VOL.101, NO.42
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING:864-4358
TUESDAY,OCTOBER 22,1991
(USPS 650-640)
LAWSCHOOL HARASSMENTCHARGES
NEWS:864-4810
Reprisal fear may stifle students speaking out
By Rochelle Olson and William Ramsey Kangan staff writers
Although 42 percent of the 560 law students at the
women, it has not been easy for some of them to speak openly about gender issues.
RobertJerry
Recent harassment of sexual assault within the School of Law have brought the issue that has been a topic of national debate in Kansas.
Some students fear jeopardizing their grades and
careers by speaking out negatively about the environment women encounter at the school.
But the dean has attempted to spur communication by distributing information and forming a community of learners.
Michelle Johnson, second-year law student and vice president of the Student Bar Association, said students might be hesitant to talk because professors in the school were a tightly knit group.
She said that course grades often were based on a score from one test and that the school's anomous moustache
She said she thought the female students who had concerns might keep silent because they wanted to be heard.
The professors can find out who made the complaints. Johnson said.
Johnson said firms that recruited KU students listened to faculty members' opinions about students.
If you are a woman who has made a lot of waves,
it would be hard to get a job in Kansas City, she said.
The administration has made an effort to inform all students of their rights in harassment situations, Johnson said.
"But I think it 'about time people start looking at news issues," she said. "The law school itself is pre-identified."
Pat Hamilton, treasurer and secretary of the association, said students with complaints probably would feel better seeking help outside the law school.
Female law students indicated the male-dominated faculty could be a reason women did not feel
There are 29 faculty members in the law school. Five are female.
Kim Dayton, associate professor of law, said she recommended that students talk to the dean of law.
Dayton is chairperson of an ad hoc committee to address gender concerns within the law school.
"I know that a lot of people on the faculty, male and female, feel that these gender issues need to be addressed," she said.
However, Dayton would not comment about any progress the committee had made or what it had decided.
Robert Jerry, dean of law, said he formed the committee in mid-June to help foster communication in the school about gender issues.
A cooperating attorney for the ACLU said Jerry had met with four students in May who were concerned about sexual harassment within the law school.
Jerry said the meeting sped up the process of forming the committee.
"This is an issue I had been thinking about for a long time because of my own concerns about issues
Jerry said he had distributed copies of the school's policy earlier this fall to all law students. Copies of the policy were posted in the school.
Retaliation by professors against students who spoke out about sexual harassment would be unwise
"We don't tolerate sexual harassment," he said.
"Wecondom it in all its forms."
Jerry would not say whether he had been approached about other sexual-harassment allegations during the two years and two months he has been dean.
There has not been a stream of students in his office complaining about sexual harassment, Jerry
Robert Shelton, University umbudman, said the administration was silent about the details of studies.
"There are people who need to work for the University who don't work for them anymore because of the financial crisis."
Right to privacy is the reason the University does not release information about sexual-harassment
Tom Berger, assistant director of the office of affirmative action, said the number of sexual, racial, and ethnic-harassment complaints had increased between 1987 and 1990.
Berger would not say how many complaints were related specifically to sexual harassment.
Maggie Childs, adviser to the Women's Student Union, said KU should denounce sexual harassment and investigate particular complaints.
"I think, in general, the University is a bit timid," said Childs, who heads of the department of East
She said the University policy of secrecy was not healthy.
"No one realizes that sometimes justice is done, it doesn't encourage people to speak up." Childs
Shankel receives decisions on harassment complaints
By Alexander Bloemhof
The woman was notified Friday that a recommendation about her complaint had been made.
Shankel said that he had acted on the recommendation by academic affairs in the woman's case Friar.
Kansan staff writer
The office of academic affairs has completed hearings of complaints alleging sexual harassment at the School of Law and has made recommendations vice chancellor, a KU official said yesterday.
The official, Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said, "We have finished our review and made our recommendations on all complaints."
Also yesterday, Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the Kansas and western Missouri chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that another KU student and another KU graduate had contacted the ACLU concerning sexual-harassment alterations.
One complaint was resolved by the office of affirmative action Oct 1, the ACLU said. The other three complaints were referred to the office of academic affairs.
Nelson has said it was not the complainant who appealed, but neither he nor Shankel would say whether the appeal was made by the professor involved.
Two current and two former law students filed complaints with the University earlier this year alleging sexual harassment by law faculty, according to a statement released Friday by the ACLU.
He said they were not students at the law school, but he would not discuss the details of the incidents.
Appeal made in one case
Kurtchenbach said the ACLU had agreed to help the complainants through the administrative venue at Kurtchenbach.
Ron Nelson, a cooperating attorney for the ACLU who is in contact with the complainants, said he was planning to meet today with Brinkman, interim executive vice chancellor Del Shankel and one of the women who filed a complaint with the office of academic affairs.
Brinkman said that the office of academic affairs made its recommendations about the last two complaints to Shankel yesterday afternoon but that not all complainants had been notified.
An appeal of a decision involving faculty could be directed to the University Judicial Board, the Board of Regents or the Faculty Senate Committee on Tenure and Related Problems, Shankel said.
