VOL.101.NO.29
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
THURSDAY OCTOBER 3,1991
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ADVERTISING:864-4358
NEWS:864-4810
Thirst auencher
In the Kansas Biological Survey greenhouse, Tracy Hutcheson, Lawrence resident, takes the cacti their regular watering. The cacti, which are watered every two days, were collected soon after World War II for an elementary botany class to illustrate differences in growth and water storage capacity of various species. The class was cancelled more than 20 years ago, but the greenhouse keeps the plants for future use.
Judicial Board decides to merge Fulcher appeals
By Alexander Bloemhof
Kansan staff writer
The KU Judicial Board has decided to merge two appeals of Student Senate's motion to remove student body president Darren Fulcher from office.
James Baucom, off-campus senator, appealed to the Judicial Board Sept. 13, the daffy after Senate made the decision that a perplexed appealed three days later.
If the appeals were not combined the Judicial Board would first have to hear Baucum's appeal and then the Court would also need to speed up the mediation process.
Mediation is the first option to resolve an appeal once the judicial board has accepted it.
Fulcher, Baucom and John Robertson, graduate senator who is representing Senate in the case, said yesterday that he believed the Judicial Board's decision Monday.
A mediation panel consists of three Judicial Board members who conduct informal hearings to achieve a compromise on a given case.
They also said that they had received a list of Judicial Board members eligible to serve on a mediation panel. Each party has until Monday to select one person from that list to sit on the mediation panel.
"My understanding is that everything is in place," said Robertson. "The question now is, Is there going to be mediation?"
"We are going to stand fast on the position that Daren make the first step, Robertson said. "In principle, it will not be possible of compromise can be worked out."
He said that Senate still thought that Fulcher should not remain student body president. Senate also wants the process to be accelerated.
The Judicial Board announced Sept. 16 that it was reviewing Bacoun's appeal and that it was considering mediation. A day later, Eric Strauss, chairperson of the board, said a second appeal was under review.
Fulcher was charged with battering his six-girlfriend, a KU student, during a domestic dispute in February. Lawrence police and court reports
Fulcher's expulsion is stayed until the board reaches a decision.
When the charges became public.
questions concerning Fulcher's credibility arose, which led Senate to adopt a motion to excel him from office.
Bacum and Pulcher have said that they appealed because Senate violated University and Senate rules and denied Pulcher due process.
Baucom said Sept. 17 that he was considering consolidating his appeal with Fulcher's.
"I haven’t had it time to think about it very much," Bucamod said. "But I think mediation is possible. I don’t have a positive view of what’s going to happen."
However, Fulcher said yesterday that he did not support joining the two appeals because they were too different. He would not explain how they different. He said he had to consult the attorney before he could make a decision.
K-State leader under fire
If Pulcher and Baucm agree to join the appeals, the parties have to select a Judicial Board member to sit on a mediation panel by Monday.
Strausw would select the chairperson of the three-member panel. According to Judicial Board regular session, he is going to start within three weeks after that.
Student body president draws criticism for $23,000 purchase
By William Ramsey
Kansan staff writer
MANHATTAN - K- State's student body president has come under fire because of a $23,000 purchase he made without student senate approval.
But the purchase this summer of furniture and a computer for the K-State senate office has been overpUBLICized, and an student body president, said yesterday.
Heitschmidt and Sally Routsen, senate adviser, have been criticized for buying the office equipment during college when students without student senate approval.
ment was moved into storage, whereitremains.
A few days later, most of the equip-
Senators voiced concern more than two weeks ago while Heismuth was in Washington, D.C., at a conference for student leaders.
The furniture, which includes sofas, mahogany tables and desks, and the computer, which comes with a color monitor and a laser printer, was moved into senate offices at the beginning of the fall semester.
"We definitely think it should have been handled differently," said Craig Uhrich, senate finance committee coordinator. "Nothing should have been done
without senate approval."
Senate will discuss a bill tonight that would approve money for the furniture but not for the computer.
Hitschmidt said he had made the purchase with the intent to get senate approval after fall classes had started, but he thought had been done before.
Routson said, "I understand people being unhappy that we spent $23,000 on furniture, but you have to look at the whole scheme of things."
She said that there was a perception on campus that the mahogany furni-
turewasxtravagantbutthatactually it was a good deal. The furniture was not included in the $60,000 budget for the apartment and needed for the (all) Heitzschmid.
