THOUGH THEY RETOOK THE LEAD LATE IN THE GAME, the Kansas Jayhawks could not manage to hang on and fell to the Nevada Wolfpack 72-70. This is the Jayhawks first loss at home this season. Nevada's Nick Fazekas scored a career-high 35 points in the game.FULL COVERAGE PAGE 10A
KANSAS
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2. 2005
VOL.116 ISSUE 72
WWW.KANSAN.COM
BELIEFS
Controversial class canceled
Additional e-mails further offend public
BY FRANK TANKARD
'tankard@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Paul Mirecki's "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design and Creationism" class will not be taught next semester, University of Kansas officials announced Thursday.
Mirecki, chairman of the department of religious studies, said in a statement that he withdrew the course because of public controversy about e-mails he had posted on a yahoo.com list server since 2003.
The list server was a discussion board for the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, the 121-person student group for which Mirecki serves as faculty adviser.
"My concern is that students with a serious interest in this important subject matter would not be well-served by the learning environment my e-mails and the public distribution of them have created," he said in the statement. "It would not be fair to the students."
The class made national news when a Nov. 19 e-mail Mirecki wrote was disseminated to politicians and news organizations in which he referred to religious fundamentalists as "fundies" and said his class would serve as "a nice slap in their big fat face."
Mirecki
Mirecki, chairman of the department of
Older e-mails came to light when National Review, a conservative political magazine, published excerpts from Mirecki's past e-mails on Wednesday.
National Review printed one e-mail excerpt that was Mirecki's detailed description of starting
rengious studies, said in a statement that he withdrew the course because of public controversy about e-mails he posted on a yahoo. com list server.
to vomit after swallowing the Eucharist at a Catholic church service as a child because of the idea that he had swallowed the flesh of Jesus.
ChancellorRobertHemenway issued a statement in which he said Mirecki made the right decision in withdrawing the course and called Mirecki's e-mail comments "repugnant and vile." "He has a right to free speech, but he has to realize the revelation of his past e-mails hasainted the environment for his course," he said. "He insulted both our students and the University's public, and he misrepresented beliefs of KU's faculty and staff."
Hemenway said the subject matter of Mirecki's class had no bearing on the withdrawal of the course.
SEE CLASS ON PAGE 4A
Faculty Senate defends intent of the course
Prof. Paul Mirecki withdrew his "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design and Creationism" class from the spring class schedule on Thursday in light of controversy about his motives for teaching the class.
In response, the University of Kansas Faculty Council unanimously passed the following resolution Thursday evening:
"The University of Kansas Faculty Council reaffirms that academic freedom, including the right to offer courses that examine controversial subjects, is essential to the mission of the University: to educate students and to engage in scholarly inquiry.
Open inquiry for all citizens is at the heart of a democracy. Furthermore, the University of Kansas Faculty Council acknowledges that the academic freedom enjoyed by the faculty also imposes special obligations.
As stated in our Faculty Handbook, we recognize among those obligates
these obligations that The public may judge us as scholars and educational officers, our profession, and our institution by our public utterances, and
*We have a responsibility to be accurate, to exercise appropriate restraint, and to show respect for the opinions of others."
Frank Tankard
STUDENT FINANCES
HOOKED
Credit cards often lure students into debt
By Aly Barland
abarland@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Photo illustration by Ginny Weatherman
the credit card company keeps calling Meghan Veatch. Her credit limit is $1,700 and her Visa card is m out. Th
company calls her two or three times a day to try to collect payments, but the interest keeps accumulating.
"I've gotten to the point where I recognize the phone numbers and I just don't answer it," Veatch said.
When the hard drive on her computer crashed and she had to buy a new one, she was broke and couldn't use her maxed-out card, so she opened up a Dell account and charged the new hard drive to that. Now she can't pay that bill either.
Veatch, Wichita junior, said she was unemployed for a month this summer after quitting her job, and her parents were unable to support her financially.
