Track: The team will begin its outdoor season at Emporia State today. Page 8
Hazing: Pi Kappa Alpha suspends KU chapter's international charter. Page 3
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
***********3-DIGIT 666
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 3
PD BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 66601-3585
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
ADVERTISING 864-4358
THURSDAY, MARCH 20.1997
SECTION A VOL.103, NO.122
KU student charged with assault, battery
A KU student was released Tuesday afternoon from the Douglas County Jail after being arrested on charges of aggravated assault, battery and criminal threat.
Kevin M. Spiess, Bonner Springs freshman, was arrested on Saturday after a 19-year-old woman called Lawrence police and reported that she had been hit and threatened.
Police said that during an argument Spiess had hit the woman in her chest several times and had held a knife to her throat. After Spiess assaulted the victim, police said, she escaped and called the police.
(USPS 650-640)
A witness to the incident corroborated the story.
—Kansan staff report
Senate debates Mexico's role in fight against drugs
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats threatened yesterday to block a resolution blasting Mexico's antidrug effort until Republicans agree to take up a 4-year-old treaty banning chemical weapons.
Wrangling about foreign policy issues approached a showdown as Congress moved toward a two-week recess facing dual deadlines: Congress has until March 30 to act on Clinton's blessing of Mexico as fully cooperative in the anti-drug effort, and the Senate has until April 29 to ratify the chemical treaty.
A bipartisan group of senators led by Sens. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., want to send a strong message about Mexico, but both acknowledge that outright overthrow of the president's certification would not pass.
Supreme Court debates restricting online access
Nonetheless, their bill to overturn Clinton's favorable rating of Mexico's role in fighting drug trafficking is scheduled for debate and vote today.
WASHINGTON — Debating the future of the Internet, Supreme Court justices questioned yesterday whether the government can restrict online access to sexually explicit material to keep it from children.
But the attorney for those who chalenged the law said that it also would keep indecent material away from adults who have a right to see it.
The Clinton administration mounted a spirited defense of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which makes it a crime to put indecent words or pictures online where children can find them.
A three-judge federal court in Philadelphia blocked the law from taking effect last year, saying it would unlawfully chill adults' free-speech rights.
Sexually oriented material is protected by the Constitution's First Amendment if it is deemed indecent but not obscene.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by July in its first case involving the global computer network.
—The Associated Press
INDEX
TODAY
Television ...2
Opinion ...4
Horoscopes ...7
Classifieds ...9
Sports ...10
Student gives up right to trial in rape case
Crime was at a summer party
By Kevin Bates Kansan staff writer
A KU student pleaded no contest yesterday to attempted aggravated sexual battery in Douglas County District Court.
Sasaua Jafari-Rouhani, Lawrence sophomore, was accused of having unconsenting sexual intercourse with a KU
freshman on July 1, 1996.
At yesterday's hearing, Jafari-Rouhani signed a plea advisory from Judge Jack Murphy which informed the defendant of the maximum penalty Jafari-Rouhani could receive at sentencing.
By signing the plea advisory, Jafari-Rouhani gave up his right to a trial. At a trial, the state would have had to present evidence in an attempt to prove guilt.
Murphy said that Jafari-Rouhani could receive up to 23 months in jail.
Rouhani's guilt would be assumed, and he would give up his right to an appeal, Murphy told the defendant, Harry Warren, Jafari-Rouhani's attorney, agreed with the prosecution that the state's evidence would show that he had committed aggravated sexual battery.
After finding the defendant guilty, Murphy said that a pre-sentencing investigation would be held to determine Jafari-Rouhani's penalty.
Assistant District Attorney Marlon Williams said that the defendant and the victim had met at a July 1 party in a Lawrence house. He said that the 20-year-old defendant had had sex with the 19-year-old victim after the party while she was unconscious.
By pleading no contest, Jafari-
Williams said that Jafari-Rouhani probably would not have to go to jail because he did not have a criminal history. He said that to receive jail time for sexual battery, a defendant would have had to have committed at least two other crimes.
Sentencing for Jafari-Rouhani was set for 3.p.m. April 21.
Eric B. Howell / KANSAN
Here's pie in your face
---
Alicia Vause, Student Senate executive secretary , awaits the aim of Jordan McKee, holdover senator. The Throw-A-Pie booth yesterday in front of Wescoe Hall was part of Student Senate Awareness Week.
