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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA, KS 66612
VOL.104,NO.116
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
FRIDAY, MARCH 10. 1995
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
Plunging peso causes strain
NEWS: 864-4810
James Smallwood / KNIGHT-RIDER TRIBUNE
Many Mexican students such as Hector Perez, Mexico City senior, are feeling financial strain from the devalued peso.
Edmee Rodriguez/KANSAN
Mexican students adjust school plans, stretch their dollars
By Carlos Tejada
Kansas staff writer
Because of Mexico's currency crisis, Liliana Valderrama will have to cut short her education at the University of Kansas.
The Queretaro, Mexico, sophomore had planned to graduate in Spring 1997 with a bachelor's degree in comparative literature, then attend graduate school here.
But when the peso lost half its value earlier this year, Valderama's academic plans were curtailed. To make ends meet, she now holds a part-time job while taking 19 credit hours, a pace she says she had to maintain to graduate in Fall 1996. Shaving off that extra semester will save her money, she said.
For graduate school, Valderra mada said, she will have to return to Mexico. She can no longer afford to stay in the United States.
"Just living here is expensive," she said. "Everything costs so much. I don't know how it can be done."
Valderraum is one of 20 Mexican students at KU who are facing a sudden economic crisis because of the peso's devaluation. When the peso's value gradually dropped from 29 cents in December to 13 cents a dollar yesterday, it left many Mexican students wondering how they would pay for their education.
For those students, the drop raises the cost of goods and services by more than half. A KU semester out-of-state tuition bill of $3,300, which formerly cost about 11,000 pesos, now costs about 25,000 pesos, more than doubling the cost.
But those students face other problems, said Hector Perez, Mexico City senior. Because their families also have lost income and might have lost jobs as well, the students receive less money from
their families. What they do receive from their families doesn't go as far in the United States, he said, so students have to cut back on their food and living expenses.
"It will be a bigger sacrifice than it has been," he said.
Despite the problems, few Mexican students have sought help from the University, said Gerald Harris, director of International Student Services. Many of them are accustomed to financial hardship. Many international students already have jobs and scholarships to supplement their incomes, he said.
"A lot of students figure they're going to have to tough it out one wav or another," he said.
Harris said Mexican students and other international students in trouble had limited solutions from the University. The Office of Financial Aid offers emergency loans. International Student Services also has 11 scholarships between $500 and $1,000 from the Educational Opportunity Fund, which is paid for by Student Senate.
for military conflicts, which tend to end more quickly than economic crises he said.
The University sometimes defers tuition in emergency situations, Harris said. He said the University set up a partial payment plan for students from Middle Eastern nations involved in the Gulf War in 1991. That option usually is used
On-campus work permits also are available from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Despite the problems for Mexican students, Perez said, many of them were more worried about
their families at home than their own education. He also said the middle- and higher-income students were more worried about low-income Mexicans.
"All the people here are well-to-do," Perez said. "I'm worried about the average Mexican."
Kansan staff writer
By Paul Todd
Kansan staff writer
Mexico's unit of currency, the peso, hit an all-time low value compared to the U.S. dollar on yesterday, deepening the economic crisis for Mexicans at home and abroad.
In currency trading, the peso exchange rate compared to the dollar was 7.5 to 1. The peso's exchange rate began to decline Dec. 20, and it has fallen to nearly half its previous exchange rate in the past three months.
The peso's devaluation has hurt U.S. businesses that export products to Mexico, including Lawrence.
"Our business has been affected in a negative way," said Joseph Kelleher, President of Packer Plastics, inc., 2330 Packer Road. "We're not seeing as much going across the border."
Mehrene Larudee, assistant professor of economics, said the devaluation began because the Mexican government had set the value of the peso at a rate which was more than pesos were actually worth in the free market.
"If the government says it's three pesos to a dollar, then that's the exchange rate in all official currency exchange markets," Larudee said. "But the actual value was less than the official value."
The Mexican government decided Dec. 20 to let the peso exchange rate float, which means the government decided to let market forces determine the value of the currency, but the exchange rate
Once the peso starts sliding in value, the government still had to pay its loan debts at the old rates, so it took more money to pay for the same old debt.
Larudee said many times the government would buy up its own currency to decrease the supply, thus increasing the value of the currency. But, the Mexican government did not have the money to do that.
fell more than the government expected.
President Clinton's emergency $20 million loan package would help the Mexican government to buy up pesos from the market, but the Mexicans are wary of the terms of the deal, Larudee said.
According to the proposal, all revenues from Mexican oil exports would be placed into a New York bank, and, if the Mexicans failed to make payments on their loans from the U.S., the U.S. would hold the Mexican assets.
Laruede said that oil in Mexico was a public good, and the Mexican people think the U.S. aid deal is illegal because the oil money is theirs, not the government's.
"The people argue that it's an unconstitutional deal," she said. "You can't turn over a whole stream of revenues from the people's asset."
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Ruined tests to be retaken in GTA's class
Western Civilization students given midterm No.2 after originals burn
By Teresa Veazey
Your midterms are toast.
