THE UNIVERSITY DAII KANSAN
VOL. 101, NO.68
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1990
(USPS 650-640)
Regents officials consider equipment fee
NEWS: 864-4810
Kansan staff writer
By Yvonne Guzman
The presidents of the seven Board o. Regents schools will listen to a proposal at their December meeting for a $2-per-hour general-use equipment fee that would apply to students at all Regents schools, said Jim McGraw, the administration of the Council of Chief Academic Officers.
Del Brinkman, the KU representative to COCAO, said that the general-use fee, if passed, would raise more money for the University of Kansas than the proposed engineering fee, which would increase some engineering students' tuition by as much as $450.
The Council of Presidents, which comprises the presidents of each of the Regents of the University of Pennsylvania.
prepare the alternate proposal.
"There isn't a specific proposal yet," Brinkman said. "This is still in the thinking stage."
Murphy said the council would discuss a general-use fee Dec. 20 — the same day the Regents are expected to make a decision about the engineering fee.
Brinkman said the general-use fee would be used to satisfy needs within each University. At KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State University, those needs probably would include updating engineering schools' equipment.
In October, KU, K State and Wichita State submitted a proposal to the Board of Regents for a $15-per-credit hour fee that would let them use their existing credit facility, investment, including the quality, maintenance
and number of available computers.
The fee has been criticized because of the financial burden it would place on engineer-
"What this does is spread it more evenly," Brinkman said. "The idea would be an academic across-the-board equipment fee for all students."
So far, the idea of a general-use fee has received tentative approval from some who know it well. It will probably be approved by
Carl Locke, dean of engineering, said that he would prefer the engineering fee but that he would prefer the research fee.
*If the engineering fee is not approved and
the fee is proposed an accepted, I'd be
delivered.*
Locke said that he thought the general-use would provide enough money for the
engineering school now but that he was concerned about the long-term future of the
"Engineering is a real small fraction of the University," he said.
The needs of the school eventually could be lost among other departments and organiza-
It is common for universities to expect engineering students to pay more he said.
"I think in a way it's a little more fair for them who benefit to be paid it," Lucke said.
A general-use fee would allow the University to address needs in all areas and would
Mike Schreiner, student body president,
said that a general-use fee would have good
and bad points but that it would be preferable
to the engineering fee.
avoid differential fees, Schreiner said. Differential fees might discourage students from going into certain fields because they are more expensive.
However, Schreiner said that a general-use fee had some of the same disadvantages as the engineering fee.
First, the fee would distort the fee-to-cost ratio, a figure that reflects the percentage of university costs that is paid by student tuition, he said. The fee-to-cost ratio is an important factor when the Regents set tuition each year.
Second, the fee would be an administrative nightmare, Schreiner said. Students and the administration probably would swap money and add-drop, which already is a hectic process.
Students receive training for AIDS peer education
By Monica Mendoza
Kansan staff writer
Fourteen students training to educate their peers about the human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted diseases heard a message Saturday: everyone is at risk.
Janine Demo, coordinator of health education at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said an HIV/STD education committee had designed a program that would teach participants to speak to their own groups about STDs and HIV disease.
The first training program was conducted Saturday on World AIDS Day. For three years, more than 150 countries around the world, including the United States, donated Dec. 1 as a day to promote AIDS awareness.
Trained KU students not be counselors, but they would serve on a speakers bureau. The volunteer students would attempt to explain difficult terminology and difference between medical facts and myth, Demo said.
Demo said students who registered at the training session would be contacted next semester to join the
"The idea is that they are familiar with the subject and can show a film and answer basic questions." she said.
Henry Buck, chief of gynecology at Watkins, said that many people did not understand the HIV disease or STDs.
He said that often, educators identified a risk group as being a group more susceptible to getting the virus.
"If a person does not identify with the risk group, then they will ignore the prevention message." Buck said.
they will ignore the prevention message." Buck said. "You have to be the best way to send a message was to talk about skim behavior.
"The message is that there is a one in five chance for a person to get a STD," he said. "Everyone needs to
Buck said that one of the most important messages that peer educators could send to students was to stop mixing
"You can see all the films, know about all the consequences, but you are not going to remember to use a condom if you're under the influence of drugs or alcohol," he said.
Patrick Dilley, student representative on the committee, said the idea for a speakers bureau to address questions about AIDS was developed by students concerned that AIDS education was not effective.
Peer education is an effective way to get students talking about the seriousness of the disease, he said.
Ann Ailor, of the Douglas County Health Department, said that in 1989 she administered 362 HIV tests and that seven people tested positive. In 1990 she administered 350 HIV tests, and nine tested positive.
