Friday March 25, 1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Vol. 98, No.120 (USPS 650-640)
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Dry eyes
Tina Altendorf, Ottawa freshman, shields her eyes from the wind in front of Wescoe Beach while waiting for a ride home after class. Altendorf said the wind dried out her contact lenses and she wanted to get out of the wind. At 2:30 p.m. yesterday, a funnel cloud was sighted three and a half miles southwest of De Soto. Tornado warnings were issued yesterday for Wyandotte and Johnson counties.
Committee hears AIDS bill debate
By Elaine Woodford Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA - A bill that would make it a felony to knowingly infect another person with the AIDS virus only would deter people from being tested for the virus, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas told a Senate judiciary subcommittee yesterday.
the issue was just talking.
"Children with AIDS are having babies with AIDS. And that scares me." the student. Mike Brown, said.
committee yesterday.
A KU graduate student, angered at that statement, told the subcommittee that the danger posed by disease already had passed the point where the issue was just testing.
the student, Mike Brown, said. Brown, a Lawrence graduate student in nursing, testified before the subcommittee in favor of stiffer penalties, especially for those who infect pregnant women or minors.
The bill, sponsored by the Senate Committee on Public Health, would allow a jail sentence of one to five years for those who knowingly infec others with the deadly virus.
"The bill actually encourages people to remain ignorant," Risk said. "Would the committee promote ignorance?"
State Sen. Audrey Langworthy, *Prairie Prize*, asked Risk, "Don't you think there should be some legislation that would punish those who would knowingly infect someone with AIDS?"
Gordon Risk, president of the ACLU of Kansas, said the bill would discourage people from being tested for the virus.
Risk said that legislation instead should promote AIDS education, anonymous testing and counseling for AIDS victims.
"This bill would presumably require penetration into the bedroom and serious breaches of privacy between consenting adults," he said.
But Brown asked, "How can you knowingly consent when you are three years old?"
He said that more than 650 U.S. infants and other young children who were infected with the HIV virus either during the prenatal, childbirth or breastfeeding stages, have contracted AIDS. The nation's number of young children with AIDS grew at a rate of two a day in February, Brown said. As of February 29, two of those cases were reported in Kansas.
"The bill as it is written is a weak punishment for a serious crime," Brown said.
Richard Parker, director of the bureau of epidemiology at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the law would be difficult to enforce.
"How could you prosecute people, even though you know they were infected?" Parker asked. "How do you know they served as the source of the infection for another person?"
State Sen. Robert Frey, R-Liberal, said that the subcommittee had recommended the bill to the Judiciary Committee but that the committee might kill the bill.
"One of the major considerations of this bill isn't a health issue but a prison issue," he said.
Frey said that the overcrowding problem plaguing the state penal system should be considered before creating another law that could bring additional prisoners into the prison system.
Gephardt says he'll continue
The Associated Press
DETROIT — Pressing on with his hard-line trade stance, Richard Gephardt yesterday denied statements from aides that he would shut down his campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination if he does not win tomorrow's Michigan caucuses.
tow's a chinchin. Amid turmoil over reports that Michigan was a do-or-die state for him, Gephard delivered a speech here and denounced a "dogmatic and outdated" free trade theology that he said had cost the nation jobs.
Gephardt brushed aside questions about the future of his campaign, but aides said privately that a decision hinged on the outcome of the Michigan caucus.
of the McMicken
Plans are in motion for the
Missouri congressman to file for
re-election to his House seat by the
Tuesday deadline if he does not
win in Michigan, the aides said.
His last victory was in the South
Dakota primary on Feb. 23.
"That's right. He will be out if he doesn't win in Michigan," said a campaign aide who would not be quoted by name.
But when asked whether that aide's comment was accurate, Gephardt told reporters, "No I'm running for president and I've doing very well here in Michigan. . . . I'm going to win in Michigan. I'm going to continue and do well."
Gephardt is running third in the polls in Michigan, behind Massa chusets Gov. Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson.
