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The University Daily Kansan
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Monday, February 19, 2001
Sports: Women's basketball members celebrate after upsetting No. 6 Iowa State.
See page 1B
Inside: Police advise students on how to help trap harrassing phone callers.
See page 3A
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 111 NO. 94
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Naismith Hall fires resident director; no reason given
By Cynthia Malakasis
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Hugo Vera lost both his job and place of residence and — a week later — has still received no official explanation why.
Vera was the resident director of Naismith Hall, 1800 Naismith Dr., the
private residence hall owned by College Park Communities.
Last Monday,
Jason Olds,
Naismith Hall
property manager,
called Vera in his
office and told him
he had been fired.
"He sat me down and told me I was terminated," Vera said. "I asked him why and he said we could discuss it at a later date."
Vera: does not know why Naismith火骗 him last week
Vera thought he might know what brought about his termination.
He said two of his residents that had suffered disciplinary action retaliated by saying that he had been purchasing drugs from Naismith Hall residents.
Vera said he knew there was alcohol and drugs circulating in the building, but he never had any in his possession.
"My livelihood was in Naismith," Vera said. "Why would I put myself in the position to lose all that?"
Alex Mestdagh, Lenexa freshman and Naismith Hall resident, said he had heard Vera had been fired because he knew about drugs in the building and did not take any action.
Perplexed and dumbfounded, Vera, a graduate assistant in the music and dance department, did not press the question with Olds. He contacted University of Kansas Legal Services and was told that under Kansas law, an employer was allowed to fire personnel without stating the reason.
"He told me it was something he and the corporate office had decided to do."
Vera said the next day he made one more effort to find out from Olds the reason for his termination.
Vera said what confused him the most was that he and Olds had always shared a good professional relationship.
Vera said that Olds had been talking about raising his wages in the fall of 2001 four days before his termination.
"He praised me on how good a job I was doing." Very said.
He said he was confused by Olds's sudden change of attitude.
How can I press the
terminate me the next?" Vera said.
Oids confirmed his termination but refused to comment.
"The working relationship with the employee was dissolved on Monday." Olds said. "I cannot comment on personnel's issues."
Daniel Haughney, Chicago freshman and Naismith Hall resident, smoke warmly of Vera.
"Everything he did was in the best interest of Naismith Hall." he said.
Other residents share Haughney's view of Vera.
Lindsey Hyatt, St. Louis freshman, said Vera was one of her favorite people in Naismith Hall.
"Not only was he helpful, he acted as a friend," she said. "I never saw him as an authority figure."
Mitch Loper, Houston freshman, offered a different perspective.
"A few of the residents don't particularly like him at all," he said. "I don't know why."
Vera has already moved out of Naismith Hall and found a new job at the music library, but the fact that he has not been given a reason or an explanation prevents him from putting his termination behind him.
"Now it's all about my character, about him questioning my character," he said. "It makes me feel guilty, like I've done something when I know I didn't."
— Edited by Courtney Craigmile
Meth: Kansas' formidable foe
By Phil Cauthon writer@kansan.com Kansan senior staff writer
Andrew Nelson had been on a methamphetamine binge for several days. No sleep. Barely any food. Just more and more of his homemade drug.
Now he was driving home for his lunch break on a sunny October day. Voices plagued his brain. Bugs twitched under his skin.
Andrew pulled into his grandfather's Norton County farmstead, where he walked in on a raging orgy.
Men and women he'd never seen in his tiny community were fornicating in the yard, in the hall, in the kitchen — everywhere, screaming for him to join in.
He found his dad, as usual, on the recliner with a beer, seemingly oblivious to the chaos. Andrew flew at his dad with fury. "What are those whoores doing in our house? They best be gone before I get home from work, or I'm
tellin' Grandpa!"
Andrew hurried back to his job at the local co-op and told his boss that he couldn't work the rest of the day because there was an orgy at his house
But this was the last one his boss would tolerate. He fired Andrew and told Norton County Sheriff Troy Thomson about the hallucinations.
Everybody but Andrew knew what was really going on. The orgy was another meth-induced hallucination.
Losing his job only accelerated Andrew's years-old addiction to math. By the end of 1999, he was snorting larger and larger doses and cooking up bigger batches of meth right there in his bedroom.
All he needed to make meth was some anhydrous ammonia fertilizer from his dad's farm and a few supplies from
Dollar General, such as starting fluio and cold pills.
Thomson knew Andrew was making meth, but he didn't have a lead — until he found Andrew and his dad at Dollar General, each buying three packs of cold pills, the maximum you can buy before being red-flagged as a possible meth manufacturer.
Andrew eventually admitted manufacturing methamphetamine and was sentenced to 79 months in prison. His dad got 36 months for distribution.
a record 702 methamphetamine labs
— some like Andrew's and many much larger — were busted in Kansas in 2000, up from four busts in 1994. Kansas Bureau of Investigation officials say with more and better-trained cops they would uncover hundreds more meth labs.
And that's just domestic meth production. Federal law enforcement agents say the majority of methamphetamine in the United States originates from Mexican drug cartels. The KBI estimates just 10 percent of the meth in Kansas is cooked in mom-and-pop labs like Andrew's.
Top producers nationwide
Federal, state and local law enforcement busts of mone labs in 2000
1. California - 1613
2. Kansas - 702
3. Missouri - 662
4. Washington - 542
5. Arizona - 343
Source: Drug Enforcement Agency
6. Oklahoma – 334
7. Indiana – 262
8. Nevada – 236
9. Iowa – 232
10. Texas – 218
Kyle Ramsey/KANSAN
See METH on page 6A
Barn dance
They thank God that's all.
