FEATURES: 'The Lion King' hits movie screens this summer with a mighty roar. Page 10.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.103.NO.155
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 6612
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 1994
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:8644810
Regents to discuss chancellor search Tonkovich appeal
By Laurie Hudson Special to the Kansan
Hiring a chancellor, firing a professor and reaching the University's mission will be hot topics for the Board of Regents today and tomorrow.
The Regents will name 16 people to a search committee for KU's new chancellor.
Faculty, staff, students, alumni and others have volunteered for the committee, said Stephen Jordan, executive director of the Regents.
According to the Regents' guidelines, a KU
student will be included on the search committee.
Jordan said he will recommend a list of 13 attributes the ideal candidate should have.
The candidate's attributes include: a knowledge of technology, an ability to coordinate a major, intercollegiate athletic program, a record of promoting gender, ethnic and racial diversity and the competence to work effectively with the state government.
"Certainly, fund-raising experience and experience with a medical center is important," said Ted Ayers, counsel for the Regents. "The ability to interact with faculty and students—we all recognize that'is the heart of the University."
Ayers said he expected candidates from around the country.
"The committee will have hundreds of nominations and applications to evaluate," he said. But past search committees have established a good track record, Ayers said.
"Kansas has been fortunate in having an excellent group of chancellors and presidents," he said.
Tonkovich, former KU professor of law, was fired in August 1993 for violating the faculty code of conduct. He was accused of sexual harassment but has denied the charges.
A committee has been studying his appeal, Avers said.
"It's a huge case," he said. "Basically, they're reviewing the case to see if any further action is necessary."
Tonkovich said that he would continue to push for a reversal of the initial decision.
"If this is not resolved to my satisfaction, I'm going to file a lawsuit," he said.
The Regents also will analyze the KU Report, which tells what progress the University has made in the past year.
Forty graduate teaching assistant positions were eliminated, leaving 1,150 GTAs in classrooms. This loss was offset by an addition of 65 faculty sections.
"For one thing, they've made an effort to introduce regular faculty in classes and use less GTAs," said Martine Hammond-Paludan, academic advisor to the Regents.
Another part of the report will examine technological advances the University has made. With the use of a computer system, students will be able to enroll themselves by Fall 1995, according to the report.
The University also has improved the graduation rate for minority students by 7 percent since 1985 and increased the number of minority faculty members by 40 percent this
The University also has increased research support by 64 percent between 1989 and 1993, which now totals $86.8 million for both campuses.
"It's quite difficult to move those numbers, so they're doing a very good job," she said.
Hammond-Paludan said that the entire state benefits from KU's research.
"For example, research in pharmaceutical chemistry—if they discover a new drug—those drugs could then be developed by pharmaceutical businesses in Kansas, and they could sell them for profit," she said.
Graduate fellowships, which KU receives from federal and private sources, also have been advantages for the University, Hammond-Paludan said.
"Those dollars have a ripple effect," she said. "Grants assist a lot of students who wouldn't otherwise be able to go to grad school."
Kassebaum rumored as KU hopeful
By Curt Anderson The Associated Press
Sen. Nancy Kassebaum's interest in becoming chancellor of the University of Kansas already is causing political ripples from the nation's capital to Toneka.
In the balance are control of the U.S. Senate, the Kansas race for governor and the ambitions of two senior members of the U.S. House from Kansas.
For her part, the 61-year-old Republican sounds every bit like someone who's considering a career change after 16 years in the Senate, even as she insists all this speculation is premature.
"Anybody, when they care about their alma mater, is flattered to have somebody suggest their name," the 1954 University of Kansas graduate said in an interview.
If she left the Senate, Kassebaum would join Democrat David Boren of Oklahoma in the academic world. Boren is leaving after 16 years to become president of the University of Oklahoma.
"There is truly a life after the Senate," Kassebaum said. "I've always said I'm looking forward to going back to Kansas."
There's no guarantee Kassebaum's name will appear on the list of candidates for the university post. But if it does, there are some big political factors to be taken into account.
One is Dole, and his drive for GOP control of the Senate. If the Republicans take over after the November elections, it probably will be by the slimest of margins. Dole would need Kassaeum to stay where she is.
Another factor is who gets elected governor of Kansas, because the governor would appoint a successor to finish Kassebaum's term through 1996.
Two veteran House members, Republican Pat Roberts and Democrat Dan Glickman, figure to be the natural first choices of their respective parties to fill an unexpired Senate term.
"If an opening were to occur, I would take a serious look at it," Roberts said. "At the same, I don't wake up every morning thinking I should be in the U.S. Senate. I'm privileged to be where I am."
If either one left, a scramble would start for that open House seat. And Kansas would lose a lot of clout on Capitol Hill.
