KU
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 87. No.143
Editorial focus on graduation
Tuesday, May 10, 1977
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
See page four
Tire Toy
Using salvaged and donated materials, Wiesed Wiedman, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, Arthur Reuve, Englewood, Colo.
sophomore, constructive equipment for an alternative playground. The playground, to be located in Burcham Park, should be
By JANE PIPER Staff Renorter
Playground to use recycled junk
Used cement culver's, railroad ties, pipes and old tires will be fashioned into climbing and swinging equipment for a unique "found objects" playground now under construction in Burcham Park, west of the Kansas River.
The project is the idea of two University of Kansas students, Reeves Wiedeman, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, and Arthur Anderson, Englewood, Colo., sophomore. Assuming that playground equipment is often boring for children, the students need to be made more attractive by constructing out of material salvaged from tankworks or donated by interested parties
THE CITY parks and recreation department later approved the plan and built a recycling agency. Fifteen students from the design studio of Robert Gould, professor of architecture and urban design, are now participating in a playground completed within two weeks.
The design calls for transforming an acre strip along the Kansas River in Burcham Park into a hilly area with culvert tunnels, pipe and wood climbing structures, sandboxes, tire swings, a giant slide and a cable tramway.
"Most of the stuff we're using was found around town," Bob Werner, St. Louis sophomore, said Friday. "Everyone just scouted around."
Donations of cement culverts and pipes have come from Lawrence and Penny'shave companies and the Lawrence Pipe and Bulk Storage department has provided used culverts anddepartment has provided used culverts and
FRED DEVICENTER, parks and recreation director, said the city was responsible for the over-all development of the new 23-acre Burcham Park.
stone and, more important, the use of machinery and trucks for hauling things.
"We want to make the river accessible to the public, which it isn't now," DeVictor said. "The view of the river is certainly worth preserving."
The fact that the area lies in a flood plane made the design a challenge for Wendeman He and Anderson designed heavy and reinforced equipment they hope will withstand flooding.
"If the playground is interesting, they won't go to me near the river," Jim Schimpf said. "I just want to play."
A $2,000 BUDGET was made available for the playground by the Whomper. According to Mary Wright, secretary-treasurer, the money will be used for construction expenses not covered by volunteer work and donations.
The close proximity of the river also was perceived as a potential danger for the fishery.
"How right that a group that has money from recycling materials could use that money to make a park from found objects," she said.
Wiedeman estimated that the time spent designing the playground and doing a study on potential park sites took a month. The team found that they were able to design which was later narrowed down to five.
Wiedeman and Anderson buarch Burcham Park after analyzing the parks, using
Summer session to offer expanded course selection
The 1977 summer session will offer a larger course selection and will continue to have three sessions, according to Ralph Witney, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Christopherson said that an increased number of summer courses was an experiment to see whether students needed a larger selection.
New courses will be offered in architecture, business, religion, political science, sociology, engineering, design, education, cultural therapy, journalism and social welfare.
This is the last Kansan for spring 1977. The Kansan will resume publication June 15.
Watson Library and Kansas Union hours will be normal during finals. Watson will be open 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m-5 p.m. Saturday, and 2-11 p.m. Sunday.
Union hours are 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-9 p.m. Sunday.
Enrolment for summer classes will be June 10 at Wesco Hall. Those whose last names start with A will enroll K enrolm from 8 a.m. and others will enroll from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
THE PARK, formerly under the control of the city's water department, is dotted with wells because it is the main water supply area. The vast area we have already been fenced off.
Although the architecture students are responsible for only the playground development, Wiedeman said they are also responsible for the over-all development of Burcham Park.
Last Kansan
"That's something we want to protect," Devictor said. "But that doesn't mean we want you to leave."
Interest in making the area into a park grew after Kansas State University forest extension agents said the area was one of the best cotton forests in Kansas.
features such as accessibility, traffic, child population, community function, previous
There will be three sessions this summer, a continuation of a more flexible scheduling system started last year. The system is common with the other sessions and the earliest week session.
THE PARKS department plans to put in picnic shelters and tables, hiking trails, a dock boat and restrooms in addition to the building, grading and landcaping. DeVier says,
Timetables are now available at the Office of Records and Admissions in Strong HI.
In an over-all city plan, Burcham Park ultimately will be connected to Central Park by biking trails as part of a continuous green belt stretching from Seventh Street to the river between Kentucky and Tennessee streets.
*resident summer session fees for all courses except law will be $23.10 an hour up to five hours and $14 for each additional credit hour.*
Registration packets must be picked up at Book audition before enrolling on the program.
The first four-week session will start June 13 and end July 9; the second will start July 9 and end August 6. The eight-week session begins June 13 and ends August 6.
Enrolment in classes starting after June 13 can be done on the first day the class begins.
Nonreident fees will be $49.10 for each
upright to up and $40 for each additional
half.
Burcham Park can be reached on Indiana Street going north.