Checks decay before bouncing
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Checks treated with a chemical that causes them to disintegrate into confetti shortly after being deposited have shown up in at least two states, costing banks nearly $70,000 since January, police said yesterday.
eastday A check clearinghouse said it has
warned 142 banks to be on the lookout for the dissolving checks, which may have an unusual odor and feel oily
have an unusual owl. More.
The checks have turned up at five or six banks in the Chicago area and at one in Tennessee, said Capt. James Zurawski of the Chicago Police Department's financial crimes division. Authorities also are checking a report of a possible dissolving check in Indiaha, Zurawski said
"The one I've got in front of me looks like a handful of ashes." Zurawski said.
The checks, supposedly drawn on personal accounts at banks in California and Tennessee, have been reported in about 12 incidents in recent weeks, he said.
Slavic department feels burden
Resource, staff shortages threaten KU's prominence, officials say
Kansan staff writer
Bv Stacy Foster
KU's Slavic department has one of the top graduate programs in the country, but officials in the department fear that its national reputation might be in jeopardy if additional money is not allocated to maintain its teaching resources.
Stephen Parker, chairman of the department said that he was concerned with the status of the department because it had been plagued with budget cuts in the face of rapid enrollment increases and inability to increase staff to offset the enrollment growth.
the university of University of Kansas is the only university between the Mississippi River and the West Coast that offers a doctorate in Slavic languages. The department has placed its graduates at some of the country's major universities, including Yale, Georgetown and Middlebury College, in Vermont.
Slavic languages taught at KU are Russian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Czech, Bulgarian and Macedonian.
Because of budget cuts, the department was not able to offer any language courses last summer.
Parker said this hurt the department because it forced students to go elsewhere.
The department also has lost three faculty to retirement.
Parker said that the department had made some progress since last year. The department will offer beginning and intermediate Slavic summer school classes this summer. Also, two replacement faculty members have been hired.
Parker said that additional instructors still were needed to offset the enrollment increases. Enrollment increased by about 30 percent this year, and Parker said he expected the same in the fall.
"It's clear the numbers will increase because students are studying it in high school," Parker said. "There are 75 students studying Russian in Shawnee Mission, and Wichita wants to get it started in its school system. More students coming to KU will want to study Russian."
to teach Russian languages.
Joe Conrad, professor of Slavic linguistics and literature, said the department needed a faculty member who specialized in teaching Russian and coordinating Russian languages.
oustanding language.
He said the department did not have anyone
Officials in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences also are concerned with maintaining the national reputation of the Slavic department.
specialized enough to teach others to teach Russian.
Howard Baumgartel, associate dean of the college, said that he had talked at length with Parker about the Slavic department's concerns.
"The college is acutely aware of the problems." Baumgartel said. "They are problems every department in the college has been facing for the last four years."
Baumgartel said the problems of the Slavic department were no different from other departments in the college.
"Every major department in the college has lost faculty," he said. "We have had to use scarce resources to provide instructions at the undergraduate level."
The college's scarcity of resources would be lessened if the state Legislature passed the Margin of Excellence plan.
Sweet 16 increases appeal of university
By Anne Luscombe
Kansan sports editor
A magic number for many universities and basketball programs, the Sweet 16 guarantees national exposure, exposure surpassed only if the team is successful in the next two rounds and enters the exclusive Final Four.
PONTIAC, Mich. — For three consecutive seasons, the KU basketball team has advanced to the NCAA postseason tournament's Sweet 16.
But advancement means more than just keeping alive a basketball season. It has benefits that extend into other aspects of the university. It draws attention to the university behind the team.
"It has been shown that when a university advances in the tournament, enrollment increases," said Brad Kinsman, NCAA regional tournament director.
The road to... The Final Four
Although the Jayhawks' trip to the Final Four in 1986 alone cannot claim credit for enrollment increases, the University of Kansas' enrollment increased by 1,048 after the basketball team made its appearance in Dallas. And the following year, on the heels of KU's presence in the Sweet 16 again, enrollment increased by more than 500, said Bruce Lindvall, director of admissions.
