VOL. 57, NO. 21, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, FEBRUARY 20, f986 8 PAOES AN INDEPENDENT STUD~NT NEWSPAPER
Slain officer was scheduled to graduate in May
By DAN BLAKE
Cardinal Managing Editor
John Weiss, 25, slain Shively
police officer and president of the
College of Urban and Public Af·
fairs student council at the U niver­sity
of Louisville, was buried
Monday in a ceremony attended
by nearly 600 people.
Among those in the Carlisle Av­enue
Baptist Church and at the
Louisville Memorial Gardens
grave site were some 300 Jeffer­son
County officers, police officers
from throughout Kentucky and
Indiana, friends and professors
from U ofL.
Following the church service,
police officers filed past the cas­ket
to salute Weiss. While fellow
officers tried to choke back tears,
friends wept and consoled each
other.
The Jefferson County Police
honor guard fired a 21-gun salute
before "Taps" was played at the
windy graveside service.
Charlie Flenor, chaplain of the
Jefferson County Police Depart­ment,
recalled Weiss' dedication
to his work as an undercover nar-
. cotics officer. "He worked as
many as 70 hours a week in an ef­fort
to eradicate from the streets
drug traffic. He determined in his
heart and soul to become the
fmest drug agent that ever lived."
Weiss worked part time as an
undercover narcotics agent for
the Shively Police Department.
As president of the CUPA student
council, Weiss worked to develop
links between•students and ad­ministrators
in the College, ac­cording
to one of his professors.
Weiss was nearing completion
of a master's degree in community
development at U of L. He was
scheduled to graduate in May.
Weiss was working on a narco­tics
case last Wednesday night
when he was fatally wounded.
Tackling
student
• gr1pes
By T.L . STANLEY
Cardinal Editor
When differences of opinion
occur between students and
teachers at the University of
Louisville, the problems almost al­ways
are resolved informally,
without administrative interven­tion.
But when students feel their
complaints have not been re­solved
to satisfaction , they may
enlist the aid of Dr. Donald D.
Gehring, student grievance of­ficer.
"I'm a mediator, but I'm also
sort of a guide," said Gehring, who
is a specialist in college student
law. "I inform students of their
rights under the grievance proce­dure
and try to effectuate an infor­mal
solution to their problem.
"The grievance procedure
gives students a route that is easily
travelled to get some resolution to
their problem."
Gehring, who has served as
grievance officer for three years,
receives over 200 calls during a
fall, spring and summer schedule
from students who have com­plaints
about some aspect of the
University. He explained that
grievances may be about
academic or nonacademic issues.
First of Two Parts
Gehring said the most frequent
complaints pertain to grades,
classroom treatment or a
teacher's academic policy. From
falll984 through the summer 1985,
over half of the 250 contacts he re­ceived
pertained to academic
problems.
"A lot of people think that if the
complaint involves a professor's
judgement, then it isn't grieva­ble,"
Gehring said. "But if that
judgement was arrived at through
an unfair procedure, it is grieva­ble.
"I don't think anybody should
substitute his or her judgement for
a faculty member's, but I think the
faculty member has to use reason­able
procedures to arrive at a
grade. And if they don't, then I
think that procedure is grieva­ble,"
Gehring continued.
The remainder of the 250 con­tacts
involved some other problem
with the University staff or proce­dures.
According to the Redbook, the
1 University policy manual, "stu­dents
who believe they have been
treated unfairly, discriminated
against, or have had their rights
Continued on pa~e 3
Police suspect the drug deal
turned to an attempted robbery of
the $5,600 Weiss had locked in the
glove compartment of his car.
Weiss was to use the money to
buy illegal drugs then apprehend
the suspect and recover the cash.
Dennis McDonald, one of Weiss'
closest friends and an officer in
Dayton, Ky., said, "He was looking
forward to getting a real good job
with the federal government. He
was dedicated to law enforce­ment,
devoted to his mother, the
best friend you'd ever want to
have."
Dr. Hamid Shirvani, director of
the School of Urban Planning and
Development and Weiss' last pro­fessor,
said, "I have never seen a
more enthusiastic student. He was
a great asset to our college."
