WEDNESDAY, MAY 1. 1996
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.102,NO.145
(USPS 650-640)
TODAY In the KANSAN
SPORTS
Wild night
The Kansas baseball team suffered a 24-10 loss to Emporia State last night at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium. Page 1B
CAMPUS
Stressed out for a reason
KU students may be suffering from anxiety disorders but may not know it. Page 5A
NATION
High gas prices to be checked
The Justice Department will investigate the recent surge in prices. Page 7A
WORLD
Chaos returns to Monrovia
U. S. marines kill three and injure one intruder near the American Embassy. Page 8A
WEATHER
PARTLY CLOUDY
High 70° Low 44°
Weather: Page 2A.
INDEX
National News ... 7A
World News... 8A
Features ... 10A
Scoreboard... 2B
Horoscopes ... 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.
KU bids farewell to Shankel
Reception held to honor his 37 years of service
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
Del Shankel has done it all at the University of Kansas. From professor to acting athletic director to chancellor, Shankel has held 10 different posts in his 37-year career at KU.
But yesterday Shankel, 68, stepped into a new role as he entered the ranks of the retired at a reception in his honor.
About 250 friends and colleagues attended the 4 p.m. reception to celebrate Shankel's
career. The line of people waiting to offer their congratulations snaked out the door of the ballroom and into a hall of the Kansas Union during much of the reception.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the reception reflected what an important person Shankel had been to so many at the University.
"Del Shankel has played a part in so many things, and they're all things that make KU a better place," Hemenway said. "He will be missed by a chancellor who's been here only a year and by people who have known him almost 40 years."
Shankel's colleagues said he would be remembered as someone who was willing to step in and serve when the University needed him. Shankel has served as acting chairman of microbiology, acting dean of liberal arts and sciences, acting athletic director, acting vice chancellor for academic affairs, acting executive vice chancellor and acting chancellor.
"He'll be remembered for being the great
pinch hitter of all time," said David Shuenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs. "He just knows everything about everything, and there's no obvious successor for him."
Now Shankel and his wife, Carol, will divide their time between Seattle and Lawrence, spending much of the school year in Lawrence.
"I don't want to miss the Lied Concert series or KU football and basketball games," Shankel said. "There are a lot of books I want to read and a lot of places I want to travel to, but I want to stay close to the University."
Shankel said that he never said never but that it was unlikely that he would accept an administrative position at KU in the future.
"I really am retiring," he said. "But I did tell the biology department that I would be willing to teach a class in the spring for the next couple years."
So, while Shankel may not leave the University completely, his administrative era has concluded.
Matt Flickner/KANSAN
Del Shankel shakes hands with friends and colleagues at a reception held yesterday to honor his 37 years of service to the University.
"He has been an institution within an institution," said Kansas football coach Glen Mason. "He's been a very stabilizing force for the University of Kansas, and I wouldn't have missed the chance to tell him that today."
Star-Spangled ceremony
Matt Flickner / KANSAN
Mark Schulenberg, Mound City sophomore, and Jeremiah Reed, Olaithe freshman, lower the American flag at the beginning of the KU Air Force ROTC Annual
Awards and Change of Command Ceremony. The ceremony was held yesterday in front of the Kansas Union.
Student, KU disagree on dress
Graduation committee says grads must don gown
By Susanna Löofi
Kansan staff writer
Dorothy Stites wants to wear a Native-American dress instead of a cap and gown at Entrancement. But the University of Kansas doesn't like the idea.
Sites, Lawrence senior, said she wanted to wear the dress to honor her heritage and spirituality.
"In being a nontraditional Native-American student, I have come across a lot of discrimination at KU," she said. "I've been ignored, tolerated and challenged on my Native-American beliefs."
Sites said she felt she always had to keep quiet to fit in at KU.
Last week, Stites was told the Commencement Committee had decided that she could wear her Native-American dress if she wore the gown over it and a cap. She will be allowed to wear her gown unzipped, something that students receiving bachelor's degrees normally aren't allowed to do.
Sites said she didn't think wearing her culture's traditional regalia would be a problem. But to be sure, she went to the Student Assistance Center about a month ago to ask.
"I'm being forced again to fit in."
she said. "I think I give enough.
    .
That decision was not acceptable to Stites.
George McCleary, professor of geography and chairman of the Commencement Logistics Committee, said he was not familiar with details of the decision but that the issue would be discussed at a meeting today. He also said he thought caps and gowns should be worn at Commencement.
dress like that," she said.
"I would never treat my honored
McCleary said that the cap and gown symbolized the exchange of ideas, open dialogue and tolerance of diversity unique to the academic world.
"It's not a procession of cultural heritage," he said. "It's a procession that reflects the universality of Universities."
Sites has appealed the committee's decision.
Hong Kong's fate in 1997 unclear
KU students fear coming unification
By Susanna Löof
Kansan staff writer
Eugene Lo, Hong Kong sophomore, won't decide where he'll live until he knows what will happen after July 1, 1997. That's the date when Hong Kong again becomes part of China after 155 years as a British colony.
