Friday February 26, 1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No. 105 (USPS 650-640)
Panama names new president
Head of state voted out of office after ordering Noriega to resign
The Associated Press
PANAMA CITY, Panama — The Panamanian legislative assembly early today removed President Eric Arturo and the vice president from office. A short time later the cabinet named Education Minister Manuel Solis Palma as Panama's new chief of state.
The assembly's action came after Delvale ordered strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriage, under U.S. indictment as a drug trafficker, to step down. But the military challenged the order, and the man named as new armed forces chief refused to take the job.
The assembly adopted the resolution on a unanimous vote during an emergency session that lasted less than two hours. Legislators did not attend the session.
At his home, Delvalle said shortly before the new president was named that he had fired the entire 12-member cabinet and called the resolution "something legally despicable that only fulfills a formality in the mind of those who want to grasp power at any cost."
"They will not receive acceptance from any country that takes pride in being democratic," he said. "I shall feel I am president of the republic."
Norgea is regarded as the real power behind the civilian government in Panama, the headquarters for U.S. military operations in Latin America.
The police chief for the Defense Forces, flanked by colonels and lieutenant colonels, told Panamanian TV that neither Col. Marcos Justine, the man named to succeed Noreiga, nor any other officer would replace Noriega.
"He is going first," Col. Leonidas Macias said, referring to Delvalle.
The military officers were grouped at the central garrison of the Defense Forces, a short distance from the former Panama Canal Zone.
Late yesterday, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater issued a statement in Washington saying, "We understand that President Delvale today dismissed General Noriage from his position as commander of the Panama Defense Forces.
"At this time, we want to reiterate our unqualified support for civilian constitutional rule in Panama. There is but one legitimate sovereign authority in Panama and that is the Panamanian people exercising their democratic right to vote and elect their leadership in a free society."
Washington called for Noriega to resign after U.S. grand juries in Miami and Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 5 indicted him and others on drug trafficking charges.
The U.S. indictments accuse Noriega of using his position as top military man to let Colombian drug traffickers utilize Panama as a base for smuggling cocaine and marijuana into the United States.
Debate canceled
KKK controversy prompts withdrawl by participant
By a Kansan reporter
A KU professor is pulling out of a panel discussion about contra aid to protest a recent decision to cancel a campus visit by the Ku Klux Klan.
Roy D. Laird, professor of political science and Soviet and East European studies, said yesterday that he would not participate in a March debate about U.S. aid to the contras in Nicaragua.
"I'm doing it in protest due to the closure of open, public discussion at
KU," Laird said. "I believe anybody should be able to speak on campus."
Harry Shaffer, professor of economics and Soviet and East European studies, said he had planned to participate in the debate but because of Laird's withdrawal, the event had been canceled.
He said Latin American Solidarity planning discussion about his h.Agril.
Last week, after pressure from the Lawrence minority community, three journalism faculty members canceled the visit of two members of the Missouri Knights. The Knights, a Kansas City area affiliate of the KKK, were scheduled to appear last week in a journalism class and on KJHK's JayTalk 91.
Salvation Army helps homeless find shelter
Bv lennifer Owen
Special to the Kansan
The gym seems lonely and hollow as dark shadows begin to fall on the unsteady cots that line the walls. It is deserted except for one corner where a group of hungry people eat a meal of turkey and noodle soup, celery and vanilla pudding.
Four men sit on a rickety card table and talk as their voices echo softly against the walls. Not far from them, a disheveled man hunches over his food in silence.
The calm atmosphere seems unnatural in a place where people gather to cheer wildly for a team. But this gym is different. At night, it doubles as a shelter for the homeless of Lawrence.
In an attempt to relieve the problem of the homeless, the Salvation Army has set up a shelter in a church at 946 New Hampshire St.
Linda Christopherson, co-director of the shelter, has learned through "shelter talk" that it is not only the shelter that more refuse because of their pride.
"It hurts to go through the door and say, 'I don't have money,'" Christopherson said. She listens to
their troubles sympathetically,but she can never do enough.
She is working with several people who do not want to come to the shelter. One man is living in a boxcar, she said, and a couple are staying in an abandoned house.
Those who come to the shelter are thankful for the help. Most are people who are down on their luck or passing through. It is not just alcoholics, drug addicts and mental patients but also average people who become homeless, Christopher said.
Christopherperson has been with the shelter since it opened in 1868. It is open from November to April, and its purpose is to provide homeless people with cots, blankets, a hot meal and a roof over their shelter is available seven days a week and opens its doors at 9 p.m.
During the day, the homeless stay in libraries, campus buildings, and any place where they can keep warm.
Lawrence's other homeless shelter is operated at Headquarters, 1419 Massachusetts St. However, the shelter is also open to a three-to-four day stay there
The Salvation Army shelter
Top, Howard Elston and Joan Harrell, area homeless, prepare to sleep in the gymnasium of the Salvation Army Church. They were joined last night by ten others who needed shelter from the night. Above, Jimmie Bennett, Kansas City, Mo., resident, waits for the gymnasium of the Salvation Army Church to open. Bennett said he has been stranded in Lawrence since Tuesday, when his car broke down.
attracts mostly men and occasionally a few women. They vary in age, race and background. Lawrence's homeless are whites, blacks and Indians from 20 to 60 years old.
wavy blond hair, works at a fast-cook restaurant but doesn't earn enough to pay for rent and food. He plans to visit his mother in Teopka as soon as he has his own apart-
One resident, middle-aged with
See HOMELESS, p. 10, col. 1
Many stolen items left unattended
Kansan staff writer
By Ric Brack
One day in early February, a student left her purse, wallet and Walkman, valued together at more than $400, in a classroom in Fraser Hall. When she returned, they were gone.
