CAMPUS
Students get a backstage look at the Lied Center, Page 3A.
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KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA, KS 66612
VOL.104.NO.14
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9,1994
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
USAir jetliner crashes, leaves no survivors
Pilot showed no signs of trouble
The Associated Press
ALIQUIPA, Pa. — A USAir jetliner nose-dive into a rainy while trying to land near Pittsburgh yesterday, killing all 131 people on board. It was the deadliest crash in the United States in seven years.
Flight 427 originated in Chicago and was to stop in Pittsburgh before continuing to West Palm Beach, Fla.
"I looked up, and there it was," said Tom Michel, who was at a gas station near the crash site. "It was just coming straight down. I was screaming for everybody to run. It looked like it was under full power, and he just went straight in."
Air traffic controllers said they lost contact with the plane when it was about seven miles from the airport, said Pat Boyle, a representative for the Allegheny County Department of Aviation. There were no indications of any problems on the flight, and a report of an explosion before the crash could not be confirmed.
Michel said there had been a "big boom, and the sky lit up. There was black smoke everywhere, and that was it."
Witnesses reported a gruesome carnage in a clearing on a heavily wooded ravine.
"All we saw was body parts hanging from the trees," said Denise Godich, a nurse who was one of the first at the scene. "There were people everywhere. You could just see parts of them."
Another eyewitness said pieces of plane and baggage were scattered throughout the area.
"We have done a fairly extensive search of the area, and there are no survivors," said Jim Eichenlaub, manager of Hopewell Township and coordinator of emergency services at the scene.
The plane's black box, which records flight data, was recovered, he said.
Emergency crews put out the fire, and the search was called off about two hours after the crash. The area was sealed off for the night, but offroad vehicles were spotted heading to the crash site.
The Boeing 737, which was carrying
126 passengers and a crew of five, went down shortly after 7 p.m. in a field about seven miles from the airport. The airport is 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
"The engines just went dead," eye-witness Sandra Zuback told CNN. "It just blew up."
The weather was clear, and USAir representative Susan Young said the pilot had contacted the airport tower as usual on final approach. "There was no indication of any problem," she said.
No damage to homes in the area was reported.
Views differ on U.N. conference
Knight-Ridder Tribune
By Nathan Olson Kansan staff writer
A single paragraph referring to abortion in a 113-page document is threatening to overshadow an international conference.
The U.N. population conference has been mired in controversy since it began Monday in Cairo, Egypt. The conference, the third of its kind, is being attended by delegates from more than 170 nations. The purpose of the conference is to address issues of overpopulation. The result of the conference will be a nonbinding agreement, which is being debated this week.
Paragraph 8.25 in the conference's agreement reads, in part, "In circumstances in which abortion is legal, such abortion should be safe." Wednesday, the Vatican refused to sign the agreement because of the paragraph on abortion.
The paragraph also offended some local residents, including Father Vince Krische, director of St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center. Krische said that the term "safe abortion" was inaccurate because there was nothing safe about killing.
"The central question to ask is who has the power over life?" he said. "We believe only God has that authority."
Krische said he was grateful for the Vatican's insistence that all references to abortion be stricken from the document.
"Without the Vatican, human life could easily be disregarded," he said.
Krische said respecting the dignity for all human life was the cornerstone of the church's solution to the population problem.
That respect begins with educating people, Krische said. Although education includes schooling, more important is educating people about their bodies.
"The church recommends natural family planning built upon the dignity and nature of women," he said.
Too many people?
Estimated population growth through the year 2100:
Year Population
Birth of Christ 250 million
1492 500 million
1800 1 billion
1950 2.5 billion
1994 5.7 billion
2030 8.5 billion
2100 11.5 billion
Source: Knight-Ridder Tribune
Not everyone agreed with the church's decision: Christy Morris, Englewood, Colo., senior, said the Vatican's position proved how much power the church had.
"I grew up Catholic," she said. "One reason I left is because I didn't feel Catholicism is inclusive of women in any way.
"The church doesn't give you information about sex because it doesn't think you need it until you're married."
Alice Lieberman, associate professor of social welfare, said many issues concerning overpopulation needed addressing.
"We have to look beyond abortion and look at other issues," she said.
Lieberman said family planning, including birth control, education, abortion and abstinence, was a major factor in reducing population.
Krische agreed that other issues were important.
Other conferences have had some measure of controversy. During the first one, held in August 1974 in Bucharest, Romania, the Vatican disassociated itself from the conference's plan of action because it felt that not enough attention was given to family values and respect for life, and a sanctioned birth control plan.
