Thursday February 4,1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No. 89 (USPS 650-640)
House votes to eliminate contra plan
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A bitterly divided House voted yesterday to cut off U.S. military support for Nicaragua's contra rebels, rejecting President Reagan's aid request in the hope of spurring peace prospects in Central America.
The 219-211 vote, culminating six years of overt and covert military support for the rebels fighting the leftist Sandinista government, killed Reagan's request for $36.2 million in new aid to keep the contras alive as a fighting force through June.
It was a serious defeat for the president, who had lobbied hard on the issue for two weeks and had put the contras among the top foreign policy priorities for his final year in office. Only a day earlier, Reagan had argued that failure to extend aid would strengthen communist influence in the hemisphere.
"Today's vote is the end of a chaoter," said House Majority Whip
"If you vote this package down, you'd better be prepared to bear the consequences," Michel said. "And who among you is smart enough to predict the path on which Daniel Ortega will take you?"
Current aid to the rebels expires Feb. 29, and democrats pledged to hold another vote before the month is out on an alternative package of purely humanitarian aid to the rebels, and to follow that up with a new emphasis on economic development aid for countries in the region that abide by terms of a five-nation peace accord.
The most controversial part of the defeated package was $3.6 million earmarked for weapons and ammunition, which Reagan had said he would withhold until March 31 to see how cease-fire talks went between the rebels and the Managua government. Those talks are schedule to
The Other Campus
The Other Campus
BY JOEL ZEFF
Nestled in the back yard of the University of Kansas, among empty fields and lonely trees, a thriving community exists. Each day, hundreds of people travel the secluded roads leading to the isolated buildings in the fields west of Iowa Street. And each day, hundreds of people leave. Almost forgotten, the community between 15th and 23rd streets survives. West Campus.
Dedicated for science and research, the secluded buildings stand on land owned by either the state of Kansas or the Kansas University Endowment Association. Accumulated since 1941, West Campus now covers more than 500 acres.
The empty land and the research buildings are what the average KU student identifies with West Campus, or Campus West, as it is sometimes called. The acres and buildings, however, are not the story of West Campus. The people are the story of West Campus. Individual people and faces have become blurred in the segregation between the two campuses. Almost unnoticed, they work to gain, to teach and to share knowledge. Dedication, perseverance and hard work identify the people who work in the distant buildings on West Campus.
DEDICATION
Cramped next to the Simplex machine, dozens of pieces of printing equipment and several typesetting machines crowd the walls and floor in the former office at 15th Street and Crestline Drive. The machines, some used at the turn of the century, wait their turn to be cleaned and maintained by Rvather.
Sitting in a small room, tucked inside the Printing Service building, Thomas Ryther starts up an antique Simplex printing machine. Space is so tight in the room that the belts of the machine run up and down through the ceiling. As the belts begin to whirl and hum, Ryther mentions that this Simplex machine is the only one in the world that is in perfect working condition.
Ryther, who retired as director of Printing Service in 1970, started the printing museum in 1982. Now 87, he works as a volunteer at the museum every summer, after returning to Lawrence from his winter home in Texas. He says the museum is an orphan to the other campus museums because of its remote location on West Campus. But Ryther likes the location. "Because it's so much a part of the printing industry, it should be in a printing environment."
The room was named The Ryther Museum of Printing in 1970, when Ryther retired. "I was surprised that they named the museum after me," he says. "I wondered why they named the museum after me when they did it, and I'm still wondering why."
A professor emeritus of journalism, Ryther has been interested in printing since high school. He started the museum when he was a professor of journalism at the University in the 1950s. He thought it would be nice to have an old typesetting machine as a memento of how the process used to be done. "From there, I gathered piece by piece. It's like, tomorrow you'll be a day older but you won't feel any different. That's how the museum did it. It just grew up."
PERSEVERANCE
PENSEVERANCE Listening in the depths of Moore Hall, Don Steeples can't wait for the next time the state of Kansas begins to shake, rattle and roll.
Kansans have felt the rumble of almost 25 earthquakes since 1867, according to Steeples, a seismologist and
8 KANSAN MAGAZINE February 3, 1988
deputy director of the Kansas Geological Survey. The largest earthquake in Kansas since Steeples started monitoring them in 1976 was in June, 1979, in Haddam. It measured 3.2 on the Richter scale. "Around three, they knock off a dish or two. I get calls from the time people saying they're sensitized to earthquakes. Usually, it's a way of minimizing the vibration." Steeples says. "In Hays, there's a prayer that thought he felt the earthquake in Tokyo."
Steeples has studied earthquakes in the state for the past 12 years through a grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With the grant, Steeples has been collecting data on the intensity and regularity of earthquakes in Kansas, which has between 10 and 20 minor quakes a year. The commission uses the information to determine structure and design of power plants.