In retrospect, he said that he made a bad decision but that his intent had not been malicious.
Some senators had discussed impeachment last week but that action has not been considered by the entire student senate.
Heitschmidt said he thought his critics were exploiting the issue because of his leadership position.
Student body presidents have been under close scrutiny lately,he said.
"What got started at KU is trickling across the state," Heitschmidt said, referring to KU's Student Senate president Darren Fulcher from office.
John Fairman, K-State's vice president for institutional advancement, said Heitzmann's and Routson's work was not motivated by personal gain.
Bush threatens to veto bill giving workers unpaid leave
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Senate yesterday accepted a compromise version of a bill to guarantee many workers 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family emergencies, setting the stage for post-contemporary domestic issues of the year.
With two liberal Democrats absent, the 65-32 vote suggested supporters would have the two-thirds majority to govern. The president George Bush's threatened eye.
The key vote accepted a compromise bill sponsored by Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., a version Democratic hackers enticed in the hope of attracting the support of other moderate Republicans.
The president vetoed the bill last year, and the measure died when the House failed to override by 54 votes. Supporters hoped a wide Senate margin this time would encourage House action.
Bush push to discourage the expected Senate approval with a letter to Seen. Bob Dole R-Kan, calling the senator and counter-productive."
"Iwillvetoit."Bushwrote.
"It's time to break the deadlock on this issue with a compromise that will work for families as well as Main businesses," Bond said before the vote.
Both Democratic and Republican sponsors tried to put together a two-thirds majority to signal the Senate's willingness and ability to override a vote.
The Family and Medical Leave Act would require many employerstogive
workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the worker's illness, to care for a sick family member or to take care of a newborn or adopted child.
But the measure was strongly opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups. Opponents said it would be burdened for employers' ability to tailor benefit packages to meet workers' needs.
Supporters said the leave should have been a minimum work standard in the modern workplace, where two incomes are necessity for many families, described the bill as a way to protect poor and middle-income families.
Workers at covered businesses would be required to have a year's experience to qualify, and part-time workers would have to have worked within the company for at least 'key' workers, the highest-paid 10 percent of the company's workforce.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn,
who has sponsored the bill in the last
three sessions of Congress, backed
by a watered-down version of his bill.
It exempts all businesses with 50 or fewer employees from the leave requirements. Those exempted small businesses comprise 95 percent of all employers, but about half of all U.S. workers would be covered.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Uthat, offered a more modest alternative. Rather than guaranteeing leave, his proposal said workers who quit for family emergencies over other applicants if they asked to be rehired within six years.
Class goes on for a Russian reading and grammar class on the lawn in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall. Police searched Wescoe and found no bomb.
Year's first bomb threat targets Wescoe
Kansan staff report
The first bomb threat of the year did not deter classes at Wescoe Hall yesterday.
About 12 classes were held outside Wescoe in the Indian summer sunshine because of a bomb threat called into KU police at 1:12 p.m.
A male caller told police a bomb would detonate at 2 p.m., said KU police representative Burdell Welsh.
Sixteen KU police officers arrived at Wescoe within minutes of the call, Welsh said, and department heads
About 12 classes relocate to grass outside
were notified of the threat.
When a bomb threat is made, police notify department heads, who decide whether their departments' services should be evacuated, Welsh said.
Police did not find any bomb and
left Wescoe about 2:05. Welsh said.
About 12 instructors took their 1:30:2-20 classes outside while KU police searched the building for a bomb.
Gabe Shelton, Topeka junior, said,
"I think it is weak to call in a bomb
threat to avoid a test or handing in
homework."
While heading for a grassy area shortly after the threat, Julie Jacob, Kansas City, Mo., senior, said her teacher had decided to conduct her French class outdoors although the classroom was not evacuated.
Last year, 41 bomb threats were made campuswide. Twenty-nine threats were reported last fall, and 12 were reported in the spring.
Last spring, Benjamin Goldstein, then-cReve Coeur, Mo., freshman, was charged with two felony counts of throwing a fireball section with campus bomb threats.
Goldstein recently entered into a diversion agreement with the Douglas County District Attorney's office.
People with information about bomb threats should call the KU Crime Stoppers Hotline at 864-8884.