WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19. 1996
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS 864-4810
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.102, NO.3
(USPS 650-640)
TODAY in the KANSAN
SPORTS
New coach to be named
The Kansas softball coaching job, vacated by Gayle Luedke, is scheduled to be filled today. Page 5A
CAMPUS
Brian Flink/KANSAN
Basement bonding
Five students from different backgrounds live in the basement of the Ecumenical Christian Ministries. Page 3A.
WEATHER MOSTLY SUNNY
NATION
Yeltsin makes moves to gain the upper hand in the race for the presidency. Page 5B.
High 92° Low 68°
Russian elections
WORLD
ValuJet shuts down
Under pressure from the government, the airline stops operations. Page 5B.
Edmee Rodriguez/KANSAN
INDEX
KU Life ...1B
Sports. ...5B
Opinion ...4A
National News ...5B
World News ...5B
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.
Pam Dishman/KANSAN
Hemenway to choose provost
Nancy Marlin, David Shulenburger and Marilyn Strathe each spoke with students during this past week in open forums. These three, along with Marilyn Yarbrough and Richard Edwards, who visited the University earlier this month, are the finalists for the new post of KU provost
Chancellor has search committee's recommendations
By Spencer Duncan Kansan staff writer
The recommendations are in, and now Chancellor Robert Hemenway must decide who will be the University of Kansas 'first ever provost.
The provost search committee handed in its final recommendations on the five provost finalists yesterday, and Hemenway's decision is expected by July 1.
Jeff Weinberg, associate vice chancellor, said, "This has been a good process, and the committee has worked hard to make it run smoothly. The end is almost here."
the job.
The position combines the duties of executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for academic affairs.
The search, which began in March, culminated last week when each finalist made a two-day campus visit.
The candidates said that these visits made a difference as to who got
Marilyn Yarbrough, associate provost at the University of North Carolina and a provost finalist, said, "This is the chance for us to show people who we are. How we interact on these visits will tell people if and how we can do the job."
Each candidate participated in forums with students, faculty and Lawrence residents and was interviewed by both the committee and Hemenway.
John Nalbandian, committee member and associate professor of public administration, said, "The week helped answer some of our questions."
Through student and open forums, the candidates outlined what they could bring to the University.
Vibrancy is what Marlene Strathe, provost and vice-president for academic affairs at the University of North Dakota, outlined as an essential component of a university.
"An institution of vibrancy is an institution which is committed to educating leadership of tomorrow that will be less concerned with gross national product and more concerned with equity and justice," Strathe said.
Strathe said she was intrigued by Hemenway's restructuring and
would be comfortable living in the Midwest. She endorsed post-tenure review as a means of monitoring performance.
Nancy Marlin, vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Northern Iowa, said that change was inevitable for colleges and that the University must be
prepared to respond to that change.
Keeping in touch with students and faculty is an essential part of being an administrator, she said.
Marlin also said it was important that a university retain its academic autonomy. Marlin does not want the legislature to become too involved in the operation of any university.
Shulenburger, who has been at Kansas for 22 years, said he would like to continue being a part of the University in the years ahead.
Change is also important to David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Greg Litterick / CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Please see Provost on page 2A
Chris Wilkens, St. Charles, Mo. junior, and Rosie Kozul, St. Louis graduate student, race toward the finish line at the National Concrete Canoe Competition at Lake Mendota in Madison, Wis. A team of 13 KU students competed last weekend with 24 other schools. KU finished 14th overall in the competition.
Canoe race tests future engineers
By Andrea Albright Kansan staff writer
In a boat called Prairie Fire, a group of 13 KU students competed against 25 teams last weekend at the America's Cup of college civil engineering.
The National Concrete Canoe Competition in Madison, Wis., is an annual event that combines student ingenuity and hands-on experience to showcase the abilities of civil engineering students, who present, display and race the canoes.
The University finished 14th overall this year, helped by a seventhplace finish in the display category and ninth-place finish for the team's oral presentation.
The University of Alabama-Huntsville won the event for the third time in four years. Sixty percent of the event's scoring is based on academics and 40 percent on the actual races. By not placing higher in the races, the KU team was at a
disadvantage, said Greg Litterick,
Shawne graduate student.
