FEATURES: Love Squad keeps creativity high with acoustic jam sessions. Page 9.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.103.NO.75
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 8,1993
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
Zoning amendment could limit new bars
Liquor licenses may depend on food sales
By Traci Carl
Kansan staff writer
There are almost 20 bars in the downtown area, and if a City Commission zoning amendment is approved, they will be the last.
Last night, the commission decided to send a zoning amendment to the Lawrence/Douglas County Planning Commission that would prohibit any future bars in the downtown area. The downtown area is enclosed by New Hampshire, Vermont, Sixth and 11th streets.
Restaurants in the area could serve alcohol, but 50 percent of their revenues would have to come from food sales to qualify for a liquor license.
If the amendment is approved by the planning commission, it will be sent back to the city commission for approval.
In a presentation to the commission, Dave Corliss, assistant to the city manager, said that bars in operation when the amendment passed would not be affected by the food requirement.
If these bars change ownership or name, they still will be able to operate as a bar without the requirement, Corliss said. But if a bar is vacant for more than six months, it will have to meet the requirement to retain its liquor license.
Commissioner Bob Schulte said that he did not think preventing new bars from opening downtown was a problem.
"The bars that exist become potentially more valuable," he said.
The amendment was designed to stop the growth of bars in the downtown area, Schulte said.
In the past year, eight new bars have opened, four of which are in previous bar locations.
"We need to be concerned with the mix of businesses downtown," he said. "A proliferation of bars can lead to an atmosphere that attracts people to hang out. And that can lead to safety problems and possibly keep people away from downtown."
Mayor John Nalbandian said he did not like the number of bars downtown because it encouraged people to get drunk downtown.
But he was concerned that entertainment businesses, such as jazz clubs, would suffer from the 50 percent food requirement. He said he was questioning whether the food requirement should be less stringent.
Jerry Neverve, owner of the Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Massachusetts St., said competition would be enough to decide if there were too many bars in Lawrence. Right now, competition is stiff, he said.
"If there are too many bars downtown, then some will go out of business," he said.
If Neverve wants to expand his bar, he will have to meet the food requirement. He said he was not considering expansion.
"I would just hate to have that opportunity taken away from me," he said.
Semester health fees support reduced cost of Watkins care
Kansan staff writer
By Liz Klinger
Editor's note: This is the last of three articles addressing how health care reform affects students.
Sean Bell, Shawne junior, is one of 37 million Americans without health insurance. If Bell needed any form of medical treatment, for a lacerated finger or for life-saving surgery, he would be responsible for the cost.
For students like Bell, Watkins Memorial Health Center is invaluable. Bell's basic health care needs are met at Watkins through the University's student health fee of $69.50 a semester.
Bell has visited Watkins for allergy inoculations. flu vaccines and a raucetball injury.
"Obviously, money's tight," said Bell, who with his parents pays for his education. "I rely on Watkins heavily for services."
Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins, said,
"What we've got here is a prepaid health care
Watkins is organized like a Health Maintenance Organization, which provides health care at a reduced rate to a select, prepaid group, Strobl said. By paying health fees every semester, students receive unlimited visits to physicians. Group prepayment keeps care and services at reasonable rates for students.
The University has one of the oldest college health care programs in the country. What began in 1906 with 42 students who formed a health care group and paid 50 cents each has become an organization that has 95 full-time staff members, including 11 physicians, who average 300 patients a day.
"KU students really use the health services here," said Jim Strobel, director of student health services at Watkins. "The amount has tripled in the last 10 years."
Group protests police treatment
plan that covers about 90 percent of students' health care needs."
Yockey said that a universal access health care plan, as proposed by President Clinton, could require that Watkins serve nonstudents. Such an arrangement exists at the University of Oklahoma's Goddard Health Center, to which faculty, staff and their family members, as well as students and their children, have access.
Joanna Blair, administrative assistant to the director at Goddard, said the arrangement had kept health care costs low for students and had been well received.
Yockey said that if physicians at Watkins were required to see nonstudents, the hospital would have to offer more services for the larger variety of age groups. This requirement could steer Watkins from its focus on students.
"College health really is a specialty in medicine," Yockey said. "Anybody who caters to one group of patients can be more efficient and effective for that particular group. If you make combine tires and every couple of hours
"It's worked out well," Blair said. "I think students have more confidence in the health center when they see faculty and staff sitting in the health center with them."
Since the arrangement went into effect in 1985, a pediatrician has been added to the staff to accommodate needs. Blair said.
Black Student Union Kansas City officers used mace on crowd By Carlos Tejada
See HEALTH CARE, Page 16.
By Canos Tejada Kansan staff writer
Members of the Black Student Union are protesting their treatment by police during a party in Kansas City, Mo., last Saturday night.
More than a dozen KU students said that members of the Kansas City police department used mace to disperse a crowd leaving a party at Callahan's, 323 W. Eighth St.
