THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, JANUARY 29. 2008
NEWS
3A
STUDENT SENATE
Coalition to focus on campus issue
Delta Force is taking the semester off to focus on activism and outreach
BY BRENAHA HAWLEY
bhawley@kansan.com
The student coalition Delta Force will not be nominating Student Senate candidates this year.
The coalition, which has existed for 12 years, has decided instead to focus on one issue.
According to Delta Force copresident Bridey Maidhof, Overland Park senior, the group has not yet decided what issue to focus on. Some prospective issues include sustainability, fair trade and the structure of Student Senate. Delta Force will choose one issue and work with related campus groups on the issue.
She added that the group wants to focus more on activism instead of campaigning. In 11 years of running candidates, the group has only won once.
"We want to impact at a different level," Maidhof said.
John Cross, Kansas City, Mo. senior and co-president said the decision to focus on activism was a group decision. He said abstaining from running would save substantial time and effort that could be spent elsewhere.
"We don't have to worry about selling a brand." Cross said.
Studie Red Corn, Shawnee senior and four-year Delta Force member, said the money and energy coalitions spend campaigning does not
always translate into successful campus change.
"This is one of the best decisions the group has ever made," Red Corn said.
Delta Force students interested in running for Student Senate have joined other coalitions.
Jack Connor, Overland Park senior and member of Connect, said Connect members and Delta Force members share a lot of the same values.
"Delta Force didn't run to win elections, but ran to reach out to students," Connor said, a former Delta Force coalition member. "That value is shared by Connect."
Maidhof said many Delta Force alumni were passionate about the coalition not running candidates.
The coalition sent a mass e-mail to its former members explaining the decision and saying that the group would now campaign for issues instead of having people run for office.
Karen Keith, 2003 graduate and 2002 Delta Force presidential candidate, said that when she was impressed when she received the e-mail.
"It was a brave decision," Keith said. "It's hard to break away from tradition."
Edited by Nick Mangiaracina
POLITICS Democrats find Bush's speech uninspiring
"We can all see that growth is slowing,"Bush said in a blunt acknowledgment of rising food and gas prices, increasing unemployment and turmoil in the housing and financial markets.
WASHINGTON-President Bush, standing before Congress one last time, urged the nation Monday night to persevere against gnawing fears of recession and stay patient with the long, grinding war in Iraq. He pressed Congress to quickly pass a plan to rescue the economy.
He cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that would jeopardize progress achieved over the past year. He said plans already are set for 20,000 troops to come home.
With his approval rating near its all-time low, Bush lacked the political clout to push bold ideas and he didn't try. He called on lawmakers to urgently approve a $150 billion plan — worked out with House leaders — to avoid or soften any recession through tax rebates for families and incentives for businesses to invest in new plants and equipment.
It was his final State of the Union address and he faced a hostile, Democratic-led Congress eager for the end of his term next January. He scolded lawmakers for slipping costly, special-interest projects into bills and promised to use his veto pen to cut them.
Senate Democrats want to expand the economic stimulus plan with rebates for senior citizens living off Social Security and extensions of unemployment benefits for the jobless. Bush said those changes "would delay it or derail it
and neither option is acceptable."
He also pushed Congress to extend his tax cuts, which are to expire in 2010, and said allowing them to lapse would mean higher tax bills for 116 million American taxpayers. For those who say they're willing to pay more, Bush said, "I welcome their enthusiasm
"The last five years have cost us dearly — in lives lost, in thousands of wounded warriors whose futures may never be the same, in challenges not met here at home because our resources were committed elsewhere," she said. "America's foreign policy has left us with fewer allies and more enemies."
He renewed a proposal to spend $300 million for a "grants for kids" program to help poor children in struggling public schools pay for the cost of attending a private school or a better public school outside their district.
pleased to report that the IRS accepts both checks and money orders."
Delivering the televised Democratic response, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius urged Bush to work with Congress and help the U.S. regain global standing lost because of the war.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "Tonight is a red-letter night in American history. It is the last time George Bush will give the State of the Union. Next year it will be a Democratic president giving it."
Associated press
>> BATTLE OF THE SEXES
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
Academy aims to bridge gender gap between men, women
A nationwide gender gap has emerged on college campuses. Statistics show that women earn better grades and hold more leadership positions while in college.
Photo Illustration by Jon Goering
Two organizations at the University of Kansas are trying to bridge the gap.
