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VOL. 101, No. 131
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSTAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1991
(USPS 650-640)
Office of financial aid making changes to help KU students
NEWS: 864-4810
Automated phone system and fee-payment process to change
By Eric Nelson Kansan staff writer
Officials in the office of student financial aid are hoping recent and future changes will improve KU access to financial aid information
The changes include a recently installed, automated telephone system, a simplification of the fee payment process that will begin in August, and a move by the office to a new location. The building will be renovated beginning in the fall.
These plans come after an increase in applications for aid from 11,431 in the 1989-90 academic year to 12,200 during this year, said Jerry Rogers.
director of financial aid.
He said he hoped the change in the fee-payment process would begin in the fall.
He said the new system would not include general student loans, the largest pool of grants, but would include many others including scholarships from the Endowment Association, state of Kansas scholarships, Kansas minority scholarships, Regents scholarships and Pell
grants. The office hopes also to include Perkins loans in the near future.
"It's not the majority of dollars, but it will be a pile of checks they won't have to stand in line for." Rogers said.
Diane Del Buono, associate director of financial aid, said the phone system installed in February at the office handle more telephone calls.
She said that with the new system, the office had handled between 150 and 350 calls a day. It has had as many as 500 in one day.
The automated system can answer many generic questions and can direct students to where they need to go for answers to specific questions
Rogers said, "It sure has reduced the number of calls we've had to handle."
Del Buno will be the director of financial aid beginning in July, when Rogers will retire.
She has helped plan the office's move to the renovated area, which will give the office more space — she is strong in its current location in Strong.
"What we will have for one is adequate reception space." Del Buono said.
Many students prefer confidentiality and privacy when discussing their personal financial situations, she said. This will be provided by the new reception space and two offices for private meetings.
Rogers was unsure whether the increase in applicants for aid would be a continuing trend. But he said it would be a concern with a significant tuition increase.
Georgian president gets powerful post
The Associated Press
TBILISI, U.S.S.R. — In a bold step to assert its independence, the parliament of Soviet Georgia created a powerful new presidency yesterday and elected its current leader to the post.
Zviad Gamsakharda, an anti-Communist leader and former political prisoner, was given the power to institute martial law and presidential rule, to revoke or abstain citizenship and to declare war.
Yesterday's action followed Georgia's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union on Tuesday. Gamsakhurdia said strengthening the leadership post showed that the southern republic decided to accelerate the process of creating an independent state.
constitution to create the powerful presidency, has gone further than any of the other Soviet republics in moving toward independence.
The republic, in modifying its
Gamsakhurda, 52, will serve until a general election May 26, the anniversary of the date in 1918 when Georgia first declared independence. It was forcibly absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1921.
In a show of hands, the 245-member parliament voted to create the presidency and then elected Gamsakhurdia. The votes officially were declared to be unanimous, even though a handful of legislators appeared to abstain. Gamsakhurdia was the only
"Georgia is in danger," Gamsakhurdia said in his acceptance speech.
o regard it as a pet peeve of our school.
Gamsakhurdia was the only person nominated.
Officials to investigate errors made in appraisal
By Vanessa Fuhrmans
Mistakes were made.''
That was the statement issued Friday by the Douglas County Appraiser's office as part of a three-page explanation of its 1991 property appraisal program. County officials released the statement in response to an alleged property owner about skyrocketing appraisal property values.
'It's not going to solve people's problems overnight.'
— Louie McEhanyan
County commission chairperson
"It's not going to solve people's problems overnight." he said.
Although the explanation pin-painted some of the errors made by the appraiser office during this year's reappraisal process, Louie McEhanyne, county commission chairperson, said it was only the beginning of the investigation into the program's flaws.
The statement identified three major mistakes in the county appraisal system:
Since county residents received notices of resupplied property values April 6, an overload of questions was generated and have poured into the aruiser's office.
Although the county had accepted private appraisals from landowners in 1898 and 1900, the appraiser's office did not use those results to determine values for the same properties this year.
■ Because problems occurred during the 1989 and 1990 appraisal processes, the county adjusted many property values afterward. However, the appraiser's office did not use these adjusted values this year. Instead, the original, flawed appraisals were used once again.
Although more than 300 adjustments were made to correct obvious errors before the notices were mailed, the appraiser's office failed to detect many others. Those mistakes included falsely record property changes and recognition previously corrected data and actual data error inputs.
When taxpayers packed the county commission chambers for Wednesday's meeting to protest the valuation notices, commissioners vowed to arrange both an internal and external audit of the program.
The commission will begin examining property appraisals on a neighborhood basis today to see whether the properties are in good standing or neighborly or comparable lots.
George Little, director of the county data processing department, said a computer connected to those in the appraiser's office had been installed in the commission chambers for the audit.
Chris McKenzie, county administrator, said he had received word on Friday from the Public Valuation Division of the Kansas Department that it would conduct a preliminary external audit within the next two weeks.
Run for your life
--dissertation, said studying the Evenki was an opportunity to learn about the genetics of an isolated population.
Jon Oler, Colorado Springs, Colo., sophomore, and Mike Hybl, Baxter, Iowa, senior, kick in a final sprint to the finish line of the "Run for Your Life" 5-K run run. Oler, running for the McColm Hall team, beat Hybl, representing the Templin Hall staff, across the line for second place. Jesse Griffin of Joseph R. Pearson Hall won Saturday's event. The run was sponsored by the Association of University Residence Halls, Interfraternity Council and JRP.
