SECTION TWO
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FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1989
Company's hard times might hurt small town
by Alan Morgan Kansan staff writer
MINNEAPOLIS, Kan. — Gate three, employee parking at the ElDorado Motor Corporation, lies deserted, leaving some Minneapolis residents worried that their future might be just as empty
Minneapolis, population 2,300, is living a small-town nightmare with big-time consequences. Its major problem is debt and revenue is in financial trouble.
Real financial trouble.
ElDorado Motor Corporation was formed 29 years ago in Minneapolis. It was a small company nestled in a farming town. ElDorado rode the growth of the motor home industry; and at the peak of business, it was the largest employer of motor homes in the United States, employing about 700 people.
That was four years ago
Today, the company is an aging giant unable to generate the profits needed to carry its weight. It lost $5 million in fiscal 1988 and filed March 13 for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act.
March 27, it reopened at a fraction of its previous operating capacity, a move that kindled hope among some who believed that the company was coming back.
Bob* Barefield, a Minnesotaapolis Chamber of Commerce board member and an attorney who occasionally represents ElDorado, is worried about the firm's stance.
"When you lay off 300 workers out of a town our size, you affect damn near every family in town," Barefield said.
He said that the layoffs at the company would have a trickle-down effect, resulting in local businesses' cutting expenses.
"The town is definitely affected by this," he said. "There will also be a lot of residual effects from this. Other businesses may have to lay people off. We may even have to cut down in our law office."
Although Minneapolis is about a half-hour's drive from Salina, Barefield said he thought a majority of the town was employed locally.
"I don't think we are a bedroom community to Salina." Barefield said. "I think the bulk of the community is going to be older and that very much may change after this."
Barefield said the town had grown accustomed to the booms and bursts of ElDorado. He said that a drop in crime has almost as bad as the current situation.
"In 1974, it went through a reorganization period. The business was booming, President Nixon made a speech, and the next day the bottom fell out of the market," Barefield said.
Barefield said, however, that the present situation was the worst the company had faced.
Lola Dallen, manager of the cham
See MINNEAPOLIS'. p. 17. col. 1
An acrylic on canvas done by Roger Shimomura.
Art professor's conception changes along with his life
by Kris M. Bergquist
Kansan staff writer
"Things can go together in many ways," Shimomura said, "It's not like a jigsaw puzzle where only
He can see relationships between Bee-Wee's Playhouse and Masterpiece Theatre, between a meal of steamed black cod and the Wingtinger, and even between the cookie and a Chichaua nut.
Roger Shimomura, professor of art, sees his art as a layering of his life from his own life. And these ideas of art have changed along with his life.
certain pieces can go together in certain ways. It's a layering of ideas. So the piece can mean many different things."
Shimomura has been an professor of art at the University of Kansas for 20 years. He said he came here because of the painting program which was one of the largest in the United States.
Shimomura now teaches painting, but when he graduated in 1961 with a bachelor of arts degree in graphic design from the University of Washington-Seattle, he was ready to begin a career in design.
"I realized after I began working that I detested everything about graphic design." Shimohara said it suited to working with clients.
"I would do 40 variations of a corporate logo. They'd manage to pick five of the worst designs. So I spend the next night trying to make the best out of the five worst, and they'd pick the worst out of the five."
"You'd get a nice check, but before you could deposit it you're working on the next piece of schlock."
At that point, Shimomura decided to give painting a try.
"Before, I thought painting was real ivory-towel stuff." Shimouma'naid said "But I realized that I wanted to paint." What painting was really about what
Shimomura she did he abstract expressionist painting for a time to try to deny his association with graphic design. Then, until he received his master's degree in art, Warhol was exposed to Andy Warhol because Warhol's work frequently was being shown in the area.
"I saw a lot of his work when I took trips to New York City," Shimomura said. "I did a lot of reading on him. I did my thesis on him. My work actually looked a lot like his in graduate school.
"Then KU made the mistake of hiring me. I fooled them, too."
For the past three years, Shimomura has been the promoter for a performance art program at KU University. For the performance Art class in fall 1985
Performance art is a type of art that's been revived from the 1960s from coast to coast, Shimomura makes it interesting is what makes it interesting.
"It is like theater, but it's not bound to traditional theater techniques," Shimomura said. "Ignorance is where it's at with performance art. It forces you to write your own rules and definitions."
Shimomura has written two performance art pieces. One was performed at Loyola University in New Orleans. Another will be on the beach this summer on the West Coast in San Francisco and his native Seattle.
He said that teaching the class, which is offered in the fall semesters, had just been a nice change in painting and drawing courses.
"Everyone has the same kind of fears and apprehensions about the class because people don't understand it," Shimomura said. "Then, when they understand and overcome these fears, they tend to get stressed and have difficulties in form in class that might have taken three years to form."
Roger Shimomura, professor of art.
"I'm really interested in getting people from different backgrounds in the class. Sculptors perform differently than painters. Ceramists perform differently. I'd love to see what an economist would do."
Shimomura said that partly because of the mystery, the final performance each year for all his students' performance art pieces were crowded. The first year, it was performed at the Art and Design Building. Because it was too crowded, it was done next year in the Center, North and Vermont streets, which also was too crowded.
Last year, it was performed at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., and Shimomura said still were people standing outside.
Dani-Marie Rutledge, Lawrence senior, a student of Shimomura's first performance art class, also has taken the class in subsequent classes. She works and it is now her major. She attributes the big crowds to curiosity.
"A lot of people had never heard about it before." Rutledge said. "If you asked 10 different performance artists what it is, you'd get 10 different answers. It's very unusual."
Rutledge gave an example of a performance art piece as taking fruit and cramming it in a typewriter and then typing so that the fruit came out. This artist could make a statement of how society is obliterating things.
