VOL.100.NO.152
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSRAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1990
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Six-day finals period favored
By Melissa Bulgren Kansan staff writer
University Senate members favor reducing the number of final examination days from eight to six to comply with Board of Regents requirements increasing the number of instructional days from 72 to 75 per semester, according to a recently completed survey.
The University Senate Executive Committee will meet today to discuss responses to a questionnaire distributed July 2 to Senate members regarding the academic calendar for 1992-95.
Of the 1,360 questionnaires distributed, 356 were returned. The majority of the questionnaires returned for the 6-day examination period.
in January, the Board of Regents voted to require a minimum of 75 instructional days per semester for all Regents institutions starting in 1982. Because KU's calendar only scheduled 72 instructional days, the academic calendar had to be reorganized.
The questionnaire asked Senate members to choose between two options.
The first option allowed for the present 8-day examination period, with classes starting earlier in August and January. The second option reduced fee incentives to which would be the number of exams per day.
The 6-day calendar would begin on Monday, Aug. 24 while the 8-day schedule would begin on Friday, Aug. 21 for the 1989-89 school year.
Instructional days are class days running Monday through Friday. They exclude holiday breaks and final exam days.
"It seems to me that the 6-day examination period calendar is flexible," Frances Ingemann, chairman of SenEx, said. "Students will just have to prepare more for exams during examination period days."
Ingemann said yesterday that the final examination schedule for the 6-day period has not been decided yet and that she could not speculate on the maximum number of exams a student could be required to take on one day. Currently there are three exam periods per day during finals.
She added that SenEx was required to submit its proposed calendar to Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs. After Brinkman reviews the proposal, it will be sent to Chancellor G. A. Budig.
At its last meeting in the spring, University Council was unable to agree on a calendar. Because Budig asked that a calendar be submitted to him by August 15 to meet the Regents Sept. 1, deadline, SenEx was given the task. Because of the deadline, University Council will not have an opportunity to discuss the schedule proposals again.
But while SenEx is required to decide on a calendar, William Scott, presiding officer of the University Council, does not agree a new calendar is necessary. He said he would inform SenEx today that the Council had asked him to submit a proposal for a calendar. The council said the calendar is not necessary and that KU should maintain its present academic calendar.
Scoffed the proposal for keeping KU's academic calendar the same would go to the council for Chief Academic Officers and the Council of Presidents before reaching the Regents.
"The Council reacted by not wanting any change," he said.
Spike!
Paula Cooke, Mulvane High School student, goes up to block a spike from Heldl Camp. The summer camp, which began its second session Sunday, runs through tomorrow Beezlev, Shawnee Mission South High School student, at the Frankie Albitz Vollyball in front of Allen Fieldhouse.
Doctor finds possible cause of Alzheimer's
The Associated Press
BAR HARBOR, Maine — Researchers have found a genetic abnormality that could lead to the cause of the most common form of Alzheimer's disease, which affects about 4 million Americans.
The finding was a surprise to most researchers studying the genetics of Alzheimer's disease, who have been busily studying a different genetic abnormality.
"We're betting the output of our laboratory" that the new abnormality is the cause of all but a rare form of Alzheimer's disease, said the discoverer, the Allen Allen University of the Cleveland University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.
In a presentation at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Roses said yesterday that Alzheimer's disease is a genetic abnormality on chromosome 19, one
of the 46 human chromosomes
Previous studies had found a defect on chromosome 21 linked to a rare, early-onset form of Alzheimer's disease in which memory loss and other symptoms begin to appear around age 40. That form of Alzheimer's disease has been found in only 10 or 20 families in the world. Roses said.
50 million in other countries. Other researchers are now rapidly trying to determine whether their genetic samples from Alzheimer's disease victims also reveal an abnormality on chromosome 19, said Peter St. George-Hyslop of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
"The follow-up studies need to be done," said St. George-Hyslop. "This area of genetics of fate-onset neurological disease is extremely difficult to do."
One of the problems is that Alzheimer's disease normally appears in people who are in their 60s. The
many. People who carry a genetic
predisposition for Alzheimer's disease die of something else before they can move on to Alzheimer's disease, Roes said.
That makes it difficult for genetists to determine those who do not carry the Alzheimer's defect and who do but die before it can be heard.
"There are a lot of people in the field who have doubts about whether late-onset Alzheimer's can even be treated by genetic techniques," said Roes.
Researchers differ in their view of Alzheimer's disease. Roses believes that virtually all people would develop Alzheimer's if they lived long enough. Some merely have an awareness, and others shun up in their 60s; others might not get it unless they lived to be 120, he said.
Regents facing a lawsuit
By Deron Graul
Kansan staff writer
A Eudora woman filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Board of Regents to force the clean-up of a KU landfill located near her home in rural Eudora, her lawyer said.
bears that the University of Kansas disposed of numerous substances considered hazardous by federal law in the landfill between 1964 and 1982.
The woman, Jean Martin, whose farm is situated adjacent to the landfill, filled the suit, which requests the court to require the Regents to clean-up the landfill, in the Federal District Court of Kansas in Kansas City, KS.
on the site.
the federal District Court or Kansas City, Kan.