He said peer educators would team up when speaking to groups.
BELGW: Vicki Brooks, volunteer with the SAVE Home project, a hospice for AIDS victims, adds the names of former SAVE Home residents to the quilt.
ABOVE: The Midwest portion of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is a memorial to those stricken by the disease. Quilt panels are made across the nation by individuals and groups to commemorate the lives of people with AIDS. The exhibit, which ended yesterday, was at the Exhibition Hall in Kansas City, Mo., during World AIDS Day. It was one of many nationwide.
Kohl the victor in German elections
The Associated Press
BONN. Germany  Chancellor Helmut Kohl's center right coalition yesterday, easily won the first free united German elections since 1932, buoyed by Kohl's popularity as the man who crafted swift unification.
The balloting capped a breathtaking transformation that began with a revolt last year against East Germany's Communist government and led to the merging of East and West Germany on Oct. 3.
East Germany's former ruling Communist Party, now called the Party for Democratic Socialism, won seats in the new German Parliament but lost much of the support it had earlier this year.
A jubilant Kohl was greeted at his Christian Democrat party headquarters by a throng of well-wishers.
"This is a day of great joy." he told them.
At the headquarters of the rival Social Democrats, the scene was somber.
According to forecasts based on early vote counts by television networks, Kohl's coalition was expected to win 55 percent of the vote, compared with Democratic Democrats. The projections have been highly accurate in the past.
The ZDF television network said Kohl's Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, increased their parliamentary seats from 305 to about 314. ZDF said the Social Democrats, who held 239 seats before the vote, dropped to about 226.
In perhaps the biggest surprise, the Greens environmental party, Europe's best-known ecology movement, lost nearly all of its seats. ZDF said the Greens lost all but about eight of their 48 parliamentary seats. Only the sister party in eastern Germany won seats in the new parliament.
Along with Kohl, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher was among the election's big victors. ZDF said Genscher's Free Democrats, Kohl's National Front, would increase their representation from 57 to 79 seats in the 656-seat Parliament.
Lafontaine blamed his Social Democrats' loss on Kohl's ability to capitalize on the tumultuous events that began with East Germany's peaceful revolution in October 1989 and led to unification
The ARD television network reported that the Social Democrats were badly defeated in former East Germany, where they won 25 percent of the vote compared to 57 percent for Kohl's coalition.
AIDS researchers show progress with drugs and education
Bv Courtney Eblen
Kansan staff writer
Donna Sweet, associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, treats patients who are HIV-positive and those who develop AIDS.
Although no cure has been found for the AIDS virus, researchers know more than they did when the syndrome erupted in the early 1980s.
"It's still a terminal disease, but people are more optimistic." Sweet said.
Ten years ago, patients diagnosed with AIDS were given six to eight months to live. Now they are told they have at least 26 to 30 months.
The Food and Drug Administration's initial fears about letting physicians use experimental medication to treat HIV and MS have lessened considerably. Sweet said.
"The FDA has come a long way in allowing us to use these treatments" she said.
The most widely used drug is called AZT and helps alleviate the debilitating effects of AIDS in many patients, Sweet said. The drug is especially effective because it is adrenergic and causes fewer side effects before they develop AIDS and helps prevent that second stage of the syndrome.
But researchers' work is hindered by the lack of knowledge in the public. Sweet said
that more than 1.2 million people in the United States were HIV-positive and did not know it. Although these people have not received AIDS, they still can pass HIV to others.
Sweet treats more than 200 HIV-positive patients and about 50 AIDS patients at her office at the Wichita branch, and she is passing the knowledge about the syndrome to her students.
"They need to learn how to take care of it because they're going to see a lot of it."
A mass-education program designed to update the Kansas medical community about the use of antibiotics.
The program, called Train the Trainer, recently received a $300,000-a-year grant from the U.S. Health Department to continue for another three years.
the syndrome has been operating for three years.
The program is jointly sponsored by the Kansas AIDS Education and Training Center and the Office of Health and Environmental Education at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. It is coordinated through state health education centers and medical centers, which conduct the conferences.
James Cooney, dean of allied health, said health-care professionals in each region were
updated during the seminars with the latest information about the syndrome.
Cooney said a $50,000 grant would finance more seminars about the psychological and social aspects of AIDS that often plague patients.
The series of conferences already has begun, and they will resume in January after a break this month. he said.
Mike Robinson, program coordinator of the AIDS Education and Training Center, said the training program lasted eight hours, and medical professionals could receive continuing education credit, depending on their profession.