WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1996
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.102, NO.4
(USPS 650-640)
TODAY
KANSAN
SPORTS
Where's Washington?
Girls from across the country are enjoying Marion Washington's basketball camp, despite the fact that she's not there. Page 7A
CAMPUS
Army of Smiles
Orientation assistants open the eyes of future Jayhawks. Page 3A.
NATION
The uneasy truth
A study finds that many people prefer not to know if they carry cancer genes. Page 4B.
WORLD
Mideast talks
The Israeli Prime Minister says he is ready to resume peace talks with Palestinians. Pago 4B.
WEATHER
MOSTLY SUNNY
AAAAAHHH
High 90° Low 71°
INDEX
KU Life ...1B
Sports...7A
Opinion...4A
National News...4B
World News...4B
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents.
Crime report tells half the story
Release lacks vital information
By Andrea Albright Kansan staff writer
For the third year in a row, a student's chance of being a victim of violent crime on campus has decreased.
But don't feel too safe. According to Lawrence police, most crime involving students takes place off campus.
Awareness, the University of Kansas campus crime report, was mailed to faculty and staff early this summer and will be included in the spring timetable of classes.
The report is the University's answer to federal requirements, listing the number of crimes that occurred at officially recognized organizations and on property owned or leased by the University in the past three years.
Yet Barbara Ballard, director of the Emily Taylor Resource Center, said the University could only report the crimes within its jurisdiction.
"Our mission is to focus on the KU campus, not the Lawrence community," Ballard said.
The statistics do not include crimes at fraternities, sororities or neighborhoods with
Danny Kaiser, assistant dean of student life, said it was difficult to include off-campus residential areas in the statistics because students were spread throughout Lawrence. Deciding where to draw the line would be tricky.
large student populations near campus.
Lawrence police said they had no way to determine whether an offender or victim was a student and therefore could not include their crime statistics in the report. If KU police are involved in an off-campus arrest, the University gets a record of the crime. Yet KU police are involved in fewer than 25 percent of off-campus arrests.
"Not all of the crime is on campus," Lewis said. "Students are affected by all crime, on and off campus."
Detective John Lewis of the Lawrence police said students needed to know the statistics in Awareness were for University-affiliated locations.
The University of Missouri-Rolla publishes city crime statistics in its campus crime report. Although city statistics are not mandated, Chief William Bleckman of the campus police department said city crime statistics put campus crime perspective.
"We want to show that the city surrounding campus is relatively safe too," Bleckman said. "We volunteer to give a better overview of the community."
About 43 percent of crime in 1994
"Students are
affected by all crime, on and off campus."
Detective John Lewis Lawrence police
occurred in or near student residences on the KU campus. In Spring 1996, 4,271 students lived on campus. However, 17,615 students lived off campus, affected more often by crime not included in Awareness.
University Relations produced Awareness in accordance with the Students Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act passed by Congress in 1991. The law requires universities to publish statistics for crimes that occur on school property.
In April, Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall established a campus safety task force in response to two murders at Pittsburgh State University since 1993. The task force meets monthly to explore efforts to protect students.
"Communities across our state are examining ways to prevent crimes and make their towns and cities safer," Stovall said. "It is incumbent upon us to do the same with our college environments."
Campus crime vs. Lawrence crime in 1995
Source: KU and Lawrence police Dena Piscister/KANSAN
A splashin' good time
EdmÃe Rodriguez/KANSAN
The Chi Omega fountain was a source of relief from the heat for Adrienne Garcia (left), Wichita junior, and Tisha Ottem, Atwood resident. Temperatures reached the upper 90s yesterday. The same is expected for today.
Church fires spark local interest
Lawrence clergymen ask for a united effort
By Pete Brumbaugh Kansan staff writer
"It can happen anywhere," said the Rev. William Dulin, president of the Ecumenical Fellowship, Inc., a coalition of nine black churches in Lawrence. "Racism is evil. Evil all stems from sin, and sin is not color-blind."
Lawrence is not exempt from the recent rash of church arsons, local clergymen say.
Dulin and leaders of other Lawrence ministerial associations issued a joint statement last Thursday, calling for a united relief effort and an end to racially-motivated attacks. The clergymen and members of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Jewish Community Center have joined together to raise funds and pray for an end to the bigotry.
More than 30 arsons at black churches have been reported across the United States in the past 18 months. While most of
"This united effort was something we could all agree on.It creates an awareness that the Church in Lawrence is against racism."
The Rev. Nate Rovenstine
Wesleyan Methodist Church
the fires have occurred in the South, a recent fire at a racially-mixed church in Oregon has caused local clergy to consider the range of the problem.
"You call them copycat fires," said the Rev. Ed Taylor, pastor of the St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church and president of the local NAACP chapter. "If the first fire was racially motivated, then you have to assume that others were started out of the same idea. What it has done is create the idea that racism and bigotry are alive in America and doing well." Taylor said that churches had been targeted because racists understand the power and hope associated with the black church movement in the South.
"The black church is the leader of the African-American people," he said. "It is our supporter; it is our life."
The Rev. Nate Rovenstine, pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and president of the Lawrence Association of Evangelicals, said an arson in a black Lawrence church would surprise him a bit. "But I wouldn't be shocked," he added. "There is a fringe element in Lawrence that could do something like burn a church down. But it isn't likely."
Pastors interviewed said they had not taken special security measures to ward off attacks.
The clergymen also said that organizing the relief effort through the Christian community was the right thing to do to fight racial tensions in America. Rovenstine said he viewed it as the body of believers in Lawrence helping believers in the South.
4
Donations may be sent to the Lawrence Ministerial Alliance at 1245 New Hampshire St., Lawrence, Kan., 66044.
Husband-and-wife team leave Kansas for more research funding in Texas
Well-known faculty leave University
Several factors influenced the husband-and-wife team's decision to leave. Huston said funding and salaries were important issues as well as a change in scenery.
After 20 years, two well-known faculty members will not be returning to the University of Kansas, having found positions elsewhere.
By Paul Eakins Kansan staff writer
Aletha Huston and John Wright, co-directors of the University's Center for Research on the Influences of Television on Children, have accepted positions at the University of Texas in Austin.
"It (Texas) is a challenge. It's something new," she said.
Huston and Wright said they would receive an increase in salary and funding for research.
"There are a lot of resources in Texas: better funding for research and better pay for graduate students," she said.
Huston said the University did make an attractive counter-offer, but this was something that the University would do only if pressured. If accepted, the counter-offer would have disrupted the University pay scale because faculty salary is below average compared to peer institutions.
"I think that KU's salary is at about 88 percent of that of peer institutions," she said.
Wright said the discrepancy in salary was due to a lack of understanding and appreciation of a research program by the University.
"Teaching undergraduates is part of the job, but so are research grants and activities and graduate student activities," he said. "You need to fund graduate students, research, labs and equipment."
Chancellor Robert Hemenway said that the couple's decision to leave would result in a serious loss.
"Other universities are seeing that KU salaries are low and are raiding us," Hemenway said.
Funding, which helps pay for salaries, is determined by the Kansas senate, Hemenway said. The Board of Regents makes recommendations to the governor, who reviews them and sends them to the Senate. The Senate votes on the recommendations or changes them.
Hemenway said the challenge was competing with other universities in states that were investing more in higher education.
"I'm optimistic that people in Kansas want a first-rate university," he said. "We have to do everything we can to keep faculty here."
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