CAMPUS / AREA
University Daily Kansan/Friday, November 1, 1991
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Government sticks to ROTC policy
Committee says a second trip to Washington would be useless
By Alexander Bloemhot
Kansan staff writer
Despite pressure from universities and national associations, the Department of Defense sticks to its policy of holding gays and lesbians from the military.
That was the gist of a letter the Defense Department sent to the University of Kansas this summer, said Siegfried Lindenbaum, head of the chancellor's committee on discrimination in the ROTC.
Under the Pentagon's policy, gays and lesbians are excommitted from ROTC as a result.
However, a KU policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, creed, ethnicity, sexual orientation and irrelevant disabilities.
appointed by Chancellor Gene Budiak last fall in response to a resolution by the University Council to take action against the Pentagon's policy.
The five-member committee was
The committee wrote a statement in the semester condemning the Penalties.
"We and 27 universities have made our position known," Lindenbaum said. "We have made it and has made its position known that it does not intend to change its policy."
Frances Ingemann, presiding officer of University Council, went to Washington last spring to lobby for a trade report to change the Pentagon's policy.
"The politicians are very busy and pay attention to who makes the most noise at the time," Ingemann, who is the committee after the spring semester.
Lindenbaum said any further lobbying trips should be coordinated with other universities.
"I think and the committee feels that a trip to Washington on behalf of KU would be a waste of time," he said. "On the other hand, a group representing 50 universities would be another story."
he said the University of Wisconsin at Madison was a leader in organizing national efforts to change Defense Department policy.
But Michael Oineck, who heads a task force in Madison on discriminatory ROTC policies, said he was pessimistic about changing the policy.
"I feel stymied because there is a lack of response and a lack of entree with decision-makers," said Olneck, who worked in the US at the sociology and sociology. "Frankly, I don't know
what to do. I'm frustrated, but I haven'tgiven up."
However, Lindenbaum said that the Pentagon had never changed its policies without pressure and that he saw some positive signs.
He hasaid the American Psychological Association recently publicized a statement refuting the Pentagon's support for the policy and requesting a change.
According to the Pentagon, gays and lesbians could jeopardize order, morale, discipline and pose a security risk in the military.
"They used to claim that homosexuals were subject to bribery and intimidation," Lindenbaum said. "But there is a document they have prepared and they are about to release acknowledged the security issue is no longer valid."
City offers fines break to late payers
By Melissa Rodgers Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
For the second time this year, the city of Lawrence is giving tardy ticket pavers a second chance.
By offering an amnesty program to late ticket payers, the city reduces its costs of issuing and processing municides; it also people who owe late charges on city fines.
"It is less expensive for the city to offer amnesty than to serve all the warrants," said Joy Jones, Lawrence Municipal Court clerk.
People owe the city at least $25,000,
Jones said. The 15,000 outstanding fines and late charges range from $35 to $10, she said.
The city is offering amnesty to anyone who owes late charges on traffic tickets, parking tickets and overtime parking tickets.
Under the amnesty program, Lawrence residents and KU students will be able to pay their municipal tickets without the late charges.
Ammesty will cover late charges on tickets issued before Oct. 28. The tickets can be paid from Nov. 4 through Nov. 15 at the Lawrence Municipal Court offices at the Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St.
Amnesty also will be extended to late charges on tickets for violating other city ordinances such as skateboarding on sidewalks or having a dog loose.
People who have had a municipal warrant issued for their arrest because they failed to pay fines or to appear for a municipal court hearing also will be given a reprieve, Jones said.
From Nov. 4 through Nov. 15, people who have municipal warrants out for their arrests can visit the municipal court office, pay the fine or receive a new court date and bond will be waived.
"This is a good opportunity for Lawrence citizens and KU students to take care of things without paying fines and posting bond." Jones said.
Once the ammesty program is finished, warrants will be issued and police actively will serve warrants to people, she said.
Sgt. Mark Warren of Lawrence
police said officers would serve war-
force.
Officers also tend to serve the most recent warrants first, he said.
Acting out the poem "Unpopular," "Black Poets Society members Rhonda Gray, right, Jerel Taylor, center and Tamara Huff perform at "Black...to the Soul," a poetry-in-performance reading. The society members tried to define positive aspects of blackness through poetry last night at Woodruff Auditorium.
