University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, April 7, 1987
3
Local Briefs
County ends investigation of KU deaths
The Douglas County District Attorney's office has closed its investigation into the possibility that four KU students killed in an accident on March 27 may have been sold alcohol illegally. The truth is when their car was struck by a train on County Road 1900N.
Students receive Mellon Fellowships
Three KU students have each received a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, a national award intended to encourage students to pursue a career in higher education.
The investigation, conducted by sheriff's detective Mike Suitt, did not find sufficient evidence of an illegal action, said District Attorney Jim Flory.
Anna Creese, Lawrence graduate student; Michael O'Rourke, Lawrence senior; and Michael Sind, Overland Park park, were among 1,222 students in the United States and Canada nominated for thehips. In the United States, 122 students received the award.
The fellowship includes a $9,750 cash stipend and pays tuition and fees for one year at any U.S. or Canadian university, with the opportunity to renew the scholarship.
KU debater chosen as country's best
A KU student, John Culver,
Overland Park senior, was
selected as one of two outstanding
debaters in the country at the
National Debate Tournament last
month at Illinois State University.
Culver and his team partner,
George Lopez, Wichita junior, tied
with another KU team, Steve Ellis,
Wichita senior, and Barry Pickens,
Winfield sophomore, for fifth
place honors at the tournament.
KU was of three schools to
have two teams win top awards.
Baylor University won the tournamen
Applicants sought for SUA board post
*Student Union Activities is accepting applications for an indoor recreation board member.
Craig A. Colbert, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, was elected for the position March 1 but has resigned.
The person selected will organize tournaments and work with students interested in specific games.
Applicants can obtain and return application forms at the SUA office on the Kansas Union's fourth floor. The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. today.
Each applicant will participate in five-minute interviews beginning at 5 p.m. tomorrow.
Applications due for financial grants
Area health and human service agencies have until Friday to apply for 1987-88 financial grants from the United Fund of Douglas County.
Application forms already have been mailed to agencies that received money last year. Other groups may pick up applications in Room 211 of the United Way office, 70 Massachusetts St.
From staff and wire reports
Campus and Area
House passes bill giving scholars credit
By JOHN BUZBEE
TOPEKA — The state House yesterday passed a bill to give National Merit Scholars from Kansas a tax credit if they work in the state after they leave school.
Staff writer
The bill, which would allow National Merit Finalists to deduct school loan payments from their state taxable income, would be just a small Band-Aid in an effort to plug the state's brain drain, legislators said.
"I think it helps only a few people," said State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence. "I would be more excited about measures that help more students. We have some very fine scholars who have to borrow money for graduate school who are not National Merit Scholars."
Gov. Mike Hayden pushed for the bill to encourage the best and brightest Kansans to work in the state, whether or not they went to college here
State Rep. Joe Knopp, R-Manhattan, proposed an amendment to give the credit to students from other states who went to Kansas universities, Charlton said.
"I would rather do more for more students, but I guess every little bit holes" Charlton said.
Charlton and State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, who both voted for the bill, also supported the administration, which was narrowly defeated.
"What I would like to see are more incentives for National Merit Scholars to attend Kansas schools, as well
as come back to Kansas," Branson said. "I think we do have a piece missing there."
But the state's financial woes would prevent more beneficial plans, she said.
"If we put more into attracting National Merit Scholars to our universities," she said, "we would be pooling more brains and more creative ideas for economic development."
Supporters of the plan say it would be a boon to economic development in the region.
State Rep. John Solbach, D
Lawrence, voted against the bill
The bill now heads to the Senate, but State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., RLawrence, said the Senate probably wouldn't have time to consider it.
The bill would allow for annual $2,000 deductions, up to $16,000 total, from taxable state income for college graduates who graduated from a Kansas high school after 1982. The deductions would be available for 10 years for the National Merit Scholarships after they leave school if they work full time in the state. It probably also would apply to self-employed workers. Charlton said.
Winter said the state should focus on economic development and better higher education to stop the brain damage that he probably would support the bill.
"The tax credit clause is woetly inadequate," he said. "It's trying to bail out the boat with a teaspoon, and it doesn't matter less we focus on the other two areas."
Overdue books nothing new to libraries
By LAURA BOSTROM
Staff writer
Library books have a talent for disappearing.
And students usually scramble when an overdue notice demands the return of books that have been misplaced or out of order. Seats of cars and cluttered bedrooms.
Most people don't respond to the renewal date printed inside their books, said Kendall Simmons, head of circulation for the University libraries. She estimated that more than 50 percent of the books checked out were overdue.
Unpaid fines can put a hold on processing of transcripts, enrollment and graduation, and usually the only way out of a fine is to pay it.
Most overdue books are returned before transcripts are held. A five-day overdue notice brings most of the books back, Simmons said, and that doesn't work, the library sends a 20-day notice and suspends the offender's borrowing privileges.
Students can check out regular circulating materials for four weeks, while KU faculty and Ph.D. students can check out materials for four months.
After the checkout period, the user has a 30-day grace period to return the book. On the 31st day, a $5 fine is charged.
