STUDENT NEWSPAPER
11Shining the shoes of Spring"
Vol. 55, No. 25
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From left lo r·ight: Janel Seibert, Susan Pit-cock,
and J e rry Travis perform a suction lillra-
Louisville, Kentucky
Staff Photo by Edd Joh.onnPmann
t100 experiment during their laboratory class
Monddy a fte rnoon in the chemistry building.
Thursday, March 15, 1984 10 pages
Fire in chem lab on Friday leads
to procedural and policy mix-up
By ANGELA KORTZ
Staff Writer
Last Friday morning. an acci­dent
resulting in a fire occurred in
one of the University of Louis­ville's
chemistry labs.
During an undergraduate or­ganic
chemistry laboratory class.
a flask in which ether was being
evaporated boiled over and in the
ensuing commotion the hood (a
protective compartment used
when conducting experiments
that are potentially dangerous)
went up in flames . A female un­dergraduate
student was injured.
· The student, whose name has
not been released by the Univer­sity,
was taken to the Student
Health Center, treated for second
degree burns to her hand. ban­daged
and released.
According to witnesses to the
accident, at least three other
flammable chemicals were stored
in the protective hood a long with
the boiling ether.
Neither the University's De­partment
of Public Safety nor t he
City of Louisville Fire Department
were called for help Friday, e ven
though that was an apparent vio­lation
of the University's fire re­
·.>ponse policy.
Tn an oral interview Friday af­ternoon,
Dr. K. Grant Taylor,
chairman of the chemistry depan­ment,
sa1d, "We tend to make a
judgement whether or not acci­dents
should be re ported. Stu­dents
burn their hands occasion­ally;
they work with hot instru­ments.
" If they are injured, we take
t hem to the health center. We let
the health center make the judge­ment
as to what should be done
next. This is not the first time a
student has been injure d ."
Tn a written statement obtained
from Taylor through U of L's De­partment
of Public Information.
Taylor stated: "On Friday, March
9, in an organic chemistry labora­tory,
a flask from which ether wa:o
being evaporated in the fume
hood caught fire. The fire was
quickly extinguished by the
graduate teaching assistant in
charge, but the student perform­ing
the experiment was burned on
the left hand. The teaching assis­tant
administered first aid (cold
water). the student was taken to
the student health center. and
was treated. After this the stu­dent
returned to the laboratory
class. I was informed of the essen
tials of this event around 4:15
p .m. Friday afternoon."
John Nolte, assistant director of
DPS. said, "Practically speaking.
Q) ormally we would have a report
of fires , and it would be
documented in some form . The
University has a fire response pol­icy,
the steps to be followed are
very specifically laid out under
the fire plan as to who was sup­oosed
to do what whel" ."
In an interview Tuesday, Taylor
said that Tek-Sing Ong had made
See 'Recent. · on back page
Few enter approaching SGA elec lions
By PAUL A. LONG
StaffWnter
Unless there is a flurry of last­minute
filings. the Student Gov­ernment
Assocration will have
trouBle fi lling all its positions in
the upcoming elections.
But. said Harold Adams. assis­tant
vice president for student
life, last-minute filings are not un­usual.
" It's a typical, normal thing,"
he said. "It's the nature of the
beast that we will have 90 percent
of the people who run for election
fi le between 1 and 5 p .m. on the
last day."
Deadline for filing is 5 p.m .
today. Elections are scheduled for
Tuesday and Wednesday, April 3
and4.
Up for grabs are the positions of
SGA president, executive vice
president. academic vice presi­dent,
and services vice president.
Also on the ballot will be 22 Stu­dent
Senate seats.
But as of 10 a.m. Wednesday,
only five applications had been
handed in for the 22 Senate seats;
two students had applied for pres­ident
and one for executive vice
president. There were no applica­tions
for either services or
academic vice president.
Leading the list of candidates is
the current SGA president, Frank
Jemley, who is running for re­e
lection. The second candidate is
John V. Heath, a senior in the Col- .
lege of Arts & Sciences. In addi­tion,
Curtis Bradley, an unsuc­cessful
candidate for president
last year, is expected to run again,
bus,_ h_ad not filed by Wednesday
mormng.
Officially, candidates do not
run on slates, but Jemley has put
together a group to run with him.
Kenny Kurzendoerfer has filed as
a candidate for executive vice
president. And Jemley said Bill
Campbell will run for academic
vice president and Doug Kemper
will file for services vice presi­derk
though neither had done so
by Wednesday morning.
Heath, who is not part of any
slate, said he was running be­cause
he was unhappy with the
job the current SGA is doing.
"I know a lot of people in the
SGA, and I'm usually against
them," he said. "The student gov­ernment
is the voice ofthe people.
