Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Friday, January 22, 1988
3
Computer might ease pain of loan payback
By Donna Stokes
Kansan staff writer
The financial aid office hopes to buy a new computer that could help students check on their student loan status and estimate how much they will owe upon graduation.
Jeff Weinberg, associate director of financial aid, said the office was waiting for the Kansas Service Organization in Topeka to decide whether it would help finance the program.
The total cost of the computer, the module used to access information and a counseling software package
would be less than $2,300, Weinberg said.
If 50 percent of the money is provided by a private firm, the state will match 25 percent. The other 25 percent will come from the financial aid office.
"We're keeping our tingers crossed that the money will be provided for it," said W. Wes Williams, dean of educational services.
Weinberg said that the program, if adopted, would make the University of Kansas the first university to have access to major data banks with student loan information.
KU might be first user
He said that if a student borrowed money from one bank, the loan didn't necessarily stay in that bank. It can be transferred or sold to another bank, and that makes it hard for students to know where their loans are held.
The computer would allow students to trace the location and amount of each loan. The financial aid office could then tell students how much they have borrowed, what they would pay after graduation and what an
additional loan would add to their payments.
"It is so easy to borrow large amounts of money that students don't always realize how far debt in the can get," Weinberg said. "The consequences of borrowing money aren't always spelled out by the bank.
"I believe that a lot of loan defaults happen because of a lack of understanding of the process. If students become more informed borrowers, they might eventually borrow less."
The new computer would also provide a counseling software package designed by the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J.
he said.
- provide information on interest rates, terms, and conditions for major federal student loan programs.
- The new computer program would:
- predict future income based on the student's career field and projected salary growth.
compute a burden index — the percentage of the student's projected income that would be required each
year to repay the loans.
The program would also be updated to include the average cost of living in selected communities, and how the student's projected earnings would cover that cost, Weinberg said.
"We don't want students to decide on a profession based on projected income," he said. "We just want students to believe that will happen when they graduate."
A nationwide sample study by the American Council of Education in Washington, D.C., showed that 43 percent of 1984 college graduates were in debt for school-related costs
Crowds for classes
Students crowd the enrollment center in Strong Hall during an evening add-drop session. The last day to add classes is Thursday
Area housing development is growing
Kansan staff writer
By Rebecca J. Cisek
Some of the countryside that separates Lawrence from the Kansas City metro area will have a new look in the near future.
A housing development called Cedar Creek is springing up 15 miles east of Lawrence along Highway 10. The property, which will eventually house 30,000 people, has been annexed by the city of Olathe.
Charles Sunderland, secretary of the Ash Grove Cement Co. in Overland Park, said construction on the
project began last July. The development had been planned for about 20 years.
years. Sunderland said he expected the first homes to open in March 1989. By that time, the company will have invested about $30 million in the project.
The company began building roads in the development this fall. A dam for the lake at Cedar Creek has been built, and the lake is now filling.
Cedar Creek will feature a private golf course designed by golfers Tom Watson, Tom Weiskop and Jay Mor-
rish. Sunderland said a public golf course probably would be built within a few years.
Cedar Creek will have 5,000 to 7,000 houses in seven neighborhoods, with homes ranging in price from $100,000 to several million dollars.
The total development covers 3,300 heavily wooded acres. About 350 acres of that is reserved for commercial property, including an office park and a shopping center. Sunderland said that eventually, the office park probably would equal the size of Corporate Woods in Overland Park.
"We want to create the ideal living and working environment," he said.
Sunderland predicted that Lawrence and the Kansas City area would grow together eventually as a result of developments such as Cedar Creek.
Sunderland also said that Ash Grove was considering building a hotel and conference center at Cedar Creek that also could be used by the University of Kansas.
Kemp case goes to deliberation
By Ric Brack
Kansan staff writer
Carl Kemp testified yesterday that he had no recollection of the events leading up to the Sept. 3 discovery of his wife's body next to him in bed.
Kemp is on trial in Douglas County District Court for the first-degree murder of his wife, Judy. Authorities found his wife's body in a homemade wooden box in a storage shed outside the Kemps' trailer Sept. 9.
Kemp's attorney, Carl Fleming, and District Attorney Jim Flory finished closing arguments late yesterday afternoon. A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for an hour and then recessed for the day. Deliberation will continue at 9 a.m. today.
