Monday, April 28, 1986
Campus/Area
3
University Daily Kansan
News Briefs
Computer failure linked to weather
"Bad weather apparently caused power outages, and a resulting computer failure delayed student attendance at Watson Library last night.
Campus and nearby buildings that were without power for nearly two hours included those south of Jawhawk Boulevard and west of Wescock Hall but not as far west as the Daisy Hill residence halls, said Lt. Jeanne Longaker of the KU police.
Longaker said she didn't think there was a connection between the outage and an electric motor that overheated at Murphy Hall at about 6:30 p.m. and sent smoke into a hallway.
Capt Mike Penner, Lawrence Eyre department, said that for an unknown reason the motor was damaged there was no fire or serious damage.
A power surge at about 5:40 p.m. knocked out three computers at the Computer Center, center employees said.
Two academic computers also were down at the computer center, said Bill Pesek, operations manager. Student assignments were delayed, but Pesek did not know the exact number of students who were inconvenienced by the outage.
At 11:30 p.m. one of the computers was still out of operation Pesek said.
An administrative computer that is used by campus libraries to check out books was down from 5:40 to 7:23 p.m. said Carter Parkier, author of Library Books had to be checked out by hand which created lines.
Bad weather or the outage may have been responsible for KANU-FM and JKHK-FM going off the air, KANU was off for a short time before 6 p.m., and JKHK will be off the air until at least today.
Peace march today
qiota
aeta alia
"Carrying out a pledge to work for peace between the Soviet Union and the United States, three Soviet veterans of World War II will be in attendance to lead a Walk For Peace. Bob Swan organizer of the event said recently."
Swan said everyone was invited to join the Walk For Peace, which will start at 11 a.m. today at two locations. The first group will start at 7th and Massachusetts streets while the second group starts from in front of the Kansas Union. The third group starts at 11th and Massachusetts streets, for a ceremony welcoming the veterans.
Del Shankel, acting vice chancellor for academic affairs, said that although classes would continue, instructors have been told to participate in the walk if they made up missed work.
Art displayed today
The 1986 nominees for Fine Arts scholarships will be showing their works today on the fourth floor of the Art and Design building.
The exhibits. — paintsings, drawings, prints and sculptures — will be on display from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Weather
Today will be the decreaseingly cloudy with a high in the upper 80s and winds at 10 to 20 mph. Tonight and tomorrow will be clear to part will be tonight will be 45 to 50, and the明天tomorrow will be in the mid-70s.
From staff and wire reports
Puppets perform Greek drama
Play satirizes Socrates
By Monique O'Donnell
Staff writer
Their heads were made of plaster, their bodies of cloth and all their movements where guided by an invisible hand hiding behind the stage.
Patron Arnott, professor of drama at Tufs University in Boston, and his homemade marionettes amused KU students and faculty with an ancient Greek comedy performance Saturday evening in Swarthout Recital Hall of Murphy Hall. The performance was sponsored by the classics department and the University Theatre.
Arnott has been staging ancient Roman and Greek plays with his marionettes for 40 years. His performances are entirely one-man shows. He has translated the plays from Greek to English, he built the stage and the marionettes, and he speaks all the characters' roles.
It is easiest to take on the performances alone, Arnott said, because he can travel independently and he can perform well in the performances to someone else.
"Actually I wouldn't know how to teach it." he said.
Marianettes are rarely used in American drama productions, said Arnott, who is a native of England. Although marionette theatre is often thought of as children's theatre, in many cases it is a very intellectual production not often enjoyed by children. Therefore, children under the age of 12 were not admitted to Saturday's performance.
"People often associate marionette theatre with kiddie parties." Arnott said, "But it's a very sophisticated dance that I understand, if children won't
Arnott is self-taught in the complicated art of manipulating the small puppets which glide across the miniature stage. He said he chose
"When these plays were performed in ancient Greece, there would be an audience of more than 50,000 people. The audience was very small and very distant."
marionettes for the ancient Greek and Roman theatre productions because they most accurately portrayed the original plays.