5,000 gallons of KU oil spill into Wakarusa River
By LEON UNRUH Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Strained and rusted tank walls apparently caused oil to spill Friday from one of KU's underground fuel oil storage tanks and eventually leak into the Wakeway River.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may investigate the spill, which is still being cleaned up by KU Building and Grounds (B and G) personnel.
The spill, estimated at less than 5,000 gallons by Russell Mill, University director of support services, came from a tank near the physical plant on campus.
THE UNDERGROUND tanks hold a total of 200, 100 or 200, 500 gallons, Mills said yesterday. The fuel oil is stored for winter and then evaporates off or decreases the supply of natural gas.
He said KU bought oil during the summer when it was less expensive. The tanks were full and it was too hot.
Lucas suggested that the spill might have been related to the past winter, when fuel oil spilled.
WHEN THE TANK was filled and emptied repeatedly, the pressure inside the tank increased.
changing pressure and the fact that the tank was old and ruptured apparently caused it to leak.
Max Lucas, director of facilities planning, said the fuel oil leaked into a pump room, and was removed automatically by a pump into the Lawrence storm sewer system.
Some of the oil floated down Naisimh Drive drainage ditches into the Wakurasu.
Luca said the flow of oil was stopped at the tanks when it was discovered Friday night. B and G crews Friday night started on the oil along the path to the Wakaraus.
HE SAID the crews built three dams along the drainage system between KU and GU.
After the water and oil backup up behind the dams, crews pumped water out from under the floating oil and over the dam. The dam was lifted to allow the water was spread in the ditch to soak the oil.
Yesterday, crews were cutting and preparing to burn the oil-soaked grass from a fire.
The remaining oil in the pump room and the ruptured tank was pumped into a storage tank.
were notified of the spill as soon as it was discovered, Lucas said. State health personnel were consulted continually during the clean-up process.
STATE AND local health departments
According to the Federal Water Quality Act, the University must report the spill to the Department of Natural Resources.
Possible EPA action will center on whether University complied with the Federal regulation.
But L. E. Reed, chief of the EPA's emergency response section in Kansas City, Mo. said that his office hadn't been contacted by KU about the spill.
KU MAY ALSO be in violation of another regulation stating that agencies with underground storage tanks with a capacity exceeding 10,000 gallons are required to have prepared a spill-control plan.
KU doesn't have a plan, Lucas said, because the University officials had thought that a plan was needed only for above-ground oil. KU has no fuel oil tanks above ground.
Mike Davis, University general counsel, said he hadn't been contacted by federal or state officials about possible legal action stemming from the spill.
See OIL SPILL page two
Senate resignations vary in cause
By LINDA STEWART
Staff Reporter
During the past year, about 25 student senators either reigned or were removed from the Senate for reasons such as a lack of leadership in contact with "Mickey Mouse politicking."
Last year, during the Tashef-Owens administration, 15 senators resigned and three were removed. Already this year, five have been removed and two have resigned.
The removal of the five student senators this year is due to a more clearly defined StudEx attendance policy, Mike Harper, ExStud Chairman, said yesterday.
"Last year anything was accepted as an excuse," Harper said. "this year StudEx has tried to define what will be deemed excused and unexcused."
STUDEN HAS DEFINED illness, death of an immediate religious, religious holidays and tests that can't be rescheduled as excusable. Homework, work, classes, meetings of other groups and social activities won't be excused.
StudEx allows senators two unexcused or four excused absences before the senator is removed. The senator is given a week to return. An appeal may be given at the StudEx meeting.
Appealing the removal doesn't necessarily mean the senator will be reintroduced more now.
Steve Conklin, Hutchinson sophomore, was one senator who appealed his removal to the Senate.
Connik said the reason he missed Senate meetings was that he had a night class that Mr. Trump attended.
StudEx decided that the reason wasn't sufficient because Conklin knew of his appointment to the Senate before he enrolled in the class.
Corklin said he thought StudEx's move not to reinstate him was fair.
"I KNEW WHAT the attendance policy was," he said. "StudEx could have been barsh on me, but I felt they gave me a fair hearing."
Katie Rhoads, Senate secretary, said the reason given most often for students resigning from the Senate was that they didn't have the time.
"A lot of people just don't realize what they're getting into in the Senate as far as the amount of time they will have to spend to do a good job," she said.
Otis Darby, Lawrence graduate student, was one of two senators that recently resigned from the Senate. He said that the reason he gave the Senate for resigning was he had accepted a job, but that he would have resigned anyway.
"The Senate has no point to it, it's just a silly game," he said. "Everything the Senate does would still get done even if there wasn't a Senate."
Darby said he thought the Board of Regents did what it wanted despite the Senate's vote.
AN EXAMPLE OF this, he said, is the $1 increase in student Union fees, which he said would have passed whether or not the Senate approved it.
Steve Leben, student body president, said he didn't know of any cases in which student fees were increased without the Senate's approval.
"I have the opportunity to address the Board of Regents," he said. "Usually the board and the Senate can work something out."
