Tennis: New coach wants to make the women's team a national power. Page 1B
Break: Spring break programs offer travel, volunteer opportunities. Page 6A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
a
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1996
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.103.NO.59
(USPS 650-640)
Netanyahu cancels trip to the United States
HEBRON, WEST BANK — In a sign that agreement on a Hebron troop pullback may be near, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a trip to the United States yesterday after meeting with top Palestinian negotiators.
The level of talks was upgraded yesterday when Netanyahu met in his office with Yasser Arafat's deputy Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu said in a statement afterward that he was cancelling his trip "to assist in advancing the negotiations in these sensitive stages."
Netanyah had said he would only cancel his planned six-day trip to New York, Seattle and Los Angeles if an agreement to withdraw most Israeli troops from Hebron was imminent.
President Clinton's special Mideast envoy, Dennis Ross, also was flying to Tel Aviv from Cairo, Egypt, where he had attended a Mideast economic conference, said U.S. State Department spokesman Nicolas Burns.
Denmark greets Rushdie after suspected threat
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — Embarrassed by their mishandling of Salman Rushdie's visit, Danish officials welcomed the writer yesterday with tight security — and got a rebuke in return.
"admit it has been a horrible week," Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said.
In October, the government said it would bar Rushdie from coming to receive the European Union's Anteion literary prize after warnings that Islamic militants planned to kill him.
Rasmussen said yesterday that security officials had been informed of a concrete threat on Rushdie's life. But Rushdie, sentenced to death by the late spiritual leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ruhhollah Khomeini, said he was not convinced there was a specific threat.
Pope to meet with Castro concerning U.N. summit
Rushdie, 49, said he was deeply angered by the decision to bar him.
Cubans from the roughly 60-member delegation from Miami yelled, "Viva Cuba Liberal" in the Vatican's Paul IV auditorium.
VATICAN CITY — Shouting anti-Castro slogans and waving Cuban flags, Cuban exiles protested at a general audience with Pope John Paul II yesterday, just days before his expected first meeting with Castro.
The pope didn't acknowledge the shouts and only smiled when one person asked when he would visit Cuba. John Paul is expected to meet with Castro when Castro comes to Rome this week for a U.N. food summit. Those talks could lead to the pope's first visit to Cuba.
The Cuban exiles said they wanted the pope to press for human rights and political freedom in the Communist nation.
Trend indicates decline in deaths from cancer
WASHINGTON — For the first time in at least 60 years, deaths from cancer are dropping steadily. A five-year trend has led experts to shed their usual caution and declare true progress in the war on cancer.
Brad Rodu and University of Alabama-Birmingham colleague Philip Cole uncovered the trend.
The government validated the findings yesterday, saying overall cancer mortality dropped 3 percent between 1990 and 1995. That's not a big decline, but it was the first sustained drop since national record-keeping began in the 1930s — and possibly the first since 1900.
It was fueled by declines in fatal lung cancer that doctors have awaited for decades.
The Associated Press
Seizures may be predictable
Breakthrough at Med Center may lead to prevention
By Ashleigh Roberts Kansan staff writer
Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center have discovered a method that can predict epileptic seizures and could dramatically change seizure treatment in the future.
"This is the first time anyone has been able to predict when a seizure is about to happen," said Ivan Osorio, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and associate professor of neurology at the Med Center. "Prior to this, seizures were considered unpredictable."
The method is a combination of mathematics, computer technology, and digital-signal processing that was co-developed by a team of researchers from the Lawrence campus and the School of Medicine in Kansas City, Kan.
The team developed an algorithm that allows a computer to anticipate seizures by measuring the electrical activity in the brain. By using the algorithm, Osorio said researchers now could predict an oncoming seizure seconds before it hits.
"The algorithm measures brain activity and separates the signals into seizure and nonseizure components," he said.
Of 125 seizures that were monitored at the Med Center, the technique was able to predict 110 of them with a warning time that averaged 13.6 seconds. But researchers believe they soon will be able to predict every seizure several minutes before it occurs.
Osorio said it might be possible in the
"This is very exciting because it opens up new avenues for treatment."
Steven Wilkinson neurosurgeon
future to implant a device in a patient's brain to sense and prevent an oncoming seizure.
"This is very exciting because it opens up new avenues for treatment," said Steven Wilkinson, a neurosurgeon. "It's theoretically possible that we might someday be able to implant a 'smart device' that could actually prevent seizures."
The researchers have applied for a patent with the U.S. Patent Office. The earliest form of the warning device is not expected to reach the market for at least two years.
Susan Arthurs, founder and president of the Epilepsy Alliance, said it was exciting to see a whole different direction in epilepsy treatment.
"This is a giant first step for improved treatment for epilence." Arthurs said.
Although the technology for preventing seizures may still be several years away, Osorio said that being able to reliably predict the onset of a seizure opens new doors for medical treatment.