Seeing the performers from such a great distance caused the players to emphasize physical movements and language. Arnott made his characters lisp, speak like W.C. Fields, or imitate various accents.
The play, "Clouds," was a satire, which to many who have read Plato's writings on Socrates came as a bit of humor. But the book is an unusual portraiture of the philosopher.
"This story portrays Socrates as a meddling old fool," Arnott said. This is very different from Plato's palette, which seems too idealistic.
Arnott liked giving one of the characters the voice of comedian W.C. Fields. Greek comedy is topical because it deals with difficult elements people can relate to, he said.
Besides, the author Aristophanes could have invented a character like Fields, had he lived in the 20th century, Arnold said.
Each translation of comedy is short lived, Arnott said, because comedy has to be brought up to date with slang and humor changes. But the same – showing the play remains the same – shows that college "hollies haven't changed."
Michael Shaw, professor of classics, said this was Arnott's fifth performance at KU.
"He is one of the leading authorities in Greek and Roman theatre productions," Shaw said.
Craig Sands/KANSAN
Peter Arnott, professor of drama at Tufts University in Boston, performs ancient Greek and Roman dramas using marionettes. Arnott, who has used the puppets for more than 40 years, performed Saturday night at KU.
To disconnect telephones
Students to test new touch system
By Lori Polson Staff writer
Beginning today, KU students will be able to disconnect their telephone service with just a touch.
Debbie Vignailt, manager of the Southwestern Bell Residence Service Center, said Friday that the University of Kansas was one of five schools serving as testing grounds for a new telephone disconnection system.
The system, called "Quick Stop," will be in the main lobby of the Kansas Union until May 15. Students can get into the building until midnight, seven days a week.
"We are trying to provide students with easier access," Vignelli said. "We want to allow them to conduct the work that coming all the way to our office."
Students previously have had to call the telephone company, or stop by, to have their telephones disconnected.
The system consists of four computer terminals attached to one main unit information is entered by keyboard instead of punching a keyboard.
Customers follow the instructions printed on the terminals. If a mistake is made, the person using the terminal can back up and "touch" the correct information in.
After all the required information is touched in, the computer automatically sends the request to the company's office, where it is processed.
Southwestern Bell receives about 5.000 requests from students who want to disconnect their phone service each spring, Dave Nichols, community relations manager 'for the community' at a local system can be used for all disconnection service except for telephones in the residence hall system.
for someone to cut off another person's telephone service as a joke. Customers have to send their social security number and other information that the telephone company can check, to make sure the accounts match up with records the telephone company keeps, he said.
Nichols said it would be impossible
The company plans to install the system next fall, he said, so students will be able to reconnect their phone having to go to the telephone office.
The system was first tested last spring at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
Senate ponders seat-filling procedure
Staff writer
By Piper Scholfield
Two bills that would change the procedure for filling vacant Student Senate seats are before Senate this week.
The bills, one written by a Student Rights subcommittee and the other by an ad hoc committee, are attempts to satisfy Senate's need for a definite procedure to replace senators who either quit or are removed from Senate seats before their terms are over.
But there is disagreement among the senators as to which bill should receive Senate approval.
Michael Foubert, graduate student senator, said the bill created by the ad hoc committee allowed the student body president too much influence in choosing the replacement senators.
The ad hoc bill allows the president to nominate three candidates to the Student Executive Committee. The biller has submitted an HBH hibited from legislative action while
Senate is in session.
"This defeats the purpose of having a separation of powers." Foubert said. This bill says that the presidency should not want it. "But neither bill is perfect."
Gleen Shirtliffe, graduate student senator and member of the subcommittee, said the subcommittee bill allowed people who were interested in Senate in the last election to still have a chance to serve.
Shirttife said the subcommittee bill made it more difficult for persons who had received only one write-in vote to file their cases, which did receive who had received less than 10
The subcommittee bill would allow all interested students to submit applications which would then be narration and discussion, vote and see on the full Senate.
percent of their schools' vote in the last election would have to submit a written application to Senate to be placed for a replacement position, he said.