John Parisi, Martin's lawyer said, "The suit will hopefully end in the complete clean-up of the site. That is our goal."
Paral alleges that toxic substances, most notably the carcinogen dioxane, have been leaking out of the trenches in which the waste was buried and into surrounding soil and water. Low-level radioactive wastes are also buried
Usually a plaintiff must wait 60 days after they notify the defendant before filling suit, but when hazardous materials are being released into the environment the waiting period is waived. Parlais said.
herribuses.
The suit was filed under the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act. Martin informed the Regents of her intent to sue on July 6.
on the site.
Dioxane, which is a solvent, should not be confused with dioxin, which is a byproduct of petroleum based herbicides.
Two other aspects of the suit, which fall under the Clean Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, will not be filed until the waiting period is over, he said. But Parial said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment or the Environmental Protection Agency could take action on these aspects of the suit before the waiting period ended.
Souter's nomination as new court justice awaits confirmation
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee David H. Souter worked with White House officials yesterday preparing for tough Senate confirmation questions. He said that his bid was better than the astonishment of his selection began to wear off.
He brushed aside questions about his views on abortion, one of the issues senators are sure to emphasize during the confirmation hearing that are expected to begin in September.
President Bush cautioned the Senate not to accept or reject Souter on the basis of any single statement that he would be a great justice.
Congressional leaders' comments were mostly muted, as were remarks from interest groups on the issue. Congress was still an unknown quantity.
Elliot Minchberg of the liberal People for the American Way, said, "He doesn't have much of a track record."
Pat McGuigan of the conservative Heritage Foundation said, "Nobody knows anything about this confirmation, this is very helpful."
Souter spent several hours in the White House where he was told by presidential aides that his life would be picked apart, and everything he had ever written or said closely scrutinized.
One participant, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said Souter calmly listened to the advice and indicated there was nothing in his past that he felt uncomfortable with.
Souter met with the president's congressional liaison, Fred McClure, and other aides while the president himself touted his choice while out campaigning for GOP candidates in the Northeast.
Bush called Souter, whom he met for the first time Monday. "a great man of enormous intelligence, strength, a tough tactile mind and an impartial quality that will serve the court well."
There was no immediate argument to that glowing portrayal from Capitol Hill. In Souter, 50, a longtime New Hampshire state judge and Supreme Court apiece in U.S. appeals in Boston, Bush found a candidate without a record on abortion or other controversial topics.
"At this point it's no hits, no runs, no errors. It may not be a good thing in a justice, but it's a good thing in sending up a nominee to be confirmed," said Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, a liberal member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a senior conservative on the committee, said he hadn't heard a single senator express misgivings about Suter.
"Not any," he said. "It's amazing to me to have a conservative who is accepted by both sides of the fence as he is."
Hatch, in a morning radio interview, raised some eyebrows when he mentioned as a possible concern the fact that Souter had never been married.
"I didn't mean that the way it came off," he said later.
Federal government indicts Eastern following FAA charges
NEW YORK — The federal government will indict Eastern Airlines and some of its managers on charges of conspiracy and maintenance violations at airports early last year, the company said yesterday.
The Associated Press
Martin R. Shugue, the bankruptcy court appointed trustee who has been running Eastern for about three months, announced the impending indictment at a news conference in New York.
Shugrue said the U.S. attorney's
once in Brooklyn, which has been investigating the alleged violations for a year, informed the airline that it and a number of unidentified managers would be indicted shortly by a federal investigation. The report stations in at least two airports. Shugrue said Eastern had refused to plea bargain.
reduces to put the blame
"We cannot plead guilty to violations
of the law for which we find no
evidence." Shurroe said
The announcement added to the uncertain outlook for the troubled
airline, which has been struggling for more than a year under federal bankruptcy protection brought on by a bitter strike.
Andrew Maloney, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, declined to comment.
Earlier this month, Eastern's lawyers met with federal prosecutors in an attempt to reach a deal that would avoid a criminal indictment on safety charges, which is potentially devastating to any airline.
All of the alleged violations occurred before Eastern sought federal bankruptcy court protection in March 1989.
Shigure said Eastern had been willing to plead guilty to maintenance irregularities but refused to acknowledge a criminal conspiracy.
He said a guilty plea to that charge "would have called into question this entire airline's present superior maintenance program and all employees and managers involved in it."
Shugrue said he did not know which managers would be named in the
The investigation began last year
indictment, which he said was expected to be handed up today.
Mechanics allegedly were ordered to disregard safety guidelines and then falsified log books to show that proper checks were made.
The grand jury reportedly has been looking into allegations that Eastern altered maintenance and safety records early last year. The company and the LaGuardia airports in New York and Hartford field International in Atlanta.
after the Federal Aviation Administration fined Eastern $839,000 for alleged maintenance violations, primarily at Kennedy.
The FAA regularly fines airlines for improper maintenance practices, but does not seek criminal charges.
A federal bankruptcy judge appointed Shuguee on April 18 to run the airline in place of Frank Lorenzo, the chairman of Eastern parcel and Logistics Texas Air Corp., now known as Continental Airlines Holdings Inc.