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KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 3
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 6601-3585
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1997
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL. 103, NO. 118
(USPS 650-640)
Student has seizure in Watson Library
KU police responded to a medical emergency at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Watson Library.
Police said they found a graduate student in room 303 of the library lying on the floor. The student was semi-conscious when the Douglas County Ambulance arrived to take her to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
The student, who asked not to be identified, said the seizure was caused by a reaction she had had to medicine she was taking. She said the hospital held her for more than two hours, checking her vital signs to make sure her body would not continue to react to the drugs.
"I guess the medicine was just a little touchier to me than it might have been for someone else," she said.
—Kansan staff report
NAHARAYIM, Jordan — Grabbing a comrade's assault rifle, a Jordanian soldier fired on Israeli junior high school girls taking a field trip yesterday to a Jordan River island known as a symbol of Mideast peace. Seven girls were killed and six were wounded.
Israeli schoolgirls killed by Jordanian
Still shooting, the gunman chased the screaming students down a grassy river embankment while his fellow soldiers yelled "Madman, madman" before overpowering him. He was in the custody of Jordanian security officials.
It was unclear whether the gunman, 22-year-old army driver Lance Cpl. Ahmed Yousef Mustafa, had political motives or was mentally unstable. But the shooting on the island of Naharayim — known as the "岛上 Peace" — came at a time of deep crisis between Israel and Jordan over the impasse in Mideast peacemaking.
Israeli leaders indirectly blamed Jordan's King Hussein for creating the climate that made such violence possible. "Words and a difficult atmosphere can also lead to violence," said Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai.
President Clinton called the shootings a "senseless denial of a future for these children" and said, "I condemn this act in the strongest possible terms."
Police arrest suspect in slaying of Cosby
LOS ANGELES — Police arrested one man and were questioning two others in the roadside slaying of Bill Cosby's son, Ennis Cosby, police Chief Willie Williams said late Wednesday.
Cosby, 27, was shot to death Jan. 16 while changing a flat tire on his Mercedes-Benz convertible near a freeway off-ramp in the hills above the city's San Fernando Valley.
The death of Cosby, a doctoral candidate in special education at Columbia University, prompted a huge public outpouring of sympathy and hundreds of calls offering tips to police.
The state of California and two tabloid newspapers offered rewards totaling nearly $400,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer, although the state later withdrew its $50,000 reward.
A composite drawing of the murder suspect was also placed on 3,000 pay telephones throughout California, urging callers to notify the LAPD if they recognized the 22- to 32-year-old white man.
Williams said the two people being questioned were a male and female but did not elaborate.
—The Associated Press
'Mission'accomplished
Successful promotions lead to big ticket sales
By Harumi Kogarimal
Kansan staff writer
Steve Puppe / KANSBAN
Gamma Phi Beta and Phi Delta Theta perform *The Family Jewels* in the opening night of the Rock Chalk Revue. More than 1,000 tickets were sold for the opening night, which is 200 more than last year's opening night sales.
The lights went off, the theme music of Mission: Impossible blared and the audience applauded wildly — Rock Chalk Revue finally opened its curtain last night.
One of the revue highlights came when Alpha Delta Pi and company performed *Digging for Gold*, the story of a diamond ring dropped between two couch cushions. Because their skirt partner, Pi Kappa Alpha, was removed from the show for an alleged hazing incident and underage consumption of alcohol, the sorority counted on the 15 volunteers whom they recruited less than two weeks ago.
The opening marked the 48th annual revue. Beginning with The Family Jewels, a show by Gamma Phi Beta and Phi Delta Theta, actors and actresses in the five shows danced and sang songs to laughs and applause from the more than 1,000-member audience.
After watching the show, Danny Pumpelly, Wichita sophomore, said he was moved by the group's work.
"I was impressed with the show by ADPi," he said. "Their costumes and dancing were really good. I can't believe that they made it in just a week and a half."
Almost all of the seats in the Lied Center were occupied
Almost all of the seats in the Lied Center were occupied. Danny Timblin, business manager for the revue and Atlanta senior, said that approximately 1,500 tickets were sold for last night's performance. This was 200 more tickets than sold for last year's opening night.
While organizations involved in the show and corporate sponsors sold approximately 1,200 tickets, non-greek students also purchased about 300 tickets through the Student Union Activities box office.
"I am pretty impressed with the sales at the SUA," Timblin said.
Timblin said that strong promotions also boosted ticket sales this year.
Kara Monson. Omaha. Neh.. junior. said the sales
increased partly because the revue targeted non-greek audiences as well as sorority and fraternity members. One of the new promotions was to put 10,000 of the revue's labels on soda pop cans. The cans were sold through KU Concessions on campus.
And they're off—races begin for Student Senate
By Dave Morantz Kansan staff writer
The Student Senate campaign season has officially started. Until the elections on April 9 and 10, bright posters will cover telephone poles, and candidates will give neon fliers to anyone on campus with a hand.
Last night, the Unite coalition, headed by Scott Sullivan and Mike Walden, Leawood juniors, held its campaign kick-off party in the Malott Room of the Kansas Union. About 70 people attended the party.
Candidates form coalitions of 65 members to pool money and resources. Each candidate runs for one of 65 Student Senate seats. A candidate can win a seat even if the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the coalition do not win.
