CAMPUS/AREA
NIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, March 1, 1996
3A
Gunplay in drive-thru
Toy gun serves up whopper of problem at local Burger King
By Amy McVey Kansan staff writer
Two KU students got more than they ordered at a local Burger King on Wednesday afternoon.
Ryan Lee and Andy Patton said that they were waiting for a chicken sandwich they ordered at the drive-thru window at Burger King, 1107 W.Sixth St., Wednesday afternoon when Patton, St. Louis freshman, found a toy gun in the glove compartment of Lee's car.
Patton said that he took the fluorescent orange and black plastic handgun out of the compartment and twirled it around his finger. A Burger King employee approached the drive-thru window and asked Patton what kind of gun he was playing with.
"I told him it was a fake gun," Patton said. "Then he took our money and came back and asked us if we wanted ketchup and salt. We said, 'sure,' and he said he'd be right back."
After waiting an estimated 10 minutes, Lee and Patton said they became concerned.
Lee, Denver sophomore, said that he peeked through the drive-thru window and saw that all but
"They blew it way out of proportion. And we got the wrong order after all that."
Andy Patton St. Louis freshman
one woman had been evacuated from the building.
Lee tried to ask the woman what was going on, but she ignored him, he said.
A police car then pulled behind Lee's car and told Lee from the loud speaker to move his car into the parking lot.
Lee said that he got out of the car and started to walk toward a police officer. The officer told Lee to stop and put his hands in the air. That was when Lee noticed officers in the parking lot of Taco Johns, 1101 W. Sixth St., pointing guns at him.
Lee was frisked and handcuffed, and Patton was told to get out of the car and walk backward toward police.
"They made me get down on my knees with my hands behind me," Patton said. "I looked like a criminal with at least four cops pointing guns at me when I'm on my knees."
When police discovered the gun was fake, they let the students go.
"He let us keep the gun and lectured us about how dumb we are," Lee said. "I could've gotten my head blown off."
Sgt. Susan Hadi of the Lawrence Police said that although she understood that the students may have been overwhelmed at police reaction, the police followed proper procedure.
"The thing they fail to realize is that we didn't know their intentions," she said. "We must rely on the perception of the victims. People should realize that fake guns are replicated based on real models.
"Anyone could perceive it as a
武器 and take action."
Hadl said that the person who reported the crime must have not known the gun was a toy.
Burger King's manager refused to comment.
Patton said that he felt that he was treated unfairly and was thinking about taking legal action. He said that the gun obviously was fake.
"They blew it way out of proportion," he said. "And we got the wrong order after all that."
Elder law finds voice on line
By David Teska
Kenner staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Kim Dayton wanted to help the elderly.
That motivation, coupled with her interest in the World Wide Web, led Dayton, professor of law, to develop the Kansas Elder Law Network. Dayton developed the network to serve as an electronic research tool for those who deal with laws relating to the elderly.
Since starting last December, the network has received more than 800 "hits," or visits, mostly from outside Kansas. Davton said.
"It was created as a resource for Kansas," she said.
"The resource is known better nationally than locally."
Kate Newhinney, professor of law at Wake Forest University at Winston-Salem, N.C., said she had explored the site and liked what she saw and forecasted being able to use it for topical research, such as long-term care.
"I'm impressed with everything they're trying to do," she said.
Nationally, one in eight people, or 33.2 million, is older than 65. The number of elderly has increased dramatically during this century. In 1900, the number was one in 25, or 3.1 million. Douglas County has 4,663 elderly residents out of a population of 81,798.
Brian Flink / KANSAN
Dayton said that Kansas had one of the highest percentages in the country; almost 14 percent of the state's population of 2,477,574 is elderly.
Dayton has worked to expand the network's resources. It now includes information on wills, housing, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans' benefits and includes the complete text of the Health Care Financing Administration'S State Medical Manual.
Drucilla Sampson, Lawrence third-year law student, said that students in the class could put their legal education to use by taking actual cases at Jayhawk Legal Services, a legal aid organization in Topeka which provides legal aid to the elderly.
Most bibliographies eventually will get incorporated into the network, Davton said.
Each student handles anywhere from two to 10 clients
The network also contains topical bibliographies, produced by second- and third-year law students enrolled in the elder law clinic. The clinic requires students to enroll in LAW 891, elder law research project, and produce a bibliography on a legal topic.
and does all the legal work,including representing them in court.
Kim Dayton, professor of law, spends many hours working on her World Wide Web site, which addresses the subject of elder law.
