UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, January 31, 1996
7A
State limits funds for child care
Students with children can receive 30 months of day-care assistance
By Scott MacWilliams Kansan staff writer
KU students who depend on the state of Kansas for child-care support recently were left out in the cold.
As part of welfare-reform changes instituted Nov. 1, any parent receiving child-care services that enable the parents to go to school are given a maximum of 30 months of support. The previous policy provided students with child-care support until they completed a baccalaureate degree.
In a letter dated Jan. 4, the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services informed local child-care providers of the changes. Parents were given as little as 10 days' notice that their child-care support would be terminated.
"Basically, our policy supported a
very small number of individuals, maybe 2 percent of our local clients," said Jim Baze, chief of employment preparation services at the Lawrence office of SRS.
Baze said the reform was part of an overall trend in which taxpayers did not want to support people who did not want to work. Baze also said that no evidence in the last 14 months suggested that a person with a degree would earn more than a person with specialized training in an entry-level position.
The new policy cuts off funds on May 31 for anyone not completing a degree by Dec. 31.
"What we are seeing is that most bachelor degrees are not that marketable for entry-level jobs and that by the year 2000, 80 percent of entry-level jobs will only require two years of specialized technical training." Baze said.
Carol Belzer, assistant director of United Child Development Center, 946 Vermont St., said she disagreed with the cuts.
"I don't understand exactly why they are cutting back support for
people trying to complete a degree," Belzer said.
"We were told that the idea was to give students support until they were 'employable.' Belzer said. "It seems counterproductive to the idea of getting people off of welfare."
Pat Pisani, program director for Hilltop Child Development Center, 1314 Jawahk Blvd., said families already were being cut off.
"Some families get scholarship assistance through the United Way, but that money is limited," Pisani said.
Pisani said that some families were faced with taking charge of their children's care and wondered how they would complete degrees.
Martha Langley, financial manager for Hilltop, said people who already had applied for grants for the fall were going to be short of money for child care because of the SRS cutbacks.
"Just off the top of my head, I think we have about 20 to 25 families of KU students who are being cut off," Langley said.
Union counter is the place for food and facts
By Heather Kirkwood Kansan staff writer
Ben Levich sees a lot. And he should.
Levich, Plymouth, Minn., junior, spends between five and six hours a day, three days a week working at the candy counter on the 4th floor of the Kansas Union. Levich sells 3 Musketeers bars, scoops Gummy Bears and gives directions.
Levich said students taking a break from classes usually were in search of cigarettes but sometimes were looking for directions to everything from the restroom to the best bars in town.
"I've even had people from out of town call for directions on how to get here," Levich said. "Not being from here, that's a hard one."
But Levich said the most unusual thing he had seen happened last semester.
Students from a drama class were given the assignment to stage a confrontation.
Most davs,however,are more routine,he said.
"They picked the lobby of the Union to do it. It was pretty funny," Levich said.
Most days, however, are more fours. Michele Conley, Neil Fitzgerald and Michele Conley, knew how many kinds of candy they sold or what their annual sales were. However, they said they saw many of the same customers every day.
"Everybody's eating candy bars for lunch," Conlev said.
One regular customer is Nick Zaller, Tulsa, Okla. sophomore, who works in the Union. Zeller said he bounts Tootsie Roll Pops.
"I have a serious problem with my craving for chocolate." he said.
Liz Caldwell, network coordinator for University Relations, is another regular customer.
"Most of the time they know what I want before I get here," she said. "I usually come in the afternoon."
Conley laughed as she handed Caldwell a 3 Musketeers bar.
"She never gains a pound," Conley said. "It makes me sick."
Upgrades make computers faster
By R. Adam Ward Kansan staff writer
It's no lark that the falcon server at the computer center will be replaced soon.
On Sunday evening, Bob Sloane, the Computer Center's systems software specialist, replaced the computer that ran the lark server with an updated central processing unit. This weekend Sloane will replace the falcon server's processing unit with the old lark unit.
Lark is used by researchers and professors at the University to model complex numerical systems. Astronomers use the server to model the entire universe, and chemists use it to solve complex equations. Sloane said.
With the new central processing unit, lark users can complete in about 40 minutes the number-crunching operations that used to take an hour.
"It's one of the fastest single processors on the market, and, as far as I know, the fastest on campus." Sloane said.
and, as tar as I know, the fastest of campus
The Computer Center purchased the new unit with revenue from the $30 fee students and faculty pay for dial-in accounts.
The falcon server, used by students and faculty to send e-mail and use Netscape, also will be faster when falcon is replaced with the old lark central processing unit.
Jerry Niebaum, executive director of information and technology services at the Computer Center, said, "That will make falcon two times as fast. It means you will be able to access files faster with fewer long delays."
The center also plans to add 64 dial-in modern lines to reduce the number of blocked calls and busy signals, Niebaum said.
But some KU students wondered whether the change in the falcon system really would make a difference.
"I think that they should get more computers instead of upgrading the falcon system," said Annie Gorski, Prairie Village junior.
Gorski said the new CPU would not change much the way she used the falcon server, although it would make it more convenient.
Thao Nguyen, Wichita freshman, said that waiting five minutes to log on had not been too inconvenient.
Nguyen said she sometimes had long waits for type to come up on the screen.
Sloane said that if this problem was a result of the network being slow, the new server would not make a difference. However, if the problem was a result of the computer being slow to uplink characters, the new central processing unit would make a difference, he said.
Flight Instruction Scholarship The Willis A. Waas Memorial Scholarship is awarded each Spring to a KU student to assist in obtaining a private pilot license.
Deadline: March 1, 1996
To be eligible, a student must:
• be working toward a private pilot license
• have a current flight medical certificate
• have at least 5 hours of dual instruction time logged
(attach a copy of pages from logbook)
• be enrolled at least 50% time at the Lawrence campus
Application available at
Aerospace Engineering Department
2004 Learned Hall • 864-4267
Deadline: March 1, 1996
To be eligible, a student must:
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