VOL 101, NO.149
THE UNIVERSITY DAL KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1991
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Habitat begins fifth area home
By Jeff Meesey
Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
When Janene Reese walked through the front door to her house yesterday, she was criving.
The people cheering were volunteers who had just built and raised the first wall of Reese's home. The volunteers, who came from across the country, are donating the time and money to build the house.
But more than 20 sweaty people around her were cheering.
They are participating in a work camp sponsored by LaTeX and the Humanity. The camp began yesterday, and ends Saturday.
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit group that helps build homes for families living in substand conditions. Reese's house, 1700 Harper St., will be the fifth Habitat home built in Lawrence.
Gloria Jacob, a coordinator of the work camp, said substandard living conditions meant that a family's house was unsafe. too small or too expensive for the family's budget.
Usually, Habitat's board members prefer to have $10,000 before they begin building a house. Last week, Habitat had just $2,000 to build Reese's home.
Reese, a Lawrence resident, said, "The housing we were living in was too expensive. I just applied to Habitat
Freda Houk, Lawrence resident, and her daughter Jessica, 10, clean the window sill of their Habitat home, which should be finished next month.
Craig Jacob, a coordinator of the work camp, said a recent no-interest $10,000 loan would help pay for the first week's construction. The houses cost about $30,000 to build
Ellen Bowden came from New York to volunteer her time to build the Reeses' house.
"I did some work with Habitat in New York," she said
"I learned a lot about construction, and it is just a lot of
work."
The people who receive Habitat homes must provide at least 250 hours of "sweat equity" time spent working on the site.
much houses *notebooks holding lunch*; "three jacks and
bread" help older Habitat home residents build
their new houses.
"I'm here every day of the week working on our house," said Freda Hall, owner of the fourth Lawrence Habitat
She and her husband, Gary Houk, have been working on the house since March. Freda Houk said that only a few things, including installing the carpet and linoleum, had to be done.
"We lived in a mobile home with two bedrooms, and we had to cut into the living room to make another bedroom for them."
The Hooks' new house will have four bedrooms and a basement. It is the largest Lawrence Habitat home
18 African-American congressmen urge Bush not to lift South African sanctions
The Associated Press
Bush met for an hour and a half with 18 of the 26 African-American members of Congress and told them he had little choice under the law but to lift sanctions once South Africa's prison release releases all political prisoners.
WASHINGTON — African-American members of Congress told President Bush yesterday that lifting sanctions against South Africa would be a benefit for the country and a him to put aside racely divisive rhetoric against a civil rights bill.
"I don't have much flexibility," Bush told the congressmen as they opened their meeting.
The congressmen told Bush there was evidence South Africa had not fully met other legal conditions in the war, despite claims, despite claims to the contrary.
The White House session with the African-American lawmakers was sought last week by the Congressional Black Caucus in hopes of dissuading Bush from moving to drop sanctions and in an effort to gain a cease fire in the increasingly rancorous public debate over civil rights.
Bush agreed to the meeting with a swiftness that left the lawmakers hopeful.
However, White House press secretary Martin Fitzwater said after the meeting that Bush continued to take a pretty strict interpretation of the 1986 law spelling out five conditions for dropping the sanctions that were enacted to measure the South African government to drop its apartheid racial policies.
Fitzwater discounted the suggestion by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.D.C., that the group had
Bush repeatedly has criticized the House-passed version as a quota bill that would prompt employers to hire minorities strictly by numbers.
sought and obtained a commitment from the president for a cease-fire in the war of words over the civil-rights bill
Meanwhile, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and White House Chief of Staff John Sununu met with Sen. Jodoff Dauthorp, R-Mo., who is sponsoring what he hopes will emerge as a new law in the United States. White House and civil rights leaders.
"From our standpoint, the rhetoric has not been high." Fitzwater said. "There was no special discussion of it. It was not an issue."
Fitzwater told reporters that although the White House still favors its own bill, which was rejected by the House, it considers Danforth's
legislation a basis for compromise.
But Ralph G. Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an umbrella lobbying group, said he had concluded that Bush's senior staff at the House did not want a bill to pass.
"I believe that senior White House staffers, for political and ideological reasons, have already made the decision to make every effort to block the enactment of a civil-rights bill," Neas said, apparently referring to Mr. Cruz's Gray, White House counsel, Bush's top adviser on the civil-rights bill.
"All the White House wants is a political issue to demagogue," Neas said. "We remain hopeful that discussions will continue among all those who sincerely want a civil-rights bill enacted into law."
Republics vote
Croatia, Slavonia declare independence
By Jeff Meesey Kansas staff writer
The republics of Croatia and Slovenia yesterday proclaimed independence from Yugoslavia, and the federal Parliament immediately urged the army to intervene and prevent the nation's breakup.
Croatia's Sabor, or legislature,
approved the package of independence
laws in Zagreb.
In Lujbjana, the Slavian capital. Parliament approved legislation declaring the republic's independence and outlining its terms. Both legislatures voted overwhelmingly in favor.
