SPORTS: Kansas women's volleyball team wins its first conference match on the road, defeating Missouri in three games. Page 9
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.108,NO.49
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1993
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
Holly McQueen/KANSAN
A pile of pumpkins
Members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity line up 700 pounds of pumpkins in their dining room for their Halloween "Spook" party on Saturday. The pumpkins will be carved and placed throughout the house for the annual event.
Late bloomers, take heart: scholarships still available
By Donella Hearne
Kansan staff writer
Most scholarships are awarded to students who are fresh out of high school, but it is not too late for KU students, said Marti Ruel, director of the University Scholarship Center.
The rising cost of tuition, books and entertainment has college students thinking about how to pay for school without selling their souls to the devil. And now is the time to be thinking of getting scholarships for next year.
"It's more complex for KU students," she said. "But there are scholarships, prizes and awards offered in the various academic departments." These awards usually are based on writing contests or special projects. Such contests are advertised on department bulletin boards, and information often is available through department offices.
Until a better process for awarding scholarships to late bloomers is created, their opportunities are limited. Ruelsaid.
Late bloomers, as Ruel calls them, are students who did not excel in high school but are now excellent college students.
A few KU students also have a chance at athletic scholarships. Richard Konzem, assistant director of the Athletic Association, said some students are walk-ons. These athletes join the team just for the chance of playing, he said.
"Walk-ons most commonly occur in football," he said. "If they have stuck it out and gotten good enough they will often be offered a scholarship."
Athletic scholarships usually are awarded through the recruiting process, Konzem said, because it is imperative to the department that recruiters go out and seek talented student-athletes.
Because of the vast recruiting arena, athletes who were less talented in high school may have been overlooked and have since become excellent athletes. Konzem said.
Another avenue for college students who did not receive scholarships out of high school is talent in the arts.
The department of fine arts awards scholarships based on auditions and portfolios. And these scholarships are not strictly for fine arts majors, said Dennis Brown, assistant dean of fine arts.
African Americans' graduation rate low
"Students may be awarded a scholarship even though they are not fine arts students," he said. "They will still receive half of the amount awarded."
Information about scholarships can be found at the University Scholarship Center, 33 Strong Hall, or through the offices of academic departments.
Fine arts auditions and portfolio reviews are given annually, and students of any age or major may apply, although there are some scholarships that have stricter requirements than others he said.
Statistics reveal loss of students
African Americans have a lower four-year graduation rate than any other ethnic group on campus, according to University statistics.
The numbers, from the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, showed that 73 African Americans graduated from KU's Lawrence campus with undergraduate degrees last spring. However, 221 entered KU as freshmen four years before. The resulting graduation rate of 33 percent is far below the rate of other groups.
The trend is not new. Since 1989, the number of African-American graduates has been between one-quarter and one-third of the number of freshmen enrolled four years before.
By Carlos Tejada Kansan staff writer
Although undergraduate students in general now take more than four years to graduate, statistics indicate that a large number of African-American students — whether through transferring to other schools or dropping out — slip through the cracks and disappear.
"I don't know where they go," said Sherwood Thompson, director of the Office of Minority Affairs. "But we need to find them."
By comparison, the number of Asian-American graduates in 1992 was 59.5 percent of its freshman population four years earlier. The graduation rate for Hispanic-American students was 55.6 percent, while the rate for white students was 54.2 percent.
The graduation rate of American Indians, which ranges from 38.1 percent in 1989 to 81.8 percent in 1992, fluctuates because the total number
Students lost In 1992 the number of African-American graduates was 33 percent of the number of African-American freshmen enrolled four years earlier.Past years' rates are similar.
drop out transfer ...only 33 percent of that number graduated in spring 1992
Of the number of African-American freshmen in 1988...
Source: The Office of Institutional Research and Planning John Paul Fogel/KANSAN
of students is too low to calculate meaningful percentages. American Indians make up only.7 percent of the student body.
Non-resident international students were not counted.
Thompson said the numbers reflected national trends. He cited a study by the National Education Goals Panel, which was instituted by then-President George Bush in 1989. It said 13 percent of African Americans who graduated from high school also completed four or more years of college in 1992. The rate for Hispanic students was 16 percent, while the rate for white students was 30 percent.
Another possible reason for the loss of African-American students is the comfort level, Thompson said. He said that African Americans might feel out of place at KU's mostly white Lawrence campus.
"They have problems with the environment on campus," he said. "They can't adjust. They don't feel confident here."
Thompson said that an overriding factor was money. He said that African-American students often did not have the money to buy equipment and services, such as calculators and tutors, to assist them in case of academic trouble.
Peter Braithwaite, Evanston, Ill.
senior and member of the African American Student Concerns Task Force, agreed with Thompson. He said that a lack of African-American faculty made students feel as if they did not belong.
"Students need to feel more comfortable in the classroom," he said. "That's where to start."
Braithwaite said the University needed more rigorous retention programs.
Thompson said the Office of Minority Affairs was working on several programs to aid minority students. He said that he wanted to implement programs that would require at-risk students to seek assistance at places such as the Office of Minority Affairs and the Student Assistance Center.
The University also must have a way of tracking students who drop out, Thompson said. He said the current method of ending enrollment with a short trip to the registrar's office should include a survey asking why the student dropped out.
