Second Section
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1986
University Daily Kansan
17
Watchdog draws fire from profs
By Frank Ybarra
Staff writer
Despite its statement that it will bring "fairness and accuracy" into the classroom, a Washington organization is being labeled by some KU professors as a right-wing pressure group intent on limiting academic freedom.
Accuracy in Academia, founded last August, says that it wants to give students a chance to speak out against professors who they think are too one-sided on political and economic issues, such as Marxism or presidential elections.
The group's founder, Reed Irvine, is the head of another watchdog group, the conservative Accuracy in Media.
Les CSorba, executive director of AIA, said in a telephone interview in December that the organization planned to promote balance and accuracy in the classroom.
Csorba said AIA considered students to be reporters while attending class. If a student has a complaint about how a teacher is presenting an issue or doctrine in the classroom, he can call or write AIA.
Csorba said that if the group considered a student's complaint important, they would investigate the professor in question. If the professor doesn't deny an accusation, then AIA may write an article on the professor's newsletter.
No KU professors have been mentioned in the organization's first two newsletters, available through subscription. A third newsletter is scheduled for distribution next week
Even so, some KU professors think the group could stifle academic freedom.
"I think they will take things out of context," he said.
Sidney Shapiro, professor of law, said. "Even if their aim is neutral, find it personally hard to believe that their own views aren't going to be represented. Their goals are political, not educational."
Clifford Ketzel, professor of political science, said the group would be as biased as other conservative groups, such as the Moral Majority.
Csorba disagreed. He said the group wanted participants from every part of the political spectrum, although most of the students participating in the group were conservatives.
Bryan Daniel, Jefferson City, Mo., law student who received AIA's first newsletter, said he agreed with the organization's concept but he was not sure whether it would be successful.
The organization will probably only embarrass professors, he said
One professor who has been the subject of an AIA newsletter is Mark Reader, a professor of political science at Arizona State University.
He was criticized in the November newsletter for his views on the nuclear freeze and Soviet and American relations.
"What AIA claims in its first newsletter is that they need to have spies in the classroom," he said. "The purpose of spying is to break the trust that exists between faculty and students."
Reader said students in AIA were "small-minded radical-right types" who were "out of touch with reality."
But Csorba said the group was helping students with unfair professors. An example, he said, was a recent call from a student at the University of Maryland where a professor supposedly said that there was more social injustice in the United States than in Nazi Germany.
Csorba said the point of the newsletter was to challenge such professors, not to have them fired or censured.
And despite the group's conservative connection, Csorba said, it's not targeting liberals.
"We're not criticizing people for their beliefs," he said. "We're just criticizing for what they teach."
But Shapiro said the group's ideas would just hinder classroom discussion.
"If you teach a course on Marx, does it mean you have to talk about Adam Smith every third sentence?" he said. "I'm not sure everyone should be held to every word they say.
"Academic freedom doesn't mean we're not accountable. If a student feels a professor is wrong, he ought to go out and study the issue. I don't know why we need a third party."
Carol Prentice, an administrative assistant in the office of academic affairs at KU, said students could go through University channels to have their disputes solved.
Each department at KU has some formal grievance policy students can follow if they think a professor is unfair, she said.
Shapiro said that even with student complaints, he didn't think the group would have much of an effect at KU or that it would affect his teaching personally.
Allan Hanson, professor of anthropology, said he thought the group could damage the learning environment at KU.
"It could be a threat to academic freedom," he said. "It's presumable that the faculty member has more knowledge about the subject than the student. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
City awaits gun ordinance study
Staff writer
By Monty Headley
After proposing an ordinance in December that would control the sale of handguns, the Lawrence City Commission is waiting for a staff study of the 'proposed ordinance.
At the Dec. 17 commission meeting, Commissioner David Longhurst called for an ordinance that would require a 14-day waiting period before a person could purchase a gun. Longhurst said Monday that the waiting period was needed for the police to do a background check on the person buying the枪.
Longhurst also proposed the ordinance state that in order to buy a handgun, a person must 21 years old or older, have no felony convictions
and no record of drug abuse, mental illness or drunk-driving convictions.
The ordinance was proposed by Longhurst after a 21-year-old KU student committed suicide in October with a handgun she had purchased earlier that day from a Lawrence gunshop.
The city staff now will determine what provisions of the ordinance are suitable. The ordinance should reach the commission agenda in about four weeks. Longhurst said.
The ordinance is not intended to keep law-abiding citizens from buying handguns, he said.
He said that opposition to the ordinance, including local members of the National Rifle Association, was concerned that the proposed ordinance would eventually lead to even stricter laws.
"The goal of this ordinance is to deter people from buying guns for emotional purposes," Longhurst said.
The commission voted Jan. 7 to have the Lawrence Urban Renewal Board contract a private consulting company to study the 600 block of Massachusetts Street to determine whether the area could be designated as slum and blight.