With more and more emphasis being put on the NCAA postseason tournament by the media, universities and fans, the amount of exposure has skyrocketed in the last 10 years.
"People clearly are aware of the University through basketball," Lindvall said. "Of all non academic programs, it gets the most exposure and attention."
Kinsman estimated that the Sweet 16 today is as popular as the Final Four a decade ago. The tournament generated about $6.1 million 10 years ago, and now with television revenue included, the whole tournament generates about $65 million.
About 12 million people will watch the regional tournaments, which narrow the field from 16 to eight to the Final Four.
"The Final Four is parallel to the Super Bowl and the World Series now," Kinsman said.
"I think sports are the main service line."
instrument to expose a university," he said. "I don't think that many people would be interested in the school's programs for nuclear fission. It simply cannot compare. It is in a class by itself."
Although Lindwall said that only a small percentage of students chose a school because of its basketball team, he acknowledged that it could be an opening for some.
"This is a starting point for some people," he said. "He see that funny little bird sitting on our table when we go to senior nights, and when they get closer, they recognize it as a Jayhawk from some graphic on TV.
"Students do some crazy things. They may go to a school because it made the Final Four. But that isn't any crazier than going to a certain school because of a girlfriend."
By Ric Brack
Perennial flashers arrive with spring to menace women
Nancy Langrehr saw him first and reached behind her friend to lock the car door.
Kansan staff writer
car 000.
It was a warm evening in mid-
February, and as the man
approached, he exposed himself to
her. It was the second time she had
seen the flasher.
A year earlier, the same man exposed himself to her as she looked out through her dining room windows.
"It's just disgusting." Langreh, Wichita junior, said. "I know some girls who are scared and afraid to go out in the parking lot. It's just not fair."
Every spring, when the temperatures start to rise, flashers return in force. This spring is no exception.
force. This sprint report.
According to KU police records,
there is an average of seven reports
of indecent exposure on campus
every spring. Police have not compiled
the number of reported incidents
of indecent exposure so far this
year.
Dennis Dailey, a professor of social welfare who specializes in human sexuality, called the act a coerced, sexual invasion of privacy but said about 95 percent of flashers were all show and no go.
"The problem for women is that they don't know which kind they've got in front of them," he said.
saw him. He said yesterday that most men who exposed themselves to women were satisfied by the act of exposure alone and that it usually didn't lead to physical harm to the victim.
Flashers appear normal and are predominantly young, middle-class and reasonably well-educated men, Dailey said. Many also are married and have families. Many began exposing themselves when they were young. Very few of them fit the popular image conjured by the word "flasher."
"They have urges to do this, usually accompanied by sexual fantasies. The act of indecent exposure is usually followed by remorse and guilt. A rapist never experiences guilt."
Barbara McGreevy, Lawrence junior, said she was flashed last spring when she and a friend were walking to a downtown bar.
McGreey said she was scared and ran across the street, but her friend was so angered by the incident that she began screaming at the man and told him she had a gun and intended to shoot his private parts off.
VIOLENCE
"There can be some underlying anger at women, but it's expressed in a very passive way," said 'Tom Bates, a psychologist at the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, 336 Missouri St..' "Rapists are violent; exhibitionists are not."
A psychologist who works with men convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior, the legal term for flashing, agreed that most flashers were not violent.
Dailey said women often felt that they specifically have been picked out as a flasher's victim. He said there were four things he told women who had been flashed.
wishing that he jumped out of the alley, completely naked, and started whacking off. "McGreevy said." McGreevy said.
A flasher chooses no specific victims. There is no way to keep it from happening, and there is no way to stop it when it is occurring.
- Walk away from the experience by seeking an environment that feels safe.
- If the experience is unusually upsetting, get counseling.
Report incidents to the police.
Dalley said police notification was the only way an exhibitionist might get identified and possibly receive professional help.