FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1996
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS 864-4810
ADVERTISING 864-4358
SECTION A VOL.102.NO.77
(USPS 650-640)
TODAY KANSAN
SPORTS
Mountain men
The No. 4 Kansas men's basketball team visits Colorado tomorrow. Page 1B
CAMPUS
A proposed bill in the Kansas legislature will create stricter OUI standards for people who are under 21. Page 5A
One too many
NATION
A Blizzard out of nowhere
A blizzard slammed through the plains and left many people stranded. Page 6A
WORLD
Budget enters campaign
Clinton will deliver his State of the Union address to a hostile congress. Page 7A
WEATHER
High 20° Low 8°
CHILLY
Weather: Page 2A.
Jerel Harris / KANSAN
INDEX
Opinion ... 4A
Campus ... 5A
Nation/World ... 6A
Features ... 8A
Sports ... 1B
Scoreboard ... 2P
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is free. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents.
Bad weather closes campus
By Teresa Veazey Kansan staff writer
Wind and snow yesterday caused flurries on campus as the University of Kansas canceled afternoon and evening classes and closed offices because of inclement weather.
Ed Meyen, executive vice chancellor,
said that early yesterday morning, with the
buses running and very little snow on the
ground, he and other University personnel
made the judgment that classes should go
as scheduled. But as the weather and road
conditions worsened, including the closing
of 1-70, Meyen said they felt classes
should be canceled.
"As the day went on, instead of the weather improving, it got worse," said David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs.
'redayday's snow and wind kept students waiting for the busses. Today's high is expected to be 20 degrees.
Hutton said that employee supervisors were directed to begin staggering the departure of employees at 3 p.m. so that streets through campus would not be clogged with employees trying to leave at the same time.
Tom Hutton, director of University Relations, said the announcement was made at 1:45 p.m. that classes after 4 p.m. would be canceled at the Lawrence campus and at the Regents Center in Kansas City, Kan. Campus libraries closed at 6 p.m. with the exception of the law library, which closed at 4 p.m.
However, some instructors canceled their morning classes before the announcement was made.
"Well over a third of class was gone," said James Leiker, graduate student and Western Civilization II instructor. "I just made the decision as an instructor that I didn't want to penalize those who were missing."
Keshana Ledet, Los Angeles senior, said she had an 11 a.m. sociology class that was canceled and was upset that she had come to campus to find her class wasn't meeting.
"I was considering not going because of the weather," she said. "But school was just starting and I thought 'I can't miss now.'"
With classes canceled, the enrollment center also canceled add/drop appointments after 4 p.m.
Brenda Selman, assistant registrar for enrollment services, said students who had an appointment after that time would be able to enroll anytime today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
"We are being as flexible as we can be to accommodate students," she said.
In addition to class cancellations and office closings, evening bus routes were cut short.
"It's getting to the point where they're having trouble running," said Ron Vanderslice, KU on Wheels coordinator, yesterday afternoon.
Because of the weather, buses ran until
their last published route time from 5:30 to 6 p.m., and night bus routes were canceled, Vanderslice said.
Shulenburger, who has been at the Uni.
versity for more than 20 years, said yesterday's closings were a rare occurrence. Meyen said classes last were canceled two years ago because of similar weather.
Cold means more problems for many asthmatic students
By Toresa Veazey
Kansan staff writer
With cold weather as the culprit, several students were treated yesterday morning at Watkins Memorial Health Center for acute asthma attacks, said Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins.
The students had to be treated with medication so they could inhale easier and reduce their wheezing.
While any irritant will trigger asthma, Yockey said the most common cause was cold air.
"Cold triggers the narrowing of airwaves," he said. "With an asthmatic, the airwaves clamp down and they start wheezing."
The more cold air asthmatics take in, the harder it becomes for them to breathe. When they take in cold air through their mouths, they bypass the body's normal mechanism of warming the air through the nose. Yockey said.
"If they go slow and breathe through their nose and wear a muffler, they'll do fine," Yockey said. "But then they hurry and breathe through their mouth so then they need more air."
Jerel Harris / KANSAN
Nikki Reed, Kansas City, Mo., senior, was one of the students who was treated at Watkins for an asthma attack. She was at Wescoe Terrace yesterday morning when her attack occurred, and she said that her inhaler didn't help her condition.
