Go for the gust-ho
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Details, page 2
Monday
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
March 23, 1987
Vol. 97, N. 10.16
(USPS 650-640)
A sole man statue greets customers as they enter Patti Shoe Service. 1017 Massachusetts St. Jim Patti created it with more than 300 soles
Brothers repair old soles
Shoe mending is a family craft
By LAURA BOSTROM Staff writer
A poor old sole, actually about 300 leather shoe soles molded into a 6-foot, suit-and-tie-clad man with
leather face and hair, stands near the front window of Patti Shoe Service.
a leathery fish, a sole, is mounted on the shop's wall. And a sole-ar panel made from well-worn
Monday Morning
shoe bottoms, some identified by owner, hangs across from the sole man.
The teller and sculptor of these soleful pants is Jim Patti, Jim, 58, and brother Charlie, 57, are the third generation of Patti she repairmen, and owners of their store at 1017 Massachusetts St.
The brothers grew up in the shoe repair business, watching, working, and sometimes living in their father's and grandfather's Kansas City, Mo., shoe repair stores. A graduate graphic designer, their father started in an office of his Brooklyn Shoe Store in Kansas City
But Charlie did not plan on a career in shoes.
"I never wanted to be in this business," he said. He was going to be a baseball player.
Charlie was negotiating a contract with the Detroit Tigers when he was drafted into the Korean War. He played on the Navy all-star team during his service, but opened a shoe repair store in Kansas City, Mo., after returning from the war.
The brothers opened Patti Shoe Service in 1955.
The University of Kansas enrolled about 5,000 students then, and the Big Eight Conference was the Big Seven, Jim said. When the students left town for the summer, "you could close up."
But the shoe repair business has changed since the old-fashioned days of country cobblers, Charlie said.
And the two try to get away from
the crude image that the word "cobbler" projects. Charlie said.
They think of themselves as "shoe mechanics." They wear mechanics' uniforms and use spec- tacles for repair worn shoes and broke heels.
"Heels are the heart of this business," Charlie said.
Jim said, "Well, heels and soles."
Orthopedic shoe work also fills their schedule
Leather shavings, pieces of soles and equipment, such as a sole stitcher, polisher and heel wheel, clutter the store's workroom.
See SHOES, p. 6, col. 3
Admissions bill discussed
Proposal would end open-door policy at state universities
By JOHN BUZBEE
Staff writer
A bill that could put an end to the state universities' open admissions policy is in a Kansas House committee with a companion bill designed to beef up high school curriculum.
State educators and legislators this year have been wrestling with the problems of increasing enrollment, dwindling funds, sophomore drop-out rates and remedial courses at state universities.
The bills are attempts to deal with these problems, and some legislators say that they may be targeted at the schools. But Mr. Obama has had a huge enrollment increase.
"The University of Kansas probably requires a more motivated and a more prepared student," said State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence.
But KU already attracts better
students than other Regents universities and state community colleges, and KU has a lower drop-out rate after the freshman year, he said, so KU shouldn't need to tighten admissions.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, also said she supported the open admissions policy, which requires a college degree or graduate of any Kansas high school.
"If we don't want remedial courses at the universities, then we should eliminate the problems in elements and secondary schools," she said.
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, said many legislators thought remedial courses at universities were a waste of money. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at KU already has canceled some remedial English and math classes
next fall because of their cost
The admissions bill would allow the state Board of Regents to set different entrance requirements for state universities. But in December, the Regents reaffirmed their support of the open admissions policy.
So the Regents probably wouldn't change entrance requirements immediately if the bill was enacted into law. Stanley Kopfik, executive director of the House Appropriations Committee.
The committee passed the bill, but it has since been sent to the House.
The Regents now suggest that high school students planning on college take a curriculum including math, science, four years of English and two years of a foreign language.
Refusal of revenue code status could eliminate KU debate club
By JOSEPH REBELLO
Staff writer
A Student Senate decision to deny revenue code status to the KU debate squad could threaten the existence of the nation's most accomplished debate program, members of the squad say.
Wednesday, Senate will make final 1987-88 revenue code budget decisions. Unless Senate can be persuaded to reinstate the status denied to the group Feb. 28 by the Student Senate Executive Committee, the debate program will lose the $14,256 it receives from Senate.
That could cripple the activities of
in the group Ellis, president
of the debate club.
"It's pretty much a life and death thing," Ellis said. "If we're not going to be able to get that money someone there won't be a program next year."
The squad has been a revenue code group for more than 10 years.
Each year, members of KU's 14 debate teams attend 25 to 30 tournaments around the country. Ellis said. In 1986-87, the money spent for transportation and room and board expenses on trips amounted to $9,015.89.
The squad has a record of consistent accomplishment in the national debate tournaments, said Donn Parson, KU debate coach and professor of communication studies.
debate teams, compiled by the National Debate Tournament committee, puts KU in the No.1 position, ahead of Northwestern University, the University of Southern California and Harvard University.
