Monday
February 15, 1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No. 96 (USPS 650-640)
Valentine's Day Dance
Raymond Barnhart, Lawrence resident, dances with a friend at a Valentine's Day Dance in the East Lawrence Center. KJHK sponsored Friday's dance for the mentally and physically handicapped.
Students protest racism
Amherst demonstrators occupy building and make demands
The Associated Press
"We haven't even had to leave the building to buy food," said Rio Gabriel, 21, a junior from Toronto.
AMHERST, Mass. — Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Asian students occupying a University of Massachusetts building for the third day said yesterday that a church had pledged $5,000 and that restaurants had donated hot meals.
The estimated 125 demonstrators have held New Africa Hall on the university campus since Friday to protest recent incidents at the school, including an attack on two black students who allegedly were beaten by whites.
Protesters said they would occupy the four-story brick building until Chancellor Joseph D. Duffey met their demands, including the suspension of five white students accused of the Feb. 7 beatings.
Protesters allowed reporters into a small room on the ground floor of the hall to answer questions. The building showed no signs of occupation, such as banners or pickets, and there were no police officers outside.
Group leaders talked with black administrators yesterday in preparation for a meeting with the chancellor about their demands, which were being revised to include more funds for minority activities and increased hiring of minority faculty, Gabriel said.
Only 41 of the 1,339 faculty members and 5 percent of the 20,000 undergraduates are black, mirroring a nationwide decline in the number of black applicants in the last several years, according to the school.
Blacks at the university say an undercurrent of racism has not abated since October 1986, when blacks and whites clashed after the
Boston Red Sox loss to the New York Mets in the final game of the World Series. Six white students eventually pleaded no contest to varying charges.
Duffey has acknowledged that racism continues to be a problem at the school. "I think we've got a continuing problem with harassment and abuse," the chancellor said.
Duffey was trying to avoid a confrontation with protesters when school resumes tomorrow, university spokesman James Langley said.
KJHK postpones show featuring white supremacists
"We're being as patient as we possibly can," Langley said. "I don't think you'll see any arrests. They are being very peaceful."
By Jeff Suggs
Roberto Christian, 26, a graduate student from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, said. "This is not a mob."
By Jeff Suggs Kansan staff writer
After a weekend controversy, KJHK has decided to postpone indefinitely a talk show that was to feature members of white supremacist groups.
John Broholm, faculty news adviser of KJHK, said that today's edition of Jay-talk 91 was to be postponed because he and adviser Adrian Riv-
ers-Waribagha decided that the station wasn't yet prepared to handle the controversial tonic.
Broholm said part of the problem was that the station had trouble getting an appropriate person to debate the white supremacists. He said it was important to have the show balanced.
"Rather than rush it, we wanted to do it right." Broholm said.
Black students react to proposed forum
Jay-talk 91 is a weekly news forum on KJHK, the University of Kansas' student-run radio station.
Broholm said the station was not pressured by anyone to postpone the show. He said that the plan to have a
talk show with the white supremacists was not canceled and that it would be aired later.
Over the weekend, black students and Lawrence residents, under the auspices of the Rev. Leo Barbee, had
meetings Friday and yesterday at the American Baptist Campus Center, 1629 W. 19th St., to discuss possible reactions to the situation.
Barbee declined comment on what happened yesterday at the meeting, which was closed to reporters. He said there would be a formal statement issued today.
Student Union at KU, said he was indifferent about the postponement of the show. But he said the forum should be canceled. He said it was insulting to blacks to have such a forum with white supremacist leaders during black history month.
Scholarship search
Wayne Webb, president of Black
"I wish it never occurred," Webb said. "It's degrading to all black Americans."
National services grow in number
By Jeff Moberg Kansan staff writer
If you ever worked as a grocery clerk for five months, you are eligible for a $1,000 academic scholarship.
There are companies that make it their business to find obscure scholarships like these for students — for a price.
A Seattle judge offers another scholarship for reformed ladies of the evening. All fines assessed for prostitution in his courtroom he places into a fund for prostitutes wanting to go to college.
Graduate Financial Services in Joplin, Mo., is one of them.
But Jeff Weinberg, associate director of the financial aid office, is leery of businesses like Lang's. He said that they were a waste of money, and that KuJu charged a fee for something that KUJ's financial aid office did for free.
Danny Lang, president of the company, specializes in matching students with scholarship opportunities. Lang's company keeps track of all private sources of financial aid and sells that information to students.
"If any student or parent asks us if they should pay for it, we say no. A lot of the information they have, we can provide the same," Weinberg said. "The combination of our staff and a student taking a half hour of his or her time to review the information we have available, they can come up with the same scholarships. There is no reason to spend the money."
Weinberg said he thought that rising tuition costs and decreasing government assistance had created a surge of scholarship-finding busi-
"As the cost of financial aid increases, these services pop up everywhere. Do you know how many students are in the pool trying for this scholarship?" Weinberg asked, referring to the scholarship for groc
ery clerks. "That doesn't mean they shouldn't write, but the chances of getting one are remote."
Still, ads offering free money for college, such as the one for College Financial Planning Service that ran Susan last week, may attract students.
Larry Organ, president of the Washington, D.C. company, said he offered a money-back guarantee.
Organ's company charges $45 to compile a computer-generated list of scholarship opportunities for students. Organ said he would refund the money if the applicant did not receive any scholarship money within nine months.
He said that writing for information about his company's options costs virtually nothing.
"All you waste is a stamp and a couple of minutes of your time."