Milen Mitchell uses a tractor to clear a path through the snow in front of Wescoe Hall.
"You feel your chest being very constricted and you can't get a
breath in," she said. "Picture a 10-ton truck on your chest." All KU students with asthma are at risk if they don't take precautions when going outside. Yockey said.
"One in 12 students at KU have mild to severe asthma," he said. "It's easier to keep an asthmatic out of trouble than to get them out of trouble."
64 jobs removed from KU
New budget forces cuts,but not layoffs
By Colleen McCain
Kansas staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Chancellor Robert Hemenway's recent approval of $3 million in cuts to KU's 1997 budget made official the elimination of 69 University jobs.
Of the 64 full-time jobs, 10 are faculty positions, 11 are unclassified staff positions and 43 are classified staff positions. The 64 full-time jobs are vacant or will be vacant by July 1, and no employee layoffs will be made.
Lindy Eakin, associate executive vice chancellor, said most of the jobs were already vacant, and the remaining jobs would be vacant following pending retirements and resignations.
KU has been saddled with a hiring freeze during the 1996 fiscal year, but most of the jobs left vacant during the hiring freeze eventually will be filled. Jobs left vacant because of 1997 budget cuts will be eliminated.
"These cuts are basically permanent — the jobs won't just remain vacant for one year," Eakin said. "For somebody to fill one of the vacant positions, they're going to have to cut something else."
What's been cut
Administrators were forced to cut KU's budget in response to funding cuts from the 1995 Legislature and when a deficit in research overhead occurred.
In an effort to reduce KU's 1997 budget by $3 million, administrators have eliminated 64 full-time jobs. The number of positions eliminated in each University department follow.
Academic Affairs
Research, Graduate Studies and Public Service
Student Affairs
The cuts will
Administrative Affairs 29.45
Chancellor's office 1,0
Executive Vice Chancellor's office
1.5
The cuts will be effective July 1, the beginning of the 1997 fiscal year.
Hemenway outlined 15 principles to follow when making the budget cuts, and then University departments and the vice chancellors recommended specific reductions.
Departments across the University will be forced to function with fewer employees, but the area of administrative affairs was hit the hardest, losing 29.45 jobs. Academic affairs will lose 25.5 positions, but only 9.4 of those are faculty positions.
"No one likes budget reductions," Hemenway said. "On the other hand, I also believe that the University community has shown that it can meet such a challenge with a clear sense of priority and commitment to the academic mission."
KU has 4,006 full-time faculty, classified and unclassified positions. So, the elimination of 64 jobs represents a 1.6 percent cut in the KU work force.
Hemenway said Gov. Bill Graves' budget recommendations do not suggest further cuts to future KU budgets.
"I believe our actions in handling this cut have helped send the message that KU's needs are real and that renewed investment is an act of stewardship for the state," Hemenway said.
KU students go on line to hunt for jobs
Students no longer have to brave arctic winds to search for the perfect part-time or permanent job.
By Heather Kirkwood
Kansan staff writer
Instead, they can browse through the newly expanded University Placement Center's home page on the World Wide Web from the comfort of home using their computer.
The updated page allows students to use key words to search through University job listings that
were previously only available on the bulletin board outside of the University Placement Center.
The home page also offers other services such as:
A complete list of the services offered by the University Placement Center, such as scheduled workshops and job fairs
A list of companies coming to recruit on campus
Links to other sources valuable in the job hunt such as on-line want-ads to information about
The ability to put a résumé online for students registered with the University Placement Center
The ability for employers to search through KU student résumés using key words to find students with particular skills or experience
potential employers
"It became obvious to us when
Information for employers about how to arrange recruiting at the University
Heuring said that companies send out expensive recruiting bro-
this technology started happening that it was ideal for bringing students and employers together," said Mike Heuring, assistant director of the University Placement Center.
Heuring said other services would be added to the home page during the next year, including a listing of permanent jobs and the ability to sign up for interviews online.
chures, but now they don't need to anymore.
"They can put it on their home page, and people will access it from there," he said. "It is a lot cheaper and reaches more people. faster."
Beth Goldstein, Overland Park senior, said she liked the idea of searching for jobs on line.
"It would probably give me an idea of what kinds of classes I still need to take to be a well rounded student," she said. "It would help me figure out what I want to do."
---