VOL.100.NO.104
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
(USPS 650-640)
THURSDAY, MAR. 1, 1990
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
NEWS: 864-4810
Admissions bill dies again
By Rod Griffin
By Rod Griffin
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — A bill that would have restricted admission to Board of Regents institutions was killed by the House yesterday after almost six hours of debate.
This was the fourth time a qualified admissions bill had been killed in the House. Similar bills died in committees in 1987 and 1989. In 1988 the bill failed on the House floor. This year a 58-64 vote killed the bill.
"I would not be opposed to qualified admissions if we were doing more to improve public education in the state," she said. "If we could make a good beginning at strengthening public schools from preschool through high school, it would work much better than putting this artificial mechanism at one end."
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, said she reluctantly voted against the measure because improvements in public education needed to be made first.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-D Lawrence, and State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, also voted against the bill.
The bill proposed by the House Appropriations committee would
have required high school students to meet one of three requirements to be admitted to a Regent institution.
Students would have had to maintain a 2.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale and have completed a college preparatory curriculum, score 21 or more on the American College Test, or graduated in the top one-third of their high school classes.
The admissions requirements would have become effective in Fall 1994.
The requirements would have been more stringent for out-of-state students.
They would have been required to maintain a 2.5 grade point average for the same curriculum or to score 23 or more on the ACT. '
ouments who earned 24 hours at a community college and maintained a 2.0 grade point average would have been admitted to Regents institu-
Students older than 21 who graduated from high school or earned a General Education Certificate and scored 50 or better on the GED test would not have been subject to qualified admissions.
Despite the consistent failures, the Regents remain confident that the
The bill would have left a window open for the entrance of some students who did not meet the qualifications.
"We weren't surprised," said Norman Jeter, Regents chairman.
"We're making progress. We got more support than we did before. Eventually it will pass."
Stanley Kopilik, executive director of the Regents, said legislators did not understand the reasons for the bill.
"There's still a great deal of misunderstanding and misinterpretation about what we're trying to achieve," he said.
Opponents said the bill would take opportunities away from minority and poor Kansas students.
"If you give those kids a chance, you'll be surprised," said State Rep. Steve Wiard, D-Council Grove. "I think a good teacher gives a kid the opportunity to learn." Legislature gives the people of Kansas the benefit of the doubt."
But supporters of the bill said it was needed to make the state education system more competitive.
"It's a bill to qualify and insure success," said State Rep. Rochelle Chronister, R-Needesha. "We compete with students from Japan and Thailand by TP's being us. We're not second. We're not third. We're last."
The Associated Press contributed Information to this story.
Senators study abortion bill
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — A legislative pane began work this week on a bill that would prohibit abortions at the University of Kansas Medical Center, the only public hospital in Kansas where they are performed.
A subcommittee of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee started work on the measure, although no action was taken. The bill is expected to be sent to the full committee.
State Sen. Ed Reilly, R-Leavendow, committee chairman, said the subcommittee also would consider a bill requiring doctors to notify the parents of teen-agers who were about to have abortions. A similar proposal today will be debated on the House floor.
"It's been suggested that we do nothing over here if the House defeats notification, and I strongly disagree with that," Reilly said.
Last year, the Senate passed a bill that would have required a
teen-ager to obtain consent from one of her parents before undergoing an abortion, a stronger version of the parental notification bill. That measure died in a House committee.
Gary Hulett, Gov. Mike Hayden's special assistant for health and environment, told the subcommittee that Hayden opposed any bill that would place limits on the medical procedures at the Med Center.
However, Hulett said the governor would have to examine any bill passed by the Legislature before making a veto of the bill.
Marlin Rein, representing the Med Center, said the bill was the most restrictive in the country.
The bill is sponsored by Reilly and 13 other senators, seven Republicans and six Democrats.
State Sen. Ben Vidricken, R-Salina, offered an amendment, supported by Right to Life of Kansas, that would allow abortion counseling at the Med Center.