Photo Illustration by Alan Hagman/KANSAN
A KU student worker processes returned books at Watson Library. Approximately 50 percent of books checked out of the library are returned overdue.
Money generated by library fines goes into the University's general fund. Since July 1, 1986, $32,185 has gone into the fund.
Since the library is supported by the state of Kansas, any money generated by fines goes back into the general fund, said Keith Ratzloff, KU associate controller.
Once returned, the books are stacked by call number before being returned to circulation. Simmons estimates that on an average day, it takes about 48 hours to reshelve the books.
"Other times we have them stacked on the floor." she said
Though Simmons did not have an estimate of the daily book flow, she said between 11,000 and 16,000 books were checked out a month. That
number escalates to 30,000 as students prepare reports and papers at the end of each semester.
out each year, Simmons said. KU libraries contain more than 2 million books, periodicals, microforms and other materials.
About a million things are checked
Pattie Armbrister, head of circulation for the Lawrence public library, said that as a town, Lawrence was pretty good about returning books.
U.S. society is individualistic, writer says
By PAUL SCHRAG
Staff writer
Broken marriages and apathy toward national elections are results of our society's emphasis on individualism and disregard for the common good, a well-known sociologist and writer said last night.
Robert Bellah, co-author of the 1985 best-seller "Habits of the Heart," said U.S. citizens needed to apply the lessons of history to today's problems to rescue society from the crippling effects of individualism.
"The loss of memory and hope has left us adrift in the present," he said. "I think of ourselves as self-created from a past and almost without a future."
the basis for restoring society's hope for the future, Bellah said. Memory can be restored by forming communities of interpreters who understand the past and its meaning for today.
people at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union was the last presentation of the Humanities Lecture Series at the University of Kansas this academic year.
"It is out of the application of the past to the present that we find hope to deal with the difficulties tht face us."
Reviving society's memory can be
Bellah is professor of sociology and comparative studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He teamed with four others to write "Habits of the Heart," a critique of U.S. society. In 1985, the book became the first sociological bestseller since the early 1960s, said Robert Antonio, professor of sociology.
Robert Shelton, associate professor of religious studies, said much of Bellah's work has dealt with the sociology of religion.
Bellah's lecture to more than 100
Centuries of religious experience have shown the validity of Bellah's view that individualism undermines the common good, Shelton said.
"There's no question that we have fallen into an individualism that is rootless and is insufficiently attached to community," Shelton said. "We can't possibly get a sense of who we are as individuals without interaction with others."
"Our ticket sales are up 30 percent over last year," said Rosalie Stolpe, manager of the Travel Center, 160 W. 23rd St. "We're getting more calls every day. People are getting their nerve back. They're taking chances."
"It's relatively quiet abroad right now," she said.
People thought it was safer to stay home and travel in the United States. But the numbers are up again, going to people in the travel industry.
Cheryl Farrer, director of the passport office at the Lawrence post office, said applications for passports increased by 30 percent over last year.
"It's definitely because there has been less terrorism." Farmer said.
Stolpe said the reason for the surge was the decrease in terrorism.
She said requests for passports in March had increased by 50 percent over requests in March of 1986.
"Most of our requests are from students," Farmer said. "On the applications they mostly fill out that we supply to Europe. A lot go to Germany to study."
Paid for by the Mike Rundle for Lawrence Committee Neva Enterkin, Treasurer
At the University of Kansas, 220 students signed up for the 1987 summer study abroad program, as compared to 160 students in 1986.
"Many students dropped out of the summer program last year after the bombing of Libya," said Mary Eli. "This was a vector of the study abroad program."
"There were 800 terror attacks last year, and 738 this year," Moos said. "That isn't much of a difference, but we don't hear about it in the news because not so many of the attacks have involved Americans."
Moos said more attacks were against Germans and French than against Americans.
Felix Moos, professor of anthropology and a specialist on terrorism, said world terrorism had decreased only slightly.
[Paid Pol. Adv.]
The number of U.S. citizens traveling abroad dropped dramatically last year after the U.S. bombing of Libya and the nuclear accident in Chernobyl.
Mike Rundle supports planning that is open to the public. Planning that listens to different points of view.
THE MALL:
HOW DID WE GET
HERE FROM
THERE?
Gwin said the French and Spanish programs had more applicants than English students.
"Americans have a short mem ory," he said.
That was not an accident. The planning of our major projects is out of touch with the people.
She said the KU study abroad office was kept aware of political situations in the various program countries and international Student Exchange Program.
Overseas traveling increases this year
In four years, the City Commission's mall plan has gone from bad to worse.
3y ROGER COREY
We live with new projects for a long time. Let's get them right.
She said the study abroad program in Great Britain had increased from 25 students in 1986 to 30 this year. The program set a record with 37 students.
"We made it clear the directors were insured by the University," Gwin said. "We developed a guide to support students both the director and the students."
"The students are learning to deal with conflict better," Gwin said. "They are learning how to act in emergency situations."
Staff writer
"Fifty students applied for each program and we could only take thirty-five," Gwin said.
Intramural Softball Tournament
Mens & Womens Co-Rec
April 11 & 12
April 25 & 26
16 Team Limit
Entry Forms in 208 Robinson
RECREATION SERVICES