I Vol. 99, No. 44 (USPS 650-640) THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN PUBLISHED SINCE 1889 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Thursday October 27,1988 U.S., Soviet cooperation frees whales The Associated Press BARROW, Alaska — Two whales trapped for almost three weeks in the arctic ice pack were freed yesterday by Soviet and United States icebreakers. "The whales are loose and in the channel and headed out," said Lt. Mike Haller, a spokesman for the Alaska National Guard. "They looked good all afternoon. To look at them, you'd have thought they had their bags packed and were ready to head south." Ron Morris of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and rescue coordinator said, "They're in the main lead, and I can't help but think they'll keep on truckin'. I don't know how much more we can do." The work to free the migrating California gray whales progressed rapidly Tuesday when two Soviet ice-breaking vessels began smashing the ice that kept the pair imprisoned. A third trapped whale is thought to have died last week. Morris, who followed the whales by helicopter, landed a little after 8 p.m. to say that the whales had moved from the final manmade breathing hole to the path the Soviet icebreaker Vladimir Arseniev cut Tuesday night. Rescue officials were worried that the whales would have trouble breaking air holes through the partly frozen cut, but about 4:30 p.m. rescue workers found the two whales at a small breathing hole and were sharing it One of the whales was bleeding enough to stain the water red. Spectators watched anxiously for several moments, waiting for the whales to surface in the new waterway cut by daydreaming in the new waterway heered when the whales broke the surface. As darkness fell, the whales were swimming back and forth in the channel. Officials noticed that the whales were splashing. nightfall. Scientists and others involved in the rescue might never know the whales' fate. Rescue officials decided not to put electronic tracking tags on the already stressed animals. "A lot of people really didn't want to biologist Jim Harvey, a federal marine biologist. Haller said plans were being made in Harlow to thank the Soviets with a party, part of the new government. Before the whales were freed, as the Soviet icebreakers drew near, the whales were "acting in a very excited manner, almost like they can sense freedom," said Sgt. Ian Robertson, an Alaska National Guard spokesman. By midday, the Soviet icebreakers were a quarter-mile from the line of breathing holes being cut by Americans working in the opposite direction. he said. Later yesterday, rescuers began to use a tractor-like device propelled by pontoon augers to clear the ice cut by the icebreaker, Robertson said. The breakthrough in the effort to free the whales caught in an early freeze came after more than a week of delays and disappointments. Roof collapses at building site Workers escape unharmed Please see WHALES, p. 10, col. 1 By Mark E. McCormick Kansan staff writer debris. No one was injured. The building at Sixth Street and Hoobler said. "I've been around here 13 years, and the most I've run across was three or four." Hoober said the roof probably collapsed because of a loosely supported frame. The wind wasn't strong enough to have caused the fire. SALINAS Continued from p. 9 Robert D. Brown, the associate chairman of the math department has known Salinas since his arrival at KU. "He is an excellent researcher and is very active in the math community," Brown said. "Most of us who work with him totally know that he is blind because he works well." To make up for his inability to see, Salinas uses several types of specialized equipment. For example, he listens to cassette tapes. He has research papers, textbooks, conferences and even a few novels that were recorded on tape by professional readers. "I probably have the biggest collection of talks around the world," he said. "Each of my research tapes has more than 10 lectures on it. That's a lot of information. But with the computers, I can have a library within my own notes." 1. He celebrated his 22nd wedding anniversary with his wife, Teresita, last week. The couple resides with their two children, David, 17, and Silvia, 14, in west Lawrence, and his family, had always been Salinas also owns an Apple II and an IBM computer with a voice synthesizer that vocalizes every piece of information that appears on the computer screen. In addition to his love for research and his specialized equipment, Sallinas is sustained I wanted to prove to myself that even if you have several handicaps, like being blind or speaking with an accent, nothing can stand in the way of what you want to do.' He also has a braille computer. By punching one of four directional buttons, Salinas can push material up through tiny holes on the deck of the machine. He can then read the braille, interface the