10A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2008
ATHLETICS
Seat saving at games presents problems
BY LUKE MORRIS
Imorris@kansan.com
Tyler Luke's quest for seats close to the court for the Kansas men's basketball game against Missouri began eight days before the game. Liz Kozari's quest began an hour before the game started. Both sat just as close to the court.
Luke, Wichita freshman, camped with his group during the eight days. Kozarits, St. Louis junior, asked groups if they saved too many seats. She found a group who saved too many and let her sit with them.
Students who rely on leftover seats from camping groups will have an even tougher time at the Baylor game Saturday, as the Kansas Athletics Department reserved about 50 seats for inductees into the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame and their families.
Some campers get frustrated when fans like Kozarits try to sit in seats they camp out for. Names thrown around for the latecomers include "seat scavengers," "freeloaders" and "moocher."
Kozarits said that although the
group she sat with at the Border War game didn't mind her, some other groups she talked to gave her bad looks for sitting with campers.
Luke said that his group typically did not allow fans not in the group to sit with them.
"If people ask for our seats, we tell them we're saving them," Luke said. "You can't just freeload. If you want good seats, join a group and camp out."
Some fans who want seats saved for campers who haven't arrived to the game yet will talk to the ushers to get the seats.
If game time is getting close, ushers ask fans to move closer together to make more room for fans. This is when fans start to find their way into once-saved seats.
This process gets some campers angry with the ushers. One usher at Monday's men's basketball game said that fans called him names like "asshole."
"I'm just doing my job," said the usher, who asked to remain unnamed to prevent problems with his employer. "If the athletics director says saving is over at 6:30, I am."
going to follow that."
Kansas Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said that students who saved too many seats caused a problem for those who were stuck outside Allen Fieldhouse.
Marchiony and others in the athletics department recommended that campers get to the game as quickly as possible to avoid potential problems.
"We understand about saving seats, but there comes a point where the fire marshal may shut the building down and not let anyone else in," Marchiony said. "Then your friends may be stuck outside and not able to get in."
Marchiony said that this problem happened at last year's men's basketball game against Texas A&M. More than 50 students had a hard time getting into the game because the fire marshal wouldn't allow any more fans in. Ushers asked fans to move in closer, and directed the fans to empty seats during the game.
The Kansas Athletics Department has nothing to do with the camping process, Marchiony said. He said that the students controlled most of
that process, and that the Kansas Athletics Department didn't want to get involved with it.
Rules regarding saving seats are unclear, but the usher said that he understood that the saving process ended 30 minutes after student gates opened. This is when all other ticket-holders can enter.
Luke said that the current system could reward those who showed up to the games late.
"If someone's showing up late at every game and asking security to put them in a group's seats every game, then that's a problem," Luke said.
Marchiony said that the current system didn't benefit latecomers because they risked ending up in seats far from the court.
"The later you get to the game, the less chances you have to get a seat where you want," Marchiony said.
Kozarits said she admired students who had time to camp for the games.
"I respect the campers because it takes a lot of work to organize a group," Kozari said. "I definitely don't come to games to scream them."
Tom Dorsey and Shannon Elder, Topeka seniors, use a newspaper to seat a seat for a friend before the start of the men's basketball game against Missouri Monday at Allen Fieldhouse. Dorsey and Elder said at least one person from their group was holding their spot in line, third from the front, for the past week.
over."
Edited by Jared Duncan
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INTERNATIONAL
Prisoner appeals trial
ASSOCIATED PRESS
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Confined alone in his Guantanamo cell nearly around the clock, a Yemeni prisoner and former driver for Osama bin Laden has begun to break down mentally and cannot focus on preparing for his upcoming war-crimes trial, his attorneys sav.
Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdam asked in a motion ahead of pretrial hearings beginning Thursday for his military tribunal to be halted until his living conditions improve.
"I do not believe that Mr. Hamdan will be able to materially assist in his defense if his conditions do not improve," wrote Andrea Prasow, one of his civilian attorneys.
Hamad has been imprisoned at the isolated U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba since May 2002. He faces a possible life sentence if the tribunal convicts him of conspiracy and supporting terrorism.
His lawyers say he is held in a "regime of isolation," with no access to fresh air for as many as 23 hours a day. During a recent month-long period, they say, he had only two recreation periods.
A Guantanamo spokesman, Navy Cmdr, Rick Haupt, said Wednesday that he could not comment on specific allegations, but he said all detainees receive a minimum of two hours of recreation each day.
"He's treated like everybody else," Haupt said.
Hamdan currently is in Camp 5, one of two maximum-security prisons that hold the majority of Guantanamo's 275 detainees in individual, solid-wall cells.
Hamdan occupied a communal living camp reserved for the best-behaved prisoners until December 2006. Since moving to an individual cell, his attorneys say, he has shown symptoms of deteriorating mental health including hopelessness, anxiety and poor memory.
As a group of reporters toured Camp 5 this week, several prisoners in one cell block shouted and pounded on the walls. Covers had been placed over the narrow windows on their doors and a Guantanamo spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Ed Bush, said the inmates were acting out because they knew journalists were visiting.
A psychologist who spent 70 hours examining him for the defense team, Emily Keram, said he shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and could be at risk for "suicidal thoughts and behavior."
Defense lawyers say Hamdan, who U.S. military records show is about 37, faults them for not getting him out of the maximum-security prison. In their meetings, he has difficulty focusing on anything else, according to the court filing.
Hamdan was captured in a car carrying two surface-to-air missiles by Afghan troops in November 2001 and turned over to U.S. forces.
He is one of four detainees who have been charged under a new tribunal system. So far, no one has actually been tried at Guantanamo. Australian detainee David Hicks avoided trial last year with a plea bargain that returned him to his homeland to serve a jail sentence.
He was first charged more than three years ago. But his prosecution has been delayed by legal challenges, including one he filed that went to the Supreme Court and resulted in the striking-down of the original rules for military tribunals in 2006.
SPORTS Bush pushes for antisteroid legislation
WASHINGTON — President Bush asked the Senate to swiftly approve an agreement ratified by more than 70 nations to fight the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in sports.
U. S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr said he appreciated Bush's support.
Known as the International Convention Against Doping in Sport, the agreement was drafted under the auspices of UNESCO.
Associated Press