Weiss had completed his
bachelor's degree in criminal jus­tice
at U of L before he set his
sights on completing the intensive
12-week administrative officers
course at U ofL's Southern Police
Institute.
Weiss succeeded in convincing
Robert Domalewski, assistant
professor at the institute, and Nor­man
Pomrenke, director, to let
him attend the classes which are
normally limited to commanders
of police units. Domalewski said
Weiss missed only a few meetings
of the five-hour per day, seven­day
per week class because of
work.
"He was like a sponge, trying to
absorb as much as he could. Any­time
there was an opportunity,
John would try to plug into it,"
Domaleski said.
Weiss was working on the last
seven credits he needed before
completing his master's program.
Shirvani was teaching him in an
urban design class and directing
him through an independent
Continued on back page
Nimet Weiss mourned the death of her son John, a Shively
policeman, as she cradled the American flag that draped his cas-ket.
John Weiss, president of the College of Urban and Public
Affairs student council, was seven hours from a master's degree.
·Inside
When the Senate meets, the ax
may fall. Student Senate is gear­ing
up for the annual budget
meeting. Who will be spared?
Literature confer·ence to begin soon
............•..... Page2
No business like snow business.
Inclement weather brings out
warm-hearted Physical Plant
workers. . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4
Van Amerongen hits the hay.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PageS
Dry season ends. U of L swim
team blows Eastern Kentucky
out of the pool. . . . . . . Page 6
Who says you can't go home
again? Bob Edwards, U of L
alum and anchor of National
Public Badio, broadcasts his af­fection
for Louisville. . Page 7
By JOHN GREGORY
Cardinal Staff Writer
The literary world focuses on
Louisville next week as the Uni­versity
of Louisville presents its
annual Twentieth Century Litera­ture
Conference.
The conference, sponsored by
the departments of Classical and
Modern Languages and English,
will be held in the Bingham
Humanities Building and the
Ekstrom Library Feb. 26-28. This
year's theme is "Literature and
the Other Arts."
The conference, now in its 14th
year, has gained national and in­ternational
recognition. "We want
to bring conference participants
the best explication of the confer­ence
theme in terms of current
literary trends," said chairman
Elizabeth Clay. "The presenta­tions
are of very }_Ugh quality, th~
Summertime Hoops
Jerry Lyvers (left) put up a shot against some in-your-face de­fense
by David Buys while they were playinr on the outdoor bas­ketball
court between Stevenson Hall and Humanities·.
speakers are of extremely wide
reputation and are outstanding
leaders in their field, whether
they are authors or literary cri­tics."
John Ashbery and Mary Ann
Caws will give keynote presenta­tions.
Ashbery, a Pulitzer Prize­winning
author, editor and critic,
is a distinguished professor of En­glish
at Brooklyn College, City
University of New York. Ashbery
will read selected poems at 4 p.m .
Thursday in Room 100 of the
Humanities Building.
The author and editor of 25
books, Mary Ann Caws is a distin­guished
professor of both French
and comparative literature at
New York City's Hunter College.
Caws' presentation, "Literal or
Liberal: Free Seeing, or Translat­ing
Perception," will be given Fri­day
at 5:10p.m. also in Humanities
100.
The job of coordinating the con­ference
begins a year and a half
before the actual opening date
with the selection of a theme by
the conference committee. "We
try to stay at the leading edge of
literary criticism," Clay said.
Next, keynote presenters are
chosen and the solicitation of en­tries
begins. Submissions are ac­cepted
from anyone, regardless of
academic status.
Once received by the confer­ence
office, the entries are sent to
anonymous University faculty
members for evaluation. Clay said
all works are "very carefully
checked for appropriateness to
the theme and for validity in
(their) particular area." Selected
entries are then scheduled for
presentation during the confer­ence.
Among the many presentations
selected for this year's three-day
event are two creative works by U
of L graduate student Timothy
·Roach and a lecture on "Tea Cere­mony
Symbolism in Kawabata's
Thousand Cranes," by philosophy
professor William Schuyler, Jr.
Many other University faculty
members will serve as section
chairs, introducing speakers and
leading panel discussions.
