Basketball: Men's team finishes preseason with 115-81 win last night. Page 1B Music: Smoking Popes find few converts at Sunday's Replay Lounge show. Page
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
SECTION A VOL.103, NO.62
ADVERTISING 864-4358
TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 19. 1996
Roommates duke it out about dirty apartment
Mr. Clean might have been handy at Jayhawker Towers yesterday morning, not only to clean, but to referee.
Rachel Chronister, Wichita sopho more, and Jacqueline Fardelmann, Lansing freshman, were both arrested about 1:30 a.m., after a fight that included punching, scratching and hair pulling, KU police said.
(USPS 650-640)
Police arrested the women on charges of domestic battery after the women fought about the cleanliness of the apartment, said KU police Sgt. Chris Keary.
"They argued over the condition of the apartment and the sharing of chores," Keary said.
The women were transported separately to the Douglas County court house where they were held without bond until 2:10 p.m. yesterday.
The women were released after neither woman filed charges against the other, according to court records. Officials in district court said the women would not have to return to court unless charges were filed by the district attorney's office.
Unknown artist paints information booth black
There were no suspects, no accusers and there was no crime after the information booth at Jayhawk Boulevard and Sunflower Road was spray-painted black Thursday night.
The information booth, which is run by the University Information Center, contained information provided by the Turkish International Association. The booth displayed information about the northern region of Cyprus and also displayed the flag that is identified by the region's people.
Kerem Can, Northern Cyprus freshman, said that his group displayed the information to celebrate his republic's independence day.
According to a report filed with the KU police, unknown subjects spray-painted the glass portion of the booth that covers parts of the display.
Kansan staff reports
Panayiotis Panayides, Nicosia, Cyprus graduate student, said that no one from the Hellenic Club had spray-painted the booth. His group also is worried that an article published in yesterday's Kansan would lead people to assume that his group painted the booth.
"We do not promote or support any kind of vandalism," Panayides said. "We did not do it."
Haunting tape reveals last words of Flight 592
MIAMI — Passengers screamed "Firel Firel Firel" and a flight attendant waved, "We can't get oxygen back there" during the final terrifying moments before Valulet Flight 592 plunged into the Everglades, killing all 110 people aboard.
The chilling eight-minute tape from the cockpit voice recorder ends with the cockpit and cabin falling silent, leaving the sound of rushing air, perhaps from a cockpit window that had been opened to let the smoke out.
A transcript of the recording was released yesterday as a hearing opened on the mistakes that led to the May 11 crash. Federal investigators believe that 144 oxygen-generating canisters carried in the DC-9's cargo hold either ignited or fueled a fire.
The plane crashed 2 minutes, 22 seconds later.
Six minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport, the pilot can be heard telling the copilot: "We got some electrical problems ... We're losing everything."
The Associated Press
Universities can collect data, give surveys and interview students for college guidebooks. They covet some guides and distrust others. But it is hard to tell from the growing number of guidebooks whether universities are ...
Measuring up
Story by
Lindsey Henry
When high school senior Madhu Puri opened her information packet from the University of Kansas, out fell a sheet with 10 quotes from The Fiske Guide to Colleges touting the University's high ranking, declaring KU
Micah Laaker
"a college steeped in tradition and focused on the future," and claiming that it "can compete with more expensive Eastern schools in myriad things."
Puri, who attends Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, says she was impressed with the packet's layout and visual appeal. But as for the insert card with adoring quotes from top-college lists, she has seen all that before — in just about every other college information packet she has received.
The University of Kansas receives about 150 requests a year from authors and journalists who write articles and guidebooks about colleges and universities. They ask for everything from the number of 1995
graduates to the preferred drugs on campus. The guides and lists are a lucrative business — and a growing one. Time and Newsweek both created their own college guides this fall.
Lewis suggests that listmakers establish a list of the top 20 schools, interchangeable in terms of quality, but she doubts that a list of equal schools would have the same effect.
The University works hard to be included on lists such as The Fiske Guide to Colleges and U.S. News and World Report. It would rather not be mentioned by some such as the Princeton Review. But there is no doubt that KU cultivates its listmaker ties, hand-picking student sources when it can and making sure the listmakers get the information they want, when they want it.
In fact, America's scoreboard mentality is beginning to influence the data universities across the country collect about their students and faculty.
sions director for Harvard University.
"Precise rankings are what sells the magazines." Lewis says.
College administrators at some schools are not so enthusiastic about the current epidemic of listmakers.
Perhaps a school with Harvard's reputation, which only accepts 12 percent of its applicants, does not need its No. 3 ranking in U.S. News and World Report. Some would argue that neither do large public universities, because their enrollments are more a function of demographics than rankings. Nevertheless, the number of guides sold each year prove that the American public is willing to pay for a list of the best. Universities no longer can ignore the value of appearing on various college top 100 lists. And KU is no exception.