Senators had voiced dissatisfaction with the previous replacement policy, whereby the person with the next greatest amount of votes in the previous election was installed in the vacant seat.
Shirliffe said he thought the ad hoc bill was unwise because it allowed StudEx to make the final decision on who would fill the replacement seat. He said the bill of eight or nine committee chairman, chairwoman, body president and vice president.
"This is too small a group to be making the decision," Shirliffe said. "There's too much of an opportunity for gerrymandering."
The ad hoc bill would make it easy for a coalition to insure that it kept its own legislative majority. he said.
Betsy Bergman, Nunamaker senator and chairman of the ad hoc committee, said she thought there wasn't a conflict between the two
bills.
Bergman said she thought people were too mature to practice any unethical politicking in StudEx.
"Both bills call for ads to be put in the UDK," Bergman said. "The president will read their applications and no more than three to StudEx."
"People are definitely more mature. We're working together as Student Senate not, as one coalition against the other," she said. "I just thought it would be more efficient and expedient to have StudEx handle it."
David Epstein, student body president, said that he thought the ad hoc bill was good but that it gave too much power to the president. The theme of the speech called too much emphasis on the people who ran in the last election, but lost.
Epstein he thought these differences would be mediated when the bills appeared before Senate, and a compromise would be reached.
Students watch out for VDTs Computers bring strain, stiff muscles
By Lynn Maree Ross Staff writer
Students wading through term papers and computer projects beware of the VDTs.
Although the symptoms are uncomfortable, they're not terminal.
No, the VDTs isn't a new video game or creatures from outerspace. VDT stands for video display terminal, and the VTDs is a term computer operators use to describe eyestrain, headaches and stuff that can be bystand in front of a computer screen for long periods of time.
A number of factors such as screen glare and bright working lights contribute to eyestrain, Jimi Sitz, owner of The Knot, and Gerrit Van der Woll, 711 W. 23rd St., said yesterday.
The amount of discomfort depends on what a student is working on, said Ron Shannon, a supervisor at the KU computer center. If a student has a hard day, two days, he might spend four or five hours at a time in front of a screen.
Lyndall Yarnell, Topeka senior,
said, "If it's due the next day, you've
got to get it done."
Yarnell, a computer science major, said he once spent 27 hours at a terminal working on a computer program.
"I was stubborn," he said. "I had a bug in the program and I was going to get it working."
As a result of that episode and a number of other four- or five-hour sessions, Yarnell said his eyes began to hurt.
"My eyes were cramping," he said. "Sometimes I would see double."
An appointment with Arlisr Stebbins, a Lawrence optometrist, helped solve the problem. Yarnell said. Stebbins showed Yarnell some eye glasses and him a pair of glasses to wear when working at a computer terminal.
The increase in the number of people using computer terminals means four or five of the 75 patients Stebbins and about computer-generated eyestrain
The eye exercise Stebbins teaches his patients involves alternating focus on near and distant objects.
First, the patient should hold a magazine or other printed material about 16 inches away from his face and focus on the letters. Stebbins would then should hold an object, a clock for instance, that is about 20 feet away.
The patient then alternates between the page and the clock, bringing the page closer and closer to his index finger, and letting the letters in focus any longer.
Stebbins said the exercise helped stretch and relax the ciliary muscle, the eye muscle that contracts during near-distance work. When the muscle contracts it changes the shape of the lens, allowing the eye to focus.
The glasses Stebbins prescribes are tinted to help cut down on glare from a computer screen. Stebbins said he only recommended tinted glasses to patients who already needed glasses.
Seitz said that although some people had suggested that changing screen color reduced eyestrain he'd seen no evidence to support the claim. Screens are available in green, amber, but green is most popular.
Even tinted glasses won't completely cure the VDTs.
"Most of the complaints I hear are about being immobile for long periods of time." Seitz said.
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