Friday February 19, 1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No.100 (USPS 650-640)
Teachers to meet English standard
By James Buckman
Kansan staff writer
The Board of Regents yesterday approved a motion requiring that non-native speakers of English pass a spoken English examination to be considered for teaching positions.
The motion was a response to concerns in the state Legislature that many foreign graduate teaching assistants did not speak the English language well enough to convey concepts to students.
"If students can't understand, they are not going to achieve."
The motion requires that prospective GTAS score at least 220 out of 300 on either the Test of Spoken English or the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit. The tests are to be administered by at least three faculties from the GTAS prospective discipline. Both tests are subjective.
Shirley Palmer, a Fort Scott Regent, said, "That is the comment I am hearing most from my constituents. I think we still have a problem and it needs to be addressed."
Because of that, KU began testing conversational skills independently.
Stanley Kopik, executive director of the Regents, said, "We listened to voice reproduction of people with various scores on the test. At 220, there is no difficulty understanding the English conversation of the person on the tape."
Chancellor Gene A. Budig said that several years ago both the University of Kansas and Kansas State University were cited for problems with the English proficiency of their GTAs.
Brower Burchill, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, said after the meeting that KU required its prospective GTAs to score at least 240 on the test, well above the Regents required score.
"We've been surpassing that all the way along." he said.
Budi said the GTA program at KU had improved and was receiving feedback.
"Our program has been very defensible for several years now," he said. "We've had relatively few problems in recent years."
Gov. Mike Hayden addresses the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce about an anti-zoning bill that would nullify city ordinations prohibiting group homes for the handicapped in residential areas. Hayden attended a breakfast at the Adams Alumni Center yesterday morning where area businessmen explained how they have been employing the developmentally disabled. See related story, page 8.
In other action, the Regents approved an amendment to monetary requests for fiscal years 1988 and 1989 that would increase salaries for nurses at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The more than $600,000 requested would make nurses' salaries more consistent with salaries being offered in the Kansas City market.
Preliminary plans also were approved for renovation of the Med Center's neonatal intensive care unit, and equipment needed for renovation of Delp Pavilion.
The board also approved a proposal that would allow the University to spend an additional $250,000 of the KU parking fees fund.
Talking business
Babbitt, du Pont quit race
The Associated Press
Democrat Bruce Babbitt and Republican Pete du Pont fell by the presidential campaign wayide yesterday. Both abandoned their bids for the presidential nomination.
Babbitt, the first Democrat to quit the presidential race in 1984, made his exit gracefully in a quip Washing-
"Look, I'm not going to slash my throat if we don't raise taxes tomorrow," said the former Arizona governor, who had asked voters to stand up for a national sales tax to reduce the deficit.
Babbitt, who finished fifth in the Iowa caucuses last week and sixth in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, said the campaign was "the greatest joy of my entire
Du Pont, whose provocative ideas about fundamental change in Social Security and abolition of farm subsidies failed to attract much voter support, announced his withdrawal in news conference in Wilmington. Del.
public life " He praised all his former rivals but endorsed none of them, saying he would do what he could to aid the eventual winner of the Democratic nomination.
"The campaign has lowered its flag, but the crusade continues to march." said du Pont, a former governor and congressman. He said his ideas are right for the country and "they're coming to America sooner or later."
Du Pont, 53, said yesterday he wouldn't endorse another candidate immediately.
Leaders finish lobbying efforts
Blacks, teacher await decision
By Joel Zeff
Kansan staff writer
Black leaders say that they have finished lobbying the three faculty members who will make a decision today on whether to invite two members of the Ku Klux Klan to campus but that they pray the proposed visit will be canceled.
"We said what we needed to say," the Rev. Leo Barbee, pastor of the American Baptist Center, 1629 W. 19th St., said yesterday. He said black leaders didn't try to pressure the faculty members into canceling the visit.
"That's not our style. We feel ornate, but we never not dismissed the beauty."
But Harry Jones, an instructor in journalism who has been embroiled in the controversy since he invited two Klanmen to visit his reporting class, said he was still feeling pressure.
He said the message from the people, not the black community leaders, had affected him.
"When 70 people come outside, by golly, I'm going to listen to them. It wasn't the preachers who moved me; it was the people." Jones said.
The 70 people gathered outside the Adams Alumni Center on Wednesday night during a meeting between black leaders and KU officials. KU administrators, including Chancellor Gene A. Budig, Judith Ramaly, executive vice chancellor, and Mike Kautsch, dean of journalism, listened for three hours to the black leaders' concerns about the Klansmen's proposed visit.
After that meeting, Kautsch said a
description about the visit would be
made.
Kautsch said the decision would come from the three faculty members involved in the controversy: John Broholm, KJHK faculty news adviser; Adrienne Rivers-Waribagha, assistant professor of journalism; and Jones.
Broholm would not comment yesterday on the situation.
Earlier this week, black community leaders asked KU officials to prohibit two Klansmen from attending a journalism class and appearing Monday on KJHK's radio talk show, JayTalk 91.
Both appearances were postponed. Kautsch said four decisions could be made today, including:
- announcement of a status report that nothing has changed.
- cancellation of both the class visit and the radio show.
cancellation of one or the other.
announcement of a visit by the
Klansman under special conditions.
"There could even be other possibilities I haven't even thought of," Kautsch said.