"A big problem with the document is that it has said very little about development," he said. "The governments in the United Nations have approached the population issue by denying spiritual and religious perspectives."
Julianne Peter/ KANSAN
Sunny-side up
The only life at Hoch Auditorium these days is sunflowers. Hoch was gutted by fire in June 1991 when it was struck by lightning. Reconstruction is scheduled to begin next month.
Compromise sought on abortion issue
The Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt — With anger growing about the Vatican's hard-line stance on abortion, negotiators at the U.N. population conference yesterday hammered out what they called a last-chance compromise on the explosive issue.
A special committee assigned to write the provision on unsafe abortions agreed on a compromise text last night. The main negotiating committee is expected to consider the new language today.
ceeus, the controversy at the conference won't end because negotiators still face other contentious provisions in the meeting's 20-year action plan.
But even if the compromise suc-
The main committee is expected to consider sections on reproductive and sexual health today that refer to "fertility regulation" — a phrase the Vatican views as a code word for abortion — and adolescent sexuality.
To address the concerns of some nations yesterday, the World Health Organization's definition of unsafe abortion was added to the section on abortion as a health issue. That definition says abortion is unsafe if carried out by unqualified people in inappropriate settings.
To show how minutely the wording has been worked over, a new draft of the proposed compromise changes "legal" abortion, which the Vatican opposed, to abortion that "is not against the law."
Earlier yesterday, Nicolaas Biegman, vice-chairman of the overall negotiations, said he was confident the special committee on unsafe abortion would "very, very quickly" arrive at a final compromise text.
"As far as I am concerned, (this) will be the end of the discussion in the
committee because anything which could possibly be accommodated has been accommodated," he said.
Timothy Wirth, the U.S. undersecretary of state for global affairs, told reporters last night: "We're very close to getting finished. I expect we will get through the abortion issue tomorrow morning, and it will be downhill from there."
The Vatican delegation said it was pondering how to react to the compromise but suggested it may have a problem with the phrase "safe abortion" because abortion is "unsafe" for the fetus.
Let there be light
ROTC program celebrates 75 years
The Kansas football team will meet a tough Michigan State team under the lights of Memorial Stadium Saturday night.
Page 1B
In 1969, a small device blew up in in the Military Science Building, damaging the walls of an office. The explosion marked a time when KU's Army ROTC program was the object of widespread student protest.
By David Wilson Kansan staff writer
But the years during the Vietnam War were not the first time KU's Army ROTC program was held in contempt, said Steve Singleton, a 1931 graduate of the program and one of the more than 100 people who attended the 75th anniversary ceremony of KU's army ROTC yesterday afternoon at the Military Science Building.
Singleton said the United States in the late 1920s had been going through a post-World War I denial of growing military threats in Europe. At the time, many people saw no need for military programs.
But the protests Army ROTC has faced in its 75 years, from the Vietnam War years to the more recent issue of exclusion of homosexuals, has not tarnished Singleton's opinion of ROTC.
"This was a pacifist period in the United States," he said. "We didn't enjoy the status that ROTC deserved."
"We should have compulsory ROTC training," he said. "That would be the greatest thing for America."
James Ferrell, a 1963 graduate of Army ROTC and keynote speaker for the ceremony, was just as enthusiastic about ROTC, which he called "a program that encourages people to be their best."
Ferrell said that unlike the late 1960s, ROTC was well-received in the early 1960s.
"I remember those as popular days for ROTC," he said. "Those were patriotic days."
After the ceremony, Col. Ronald Nicholl, head of military science, said that despite the program's recurring notoriety, it has been supported by the University.
Ferrell, CEO of Ferrall Gas Co. in Liber-
ferry. Mo. said ROTC taught him the
touch.
killer instinct needed for success in business.
"I've been very pleased with the support we've gotten from the University of Kansas," he said.
tellyourrightnow,firingapersonis a lot like killing a person. It takes courage,"he told the audience.
Nicholl said ROTC programs should not be considered separate from the University.
"Courses we teach are open to all students," he said. "A lot of things we do mesh well with problem solving and leadership."
Army ROTC cadets receive two, three or four-year scholarships in exchange for a period of service in the Army after college graduation.
Sean Crosier/ KANBAN
Sean Crosier/KARAH McKinney, Cadet Deborah Dauton and Drill Team Commander Joe Wilson recognize a new special team commander.