In the final day of testimony, Kemp said he had been drinking heavily last Sept. 3 and could remember details only from the early part of that day. The prosecution has asserted that Kemp beat his wife to death that night.
Kemp said he found her still, cold body in bed next to him when he woke up but wasn't sure at what time he woke up or what day it was.
"I was just shocked. I didn't really know what had happened," he said. Kemp said that after he realized she was dead, he contemplated suicide. Later, he went to get the materials to build the box that authorities later found his wife's body in.
Kemp testified that he sold fishing tackle to get the money to buy the lumber and hardware for the box. In addition, he bought a sleeping bag.
When Fleming asked why he bought the sleeping bag, Kemp said, "To put Judy in. I didn't just want to throw her in the box."
Kemp said he slept after spending most of the next day building the box and said he called a sheriff's dispatcher when he woke up because he
realized his wife was still in the shed.
realized his wife was still in the shed. He said he didn't eat or drink from the time Judy Kemp died to the time police found her body. He said he thought the six-day period was only two days.
Under questioning by assistant District Attorney Gerald Wells, Kemp admitted he had lied to detectives who interviewed him after police found Judy Kemp's body because he said he knew it wouldn't do any good to tell police and detectives that he didn't remember anything about her death.
In opening arguments Wednesday, Fleming said that Kemp must have been in a drunken stupor when he struck down and killed Judy Kemp and that Kemp didn't know why or how his wife died.
"Carl Kemp was immediately put in a position where he had to explain in a logical way something that he didn't understand or know," Fleming said about Kemp's conflicting accounts of his actions after the murder.
"First-degree murder is a crime in which a specific intention must be proven," he said in his closing arguments. He called the case against Kemp "fantasland." He said the state had not proved that Kemp had planned to commit murder.
District Attorney Jim Flory called Judy Kemp an emotional and financial prisoner to Kemp. He reminded the jury that social workers had testified that Judy Kemp was an abused wife.
School of Fine Arts considers limiting visual communications majors
By Iulie Adam
Program already has too many, says prof
Kansan staff writer
The School of Fine Arts is considering a policy change that would control the number of visual communications majors.
Enrollment is not controlled now, but if the policy is enacted, it could affect incoming freshmen next fall. Current majors in visual communications, which includes graphic design and illustration, would not be affected.
because of unanticipated enrollment growth, school officials are considering a new policy that would not allow students receiving poor reviews to continue in visual communications. A policy change
could be completed by March.
Peter Thompson, dean of fine arts, said the policy was being considered because of an 18-percent increase in graphic design and illustration majors over the past two years, with another increase expected this summer.
Because the department does not have the faculty or facilities to accommodate the sudden increase, the quality of the program might suffer if growth isn't controlled, he said.
Instead of evaluating students solely on grade point averages, the visual communications sequence has five full-time faculty members who review student portfolios in
four graphic design and illustration courses at the end of each semester. Those instructors advise students who received unfavorable reviews to consider other majors or fields of interest.
This semester, students whose portfolios were judged as poor were sent letters explaining why the student was advised to consider other fields.
Although the letter advises a change, students are not forced to comply. The policy of sending letters is new but giving the advice is not, Thompson said.
Letters also were sent to students who had good reviews on their portfolios and to those who had acceptable portfolios but needed work in certain areas.
Tom Allen, professor of art in the
department of design, said faculty began reviewing student portfolios about three years ago.
He also said too many students were already in the sequence. Some had to be put on waiting lists.
"Serious students have a right to expect a quality education, and they can't get it that way," he said. "If we can't get more faculty and space, we can't have more students. If we only have 20 tables in a room, we can't have 30 people."
Thompson said, "When there's not room for everybody and we're keeping exceptional students out of the classroom, then we have to do something about it."
Jay Clements, El Dorado senior majoring in illustration, thought the new policy
"I don't think a lot of people know what they are getting into, and a teacher can judge by looking at their portfolios whether they can handle what is ahead of them." Clements said.
would be a good idea.
Allen said, "We're not out to get anybody. We're not out to kill anybody off."
Allen said that under the new policy, students wouldn't be considered kicked out. If they took the class over and let them fail, could be able to continue in the major.
He said the review policy should be viewed as a help for troubled students by directing them to areas in which they could better succeed, so that exceptional students could get better educations.
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