THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1996
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS 864-4810
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.102.NO.117
SPORTS
(USPS 650-640)
So Close
Despite overcoming a nine-run deficit the KU lost to Southwest Missouri State 13-11. Page 1B
CAMPUS
Vegetarian anyone?
KU Environs sponsors a free lunch every Thursday to discuss environmental issues. Page 3A
WORLD
Taiwan wants independence
China claims sovereignty of Taiwan and sees independence as a virus. Page 6A
NATION
Tobacco front crumbles
The nation's fifthlargest cigarette maker settles in class-action lawsuit. Page 7A
WEATHER
POSSIBLE RAIN
High 64° Low 50°
Weather: Page 2A
INDEX
Campus ... 3A
Opinion ... 4A
Nation/World ... 5A
Sports ... 1B
Scoreboard ... 2B
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.
Juggling the day away
Matt Flickner / KANSAN
Brian Moore, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student, juggles pins with the KU Juggling Club during the warm afternoon yesterday. The warm weather is expected to continue today with a high of 64.
Grad exam goes high-tech
Test will be offered on line only by 1999
By Amanda Traughber Kansan staff writer
Students hoping to attend graduate schools have until 1999 to take the general Graduate Record Exam on paper.
The Educational Testing Service plans to eliminate the paper-and-pencil GRE general test in favor of the computerized test bv 1999.
The computer GRE is different from the paper version in several ways, and students should be prepared for those differences, said Robert Levy, director of graduate programs for Kaplan Educational Centers, a company that specializes in test preparation services.
Polly Sukonik, Overland Park graduate student, said she had taken the GRE on computer and on paper and that she preferred the computer version.
The Graduate Records Exam:
But the computer version was a change for her.
This means that the question the test-taker receives is based on his performance on the previous question. An incorrect answer on the previous question would generate an easier question, while a correct answer would generate a more difficult question. Levy said.
The tests differ in format. In the paper version, questions get progressively harder, but in the computer version, questions are adaptive.
Offered at the University April 13, Oct.
12, and Dec. 14
Test-takers must register at least one month before the exam.
Test-takers and schools receive scores in four to six weeks.
"I'm not afraid of getting on a computer for three and a half hours to take a multiple choice exam, but I prefer the old-fashioned way, putting thoughts down on paper to make sense of things," he said.
"When I studied, I was used to taking practice tests from books, so the computer test was totally new to me," she said.
Offered at least two weeks out of each
Oliver at least two weeks out of each
week. Wichita, Kansas City, Mo.
Wichita, Kansas City, Mo.
Test-takers can mark readiness onscreen.
Test-Akcore can sign up a few days before taking the test on a space-available basis.
All test-takers receive a score for each section, regardless of how many questions they answer.
Derek Moscato, Niagara, Ontario, graduate student, said he chose not to take the computer version because he had heard bad things about it.
Test-takers receive score immediately after test. Scores are disclosed to school within two weeks.
Test-failures can not mark passages on
Test-takers who answer less than 50 percent of the questions in a section do not receive a score.
The adaptive questions allow the computer to determine a student's level faster than the paper test, which requires the student to answer several questions that may be very easy before moving to questions that better fit the student's ability level. Levy said.
Because the questions are adaptive on the computer version, the test-taker at the computer terminal answers fewer questions, said Sheri Blessing Phillips, assistant director for testing at the University of Kansas. Verbal, math and analytical or logic sections are measured in two sections each on the paper version, while the computer version provides only one section for each.
Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
Phillips said the University did not offer the computerized version, but students wishing to take it could go to testing sites in Topeka, Wichita or Kansas City, Mo.
These testing sites offer the computerized version for two or three weeks out of each month, Phillips said.
The University is working to provide a computerized site, but it probably won't happen until after next year, Phillips said.
The University will offer the paper- and pencil GRE on April 13, Oct. 12 and Dec. 14.
The computer test is offered at only a few colleges in the United States, said Kevin Gonzalez, spokesman for Educational Testing Service.
It is offered in about 250 Sylvan Learning Centers.
Regents plan angers Senate
Student senators object to new fee
By Nicole Kennedy Kansan staff writer
Student Senate members are upset by a Board of Regents proposal to implement a technology fee at all state Regents institutions.
Kim Cocks, student body president, addressed Senate at a meeting yesterday in Alderson Auditorium at the Kansas Union.
Cocks said that on Monday she became aware of discussions by the Regents to implement the proposed $3 to $5 per-credit-hour technology fee.
Student fees historically had been used only to finance student services, she said. It was the responsibility of the Regents and the University to make academic improvements on campus.
"By starting an equipment fee, we're setting a dangerous precedent," Cocks said.
