NFL: Team owners now able to own more than just football clubs. Page 3B
Trafficway: KU Environs and students file lawsuit to stop construction. Page 3A
******************3-DIGIT 666
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 3
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 66601-3585
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1997
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL. 103, NO. 117
(USPS 650-640)
Fire department answers false alarm at Fraser Hall
The Lawrence Fire Department responded to a fire alarm about 5:35 p.m. yesterday on the fifth floor of Fraser Hall after someone on the sixth floor called KU police, said Mark Haskell, an employee at facilities operations.
Capt. Shaun Coffey of the Lawrence Fire Department said the fire department had responded to a call from KU police, but it was a false alarm. He said he had found smoke coming from a trash can in room 526. The smoldering came from a cigarette thrown in the trash can.
Coffey said he smelled smoke when he entered the fifth-floor hallway, but firefighters did not have to douse any fire.
—Kansan staff report
Clinton says drug-use guilt 'the biggest load of hooey'
WASHINGTON — Dismissing baby-boomer guilt about past drug use as the "biggest load of hooey." President Clinton said yesterday he had confessed his own experiment with marijuana to daughter Chelsea when she was just 6 or 7 years old.
The president told three dozen parents and students assembled in the East Room of the White House he had advised his daughter to avoid making the same mistakes he had.
Clinton, who admitted during the 1992 campaign he had tried marijuana but did not inhale, said yesterday he was, at the time, older than the kids first trying drugs today and he did not know then how dangerous drugs were.
Clinton, 50, admonished fellow baby-boomer parents to forget feeling awkward about their drug histories and to talk frankly with their children.
Clinton's past became a political issue when, early in his 1992 race for the White House, he recalled his days at Oxford: "I experimented with marijuana a time or two and didn't like it. I didn't inhale, and I didn't try it again."
FBI warns minority groups to prepare for bombings
Called Straight Talk on Drugs, the town-hall discussion was broadcast by ABC Radio as part of the network's month-long public service campaign.
WASHINGTON — The FBI is warning minority groups that have been the targets of hate crimes to guard against more bombings in Atlanta.
FBI representative Jay Spadaford said yesterday the FBI had contacted minority groups that historically had been victimized by hate crimes to discuss security issues. He declined to identify the groups.
Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., who arranged an FBI briefing for Georgia lawmakers last week, said federal agents had inferred that more bombings were possible in Atlanta after the blast at last summer's Olympics, the January attack on an abortion clinic and the February bombing of a gay nightclub.
Coverdell and others at the briefing said the FBI had told the lawmakers there was no evidence linking the bombing in Olympic Centennial Park to the other two but were not ruling out a connection.
The FBI has scheduled a news conference today in Atlanta to release photographs of people who were in the park when the bomb exploded.
The bomb killed one person and iniured more than 100 others.
The Associated Press
Law enforcement sources said the photographs were of potential witnesses.
Lawsuit filed against KU
Assistance center faces allegations of denied equality
By Emily Vrabac
Kansan staff writer
A KU student has filed a lawsuit alleging that the University of Kansas violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Brenda Vanhyning, Lenexa junior, said the Student Assistance Center at the University failed to provide her with notetakers, which denying her an equal college education.
Vanhyning has disabilities in both hands, which only permit her to write about one minute at a time. She has had 33 surgeries on her right hand since sustaining injuries in a automobile accident. She also
injured her left hand at work when she fell and shattered her wrist, on which she needed 14 surgeries.
"They advocate all these rights and all these things they'll help students with, and then they shut the door on students," she said.
Vanhyning's lawsuit was filed in federal court in Kansas City, Kan., last week.
Rose Marino, associate general counsel for the University, said her office could not comment on the suit.
"We have not received it, and we have not seen the complaint," Marino said.
Michael Shuttic, assistant director of the Center, said he did not have a response either.
"I don't have any knowledge about the lawsuit itself." Shuttle said.
Vanhyng said she had requested notetakers from the Student Assistance Center because she was unable to take notes herself. Notetakers are provided to students on a
volunteer basis, and volunteers are not always available.
"The problem is that because it's a volunteer program, there is no initiative from the University to do this," Vanhying said.
She said employees of the Center told her to tape-record the classes for which a notetaker was not available.
Vanhyning said she was filing the lawsuit because she had exhausted her efforts trying to obtain help for every class.
"I've gone about trying to get the services I need in every way possible," she said. "I've had a lot of support from instructors and professors to get what I need. These problems are something that has happened to
me every single semester."
Other students agree with Vanhyong that the Student Assistance Center does not provide adequate service.
Mary Drouin, Lawrence senior, is working with the Office of Civil Rights, hoping that the University signs a commitment to provide students with textbooks on tape. She wants the tapes to be made available at least three weeks prior to the class period covering that reading assignment.
Drouin, who is legally blind, said she often received the cassettes just 18 hours prior to class, even though she had given the Center her books six to 10 weeks before the semester began.
"I wanted them recorded before the semester started," Drouin said. "They use my books to record from and then I don't have books all semester. I have to have my books to keep up with reading assignments."
Erik Peltzman, San Francisco junior who has dyslexia, said he experienced similar situations with the Student Assistance Center. He was unable to obtain a notetaker for several classes at the University, he said.
"A lot of the times I've dropped classes, it's been because nobody has volunteered," he said. "If nobody volunteers, then I don't get a note-taker."
