24-hour care Extra pay helps lure nurses who work late hours See page 7.
SINCE 1889.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY. APRIL 7,1986,VOL.96,NO.127 (USPS 650-640)
Nice
Details page 3.
Students troubled in design courses
By Grant W. Butler
Disorganization in the department of design is causing confusion about course curriculum, a student in interior design said recently.
Changes in the semester-by-semester schedule for design students, which states when particular courses should be taken, are making enrollment for next fall common. Rogers, Lincoln, Neb. senior, said.
"I've had a lot of problems trying to fit things in." Rogers said. "They seem to think we're behind in our schedule."
He said the enrollment disorganization was caused by a shortage of teachers and a lack of knowledge about enrollment on the part of professors who were advising.
James Moeser, dean of the School of Fine Arts, said there was a problem with the number of design professors, caused by the death of George Hixson and the coming retirements of two professors.
"I know we are seriously understaffed and I know we we're having some problems covering the needs of the program," said Moose.
A search committee of design faculty members has been set up to look for professors to replace the retiring professors and Hixson,pson.
Hixson, who taught interior design, was found strangled in his west Lawrence apartment on Dec. 2. Lawrence police think he was murdered on Nov. 22 and are holding Eugene Avis Jr. in connection with the crime.
The department of design has been understaffed for several years because of increasing enrollment, Moeser said, but the death of Hixson and the retirements prompted the action by the search committee.
The committee is looking at applicants for three tenure positions, said Richard Branham, professor of
design and chairman of the search committee.
But the search for new professors doesn't resolve the concerns of Rogers, who might have to delay his graduation.
During enrollment advising,
Rogers said, he was told he might have to stay in school another year.
But the professor said he needed conflicted with each other.
"I'm not going to pay for their disorganization." Rogers said. "It's a waste of money."
"They said they realized all the problems they are having with the disorganization and they would try to straighten things out. They're very helpful people, they're just disorganized."
John McKay, acting chairman of design, said that his main concern was not a shortage of professors, but that students were confused by the lack of continuity in the interior design program.
"When George Hixson left last year on medical leave, we brought in a temporary professor and are currently using him." McKay said.
During Hixson's leave, problems didn't develop, McKay said. But since his death, students have become concerned about what will happen to the interior design program because he won't be returning.
"It's initiated a number of situations," he said, "I've talked to several students and faculty members who were concerned with the situation.
"They feel George had something o offer that can't be replaced and they are uncertain about what the future holds."
No curriculum changes in the department of design have occurred because of the professors being replaced, he said. Any changes in the curriculum would be based on the reevaluation of the demands of the program.
See DESIGN, p. 5, col. 1
Mark Mohler/KANSAN
Moonlighting
A fisherman uses the light from the moon to fish at Lake Perry.
Attorneys address farm crisis
By Sandra Crider
Staff writer
Farmers and lawyers received warnings and exhortations yesterday to stick together in confronting the nationwide farm crisis.
About 50 people, mostly farmers and lawyers, attended the day-long seminar at the KU School of Law. The seminar was sponsored by the KU chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
Session topics included credit counseling for farmers, the farm crisis and the farm crisis as seen by the media and the far right.
Lenny Zeskid, research director at the Center for Democratic Renewal, Kansas City, Mo., said the influence of extremist groups was growing as the problems in agriculture continued.
Radical groups that attempt to attract farmers are often anti-semitic and blame farmers' problems on an international Jewish bankers' conspiracy, Zeskind said. The Posse Comitatus and the Order are two prejudicial groups that have gained strength in the rural Midwest.
A 25-year-old farmer was tortured and killed recently in Nebraska and two members of a radical group are being withdrawn with the murder, Zeskid said.
"The first victims of these groups are always farmers." he said.
The movements go after farmers because they are in desperate economic straits and may be more susceptible to radical methods.
"The farmers in northeast Kansas, they get sucked up into this kind of stuff, and they become the potential victims." Zeskind said.
"This tragedy is a part of an antidemocratic thrust, an exclusionary thrust that is happening throughout the country," he said. "There are backward moving forces, the same
See FARM, p. 5, col. 3
Groups appeal budget decisions
Staff writer
Bv Piper Scholfield
Grant Steinle, Finance Committee chairman, said yesterday that the financing decisions were not arraigned on finance rules and regulations.
Two of four student groups that were refused financing for fiscal 1987 by the Student Senate Finance Committee plan to appeal the decision before the full Senate.
The groups denied financing by the committee were the KU Honors Students Association, the Commission on the Status of Women, the KU Objectivism Study Group and the Society of Professional Journalists
Members of the Commission on the Status of Women and the KU Honors Students Association said they intended to appeal the denial of funds.
The Finance Committee, with Senate approval, plans to allocate $51,000 to student groups for fiscal 1987. The committee's budget proposals will go before Senate for final approval on April 16.
Steinle said the committee was
unable to finance groups that requested honorariums for speakers, social functions, groups in which membership was restricted to a certain student sector or honor societies which required a particular grade point average for participation.
Barbara Ballard, coordinator of the Women's Resource Center, said the Commission on the Status of Women planned to go before Senate to appeal for funds. She said part of the committee said it had been denied funds was because the Finance Committee determined it was an honorary organization.
"We're not an honorary group." Ballard said.
Steinle said the Commission on the Status of Women was denied funds because the committee determined that its request was for a recognition program.