Japanese students mingle,do-si-do
After a quick lesson on the basics of barn dancing, Kate McFarlane, Edinburgh, Scotland, junior, left, and Ryohye Yamauchi, Kanogawa, Japan, student, stroll under and around their fellow dancers. Photo by Aaron Showalter/KANSAN
By Michelle Ward
writer@kansan.com
kansas staff writer
Yumi Tanikawa cut loose at an old-fashioned barn dance at the Kansas Union Friday.
ine business student kicked up her heels during a mixer for the group from Kanagawa University. The 11 Hiratsuka, Japan, students celebrated the halfway mark of their month-long stay in the United States, in which they are learning English and American culture.
As part of their visit, the students could sign up for a host family, then meet their new American families at the barn dance and stay the weekend with them.
"It's fun but confusing," Tanikawa said of the dancing. "It makes me tired."
She spent the evening laughing and talking with friends, some new and some old, as well as meeting her host parents, Dick and Mary Alice Beach. The new family managed a dance or two while muddling through the initial do-si-do.
"When I first came to the United States, I was very worried." Tanikawa said. "Now, I wish I could stay longer."
The barn dance brought together various cultures as a number of international students attended. While the primary purpose was to connect the visiting Japanese students with their host families, it became an opportunity for everyone who attended to get acquainted with each other.
"I'm excited to stay in an American home. I would like to eat a homemade dinner."
Sumiaki Matsuno
Kanagawa University student
They all met in an environment of old American culture, said Christa Hansen, acting assistant director with special programs at the Applied English Center.
One of the international students, Katie Ebisu, an Ehime, Japan, junior, merged the Japanese and American cultures. While attending the University of Kansas to earn an economics degree, she said this was a chance to meet students from her homeland along with those from all over the world.
"I heard that many international students were coming," Ebisu said. "It's so interesting that so many cultures are here. I think it's important to see people from other cultures and visit with Americans."
The dance is just one part of the experience for the Kanagawa students. They spend their mornings learning English and practicing their conversational skills. In the afternoon, they learn about American society through videos, reading and visiting the community.
They attend Japanese classes in the Lawrence high schools while sitting in on classes at the University.
They interact with American students to learn from them, Hansen said. The group also visits museums on campus to further its understanding of America.
"Their time is jam-packed with activities," Hansen said. Miaki Matsuno took a few minutes to meet his American host family at the barn dance. The Kanagawa student sat in a corner and talked to Tim and Judy Keller and their three young daughters.
They all laughed at the antics of 3-year-old Sadie Keller, who rubbed her stomach and complained of a tummy ache.
After meeting his new family, Matsumoto said he couldn't wait for the weekend to begin.
"I'm excited to stay in an American home," Matsuno said. "I would like to eat a homemade dinner."
- Edited by Jay Pilgreen
Marshall, recruiter discuss minority retention
By Danny Phillips
Kansan staff writer
writer@ansan.com
Armed with pages of retention statistics, Student Senate vice president Marlon Marshall showed that while the number of incoming National Merit Scholars had doubled in the past five years, the number of incoming minority students had remained relatively stagnant.
Marshall, St. Louis senior, addressed this at a meeting he led Friday to discuss minority recruitment and retention — which he doesn't think is being made a priority by KU Administration and the Office of Admissions.
In hopes of correcting that disparity, Marshall welcomed the input of the students he handpicked for the meeting, including Claudia Mercado, Springfield, Mo., graduate student and the sole minority recruiter from the admissions office.
"Obviously something is lacking." he said.
The admissions office outlines 12 separate objectives to recruit minorities, and Mercado said that every one of them had been met.
Marshall then asked if the admissions
office had established any specific goals beyond the current objectives, and Mercado said no.
Mike Stewart, Eagletown, Okla., graduate student, used to participate in Oklahoma's retention program and was asked by Marshall to attend the meeting to explain the university's methods. Stewart said the admissions office worked with student services to both recruit and retain minorities. And unlike KU's admissions office, there's a recruiter for each of the four principal minority groups.
Marshall said he was impressed by the University of Oklahoma's ability to recruit a high number of National Merit Scholars and maintain a high minority retention rate simultaneously.
Stewart said students who had attended the university on scholarship for at least a year would be assigned to a group of freshman minority students who they kept in contact with weekly to inform them of upcoming events and ask them how they were doing.
Mercado agreed it was vital to get more students involved in the recruitment process. She said that the admissions office had contacted student organizations and asked them for assistance.
"It's going to take some time," she said. Mercado called the process a cycle of attracting minority students to KU, getting them to stay and then incorporating them into the admission's recruitment methods in order to draw in more minorities.
"We need that diversity in order to recruit." she said.
Holdover senator Justin Mills, Lansing senior, said the first step at correcting the problem was making students on campus care why diversity is necessary. He said it would be a slow change because there are still factions of the student body that aren't friendly toward minorities. He referred to recent comments in The University Daily Kansan's Free For All as an example.
Marshall plans to eventually draft a report outlining the University's recruitment and retention rates compared to other schools in the Big 12, present it to the Student Senate and then take those figures to the administration. He said he hoped the administration would view those statistics and be motivated to form a task force to search for solutions.
Edited by Jennifer Valadez
MINORITY RECRUITMENT
Marton Marshall, student body vice president, has pushed administrators to increase minority recruitment and retention efforts. Recruitment of new minority students has remained steady over the past four years, while recruitment of National Merit Scholars has doubled.
Fall 1996
New National Merit Scholars: 58
new minority students: 350
percentage of new students who were
minorities: 9.6 percent
Fall 2000
New National Merit Scholars: 116
New minority students:410
Percentage of new students who were minorities:9.7 percent
Source: Office of Institutional Research and Planning. Minority enrollment figures compile totals for African-American, Asian, Latino and Native-American students. Totals exclude international students.
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