Rain forest recruiting
"This may revolutionize the way we treat seizures," he said.
GR Gordon-Ross / KANSAN
Ken Nickell, director of rain forest studies in the Amazon, displays information at the Study Abroad Fair. Next summer Nickell will accompany 1.6 students, both undergraduate and grad
uate, on a weeklong trip to the rain forest. At the fair yesterday on the fourth floor of Wescoe Hall, members of the KU Faculty Directed Programs advertised their programs.
TODAY
INDEX
TV ...2A
National News ...6A
Scoreboard ...2B
Horoscopes ...4B
Classifieds ...5B
www.kansan.com
...
Administration searching for technology solutions
Student fee may defray improvement expenses
The fast-paced world of technology and information is not going to stop and wait for the University of Kansas to catch up—and the administration is well aware of that.
By Lindsey Henry Kansan staff writer
For the University to get technologically up to speed, a powerful appeal has to be made to the Kansas Legislature for yearly finances allocated specifically for equipment enhancement, said Richard Mann, director of University administration.
"We've tried to let them know the desperation of the problem," he said. "Maybe we haven't done a good job with that, but we do need a continual influx of dollars to make sure our equipment stays current."
Mann said the University feared the state would grant one sum of money for technological improvements and then abandon the cause.
"The money has to be available every year in the budget," he said. "Otherwise, down the road, we'll be in the soum again."
Student Senate, University administration
"The fee would be a part of tuition," he said. "But there is a reticence to increase tuition again. But in my opinion, that may be the ultimate answer."
and the Board of Regents have proposed a student fee to soothe the technology woes.
Mann said such a fee had been discussed in the past with the Regents.
"Theplaceswhereafehassworkedthebest, thestudentscanseeitsdirecteffect,"Crowe said. "Therehastobeaccountabilityofwherethemoneygoes."
William Crowe, vice chancellor for information services, said he agreed that a student fee would help, but only in a controlled situation.
He said students wanted to know exactly where their money went and what it bought for them.
"You have to have stake holders," Crowe said. "No one is in favor of paying more money, but if we don't do that, what are we going to do?"
In the meantime, the University's deficient technology can be seen in almost every department with outdated equipment. But the long-term effects of the problem, Crowe said, would be a burden for the University's graduates.
"This current state of KU reflects on past graduates," he said. "When you are out in the world with your KU degree and KU wasn't up to par with technology, KU's reputation starts to fall with graduates that can't compete."
Money needed for technology improvements
Kansan staff writer
By Spencer Duncan Korean staff writer
The University of Kansas is at a technological crossroads.
To not be left in the dust, the University must come up with ways to finance technological improvements.
The Board of Regents is working to find solutions for financing technology. Regents hope to have a proposed plan by the end of the school year.
Jamie Johnson, student body vice president, wants to ensure that as the University and Regents think up ways to finance technological advancements, students don't have to pay.
one academic resource,
then they could ask us to pay for overhead costs like
chairs and desks."
"Technology is something academic," Johnson said. "When it comes to academic materials, I am hesitant to accept having the students pay. Once we pay for
However, Johnson said he understood that the University must improve technology.
Provost David Shulenburger agreed. He said that to completely update University departments and research, the University needed $46 million.
"We have some serious needs at this University," he said. "The job now is to find a long-term solution that will help the University work on this problem every year."
Grey Montgomery, student body president, is KU students' only representative on the Regents Budget Development and Tuition Committee. He said the Regents were going to ask the Kansas Legislature for $12 million. The money would be split between the six Regents system institutions.
If approved, the University would get between $3.1 million and $4.2 million.
Technology fees at other universities:
Rutgers University in New Jersey; $50 a semester
Missouri-Rolla:
$5.50 a credit hour
Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.: $80 a semester
$5.50 a credit hour
Oklahoma in Nut man:$5 a credit hour
Indiana in Bloom
ington $100 a
semester
Georgia Tech in
Atlanta: $25 a quarter
Oregon State in Corvallis: $5 a credit hour
MORE TECHNOLOGY:
Most schools at the University, including the School of Fine Arts, want more computer funding. Page 3A
However, Montgomery said that although the $12 million would be nice, he did not want the Legislature to think the money would let them off the hook.
"The Legislature sometimes expects the problems to go away once they have helped a little," Montgomery said. "We want them to know that we have appreciated what they have done in the past, but they need to do more. The Regents need to send a strong message that this is not the end of this problem."
Montgomery said the Regents were looking at solutions that would pay for technology annually. Most of those plans, he said, deal with having the students pay.
Scott Sullivan, liberal arts and sciences senator, said he hoped the trend of looking to students for money would be reversed.
"I've seen little evidence that students should pay." Sullivan said. "We pay for a lot of things, and I don't think this is something that students should have to do."
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