"The committee determined that the Women's Recognition Day was honorary although the commission itself may or may not be." Steinle
Steinle said the finance committee
did not recommend allocation of Senate money to any of the groups. The groups, however, can appeal the merits of their financial requests to the full Senate if committee does not combine the four requests into one financing bill and kill it while still in committee.
Steinle said that was not likely.
Unless the groups are able to convince the full Senate at that time that they should receive the money, the groups will be refused financing for the committee's reasons.
Steinle said the Society of Professional Journalists received no funds because Senate was not allowed to provide honorariums for speakers, the reason the society stated for wanting money.
Ted Frederickson, assistant professor of journalism and advisor to the society, said the society requested money from Senate because it thought it could put together a speakers program that was as good as or better than those Senate had financed in the past.
Steinle said the KU Honors
Students Association was denied financing because voting members of the group were required to have a particular grade point average.
But Noelle Henrickson, chairman of the association, said the club never checked anyone's GPA. The club will appeal the decision, she said.
"The only thing that could be affected is whether or not you could be an officer of the club," Henrickson said.
The KU Objectivist Study Group was denied financing because the group was unable to demonstrate sufficient student interest in the study of objectivism, the philosophy of novelist Avn Rand. Steinle said.
Doffing said he proved to the group that there was sufficient interest in the study of objectivism and that no similar service was provided by the group. In contrast, a group had requested $475 for the rental of a taped lecture course.
Christopher Doffing, Wichita sophomore and president of the group, said he thought the committee's decision was unfair.
By Peggy Kramer
It would be a surprise if there were another space shuttle flight before late next year, Steven A. Hawley, astronaut in the space shuttle program, said Friday.
Astronauts recently were cleared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to answer questions about the space shuttle accident. The space shuttle Challenger exploded in 2007, killing all seven crew members.
Hawley, a KU graduate, answered questions at a news conference sponsored by the University of Kansas Air Force ROTC in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union. Earlier that day Hawley spoke as a guest and astronomy students on campus.
"It is my personal belief that we would have an accident somewhere in the shuttle program," he said. "But I didn't anticipate the magnitude of the Challenger
accident."
It's hard to see how the shuttle program could go on for decades and not have an accident, he said. Now when it happens, we can do it automatically, think "astrophe,"
Hawley said he didn't know what the Challenger accident meant for the civilian-in-space program.
"Nobody will fly again until everyone is certain to be safe."
The delay of the shuce shuttle program has changed Hawley's work with NASA. He was in training for a space telescope mission before he started an a data analysis task force at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The task force, which was formed by NASA to help investigate the explosion, has been Hawley's full-time job for the last two months.
"NASA is taking proper steps to minimize risks, but there is a certain amount of risk we have no control over," he said.
Betty Swezey cuddles her cat, Precious. Swezey has taken care of cats in her Topeka home for the past 14 years.
Cat sitter provides love and litter
By Monique O'Donnell
Staff writer
Betty Swezey sat down and called, "Lap time. Laaaap time!" Precious looked up and moved toward her
will hid under the couch. The rest of the house was quiet except for the light padding of footsteps across the linoleum floor.
Monday Morning
keeper. Rowdy remained sprawled on the floor.
Swezey has been baby-sitting cats for 14 years. Precious, her own chubby calico cat, doesn't like the idea, she said recently.
she said I treat her like Swezie lives alone — that is, if you don't count the however-many furry creatures that are temporarily staying at her house. She has cat-sat as many as 16 at one time.
"They're not restricted. If they want to pile up in bed with me, they
the members of
The cats have the run of Sweezey's
small, one-story two-bedroom house
in Tomka.
"They weren't any problem," she said. "They were just sort of mesmerized by each other."
can," Swezy said. "I've had as many as six of them sleep with me."
Swezy's cat-sitting adds the personal touch rarely found at kennels and veterinarians who board cats but keep them in cages. Finding temporary, inexpensive lodging for one's furry friends can be a problem, especially for students who leave town for a long time over summer.
The charge is $3 a day. Sometimes she takes care of several cats for the same price or makes an adjustment if the price is too steep.
But Swezey requires that all cats
Brian Lang, Blue Valley sophomore, owns a female cat named Bill. He said he never disciplined Bill, and she sometimes terrorized his house.
Lang might go to Europe this summer and is looking for a temporary home for Bill. He said he didn't want to put Bill in a kennel and hoped his parents would keep her. His parents, however, don't know it yet.
however, Swezy said she had customers bring their cats all the way from Salina and Manhatten. She has no limit to the number of cats she will keep or the length of time she will keep them.
brought to her have current vaccinations. The owners also must leave a phone number where they can be reached.
Swezy began cat-sitting when a friend went to Arizona for a few weeks and needed someone to watch her cat. Swezy had her own cat, but taking care of one more came easily. Then she began taking in cats whenever someone needed her services.
Swezy, 61, is a secretary at the chaplain's office at the Topeka State Hospital. She can't afford a car, she said, but getting around isn't a problem. She rides the bus to work; friends take her to the grocery store, and she buys 50-pound bags of cat litter from a neighbor.
Keeping the cats at her house is convenient, Swezey said, because she can stay home and make a little money on the side. She doesn't make a killing on the cat business, though.
"I'd like to do it at no charge at all, but I can't quite handle that," she said. "It may not be a real money-maker, but that's not why I do it. I want to help out."
See CATS, p. 5, col. 1