"If nothing happens, I'll go back," he said.
But Lo fears that things will change. He fears that a wave of Chinese people will create unemployment in the area, which has developed into an island of prosperity as a colony of Great Britain.
He also fears that the freedom Hong Kong people have enjoyed under British rule will disappear.
Despite his fears, Lo said he wished he could return to Hong Kong.
"I'm born there," he said. "Everybody wants to go back home one day. I want to go home, but not to a home that is messed up."
Lo is fortunate compared to many other Hong Kong residents. His father works for the government in Hong Kong, which gave Lo and his family British passports. Lo's British passport allows him to travel more freely than his friends who have Chinese passports.
"Some of my friends' parents have panicked," Lo said. "They are just willing to go anywhere."
Lo fears not only for himself, but also for his future children.
"I don't want them to grow up without freedom, without anything," he said.
The Chinese government promised to uphold Hong Kong's freedoms after the merging of the colony into China. But Lo doesn't trust that promise.
"I don't believe what the government says," he said. "They are far too corrupted."
But Shengli Feng, an assistant professor of East Asian languages and culture who moved to the United States from Beijing 11 years ago, said he thought the Chinese government would keep its promise.
"They want to keep their promise to impress other countries," he said.
Feng said he thought the people of Hong Kong would have more freedom than Chinese people even after July 1997. And unlike Lo, he said he thought the Chinese government would be able to prevent mass immigration from mainland Chinese people.
"They have to," he said. "Otherwise, they are going to destroy Hong Kong."
Although Feng said he did not think unemployment in Hong Kong would rise after 1997, he said he did believe that Hong Kong employees no longer get salary raises as often as they had in the past.
Daniel Bays, professor of history, said he also thought salaries would decrease after 1997.
This is especially true for university professors, said Bays, who teaches a class in Chinese history. Hong Kong university professors have been highly paid to outweigh Hong Kong's uncertain future.
Bays said that intellectuals would suffer from the political transition — not only in their wallets, but also in their minds.
"The big change will be for that stratum of Hong Kong society that appreciate freedom of press," he said. "Intellectuals and students will be greatly apprehensive of what they can say and write when they are in Hong Kong."
No matter what will happen after July 1, 1997, the transition of power will be a historic event. And despite Lo's hesitation about making the new Hong Kong his permanent home, he has decided to visit next summer so that he can see history happen.
"I want to be there and see it, and if possible, tell my grandchildren about it," Lo said.
Textbook thieves strike bookstores as semester ends
Resale attempts can lead to arrest
By Ed Turrentine
Special to the Kansan
Thieves who think they can get away with stealing textbooks and selling them back for extra cash better think again. They might get caught.
It's not that simple, but Bill Getz, Kansas Union Bookstore assistant manager, said those who scam the textbook buyback program are at much greater risk of getting caught than they think.
Some methods of determining ripped-off texts include looking for
a name or marks on certain pages of the stolen text that the theft victim left behind, as well as noticing any sort of pattern the suspected thief uses to sell the stolen texts.
Getz said that a thief could sell so many textbooks — an amount so high that no student would purchase that many in a single semester—and raise suspicions.
Other thieves sometimes dare to resell books that would make them students in law, medicine and architecture all in the same semester.
"You wouldn't just find someone selling a journalism text along with a pharmacy text and an engineering text," he said.
Jayhawk Bookstore owner Bill
Muggy said that a student once tried to scam the buyback program by stealing books from different stores and selling each book back separately throughout the semester, hoping that the bookstores wouldn't become suspicious. Bookstore employees did become suspicious, and the thief was caught.
Another incident involved a disgruntled employee shoving books out the back door and reselling them at other stores.
When he tried to resell a stolen architecture text, suspicion arose because it happened to be much more important than a typical architecture text.
"It was the Bible of every architecture student. Why would any architecture student give up that
book?" Muggy said.
But Burge Union bookstore clerk Jesse Jackson doesn't think that will happen anytime soon.
"It's too expensive to mark each book separately, so why bother?" he said.
People have suggested that placing some sort of magnetic strip that could be scanned by a computer can help catch book thieves.
Once a bookstore is fairly sure that someone has sold back a stolen textbook, it files a police report. If another book from the suspected thief shows up and is identifiable, the thief can be arrested.
Most of the textbook thefts at the University occur around finals week, which is when the buyback
Most of the thefts take place at the libraries and residence hall cafeterias on campus, especially at Mrs. E's, said Gayle Reece of the KU police department. Restrooms and parked cars are also hot spots for book thieves.
Reece said that once someone became a victim of textbook theft, there was not much that could be done right away.
Reece said that the way to avoid becoming a victim, especially during finals week, was common sense.
"Be sure you don't leave your backpacks and books unattended anywhere," she said. "Take your stuff with you."