Julie Jacobson/KANSAN
Four researchers examine Evenki natives of Siberia
By Sarah Davis
Kansan staff writer
Two years ago, Michael Crawford stepped out of a helicopter into a small village in Siberia completely surrounded by a thick forest.
"It was like going into a whole new world," said Crawford, professor of anthropology and genetics.
This August, when he travels back to the village, it will look much more familiar.
"There are no big surprises that will come this time," he said, smiling. "But it would be nice to find something truly surprising."
What he wants to find are answers to his questions about human evolution and population.
Along with a Russian and a Canadian colleague and a KU graduate student, Crawford plans a month-long study of the Evenki people who live in the village. These natives of Siberia are reindeer herders.
"We want to understand how people who are herders make a living — what food they consume and how their forest environment." Crawford said.
"Our goal is to find out what Siberian populations are most like the American Indian populations," she said. "We have risen to the American Indians?"
The other part of their research involves using DNA analysis to determine the origins of the Eveni. They are examining the Siberian people's link to American Indians. Siberians are examining Indian Indians but are of Asian descent.
Tony Connuzzi, a Lawrence graduate student who plans to work with Crawford in Siberia for his doctoral
'Our goal is to find out what Siberian populations are most like the American-Indian populations. Who gave rise to the American Indians?'
Michael Crawford Professor of anthropology and
"In terms of trying to understand the biological relations, our opportunities are dwindling because these people are no longer living like they used to," he said. "They've lost some of their ethnic distinctiveness."
Crawford and the three other researchers are studying the population structure of the native Siberian bear, which is much known about their genetics.
"They've moved from an arctic environment to a whole series of different environments," said Crawford, who is doing research on this for 16 years.
Because the Siberian people can be found from Alaska to South America, the researchers are interested in how populations adapt to new environments.
An agreement with the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which supports the group's field research, will work in Siberia for five years.
U.S. troops launch final pullout from Iraq
The Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The final withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from southern Iraq began yesterday, 88 days after the United States launched its massive offensive against Dudsen's forces from Kuwait.
U. S. troop strength in the region — which had peaked at more than half a million — has now dropped below 400,000, the military said yesterday.
They said a division-sized force of 10,000 to 15,000 troops would temporarily remain in the newly-established demilitarized zone until a 1,440-member U.N. peacekeeping force was in place.
U. S. officers said the palour officially ended the occupation of southern Iraq, but that U.S. warplanes would remain in the air to protect the withdrawing ground troops. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
The zone reaches six miles into
Iraq from the Kuwaiti border, but
U.S. officers said this was a technical
problem that would essentially end the U.S. occupation of Iraqi territory.
'We have a very rough idea of deployment, but nothing has been finalized.'
All of the other U.S. troops will return home as soon as possible, the U.S. officers said.
The officers estimated that there were at least 40,000 U.S. troops, perhaps more, in southern Iraq, but they could not give a precise figure.
- Joachim Hutter U.N. official
The move back to the demilitarized zone will be completed within a few days, they said.
The U.S. military also said the United States and its allies would not abandon more than 40,000 refugees in southern Iraq, many of whom oppose them. The U.S. said the allies would protect them there reprisals and feed and house them.
Military sources said President Bush issued the withdrawal orders to hasten the U.S. pullout to avoid being dragged into Iraq's civil war for a prolonged period and risk further U.S. casualties.
U. S. casualties in the gulf war were extremely low by military standards - 139 killed in action, 357 wounded in action, six missing in action and 117 dead.
Iraiqi war dead were thought to number in the tens of thousands, but no figure ever was released.
The Central Command said the last remaining army corps, the VII Corps, was moving from south of the Euphrates River in Iraq to the zone
along the Iraq-Kuwait border
The VII Corps includes the 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley and the German-based 3rd Armored Division, each with up to 17,000 troops, hundreds of tanks and support elements.
The famed 1st Division, the Big Red One, was the first to break through Iraq's defenses in the 100- hour ground war that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait. It alone has more than 7,000 vehicles of all types.
Joachim Hutter, a U.N. official who is part of the peacekeeping mission, said he could not give a time frame for getting the troops to the DMZ because many logistical matters must be worked out.
Some of the U.N. troops should begin arriving this week, but it is unlikely they will go straight to the United Nations headquarters.
"We have a very rough idea of deployment, but nothing has been finalized." Hutter said.
See related stories Pages 2,7
Kuwait refuses refuge for those fleeing Iraq
The Associated Press
KUWAIT CITY — Iraqis seek to flee southward from Saddam Hussein's rule will not be granted refuge in Kuwait, and cannot pass through the emirate unless a third country offers to take them, a government official said yesterday.
So far, there have been virtually no offers.
"We can't afford another problem." he said. "We have enough."
Acting Planning Minister Sulayman Mutawa, reflecting the views of many Kuwaitis, said the emirate had its hands full recovering from the Iraqi occupation without a cope with thousands of refugees.
Nearly 30,000 Iraqi refugees are in U.S.-occupied southern Iraq. Many fear retribution at the military base after U.S. troops are replaced
during the next week or two by a 1,440-member U.N. peacekeeping force.
An advance team from the U.N. peacekeeping force arrived in Kuwait City on Saturday and met with officials of Kuwait's defense and foreign ministries to discuss its logistical needs. The force will patrol the demilitarized zone, which will extend up to six miles inside Iraq and three miles into Kuwait.
Allied forces are to remain in the demilitarized zone and continue helping the refugees until the U.N. observer unit takes over.