Darby said another reason he resigned from the Senate was that only certain senators were eligible.
"There are a few people in the Senate that
have all the influence, or at least think they be said. It "seems as if it a big ego bjoe."
"ALSO, EVERYTHING is dragged out as long and then in the end nothing is really accomplished. It seems to me that the teacher undergraduate's little playroom," he said.
Jim Willsa, Salina junior, was recently removed from the Senate because he quit going to meetings, which he said was because of rulings made by the chair.
"I didn't like all the Mickey Mouse politicking that was going on," he said. "I was a senator for three years, but I just became tired of all of it."
Willsa said he quit going to the meetings because of rulings made by Steve Owens, student body vice president last year, and Alain Munoy, student body vice president.
"They made a ruling that I couldn't run SenEx because I was not re-elected to the Senate," he said. "Because SenEx is going to lose, and because I quit sointed to the Senate meetings."
RALPH MUNYON said he thought the喇头 that he made on Willis was logical
Harper said he was discouraged with the samurai who resigned because they didn't want him.
"It doesn't make sense for someone whose Senate term expires before the SenEx term begins to be able to run for SenEx," Munyon said.
"It's so easy to resign and say it's a Mickey Mouse group," Harper said, "but it's a lot harder to stay in and try to change things.
"We're probably not the most effective organization we could be, but we're working to make the Senate more effective," he said.
Leben states Senate's concerns
By JOHN WHITESIDES
Staff Renorter
The institution of a University-wide Feedback system will be one of the foremost concerns of the Student Senate and faculty, the student body president, said recently.
Leben said other projects the Senate might consider next year would be the development of a student legal services center and a student center for educational research.
Discussing his first three months in office and his plans for the rest of his term, Leben said the development of a new feedback system at the University of Kansas would be a long process requiring an enormous amount of work.
HE SAID he planned to do research on various aspects of the program this summer, and he estimated the cost of the new system would be about $60,000.
The administration ended the previous Feedback system in 1974. Leben made the decision to end the system themes during February's campaign, and two weeks ago the Student Senate Academic Affairs Committee appointed a sub-committee to assess the feasibility of a feedback system at KU.
LEBEN SAID if the committee recommended proceeding with the project, it would be at least fall 1978 before the first booklet could be distributed.
However, Leben said that as he researched a new feedback system he was becoming more pessimistic about it becoming reality.
LEBEN SAID that since the demise of the
"if we're going to put in a University-wide system, we're going to have to do a lot of convincing," he said. "We have to figure out exactly what the system should tell us, we need to understand it, find the kind of staff that can put out a book that will survive. That will be quite tough."
original Feedback, many departments and schools of the University had begun their own feedback systems. He said the Senate approved a new system of departments and schools on a new system.
"I'm no longer sure it will be worth the time, effort and $60,000 needed to put it out," he said. "I know it would be insufficient. I know whether it would be that beneficial."
HE SAID the final decision on the
reaction, and feedback would
depend on student reaction.
A legal aid service for KU students will be another project the Senate might consider next fall. Leben said the service could take two possible forms.
One possibility would be to employ a full-time lawyer to handle student cases, be said. The lawyer would be paid out of the student activity fee.
Another possibility would be offering legal insurance to students. The insurance would allow a student to go to any local bank for help and would pay any resulting bills.
Steve Leben
THIS SUMMER, he said, he plans to research legal aid programs at other Kansas schools and investigate the need for student legal services at KU. He said that if he found a student legal aid program would be practical, he would conduct a student
survey to see whether a legal aid program was needed or wanted at KU.
Leben said that the University of Massachusetts had some similarities to KU and that offering a credit course on college life would be like to sell to the administration next year.
Leben also said he planned to travel to the University of Massachusetts this summer with Mike Harper, StudEx chairman, to investigate that school's student center for educational research. He said that the University of Massachusetts offered a credit that allowed students to work with professors on research issues facing higher education.
LOOKING BACK on his first few months in office, Leben said the Senate's most important achievement this spring was the passage of a bill for recreational services and facilities.
Leben said a raise of $1.50 in the student activity fee had increased funding for the SAB. In addition, he gave $2,000. In addition, he said, the Senate had given the program $60,000 from unallocated funds, making the total Senate budget for services and facilities next year $152,000.
"That means we'll have four times the commitment to recreational facilities next year that we had this year," Leben said. "We've now made that our No.1 priority, and I think that's the sting things will receive immediate benefits from."
HE SAID the biggest problem he had faced this spring was related to his staff. He said that as a result of the team's failure, the person finally selected soon quit to take another job. He said the business manager also quit, leaving him to work on other projects and to his duties as student body president.
"The demands on my time have grown very intense," Leben said. "I've skipped a lot more classes and assignments than I would have liked. I've also been unable to put as much time into the job of president as I would have liked."
He said another problem had been that some of the new senators had been hesistant with the change.
(1)
"THE EXECUTIVE officers spend a lot of time discussing ways we can get more
See LEBEN page three