Sampson said she found the experience valuable because it gave the students the opportunity to work on real cases outside class.
Both the clinic and the legal services are run by Tonekalawer Molly Wood.
Wood, who has contributed material to the network, said the network's goal was to provide information to everybody who worked with the elderly, not just lawyers. The network can be accessed at http://ukanaix.cc.ukans.
"You actually represent the client," Sampson said. "It puts everything I've learned into practice."
Anniversary bridges volunteers' age gap
By R. Adam Ward Kansan staff writer
The Peace Corps celebrated its 35th anniversary yesterday, and its age showed in the faces of its members.
About 45 people, most of whom were older Peace Corps volunteers, attended the anniversary event last night at the Jayhawk Room in the Kansas Union.
The older volunteers mirror the national Peace Corps trend.
The average age of Peace Corps volunteers has risen from 21, when the Peace Corps began on March 1, 1961, to about 30 now, said Karen Nakandakare, regional manager of the Peace Corps.
People of all ages, from children to grandparents, attended the event. Nakandakare said the event was paid for by the Peace Corps.
Former Peace Corps member Dana Baughman, Topeka resident, shows artifacts she collected to Gary Lortscher, Bern, Switzerland, resident. The Peace Corps celebrated its 35th anniversary yesterday in the Kansas Union.
Elizabeth Soppelsa, the director of the Applied English Center, accepted a proclamation of appreciation signed by Gov. Bill Graves, the secretary of state and the assistant secretary of state, to the people of the University who had served in the Peace Corps.
Soppelsa said she was continuing teaching English, which she began doing in the Peace Corps in the Ivory Coast of Africa.
Other volunteers who spoke at the event were former Peace Corps members Dana Baughman and Garv Lortscher.
Lortscher was part of the first Peace Corps group to go to Guinea, Africa in 1961.
Entertainment was provided by Danza Istmena, a Panamanian performing group.
The handful of KU students who attended the event, all of whom are applying to the Peace Corps, seemed surprised more students didn't attend.
Rebecca Dupree, Independence senior, said she lacked of advertising might have been responsible for the poor student
turnout.
Dupree said she was interested in the Peace Corps because she wanted a break before graduate school to travel and teach.
James Faron, St. Louis senior, said that many students were missing out on valuable opportunities for in-creased global awareness and a first job by not joining the Peace Corps.
"When you consider the difficulties of trying to get a job today,joining the Peace Corps is a good way to start." Faron said.
He was not surprised by the low student turnout, though.
He said people were only interested in superficial images of the Peace Corps and the ideas of traveling the group represents.
Students discover it's a lot of effort and sacrifice if they look into it, he said.
Classes shrink to recruit students
Program designated for high school scholars
By Jason Strait
Kansan staff writer
A new program designed to attract and graduate high-achieving high school students will arrive in time for the fall semester.
Instead, the students would be paired with a faculty mentor and would attend one or two classes each semester that have limited enrollment.
The primary objective of the program is to recruit high-level students
Those students admitted to the program would not receive additional scholarships.
The Mount Oread program will apply to incoming students with ACT scores from 27 to 31 and will be limited to 100 to 200 students, said David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs. Students also will be screened based on scholastic achievement in high school.
who might enroll at other universities.
Shulenburger said that often students who tested highly, but not high enough to be in the College Honors Program, received better offers from other schools than what the University of Kansas could offer.
This program would make the University more attractive to those prospective students, he said.
Shulenburger said the program also was designed to increase the graduation rate of students in this range. Only two-thirds of the students in this test-score group earn a degree from the University.
"We are trying to get more faculty active into the freshmen-sophomore group," he said. "This will satisfy a need those students have for greater intellectual and faculty involvement. Hopefully we can get that up to 85 percent."
James Carothers, associate dean of liberal arts and sciences, said students who scored 31 and above on the ACT exam were eligible for the Honors Program, and those who didn't score as high often were neglected.
"This program is addressed at very good students who don't qualify for the honors program," Carothers said. "Presumably it will be a benefit to the students with that level of ability."
Carothers said that offering limited-enrollment classes to the Oread participants would not cost more money and would not affect students who were not in the program.
"We have over 1,000 faculty, so there is plenty of flexibility to handle this thing," said Jack Davidson, chairman of the University Senate Executive Committee. "I do not think it will increase the size of the other classes."
Shulenburger admitted that students who were left out of this program might feel alienated, but the program was needed to raise graduation rates of students in the 27 to 31 ACT range.
"You have to put your resources where you can make the biggest impact," he said. "I think this is something we can change."