She encouraged Senate members to take a stand against the proposal and said she planned to bring legislation before Senate at the next meeting for approval that would express Senate's frustration at not having an opportunity to vote on the issue.
Stevie Case, vice chairwoman of the Senate Executive Committee,
said students could write letters expressing their opinions on the proposed technology fee to Regents members.
Regents members' addresses are available in the Senate office, 410 Kansas Union.
Grey Montgomery, SenEx committee member, said that although technological improvements on campus were necessary, the proposed technology fee was not the best way to finance the improvements.
However, he said he was concerned by the example the Regents were setting by using student fees to pay for academic resources that should be financed by the state.
"I'm really in favor of improving computing services on this campus," Montgomery said.
Jason Angilan, graduate senator,
agreed with Montgomery.
"The Board of Regents and the University must consider that students expect their tuition money to pay for computer technology and other technologies," Anglian said.
Cesar Millan, political science senator, said students should have a direct vote on the issue.
"Students will not get to decide how that money is being spent," he said. "I don't think they should create another fee, for students wiit out students having a vote on the issue."
The next Service meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 10 at the Big Eight Room in the Kansas Union.
Lawrence Arts Center to feature Sartre play
By Jason Strait
Kansan staff writer
When Paul Lim looked at the reading list last year for Western Civilization, he didn't find Jean-Paul Sartre's name on it.
Although it still is not on the list, KU students will have the chance to see one of Sartre's more notable works thanks to Lim, associate professor in English and founder of the English Alternative Theatre.
EAT will present No Exit, a 1944 play by Jean-Paul Sartre, at 8 tonight at the Lawrence Arts Center, 200 W. Ninth St. Additional performances will be at 8 p.m tomorrow and 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5.
The play is co-sponsored by the KU Western Civilization program, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the University.
Existentialism was a philosophical movement of the early 20th century, which centered on the individual's relationship to the universe or to God. Sartre believed that there was no God or fixed human nature, and that people were entirely free and responsible for their actions. With this responsibility comes a profound anguish or dread.
--is a well-known stimulant," said Ichiro Kawachi, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "If people drink coffee in the long term, it might prevent the onset of depression."
"No Exit is probably the best example that represents his philosophy of existentialism," Lim said.
Sartre was a French philosopher and leading advocate of existentialist thought.
Darcy Coles / KANSAN
Jan Chapman and Avi Seaver, Lawrence residents, struggle with the meaning of life in Jean-Paul Sartre's play *No Exit*, as James Gates, Wichita freshman, watches.
The play takes place in Hell and centers around three characters: Inez, Cradeau and Estelle.
Penny Weiner, play director, said that the three characters struggle to accept the responsibilities of their actions that put them in Hell, until they realize they are defined by their actions.
Weiner said that in one scene at the end of the play, Cradeau is pleading to Inez that his intentions were good. To which Inez delivers the most telling line of the play.
"What is a person, if not their life?"
A hot cup of coffee may reduce the risk of suicide
Study says women helped by caffeine
By Teresa Veazey
Kansan staff writer
Whether one drinks an espresso or cappuccino, a study in Monday's edition of the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine suggested a strong association between coffee drinking and the risk of suicide in women.
A cup of coffee could save a life
"Coffee contains caffeine. which
According to the study, which was conducted from 1980 to 1990 on 86,626 female nurses, women who drank coffee had a lower suicide rate than women who didn't drink it.
Kawachi said that women who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day were 66 percent less likely to commit suicide than women who didn't drink any.
Out of 56 suicides for the entire group,21 were committed by women who almost never drank coffee while 10 were committed by those who drank four to six cups per day.
"Coffee is being blamed for bad health facts, like an increase in breast cancer or heart attacks," Kawachi said. "But there is very little evidence that it has serious health effects."
Linda Denniston, clinical therapist at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center in Lawrence, said that although the results could mean good things for coffee
an good things for coffee
drinkers, the study wasn't the last word on whether coffee drinking affected suicide rates.
"I think that the indications by that study are interesting, but there are some problems," she said.
First, the study was done on an isolated population that was familiar with handling problems such as suicide, Denniston said.
And finally, Denniston said the study didn't show other factors that
Second, the study didn't keep track of participants who used to drink coffee but were instructed not to by their physicians.
would affect coffee drinkers, such as personality or stress levels.
"This is just one of those interesting studies," she said. "It doesn't mean you should go out and drink three to six cups of coffee a day."
Kawachi said that although college students drank a lot of coffee, students who were depressed and taking medication shouldn't look to coffee as a new solution.
"I warn them not to use caffeine as an alternative," he said. "This study didn't address people with depression already."