Groups split on evaluation issue
Data release not big issue for both
Scott Sullivan, presidential candidate for the Unite coalition, said that giving students access to the evalu-
By Mark McMaster
Kansan staff writer
In the last year, Student Senate has pushed for the release of faculty evaluations. Now, with Senate elections approaching, the issue is at the top of some campaigners'
tions was one of the main issues in Unite's campaign.
"We need to release faculty evaluation data to the student body," he said. "That is essential information for students to effectively choose their courses."
priority.
The opposing coalition, Delta Force, is not making the issue a
"I think faculty evaluations are a good thing, but it's not one of the issues we're running on," said Matt Caldwell, Delta Force vice presidential candidate.
The Unite coalition's goal to convince the administration to release the evaluations may be a difficult task. A proposal presented by student body president Grey Montgomery that would give students access to data compiled from standardized faculty review questionnaires was passed by Student Senate but denied approval by the University Council last month. Earlier in February, Senate gave its support to a petition calling for the release of current faculty evaluations, but the administration has not given any indication that it will release such information.
Jason Fizell
Sullivan said he thought that Senate could convince the administration to act if it concentrated on the issue and rallied student support.
If the administration did not respond, he said he would consider taking legal action.
Scott Sullivan
"I think the University is starting to get the idea that if this comes down to a legal issue, they're going to lose, and lose big," Sullivan said of the possibility of a lawsuit.
Senate could bring suit against the University on the grounds that its refusal to release evaluations is a violation of the Kansas Open Records Act. Sullivan discussed bringing suit against the University on his own last year and consulted a lawyer, but did not file suit.
Delta Force is opposed to any legal action on the issue.
The coalition's presidential candidate, Jason Fizell said that while he would support efforts to release information on faculty perform
formation on faculty performance, he thought past proposals did not give students appropriate access to meaningful information.
"Overall, we think there are a lot of more important issues on campus." Fitzel said
Michael Yaghmou
Matt Bachand, a Delta Force candidate for a liberal arts and sciences seat, said he thought the Senate needed to cooperate more with faculty when discussing evaluations.
Independent presidential candidate Michael Yaghmour said the issue was not a priority on his agenda.
"Faculty input is just as important as student input," he said. "It's a two-way street."
Yaghmour said he would not pursue the issue if elected, although he would support proposals to increase student access to evaluations.
Center could open by spring enrollment
Payment locations for holds may merge
By Dave Morantz
Kansan staff writer
Rather than running all across campus to pay enrollment holds, this semester students may be able to pay holds at a centralized location in Strong Hall, said Lindy Eakin, associate provost.
But Jamie Johnson, student body vice president, said that despite Eakin's claim that a hold center may be functionable for spring enrollment, the administration probably would not institute a center until fall.
Johnson presented the idea for a centralized location to pay enrollment holds to Eakin and the administration last semester. But after numerous phone calls to Eakin were not returned, and a promised meeting with Eakin and other administrators fell through, Johnson said chances were slim that a centralized location would be operating by the time enrollment started April 4.
"It's taken him five months to set up a meeting so I really doubt anything will get done for this enrollment period," Johnson said. "It's just beast a slug fest now."
On Feb. 12, Student Senate approved a petition to the administration requesting cooperation in creating an enrollment-hold center. And as a response to Eakin's repeated failures to return phone calls, the petition also requested that the lines of communication between the administration and Senate always remain open.
Eakin then promised Johnson a meeting to discuss the issue, but the two have vet to meet.
Eakin said that many of the details and data of the plan were still being analyzed by the registrar's office and that he would probably contact Johnson this week.
Students are alerted of enrollment holds when they receive permits to enroll. Although students have several weeks to take care of the holds, Johnson said many neglected to do so and were turned away at the enrollment line, forcing them to enroll at a later date.
A problem hindering the creation of the center, Eakin said, was whether the parking department could afford to send a staff member to Strong Hall to process fee payments.
Parking department assistant director Donna Hultine said, "It wouldn't matter to me if we did it up here or down there. I can't imagine in the spring that we couldn't care of the holds."
Hultine said that neither she nor Don Kearns, parking department director, had been contacted by anyone in the administration about the proposal.
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