Another issue the commission considered during the semester break was the development of a downtown shopping mall.
"That is not going to happen," Longhurst said.
Under the Urban Renewal Act.
The 600 block of Massachusetts Street has been selected as a possible site for a downtown mall by Town Center Ventures Corp., the city's developer of record.
areas that are designated as slum and blight can be condemned and acquired by the city.
Commissioner Howard Hill said Monday that the official designation would allow the city to proceed with the mall.
However, Hill said, "It is difficult for an elected official to suggest that there is slum and blight in the city."
"I have heard mostly from people who are impatient for retail development downtown," he said.
Hill said that he had not heard of much opposition to the city's action.
New rush has mixed results for sororities
By Jo Ellen Washburn
Staff writer
Despite a few new procedures. Women's Formal Rush went as planned early this week, with almost 84 percent of the 800 participants accepted into sororities Monday night.
Chris Sinatra, vice-president of membership for the Panhellenic Association, said that this was one of the highest percentages KU sororites have been able to pledge.
The rush process, which began with rusheshe checking in on Jan. 7, lasted five days. Women attended open houses at the 14 sororities participating Wednesday. First invitations were Thursday and Friday, where women could return to a maximum of nine houses. Second invitations were Saturday, with a maximum of five houses.
Final decisions were made by the women Sunday, when they listed their top three choices of houses. After the week of parties and meeting new people, rushes were informed of the news Monday.
If they were not accepted by a sorority, they were called in advance. Otherwise, the women met with their rush counselors at the Holiday Inn Holidome, 200 MacDonald Dr., where they were told which house they could pledge. They then meet with the sororities at the Kansas Union.
"I had no idea what to expect, but rush was excellent," Tracy Brayert, Leavenworth freshman, said. "It was one of the best times of my life."
Bush said the use of computers pushed the information through faster but also resulted in some computer errors which were harder to check than manual errors.
Kristine Stockwell, rush chairman for Gamma Pi Beta, said she thought the computer method of processing rush information made Panhellenic's job easier but would take the sororites a while to get used
to. She said she thought it left a lot of room for error.
Becky VanWye, rush chairman for Kappa Kappa Gamma, said her house didn't get the list of names of women who would be returning as early as they had before. However, the lists were easier to check than past manual lists, she said.
Besides the new computer method of rushing, a quota system was introduced. No house could accept more than 49 pledges this year, Sinatra said.
Stockwell said that although the quota might limit a big house, it helped standardize the number of members in each house. She said no houses would be negatively affected by the quota.
Because of a National Panhellenic Association decision, this was also the first year where there was no grade point average requirements for women wanting to go through rush. Each house, however, was able to set its own grade requirements Only two houses planned to accept women with below a 2.3 GPA.
Stockwell said women with GPAs lower than 2.3 could go through rush but the chances of their being considered for a house with a GPA below 2.0 was almost non-existent. Panhellenic informed the women of the houses' grade requirements.
During the five-day process of rushing, women who live in GSP-Corbin, Naismith or Oliver halls stayed in their residence halls. Women who lived in Ellsworth, Lewis, Hashinger or McCollum halls stayed at the Holiday Inn Holidome.
Bush said that most new pledges would live in their residence halls or apartments this semester but most would be able to move into their houses by next fall.
Next year, rush will be at the start of spring semester. Bush said, but will be conducted during the fall semesters, beginning in 1987. She said that KU was one of the few schools that held rush in the spring and that fall rush would be more convenient and the weather should be better.
Staff writer
By Brian Whepley
Video rentals bring Hollywood to homes
Grocery stores, convenience stores and other retail businesses have jumped into the VCR and videotape rental business, but local video salesmen say there is no video war in Lawrence.
Ken Wilson, credit manager of Smitty's TV, 1447 W. 23rd St., said that although there were many new video rental centers, they all were reeling in business.
In 1984, 30 percent of United States homes had video cassette recorders, and in 1985, 50 percent owned recorders. Wilson said.
"The pie is getting bigger, even with more slices." Wilson said.
Jim Roberts, manager of Rusty's Food Center, 901 Iowa St., agreed that more and more people wanted Hollywood at home.
Because the market is expanding, there is room in the film rental business for grocery and convenience stores without hurting video specialty stores.
"We seem to rent more tapes
every week." he said.
But Roberts said he thought that grocery stores had hurt the business of video stores.
Many people rent movies on impulse while they are buying groceries, said Bob Weigel, manager of Dillon's, 1740 Massachusetts St. The store rents R-rated tapes only to customers 18-year-old or older and does not rent X-rated videotapes.
Greg Anderson, an employee of the 7-Eleven, 2500 Iowa St., said that 7-Eleven competed with other stores because it was near several apartment complexes and the store was open after midnight.
Weigel said the video rental business had been so good that eventually all the Lawrence Dillon's stores would have video rental departments. The store occasionally runs out of VCRs, which it also rents.
"It's a good business problem," he said.
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