FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1996
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS 864-4810
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
SECTION A
VOL.102, NO.103
ADVERTISING 864-4358
TODAY KANSAN
SPORTS
CAMPUS
Jayhawks head to Manhattan
Spotlight on Student Senate
Student Senate Awareness Week begins Monday, but some are critical of Senate for promoting itself. Page 3A
NATION
The No.5 men's basketball team is hoping to bring the conference title home.Page 1B
Fire devastates Texas
Unseasonably hot windy and dry weather is fueling fire burning 40 miles of land. Page 6A
WORLD
Cleanup begins
19 million gallons of crude oil are endangering one of Britain's wildlife preserves. Page 7A
WEATHER SUNNY
High 57° Low 42°
AAAAAHHH
Weather: Page 2A.
INDEX
Opinion ... 4A
Nation/World ... 6A
Features ... 8A
Sports ... 1B
Scoreboard ... 2B
(USPS 650-640)
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents,
Andy Rullestad / KAMRAM
Residents of Ellsworth Hall celebrate during an episode of Friends as part of a national promotion for the popular television show. Shay Getting, Olivia sophomore, top right, signed up her party for a chance to win free prizes in a drawing held last night.
Getting to know Friends
Sitcom sponsors parties for viewers
By Heather Kirkwood
Kansan staff writer
Shay Oetting, Olathe sophomore, and 22 of her friends gathered around the television in the lobby on the seventh floor of Ellsworth Hall last night to watch NBC's hit series Friends. But they weren't the only students watching the show.
With 2,500 organized parties across the country, college students got together to see Phoebe sing about a smelly cat and Ross find out that his sister, Monica, hated him when they were growing up.
The parties were part of a Friends/Diet Coke promotion organized by U.S. Concepts, a New York City-based promotions agency.
Students signed up to hold 50 separate parties in KU residence halls, greek houses, scholarship halls and apartment complexes. Each party received free
"They have problems,but they always have friends to turn to."
Jodil Johnson
Wichitajunior
chips, salsa and Diet Coke, and Oetting's party was selected randomly to receive free T-shirts and party favors.
But it hardly took free food and gifts to get college students across the country to watch Friends.
Nielsen ratings showed that Friends, which is aimed at people in their 20s, was watched by 959,000 households
Getting watches the show religiously every week.
or 31.1 million viewers across the country last week, making it the third most popular sitcom in the United States.
"It's fun to watch," she said. "There's something in every character you can relate to, something that is happening to them, some event in their lives."
Sarah Bower, Marysville freshman, had a Friends party at Jawhawk Towers.
"My two roommates and I watch Friends every week," she said. "It's kind of a ritual with us."
Jodi Johnson, Wichita junior, who played host to a Friends party at her apartment, said she enjoyed the show because it was about people her own age.
However, not everyone is a big fan of Friends. Sam Cowell, Bellingham, Mass. freshman, who was watching Friends at Getting's party, was not impressed.
"They have problems, but they always have friends to turn to," she said.
"The show is Seinfeld with six people instead of four," he said. "I don't generally care for it."
Award honors teaching
Kemper fellowship given to advisers and professors
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
Dedicated advisers and compelling professors are often the unsung heroes at the University of Kansas, but a newly created fellowship will recognize those who make serving students a top priority.
This year, 20 faculty members will receive awards of $5,000 each through the Kemper Fellowship program. The program, which will be financed through the Kemper Foundation and through private donations, will recognize tenured and tenure-track faculty members for their work in both teaching and advising.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway said that an award recognizing both teaching and advising would reinforce the importance of having a student-centered university.
"In my experience, good teachers are almost always good advisers because they care about their students, and students know they can come and talk to those professors," Hemenway said. "I want to reward faculty excellence in those areas."
David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said that to maintain high quality teaching and advising, the University had to demonstrate that both were priorities.
The Kemper Fellowship will allow students, departments, campus organizations and other faculty members to nominate faculty members who go the extra mile to work with students, Shulenburger said.
"In a sense, the institution gets what it values," Shulen-burger said. "This is saving that we value teaching."
