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Holiday Special Section Inside
Vol. 99, No.72 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED SINCE 1880 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Friday December 9,1988
Soviet quake kills thousands
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Soviet authorities yesterday rushed military surgeons and tons of medical supplies into Armenia, rocked by an earthquake that officials said virtually destroyed seven miles of land killed tens of thousands of people.
Armenian journalists said a Politburo commission led by Premier Nikolai I. Rizykh received preliminary estimates that up to 50,000 people died in the Wednesday earthquake, measured 6.9 on the Richter scale.
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev cut short his trip to the United States and flew home to lead a worldwide emergency rescue effort in the southern republic, which has a population of 3.3 million.
Knight-Ridder Tribune News / PAUL SOUTAP
"Igrant measures are being taken to help all those affected by this terrible tragedy, and I have to be there in this effort," said Gorbachev. "I am trained to fly to Verecau, the Armenian capital, after arriving in Moscow."
He canceled planned trips to Cuba and Britain.
President Reagan offered emergency humanitarian aid, Cuban President Fidel Caso pledged to send construction workers, and Britain dispatched London firefighters to join the rescue effort
The epicenter of the quake was 25 miles northeast of Lенинка, on the Turkish border. The U.S. Geological Survey said the initial shock was
ouwed four minutes later by an aftershock measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale.
The scale is a measure of ground motion as recorded on seismographs. Every increase of one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude.
Soviet TV showed that a clock on a building in Lennakin, Armenia's second-largest city, stopped at 1:41 a.m., the instant the disaster struck.
The earthquake destroyed two-thirds of Lennakin, which has a population of 250,000, a TV correspondent said.
Spiak, a town of 16,000 about 45 miles away, "was practically erased from the face of the Earth," the correspondent said.
Hundreds of thousands were left homeless in the region, he said.
Tass, the state-run news agency,
said half the buildings in Kirovakan,
a city of 150,000, had crumbled.
A special meeting of representatives of all 15 Soviet republics was called in Yerevan today to discuss disaster relief.
News about quake hits close to home
Prof's family OK after Armenian disaster
By Terry Bauroth Kansan staff writer
Last week, visiting professor Bagrat Edilian received a call from his mother in the Soviet Union's providence of Armenia. Edilian had been hurt in last Tuesday's explosion in Kansas City, Mo.
Yesterday, Edilian received another call from his mother, Diana Gevorkian, assuring him that she and his family had survived Wednesday's Armenian earthquake.
"She didn't know how close Lawrence is to Kansas City, and of course she wanted to hear my voice." Edilian said
the operator said that there were no connections with Yerevan (the Armenian capital) because of the earthquake," he said. "I received a call about 11 a.m. this morning from my husband and my parents and family were okay."
But, yesterday Edilian was relieved to hear her voice.
"I tried to call her all night, but
The quake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Col., destroyed several cities and killed tens of thousands of people. Soviet officials said.
The earthquake was the strongest ever to have hit the Soviet Caucasus region in 80 years.
Big 8 Tournament will admit Kansas
Edition said that the situation in Yerevan was not as terrible as in other areas. Although some buildings have been destroyed, not been any deaths in Yerevan.
Please see PROF. p. 8, col. 1
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The national champion Kansas Jayhawks, prohibited from competing in the 1989 NCAA Tournament because of recruiting violations, will be allowed to participate in next year's Big Eight conference meet's basketball tournament, conference officials said yesterday.
The decision was made during the quarterly meeting of the Big Eight faculty representatives and athletic directors in Kansas City.
"It was a question of the conference not wanting to be in a position where two organizations (the NCAA and the Big Eight) take action against an institution," said Missouri faculty representative Dr. Carl Setgeren, chairman of the conference, would have been double jeopardy.
Settergren said Big Eight regula.
tions say that if rules violations were alleged, an institution may have either the NCAA or the conference investigate.
If the NCAA investigates and ultimately levies penalties, the conference is prohibited from taking additional punitive action, he said.
"We simply followed the Big Eight rules and regulations," Settergren said. "The bottom line is the University of Kansas will continue to be a welcome participant in the Big Eight tournament."
Tim Allen, a conference spokesman, said if Kansas won the Big Eight tournament, NCAA officials would have to decide which of the other seven teams would be the qualifier for the NCAA tournament.
Kansas athletic director Bob Fred
erick was out of town and unavailable
for comment last night.
U.S. plane downed by missiles in Africa
The Associated Press
RABAT, Morocco — A missile attack downed a U.S. government locust-spraying plane over Mauritania yesterday, and all five people aboard were presumed dead, officials said.
A second DC7, also from the U.S.
Agency for International Development,
was damaged by the anti-aircraft missiles but was able to fly on and land in Morocco, and no injuries were reported among those aboard.
Official sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in this North African country said that rebels of the Marxist Polisario Front may have attacked the planes. No one immediately took responsibility.
The attack occurred as both four engine propeller-driven DC7s flew over a border area where nationalist rebels have waged a guerrilla war against the Moroccan government to establish an independent Western Sahara.
The area where the plane was shot down is 650 miles southwest of Rabat, the Moroccan capital.
In Washington, AID spokesman Bart Kull said both planes were used for spraying locust swarms in Senegal, which borders Mauritania
to the south. Locust infestations have ravaged much of northern Africa this year.
A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Rabat said the two planes left Dakar, Senegal, earlier yesterday and were bound for the Moroccan city of Agadir when they came under fire from ground-to-air missiles.