"We've helped the NRC to make sure the design criteria for Wolf Creek and other power plants are adequate." Steeples says. Steeples files quarterly, annual and five-year reports to the commission. Ernst Zurflueh, geophysicist for the commission, says that the information Steeples collects will become important in the long run. "After many years of compiling data, the information becomes invaluable." Zurflueh says.
Steeples doesn't always receive attention for his work, but he perseveres. "When I tell people I study earthquake in Kansas, most people say they didn't even know Kansas had earthquakes," Steeples says. But when Kansas quakes, Steeples will know.
Besides an occasional visitor and a couple of secretaries, Ronald McGregor is the only living thing at the KU Herbarium. McGregor, however, is not alone in the poorly lit, vault-like warehouse. Crowding around him, almost like children to a father, sit 45 rows of steel-encased, dried; mounted and cataloged plant specimens.
HARD WORK
"The herbarium is not what you call an 'Oh-My' place. "It's not for show and tell. It's a place strictly for research," Marks said.
McGregor, professor of botany and director of the herbarium, is guardian to more than 300,000 plant specimens, the largest collection in the Great Plains region. The herbarium, started in the 1860s by KU Chancellor Francis H. Snow, is housed in the botanical research building. It has grown from 1954 to 29,000 plant specimens when McGregor took over in 1954, to the current number. At any given time,
Kansan staff writer
Halftime acrobats entertain audience
By Jeff Suggs
Several athletes made spectaculair moves at last night's KU-Oklahoma basketball game. But they didn't just include Danny Manning, Harvey Grant or Stacey King.
In fact, some of the best action occurred at halftime.
Real surprised," Cobb said. "It always just for fun. I feel be really lucky."
The Bud Light Daredevils, with the help of a mini-trampoline, fascinated the sellout crowd in Allen Field House with their acrobatic slam dunks.
The Daredevils, who are based in Memphis, Tenn., perform around the world. The four-member team has played in over 150 colleges, in every National Basketball Association arena and in Europe, the Middle East, Japan, Latin America and Australia.
obb's team includes his her, Guy, Tim Lancaster and th Eldred.
Cobb, coach and performer the Daredevils, founded the when he was a cheerleader the University of Mississippi in it. It was originally a part-time job, but he came a profession. Cobb said was surprised at the success of Daredevil team.
The team will play at Nebraska tonight, Missouri Western tomorrow, Kansas State on Saturday and at the Topeka Sizzlers game on Sunday.
art of the team's act is to pull out of the audience and get in involved in the performance. caster said crowd involvement the point of the show.
eye-to-eye contact — that *as the whole show*, Lancasaid, said. "It's a real personal touch to look like we're 'pw' with."
Bancaster said that at some
mess, the crowd was not too
pive to the Daredevil's
pence. But he said the Jay-
man.
"yo yeah — that crowd — what a he to come to," he said. "It is an lot to us. It's been one of best so far, for sure."
ties
Anemus said that the association planted the fraternities to sign theolution too.
Ronan McGregor, director of the Kansas University Herbaria resolution yet but that it would be kept there. McGregor has helped to build the collection, tussed at an upcoming meeting.
avid Morris, president of the fraternity Council, said that the
This antique typewriter is one of many exhibits at the Rytber Museum of Printing.
however, between 6,000 to 15,000 specimens are on loan to researchers across the country.
McGregor found more than 40,000 of the herbarium's specimens. In fact, he says many of the plants were unknown before he discovered them in different parts of the Plains region. For example, Hexalectris Spicata, a rare orchid that McGregor discovered in 1949, wasn't found again until 1986.
Hundreds of people work in the buildings on West Campus. All have their own stories waiting to be told. Unfortunately, in a society blitzed with only the most glamorous and exciting stories, these people are forgotten. Thomas Ryther, Don Steeples and Ron McGregor are only a few of those who work on West Campus. They are spokesmen for dedication, perseverance and hard work. Jeff Moberg contributed information to this story.
McGregor doesn't spend all his time in the great outdoors of the Plains region. Recently, he led a group of individuals in writing a book on the region's flora. The book, "Flora of the Great Plains," lists more than 3,000 vascular plants, those that have vessels to transport fluids. McGregor worked on the book for nine years before it was published in 1986. With 1,408 pages, it is the largest book the University Press of Kansas has published.
indrea Reese, president of GamPhi Beta sorority and a member the panhellenic alcohol task force, that the future might bring even cter policies.
eese said that a policy to ban chol from all functions, even for men who could legally drink, was discussed.
women inparable
find it a little difficult to eve," she said. "I hope it's true, we've got quite a long ways to
he said that even if the 70 percent were true, it was meaningless ause some women still don't get it as much as men, even though do the same jobs.
between 1986 and 1987, the average kly earnings of women working time rose by $13 a week, from $40 a week in 1986 to $59 a week in 1987. *from* #245 to #445
barbara Ballard, director of the early Taylor Women's Resource Center, said she didn't know whatORShe the study was based on butshe guessed the percentagewasdily going up because more women moving into higher
See SALARY, p. 6, col. 1