Football: Kansas still in the running for a bowl game. Page 1B
HIV: Many sexually-active students are not testing for the AIDS virus. Page 0A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4.1996
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.103.NO.51
(USPS 650-640)
Companies claim merger will decrease phone rates
NEW YORK - British Telecommunications and MCI Communications yesterday trumpeted their planned $20.8 billion marriage as a boon for consumers and businesses, creating new competition that will drive down phone rates on both sides of the Atlantic.
But that optimistic scenario was swiftly disputed by fellow phone superpower AT&T, which has the most to lose from the marriage.
Just one day after the boards of British Telecom and MCI approved the deal, AT&T chairman Robert E. Allen said it could negatively impact competition and reduce customer choice and, as such, should be closely scrutinized by government regulators.
The British Telecom-MCI deal would be the biggest foreign takeover of a U.S. corporation in history. The companies promised a communications powerhouse, with annual revenues of $42 billion and 43 million business and residential customers in 72 countries. They will call the merged business Concert, named after a joint venture begun three years ago when British Telecom bought a stake in MCI.
Clinton, Dole vie for votes in opponent's strongholds
President Clinton appealed for black and elderly support yesterday as he battled to break Florida's GOP-supporting tradition and crush Bob Dole's comeback hopes. Republicans voiced growing confidence that they would keep control of Congress, and warned Clinton that there would be no second-term honeymoon.
"There are big troubles ahead for this president," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, all but conceding the White House race as he vowed tough investigations of fundraising by Clinton and the Democratic Party.
Florida last voted for a Democrat for president 20 years ago, but that race was a dead heat in the final days.
"Keep your fingers crossed and keep on working," Dole said in a call to volunteers on the overnight shift at his campaign headquarters
Two days before the election, the presidential candidates focused on states critical to the other's success. Dole spent yesterday in California, fighting against the odds for the 54 electoral votes that anchor Clinton's re-election strategy.
The president made two stops in Florida before flying to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.
Yeltsin's doctors say surgery will be a snap
MOSCOW — According to the cool logic of Boris Yeltsin's doctors, his heart surgery will be a snap, he'll return to the Kremlin by year's end and he'll serve out his term to 2000 in his own forceful style.
But among Russia's clamorous politicians, the president's four-month absence has created a free-for-all atmosphere in a country trying to stabilize its democracy and resuscitate an economy that's shrinking for a sixth straight year.
When the surgeons carve their detours around Yeltsin's gummed up arteries, two separate constitutions will be tested — Yeltsin's and Russia's. Both should survive, but neither has been thriving.
Michael DeBakey, the American heart specialist who is consulting on the surgery, arrived in Moscow yesterday to meet with Yeltsin's doctors and set a date for the operation, probably sometime this week. With three serious bouts of heart trouble in the past two years, the 65-year-old president will require triple or quadruple bypass surgery.
The Associated Press
Errors can nix voting right
Two KU students absent from rolls
By Neal Shulenburger Kansan staff writer
For at least two KU students, registering to vote on campus did not mean they would be able to vote on Nov.5.
Lisa Ball, Lawrence graduate student, and Dan Kluza, Des Moines, Iowa, graduate student, both know that fact well.
"I have not missed an election since I was old enough to vote," said Kluza, who is 27. "That has meant a lot to me. I'm angry because my right to vote has been denied."
Ball and Klua registered on Oct. 7 in the Kansas Union. Klua was registering as a Kansas resident for the first time. Each one
Kluza still had not received his registration card in the mall two weeks later, so he decided to find out why.
"I brought the issue up with Lisa since she and I registered on the same day," he said. "I wanted to know if she had gotten her card vet. She hadn't notten hers either."
filled out registration cards at the table sponsored by the Hillel Foundation and staffed by American Israel Public Affairs.
Kluza decided to call the county offices to see if they just hadn't yet mailed the cards.
"I called the Douglas County Clerk to figure out my status," he said. "I was informed it hadn't gone through. I was not registered in this county."
Ball didn't have any more luck than Kluza did.
"I asked them to check and make sure I was registered and no one had even heard of me there," she said. "The had no record of my registration."
Iris Rosenthal, East Buffalo Grove, Ill.,
junior and president of American-Israel Public Affairs, said she wasn't sure what happened to the registration forms.
"We picked them all up, put them in envelopes and sent them to the Secretary of the State of Kansas," she said. "That was what we had been told to do. I imagine that they could have gotten混 up over there."
Earlier this year, Kansas enacted the National Voter Registration Act, which allows any group to register people to vote. Previously, groups wishing to conduct registration drives had to publish the drive in advance in a newspaper, and volunteers had to attend a training course.
Linda Shear, Leavenworth County Clerk,
said that this problem was not uncommon.