"I wouldn't start out with a statement," Rulledge said. "I start with an image, and then I start with a quote. I did that and what it means."
Shimurama said satisfaction in performance art was different from the kind of satisfaction that he got from painting and sculpture.
"When you do a good painting, no one is there to applaud. With performance art, it's a real physical rush," Shimomura said. "With painting, usually, half like it and half don't. Then it turns after awhile, and the other half likes it and the other half doesn't."
He said that after some time, an artist doesn't expect too much from an audience.
"Sometimes the most poignant pieces are the ones that audiences laugh at. They're only responding to it on one level." Shimwora术 "As an artist, you can't get too time to interact with the audience you learn to live with it. About 95 percent of the audience has little understanding of the
See PROFESSOR, p. 21, col. 1
Drug abusers burden county court agency
by Angela Clark
Kansan staff writer
As the world becomes permeated with the problems of drug abuse, law enforcement agencies are shouldering the burden. Unlike Atlas, however, Lawrence agency cannot hold up their world forever.
Ron Schweer, director of the Douglas County Court Services office, which provides probation services to district court, bond office, courtroom and forms and pre-sentencing investigation, said that there was never any truth to the belief that Lawrence was safe from drugs. And it shows in the people who were prosecuted or supervision in Douglas County.
"Drugs span the whole spectrum of crime here in rural America," Schweer said. "A reliable estimate of the people I see would be that 70 to 80 percent have either used or are using illegal drugs."
During the past four months, 25 people have been charged with drug possession in Lawrence. Twenty of these were charged with marijuana possession or possession of drug paraphernalia.
Three people were charged with
In the month before their offense, 43 percent of state prison inmates were illegal drugs on a daily or a near daily basis. 1986 Bureau of Justice report said.
possession of cocaine, one with amphetamines and one with hallucinogens.
See related story p.25, col. 1
A 1986 National Institute of Justice research project showed that drug trafficking and drug abuse took a $5 billion annual toll on the United States in crime losses, productivity and treatment costs.
James K. Stewart, past director of the National Institute of Justice wrote in 1986, "Fighting drug abuse is fighting crime. Research that has found that drug abusers are heavily involved in crime, much of it violent."
Self-taught mathematics made SIMPL
Alcohol also plays a large part in the crime of the nation. In a homicide study in Philadelphia, it was discovered that the killer, the mother, and the victim were than half of the cases. Many aggravated assaults involved
See INCREASING, p. 22 col. 1
by Kathy Walsh Kansan staff writer
In 1881, the math department found a SIMPL solution to its problem of supply and demand.
Instead of instructing students in a classroom lecture setting, which required a faculty member, the mathematics department opted for SIMPL, or the Self-Intructured Mastery Plan. Under this program, students are not required to attend regular class meetings.
Too many teachers were needed to teach intermediate math, so the department decided to restructure the courses.
"The SIMPL Strategy is to try to get the students to learn the mathematics by doing it themselves," said Philip Montgomery, associate professor of mathematics who was working on the program's organization. "I don't think the classroom situation is necessarily the best way to teach."
Currently there are two SIMPL courses. The first SIMPL course, Math 602 or Intermediate Mathematics, began in fall 1981. Math 101, or Algebra, became part of the program in fall 1984.
Montgomery said that students did the work, which they would have to do anyway, on their own in a self-instructed course.
"You just cannot learn math by sitting in a classroom and watching the instructor," he said. "You've got
Evaluation checks SIMPL's worth
In June, a committee was formed to evaluate if the SIMPL way was the best way. Students in the Self-Instructed Mastery Plan are not required to attend a workshop but are required to learn the material on their own.
After complaints about the program and higher-than-wanted attention, students of math is having some trouble about its SIMPLs. We about its SIMPLs.
The department is questioning the effectiveness of SIMPL because of the high drop rates and numerous complaints associated with the two SIMPL courses, Math 002 and Math 101.
Kansan staff writer
by Kathy Walsh
The SIMPL Assessment Committee is composed of nine faculty members, most of whom have no connections with the math department. Its purpose is to evaluate the SIMPL program and report what they find to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the math department.
By the time the committee submits its final report in June, Bushell said, there will have been three to four conference days.
Since then, committee members have been researching their topics in preparation for a preliminary draft.
"The report will include a section of recommendations," he said. "The hope is that we can figure out a way that will gradually, one semester at a time, make the tests better so more students learn more and enjoy it."
The proposal submitted last semester has six parts. Part one will describe the SIMPL program and it
Don Bushell, chairman of the committee and professor of human development and family life, said the committee recommended the legislation.
Part two will evaluate what kind of students enroll in
to learn to do it yourself. It's like
driving a car. You can't end on and watch
movies for hours on end on how, and
drive a car."
For students who took intermediate algebra and algebra in high school but must take Math 002 and Math 101 at KU because their ACT scores weren't high enough. KU did work for them, Montgomery said.
"For students like that, who have seen a lot of the material we teach in
See SIMPL'S, p. 23, col. 5
both 101 and 092 courses, giving them a teacher again is not going to solve the problem," Montgomery said. "I don't know what to do with the teacher didn't work for them."
Marilyn Persson, director of the program, said the main requirement of students was to pass the weekly tests. All students are assigned deadlines and have one week to score at least 70 percent on each test.
To assist students, the department provides several learning aids.
A weekly lecture is offered in each course, which gives the students the opportunity to interact with an instructor, Persson said. Tutoring services, taped lectures and computer programs are also available.
The tutors are undergraduate students who have had at least two semesters of calculus, she said, and are therefore less likely to copy the copies of the practice test, so they
See SELF-TEACHING. o. 23. col. 1