V
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.65
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
IOMERA KS 6612
FRIDAY.NOVFEMBER22.1991
ADVERTISING:864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Bush signs civil rights bill, withdraws order
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Bush signed a civil rights bill yesterday that he said would fight discrimination and tried to silence a new furor about race by withdrawing a tentative order to end government hiring preferences of African-Americans and women.
But the political divisions that sustained a two-year congressional fight about the civil rights bill and prompted Bush to veto a similar measure last year remained sharp.
"The past few years the issue of civil rights legislation has divided America." Bush said. "No more."
The new law negates Supreme Court decisions that made it more difficult for members of minority groups to win lawsuits charging job discrimination by employers. It also expands the rights of women and members of religious minority groups to sue and hold employers liable for job discrimination, including sexual harassment.
Bush agreed to support a modified version of the bill and to drop the argument that it would prompt Mr. Bush to end his campaign.
However, the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was shadowed by a furlor about a proposed presidential affirmative-action order that was circulated in the House and later dropped. Democrats stayed away from the signing in protest.
The order would have ended preferential hiring and promotions for women and members of minority groups and dropped federal guidelines for hiring practices that the courts apply to private businesses. The rules began during the Nixon administration.
White House representatives said that Bush had never seen the document. They said it was written by his legal counsel, C. Boyden Gray, and circulated without Bush's approval.
After the signing, the White House released a new statement in Bush's name that deleted the termination order for affirmative action programs.
But presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater refused to rule out the possibility that Bush would order such changes later.
*We support preferences and set-asides as long as they're consistent with the law.* "Fitzwater said.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said support was strong among Bush's advisers for proceeding with the dismantling of some affirmative action programs.
The official predicted more activity in that area and said Bush decided to remove the language proposed by Gray because he thought it was an inappropriate time."
"I support affirmative action," Bush said during the signing of the new civil rights law. "Nothing in this bill overtures the government's affirmative action program.
"Unlike last year" bill, a bill I was forced to toy, this bill will not encourage quasis or racial preferences because this bill will not encourage lawsuits on the basis of numbers alone." Bush said.
He called the measure a law that would fight discrimination and build bridges between Americans of all races, sexes, creeds and backgrounds.
Bush was joined at the bill-signing ceremony by congressional Republicans, administration officials and one Democratic sponsor, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.
"Mr. Bush, you ought to be ashamed," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who was repeatedly beaten and arrested during civil rights struggles in the 1960s.
Other Democrats stayed away in a protest of the withdrawn order.
The controversy arose at a time when Bush is under increasing political pressure from
Democrats about domestic issues and from the right wing of his own party. A pair of potential Republican challengers, Patrick Buchanan and former Ku Klux Klanman David Duke, have directed criticism at Bush for agreeing to the rights bill.
Civil rights leaders expressed outrage at the original order on affirmative action programs and said they feared Bush was only postponing a direct attack on two decades of civil rights laws and policies.
"What was distributed last night reflects what the right wing truly believes, and my guess is they'll continue their campaign to weaken the 1991 Civil Rights Act and the bipartisan enforcement policies that have been in place for two or three decades," said the head of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
The chief Republican sponsor of the bill, Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, said the earlier presidential order was regressive and would have been a serious threat to our democracy in selections with White House officials Wednesday night.
"I can't put myself in anybody else's head, but I do believe that when the president was made aware of what was in the draft, he directed that it be changed," Danforth said. "It was a product of the legal counsel's office, but it did not represent his (Bush)'s views."
Kennedy said Bush had made a commendable statement of reconciliation.
Among those present for the bill-signing ceremony was Benjamin Hook, heads of the NAACP. Left off the list of White House invitees, however, was Neas, whose group is a coalfaction of the leading civil rights organizations. Neas was the chief lobbyist on behalf of the bill.
Hooks said White House officials told him Bush did not know about or approve the earlier order on airfires.
Passage of civil rights bill source of optimism at KU
By William Ramsey
Kansas staff writer
Kansan staff writer
The eventual effect of the civil rights bill signed yesterday by President Bush is uncertain, but at least it does provide a step that the measure is a positive step.
Anne George, president of the KU chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she was glad all rights again were in the forefront.
"It is very positive that a conservative administration has felt the pressure and has felt the momentum," said George, a St. Louis senior.
However, she questioned a proposed presidential affirmative-action order retracted yesterday.
The order would have halted preferential hiring and promotion for women and members of minorities. It would have also dismissed businesses from federal guidelines.
George said Bush might have been trying to make the legislation, which facilitates discrimination against his former for conservatives to swallow.
"For all we know, he may not just be paying lip service, but we need to be assured that," she said.
Bush still has the power to make an order that would undermine the positive effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, George said.
"The concern of civil-rights groups is that the administration back up the legislation." she said.
George said that from what she knew of the passed bill, the new legislation facilitated the opportunities to file discrimination lawsuits.
The controversy surrounding the planned presidential order might serve to keep people aware that the president not fully answered, George said.
"The bill definitely gives an avenue for a lot of oppressed groups," she said.
Alan Cigler, professor of government, said it was too early to understand the importance of yesterday's enacted civil-right act.