information with the computer, enter two computers and print it out in words. Noberto Salinas Salinas said his family had always been very supportive, especially his wife. "I don't know what I would've done without her," he said. "She constantly read to me and helped me through." Salinas met Teresita when he was a graduate student, teaching at the University of Buenos Aires in the 1960s. She was one of his students. "I noticed that this girl who was really cute asked more questions than the other one." During their courtship, Argentina was in the midst of political unrest. Salinas said that the Argentinian military had ousted the militias and violence had erupted in the schools. In 1966, his colleagues asked him to resign with them from the Faculty of Sciences to make a statement. When Salinas approached the chairman of the math department with his resignation, the chairman reminded Salinas that he was handicapped. "He asked me 'Where are you, a blind graduate assistant, going to go?' Where will you find a job?" Sailinas said. "I told him I can do it. I'm going to find a decent job." One month later I was hired by the National University of Engineering in Lima, Peru." following his resignation, Salinas and his bride moved to Peru where they studied English together — two hours a day for nine months. The next year, Salinas was able to accept a teaching job at the University of Michigan. Teresita Salinas said that helping her husband through the bad times was difficult, but not overwhelming. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Michigan, Salinas and his family moved to Lawrence and KU. He was excited to find that here, the University community was helpful. "We've always had a good working relationship," she said. "I dated him when he was blind, so I knew what I was getting into." "They let me do my own thing here," Salinas said. "Finding a friendly place to live and raise a family was very important to me. I was also pleased that KU was willing to give me a reader, and that they would pay for it." Salinas has a graduate assistant who reads for him and helps with exams. He also takes up math. Carmen Uriona, Salinas' grader and Roeland Park junior, said that Salinas was always friendly and willing to work with her. As a teacher, though, Salinas said he so- ked with his students, "it's difficult to communicate with his students." "They probably feel put-off sometimes by my accent and my blindness." Salinas said. "I know eye-contact is very important to me, but they drop my course, but the ones who stay do learn." George Kangas, a Lawrence graduate student who is enrolled in Math 996 with Salinas, said, "He teaches very well and even writes quite legibly on the computer to complete lecture notes so we can read along as he speaks, so I never have any problems." Brown said that Salinas was definitely an asset to KU. "His teaching is astounding." Brown said. "The fact that he can do so much with a handicap is incredible. Often students do drop when they initially discover that he is blind, but those who stay find it to be quite an experience." Wednesday, October 26, 1988/University Daily Kansan PROFILES Soviets to launch shuttle tomorrow The Associated Press MOSCOW — The Soviet Union said yesterday it will launch its space shuttle Buran on an unmanned mission this week, following months of delays similar to those that plugged the Russian naval voyage of its U.S. counterpart. A government commission set the launch for 6:23 a.m. Moscow time Saturday (10:23 p.m. CDT Friday) after receiving reports from specialists following several thousand tests of the Buran and its booster rocket, the Energia, the official news agency Tass reported. "Buran" is Russian for snowstorm, an appropriate name since the first snow of the season fell this week in Moscow. Preparations for pouring nearly 2,000 tons of liquid hydrogen, oxygen and hydrocarbon fuel into Energia, billed as the world's most powerful booster rocket are to be tested today. The rocket is capable of carrying more than 100 tons of cargo into Earth orbit, and up to 20 tons to the planets Mars and Venus. Soviet media did not say how long Bran's mission would last. If the test flight is successful, a mission to retrieve the missile would be Soviet officials have not said when. State-run television yesterday showed the white delta-shaped Buran, with its name emblazoned in red, attached to the Energiaion a launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonr Cosmodrome on the Central Asian stepses of the republic of Kazakhstan. Soviet officials have said the first flight would be pilotless to prevent accidents like the Jan. 28, 1966, explosion of the U.S. shuttle Challenger. Seven astronauts were killed in that blast. Launch was originally planned for the first half of this year, but was postponed as technical problems arose, officials said. Fraternity to abolish pledgeship end hazing By David Stewart