I think they s hould do more than
sell books.
''I'll do more than sit on my butt
down there. I'm not really a radi­cal.
I just jump in there and get
the job down."
Heath, 34 years old, b a former
president of a local labor union .
He previously worked for the Met­ropolitan
Sewer District, but re­turned
to school after he was in-jured.
A full-time night student.
he plans to get his degree in politi­cal
science.
He wants to change the current
grievance procedure to make it
more equitable. He also plans to
continue the fight to repeal the
building fee.
"Me and Jemley are on oppo­s
ite sides of the fence," Heath
said. "The building fee, the SGA
leadership - I've always been
opposed to the building fee. I
won't change positions. I'm not
two-faced. ,
'T d like to challenge them (the
other candidates) to a debate -
especially Jemley ."
"Bring him on," said Jemley.
Jemley's platform also includes
a realignment of the current grie­vance
officer's position. He said it
should be upgraded and made
more available to students, and it
should be paid for by the Univer-
See 'Jemley, · back page
Law grads' employment p•i cture wavers
By ANGELA KORTZ
Staff Writer
Although there is much public­ity
accorded to the glut of lawyers
and to the difficulty in which law
graduates scramble to capture
highly competitive positions . The
Unive rsity of Louis ville law school
placement officer. PhyllisD. Leib­son,
thinks the negative publicity
can be misleading .
"The legal field ." said Leibson.
"is not too much different from
the business profession, en­gineering
profession or medical
profession .
"We are a ll confronted by the
same general environmental
problems and economic prob­lems,
so that if there is a problem
of job placPment for lawyers there
is also a problem in those other
a reas as well," said Leibson.
"However," she said, "there
has been a lot of attention that has
been given to the large numbers
of lawyers that have graduated
of lawyers that have graduated
from the schools.
"Like last year, there were
35,000 law graduates in the
United States, and surveys are
being conducted all over the coun­try
to find out what these recent
graduates are doing ."
Currently the U of L law school
is doing a survey of the 1983
graduates but has not completed
the survey. Another survey com­pleted
in 1982 has been submit­ted
to the National Association for
Law Placement, Inc.
The U of L School of Law is a
member of NALP. Members of
NALP are representatives from
155 American Bar Association
(ABA) accredited law schools .
The representatives are an aggre­gation
of law school placement of­ficers
and legal employers: law
firms, corporations, government
agencies, and public interes t or­ganizations,
explained Leibson.
' According to the information
compiled by NALP's Research
Committee, there were 34,846
graduates from the 172 ABA
accredite d law shoots. Of that
number, 26.402 of those
graduates responded to NALP.
Seven and a half percent of the
respondents reponed that they
were still seeking e mployment,
while 87.8 percent reported being
e mploye d, (78.5 of which were
e mployed in legal positions).
The majority of the respon­dents
surveyed were employed in
the private sector in firms of two
to 10 attorneys. Of the respon­dents
who reported being em­ployed,
the lowest number were
self-employed, with men compos­ing
the largest percentage in this
category.
The number of e mployed by the
public sector has declined, and
was the lowest NALP has re­corded
in five years. Minorities
had the greatest public sector per­centage
of employment in 1978
Gehring treats those student woes
By T . L. STANLEY
Campus Editor
There comes a time in every
s tudent's life when he or she
wakes up and realizes that institu­tions
of higher learning are going
to both have problems and cause
them.
This is precisely the time when
Dr. Donald D. Gehring might
e nter a students' troubled life.
Gehring is the University of Louis­ville
student grievance officer and
he responds to almost 250 com­plaint-
oriented phone calls during
a fall. s pring, and summer Univer­s
ity schedule.
Gehring's main function as
grievance officer is to determine
exactly what problem the student
is having. "Once we've ferreted
out the problem.'' said Gehring.
"then we set about resolving it."
"When students come to me.
they know there is a problem;
they believe that they were
treated unfairly," he said.
Students may enlist Gehring's
help if they are experiencing diffi­culties
in an academic or non­academic
area of the University.
Many students. 234 to be exact,
did this from the fall of 1982 to the
summer of 1983. Of these 234,
161 were academic-related prob­lems.
The remainder involved
some other problem with Univer­sity
staff or procedures.
There are three criteria which
must be met before a student may
file a grievance. According to the
Redbook, the policy book of the
University, "students who believe
they have been treated unfairly,
discriminated against, or have
had their rights abridged may in­itiate
a grievance."
There are several procedures
that the student should follow.
The student should make contact
with the professor involved and
attempt to resolve the grievance
informally.
If the problem is not resolved,
then the student should discuss
the matte r with the professor's
s upervisor, the department chair­p
erson , and attempt to find a solu­tion.