Laurie Fletchall / KANSAN
The deadline for coalitions and independent candidates to file for the election was Wednesday.
Sullivan is running for president and Walden for vice president for the Unite coalition. They will face Jason Fizell, Olathe junior, and Matt Caldwell, Lawrence junior, of the Delta Force coalition. Two independent candidates also are running. Michael Yaghmour, Pittsburg junior, is running for president and David Hennessy, Ballston Lake, N.Y., junior, is running for vice president.
Kim Cocks, Lee's Summit graduate student and former student body president, spoke to the group of Unite candidates and campaign boosters.
Cocks said Sullivan and Walden's extensive experience on Senate made them ideal candidates.
Rebecca Kelly, Engelwood, Colo., sophomore,
speaks to supporters at the Unite coalition's kickoff
part last night. Kelly is running for the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences Student Senate seat.
Sullivan said Unite's campaign would rely on four major planks: the availability of faculty evaluations to students, the future of public transportation on campus and in Lawrence, Student Senate campus and community outreach, and an ethical choice policy that would allow students who object to class requirements such as dissecting animals to complete an alternative assignment.
"Yes, we do need new people in Senate, but I believe that if we want an effective Student Senate, we need people who know where we've been, where we are, and people who have innovative ideas about where we're going," she said.
Sullivan said voter apathy in recent elections concerned him. In the last five years, an average of only 16 percent of the student body has voted. To address this, Sullivan said Unite candidates would campaign all over campus and throughout Lawrence.
Travis Harrod, KU graduate and former Student Senate Executive Committee member, said this year's election would depend on which coalition tapped into the large number of students who traditionally ignored Senate elections.
"Any amount of student apathy is atrocious," he said. "There's a lot of ways to inform people about our ideas and to show people how they can get involved."
Pupils allowed to pray in spite of court ruling
"The campus really wants senators to come and talk to them and prove to them what Student Senate has done for them lately," he said.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A federal judge struck down Alabama's school prayer law Wednesday, a ruling likely to be ignored in a Bible Belt state where politicians encourage religious expression in classrooms and courtrooms.
The Associated Press
Michael Chandler, assistant principle at Valley Head Middle
School, and a student's mother contended that the law forced teachers to allow students to pray out loud in class and give readings from the Bible, with students told to stand in the hall if they didn't want to take part.
U. S. District Judge Ira DeMent said the law violates the Constitution by creating excessive entanglement between religion and state and leaving some students with no choice but to listen to the pravers.
Gov. Fob James said through a spokesman that he believed the First Amendment allowed every American to pray whenever and wherever and that he would not tell Alabamans to obey the ruling.
James has said he would send in state troopers if necessary to support expressions of religious faith in Alabama courtrooms.
Grade complaints often unjustified
GTAs commonly blamed by undeserving students
By Nicholas C. Charalambous
Kansas staff writer
Many students disappointed by midterm exam results will work harder or seek help, but some will do nothing — until they lean on professors to raise their grades at the end of the semester.
Professors and teaching assistants say that scenario is all too common. Some students now consider a university degree to be something they are entitled to rather than something they should work for, they say.
Ann Willner, a professor of political science who is on leave, wrote an article in the *Washington Post* last June arguing that higher education no longer deserved its name.
Students expected to be spoon-fed information and didn't have proper study skills, she wrote. A few are brazen enough to demand a good grade, even though they haven't put in the effort.
Kurt Wiesenfeld, a physics professor at Georgia Tech, put it even more bluntly in a *Newsweek* article last July.
"Many students wheedle for a degree as if it were a freebie T-shirt," he said.
That article is now taped to the office door of David Born, professor of human development and family life.
Born said students felt trapped by a failing grade because it could jeopardize their scholarships, stop them from graduating, get them kicked out of school or disappoint parents who are paying for tuition.
Some students who receive failing grades ask professors to change the mark even though they previously did not acknowledge the problem, Born said.
The wake-up call should have come sooner, he said. Students are told what they need to do to get a particular grade and should take the initiative during the semester to seek the help
Campbell Thompson, Born's graduate teaching assistant, said many students complained to GTAs at the end of each semester.
that was offered
"You see the GTAs' faces," said Thompson, Coromandel, New Zealand, graduate student. "I've never had a student who has been abusive, but I've had students who have been visibly upset, and I've been upset."
Kristen Villone, a graduate teaching assistant in human development and family life, said she had been abused verbally. She said students were looking for a scapegoat for their failings.
"It's as if you're doing something to keep them back personally," said Villone, Johnstown, N.Y., graduate student. "They think they can be here and get a degree without doing the work that's necessary."
Amy Devitt, director of freshman and sophomore English, said she thought students appealed grades from GTAs when they would not dream of appealing a professor's grades. But students should not be afraid to challenge grades if they think they have been treated unfairly. she said.
Pam Houston, director of undergraduate services in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said there would be grounds for a legitimate grade appeal if an instructor had applied grading criteria inconsistently or had unfairly singled out a student.
Jennifer Wilson, Olathe senior, said she had complained about a grade on a test last week because the questions were confusing.
The University of Kansas does not release figures for the number of official grade appeals, but most appeals to GTAs and professors are verbal and aren't recorded, according to University Governance.
"I think you have some lazy students who want to get freebie points," Wilson said. "But most of the time there are good students who want to get a good grade and have a legitimate gripe."
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