UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, February 27, 1996
5A
Bill passes first test to start qualified admissions policy
Final vote is today sponsor thinks bill has enough votes
By John Collar Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — After more than three hours of debate yesterday, the House gave a preliminary passing grade to qualified admissions.
"I'm tired but very happy with the result," said State Rep. Ralph Tanner, R-Baldwin City, the sponsor of the bill.
By a vote of 66-56, the House recommended that the bill be passed. The chamber is scheduled to hold a final vote on the measure today.
Tanner, who is a former president of Baker University, predicted that the 10-vote margin should provide enough cushion to pass the bill.
"I would be very shocked if there were that many defections," he said.
During the debate that occupied most of
the house session yesterday, Tanner fielded questions from representatives and responded to proposed amendments.
The chamber voted to eliminate the foreign language requirement from the college-preparatory curriculum in the bill. It also decided to extend the waiting period before the admissions requirements would take effect. It was delayed from 2000 to 2001. This waiting period would allow high-school students to anticipate which courses to take.
The bill would impose minimum admissions requirements at all Regents universities. Incoming freshmen would be required to have a 2.0 grade point average in a college-preparatory curriculum, or a score of 31 on the ACT, or graduate in the top one third of their high school class. Kansas is the only state to allow all high school graduates to enroll at state universities. This policy has been in effect since 1915.
The bill provides for a window, which would allow each university to admit up to 10 percent of the freshmen class who do not meet the requirements.
Several representatives strongly criticized this provision of the bill.
The House Democratic leader, State Rep.
Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said the window would allow a university to give preferential treatment to some students, such as the children of large contributors.
"The window is the issue, by far, that I find the most offensive in this bill," Sawyer said. "If standards are important, they should apply to everyone."
State Rep. Bill Reardon, D-Kansas City, who is a high school teacher, said several states had faced scandals with the improper admittance of students.
The bill was amended to require universities to provide a report of the students that are admitted under the window.
"I think the window is hypocrisy in its highest form," Reardon said.
Opponents said that economically disadvantaged students would be hurt most by the bill.
"Money problems are the biggest reasons that kids drop out, and this bill won't change that," Reardon said.
The proposal would limit opportunity for all students, said State Rep. Ed McKechnie, D-Pittsburg.
"Do you want to have a philosophy of inclusion or one that keeps students out?" McKechnie said.
Evaluations to be clarified
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
Faculty evaluations are a mystery to many students. They complete the evaluations at the end of each semester and never see or hear of them again.
But beginning this semester, some questions of what happens to faculty evaluations will be answered for students. A statement describing the role evaluations play in determining faculty raises and promotions will be included on evaluations.
Adding the statement was one recommendation that resulted from a meeting of the academic deans, academic affairs representatives, student body president Kim Cocks and student body vice president Dan Hare.
Cocks said students' primary concern was that the evaluations had no effect.
"I think that a lot of students don't fill out evaluations because they don't know what they're used for," Cocks said.
David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said that he was concerned that students weren't taking evaluations seriously.
Kim Cocks
"Evaluations are an important component in determining promotion, tenure and merit salary increases," Shulenburger said. "My hope is that students will read the statement explaining that and really take evaluations seriously."
Also discussed at the meeting were mid
semester evaluations.
Shulenburger said that mid-semester evaluations would allow professors to solicit suggestions for improving the course and then make changes.
Shulenburger has issued a memo to academic deans and
department chairmen describing students' concerns and the meeting's ideas.
Dan Haro
Jack Fincham, dean of the School of Pharmacy, attended the meeting and endorsed any change that highlighted the importance of faculty evaluations.
"The more you can do to talk about evaluations and what they're used for, the better," Fincham said.
Embezzlement case investigation to end
KU police are waiting on an auditor's report to wrap up investigations in the embezzlement of $39,000 from the department of pharmacology and toxicology endowment account.
Kansan staff report
KU police spoke with auditors early yesterday morning in regards to the $39,000 that was discovered missing from the account in early February.
Sergeant Chris Keary of KU police said that university auditors had not finished the final report, but he expected it soon.
Keary said that the police would forward information concerning the embezzlement to Douglas County District Attorney
Mark Knight after they received the final auditor's report and finished interviews. Knight couldn't be reached for comment.
KU police arrested Theresa Louis Mercer on Feb. 14 on 109 counts of forgery, 17 counts of felony theft and 93 counts of misdemeanor theft. She was released the following day because the investigation hadn't been completed, Knight said in an earlier interview.
Mercer, former administrative assistant for the department of pharmacology and toxicology, is suspected of forging documents and writing fraudulent checks from the department's endowment account to herself and others over a three-year period.
Topeka resident is winner of Great Plains contest
Popular radio character also honored playwright
By Jason Strait
Kansan staff writer
But Oleander isn't a KANU employee. Instead, he's a popular fictional character of Topeka commentator and playwright Thomas Averill.
William Jennings Bryan Oleander will leave the radio waves of KANU next year for the stage.
Oleander was the inspiration for Averill's first play Abide With Me, which won the first Great Plains Play Contest sponsored by the University Theatre. Averill's play will be the featured production in the KU Alums Come Home celebration next year, which will include current and former University actors.
Abide With Me is based on Averill's radio commentaries on Kansas life, which have been regular features on KANU broadcasts for the past six years.
"I started out doing a monthly commentary," Averill said. "Then we went to twice monthly. Then, for the past two years, I did weekly pieces during the Kansas legislative session."
Averill described Oleander as just an old guy who knows Kansas pretty well.
Averill said Delbert Unruh, University Theatre director, approached him in the fall of 1994 with the idea of doing something dramatic with the program. Averill wrote the play while on sabbatical from Washburn University and submitted it to the contest.
Averill received a $1,000 prize as the winning playwright, and was also awarded a $500 stipend, which will enable Averil to participate in play rehearsals, Unruh said.
The University Theatre production committee selected Averill's play from 14 submitted scripts, Unruh said.
"When Unruh called with the news, I was very happy," Averill said. "But I realized that I have a lot of work ahead of me."
Averill is not the only member of his family that has work to do, however.
Averill's brother, Ric Averill, and nephew, Will Averill, Lawrence senior, also will participate in the University Theatre's 1968-97 season. Ric Averill's play, Alex and The Shrink World, will be staged by the KU Theatre for Young People in February 1997, and Will Averill's play, Tales from the Wasteland, is a part of the Inge Theatre Series and will be presented in late January and early February 1997.
"It's going to be great, like a family reunion," Thomas Averill said of his family's role in the University Theatre's season next year.