The moves provoked a sharp reaction in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital.
The U.S. and European Community governments have said that neither would recognize an independent Slavonia or Croatia.
"The EC and the U.S. would always prefer to have a united country to work with," said Anna Ciencia, professor of Soviet and East European studies. "But these people, when they left separate from Yuezhelia."
Cienciela said the northern, prosperous, Catholic republics of Croatia and Slavonia resented domination by an empire largest of the country's six republics.
By declaring their independence, Croatia and Slavonia threaten to inflame longstanding ethnic tensions, worsen Yugoslavia's grave economic problems and even plunge the patchwork nation into a civil war.
Bill March, assistant professor of Slavic languages and literature, said, "Croatia and Slavonia have thought of creating a Serbia. Serbia, ecopolitically and politically."
"For example, about 80 percent of the Adriatic coast is in Croatia. Much of the money that pours in there from tourism, for instance, goes to the government," he says, taxes. The government is bureausal and largely manned by Serbs."
The two republics have pushed for a loose federation against the objections of hard-line Serbian leaders.
Croats, the country's two largest ethnic groups, has claimed the lives of about 22 people in Croatia since the end of the war, and groups in the country are arming.
"These people have to learn to live amicably," March said.
The 500,000 strong Serbian minority in Croatia said it was discriminated against, but March said the Croatian constitution guaranteed autonomy to Serbs and other minorities in Croatia.
March, who lived in Croatia for five years, said. "The majority of Serbs would have no trouble living in Croatia.
Croatia and Slavonia originally had planned to declare independence today, the decision to act earlier on the legislation was not explained.
"There is a whole rural district which has a majority of Serbs. They have declared themselves a separate entity and asked to be included into Serbia proper, although there is no common border."
Now that the republics have declared independence, fierce fighting between Serbs and Croats could ripple through the rest of Yugoslavia and the Balkans, which have a history of internecine violence.
Violence between Serbs and
Yugoslavia, a country of four official languages and at least 24 ethnic groups, has been fragile since it was first formed in 1918.
After the Communists were swept from power throughout eastern Europe in 1980, Yugoslavia also moved toward democracy and elections were conducted in all six republics last year.
Slavonia's new legislation will produce few major immediate changes. There will be no Slavonian passports, no new banknotes and about 20,000 federal army troops will remain stationed on Slavonian territory.
But the new legislation unilaterally annuls the validity of the Yugoslav Constitution on Slavonian territory.
It establishes a Slavonian central bank, which authorities say could issue its own currency within eight months.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
State finance council will consider Hoch aid request
By Kelley Frieze
Kansan staff writer
The state finance council will consider a request for $197,000 in emergency aid for Hoch Auditorium on Friday.
Chancellor Gene A. Budg sent a request Monday to James Cobler, state secretary of administration, requesting that the finance council allocate money needed to make the college accessible to the secretary of the state finance council.
Demolition of some Hoch walls, cleanup of debris and installation of an eight-foot safety fence around the structure will be provided with the money requested, said Del Meehan, firm executive vice chancellor
Jon Jossendrand, KU assistant for government relations, said, "It's only the very minimal things which come from being a, a safety hazard."
Lindy Eakin, vice chancellor for administration and finance, said,
"Our request is based on making the building safe."
Gov Joan Finney, chairperson of the council, placed the request on the agenda for the meeting.
Although the building inspection and wall demolition began last
'In some senses, if the state doesn't come to our aid, it's our problem. We can't just walk away from it.'
- Lindy Eakin
vice chancellor for administration and finance
week, the state has not appropriated money yet.
Martha Walker, Finney's press secretary, said that according to state statutes, money in the fund could be used only for emergent
Because Kansas does not insure state buildings, it relies on the state emergency fund to pay for disasters.
The council will determine whether every request in the breakdown qualifies as an emergency.
To appropriate the money, the council will have to vote unanimously in favor of granting the request.
Shankel said the University of Kansas had no budget resources to allocate toward the Hoch cleanm
"All of our money is budgeted
and planned to be spent," he said. The University is not allowed to have an emergency fund, he said.
Eakin said, "In some senses, if the state doesn't come to our aid, it's our problem. We can't just walk away from it."
No plans have been made yet for the rebuilding of Hoch, but Shankel said a committee probably would consider the Hoch remodeling places.
Jossner said that once the money was appropriated, demolition and stabilization of Hoch could take about eight to 12 weeks.
Josserand said, "The University will sit down now and re-examine its existing proposal to renovate Hoch. We will make the necessary changes to that plan and do everything we can to expedite it."
The only state money that could be used to rebuild Hoch are the educational building fund and the state general fund. he said.
In a statement Saturday, Budig said, "Long before the fire, we listed the Hoch renovation as a high priority for the University of Kansas. Today it is our highest priority."
See related story Page 5
A wrecking ball smashes into the west wall of Hoch Auditorium as the cleanup effort continues.