University Daily Kansan / Thursday, January 18, 1990
11
KU students instruct youths
Rv Sandra Moran
By Sandra Moran
Kansas staff writer
Kansan staff writer
John McKenna, Lakewood, Cofb., Junior, helps West Junior High seventh grader Billy van Reekum with math.'
Instead of going home after classes, Kristin Renrow goes to her job as a tutor. She doesn't help students with calculus, but with junior high math.
Renflow is one of almost 50 KU students involved in a program designed to help junior high students with their homework through tutoring after school.
Tutors from KU also work in other Lawrence schools and in Kansas City and Toneka.
Renfrow, an Overland Park senior majoring in elementary education, tutors from 2 to 4 p.m., four days a week at West Junior High School. The school has nine tutors and expects three more this semester.
"I'm going to be certified elementary." Renfrow said, "but I thought that this would be a good way for me to find out what the elementary student lacks when he or she gets to junior high school."
The program was created at West by Emily Lee and Teresa Clough, counselors at that school. The program offers tutoring after school for 45 minutes and also during the last class period of the day.
"This is just a tremendous program, and the participation level has been greater than anything that we've ever expected," Lee said.
"On any given day, we've had anywhere from 35 to as many as 60 kids in there. The first two weeks we had it, we had 110 kids participated."
The students are tutored in all classes, including math, geography, history and biology.
Tutors receive no credit but are paid $4 an hour through the Youth Educational Services program. Lee
said the schools received the tutoring free through a YES Grant.
The tutors are not limited to education majors.
"Some of them are trying to decide whether they want to be teachers or not," Lee said. "I see it as a way to even encourage people into education by participating and being involved with the students."
Program coordinators said that they encouraged non-education majors to participate and that the only requirements were a 2.0 grade point average and full-time student
status.
status.
The volunteers tutor from four to 10 hours each week, said Julie Cooper, KU coordinator of student employment.
Renfrow said that tutoring did not interfere with her school work.
"It's such a short time everyday," she said. "You're not there very much, so you always look forward to going back. You never get tired of doing it because you don't have an opportunity to burn yourself on it.
"The teachers love it. They can be more productive in class because
more kids have their homework done."
Lee said the YES Program had been in effect at West since the end of October. Cooper said that KU had participated in project YES for two years.
The students tutor for a combined average of 40 hours a week at West, Lee said.
"We're really happy," she said.
"We just got news that we will receive more tutors and more times."
Cost of on-campus living will rise
By Christine Reinolds Kanean staff writer
The anticipated KU housing fee increase was made official Dec. 14 when it was approved by the Board of Regents.
Students in residence halls should expect a $160 fee increase for the 1980-81 academic year.
The increase, which will affect residence halls, scholarship halls, Jayhawk Towers and Stouffer Place, will go into effect in Fall 1990, said Ken Stoner, director of student housing.
Double room occupancy with 20
meals a week is $2,336, but it will
rise to $2,498 with the increase.
"An increase was necessary due to inflationary pressures and a statewide increase in salaries," Stoner said.
Scholarship hall costs will rise by $120 for the 1990-91 academic year; with the exception of Miller Hall and Watkins Scholarship Hall
Miller and Watkins Hall are partially subsidized by the Watkins trust fund and require no increase.
Stoner said.
Jayhawk Towers residents will pay $200 more a year. The increase will help absorb the expense of a recently installed phone system that cost the University $32,000. Stoner said.
Kim Kelly, president of Stouffer Place Neighborhood Association, said the association was not upset by the $10 a month increase for one- and two-bedroom apartments.
"The residents had a meeting with Dr. Stoner," Kelly said. "He
explained that the extra money would help pay for new roofs and the conversion of four one-bedroom apartments into four two-bedroom apartments."
With the exception of Emporia State University, KU housing fees will remain the lowest among the Regents institutions after the approved increase. The average room and board rate for a four-year, public institution is $3,039, according to the College Board annual survey.
Chinese folk singer calls for democracy
The Associated Press
"You could say I'm the world's stupidest, most amateur dissident," said Huw Dejian, laughing and shaking his head in mock self-ridicule.
BEIJING — With China's best-known dissidents jailed, exiled or in hiding, a popular folk singer is trying to fill the void with protest songs and calls for democracy.
"I not a politician. I had friends who were dissidents, but ... I'm a professional musician," he said, with elaborate emphasis. "But right now, I'm trying to figure out how to become a passable dissident."
Hou, 33, is no ordinary mainland musician: He is the Taiwanese-born
son of a Nationalist soldier who fought against the Communists. Seeking his roots, Hou visited the Communist mainland as an established star in 1983 and decided to stay.