Terry Bell, Tampa, Fla., senior and president of the Black Student Union, said the group as a whole would pursue the matter.
"We're going to push it until we get a formal apology," he said. $ _{i} $
"We do not use, and we do not tolerate anyone using, chemical spray to disperse a
Capt. Vince McInnerney of the police department, who was present at the party, denied any officers used a chemical device.
Karen Blackwell, Wheaton, Ill., sophomore, read her account of the incident at Mondaynight's BSU meeting.
crowd," McInerney said. "That's not a policy."
He said the room on the first floor, which he rented to the fraternity for the party, had exceeded its 300-person limit. Tate estimated the crowd at 800-1,000 people inside and outside the building.
"Suddenly there was a funny smell," she said. "I started coughing and my eyes started to water when I realized that someone was spraying tear gas."
In addition, Tate said, minors had brought their own alcohol and were drinking on the premises.
The party, which was held by Omega Psi Phi fraternity, followed Saturday evening's Black Expo in Kansas City. At about midnight the manager of Callahan's, Dave Tate, called the police to disperse the party, which he said had become too crowded.
"We have to go by the guidelines that we have," he said. "We can't break them."
The police arrived minutes later and began to usher people out of the building. Witnesses at Monday's meeting said a police officer
then used mace on the crowd leaving the party.
Mclherney said three off-duty officers had been hired as security for the party, but they also did not use mace.
Mclenney said Kansas City police carried a pepper-derivative spray with effects similar to those described by witnesses. But he said the usual policy for dispersing a crowd includes threatening arrest and then arresting people in the crowd.
Officers reported that somebody in the crowd might have sprayed the mace, he said. McInerney said multiple witnesses had called and reported the officer's badge number.
Because of a one-digit difference in the number reported by different witnesses, McInerney said the badge number could belong to one of three sergeants on the force. Two of the sergeants were not in the area at the time and it was doubtful the third was present, he said.
Blackwell said the actions were unjustified.
"They cannot go around spraying people with mace," she said. "They should be reprimanded."
Feeding frenzy
Valerie Bontrager / KANSAN
Matt Sullivan, Lawrence senior, enjoys a barbecue rib from The Bum Steer at the "KJHK Cares" Holiday Auction and Food Fair. Last night's fair is at the Halliday Inoldome, 200 McDonald Drive. Proceeds went to the American Red Cross of Kansas Flood Relief.
A legendary portrayal
Dorthy Pennington transforms herself into historical figure SojournerTruth for secondary education classes across Kansas.
Page 3.
Engineering still attracting few women
When Annette McClintock, St. Louis senior, first enrolled in the School of Engineering, she knew she would be outnumbered by male students.
Editor's note: This is the second of three articles dealing with gender issues in KU professional schools.
By Carlos Tejada Kansas staff writer
"It didn't really surprise me," she said. "I knew it was primarily male-dominated."
Scatological scarcity: There are only half as many women's bathrooms as men's bathrooms in the School of Engineering. Page 16.
Despite the progress made by women in the job market since the 1950s, engineering
still is primarily male. In the School of Engineering, less than 20 percent is female, the lowest percentage of any KU professional school.
The numbers concern Carl Locke, dean of engineering, who said gains made by
women in the field have been small.
"Prior to the mid- to late-'70s, you could almost count in one hand the women in engineering," he said. "It was a white male-dominated field."
Male dominance is shown in faculty numbers as well. The school has four female faculty members, two of which joined the school this year.
"That number ought to be something like 10." Locke said.
The solution, Locke said, is to change the perception that young girls have of science and mathematics.
"I have been told that girls are being told engineering is not something to enroll in," he said.
Mary Plumb, director of women's engineering programs, said the school was trying to recruit more women. She said the school sent speakers to junior high and high schools to tell girls to consider engineering as a career. The school also sponsors weekend workshops for female high school students interested in engineering
Recruiting efforts are not restricted to
students. Workshops also instruct teachers, guidance counselors and parents to encourage girls interested in science.
"We try to encourage them to look at the way they teach and look at their views of professions." Plumb said.
But changing people's minds in such a fashion is difficult. Plumb said.
The process has had some slow success. Since 1989, the percentage of female students has risen from 14 to 18 percent. But Plumb said many years remained before the school would reach the stated goal of 25 percent.
"You're changing a whole social mind set," she said. "That's a difficult thing to do."
"It's difficult for kids to go against the flow," she said. "That's socially uncomfortable for kids, especially young girls."
Plumb said these efforts often ran up against girls who were still forced into traditional gender roles.
Ultimately, Plumb said, the changes have to come from American society, where women still are raised with preconceived
Changing myth
The percentage of women in the school of engineering has been steadily increasing since 1989.
Source: Department of Educational Services Dave Campbell / WANSAN
notions of "women's work."
"It's going to have to be on a national level that there [have] to be some changes," she said.