Friday January 22,1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No. 80 (USPS 650-640)
Smaller contra proposal might meet resistance
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Reagan plans to ask next week for a watered-down military aid package for Nicaragua's contras, but congressional Democrats said yesterday that even the scaled-back request would provoke a confrontation over U.S. policy when it came to a vote in two weeks.
A senior administration official said yesterday that Reagan would argue for a $50 million aid request in his State of the Union speech Monday, with the bulk of that amount earmarked for non-lethal items.
Other officials in the administration and on Capitol Hill said only about 10 percent of the package would be for lethal supplies. The reason, these officials said, is that there were no additional earlier $70 million in lethal aid and that their need now was primarily for ammunition, which is cheaper.
One administration source, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the request a sustainment package which would not enhance the rebels' warming capability. Much of the equipment and transportation and communication equipment, food and medical supplies, the official said.
White House spokesman Martin Fitzwater said no final decision had been made on the amount to be sought, and he cautioned reporters against using a $50 million figure.
Nonetheless, any such amount would be far less than the $270 million military aid package the administration prepared last year and aban- dant with the aid of a five-in- ten Central American peace accord signed Aug. 7.
Congressional strategists in both parties said the White House appeared to be searching for a package that would sustain the rebels but that would appear innocuous enough to win a majority vote. The issue of how Congress could most closely divided matters Congress has dealt with in recent years.
Briefing reporters at the White House. Fitzwater said, "I would
guide people away from that specific figure (of $50 million), and I do remind you that the final decision has not been made and I do caution you that both higher and lower numbers are being considered.
"The $270 million has been pretty much overtaken by events down there (in Central America)," he said. "We want to tailor our request to the situation we find ourselves in Nicaragua, so we would be tailoring
ourselves to keep the (contra) resistance as a viable force and would seek to do that with as much humanitarian aid as possible and as little lethal aid as possible."
Reagan told backers Wednesday at the White House, "The majority of the aid that I will be requesting from Congress is for non-lethal assistance to keep the freedom fighters a viable force until democracy is irreversible in Nicaragua."
Rebels OK talks
The Associated Press
SANJOSE, Costa Rica — Contra leaders met with peace mediator Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo yesterday and then announced they would open direct cease-fire talks as planned Thursday with Nicaragua's Sandinista government.
Also yesterday, a Nicaraguan official called for an international commission to monitor an amnesty for the contras. But the proposal was conditioned on the leftist government reaching a house-fire ban against U.S.-backed rebels in talks next week, which appears unlikely.
The peace talks, the first face to face negotiations between the two sides, are being held the day after President Reagan is expected to ask Congress for more aid for the contrast.
Contra leaders assailed the Sandinistas yesterday for sending their negotiating team a week before the talks.
The Sandinista group, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Victor Hugo Tinoco, said it came to Costa Rica to begin immediate negotiations with the contrasts.
Adolfo Calero, a director of the rebel umbrella group known as the Nicaraguan Resistance, told a
news conference following the contras' two-hour meeting with Obano v Bravo:
"The cardinal had no knowledge that the Sandinista commission would be here. We do not know and the cardinal did not know how this confusion occurred."
But Tinoco said at a later news conference, "This wasn't a surprise visit." He said the Nicaraguan government had discussed its plans Wednesday with the caribbean envoy Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.
Alfredo Cesar, another Resistance director, said yesterday of the early arrival, "They (the Sandinistas) are simply playing games around a serious subject — the gaining of peace in Nicaragua."
At his news conference, Tincoo called for an international commission including representatives of the U.S. Republican and Democrat parties to guarantee that full civil and political liberties were granted to any contrasts who lay down their arms, accept amnesty and rejoin civilian life in Nicaragua.
He said the commission should also include delegates from the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the eight Contadora nations.
Jeff Klein/KANSAN
Icv lion
The cold froze the water out of the lion's mouth yesterday at the top of Strong Hall across from the Spencer Research Library.
'Airplane nut' gains respect
Kansan staff writer
By Michael Carolan
He calls himself an airplane nut.
By the looks of his office — paintings of World War II bombers and fighters on its office walls and about three dozen model planes and helicopters on his shelves — it's obvious that Jan Roskam loves everything about airplanes.
"It began one Sunday morning in 1940 at the Hague in the Netherlands when I was a
boy of 10," said Roskam, Deane E. Ackers distinguished professor of aerospace engineering. "I dressed, went outside and saw smoke, bombs, machine guns, all over the sky.
"It was then I knew I had to get into aeronautics."
And he did, in a big way.
Jan Roskam
"It is the best thing that an aerospace professional can have happen to him, the ultimate recognition," Roskam said. "It can't help but flatter one's ego, and I'm extremely pleased."
This month, his peers recognized Roskam with the highest honor a U.S. aerospace engineer could receive. Roskam was named an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellow.
Vincent Muirhead, chairman of the department of aerospace engineering, said the school was reserved for students who had made outstanding contributions in the field.
There are 32 AIAA Fellows in the United States, roughly three percent of the total membership in the organization, said James Harford, executive director of AIAA. He said several peer groups proposed candidates to a selection committee and the AIAA board of directors made the final choice.
"It is a very rigorous process that one goes through," Harford said. "Dr. Roskam has made a great and well known contribution to the profession, to AIAA and to education. He has been quite an inspiration to his students."
"And Professor Roskam has made a number of them. This recognition is richly deserved." he said.
On Wednesday, a student entered his office to see when Roskam could review his project. Roskam answered him quickly and set up an appointment for him before a Master's exam he had to give later in the afternoon.