Student Senate asks for $2 fee increase
By Matt Taylor
Kansan staff writer
In nearly five hours of discussion, Student Senate last night approved one of three bills that could raise student fees next semester.
Senate unanimously approved a bill, sponsored by the Kansas Union Memorial Corporation Board, that would raise fees by $2 and use the money for operating costs at the Kansas Union. Senate passed it without any discussion.
Pam Holley, board president, said some reasons for raising the fee were increases in the federal minimum wage, application of the state sales tax and increases in the Union's share of health insurance premiums.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said he would pass the approved bill to Chancellor Gene A. Budig. If the chancellor approves the bill, he will present it later this semester to the Board of Regents, which will make the final decision on the bill.
At midnight, Senate killed a bill, 27-14, that would have called for a $6 increase in student fees to pay for Phase II of the Union renovation.
Phase II renovation includes changes in the building's fourth and third floor entrances, increased space for the Student Union Activities board and a different floor plan on the fourth floor.
"This bill will make the Union efficient now and 65 years from now." Holley said.
Michael Diggs, opponent of the bill,
said. "There are a lot of students out
there who have a difficult time when
we increase fees. This body can no
longer afford to pass the costs to the students. I'd love to have a great Union, but I just don't think we can afford it right now."
B. Jake White, student body president, said that about 5,000 students went through the Union every day, and that Phase II was necessary.
"You're thinking about the future here." White said.
Aaron Rittmaster, another supporter of the bill, said, "It's the students who should be paying to keep it going. It's for us. We should have a building we can be proud of."
Senate also killed a bill, 23-20, that would have raised fees from $9 to $14 to pay for women's and non-revenue sports. The University of Kansas received the authorization out of the fees to help dig itself out of a $980,000 operating deficit.
Bob Frederick, athletic director, said he was disappointed with Senate's vote.
"The only other sources that we can get funding from are private donations and increased football ticket sales." Frederick said.
Susan Wachier, assistant athletics director, said football and basketball represented 34 percent of KUAC revenue.
Frederick listed several reasons KUAC had a deficit. One was that football revenue had dropped during the past several years. Another was recent NCAA probabilities of Big Eight teams, which took away television rights and bowl appearances.
"Essentially what we have is an 18-sport program with 17 of them
See SENATE, p. 5
Final stretch
Lucy Gonzalez, Overland Park, junior, stretches in preparation for the last dress rehearsal of Rock Chalk Revue. The revue opens tonight in Hoch Auditorium and runs through Saturday night.
Witness from bank testifies in Grissom hearing
The Associated Press
OLATHE — A druggist testified yesterday at the preliminary hearing of Richard Grissom that he saw a white woman and a Black man at a drive-up bank June 26 at the time Christine Rusch is thought to have cashed a check.
He said the description of the prowler was similar to that of Grissom, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the disappearance of three Johnson County women. Detective Dennis Leuker testified that a car thought to be Grissom's brown Toyota was found an hour later at the apartment complex, one of several at which Grissom worked as a painter.
In other testimony in the third day of the hearing, a Grandview, Mo., policeman said yesterday that he was called to an apartment complex the next day, June 27, after a prowler was reported.
Brown, both 22, and Joan Marie Butler, 24, of Overland Park.
Rusch and Brown disappeared June 26.
Butler disappeared June 18. Their bodies have
Grissom, 29, is charged with killing Lenexa
roommates Christine Rusch and Theresa
On the day she disappeared, Rusch wrote four checks in the span of about an hour. District Attorney Paul Morrison told the judge Monday that the women were probably killed for the $3,600 that was withdrawn from their bank accounts when they disappeared.
Sam Mahoney, who owns an Overland Park pharmacy, said he was in line June 28 to make a deposit at a branch of the Metcalf State Bank when he noticed a white woman and a Black man sitting in a car ahead of him. Bank records show that Mahoney made a deposit within one minute of the time that a check written by Rusch was cashed.
Morrison said in his opening statement Monday that Grissom might have used physical force to make Rusch withdraw money.