The darling of the government, he was allowed to keep living like a star, with two homes and two cars, one a maison Mercedes Benz.
The skinny, chain-smoking Hou, usually clad in black leather jacket and boots, is famous among Chinese on the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong for his Bob Dylan-influenced songs about social concerns, such as the endangered pandas, and about the worries of youth.
But he became known to Westerners when, in the final days of China's student democracy movement last spring, he and three friends began a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square to protest martial law. Many students were already leaving the square out of fear, and the hunger strike infused the movement with new spirit.
Less than 48 hours later, on June 4, with tanks poised on the square's edge, Hou negotiated with the army to allow the remaining students to retreat peacefully, possibly saving hundreds of lives.
Hou wants to provide an alternative to the Communist Party voice that has filled the airwaves and newspapers since June with relentless condemnation of the democracy movement.
advantage of his relative freedom as a defector.
"Because you can't hear other voices that doesn't mean there's stability," he said.
Now, he is again trying to keep the spirit of democracy alive, taking
During the summer he hid from police for more than two months in the Australian Embassy. He came out Aug. 15, as soon as the Foreign Ministry promised he would not be arrested or deported.
By a Kansan reporter
Installation of cable television in the KU residence halls will begin as soon as a more concise contract can be drawn up between the University and Sunflower Cablevision.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, had said earlier that he hoped cable installation would start this month, but he now says that the original proposed contract was too general.
Although a tentative date has not been set, Stoner said he hoped installation would begin in February.
Contract holds up cable installation
Students in Templin Hall will be the first to get cable. Sunflower Cablevision then will move south on Daisy Hill, installing cable in the
remaining residence halls.
The increase in student housing rates approved by the Board of Regents on Dec. 14 does not include the cost of cable. That cost will be absorbed by the University of Kansas this semester and then will be incorporated into next year's housing contracts.
The addition of cable into the residence halls will be a regular feature included in the price of the halls, whether the resident wants cable or not.
If a student wishes to receive any pay channels, such as Showtime or Home Box Office, he or she will pay the extra amount.
King holiday is work day for city, county workers
By Mark McHugh
By mark moriagi
Kansan staff writer
Although Martin Luther King's birthday is a federal holiday, not all government employees got the day off this year.
Employees of nearby Wyandotte County did not have to work, but Lawrence and Douglas County employees did.
William Bell, Douglas County director of buildings and grounds, said Monday was like any other working day at his office. He said he was surprised to hear that other county governments had the day off.
"We're designated holidays by the (county) commission," he said. "I think the commission needs to study what happens if the holiday should be observed."
Mike Amyx, chairman of the Douglas County Commission, said he was unaware of any groups that wanted the day to be a holiday for county employees.
Kay Nies, Wyandotte County commissioner, said that all county offices were closed.
missioner, said that all county offices were closed.
Wyandotte County has closed offices on King's birthday since 1985, an office spokesman said.
Lawrence Mayor Bob Schumm said that although Monday was a normal working day for city employees, last weekend's Martin Luther King celebration, which was in part sponsored by the city, gave employees ample time to observe the day.
The celebration included a speech by Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights leader, along with commemorative services.
"I think there's a consciousness about this in Wyandotte County because we are ethnically diverse," Nies said. "It was just sort of natural. I think it was just the right thing to do, and I think it is to our
Schumm said that city employees were allowed to take time off Monday. He said that they could take off on Friday or Saturday, or break time to observe the holiday.
"Or if they didn't want to be rushed, they could have the entire day off as a vacation day or a personal day," he said.
Ray Hummert, Lawrence city clerk, said that adding another paid holiday to the city's budget would
For complete coverage of Martin Luther King Jr. Day see Page 3A.
cost about $44,500. He said that one reason city offices were open Monday was for the convenience of Lawrence residents, who might need to conduct business at city offices.
"When you're talking about that amount of cost, you've got to be careful and make sure your bases are covered." he said.
Frank Xybara, deputy press secretary for Gov. Mike Hayden, said the governor thought the holiday should be observed at the state level.
Kansas state employees had the day off.
"But the state should not be involved in dictating to local units of government what to do on Martin Luther King's birthday." Ybarra said.
Jim Long, director of the Kansas and Burge unions, said the Kansas Union tried to let employees off and still meet the needs of enrolling students.
Some services were open at the Union Monday to accommodate students who had completed Saturday's community enrollment, and for workers preparing for fee payment.
"We attempted to balance recognition of the holiday and getting ourselves ready for the academic year," he said.