THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1996
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.102.NO.112
(USPS 650-640)
TODAY KANSAN
SPORTS
A cut above
Coaches selected junior guard Jacque Vaughn and sophomore forward Raef LaFrentz to the All-Big Eight first team. Page 1B
CAMPUS
Shopping for a major
A fair was held yesterday in the Kansas Union to let students learn about different majors. Page 5A
More than just postage
NATION
New legislation could place penalties on sending pathogens in the mail. Page 6A
WORLD
Servicemen convicted
Three U.S. service men were convicted of raping an Okinawan girl. Page 7A
WEATHER
STAY IN BED!
High 30° Low 8°
Weather: Page 2A.
INDEX
Opinion ... 4A
National News ... 6A
World News... 7A
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 student has meningitis
Patient stable after close call with disease
A 20-year-old KU student has been hospitalized after being diagnosed with meningitis Tuesday at Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka.
Lea Cheyney, Glenwood, Iowa, junior, is in stable condition and is responding to treatment, said Cheyney's grandmother, who refused to be identified.
"The doctors have said there is a prescribed regimen and that's what they're following," the grandmother said.
Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges, which is tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord, said Charles Yockey, Watkins Memorial Health Center physician. Bacteria enter in the body and move through the bloodstream to the tissue, which creates the infection.
Cheyney's grandmother said she did not know how Cheyney got meningitis.
Cheyney was transferred Tuesday afternoon to the Topeka hospital from Lawrence Memorial Hospital based on a recommendation from doctors and the family, said Cheyney's sister, who refused to be identified.
The family contacted Delta Gamma, of which Cheyney is a member, and explained her condition, said Nicole Goldenstein, Omaha junior and president of Delta Gamma.
Goldenstein said the Department of Health had been notified and that she had called Watkins about the situation. Goldenstein said the medication was given to everyone who lived on Cheyney's floor and to anyone else who wanted to take the precaution.
Goldenstein said Watkins staff went to the sorority house Tuesday night and gave approximately 15 members medication to prevent them from getting meningitis.
"There is no risk of any of our members contracting the illness," Goldenstein said.
Yockey said the preventive medication, called Rifampin, eradicates any meningitis from the throat.
Cheyney's grandmother said Cheyney was in good mental spirits and was able to talk and gesture.
She can have visitors and is not in danger anymore, her sister said. Cheyney's family said she would be in the hospital for a while, but they did not know how long.
Although sorority members who came in contact with Cheyney have been given medication, Yockey said meningitis can be a touchy subject, even though it is not terribly contagious.
"People get anxious when they hear the word meningitis," Yockey said. "You can go from perfectly well to dead in 24 hours."
Meningitis is transferred by sharing saliva or intimate contact,
Yockey said. People can't get men-
nigitis from using the same bathroom
or sitting together in class.
Symptoms of meningitis are similar to the flu, including a fever, cough and headaches. With meningitis, bad things start happening fast, Yockey said.
"A headache goes from mild to the worst headache you've had in your life," he said. "You have a stiff neck and can't even attempt to touch your chin to your chest."
Meningitis tends to be prevalent during flu season, and all of the meningitis cases on campus have been during that time. Yockey said.
"There's a case of this about every year," he said.
Activist tries to save ozone
Atmosphere layer is exhibit's focus
By Scott MacWilliams Kansan staff writer
Stanley Bethiel, Diane Bethiel Memorial Wildlife Federation president, proudly displays the Love Bug, a trailer he uses to transport his possessions across the
Tiler Wirken / KANSAN
Stanley Bethel hit the road on Nov. 22, 1994, a man on a mission. Bethel's cause is as big as the sky, and he makes no bones about his beliefs.
"The ozone depletion caused by freon and other halogens is beginning to affect weather patterns," Bethel said, sitting behind his information table at the Kansas Union. "The weather here has been very dry, and in other places they have had pouring rain and floods. Ozone depletion is causing weather systems to stall."
country. Bethiel is traveling to college campuses to inform students about the increasing damage to the ozone layer.
Bethiel, who graduated from Southampton College in 1979 with a degree in environmental science, is asking people to sign a petition that calls for a global team effort to repair damage to the ozone layer and rain forests. He travels the United States in his 1977 Dodge station wagon named Herbie with his golden retriever, Rusty.
"I just go from college to college, talking to students and anyone else wherever I can," Bethel said. "I'm concerned about our mother earth, and so this is what I do 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Bethiel said that even though chlorofluorocarbons have been banned, they could deplete the ozone layer for decades to come.
"I have reason to believe that methyl bromide, an agricultural pesticide, is far more damaging to the ozone layer than the CFC's," Bethiel said.
Bethiel is the president of the Diane Bethiel Memorial Wildlife Federation in his hometown of Holbrook, N.Y. He said that there is growing evidence of ozone depletion, and he is afraid for his children and future grandchildren.