It adds up to a scrambled political picture for Kansas, particularly if Dole runs for president.
Beyond the political intrigues, there's the very real possibility Kassebaum is too far removed from the academic world to get the job.
The life of a college president isn't an easy one. Kassebaum noted it involves a lot of legislative lobbying and endless fund-raising.
"I think you have to be pretty spry to be a chancellor,' she said. "it's not exactly an ivory tower job these days."
Marking time
High school students attending the Midwestern Music Camp get a handle on campus life while still playing by the camp's rules.
Page 5.
Yumi Chikamori / KANSAN
Arian Van Asselt, a visiting professor from Newton, examines a chemical sample with a magnifier at the chemistry department. Van Asselt was working on a summer research project yesterday.
A closer look
Nuclear waste space limited
By Alicia Hein
Kansan staff writer
Some people might be a little scared at the thought of nuclear waste stored 50 miles away from campus at Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Facility.
Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan is concerned too. Stephan has joined 19 other states in filing a lawsuit against the federal government asking for a permanent storage site for nuclear waste.
But the current waste storage system at Wolf Creek poses no threat to the property or residents of the surrounding community, said Mona Grimsley, manager of corporate communications at the Burlington plant.
The problem lies not in the effectiveness of the containment facility, but in its storage capacity. Grimsley said.
Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan is concerned about the imminent filling of Wolf Creek. A national site should be in use in less than five years, but no work has been done.
According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, in return for payments from the rate payers of nuclear utilities, the Department of Energy will begin to dispose of nuclear fuel in a permanent facility by 1998.
But Kansas taxpayers have contributed more than $37.7 million to a waste disposal fund.
In a written statement, Attorney General Stephan said the lawsuit concerned the establishment of a permanent national site for the containment of spent fuel rods, the remains of bundles of uranium used to power the plant. These rods come from the country's 111 nuclear reactors.
Stephan said the Department of Energy had indicated that the earliest likely date it would have an operational containment facility would be 2010.
The states filing the suit will be asking for a court ruling that the department begin accepting used nuclear fuel by 1998.
The spent fuel rods are stored in water in a pool lined with stainless steel. The water is very effective in shielding the radiation emitted by the rods, Grimsley said.
However, storage space in the pool is limited.
John Campbell, the attorney in charge of the suit for the attorney general's office, said Wolf Creek is licensed to produce power until 2025, but only has enough waste storage space for the next 10 years.
Campbell said the suit was filed after the department began to waffle on its plans about when to build the facility.
"The DOE started to hem and haw," Campbell said. "You can't take billions of dollars to do a project and then say 'Well, sorry, we don't know what we're going to do.'"
Causes of crime questioned
Campbell said the next course of action depends on whether the Department of Energy accepts the case or moves for dismissal.
By Alicia Hein
Kansan Staff Writer
Nearly every day, headlines scream of murders, rapes, assaults and gang-related drive-by shootings. The how's and why's of violent crime in America are debated at water coolers and dinner tables throughout the country.
In the Kansas Union Ballroom Sunday night, citizens and experts met to question whether the criminal justice system has failed to punish criminals.
About 300 people attended the two-and-a-half hour event.
The combination debate and town meeting focused on whether crime will continue as a major social problem as long as the criminal justice system falls at punishment and whether society was to blame.
The debate panel was divided into two sides. One side argued that stricter punishment for criminals was necessary to
reduce crime. The other side said stiffer penalties were not the answer to the crime problem.
Former New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly said instilling a sense of values in America's young people, rather than punishing criminals, should be the first priority in fighting crime.
A theme of the evening was that crime stems from a lack of morality and personal responsibility.
Kelly said he blamed the lack of morality on the disintegration of family structure.
"That is the driving force behind crime in America," he said.
Kelly said that he believed the high percentage of children born and raised out of wedlock was partially responsible for the decline of the family structure.
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr agreed that a lack of
"Whatever we can do on that front is going to take 20 years," Barr said. "People need protection today."
morality was a major factor in crime, but he said that changing the morality of society would be a lengthy process. In the meantime, strict punishment was necessary to keep criminals off the street.
"If you're going to solve a problem,
you have to have awareness," she said.
Diana Carlin, assistant professor of communication studies and one of the debate's organizers, said the purpose of the event was to increase the public's awareness of violent crime.
Carlin said this debate was the fourth in a series organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
"There is no simple explanation why we have this much crime," she said.
Carlin said another purpose of Sunday's event was to examine all the subject's facets.
Yumi Chikamori / KANSAN
1
James Muyskens, dean of College Liberal Arts and Sciences, welcomed panelists Sunday to a debate on crime and punishment in the Kansas Union Ballroom.