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KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 3
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS    66601-3585
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
SECTION A VOL. 103, NO. 131
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1997
ADVERTISING 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
Water balloon thrown into sorority window
Unknown suspects lofted a water balloon through a window of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority Friday night, Lawrence police said. Damage was estimated at $500.
A resident heard a loud crash and went to investigate. She told police that when she looked out the window she saw about 15 to 20 people in the parking lot of an unidentified nearby fraternity who were running away.
The police had no suspects and said that the fraternity reported that it knew nothing about the incident.
Kansan staff report
Appeals court upholds affirmative action ban
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court upheld California's voter-approved ban on affirmative action.
In a 3-0 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a judge's order that had blocked enforcement of Proposition 209 not long after it was approved in November.
The ruling is scheduled to take effect in 21 days. Supporters of affirmative action said they would ask for another hearing by 11 members of the Ninth Circuit and press it to continue the ban on enforcement in the meantime.
The initiative, passed by 54 percent of the votes, would prohibit racial or gender preferences in state hiring and the awarding of contracts and college admission. The University of California Regents voted separately to eliminate affirmative action programs effective with 1998 admissions.
Rioting in West Bank erupts after shooting
It was West Bank's worst violence in months.
HEBRON, WEST BANK — Jewish seminary students shot and killed a Palestinian yesterday, sparking fierce riots in which Israeli troops killed two Palestinians and injured dozens.
The rioting in Hebron raged for more than five hours, with hundreds of protesters hurling stones and firebombs at the Israelis, who fired back tear gas and rubber bullets.
Palestinian police tried to prevent the protests from spilling over from the Palestinian-controlled part of the city into the enclave still held by Israel, where the shooting occurred — only to be pelted with stones by their own people.
The violence in Hebron — where 500 Jewish settlers live in uneasy coexistence with 130,000 Palestinians — came amid Arab dismay over the apparent failure of Monday's Washington summit between President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The escalation deepened fears that prospects for peace are dying.
Family shot by robbers near highway rest stop
GREENEVILLE, TENN. — The members of a family returning from a Jehovah's Witnesses conference were shot near a highway rest stop by a gang of robbers who stole their van.
Vidar Lillelid, 34, and his wife, Delphia, 28, were found dead in a ditch Sunday night along a gravel road three miles from the rest stop. Their 6-year-old daughter, Tabitha, was found alive in her father's lap and died Monday at a hospital.
Her 3-year-old brother, Peter, was cradled in his mother's lap.
He was in critical condition yesterday.
The Associated Press
DELAYED AGAIN
Budig Hall to be done by May 1
By Mark McMaster
Kansan staff writer
It's taking even longer to finish Budig Hall.
Now, assistant provost Richard Givens says it should be completed by May 1. Of course, last month it was going to be completed April 1.
The project has been plagued by a string of missed deadlines. Before April 1, it was February 1, and before that, a range of other dates back to July 1996.
Givens said of the new date,
"The estimate is really very rough. As it gets further along, though, I get more confident."
Despite the delays, Givens said that the project is still within its $22 million budget and will be completed without exceeding it.
But when can we count on Budie Hall opening?
"Until it is finished, all we can tell them is a tentative maybe," he said.
He is certain, though, that it will be finished by this fall, when classes are scheduled in the building for the first time since 1991.
Dean Mielke, construction manager at Design and Construction Management, said that the remaining work remaining was mostly interior finishing. Givens said the building's hightech audio-video systems were also not ready.
Mielke declined to comment about whether the construction company working on the project, DiCarlo, had exceeded any deadlines. The contract specifies that the company will be penalized $500 for each day late until the project is completed.
Because of a range of difficulties encountered during the project, and changes made to the design of the building, the contract's completion date has been extended a number of times, Mielke said.
Many of these extensions were negotiated verbally, and Mielke said the last processed, written contract extension left a December 5,1996,required completion date. He said he did not know offhand what date DiCarlo Construction was being held to, but that it was not past its current deadline.
Mielke said that a number of problems, such as unusually bad weather and design changes made during construction, were responsible for the delays.
"We've made some changes to what will be in the auditorium," Givens said. "We had failed to put in a director's office, so we had to redesign and make space for it, which took time."
Givens cited the auditorium's insulation, which was not installed correctly the first time, as another delay.
Geoff Krieger / KANSAN
TOP: Fred Stevens puts glue on a PVC pipe outside of Budig Hall. The PVC piping is part of a sprinkler system being installed around the building. After a series of delays, the completion date of Budig Hall (bottom photo) has been moved back again from April 1 to May 1.
Multiple tickets may equal towing
By Rachelle Detweller Special to the Kansan
When Janet Cull, Kansas City, Mo., senior, pulled her overheating car into a metered spot in the parking lot at Watkins Memorial Health Center, her main concern was getting to a phone for help.