"I said. Did everybody hear that my midterms were fried in the house fire?" Pyles said. "There were two people who hadn't heard."
That's what Loretta Pyles, Western Civilization graduate teaching assistant, had to tell the students in her two classes after their midterm examinations were destroyed in a fire that gutted her home Tuesday morning.
Pyles said the source of the fire was the electrical cord to the television. The midterms had been on top of the television.
"I said jokingly that it was possible the midterms ignited the whole thing." she said.
Pyles gave her students a take-home exam of two essay questions, both of which were options on the original exam. The take-home exam is due March 28, she said.
Pyles said that after she had explained to her class that they would have to take another exam, they had seemed to understand and generally had been positive about the new exam.
"Everybody was understanding, barring a few," Pyles said. "One guy
spoke out and said he didn't think that was fair."
Bob Anderson, acting chairman of the Western Civilization program, said there was no policy that addressed situations such as Pyles'. In the seven years Anderson has taught in the program, nothing similar has happened, he said.
Anderson said he thought Pyles had made the right decision to give her students a take-home examination.
"I have the utmost faith in Loretta Pyles in terms of her fairness and ability to work this out with her students to their satisfaction," he said.
Latasha Greer, Bonner Springs senior, said she was sympathetic about Pyles' house fire but was a little upset that the tests had been destroyed.
"I'd really like straight A's for everybody in the class," she said.
Aaron Keating, Overland Park senior, said he thought the takehome exam was a good way to handle the situation because the new exam would allow students to get a better grade.
"I think it was a little more than fair," he said. "At least she didn't change any of the questions."
Kansan staff report
R.E.M. still coming in May
R. E.M. has canceled its European tour, but the United States tour will not be affected by drummer Bill Berry's surgery, a representative from Warner Bros. said yesterday.
Berry underwent surgery Friday to repair two aneurysms, which are dialations of the walls of blood vessels. One of them had ruptured. Surgeons at the University Hospital Center of Vaud in Lausanne said the operation was a success.
Berry, 36, co-founder of the Atlanta rock group, collapsed March 1 during a concert at Lausanne, Switzerland.
Bertis Downs, the band's lawyer, told The Associated Press that the world tour was on hold.
"All we are concerned about right now is getting him well again," Downs said.
The American leg of the tour to promote the band's new album, "Monster," was to begin in May. R.E.M.'s March dates included Paris, Berlin and Helsinki, Finland. The group was to tour Scandinavia and Britain next month.
The European dates of the tour will be rescheduled for late June and early July. The United States concerts, including the May 27 and 28 shows at Sandstone Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, will not be affected.
During the concert in Switzerland, Berry reportedly grabbed his head in pain 90 minutes into the concert and was taken off stage. The Lausean-based newspaper Le Matin said singer Michael Stipe told the audience Berry had a bad migraine.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Stolen money discovered by bank worker
Dye-stained cash was found outside the bank less than 24 hours after Tuesday's robbery.
By Teresa Veazev
Kansan staff writer
Less than 24 hours after the Tuesday morning robbery of Mercantile Bank on West Sixth Street, a bank employee found the stolen money covered in reddish dye early yesterday morning.
David Cobb of the Lawrence Police Department said the money was found in a brown grocery bag about 7 a.m. yesterday near some bushes on the west side of the bank. Cobb said police turned over the bag to a Topeka FBI agent.
Max Geiman, a representative for the Kansas City FBI office, said the money was stained with dye from a security device that had been placed in the bag during the robbery.
The amount of cash taken during the robbery will not be released at
this time, Geiman said. FBI policy is to not disclose how much money is taken during a robbery until someone is charged with the crime or the amount is set forth in court.
Film footage of the suspect was taken by bank security cameras and is being analyzed by the FBI, Geiman said.
He said he believed the bureau would know by today if pictures from the footage would be of good enough quality to be released to the public.
No weapon was used, and no one was threatened during the robbery, Geimansaid.
robbery.
The suspect used a written note and spoke a few words to the teller saying he wanted money. The suspect took the note with him after the
Geiman said he believed the money was returned because it couldn't be used.
Because bank robbery is a state and federal crime, the penalty can vary. Unarmed bank robbery carries in federal court a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine.
He also said that it was possible that guilt was a factor in the case but that it was highly unusual for a perpetrator to return stolen money.
In state law, unarmed robbery carries a prison sentence of 46 to 103 months and a maximum fine of $300,000.
Even though the robber returned the money, the sentence may not be reduced.
"It might have some bearing, but not a lot," said Martin Miller, Douglas County assistant district attorney.
Law enforcement officials have no solid suspects. The suspect was described as a white male with gray or graying hair, between 40 and 50 years old, between 5 feet 5 and 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 140 pounds.
The suspect last was seen wearing a brown or tan fodora-style hat with a small brim, a brown leather jacket, sunglasses and gloves.
Anyone with information about the suspect or the crime should contact the Lawrence Police Department at 841-7210 or Crime Stoppers at 843-8477.
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