That success has been the product of years of cooperation between the University administration, Senate and the department of communication studies, Parson said.
"It would be fortunate if the year we are ranked No. 1 nationally, we loosen our grip on them."
Since 1947, when the national tournament began, KU has been national champion four times, most recently in 1983. It has sent 52 teams to the national tournament, more than any other university.
The latest rankings of university
Earlier this year, the Senate finance committee voted to continue the squad's revenue code status. But Feb. 28, StudEx voted to deny status.
The StudEx decision prevailed because both committees had previously agreed that status would only be granted if both committees approved it, said Steve Gilchrist, co-chairman of the senate finance committee.
Members of StudEx said the decision to deny status was made because the squad was not a service organization and because it benefited only a small group of people.
"I see nothing that they do that benefits the entire University except that when they win, we bask in their
glory," said Michael Foubert, a StudEx member.
"There seems to be this focus that if you win, you're OK. It's not the purpose of the Senate to support only groups that win," he said.
Another StudEx member, Gordon Woods, said that although the group had received funds from Senate for several years, this year a change in Senate priorities favored organizations that provide a specific service.
Foubert said the squad had alter native sources of funding. For example, it could seek funding from Stu Student Organizations and Activities, he
But Parson said Student organizations and Activities did not finance travel expenditures, and travel constituted 90 percent of the squad's expenses.
Gilchrist said that such an amendment could be passed with a $4 Senate majority vote. But, even if the squad gets revenue code status, it will not receive money this year because allocations have already been made for 1987-88, he said.
Parson said he hoped he would be able to persuade Senate on Wednesday to introduce an amendment that would reinstitute the group's status.
Parson said that would not help the KU debate teams much.
"The status doesn't mean a lot if it doesn't provide a budget," he said. "To have the status and not the money is a futile victory."
Catholic students question church tenets
Doctrine confuses many, priest says
By LISA A. MALONEY
Staff writer
Many Roman Catholics today do not understand the reasoning behind many of the church's basic beliefs, a local priest said recently.
And for several of the University's 5,000 Catholic students, the biggest question is how much one can dislike the Catholic Church and still remain Catholic.
"Students really are confused about the basic elements of the faith," said Vincent Krische, the priest. Krische is the director of the St. Lawrence Catholic Center, 1631 Crescent Road.
The council, a conference of the pope, Catholic bishops and other church leaders, met to discuss the mission of the church and drafted changes that included having the Mass said in the native language of a country instead of Latin, more participation by non-clergy members in many of its more open attitude towards biblical interpretation and other religions.
The changes made by the second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1963 have influenced a generation of Catholics who see many differences between the way their parents work and the way they do, Krische said.
"It opened the way for the church to enter the modern world," Krische said. "The issue of justice has become a much more explicit part of what it means to be Catholic."
"Today, we would have many more people involved in food kitchens, in direct works of charity." Krische said. "But some people would say we've gone too far in
Before Vatican II, the church placed more emphasis on internal church matters and individual private prayer and meditation.
giving up private spirituality in favor of direct human action."
The rosary is a devotional prayer consisting of five groups, or decades, of 10 Hail Mary prayers. A string of beads, one bead for each prayer, is used to help the person keep track of the decades. While repeating the prayers, the person meditates on the life of Christ. Krische said.
Vince Colarelli, Clayton, Mo., graduate student, said that he missed some of the older traditions and prayers such as the rosary.
"I know in my generation that there are very few people who understand the place of the saints and the rosary," he said.
Mary Anne Markezich, New Orleans graduate student, said that she still said a rosary when she was a girl and because it helped to ease her mind.
One tradition that has been modified is the practice of eating fish every Friday. Today, Catholics abstain from meat only on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and on Fridays during Lent, as a sacrifice in memory of the Friday that Christ died.
But Krisché said that Vatican II did not make any doctrinal changes in Catholicism. Doctrine is a question of faith that the church has defined. One example of Catholic doctrine is belief in the Immaculate Conception; that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born without original sin, he said.
Doctrine unchanged
Bishop George Fitzsimmons, of the Salina diocese, said Catholicism had many beliefs in common with other
Original sin is the concept that the sin of Adam and Eve's fall is passed on to each successive generation.
See CATHOLICS, p. 8, col. 1
INSIDE
Final Four
Providence, Syracuse, Indiana and UNLV advanced to this weekend's Final Four in New Orleans. The semifinals will be played Saturday and the national championship game will be Monday night in the Superdome. See stories page 9.
Nice theory
Gov. Mike Hayden's plan to gav- tax breaks to merit scholars who borrowed money for their education as long as they lived or worked in Kansas is good in theory, but not in practice, the KU director of student financial aid said. See story page 3.
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