Poetry in motion
Senate considers funding goals for lecture series
Student fund-raising drive planned
By Blaine Kimrey Kansan staff writer
Now that Student Senate has allocated $23,000 for this year's KU Lecture Series, student body president Darren Fulcher has begun to work on securing permanent funding for the program.
The lecture series is a program designed to bring a high-profile speaker to the University of Kansas every year.
Senate voted Oct. 23 to finance the program. This is the first year of the lecture series.
The lectures series board plans to schedule a speaker this spring.
Fulcher said yesterday that he and Troy Radakovich, Student Senate Executive Committee chairperson, were in the final stages of selecting a lecture series fund-raising board.
The board will be in charge of securing future and permanent funding for the lecture series, he said.
Radakovich said he had several ideas about how the board would secure the money.
The board could elicit corporation and local business donations or could sponsor a student body fund-raising drive, he said.
Fulcher expressed enthusiasm about the student body fund-raising drive.
"I'm going to look at this like running for office," he said. "I'm going to take this out to the students."
The fund-raising drive will begin in the spring, Fulcher said.
However, alumni will not be
Ultimately, he would like to see an alumni endowment account for the lecture series established with the KU Endowment Association. Fulcher said.
He said that student donations would demonstrate student interest in the lecture series and help to acquire alumni support for the program.
"I'm going to look at this like running for office. I'm going to take this out to the students."
Darren Fulcher KUstudent body president
asked immediately for support because their generosity has been tapped out by Campaign Kansas, he said.
"I don't know if we want to dry up all our wells at one given time." Fulcher said.
Campaign Kansas is the University's five-year, $177 million fund-raising drive, which surpassed its goal in January 1991.
Radakovich said the target endowment for a lecture series endowment account would be $500,000.
Interest from that money would produce enough money to pay for one speaker a year and to make the lecture series self-supportive.
Both Fulcher and Radakov said they wanted to see the lecture series become autonomous and free from Senate funding.
But Radakovich said it could be several years before the lecture series would be self-supportive.
Nevertheless, Radakovich agreed with Fulcher that a student fund-raising drive could help the fund-raising board achieve that end.
"It would show alumni that the students are committed to the lecture series," he said.
Fulcher said student donations to the lecture series would be the rock that alumni donations would be built on.
Reading room to become office space in the spring
By William Ramsey
Cansan staff writer
There will be no more studying or snoozing in Watson Library's west reading room next semester after the dorm haven is changed into an office.
The reading room on the lobby floor of the library will have to be remodeled because of a shortage of office desk. Said Bill Crowe, dean of libraries.
"Like everyone else on campus, we're cramped."hesaid.
Crowe said that the University Senate Library Committee had tried to find
another solution to the problem last year but that taking over the reading room was a bit of a risk.
"The faculty and students are not happy about it," he said. "But they had no better suggestions, and they had to make the decision. It was a tough call."
The interlibrary services office, which is near the lobby entrance, will be moved into the reading room in January.
Students and faculty can borrow books and materials from libraries across the nation through the interlibrary loan process usually takes two or three weeks.
Materials also can be borrowed from
libraries in other countries.
Crowe said library officials made the decision to move the office because Watson, like libraries nationwide, had to depend on interlibrary services.
The KU office borrows materials from other laboratories, and from other institutions in the Library's *Kansas* collection.
Sandra Brandt, director of interlibrary services, said the recent trend toward automation had filled the office with new equipment.
"Basically, we're just overflowing," she said.
Workers must share desks,and people
who come to the room for help to squeeze between furniture, Brandt said.
Students who study in the west reading room on a regular basis will have to retake it.
"I'd hate to see this room go," said Dirk Armstrong. "It's 'one of the quietest places to stay.'"
The reading room is nice because there is not much talking, and it is separated from other parts of the library, he said.
Gary Smith, Lenexa freshman, said the elimination of the reading room space might pose a problem for groups who studied there on a regular basis.
Smith, a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, said members of his fraternity attended the annual meeting.
Slade Dillon, Baldwin City sophomore, was on the library committee last year when the issue was discussed.
Library officials said a map might be made that would point out alternate study and reading areas in Watson. No new reading room is planned.
He said the interlibrary services office needed the reading room space to function.
"There are hundreds of places on this campus where you can read if you have to." Dillon said.