If there is still no resolution, the
student should request that Gehr­ing
step in and informa lly mediate
the problem. Gehring has had
considerable (95 percent) success
with this method.
"In very many instances, the
problems have been cleared up by
merely having the student speak
with the professor," he said. He
explained that many problems
were errors in grade computation
and the like.
However, if the student and
Gehring together cannot mediate
a suitable solution, the student
may submit a written formal grie­vance.
This written statement
should include a "brief narrative"
of the cause of the student's qrie-
See 'Gerhmg, • back page
and consecutively thereafter. des­pite
the across the board decline
of attorneys in this area. Women
made up the second largest com­ponent
in this category.
The lowest number of respon­dents
were employed in the
categories of public service, judi­cial
clerkships, military, and
academic employment.
In the judicial clerkship cate­gory,
employment has increased
since 1978, with the largest in­creases
being among minorities,
and women. Men had the lowest
increase in judicial clerkships
among the three groups.
The largest decline in employ­ment
for attorneys was in the gov­ernment
sector. Although the de­cline
affected each category,
minorities and women faced the
largest drop in employment in
this area. The former dropped
nine percentage points, while the
latterdropped eight. Men employ-
See 'Law,· page 3
'
THE INNER
CARDINAL
Dr. Robert Hoye wins national award pg.2
Health Fair is coming soon ... ...... pg.4
Athletic Association is a bad idea .... pg.5
Editorials ................ . .. .. pg.5
Leaers co !he Editor . . . ... ..•.... . pg.5
Basketball teams go to NCAA playoffs . pg. 6
Remembering !he Blue Devils . .. .... pg. 7
John Cougar concert reviewed ..... pg. B.
Two plays teVIBWed ..... ......... pg.8
The Bingham Poe try Room located in the Ekstrom Li­brary
may soon become a 24-hour s tudy lounge.
Ekstrom library to adapt
for 24-hour study lounge
By LARRY D. CROOM
News Editor
It looks as if the University of
Louisville may have a 24-hour
study facility in the near fut ure .
This study hall. which would be a
pan of the Ekstrom Library,
would be open for all students to
use, regardless of the school they
attend.
"We are in the process of get­ting
costs estimates for the reno­vation,"
said Ed Hammond, vice
president for student affairs. "We
need to have this building on cam­pus."
The need for a new facility
arose when the law library, which
recently changed its hours, began
enforcing a policy of allowing only
law students and those needing
law books.
"It isn't the law school's re­sponsibility
to provide a 24-hour
study hall," said Hammond.
According to Martha Bowman,
University Librarian, the new fa ­cility
proposal is currently being
studied by the acting Provost.
Tom Crawford, and the project is
moving along very smoothly.
"The provost has Facilities
Management working with us
and working with estimates to do
some of the various options we
are considering," she said. "We
have been working quite a bit on
it, and we will be moving soon."
The proposal that seems to be
the most likely choice involves
moving the Bingham Poetry
Room, and converting that area
into a section of the study hall. Ac
cess to restrooms. phones. and a
waterfountain would be available
for students. According to Ham­mond,
reference materials also
may become available to students
during the late night hours.
The other renovation alterna­tives,
which apparently have been
abandoned, involved moving one
of the unused circulation desks,
and constructing the facility in
that area, inside the library. The
other alternative was to add re­strooms
to the lounge that is a l­ready
in use, but it would have
been to small for large numbers of
students at one time.
According to Ha mmond, the '
proposal to move the Bingham
Poetry Room is the best a lterna­tive.
" It was originally supposed to
be part of the study facility, but a
last minute programatic cha nge
ocurred.'' he said. "This way, you
have a fire exit as well as a front
entrance."
According to Frank Jemle y,
Student Government president,
the fac ility needs to be opened by
next fall . He said he thought the
facility would provide a much
needed asset, and he added that
SGA could take a lot of credit for
moving the renovation project
along.
"I think we ought to take a littlP
credit for that one," Jemley said .
"Nobody was doing anything
until I put a bug in Bowman and
Crawford's ears."
Jemley added, however, that he
rea lly ques tioned the need for
going to all the trouble of building
a new facility, because the law
school libra ry could just as easily
stay open 24-hours a-day, and be
open to all students.
"I was disappointed with the
way the administration handled
that one," said Jemley. "Talk
about parochialism. to exclude a
handful of students from any fa­cility."
Jemley said he realized,
though, that the facility is needed.
and he sees no real reason to pur­sue
the law school library situa­tion
as long as the 24-hour study
problem is solved. But, he added
that as soon as the new facility be­came
overcrowded, he would pur­sue
opening the law library on a
24-hour basis again.
"The new facility will have to
be treated as a library," said Jam­ley.
"It will be patrolled and moni­tored
and conducive to studying."