Bethiel has his scientific evidence readily available on his information table at the Union. He cited studies
by Andrew Blaustein of Long Island University and UCLA physicist Alfred Wong for evidence of ozone depletion and solutions to the problem.
In an October 1994 issue of Natural History magazine, Blaustein wrote about a worldwide decrease in frog populations. Because frogs have survived for millions of years, their health is considered a strong indicator of environmental conditions.
Blaustein said several frog species had disappeared in a short period, and research had showed that ozone layer depletion was a root cause.
Wong has proposed building about 20 solar-powered unmanned blimps to be sent into high altitude flight patterns over the South Pole.
Wong's blimps would float at an altitude of about 20 miles and trail huge wire curtains charged with up to 3,000 volts of electricity. They would electrically neutralize the chlorine atoms that have damaged the ozone.
Wong has already been working on the blimp project for four years. Wong said the blimp design was needed because there was no other platform that would work at that altitude.
"We are building some small models now, about two to 10 meters in size," Wong said. "We hope to launch them in about two years, with indoor tests first."
Bethiel will be at his table at the Union through tomorrow, staying with members of Environs while visiting Lawrence.
Tyler Wirken / KANSAN
Stanley Bethiel explains the problems of the ozone layer to Kerry Kohlmeyer, Shawne junior, as she signs a petition calling for a global effort to repair the layer.
GTA union confident after hearing
By Jason Strait
Kansan staff writer
Decision about mandate won't come for a month
The hearing to determine whether there was a legislative mandate to deny KU graduate teaching assistants a pay raise ended yesterday. But the case will not be decided for another month.
Katherine Clark, University Relations coordinator of news and public issues, said the University and the GTA union have until March 27 to submit written briefs to the Kansas Public Employee Relations Board examiner. The examiner will then make a decision on the hearing.
The GTA union filed a complaint in August
claiming the University punished it for unionizing by denying its members pay raises. But University officials said they were operating under a legislative mandate.
In 1994 the Legislature placed a cap on the amount of money that could be spent on University salaries. In 1995 the Legislature raised that cap by 3.5 percent for faculty raises.
GTA pay raises originally were specifically included in the faculty's 3.5 percent raise, but the appropriation was amended before the bill was passed.
Scott Stone, executive director for the association of public employees, said the amendment, proposed by State Rep. Ralph Tanner, B-Raldwin City, did not say GTAs were to be denied raises and that the University's interpretation was incorrect.
State Rep. Rocky Nichols, D-Topeka, testified on
behalf of the GTA union and said that there was no legislative intent for the University to deny the GTA pay raises.
"He said the money is given to KU, and they can do what they want with it," Stone said. "He said there was no legislative intent, but only the intent of Tanner."
Stone also said Tanner admitted during the hearing that he was punishing the GTAs for unionizing by creating the amendment.
"I was in disbelief when he said that on the stand," Stone said.
Karen Hellekson, GTA union president, said she was confident the examiner would determine that there was no legislative mandate.
"I would be very surprised if the University won," Helleksen said.
The official search for provost is underway
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
Wanted: a provost for the University of Kansas. Must have a record of superior accomplishment, the ability to lead and inspire others, wide-ranging intellect, optimism, personal integrity and the ability to make difficult decisions.
According to this advertisement for the position of provost, candidates should possess almost every attribute short of super-human capabilities. Presumably, the ability to leap tall buildings and walk on water is a plus. But after all, the person chosen will be the chief operating officer and chief academic officer for the University's Lawrence campus.
The advertisement is being placed in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Black Issues in Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook, Women in Higher Education and area newspapers.
Hemenway invited David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs, to apply for the position of provost but said that he wanted to find the best person in the United States for the job by conducting a national search.
Jack Davidson, Senate Executive Committee chairman, said during Tuesday's SenEx meeting that he had heard rumblings among the faculty that the delay in naming the search committee could indicate a lack of commitment to doing a thorough national search. Hemenway initially said he would name the search committee by mid-February, but the members' names were not released until Tuesday.
"No one on that committee would be involved if they thought that this was anything but an honest search, and I would not be involved in a search that was not honest," Hemenway said. "Internal and external candidates will compete for this position."
"I have heard some concern that this search is hard-wired," Davidson said. "That would be a bad, bad precedent to set."
However, Hemenway said that he and the committee were dedicated to conducting a fair search.
The search committee has met once. Wil Linkugel, chairman of the search committee, said the committee next will schedule forums with faculty and students to determine what qualifications they believe the provost should possess.
Although no official application deadline has been set, Linkugel said the committee would begin reviewing applications by April 15.
Three to five finalists will be selected, and Hemenway said that the names of the finalists who come to Lawrence for interviews would be made public.
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