Ramaley said that she and Budig would also respond to the black community leaders today but that any decision on the Klansmen's visit would be made by the faculty involved, not the administration. Both Budig and Ramaley said in statements that they supported academic freedom and the exploration of divergent views.
The location of today's meeting between KU administrators and black community leaders has not made public and is closed to the press.
During Wednesday's meeting, Budig announced that he had asked Ramaley to chair a special task force on minority issues.
Budig was unavailable for comment yesterday but said in a statement that the task force would review issues relating to past efforts on behalf of minority groups on campus, the atmosphere on campus toward minorities and recruitment of minority faculty and students.
Ramaley said she would consult University governance on members for the task force but would first concentrate on the meeting today.
"There are specific things that can be done. These are not new concerns, they have just been brought to light in recent problems." Ramaley said.
The Associated Press
Reagan's budget gives AIDS research a boost
WASHINGTON — President Reagan proposed yesterday his smallest Pentagon increase but sharply higher spending for AIDS research and air safety in a $1.1 trillion fiscal 1989 budget.
"This budget does not fully reflect my priorities," the president said in his message accompanying the last spending plan he will see to completion. "But . . . abandoning the deficit reduction compromise would
threaten our economic progress and burden future generations."
The spending plan only hints of the "Reagan revolution" years as it strives to comply with the administration's agreement with congressional leaders last November to reduce the federal deficit.
The agreement set overall spending limits for domestic, military and foreign aid spending. Reagan has
See BUDGET, p. 8, col. 1
Committee considers drunken driving bills
Stiffer penalties may await those who refuse tests
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — The Kansas House Federal and State Affairs Committee heard arguments yesterday concerning three bills that would strengthen the state's current anti-drunken driving laws.
Kansas State Attorney General Robert Stephan appeared before the committee and urged them to approve the measures.
Stephan said that lawmakers should make it clear to drunken drivers that the state doesn't condone driving with a bottle and drink drivers who take the lives of others.
"We want to make the punishment fit the crime," he said.
If passed, the three bills would:
■ increase a charge of vehicular manslaughter to a class D felony.
■ allow a victim or a victim's family to testify about the impact of the accident on the victim or a deceased victim's family prior to the convicted driver's sentencing.
"Drunk driving is an act that doesn't have to happen," he said.
an alcohol blood or breath level test and for being convicted of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, especially drivers under the age of 18 who were convicted of driving under the influence.
The committee heard from several proponents of the bill, including representatives from the Kansas Highway Patrol, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, Kansans for Life at its best, the Kansas Sheriff's Association and three victims of drunken drivers.
increase the penalties for refusing
"The Kansas Highway Patrol supports all of the bills," he said. "We hope they will serve as effective deterrents that will send a message to those who would choose to disregard the law and drink and drive."
Wanda Stewart, Kansas coordinator for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, had pulled off the highway in to feed her three-and-half month old daughter. The car was struck from behind by a drunken 18-year-old college student.
Col. Don Pickert of the Kansas
Palouse Port Isle is another
ougher penalties for driverkys
Her son was killed in the accident, and Stewart suffered severe injuries.
The college student who hit Stewart's ear received a $100 fine, and the
See BILLS, p. 8, col. 1
Regents want evaluation; faculty concerned
By Rebecca J. Cisek
Kansan staff writer
KU faculty have expressed concerns about what type of University evaluation the Board of Regents might require and how that evaluation might be linked to state financing.
Yesterday, two Regents officials met separately with the University Council and the Senate Executive Committee in the Kansas Union. They discussed evaluation plans and the legislative status on the Margin of Excellence and qualified admissions proposals.
Donald Slawson, chairman of the Regents, said at the council meeting that the evaluation would be used to illustrate the success of Regents schools and show legislation to increase financing for education.
"We've got to show some progress next year," he said.
Stanley Koplik, executive director of the Regents. agreed
"The need for accountability . . .
is being called for loud and clear in
Topeka and elsewhere," he said.
The Regents have indicated recently that they would favor a system-wide evaluation, or assessment, offered at the six state universities.
But faculty members have been wary of such plans. They are
Donald Slawson, Board of Regents chairman, addresses the University Council in the Kansas Union's Javhawk Room.
concerned about assessment costs, the type of assessment and inequalities in comparing similar programs at different schools.
Koplik said that many parts of KU's current assessment procedures probably would be used in a system-wide assessment that the Regents wanted, such as attitude surveys of graduates.
Koplik said that some standards for assessment needed to be identified. These might include identification of goals for undergraduate education and how to meet those goals.
Members of SenEx voiced concerns about the faculty's sensitivity to assessment.
Evelyn Swartz, professor of curriculum and instruction and SenEx chairman, said that faculty were concerned about whether assessment procedures for all Regents schools would be uniform. Different schools have different assessment needs, she said.
But Swartz disagreed with that approach.
Koplik said that one university in Missouri used the progress students made, from the time they were placed into the institution, and on basis for state funding
"Testing is one part of assessment, but it doesn't tell it all," she said.
Swartz also worried about the ramifications of the assessment process. Some kinds of assessment procedures might not show improvements in certain departments, she said. In that case, if specific improvements are not made, the University might be renalized.
"Any type of assessment can
become a weapon " she said
On the Margin of Excellence, Slawson told the council that the Regents were happy with Gov. Mike Hayden's request to the Legislature but said that the Regents needed to work harder to get Margin of Excellence financing for some University programs.