Readers catch a final glimpse of Kansas City's evening Star
Kanean staff writer
By Steve Bailey
People expecting to pick up a copy of the Kansas City Times this morning might have been surprised at what they found.
The merger, which did not result in any layoffs for the 300 newroom employees, was announced in October. During the 1980s, the afternoon Star's circulation fell by
In its place is the new Kansas City Star, the product of a merger between the morning Times and the afternoon Star. The first combined edition of the morning Star appeared on newsstands today.
The Times has disappeared.
the last edition of the afternoon Star rolled off the presses yesterday with a headline reading, "Goodbye; see you in the morning."
In September, the Star circulation was 155,000. The Times circulation was 270,000, and Sunday readership was 418,000.
nearly 100.000.
William Rockhill Nelson and Samuel E. Mores started the Kansas City Evening Star on Sept. 18, 1800, with a circulation of 3,000. By 1809, circulation increased to 50,000.
In 1901, Nelson bought the 33 year-old Times and ran it as the
Donald Jones, ombudman for the new Star, said the atmosphere in the newsroom yesterday was subdued.
Star's morning edition. The two papers' news staff have been in direct competition since the 1977 sale of the newspapers to Capital Cities Communications Inc., now Capital Cities-ABC Inc.
"It has been eight months in coming and has been very well organized" Jones said. "There has been no sort of traditional scenes of weeping or cleaning out desks. Basically these people are getting ready to pull up their soils and put out a very big paper."
Jones said the newsroom was brimming with activity but not from the usual sources.
"We've had a lot of visiting television and radio people in here observing the situation," he said.
Jones said a package containing the last morning Times, the last afternoon Star and the first morning Star soon would be for sale.
Deanna Miles, copy editor for the Times from 1985 to 1987, said she looked forward to seeing the combined edition.
"I think it will be interesting both as a former employee and as a journalist," said Miles, a 1983 University of Kansas graduate.
will be waiting to see how they combine the day-to-day coverage of both papers."
Some places in Lawrence where the Star and Times were sold noticed an increase in sales yesterday afternoon.
Andy Well, cashier at Conventive Food Mart, 701 W. Niath St., said the papers were a hot commodity.
"We are totally out of Kansas City papers." he said yesterday afternoon. "They are selling like hotcakes."
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
U.S. agents don't need warrants abroad
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. agents do not need warrants for searches in other countries, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a decision seen as bolstering the fight against drug smugglers and terrorists — and perhaps aiding the prosecution of Gen. Manuel Noriega.
By a 6- vote, the justices upheld the warrantless search of the home of a suspected Mexican drug smuggler.
In another decision, the court gave police authority to conduct sweeping searches in the United States after making arrests in private homes.
Foreigners living abroad do not have the same rights as U.S. citizens or aliens living here, the court said.
Voting 7-2, the justices said police could use the evidence seized when they arrested a Riverdale, Md., man accused of armed robbery. The ruling reinstated his conviction and 35-year prison sentence.
The court said police could search a house when they had reasonable suspicion there was hidden danger to the arresting officers — even if authorities lacked a search warrant or probable cause to believe there was danger.
In a third ruling, the court said states could make the death penalty the only punishment for some murders without violating the Constitution's ban on mandatory death sentences.
In the drug-smuggling case, the court narrowed the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Aliens are entitled to such constitutional safeguards only when they have come within the territory of the United States and developed substantial connections with this country, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said.
"If there are to be restrictions on searches and seizures that occur incident to American action, they must be imposed by the political branches through diplomatic understanding, treaty or legislation," Rehnouist said.
The ruling could help the government's prosecution of Noriega on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges from a 12-count indictment handed down in February 1988.
There has been speculation that Noriega's lawyers might argue that U.S. armed forces illegally seized evidence in the invasion.
Justices Byron R. White, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy joined Rehnquist in ruling against suspected drug smuggler Rene Vendugo Urquidez. Verdugo was convicted in California in 1988 of taking part in the 1988 kidnapping, torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarares and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar.
Verduhgo is serving a sentence of 240 years plus life and will not be eligible for parole until he is 96.
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