Barbara Ballard, associate dean of student life, said that there were many causes but no easy solutions to the problem. She said the problem was vital to both the students and KU in general.
"We have to do everything possible to try to correct this," she said.
Clinton gives Capitol Hill updated health care plan
Universal coverage delayed until 1998
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON President Clinton yesterday released a retooled version of his health care plan that postponed the guarantee of universal coverage for a year and limited federal subsidies for medical care.
the president and his wife and adviser, Hillary Rodham Clinton, delivered their 1,300-page Health Security Plan to a cheering crowd of legislators at the Capitol yesterday.
He now hopes to ensure every U.S. citizen is guaranteed a standard set of benefits by the start of 1998, a year later than first hoped. Those benefits would include expanded dental coverage, broadened coverage for
"I ask that before the Congress finishes its work next year, you pass and I sign a bill that will actually guarantee health security to every citizen of this great country," the president said.
women, more choice in health plans and a slower phase-in of long-term care benefits.
In response to worries about higher costs to both individuals and the nation, the plan contains a new guarantee that families would have to pay no more than 3.9 percent of earnings for health premiums. It also caps federal subsidies at $161 billion over five years unless Congress approves more spending.
The plan's major tax hikes include a 75-cent increase in the federal cigarette tax, worth $65 billion, and a 1-percent levy on large corporations that set up their own health plans, worth $24 billion.
The broad outlines of Clinton's health care proposal have not changed. It guarantees a standard set of health benefits to every American and requires employers to pay at least 80 percent of their workers' average premiums.
Among other things, Clinton has agreed to:
Make it easier for states to adopt a government-financed, Canadian-
style system in which everyone would buy insurance from a centralized source.
- Increase the amount of subsidies available to small businesses, which have been particularly critical of the Clinton plan. Subsidies would be available to employers with up to 75 low-wage employees, rather than 50 as earlier planned.
- Set aside an extra $45 billion in case subsidies exceed expectations.
- Provide free mammograms for women at high risk of breast cancer rather than limiting that benefit to women over 50, and allow women to designate obstetrician-gynecologists as their principal doctors.
Dedicate $58 billion of the money gained from health reforms to deficit reduction rather than the $91 billion originally expected. Total new costs are projected at $331 billion over five years, and total new revenues are projected at $389 billion.
Slow down the phase-in-period for new long-term care benefits to make the coverage fully effective by the end of the year 2002 rather than 2000.
Historic points
John F. Gardenhire author and professor of English at Laney Community College in Oakland, Calif., last night discussed his experiences as an African-American student at KU in the 1950s.
Page 3.
Homosexuals say KU is safer than city
By Scott J. Anderson
an staff writer
Some of Lawrence's homosexuals say that if they become victims of a hate crime based on their sexual orientation, they would rather be on the KU campus than elsewhere in the city.
"I would hope that all police would be sensitive to hate-motivated crimes," said Eric Moore, co-coordinator for Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week for Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Services of Kansas. "But I think there is a tendency to be more sensitive at KU because sexual orientation is a protected class."
"I can't imagine a Lawrence police officer not responding to any report of a crime properly." Nickell said.
But Lawrence police Sgt. Rick Nickel said he did not understand that onion.
Some civil rights supporters say homosexuals feel safer on campus because they communicate more actively with KU
police than with Lawrence police.
"I think people have said that because LesBiGay SOK has interacted with the KU police," said Tim Brownlee of the Freedom Coalition, a Lawrence gay rights organization. "In the past, it's been true that KU police seem more willing to work with victims. With the city police, there was not that high level of cooperation."
KU police have been keeping statistics on hate crimes since 1988, when sexual orientation was added to the nondiscrimination policy at the University. But the department's computer database keeps only three years of records, said Officer Burdel Welsh.
In 1991, KU police reported eight crimes that had involved a bias based on sexual orientation. In 1992, 11 such crimes were reported. In 1993, one case of telephone harassment has been reported.
Lawrence police began keeping track of hate crimes Jan. 1.
way the crime was reported was more of a problem than how it was investigated.
An example was a homosexual who was beaten recently outside a downtown bar. He told police he did not think that the crime had been hate-motivated.
In some cases, Lawrence police said, the
Brownlee said the Freedom Coalition did not agree.
Moore said that some members of LesBiGayS OK had heard about the incident and thought that it had been hate-motivated.
"We have to see something really obvious, or the victim has to tell us they think it is a hate crime." Brothers said.
Rich Crank, an employee at AnschutzScience Library, has studied sexual-orientation crimes on campus. He said that proper reporting of crimes could improve the homosexual community's relationship with the Lawrence police.
Lt Mark Brothers of the Lawrence police said that unless the victim changed his mind, the beating would not be considered a hate crime.
Defining hate crime
A hate crime is any crime that shows "evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity," according to the Justice Department. Hate crimes can include:
■ Murder
■ Rape
■ Robbery
■ Aggravated assault
■ Arson
■ Intimidation
■ Telephone harassment
■ Terroristic threats
Source: The Associated Press KANSAN
"If it is a hate crime, the more times it is reported, it says something may need to be done about it," he said.
Both KU and Lawrence police officers receive sensitivity training in this area.
"A victim of an assault is a victim of an assault." Welsh said. "We're going to respond to that crime report in all cases, and we're not going to, judge the victim based on sexual preference."
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