When she got back, her car was gone. Then Cull saw the "Handicapped Parking" sign.
Parking violations, including mistakes like Cull's, cost 1,529 KU students about $20 per tow in the last fiscal year, said Donna Hutine, assistant director of the parking department.
Like Cull, students are frequently towed for blocking handicapped ramps, Hultine said. Many do not realize that the sidewalk curb cuts, where the sidewalk slopes to the street for wheelchair access, are a prime towing violation, she said.
But handicapped parking violations cause only a small portion of the University's tows. The most common tow violation is having an excessive amount of unpaid parking tickets, Hultine said.
"They don't define what excessive is," Cull said. "I've had friends with more tickets who haven't been towed."
Cull knows that problem too. She was towed for unpaid tickets when she parked in a lot across from the Adams Alumni Center earlier this semester.
Having three or more unpaid tickets can result in a person's car being towed, Hultine said.
"It's really hard," Hutline said. "Some students get tickets and don't realize it because someone took the ticket off of their car."
Both Cull and Hultine agreed that paying off all tickets is the surest method of avoiding a tow. When students opt to not pay fines, they must pay them all before they can get their car back. A release form is necessary from the parking department before they can pick up their car at Quality Towing 1146 Haskell Ave.
"Some students we tow every six weeks like clockwork" Hutting said.
Other students are regular customers.
To get this form, a student must pay off all of his parking fines. When the parking department closes at 5 p.m., the KU
police in Carruth-O'Leary Hall can issue the release form. Hutline said.
All this can add up to a big headache for KU students
Cull said that now she would pay all of her parking tickets. The effort it takes to pay a parking fine is much less painful than the cost and the difficulties of having a car towed, she said.
Jennifer Keltner, Wichita senior, said that she thought that the parking department kept students who have not been towed in line by deliberately scaring them with others' parking mistakes.
"I've seen numerous cars being towed through campus when there was really no need to," Keltner said. "They'll tow the car out of their way so that more students can see it with the two pink tickets on it flapping in the wind."
During each tow, a parking officer or the police must be present to fill out a tow release form, Hultine said. This form records all damage on the car, including paint chips and dents. The form protects the students, Hultine said, because the contractor must sign for responsibility for any damages to the car.
Campaigns culminate in voting
Investigation of Unite to be held after election
By Dave Morantz
Kansan staff writer
In two days, weather permitting, Wescoe Beach will return to the relaxed, student watering hole that it was before Student Senate candidates descended upon it for this year's campaign.
In addition to the Wescote Beach polling location, students will be able to vote at polls in Strong and Haworth Halls, as well as the Kansas and Burge Unions.
But for today and tomorrow, a month's worth of fierce campaigning will culminate at Wescoe Beach and the four other polling locations on campus. Members of the Unite coalition, Delta Force and independent candidates Michael Yaghmour, Pittsburg junior, and David Hennessy, Balston Lake, N.Y. junior, hope that high voter turnout will send them into office.
All students with KIDs can vote for Senate candidates and on a referendum to increase student fees for the construction of a new child care facility.
In case of cold weather, rain or snow, polls at the Unions and Strong Hall will be moved indoors. Polls at Wescoe and in between Malott and Haworth Halls will be moved under the overhangs of those buildings, said Chad Perlov, Englewood, Colo., senior and elections commissioner.
KU weather services predicted the high to reach only into the mid 30s today with a chance of afternoon snow.
Seth Hoffman, Lenexa freshman and Delta Force candidate for a Nunemaker seat, said an impending investigation of the Unite coalition could cloud the election. The commission is investigating a complaint filed by Delta Force alleging that Unite received help from former KU student Travis Harrod and failed to report it to the commission.
But candidates said the cold weather had not kept them from campaigning and shouldn't keep students form voting.
Because the commission will not address the issue until after the election, Hoffman said voters might not think the allegations and investigations were serious.
"This is a major offense and should be dealt with before the election," he said. "To be too busy to handle a major campaign offense before the election doesn't cut it."
Perlov said the elections commission did not have time to hold a hearing about the complaint until Tuesday because commission members had to sort ballots and receive training for the election.
Ward Cook, Mission Hills junior and Unite candidate for a seat in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said that new election codes prohibiting candidates from campaigning at polling sites and on sidewalks on election days would not affect the campaign. But candidates will still approach students on sidewalks. Cook said.
Perlov said election results would not be certified in the case of an impending investigation.
"It's the only way to get to the students," he said.
Whitney Black, Wichita junior and Delta Force candidate for an off-campus seat, said many students were turned off by being harassed on sidewalks.
"People are tired of having Senate candidates walk them to class," she said.
Polling stations
There are six polling stations where students can cast their Student Senate ballots. The polls will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today and tomorrow. Polls at the Kansas and Burge Urges will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. today.
Anze Kuhn/KAHBAN
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