2A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY. JANUARY 24, 2006
TUESDAY top 10
BY BEN SMITH
editor@kansan.com
KANSAN CORRESPONDENT
Top 10 absurd questions to ponder between classes
1. What does the term "floral" mean when applied to the flavor of coffee?
2. Why do people wear shorts in the winter regardless of the temperature?
3. When did restaurants stop giving out spoons and why?
6. Why do some people think they can take a 1-year-old to a movie and not be asking for trouble?
4. Why do people pick their noses in cars?
5. Who buys stuff from infomercials and the Home Shopping Network?
8. Why do you sometimes see smoker wearing gloves while lighting up?
7. How does Harrison Ford still manage to get action roles when he's old enough to be a member of the AARP?
9. Is there an Amish mafia?
10. Will "Saturday Night Live" ever be funny again?
"Men are like steel. When they lose their temper they lose their worth." — Chuck Norris (for real)
Fact of the day
The dot on the top of an “i” is called a “tittle.”
— Source: American Heritage Dictionary
KANSAN.COM
The University Daily Kansan
Want to know what people are talking about? Here's a list of yesterday's most e-mailed stories from Kansan.com:
1. Hall of Athletics opens to flock of Jayhawk fans
2.Athletics release five-year strategic plan
3.Hard work pays off for nationally-revered dance team
4. JayWalk doesn't walk the line
Jenn Bono/KANSAN
PROVOST SEARCH
5. Jaywalk does not hit the fence.
6. University warns of possible hacking
Provost candidate visits campus
BY MELINA RICKETTS
mrickets@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The first of five candidates for KU provost, Virginia Sapiro, spent much of her speech Monday focusing on two themes: education as the center of a public research university and collective responsibility.
The University of Kansas is in the process of interviewing candidates to replace Provost David Shulenburger. In September, Shulenburger announced his retirement as provost, effective this summer.
The provost search committee announced Sapiro, 54, as the first candidate on Thursday.
She currently serves as interim provost at the University of Wisconsin, as well as vice chancellor for academic affairs and associate vice chancellor for teaching and learning.
Addressing a 200-person crowd of mostly faculty and administrators at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, Sapiro said public universities were going through a difficult time because states were simultaneously increasing expectations and decreasing funding.
She said public universities had
to hold themselves accountable for providing public access to education in a way that private universities didn't.
"We are society's primary source of knowledge and maybe, upon occasion, if we're lucky, wisdom," Sapiro said.
She said that although she believed excellence was a collective responsibility, people had different degrees of personal responsibility.
Virginia Sapiro, KU provost finalist, shares with faculty members her ideas on what a public research university should be at the Dole Institute of Politics Monday. Sapiro is the first of five finalists announced by the provost search committee.
She stressed the need for diverse approaches to research, pointing out that if its goal was finding out what wasn't known, then increasing the diversity of perspectives would improve the odds of reaching that goal.
"Our complexity and diversity is both our challenge and our opportunity." she said.
Following her speech, Sapiro responded to questions on topics ranging from compensating for a lack of state funding to the invasion of political issues on academia.
She said she was surprised that the state was not contributing more to help with the $168.5 million in deferred maintenance at the University.
With only a touch of humor, she remarked that having shelter for students to study was a basic educational need — a need that
includes having "both the building and the roof."
When asked about an issue recently raised in the news in which an alumni group at UCLA reportedly paid students to spy on left-wing professors, she responded that it was "a grotesque misjudgment of what a university needs to be" and that it "put a chilling effect on discussion."
Jeff Aube, professor of medicinal chemistry and chairman of the provost search committee, said, "I think we're off to a great start. This is the first of a very qualified string of candidates and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest."
The provost search committee will release the name of the next candidate on Jan. 30.
Edited by Frank Tankard
SPEAKER
Intelligent design supporter explains scientific theory
BY CATHERINE ODSON
codson@kansan.org
KANSAN STaff WRITE
Insistent, assertive questions nagged Monday night's speaker, who felt his explanation of the scientific evidence of intelligent design fell upon "deaf ears."
Audience members awarded both applause and laughter to the questioners who stepped publicly into the controversy over intelligent design in Kansas.
William A. Dembski, the Carl F. H. Henry Professor of Science and Theology at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said in his speech at the Lied Center that gaps in the scientific story of evolution led toward a still-developing theory of intelligent design.
"Darwin was a great man," Dembski said. "His theory was a great idea. And yet, it's not the whole story."
Mark Brown, campus director for Campus Crusade for Christ, said his organization wanted to host a discussion on intelligent design because of the large amount of misinformation circulating about the theory.
"There is an academic background behind it," he said. "It's not just theology masquerading as science."
Brown said truth should be a friend to both science and religion and that neither side should exclude concepts from the other side.
"Scientists shouldn't be scared of divine intervention in the natural world," he said.
Evolution theory is "a window into biological history," Dembski said. But the real explanation derives from the question, "What is design?"
From an initial purpose, a designer formulates a plan to produce the design, a process Dembski said applied to everything from space shuttles to cake.
Intelligent design adheres to the same concepts as any other design. Dembski defines intelligent design as "the study of patterns in nature that are best explained as the result of intelligence."
Fred Pawlicki, Lied Center associate director, estimated more than 1,200 people attended the lecture. The Lied Center evaluates events at its facility by how the audience
"C
"Scientists shouldn't be scared of divine intervention in the natural wold."
Mark Brown Campus director for Camus Crusade for Christ
reacts, he said. In this case, the audience seemed to be particularly engaged — even bursting into laughter at both questions and answers.
"I thought that this speaker was quite logical." Pawliki said. "People wanted to hear what he said."
Despite the hour-long lecture and subsequent discussion, at least one student still felt Dembski didn't answer many of the questions about intelligent design that the audience had.
"I'm just not sure that he presented any proof that intelligent design works," Lauren Tice, Overland Park sophomore, said. "He didn't convince me."
NATION
- Edited by Vanessa Pearson
Death prompts look at greek safety
OKLAHOMA CITY — The death of a University of Oklahoma fraternity member at a Stillwater, Okla., party has brought scrutiny of the safety measures of predominantly black Greek-lettered organizations.
Paul Shanor, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha's OU chapter, died Jan. 15 after he was shot at a Holiday Inn in Stillwater, Okla. Three others were injured.
Two men arrested in the crime were not students of any university or fraternity members, police said.
The tragedy reflects violence in society, but not Alpha Phi Alpha, said Jonathan Easter, an OU graduate from Oklahoma City.
"This is a random occurrence that happens around the country very frequently at many different venues other than black fraternities." Easter said.
Oklahoma State University is temporarily banning campus parties hosted by Pan-Hellenic groups. It is the second ban in 18 months.
The moratorium should not last long while administrators study ways to make events safer, Oklahoma State University spokesman Gary Shutt said.
The Associated Press
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