"The five crew members of the downed aircraft, all of whom are American citizens, are presumed dead," an AID statement said. "The crew members of the other plane had been taken to Agadir."
Mauritania lies east and south of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. Morocco annexed part of the Western Sahara in 1976 and the remaining territory three years later when Mauritania withdrew from it.
Moroccan government officials said the two planes were fired upon while they were flying at 10,000 to 11,000 feet in an international navigation corridor over Bir Mohgreh in northern Mauritania.
The Moroccan sources said officials were trying to locate the downed plane's wreckage, which could have scattered over a wide area.
City of lights
The holiday spirit is full and glowing in downtown Lawrence as shoppers and sightseers stroll down Massachusetts Street.
KU plans safer storage of its toxic waste
By Mark Fagan
Kansan staff writers
Plans to move KU's hazardous waste storage site to a safer location will go into action this summer, a KU planning official said yesterday.
Allen Wiechert, University director of facilities planning, said waste at the present site, a trailer on West Campus, would be moved to the old reactor室 buy in Burt Hall, south of Learned Hall.
Wiechert said the project would follow recommendations from Steve Cater, KU environmental health and safety officer. The plans would transform or bay into a storage area for KU's hazardous waste.
The project will remodel the reactor bay and cost about $100,000. He said bids would go out early this summer, and the project could be finished by spring 1990.
"It would be an improvement," Cater said. "The trader is not optimum. I don't think anyone has a problem."
Ben Frieden, director of the office of research, health and safety, will review the remodeling
plans before bids go out. Facilities planning will have the plans available by early summer.
Cater said the reactor bay, in the first floor of Burt, would be remodeled to include two separate concrete buildings, which would house bulk liquid and solid laboratory waste.
The two structures would be equipped with proper ventilation systems and a carbon dioxide fire extinguishing system. Cater said. Also, new equipment will be installed poured, allowing better containment in case spills.
"it buys us time." Cater said. "It can contain problems (spills) until we know how to deal with them."
Cater said the trailer, which had no ventilation or fire extinguishing systems, did not offer the safety precautions the reactor bay would. The floor is also protected floor also make it potentially dangerous.
"The trailer is not designed to be a storage site • but it is as safe as we can make it," he said. "If something leaked in the trailer, it could sink into the floor and get into the ground."
Cater said his and Friessen's offices would be moved next to the reactor bay, allowing them
easier access to the storage area Two locks doors leading to the area would provide added
The trailer presents no real danger to the public. Cater said.
"It has the potential to be dangerous, like this gasoline tank in your car is dangerous," he said. "If I mean, if it got bit by lightning or something, it'd be a huge problem, stuff is just string of there in closed containers."
Cater said the trailer's main problem was its location. Because some chemicals are sensitive to heat and cold, he must keep some of them in his bag in Burt. And that means more trips to the trailer.
"The most dangerous part is transportation," he said. "With the bay, they the materials; would never have to leave here until it was time for them to be picked up."
KU's hazardous waste, Cater sand, comes in three main categories: laboratory waste, sodium sodium cyanide and sulfuric acid, bulk liquids including oil-base paints, and photographic film.
Please see TRAILER, p. 6, col. 1
183 students receive warnings for misusing AT&T long distance security codes
By Laura Woodward
Kansan staff writer
The office of telecommunications has sent 183 warm letters this semester to KU students who have attempted to use an authorization card than their own for distance service.
About 2,000, or 46 percent, of the students living in residence and scholarship halls subscribe to the AT&T Association of College and University Systems long-distance service, which issues personal security codes to each student.
"Most of the students who do this aren't thinking about what they're doing," said Jan Weller, director of telecommunications for KU. "A lot of them just have forgotten their
security code. They don't understand the serious implications of what they're doing. It's unintentional at least 99 percent of the time."
The telecommunications office receives a daily report from AT&T that indicates the extensions where illegal authorization code attempts have been made, credit limit status, and deactivated and activated personal security codes.
A warning letter then is sent to the student at the extension where the illegal authorization code attempt has been made. A copy of the letter also is sent to the office of student life.
The letter includes the dates of the activity, the number of times numbers were called.
the dialed number and the number of inappropriate personal security codes used.
"The majority of students who received the warning letters have called, stopped by or written letters," Weller said. "In most cases, I found their statements both reasonable and valid, and will recommend to the dean of the office that that the letters be removed (from the file)."
Weller said students usually offered one of three explanations: 'They forgot their personal security code; they were just playing with it, so they did it, and they never will do it again.
The telecommunications office usually will give a student the benefit of the doubt before making any decisions.
"We've only had two serious cases, and those students personally visited with us," Weller said. "They had to pay for the calls they made and for the investigation costs."
A student who is accused of trau may be suspended or expelled from the University or may be reported to the local authorities for possible criminal prosecution.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing,
said he didn't think it was a big problem.
"It's just a warning," he said. "If you take the number of people living in residence and scholarship halls, only about 1 percent of them have received letters."
To avoid the possibility of receiving a warning letter. Weller said students should.
keep the codes in a safe place.
**librarians are willing to pay one out**
**careful about letting others use their book**
- **not let others use the codes unless the students are willing to pay the bill**
This semester is the first time the service has been offered
Each subscriber is permitted a $2 a year credit limit. The personal security code is deactivated if students exceed credit limits or are in the period or fail to pay bills by the due date
Students who choose not to use the service have the option of using other long distance services such as calling cards, or collect or third number billing.