Organ and Lang both said they were able to find scholarship opportunities that most financial aid offices could not. For example, in Lang's brochure, students can obtain scholarships by winning cooking contests, coming from the right town or having the right last name.
There are books in Watson Library and the University Counseling Center in Bailey Hall that list scholarship sources. But Organ said most books listing scholarship sources were outdated.
Mike Browning, supervisor of student services at Lawrence High School, said that people who used these services usually had not exhausted all the resources for receiving financial aid. Only in deseration, Browning said, should money be spent on a scholarship-finding service.
"Eventually the guy who wants a scholarship will have to work for it. These organizations are banking on someone that's lazy," Browning said. "If you find someone depending on a scholarship like this, he's taking a big gamble."
Still, offers like Organ's haven't convinced many high school guidance counselors.
The ruins of Quindaro, a pre-Civil War abolitionist town, are in danger of being covered by a landfill.
Groups fight to preserve Civil War town
By Kathleen Faddis
Kansan staff writer
The old town of Quindaro today looks like no more than old foundation stones at the bottom of a muddy hill on a bend in the Missouri River in a poor and mostly black area of Kansas City, Kan.
But the abolitionist, pre-civil war town represents an important period in Kansas history and would be a great loss if it were destroyed, many historians and area residents say.
The future of this archeological find has become a fight between preservationists and a company that wants to turn the land into a dump.
When Browning-Ferris Industries leased the land in 1883, it planned to make the area a dump site for industrial waste.
As part of its lease agreement, the company was required to conduct an archeological study of the land. This summer that study turned up the foundations of the old town, which had been buried by mudslides. The well-preserved ruins were more extensive than expected.
The study uncovered two walls of an old brewery that was thought to be part of one of the first black colleges, and the corner stones of Quindaro House, the second largest hotel in the territory where
Abraham Lincoln reportedly stayed in 1859.
Quindaro was conceived in 1856 by believers in the Free State cause, who needed a friendly port. The pro-slavery forces, who were fighting for control of Kansas, controlled the most favorable locations on the river.
Abelard Guthrie and Lawrence resident Charles Robinson, who was later the first governor of Texas, left for the town from the Wwyandet tribe.
Quindaro townmen and local farmers served as "conductors" on the underground railroad, helping escaped slaves hide, then moving them North or West to freedom. An underground tunnel reportedly gave passage for runaway slaves from the river to the basement of the hotel
The town declined and finally disappeared after the Civil War.
Marvin Robinson, who lives near the Quindaro ruins, understands the historic significance of the town. He said he grew up feeling a kind of reverence for what the people were trying to do there.
When Robinson found out Browning-Ferris Industries planned to put a landfill there, he got angry and decided to do something about it.
See RUINS, p. 10, col. 1
Kansans for admissions change, poll says
Bv loel Zeff
A majority of Kansans favor imposing admission requirements for students entering Regents universities, according to a poll released Friday.
Kansan staff writer
The poll, released by KU's Institute for Public Policy and Business Research, found that 53 percent of the 375 people polled favored imposing admission requirements. Thirty-two percent were opposed and 15 percent had no onion.
The poll was conducted by random telephone interviews between Jan. 30 and Feb.7.
Steve Maynard-Moody, director of the institute's policy analysis division, said that the annual poll concentrated on current legislative issues.
Other topics covered in the survey included AIDS testing, welfare, tax-spending and politics.
"I'm surprised as much as there wasn't any difference between rural and urban areas. I expected a difference in the rural results because they have said they would have problems offering certain classes to quality for a college preparatory curriculum," Maynard-Moody said.
"The poll is not meant to tell elected officials how they should or should not vote. It is an additional challenge for residents of the state feel," he said.
Maynard-Moody said that he was mildly surprised at the poll's results on the admission policy.
Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said that the figures could indicate that half the population of Kansas would be in favor of a change in admissions policy. But he said the figures were not evidence of a clear mandate from the people.
Maynard-Moody said that there was a 5 percent margin of error on
the results of the survey but that the figures indicated there was not overwhelming support or opposition to the admissions policy.
"The value of the poll is that there is an awareness of the issue. But the poll could mean a number of things," Solbach said.
Solbach said that the poll could mean that Kansans wanted either a college preparatory curriculum or a qualified admissions program.
The Regents qualified admissions program includes a college prepatory curriculum plus class rank and test score standards.
Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said that he thought Kansans didn't want to limit college opportunities to anyone, but wanted a core curriculum.
"The poll will be helpful in getting the message across. It's a helpful sign that people are understanding the problems." Brinkman said.
The poll also found that 69 percent favored salary increases for faculty at state universities; nearly 40 percent favored AIDS testing for everyone in the United States; and 84 percent said teaching safe sex in public schools was important.
The Associated Press
Bush and Dole even in N.H. voter polls
The continuing tracking polls by ABC News and the Washington Post found tight race in both parties in interviews in interviews in Feb. 11-13.
CONCORD, N.H. — New polls of New Hampshire voters released Sunday suggest the Republican presidential race is an even fight between George Bush and Bob Dole, and Michael Dukakis remains the runaway leader among the Democrats.
Among the Democrats, Sen.
Paul Simon of Illinois and Rep.
Richard Gephardt of Missouri remain tied for second.
Among the Republicans, Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, former television evangelist Pat Robertson and former Delaware Gov. Pete du Pont were tied in the fight for third.
The latest survey among likely GOP primary voters gave Dole 31 percent and Bush 28 percent. Given the poll's sampling error margin of 6 percentage points, that is a dead heat.
Kemp had 13 percent, Robertson 11 percent, and du Pont 11 percent. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, who dropped out Friday, drew 1 percent.