"These precise rankings are absolutely worthless," says Marlyn McGrath Lewis, admis-
See MEASURING, Page 5A
Basketball lot now accessible to early birds
Three hundred spaces available on first-come,first-served basis
By Ashleigh Roberts Kansan staff writer
Lot 90, off Naismith Drive behind Robinson Center, again was open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis for $5 a car at last night's game. The lot had been shared last year by Williams Educational Fund permit-holding members and the general public. Last week, the lot was reserved only for members of the Williams Educational Fund.
Last night, the public received access to 300 spots, leaving 700 for fund members who contribute $250
The KU Athletic Department decided on Friday to reopen parking spaces to the general public during KU basketball games. But the logistics of this decision are almost as confusing as the logistics for taking parking spaces away.
and then are eligible to purchase a athletics parking permit, said Rodger Oroké, director of service management.
Oroke said the athletic department decided to return the spots after the fund had not sold as many permits as expected.
They had orig-
inally asked for a
significant number
of spots in
Parking in Lot 90
about 1,000 parking spaces available
700 spaces reserved for parking permit holders of the Williams Educational Fund
300 spaces available on first-come, first-served basis to member of general public for $5 a car
Money for parking permits and the $5 per car goes to parking department for maintenance of lots and salaries of parking attendants.
The Williams Educational Fund, a scholarship fund for student athletes with about 33,000 alumni, fans, and faculty members, reported it could have sold all of the 800 spaces it requested and now has members on a waiting list to receive parking permits. Last year, the fund had 600 spots.
anticipation of greater sales," he said. "Once they knew that wasn't going to happen, we felt we could revert to a toll collection."
John Hadl, executive director of the fund, said the organization never had asked for handicap spots, as Don Kearns, director of parking, said in an article in the University Daily Kansas last week.
"This year we were told that we had to buy all of the spaces in the lot or we would receive none at all," Hadi said. "So we did it. We don't control the parking, they do."
Although Oreke said he knew the fund's parking request did not fill the lot, he said the difference would only create traffic jams and frustrated fans.
"We would have been 100 spaces short of being maxed out," he said. "If you're only going to be able to sell that many spaces, have a long waiting line, and end up turning away a lot of people, it isn't worth it."
That wouldn't have been a good parking plan, Oroke said, but after it was decided that the public would have access to 300 spots, he approved the plan.
Bob Frederick, director of intercollegiate athletics, was unavailable for comment.
TODAY
INDEX
TV ...2A
Opinion ...4A
Scoreboard ...2B
Classifieds ...5B
Horoscopes ...6B
...
...
University wants 'Hawks out of nest sooner
www.kansan.com
By Lindsey Henry Kansan staff writer
Group to look at time it takes to graduate
It's a race to walk down the hill and graduate, and the University of Kansas wants to improve the time KU students take to cross the finish line.
As a part of Vision 2020, the Board of Regents' plan to transform the six state schools for the 21st century, each institution has been assigned to decrease the time it takes students to graduate.
According to a Board of Regents report, the University of Kansas has the state's highest percentage of students who graduate in six years or less. Yet an NCAA report says the University's numbers are below almost all of its peer institutions.
For example, 84 percent of freshmen that entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988 graduated by 1994, although 58 percent of the same class graduated from the University of Kansas by 1994.
Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
SOURCES: Lawrence campus report for Vision
NOCA, NCAA, Board of Reports
The University's report for Vision 2020 stated that in those six years, 58 percent of 1988 freshmen would have graduated, 36 percent would have left school and 4 percent still would be enrolled.
During last week's Board of
Regents meeting, Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the universities did not control the factor he thought played the biggest role in the time it takes a student to graduate: the increasing cost of education.
"Students are working more, earning more debt," Hemenway said. "You don't get those complexities in a chart. It's hard to secure a four-year graduation. If the legislature is looking for a good reason not to support its institutions, they'll find a good reason with this data."
Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, associate provost for academic affairs, said a committee of faculty and students was examining ways more students could graduate in four to five years. The committee has met three times and its recommendations are due to Provost David Shulenburger on March 1.
"I don't think we are rushing anybody out," McCluskey-Fawcett said. "But parents are looking for students to go through in a prescribed time. Improving our numbers makes us look like a better-oiled machine."
Laurence Draper, professor of microbiology and chairman of the time-requirement committee, said it was difficult to find out why some students took longer to graduate.
"We are trying to find whether there are obstacles to graduate in four years," he said. "We have to define the problems and recommendations to help. The University probably doesn't even know the problem yet."