Another student reported a backpack and books, valued together at more than $10,110 from a study table in Watson Library while he was in the stacks. The list of materials is.
Unattended property thefts
thefts goes on and on.
During the first six months of 1987, KU police reported 75 such thefts, amounting to a loss of $15,688. The average amount stolen was $211.57. Records have not been completed for the latter part of the year.
"This is the most common crime up here," said KU police director Jim Denney. "Too many people have the mentality that this is like home and they can leave things living around in the open."
"Very nearly all of those were items left unattended," said Sgt. John Brothers.
Only 11.4 percent of the items lost during those six months were recovered. That's an average recovery of less than $25 a theft.
"This isn't a very easily cleared crime because there usually aren't any witnesses and very few leads," Brothers said.
Records for 1986 showed that of 141 thefts from public, interior areas with students as victims, and of 8 or 9.9 percent, were cleared.
Source: AU Police
Broad Spectrum ALLA111
At Robinson, students can leave their belongings in lock-quarters. Unfortunately, Brothers said, too
"No one would go downtown and leave a backpack in a restaurant while they go into a bookstore next door to shop." Brothers said. "But it happens in our own student unions."
Even if a backpack contains only two books, it could be valued at more than $100. Many also contain wallets, checkbooks, calculators, glasses or other personal items. Most of those are items that easily are sold for cash. Brothers said.
problem was that many students didn't stop to think about how much the contents of their backpacks were worth until it was too late.
Brothers said that Robinson was a common place for thefts because students were involved with activism and kept a close eye on their belongings.
Brothers said another part of the
Brothers said the most likely areas for students to leave items unattended were the campus libraries, the unions, restrooms in any building, and Robinson Center.
Brothers said that if students used lockers and other common-sense measures, the KU crime rate could decrease by as much as 12 percent.
Included in the KU theft statistics are thefts of unattended items from residence halls. The problem there is that students tend to trust too many people, Brothers said.
few students use them.
"For me, a quarter is a good investment to insure a backpack and its $200 contents," he said.
"No one would leave something sitting in the hallway outside an apartment overnight and expect it to be there in the morning." Brothers said. He said students in residence halls should not either.
"Victims of this crime bring out the larceny in others by giving them the chance," he said.
Even though there has been a 30 percent decrease in the residence hall crime rate in the past two years, he said, the rate could be lower.
"The news is not what it should be. Test scores are in a dead stall." Bennett said as he unveiled two wall charts crammed with statistics ranking the states on tests, graduation and teacher pay and other measures.
U.S. schools criticized for high dropout rate, stagnant exam scores
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary William J. Bennett gave the states mediocre grades yesterday on an annual report card that showed dropout rates up slightly, college entrance test scores level and spending higher than ever.
The Associated Press
"In saying that I am disappointed, I think I speak for the American people." Bennett told reporters. "We're paying top dollar to educate our children, but we're sure not getting top return."
Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, said in an interview:
chart charade and for people to sit down and really talk about ways we can improve the quality of education for all young people in this country
"The chart really doesn't give us a lot of helpful information . . . other than to serve as a reminder of what we said a long time ago: If you don't provide that support and the resources and you raise standards, children are going to fall through the cracks." Futrell said.
"The time has come to halt the wall
Asked if citizens should use the statistics as ammunition to vote down school levies, Bennett said it depended on how well the local schools were performing.
Referring to Chicago's troubled schools, which he said recently were in "an educational meltdown," Bennett said:
"If I were a citizen of Chicago and they said, 'We need more money to make this school effective,' I'd tell them to take a hike."
KU alcohol survey designed to pinpoint drinking problems
By Joel Zeff
During the next few weeks, 1,000 KU students will be asked to tell KU administrators about their alcohol drinking habits.
Kansan staff writer
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said the information from the survey would provide a base to work from in the future.
Through a survey mailed out to randomly selected students, the office of student affairs plans to gather important information on the drinking habits of the ordinary student.
"The more you know about people and their behavior, the easier it will be to help them in the future." Ambler said.
The survey asks 15 questions about alcohol drinking habits, behavior and usage.
"It it's worth the effort to get the information so we can better understand the students' problems." Amber said. "Everything we know thus far indicates there is a problem. If you confirm this through the survey, we will reinforce our efforts to help the student."
The survey was put together by a subcommittee of the research committee of student affairs. Officials from the student affairs division make up the committee.
Ed Heck, chairman of the research committee and a professor in counseling psychology, said he expected to receive the surveys from the students at the end of March. The results and analysis of the survey will be compiled by the fall.
"This is the first survey of this kind that I know about," he said. "It's definitely the only one."
Heck said the survey would provide a fairly
accurate representation of the student body.
"It is serving the function of answering the questions: Where are we? What does the picture look like?" he said. "These are issues that people are concerned about."
"When you have an area such as alcohol use and speak on the basis of problems concerning its use, it is better to be
Heck said that he didn't know how the information would be used after the results were in but that the data would be made available to different offices involved in helping students.
informed," he said. "Until we collect the information and know what's going on, we would just be whistling in the dark."
Lorna Zimmer, director of the student assistance center, said that it was too early to tell how the survey would be used but that it was important to have statistics on students
"Whenever there is information, the reliability is more powerful if there are local statistics rather than relying on national figures," Zimmer said.