Fulcher edits motion to call for removal of Lowden, Radakovich
"The impact, in reality, I don't think anybody knows," he said.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
check, thev U.S.Bar. u.eKimrey
usan staff writer
Student body president Darren Fulcher is calling for the removal of vice president Alan Lowden and Student Senate Executive Committee chairperson Troy Radakovich.
J a m e s
L a S a l l e.
F u c hler's representative in the KU
J u c d i c i al
B earl hearing, said F u c hler's grievance had been amended to include the r em o v a l re m e n t s
Alan Lowden
legality.
LaSalle said Lowden and Radakovich abused their powers by allowing Senate to vote Sept. 12 to remove Fulcher from office. The two officials therefore should be reprimanded, he said.
Radakovich drafted the motion to remove Fulcher from his presidency. Senate voted in favor of the removal because some senators questioned his credibility as a result of a February battery charge.
Fulcher was charged with battering his ex-girlfriend, a KU student, in February, according to Lawrence police and court reports.
A stay has been placed on the motion to remove Fulcher until the Judicial Board makes a final decision on its
The Judicial Board hearing panel will begin listening Monday to Senate's and Fulcher's arguments concerning the motion to remove Fulcher.
"Radakovich drafted the motion to put the teeth into the resolution to
Fulcher.
LaSalle said.
"He used his title, authority and experience to railroad his motion through."
Radakovich disagreed.
Darren Fulcher
"I feel what I
did was legitimate," he said
LaSalle said he and Fulcher were asking for Lowden's removal because Lowden, as the chairperson of Senate, had the power to rule Radakovich's motion out of order, and he did not.
"I think it's a smoke screen," he said.
"I think he's going to have a heck of a time showing that his running mate willfully prejudiced against him."
John Robertson, Senate's representative to the Judicial Board, said Fulcher's request for the removal of Lowden and Radakovich was absurd.
"Because he failed to do his duties, he became unfit to hold office," LaSalle said.
Lowden could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Flooded with prescriptions
Jennifer Dunshee, Lawrence senior, counts pills for an order at the Watkins Health Center pharmacy. Since arecent flu outbreak, the num- ber of prescriptions filled at Watkins has increased by 75 a day. The Watkins Health Center pharmacy usually fills about 350 prescriptions a day.
One-fourth of U.S. college student population more than 30 years old
WASHINGTON—College students are older than ever before. One in four is 30 or more, a government survey said yesterday. Many of the students are women updating their jobskills.
The Associated Press
"Older students oftentimes about going back to the classroom and competing with bright-eyed younger people, but I think for the most part, they manage well," said Susan Kauffman, Director for Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
These older students, educators say, are practical, they demand full value for their tuition dollar, and they're tough competitors for top grades.
Many of the women are undergraduate,
retraining to take advantage of new job oppor-
tunities.
"Also, as women have smaller families and
fewer kids, it becomes more possible for them to come back. "Kaufmann said.
A Census Bureau survey found in 1989 that there were 3.3 million college students aged 30 and older. That's about double the number 15 years earlier.
Who are these older students? Tom Snyder of the National Center for Education Statistics in Washington said most fall into these categories:
In the early 1970s, more than three-fourths of the nation's college students were just out of high school. Now, their share is less than 60 percent and shrinking.
One out of every five women in college was 35 or older in 1889, according to an Associated Press analysis of the census numbers. Fifteen years before, only one in eight was that age.
- Students taking longer to get their degrees.
Some college students in their 30s are completing work they started in their 20s.
- Engineers and other technical workers wanting to improve their skills on the job. Some take a course or two without getting a degree.
- Professionals wanting an advanced degree, such as a masters of business administration. They are going back to school because it makes sense financially.
"In general, the payoff from college has been growing over the past 10 or 15 years," Snyer said. "So more people will be interested, regardless of their age."
Four years of college on average adds more than $13,000 a year to a worker's paycheck. And going to college beyond those four years adds $10,000 a year on top of that.
They are returning because in many kinds of work, things change so quickly.
"There's a technical revolution going on," said Richard Hall, director of school relations at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. "Their skills are becoming obsolete and they
have to tool up for a new age."
Universities, in turn, have been recruiting older students because falling birth rates in the 1960s and 1970s produced smaller freshmen and 18-years later, college administrators said.
Older students, juggling family, job and the midterm exam, face challenges that most of their younger classmates need dream of. "Clearly child care is one," Kaufmann said. "The way financial aid is calculated doesn't support for child care. Getting medical insurance is expensive and policies are very expensive when help is needed for a spouse and kids."
Colleges and universities have had to change the way they do business to meet the needs of these older, non-traditional students.
"The non-traditional student wants con-
ference," said Pati Hiordan, dean of admissions
at the University of Arkansas.
"They want to be able to register from their home. They want convenient, safe parking. They want ways of paying tuition that fit their needs." "They definitely don't want big classes."
They also demand a personal relationship with their professors, unlike their younger classmates, who may sit in the back of the class to escape notice.
That demand for a quality education has brought pressure on the universities to demon- trize it.
"The older you are, the more sophisticated you are about knowing when you're getting your money's worth," said Jonathan Flife, professor of higher education administration at George Washington University. "Institutions are less able to use the mysticism of education to cloud over the fact they may not be delivering a product that meets student expectations."