Peltzman said his education was being sacrificed because the Center did not have a good notetaking system.
"Right now, I don't feel like it's an equal playing field," he said. "I feel like I'm fighting the people that are helping me."
Drouin agreed with Peltzman that something was wrong with the system at the University.
"They're using a system that's not effective, and the ADA says they have to be effective." Droun said.
Molding a role model
Salome Meadows and Jessica Hardy, New York Elementary School students, cover KU basketball player Tameka Dixon's face with plaster. Hardy and Meadows are participating in a six-week program from Mobile Arts Inc. called There's No Face Like Home. The students were asked to select their heroes, to make
GR Gordon-Ross / KANSAN
plaster casts and to write stories about them. Meadows chose Dixon as her role model. The students' masks will be displayed from 2 to 4 p.m. March 23 at the East Lawrence Community Center. Dixon was named an Associated Press second-team All-America player yesterday. For more details, see page 1B.
Seniors evaluate education while earning a little cash
By Kevin Bates Kansan staff writer
After tonight, about 115 seniors at the University of Kansas will have had a chance to tell faculty what they think about the condition of undergraduate education.
The University mailed letters to certain graduating seniors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the schools of social welfare, engineering and journalism, asking students to take part in a 45-minute interview designed to gauge what kind of an education they have received, said Carrie Towns, analyst in the Office of Institutional Research and Planning.
"We want to determine the University's success in imparting general educational goals," Towns said.
The interviews have taken place in Wescoe Hall each evening this week and will conclude tonight. Three faculty members spend almost an hour with each of three students every night. After tonight, the University will have
"This is a part of a large assessment for undergraduates," she said. "This assessment is to see how effective we've been at meeting our own goals. We're basically evaluating ourselves."
some idea of the success of each student's college career, said Associate Provost Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett.
"Each interviewer rates the goals completely independently," she said. "Faculty members don't discuss the interview before they rate the goals, and we don't change the methodology from year to year."
After each interview, the faculty members rate the educational goals on a 10-point scale for each student, McCluskey-Fawcett said. The numbers are crunched and then fed back to the deans of the schools.
Faculty members said they enjoyed the interviews and thought students enjoyed the chance to voice their opinions.
"I really learned a lot," said Glen White, assistant professor of human development and family life. "I approached each interview
Students also receive $25 at the end of the interview for their time. McCluskey-Fawcett said the money, part of the University Assessment budget, came from the state and not from student fees.
Stephen Shawl, professor of physics and astronomy, said he thought that, even though some interviews might be more positive than others, the learning process was reciprocal.
"Sometimes we can find what we're after, other times maybe not," Shawl said. "But either way, it's fair to say we're both learning something."
like it was a dinner conversation. It was just an informal time to just talk. My goal was to be a listener and to observe."
The money was not the only incentive for John Robinson, Prairie Village senior.
He said he was impressed that the University wanted his input.
"It was a good idea," Robinson said. "No one ever asked me my opinion on how I thought the University was handling my education. It's nice to know someone
"The students picked were based on criteria of sex, ethnicity, ACTs and GPAs," Teeter said. "We chose students that represented the whole range. We chose our sample very carefully, so I think if you look at those demographics, you'll find that they're fairly representative."
cares."
"They made me think of things that had not occurred to me," she said. "They really pulled information out."
Deb Teeter, director of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, said the small cross-section of each school was representative of the University as a whole and not just top-notch students.
Beth Ackerman, Dallas senior, said the interview had opened her eyes.
Teeter said the interviews were not tests to see how much students have learned.
"It's more an examination of the institution," she said. "I think the interviews help us to explore where we need to go, because this process is evolving all the time. We experiment and adjust each time."
Group plans two meetings on child care
By Dave Morantz
Kansan staff writer
Relying on a tactic used by the February Sisters in 1972, a group of students, staff and faculty at the University of Kansas has formed to increase public awareness about the impasse about a new child-care facility.
The group will hold meetings at 2:30 p.m. today and 7 tonight at the Walnut Room in the Kansas Union. The meetings are open to the University and Lawrence communities.
High demand for child care has packed Hilltop Child Development Center to its limit. This, along with 200 children waiting to be accepted into the program, has left Hilltop desperate for a new facility.
Students have been paying a $2 fee for three years to finance a new facility. Last fall, the administration discovered that $2 would not produce enough funds to construct a new child-care center. Student Senate then requested the administration pay at least 30 percent of the cost of building a new facility. But last month, the administration told Senate and Hilltop it could not afford to finance the construction because of higher priorities.
Hilltop, across from the Kansas Union, was created in 1972 after a group of concerned University women called the February Sisters protested the lack of child care on campus. Hilltop serves the children of students, staff and faculty of the University.
"Hopefully this will inspire more student support and awareness about the issue," said Grey Montgomery, student body president, who has assisted in the negotiations.
Pat Pisani, Hilltop director, will attend both meetings and answer questions from the public.
Jason Fizell, Olathe junior and organizer of the group, said in a press release he hoped the meetings and other events would force the administration to listen to students, staff and faculty. But most importantly, he said, the administration should attend to the needs of the children.
"Something's going to need to be done to meet this demand," she said. "We hope the meeting will encourage the administration to change its mind."
TODAY
INDEX
Television ... 2A
Weather ... 2A
Opinion ... 4A
Sports Focus ... 6B
MOSTLY CLOUDY