Shulenburger said the fellowships also responded to a recommendation made by the Freshman Sophomore Academic Experience Committee. The committee's report suggested that high quality teaching and advising at the freshman and sophomore level were of utmost importance as students acclimated themselves. Four of the Kemper fellowships are earmarked for this area.
Four fellowships will recognize quality teaching and advising within an academic major; four will recognize teaching and advising in health science; four will recognize teaching and advising at the graduate level; and four will reward teaching and advising in KU's public outreach efforts.
Nominations should be directed to department chairpersons and school deans. Completed nominations, including an evaluative statement by the dean or department head are due in the office of academic affairs by April 1. Winners will be recognized in the fall.
Racism experimentalist to speak at Lied
By Susanna Löof
Kansan staff writer
The color of students' eyes theoretically should not be related to how they perform in school.
But tell them that it does, and it will.
That was what Jane Elliott, an elementary school teacher, found out when she performed an experiment on her third grade class in Riceville, Iowa.
The experiment, widely known
among psychologists and sociologists, taught her about how easily people discriminate against each other based on prejudices. She continued to research the effects of prejudices and stereotypes. She will share her knowledge with KU students during a speech about racism at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lied Center.
The speech and a question-andanswer session that will follow it will take about two hours, said Scott Jarboe, Student Union Activities forums coordinator.
Jane Ellott will speak at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lied Center. A question- and answer session will follow. Both
events are free.
Part of that time will be used for showing parts of a video documenting the experiment Elliott performed in the 70s.
Chris Crandall, professor of psychology, said he had used the film, The Eye of the Storm, in his classes in group dynamics.
"It shows how easy it is to convince people to deeply prejudice each other and accept stereotypes," he said.
In the experiment, Elliott treated students with brown eyes better than students with blue eyes some days and vice versa other days. The students she favored performed better than the students who were disfavored.
When Elliott switched roles, the previously disfavored students did not express any sympathy with the disfavored students.
"They didn't appear to learn compassion from being discriminated against," Crandall said. "It's a sad story."
The speech, which is free, is sponsored by the departments of psychology, sociology and student housing. Jarboe said it cost $3,500 to bring Elliott to the University of Kansas.
Jarboe said that 2,000 vouchers would be available at the SUA office and at the door.
"She is a great teacher," Crandall said. "She is one of the best teachers you will ever see."
Marijuana study links drug use to mental abilities
By Teresa Veazey Kansan staff writer
The brain is like a giant fuse box.
Every time you smoke a marijuana cigarette, you zap a few of the neurons in the brain, said Charles Yockey, Watkins Memorial Health Center physician.
How those damaged neurons affect marijuana smokers was the focus of a new study published in Wednesday's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, conducted at McLean Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Belmont, Mass., compared college students who smoked marijuana heavily to less frequent users.
The study showed that heavy marijuana smokers who used the drug more than 22 days a month displayed significantly greater difficulties with mental functions such as concentration, said Staci Gruber, a clinical assistant investigator who administered all of the study's tests.
Instead of looking at users versus nonusers, which is typical of most studies, researchers compared people with similar backgrounds who smoke marijuana in different quantities. Gruber said. The study showed that heavy users, who smoked an average of 29 days a month, had more trouble paying attention than light users, who smoked an average of 1 day a month.
"I thought it was a well-done study that suggests that people who use marijuana heavily for some time show some impairments in mental ability," said Robert Block, author of an editorial that accompanied the study and associate professor of anesthesia at the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City.
After not smoking marijuana for 24
hours, students in the study still had chemicals in their bodies even though they didn't feel high, Block said. But heavy users didn't do as well in terms of concept formation than occasional users, even though all the students hadn't used the drug for a full day.
Joey Bloom, vice-president/treasurer for KU NORML, a campus group advocating the legalization of marijuana, said it was hard to tell whether the study's results were correct.
Although the study said that heavy marjuana use equaled a decrease in mental ability, Bloom said most KU students who smoked marijuana used it with some restraint.
"You have to keep it in moderation," he said. "Marijuana is one of those drugs that if you get addicted, then something else is missing in your life."
Photo Illustration bv Brian Flink / KANBAU
A recent study of heavy marijuana use shows that people who smoke marijuana more than 22 days a month have difficulties with mental functions.