Shankel said he would act on those recommendations soon.
Appealstatus
William Lawrence, professor of law and representative of the Faculty Senate committee, said yesterday he would not comment about any business that was or was not before the committee.
According to the Handbook for Faculty and Other Unclassified Staff, the committee functions as a hearing board in cases of alleged violations of academic freedom and various personnel matters.
Brinkman said the complaints might return to his office if the appeal process revealed procedural errors.
Shankel said he could not comment on the appealed action, but he said that in a previous case of sexual harassment, an employee had been encouraged to leave the University and eventually
Eric Straus, chairperson of the Judicial Board, and Ted Ayres, general counsel for the Regents, both said yesterday that they had not received an appeal.
Procedure defended
*("Sexual harassment) is something that we won't tolerate in any way and that we will take aggressively.*
Shankel said that because KU policy prescribed confidentiality, he could not respond in detail to allegations by the ACLU that the University procedures for resolving complaints had failed.
"I think they probably were frustrated that we didn't make faster contact," he said. "It's a frustrating process for all of us. Confidentiality of personnel matters is pretty much standard procedure."
Victoria Thomas, University general counsel, said the policy was rooted in state and federal laws.
Police implicate administrator
Drugs may have been involved in murder case
By Melissa Rodgers Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Witnesses at a preliminary murder hearing yesterday implicated the director of the KU office of affirmative action in a drug deal with the murder suspect.
Two Lawrence police officers testified that murder suspect Kenneth Morris told them that James Turner, director of the office of affirmative action, had sold drugs to him during the early hours of Aug. 8.
Later that morning, Morris allegedly bludgeoned Danny Davis, 40, with a golf club at 619 Illinois St., where Davis was staving, police testified.
Davis died from severe head injuries Aug. 13, the university of Kansas Medi-
cine.
After testimony yesterday by seven witnesses for the prosecution, Morris was arranged in Douglas County Disclosure and murder aggrandement burglary.
His trial date is scheduled to be set Nov.
8, and pretrial motions are scheduled to be filed Dec. 5. The trial could begin in
January or February.
Preliminary hearing reveals possible involvement of affirmative-action director.
director.
Police said Turner had not been charged in connection with the reported drug sale. His role, if any, in 'morris' trial is unclear. He is one of about 160 people on the prosecution's list of potential witnesses.
Turner could not be reached yesterday for comment.
Sgt. Carrol Crossfield and Det. Craig Shanks of the Lawrence Police Department testified that during an interview Aug. 17after Morris' Aug. 16arrest, Morris said Turner had sold cocaine to him and his girlfriend on Aug. 8.
The two officers had flown to Phoenix and said they interviewed Morris for about six hours at the Maricopa County jail after his arrest on burglary charges. They took Morris back to Lawrence on Aug. 21.
Shanks and Crossfield testified that Morris told them during the interview that early on the morning of Aug. 8, he and his girlfriend, Rose Rinke, went to 619 Illinois St., where Davis had been staying for about a month.
O'Reams said that Morris told them and Rinke meet with Davis and a man who was in charge of the camp.
Shanks testified that Morris said Turner supplied him with cocaine that morrone
When Morris' attorney, Jim Rumsey, asked Shanks during cross examination whether Skippy was James Turner, Shanks said that Skippy was Turner.
Crossfield said Morris told them that the two then injected the cocaine and that the result was fatal.
Mortis told Crossfield that he and Rinke returned to 619 Illinois St. later that
See TESTIMONY, Page 2
Mark Rowlands/KANSAN
Finishing touches
A ceramic sculpture is finished up by Ellen Williams, Lawrence senior, for her Ceramics III class. Williams was working yesterday in the Art and Design Building on her sculpture, which she called a three-dimensional, tribal tattoo. Williams became interested in tribal tattoos during the summer while watching a friend give tattoos.
U.S. hostage Jesse Turner freed after nearly five years' captivity
The Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon — U.S. hostage Jesse Turner was freed in Lebanon yesterday and on his way to Syria in the company of the U.N. officer who helped negotiate his release. The United Statesooksperson said.
Badr Turner said from her Boise, Idaho, home that she was leaving for Germany today for a vacation. At the hotel, a hostage for nearly five years.
domenico Picco, and was on his way to Damascus, said the U.N. spokesperson Nadia Younes.
"This is the great time we have been waiting for," she said, "I feel he is in safe hands now, and I hope to see him in a few hours."
U. N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar was informed of Turner's release by the U.N. troubleshooter on hostages, Gian-
Badr Turner said last night that the State Department had told her that it was informed by the United States that she would be headed for Syria about 7.6 m. CDT
Fulcher calls conference for this afternoon to address Judicial Board proceedings
Kansan staff report
Darren Fulcher, student body president, plans to conduct a news conference at 12:20 p.m. today at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
"I'ts concerning the whole ordeal of Student Senate and Darren Fulcher," Fulcher said.
He declined to provide any more information about the news conference.
James LaSalle, Fulcher'representative to the KU Judicial Board and law school senator, said Fulcher would address his concerns about the Judicial Board proceedings.