CAMPUS / AREA
University Daily Kansan/Friday, September 20, 1991
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GLASA drafts mission statement
By Rochelle Olson
Kansan staff writer
Members of Gay and Lesbian Academic and Staff Advocates only recently drafted a mission statement but already have taken action.
GLASA was formed last spring as a source of personal and social support for faculty and staff members, said Maggie Childs, founding member of the organization.
The mission statement calls for asserting the dignity of gays and lesbians as well as bisexual men and women. Other goals include eliminating anti-gay violence, creating a more humane campus and promoting lesbian and gay rights.
GLASA, with about 35 members, still is in the process of developing an agenda for this year, said Childs, associate professor of East Asian languages and culture.
But she said that they already had been successful in having the University issue a memo about the difference between affirmative action and the University's non-discrimination policy.
University job announcements mentioned affirmative action, but did not include more women in the faculty. They were criminated against. Childs said.
"Now the University policy prohibiting discrimination is supposed to appear in more places," she said.
GLASA also plans to have a panel discussion on "outing," publicizing a person's sexuality without the person's consent.
But there has been good news at recent meetings, Childs said.
"For a long time gay and lesbian people ended up telling horror stories of insults, slights and be disowned," she said. "We are now sharing stories of acceptance."
Childs said she knew of three gay and lesbian people who recently were able to sign their names, and Robinson passes at Robinson Center.
"I would like to see more of us test the University policy for non-discrimination to see whether spousal benefits are extended to gays and lesbians," Childs said.
She said that GLASA would like to know whether people were successful when they tested the system.
"If people are turned down, then we could accumulate information to take to the administration." Childs said.
Scott Manning, a graduate teaching assistant in French and Italian and a member of GLASA, said that Mr. Ackerman was a major accomplishment.
Its existence helps other gay and lesbian faculty to be open with their sexuality, he said.
He also said it was important for people who were beginning college and might be questioning their own sexuality to have role
Otherwise, gay, lesbian and bisexual students may not realize that some faculty and administration members had gone through similar experiences, Manning said.
Surveys reveal more student parking needed; yellow zone restored at lot 62
Faculty, students doubt if problem effectively solved
By Stephanie Patrick
By Stephamet Kansan staff writer
After three weeks of surveys and complaints by students and staff, KU's parking services have given 38 more parking spaces to students in lot 62, located east of the computer center and west of Illinois Street.
"We thought we'd give the students some relief," said Don Kearns, director of parking services.
The University has three levels of parking zones: yellow for students and red and blue for faculty and staff.
Lot 62 was all yellow until this semester when the University decided to make it a red zone.
But Kearns said the decision to change the zones was made Sept. 13, and spaces were remarked yellow Tuesday.
The lot now has three rows of yellow parking spaces which are designated as student parking.
The original change from yellow to red was made to replace spaces lost when the University lost a temporary lot it was using, said Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking.
Hutline said the decision was made based on a survey done by the department and on complaints from students and staff.
She said the results showed that there was a need for more student parking.
However, the results might not have been
accurate because once students heard that parking tickets were being cancelled, they parked there more frequently, she said.
At the beginning of the semester, parking services canceled parking tickets of students who had parked in lot 62's red zone because of the lack of yellow space spaces on campus.
The department is no longer canceling the parking tickets of students who illegally park in red zones, Hultine said.
She said that the department also received complaints from members of the faculty.
"the staff said we weren't enforcing the parking enough," she said.
Lydia Ash, Ft. Morgan, Colo., senior, whohas a yellow sticker, said the zone changes would not improve the parking problems on campus.
"It really doesn't make much difference (people with) red and blue can still park n yellow spots from what I understand," she said.
parking spot
She said that with her red sticker it was possible to get a parking spot but only if she got to work on time.
Kathryn Huxtable, senior programmer at the company center, had mixed feeling about the
Hurtable said being late meant competing with students for space.
"This is Darwinism in action with fittest defined by the parking board," she said.
Source: KU Parking Services
Melissa Unterberg/KANSAN
Patrick G. Runnardt/KANSAN
Ted Adams, Silver Lake junior, rushes the net to return a volley in his tennis class. Students in Steve Long's HPER 108 class practiced yesterday outside of Robinson Gymnasium despite the cool weather.
Charge!
Letter from missing woman denies involvement in cult; KBI investigation continues
The Associated Press
RUSSELL — The disappearances of four Russell women, including two KU students, took another turn yesterday with the delivery of a letter purportedly from one of the women denying that she leads a cult.
No mention is made in the letter of any travel outside Russell by its purported author. 38-year-old Donna Thompson says she disappeared Tuesday.
The letter did not mention Russell residents Marcia Brock, 45, or her daughters, Sonya, a KU senior, and Akiu KU junior, who disappeared Sept. 9.
No one has seen the women since that day, when they attended a funeral of a woman who has been tied to a religious group that has apocalyptic views and a belief in UFOs. The other women have been tied to the group.
Butts has been identified by a former member of the group as the loosely formed organization's leader.
The hand-written letter Buts purportedly wrote to *The Russell Daily News* carried the name and address of a author of a recent book about UFOs.
A copy of the letter was obtained by television station KSN5-TV in Wichita, which described the letter as having been hand-delivered to the newspaper by an unidentified relative of Butts.
The two-page take note of "rumors circulating around town that suggest I am running some kind of a 'cult.' Over the years, there have been many rumors about it, and we consider it a sollen matter for all of us to be concerned about . . .
BUT, for all of you who believe the rumors about me and who we read our book and didn't understand it, I state emphatically: I do not run nor belong to any cult, circle, coven, group or gathering," the letter said.
It concludes, "If I were as brilliant
as you believe, I would not be sitting in Russell being verbally巾 shreds, threatened and physically attacked we were used my friends and neighbors".
It was the letter's only reference to the possible location of the writer.
Earlier yesterday, Bob Rollou, Russell County Sheriff, said the matter of UFOs was the only common explanation and find in the women's disappearance.
"I wish I knew what to tell you," he said. "That's all I know. We have not conceived a connection out, but bushally, people I got carrying away with that theory."
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is coordinating the investigation, which includes KU police.
Ballou has said the investigation has stretched to Colorado. Eric Fowler, a Russell artist who claims he has been involved in the group in the past, has said the group had plans to乡移ləre locale to Colorado.
Bolloun said investigators were conducting interviews with people acquainted with the missing women.
Butts co-wrote, "UFO Contact the Four," a 240-page illustrated book on theories about UFO sightings and encounters. The book is described as being written in 1989 by extraterrestrials, "in the hand of" Butts and Scott Corder of Ottawa, who also has been reported as missing for a week.
Corder's wife, Barbara, said it was not unusual for her husband to disappear for periods of time without telling her where he had gone or why.
Bolloun said he thought there was no connection between the disappearance of Corder and the four women.
"it's scary," he said. "These are four people that have disappeared in my county. And so far, don't have a single lead on any of them."
"We have no reason to tie them both together. But deep down in our soul, we believe there is some connection."