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., where he was the chairman of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology. From 1957 to 1962 Humphrey was a faculty member at Yale University.
Humphrey said that when he discovered there was an opening at KU's Natural History Museum he applied for the job because he wanted to return to a universi-
tv setting.
Philip Humphrey, director of KU's Museum of Natural History, is leaving after 26 years of service. Humphrey said of his coming departure, "When I leave, I want to go out quacking, not as a lame duck."
"Of all the work that I have done in research and museums, I enjoy being at a university." Humphrey said.
Humphrey, who specializes in ornithology the study of birds, does not take credit for the museum's success.
Paul Kotz/KANBAN
"My colleagues are the ones that put this place on the map," Humphrey says, "I am lucky to have been on duty throughout the museum's success."
One of the largest changes that Humphrey has seen is the merging of four of KU's museums into one budgetary unit, he said.
"The directors of all of the museums felt it would be more beneficial for research and grants," Humphrey said. "So a couple of years ago we began the planning stages."
Kathryn Morton, marketing and communications coordinator for the museum, has worked with Humphrey for 18 months and said that she had learned a great deal from his work at the museum.
look over your shoulder while you complete it."
"He's a very supportive and fair administrator," Morton said. "When you have an idea, he lets you run with it. He doesn't
When Humphrey retires, his successor will be Leonard "Kris" Kristalka, assistant director for science at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.
Humphrey said that he felt emotional about leaving the University.
"I told Kris that I felt like I was giving up the museum for adoption." Humphrey said, "but he reassured me that I had unlimited visitation rights."
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