The 57-year-old, Dutch-born professor, who has consulted, researched and designed aircraft for NASA and for virtually every major aircraft manufacturer in the United States, hardly has time to think about the honor.
The phone rang; Roskam answered and swiftly replied in a distinct Dutch accent.
Later, Roskam shuffled some papers and explained that he returned recently from a two-week trip during which he taught flight dynamics and consulted with NASA on a high-speed transport project designed by his students. His work took him to Wichita, Norfolk, Va., and Pasedena, Calif.
In the middle of the trip, he flew to Reno, Nev., and received the John Lee Atwood award for excellence in design education, a $20,000 research grant for the school of engineering from General Dynamics Corporation, and the AIAA fellowship.
That project, financed by NASA, includes designing two high-speed transPacific aircraft that can carry 300 passengers each and travel from Los Angeles to Tokyo in three hours.
Although constantly busy, Roskam asked about his students' current project.
That flight now takes about 12 hours, Roskam said.
See ROSKAM, p. 6, col. 1
Senators urge protest of shorter add period
By Kevin Dilmore
Kansan staff writer
Several student senators plan to pass out fliers on campus today in an effort to get students to speak out against a two-week add-dron period.
Student senators plan to distribute the flier to students at the enrollment center in Strong Hall who are waiting to change their schedules. The fliers explain the possible changes in KU add-drop policy, which will be considered by University Council on Thursday.
The policy change proposed before University Council states that the add-drop period, the time in which a student can cancel courses after a semester beings, be reduced from five to two weeks. Courses dropped after the two-week period would be marked on a transcript with a "W" grade.
The period to add a class would also be reduced to two weeks.
The proposal passed the Senate Executive Committee on Tuesday and must now pass the University Council. The votes of the two organizations serve as recommendations to the University Senate, which will give consideration to the plan later this spring. If the University Senate approves the plan, it must be approved by the chancellor before it can take effect.
Amy Randles, Olathe junior, and Laura Amber, Lawrence junior, are student senators who oppose the proposal. They said they hoped the filers generated enough interest among students to draw them to the University Council meeting next week.
"We think students need more time to decide about dropping a class than two
weeks." Randles said yesterday
Ambler is co-chairman of the Student Senate Academic Sub-Committee, which submitted an alternative to the present add-drop policy. The subcommittee's proposal asked for a three-week drop period and a three-week and two-day add period.
Ambler said yesterday she thought a three-week system was a better system.
"We agree that five weeks is much too long," she said, "but we felt that a long adddrop was just to compensate for poor advising, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels."
"But two weeks is just too short," she said.
"But two weeks is just too short, she said. Felix Moos, professor of anthropology and a member of the University Council, said yesterday that he thought an add-drop period longer than two weeks could be a disadvantage to students.
"Students that add a class after three or four weeks have a very difficult time catching up." he said.
"I think students should have a chance for as liberal an add-drop policy as possible," Moos said, "but it is also against a student's interest to have a period that is too long."
Randles said a two-week add-drop period was undesirable because students wouldn't get settled into their classes until after the add-drop period was over.
"Teachers are becoming better about having syllabi ready on the first day of classes, but some are not doing it," she said. "So some students could get into classes, then realize they aren't ready to handle them only after the drop period has expired."
Black history of Kansas preserved at Spencer Research Library
By Brenda Finnell
Kansan staff writer
Feb. 12, 1950 was a cool and misty Sunday
Six visitors were part of the 101 people attending the morning service at St. John African Methodist Episcopal church of Topeka, according to the handwriting in the blue log book. The Rev. Eugene Kelly Jr. spoke to the congregation.
That Sunday, almost 38 years ago, was apparently an ordinary day of worship. It might even have become part of a blurred past if details about things such as the weather and church attendance had not been recorded.
The book containing memories of that day and other Sundays that year is part of a recent addition to the Kansas Black History Collection project at the University of Kansas.
The project, headed by Sheryl Williams, curator of the
Kansas Collection, and Jacob Gordon, associate professor of African and African-American studies, is part of the Kansas Collection at Spencer Research Library.
The Topeka church's trustees donated books of minutes from church board meetings, Sunday school classes and organizations within the church. The earliest documents are from 1912 and the most recent from 1985.
Williams said the documents are being cataloged and should be available for public use sometime in February.
"We're thrilled to death to have them," said Deborah Dandridge, field historian and archivist for the project. "It gives us a nice day-to-day account of what went on in the church."
Dandridge said the wide span of years the documents cover provided a rare opportunity to see how a church developed through the years.
In addition to the books of minutes and logs, the church's donation also includes some photographs and souvenir programs from church anniversary celebrations.
She also said that because churches tended to be the center of the community, the documents reflect what blacks considered important in the past.
Visitors to the collection can see how events such as the Great Depression and world wars affected the church, Dandridge said.
The library contacts ministers around the state to tell them about the black history collection and to ask if they know of documents to include in the collection, Dandridge said.
She said she had been especially pleased by how well
preserved the church documents were.
To prevent damage by attaching library call numbers
to the book bindings, the library uses acid-free paper slips and identification labels that do not harm the books, Nancy Hollingsworth, Kansas Collection library assistant said.
The Kansas Black History Collection project began in 1986, and it is financed by National Historical Publications and Records Commission grants.
In addition to church documents, the collection contains records of schools, clubs, businesses and individuals.
Williams said the collection was an attempt to locate documents that reflect the black experience in Kansas.
"I think it is important that we document the achievements and accomplishments of black Americans in the state," she said.