"The biggest source of the problems with registration are people who do not fill out their forms correctly," she said. "We get those every year, but we've had a few more this year because of the easier guidelines."
Whether the mistake occurred at the registration table, the post office or the Topeka office, it is too late to do anything about it. Kluza and Ball will not be able to vote because the Oct. 14 state registration deadline has already passed.
"Unless they picked up more than 25 cards, they didn't even have to write the name of their group down," she said. "Even groups that did might have had individual members come in and pick up the cards without telling us they were part of a group. That makes it harder for us to hold groups accountable if something goes wrong."
Patty Jaimes, Douglas County Clerk, said that the new guidelines had allowed many more people to register, but that they also made it tougher to determine who did the registering.
Ball said the hopelessness of the situation was what frustrated her the most.
"The worst thing about this is that we didn't do anything wrong, and no matter what happens, we still won't be able to vote," she said.
Working together for art's sake
Photos by Tyler Wirken / KANSAN
Members of the Visual Art Education program, offered through the school of fine arts, gathered yesterday at a farm outside Oskaloosa to create a found-object sculpture. The group of students, who are studying to become art teachers, gathered together to create the sculpture in an effort to raise awareness of the VAE Organization. The group was not as concerned with the final product, but rather the act of coming together as a group.
Above: Jennifer Oldham, Bonner Springs senior, adds her personal touch to the sculpture built by the VAE Organization.
"it's not the product but the process", said Jennifer Dixon-Perkins, Ozawke senior.
Office won't help students vs. KU
Right: Dana Ferrell, Caney senior, concentrates while working on the sculpture.
University rules create tough situation for Legal Services
By Spencer Duncan Kansan staff writer
Anyone who needs legal advice against the University of Kansas cannot rely on Legal Services for Students for help. It will tell you to go elsewhere.
Kansan staff writer
Legal Services is 100 percent financed by students, yet it will not give students legal advice against the University of Kansas. The organization receives $207,725 from Student Senate a year.
"It's kind of a directive from the University that it be set up that way," Johnson said. "The University looks at it as a service by the University. It is a bone of contention among many people."
Jamie Johnson, student body vice-president and legal service advisory board member, said the issue was confusing.
Rachel Schwartz, advisory board member, said the policy should be changed.
The University has an unfair advantage because University Council members can appear on behalf of the University at grievance hearings, she said. But Legal Services, despite being created for the students, can not represent students.
"Student Senate is for students, and I don't see Legal Services as an arm of the University," she said. "I don't think that it is proper that students can't use it when they have a problem with the University. I think, essentially, that is what it was created for."
Schwartz also had another problem with the policy.
Jo Hardesty, director of Legal Services, said the situation had put her and the office in a tough situation.
"On the one hand, this office is funded by students, and they are one of my bosses," Hardesty said. "On the other hand, another one of my bosses is the University. I have to walk a fine line because of the two bodies. One of them can fire me and the other funds us. It's a
See OFFICE, Page 2A
Prentiss Earl III, Kansas City, Kan., junior, and Jessica Keith, Kansas City, Kan., senior, talk to the Black Student Government representatives. Earl and Keith spoke Saturday at the Kansas Union about the status of the Black Student Union.
Black groups discuss goals
Includes more students, voters
Communicating is the key to success for members of Black student governments. Friday and Saturday, representatives from the schools in the former Big Eight Conference met at the University to do just that: Communicate about goals, missions and challenges facing them.
By Bradley Brooks Kansan staff writer
"We want to create a community that is politically aware, and we want to be able to educate our members about our culture," said Meron Wondwosen, president of Iowa State's Black Student Alliance. "We strive for effective communication among the member schools."
More than 50 members of the Big Eight Council on Black Student Government began Friday afternoon with the meeting of the executive committee. They met to examine the different goals and objectives that they wanted to meet, not only as a council but on individual campuses as well.
Torrez Dawson, Wichita senior and Council's president said that there were several different committees established to explore a variety of issues. One of these, the political
action committee, played a major role in the Council meeting Saturday.
"Voter registration was one of our biggest goals for this year," Dawson said. "We asked for 2,000 people to be registered collectively. That may seem small, but we will build on that every year."
Dawson said a continuing area of interest for the Council was the recruitment and retention of African Americans to college campuses.
"We do things like invite high school students up to campus. We talk to them and answer their questions," he said. "Once they get here, we provide a mentoring program; we try to pair them with a mentor that is in their academic department."
Dawson said that this recruitment didn't limit itself to just students.
"We want to recruit and retain faculty and staff, too," he said.
Another area that the Council pursues is the community involvement of its members.
"We want to get African Americans back into the community," Dawson said. "We are trying to provide programs for community outreach."
One example of this outreach is the KU Black Student Union's involvement with the Boys and Girls
See BLACK, Page 2A
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