The conference opens Wednes­day
night at 8 p.m. in the Ekstrom
Library Auditorium with readings
by U of L poet-in-residence
Richard Cecil and English profes- ·
sor Serra Jeter Naslund. Their
presentations will be followed by a
screening of a Ukrainian ftlm,
White Bird with a Black Spot. The
film, in Ukrainian with English
subtitles, will be shown in
Humanities 205.
At 12:30 p.m. Thursday, the
conference presents the inaugural
Continued on page 2
Speed event features robots
By DAVID CLATEK
Cardinal Correspondent
What do robots, bridge building
and egg packaging have in com­mon?
They will all be included in the
55th annual Engineers' Days,
sponsored by the Speed School
Student Council, on Feb. 23 and
24.
Three industrial robots, do­nated
by General Electric and
worth $500,000,. will be on display
·in Sackett Hall performing mate­
·rial handling tasks and demon­strating
machine vision applica­tions.
Using a $600,000 software pack­age,
the robots will be able to dis­criminate
among objects, identify
a pre-selected item and relocate it
to a specified location.
The robots and the Cintern
Machine Center, an automated
controller, are the most recent ad­ditions
to the Factory Automation
Laboratory at Speed School.
High school students from all
over Kentucky and Southern In­diana
will participate in bridge­building
and egg-packaging con­tests
on Feb. 24.
"High school students who par­tic
i pate in the bridge building
contest are given a kit containing
wooden dowel rods to build at
home," said Theresa Herde, a
Speed School student representa­tive.
"The model bridges are
brought to Speed School and
stress tested. The one that with~
stands the greatest load without
breaking wins."
The bridge building contest will
be in the basement of the W.S.
Speed Building and the egg pack­aging
contest will be visible out­side
the main Speed building.
"The egg packaging contest in­volves
designing a box for an egg.
The box containing the egg is
dropped from a cherry picker
(crane) from different heights to
see if it breaks," said Herde.
Seventy-five to 100 exhibits will
be displayed in the four Speed
School buildings. Judges will
award plaques and cash prizes to
the best exhibit in each of the
major engineering specialties.
"Engineers' Days give (U of L)
Continued on page 3
Groups celebrate black culture
By TIM SANFORD
Cardinal StaffWriter
The University of Louisville's
celebration of Black History
Month is drawing to a close, but
there is still time to take advantage
of the many cultural, entertaining
and informative events going on at
UofL.
Debbie Stone of the Minority
Project Fund Committee, a divi­sion
of the Student Government
Association and one sponsor of
events during Black History
Month, stressed the events are
open to everyone.
"We want this to be a celebra­tion
not only for the black stu­d~
nts, but for everybody to be­come
aware of the (black) herit­age.
It (Black History Month) is a
time for all people in general to be­come
more aware of the black his­tory
and culture, the struggles, not
necessarily the bad, but the good
as well," she said.
As part of the events, an exhibit
of Afro-American literature is on
display in the Rare Books and
Special Collections Department of
Ekstrom Library.
Books dating back to 1907 on
black history, poetry and novels
by noted black authors such as
Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard
Wright and Alice Walker are fea­tured,
accompanied by photo­graphs
from the U ofL Photo Arc­hives.
The exhibit began Feb. 13 dur­ing
the Afro-American Literary
Forum. The forum Included
poetry reading and ritual dancing
accompanied by percussionist
Earbie Johnson. Papers on black
literature were presented by Dr.
Robert L. Douglas, Dr. Bruce M.
TylPr and William S. Pincheon,
coordinator of the event.
Upcoming events include the
"Gospel Extravaganza" concert
Feb. 23 at 5 p.m. at U of L's Red
Bam. U of L's Black Diamond
Choir and a guest choir from Ball
. State University will be featured.
On Feb. 27, Dr. Joseph D.
Lewis, chairman of the history de­partment
at Central State Univer­sity
in Wilberforce, Ohio, will
speak on "Why Black History: Its
Meaning and Purpose." The lec­ture
is scheduled at 7 p .m. in Mid­dleton
Theater of Strickler Hall
and is open to the public.
Continued on page 3
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