Veatch's credit card debt and resulting financial predicament are all too common on college campuses. According to a 2004 study by Nellie Mae, a student loan agency, undergraduates carry an average outstanding credit card balance of $2,169. The study showed that 9 percent of undergraduates are more than $3,000 in credit card debt. Problems begin when credit card companies target college students who have little experience with fiscal responsibility and are away from home for the first time. Their debts spiral out of control because late fees and small minimum monthly payments keep students repaying their debt over a long period of time at interest rates that
can be as high as 30 percent.
Robert Baker, counselor at Consumer Credit Counseling Services, 2518 Ridge Court, said he saw a lot of KU students in serious debt and tried to show them how credit card debt mounts easily.
IN DEBT
The majority of college students possess credit cards but do not pay them off each month.
65 percent of college students carry credit card debt.
♦ 58 percent never pay balances in full or do so less than half of the time.
50 percent charge their cards to the limit some or most of the time.
Source: creditcardsmagazine.com
For example, he said a student who charged $1,000 for a spring break trip, always paid the 2 percent monthly minimum ($20), never missed a payment and never charged anything else would need 15 years to pay it off. The student would end up repaying $2,329 instead of $1,000 because of additional interest at the rate of 16 percent.
The average interest rate is 17 percent for credit cards, but some retail store cards are higher about 21 percent. When there are significant late fees, credit card vendors can place users in a penalty fee category with interest rates as high as 30 percent. Baker said. Students carry cards with higher interest rates because they don't have established credit yet.
SEE HOOKED ON PAGE 2A
ENTERTAINMENT
Vespers brings holiday spirit
BY MALINDA OSBORNE
mosborne@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
CONCERT INFORMATION
Dan Forrest was proud of "Never a Brighter Star," the song he composed that was published this spring. So when he met with choir director John Paul Johnson this summer, he wanted to offer the song for Holiday Vespers this year. But the Greenville, S.C., graduate student didn't have to try hard to persuade Johnson.
"One of the first things he said was that he had found
Vespers Holiday Concert
Sunday, Dec. 4, 2005
◆ Performances will be held at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
◆ Tickets are $12.50 for general admission and $10 for students and senior citizens.
For ticket information, call the Lied Center Box Office at (785) 864-2787 or the KU department of music and dance at (785) 864-3436.
my song and wanted to use it for Vespers," Forrest said. "Here I was coming to pitch it, and he already had the same idea."
Source: Department of Music and Dance
Holiday Vespers is the KU music and dance department's
annual end-of-the-year concert. This is the 81st consecutive year that the event will ring in the holiday season, making it one of the nation's longest-running holiday concerts at a college or university.
Besides men's basketball and football events, this is the most-attended event at the University of Kansas.
Robert Douglas Helvering, Omaha, Neb., graduate student, said he had heard the 2:30 show was virtually sold out, and the 7:30 show had 90 percent of the tickets sold already.
Each show, which will be performed Sunday, can seat 2,000 people.
Helvering has two pieces that will be performed, and he will be singing in the concert choir.
SEE VESPER ON PAGE 4A
Lauren Marshall, left,
Salina senior,
and Sara Koven,
right, Overland Park senior,
prepare Monday evening at
Murphy Hall for the upcoming
Vespers Holiday concert. The
show will be performed Sunday at the Lied Center.
Kim Andrews/KANSAN
Today's weather
Texas won't look past Colorado on Saturday Colorado looks to repeat its 2001 Big 12 title upset against Texas this Saturday when the two teams meet at Reliant Stadium in Houston. PAGE 10A
You win some, you lose some
Business students experience the ups and downs of investing in the stock market as they invest in international companies with money given to them through the University. PAGE 4A
First-round preparation
The Kansas volleyball team is gearing up to play UCLA tonight in Los Angeles.The Jayhawks reached this match after receiving a suprising bid to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. PAGE 10A
Index
Comics... 6A
Classifieds... 7A
Crossword... 6A
Horoscopes... 6A
Opinion... 5A
Sports... 10A
J
All contents, unless stated otherwise,
© 2005 The University Daily Kansan
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