CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, May 6, 1996
3A
Award hits right note with recipients, faculty
Band members honored for their accomplishments
By D. Leonard Teska Kansan staff writer
"You can't just get into the group because you want to. You have to earn it," said Robert Foster, director of the KU Marching Band.
Playing in a KU band takes more than desire. It takes ability and talent, as well.
In recognition of their musical and leadership abilities, Kaytee Dietrich, Overland Park senior, and Mike White, Overland Park senior, received the Kelly Award, which is given annually to one male and one female member of a KU band. The award includes a $175 scholarship.
White, a trumpet section leader in the KU Marching Band, said he also played in the men's and women's basketball bands and the KU Jazz Ensemble. He said he had been involved in KU bands during his four years at the University.
"It's really not an academic award," Foster said. "It's a distinction that recognizes them for their accomplishments."
"They looked at all the possibilities and chose two people," White said. "It was a total surprise."
Dietrich, who plays flute, piccolo, alto saxophone and clarinet, also said she was surprised when the award was announced.
Kaytee Dietrich, Overland Park senior, and Mike White, Overland Park senior, are the recipients of an award that is given each year to one male and one female musician. The award is given to honor those who exemplify musicianship and leadership qualities.
Foster said the award had been established by Bill and Barbara Kelly of Lawrence in honor of Bill Kelly's father, a high school band director from McCook, Neb. Foster and three other band directors reviewed more than 600 students to find the two that fulfilled the intent of the award.
The other directors were James Barnes, Concert Band director;
Dan Galey, Jazz Ensemble director and Thomas Stidham, University Band director.
Foster said the seniors stood out
because they had the most extensive records." These kids have simply given and given to the University," he said.
School of Education reduces departments from six areas to four
Reorganization mergers account for new cutbacks
By D. Leonard Teska
Kansan staff writer
After months of meetings, public forums and introspection, the School of Education announced Friday how it will reduce from six to four departments.
Karen Gallagher, dean of education, said the decision was not an easy one to make.
"I did spend a somewhat restless night," she said.
The University of Kansas, responding to a Board of Regents requirement to reduce its total number of departments from 72 to 62 by 1998, mandated the school to absorb some of that reduction.
Gallagher said she then distributed the two models to faculty, staff and students for comments. Gallagher said she received 30 written feedback replies.
The task force first developed four models, then reduced them down to two: model A and model B, which were presented to Gallagher on Feb. 8.
Last October, Gallagher established a Reorganization Task Force, chaired by Tom Skrtic, professor of education, and charged it with developing a proposal for reducing departments.
"We had lots of opportunity for input," she said.
In the options she chose, curriculum and instruction will merge with educational policy and leadership to form one department. Counseling psychology will combine with educational psychology and research to become another department. Special education and health, physical education and research will remain separate, she said.
In addition, Gallagher said the school will form two new divisions: the division of teacher education and the institute for educational research and public service.
Each department will have a new chair, and each division will be headed by an associate dean, she said.
In making her decision, Gallagher said that she had to look at the availability of faculty.
She said the school, with 85 percent of its professors tenured, shouldn't expect to add any more faculty positions and won't go back to its 1089 level of 92 professors.
"We are never going to go back to
what we were." she said.
Afterwards, Skrtic said a big change for the school was putting all teacher licensing programs in one section, a move that made it a school-wide responsibility. As the student population becomes more and more diverse across the country, Skrtic said that the school needed to be responsive to them.
"We have to include new certification programs to respond to the education needs of a diverse student population and new certification requirements," he said.
He also said that implementing the new organization would benefit the school since it would require more communications between departments.
"When you want to change and innovate, you have to bring people together," he said.
School of Education Reorganization
Noah Musser/KANSAN
KU professor to receive honorary degree in Netherlands
Mandela and Gates also will be honored
By Heather Kirkwood
Kansan staff writer
and Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft Corp.
Richard De George, professor of philosophy, will get a chance to rub elbows in November with Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa,
The three are being awarded honorary doctorate degrees in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the business school at Nijenrode University in Breukelen, Netherlands.
"It will be a great honor to meet Nelson Mandela, and it will be interesting to meet Bill Gates," De George said.
De George was selected for an honorary doctorate because of the pioneering role he has played in business ethics.
Joe Reitz, professor of business, has worked with De George for eight years. Together Reitz and De George have raised private funds to start the International Center for Ethics in Business.
"One of the reasons I came to KU
was to work with Richard," Reitz said. "He was one of the first people to write a textbook on business ethics 15 or 16 years ago before it became a popular topic."
Reitz said the University was fortunate to have someone as well known as De George on the faculty.
"Richard is a delight," Reitz said. "He is a very intelligent person, well versed in business and ethics. I
encourage my business students to take his class, and they always say they get a lot out of it."
De George has taught at the University since 1959. In 1974 De George and Joseph Pichler, then dean of the business school, organized a conference on business ethics that several academics have called the birth of business ethics as a discipline.
During his career De George has written 17 books and 140 articles. He plans to write a book next fall on ethical issues facing computer users.
"I think that those who can use computers and those who can't will be like the difference between those who can read and those who can't in the business community," De George said.
Legislative cuts force elimination of credit card tuition payment
By John Collar Kansan staff writer
The Kansas Legislature's actions this year will bring significant changes to the University, including forcing KU to stop accepting credit cards for tuition payments and approving a $163 million capital-improvements project, administrators said.
The change that will almost immediately affect students is the cut in bank card fees. Starting July 1, students will not be able to use credit cards to pay tuition. KU administrators made this decision because legislators took away $450,000 that covered the bank card fees. The University could have continued accepting credit cards, but paying the bank card fees would have meant a cut in academic programs.
Lindy Eakin, associate executive vice chancellor, said the Legislature's decision was not wise considering how important credit cards were to the economy.
The Legislature also voted to establish admissions requirements at state universities for the first time in 85 years. Students entering the University in the Fall 2001 will have to meet minimum standards, rather than simply graduate from an accredited Kansas high school.
"That's just a step backwards in terms of how the world does business." Eakin said.
By 2001, incoming freshman must meet one of the following criteria: graduate in the top one-third of
their high school class, score at least 21 on the ACT or earn a 2.0 grade point average.
"All students should be taking a preparatory program, whether they go to college or not," said State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence.
Perhaps the most beneficial change from Topeka came Thursday, when the Legislature passed a $163 million capital-improvements project to renovate the crumbling infrastructure at Regents institutions.
About $53 million will be used for improvements in fire safety and handicapped access. The major projects financed by the plan will be the renovation of Joseph R. Pearson Hall and an expansion of Murphy Hall.
The Legislature also passed a program that will allow the University to respond more quickly to enrollment increases. This new funding mechanism, called tuition accountability, will allow the University to keep additional tuition from enrollment increases and 25 percent of the funds resulting from a tuition increase.
Despite these finances, the university's budget will be cut $300,000 beginning July 1. Eakin said.
He said the cuts were minor compared to last year's Legislative cuts, which were about $1.5 million.
"I don't think you'll see any real impact in the classroom because we'll try to prevent that," Eakin said. "It could be relatively minor on the instructional side."