"We didn't place in the top 10 of any of the races," he said. "Everybody's so close on the academics, you have to win a couple of races to place high."
Funding is provided by the Kansas University Endowment Association, the department of engineering, and Master Builders, Inc., the corporate sponsor.
David Darwin, professor of civil engineering and the team's faculty adviser, said the students spent more than 800 hours building the canoes to strict specifications.
Each team gave presentations of their designs, which included a paper, a poster display and one square foot of material from the canoe. The presentations highlighted the students' strategies and emphasized their innovations in design.
Please see Boats on page 2A
Storms keep meteorologists busy
Storm-chasing teams investigate active cells
By K.C. Hammons Special to the Kansan
Storms were imminent. The WDAF Channel 4 weather room in Kansas City, Mo., was crowded with meteorologists studying the radar picture.
When the Lifted Index dropped to minus 4, indicating tornadoes were likely, WDAF meteorologist Diane Kacmarik and a cameraman quickly loaded up the van and sped westward, hoping to catch a twister on videotape.
It began to hail just as the two-person storm-chasing team was west of Bonner Springs on Interstate 70.
The wind became stronger, the sky blackened, and the force of the wind shoved the van off the highway.
Meteorologists working for television stations in the Kansas area, which is known as Tornado Alley, do more than just read radar screens and report the weather. Television weather departments, armed only with a video camera and a cellular phone, have assumed the responsibility of capturing severe storms up close. As Kacmarik found out, it was an exciting
Kacmarik decided that safety was more important than chasing the storm. The team took shelter under an overpass and waited for the storm to pass.
endeavor, but it can be dangerous.
Kacmarik said that meteorologists carried beepers and could be dispatched at any time, depending on the severity of the storm.
"Usually when the Lifted Index, which is just an indicator of weather instability, gets to minus 4 or below, a team is dispatched from the station and heads toward the storm cell." Kacmarik said.
"We had several teams out tracking down reports from people who called in. We were able to investigate the leads a lot easier because of all of the people we had out," Lauria said. "There were several cells to investigate and with all the calls coming in reporting tornadoes, we were pretty busy."
Meteorologist Joe Lauria, who works with Kacmarik at WDAF, said the meteorologist in the field kept in touch with another meteorologist at the station who used Doppler radar to track the storm's cells and give locations to the chase team. The night Kacmarik's team was blown off the road was a good night because they were between shifts and had plenty of chase teams available, Lauria said.
The storm's cell, the densest, most active part of the storm, is easily identified by Donpler radar.
Lauria said that some stations in Oklahoma, where tornado activity is most prevalent, had vehicles equipped with Doppler, making it quicker and easier for the chase teams to track storms.
A chase team typically encounters
strong winds, rain and often hail. However, the team usually doesn't encounter a tornado. Lauria said.
KCTV Channel 5 meteorologist Gary Amble, a 1987 KU graduate, said that storm chasing was exciting and frustrating at the same time.
"Sometimes you can drive hundreds of miles chasing a storm cell and never get anything," he said.
"First, you have to put yourself in position to intercept the cell," Amble said. "Then, if possible, you chase it from the southwest, since most storms move from southwest to northeast. That's the safest place to be. The problem is that tornadoes spend an average of only three minutes on the ground, approximately one-fifteenth of its life, and often are moving too fast to safely catch one down."
He said the storm-chasing team must keep in constant communication with the meteorologist monitoring the radar so the team can be in position to track the storm.
Tornadoes moving at more than 40 mph aren't worth chasing, Amble said, because it is nearly impossible to capture such tornadoes on video tape.
"We're worried that people are going to start chasing these things," Amble said. "They don't realize how dangerous it can be."
Amble said television stations often got footage of tornadoes or other storms from amateur videos, but he did not recommend chasing tornadoes. He said that was a concern after the popular movie Twister.
Matt Flickner/KANSAN
Lightning often accompanies storms which yield tornadoes. Television meteorologists chase severe storms hoping to capture twisters on videotape.