The Student Involvement and Leadership Center and Emily Taylor Resource Center are co-sponsoring the Battle of the Sexes: KU Leadership Academy this Saturday at the Student Union from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tyler Blair and Stefani Gerson, graduate students in Higher Education, are the lead facilitators for the event.
Blair said the program will focus on educating the participants on the facts of the gender gap.
"Since 1984, every semester the all-female GPA has been significantly higher than the all-male GPA." Blair said.
Blair said that although he didn't have specific data about the University, he knew that there were more females in charge of KU organizations.
"It's just something that society teaches people that men have to act in a masculine way," Blair said. "Men don't tend to get involved in campus because it's not a masculine type of thing to do."
Blair said that societal stereotypes were one reason for the widening gender gap in education and leadership.
Blair said the number of female participants registered for the program compared to male participants registered had only reinforced the gender gap. Eighty-five of the 140 registered participants are women.
Rebecca Ingraham, Shawnee
Bridging the Gap
Event: Battle of The Sexes:
KU Leadership Academy
Date: Saturday
Time: 11 p.m. to 7 p.m.
What: 150 Kansas students will take part in a daylong workshop to address issues of gender gaps in leadership and education
Deadline to Register: The
Deadline to Register: The event is full
junior, is the vice president for interfraternal relations for Panhellenic Council, the governing body of all sororates at the University. She plans to attend the dav-long event
"As a women's organization, we feel its really important to be represented there," Ingraham said. "And I think as someone who is in a leadership position, it's always good to meet other leaders on campus and to find different ways to be a successful leader in the community."
Blair said the educational gender gap is clearly not limited to the University of Kansas. Blair cited a 2005 report in Work & Family Life that suggested the educational gap is widening.
Jason Oruch, Plano junior, is also registered to attend the leadership academy. As a member of Student Senate, Oruch said he thought it was important to the gender gaps in leadership involvement.
reverses after college. Blair said men hold more leadership positions in the real world, even though they don't necessarily perform better.
Blair said the program will address the real world gender gap, as well.
"It'll be a good opportunity to talk about our experiences with leadership." Oruch said.
The report stated that among 25-to 34-year-olds $ 24 \% $ more women than men have associate's degrees, $ 14 \% $ more women than men hold bachelor degrees and $ 21 \% $ more women than men have advanced degrees.
Ultimately, Blair said the event aims to make both genders stronger in leadership.
"The whole goal of the day is to build a group of leaders who will altogether challenge both sexes to be as strong leaders as possible," Blair said.
ENTERTAINMENT Spears drives growth of celebrity news business
In the days after the Britney Spears opera rope a police-escorted gurney to its apex, celebag sales spiked, traffic jammed gossip Web sites, tabloid TV ratings rose and paraparazi photo prices surged.
For a growing number of people and businesses, Britney's saga is about money; Every time she sinks to new lows, cash flows And these days, no one is above the fray.
When a custody dispute devolved into a three-hour standoff at Spears' home Jan. 3, police officers and firefighters were pressed into duty. Television stations sent up helicopters, and cable news anchors reported the unfolding drama in real time. The Associated Press had two reporters working the story, with editors on both coasts updating it seven times throughout the night.
Spears is just one of many
Alternative Career Paths Panel Thursday, January 31 7-9 p.m. kansas Union, Kansas Roo
Brown Bag Lunch
"Around the World with the Peace Corps"
Wednesday, January 30
12 -1 p.m.
Kansas Union
International Room
Life is calling.
How far
will you go?
Kansas Union, Kansas Room
peacecorps.gov
or contact Heather Sutter
110 Burge Union
785.864.7679
peacecorps@ku.edu
Edited by Mandy Earles
Yet strangely, the gender gap
stars driving the growing multibillion dollar celebrity news industry. But the Spears story in particular, with a new twist nearly every week, has become a very profitable sub-sector unto itself.
"Britney is the most bankable celebrity out there right now, and she has been for the past year" said Francois Navare, founder of the paparazzi agency X17.
Spears became a can't-miss tabloid topic after filing for divorce from second husband Kevin Federline in November 2006. Since then, she's been in and out of rehabs, shaved her head, revealed a bit too much above
the hemline, was arrested after a traffic accident, and lost custody of her kids (and later her visitation rights).
"The product for the tabloid industry is the unusual, and Brittany has been delivering that consistently." said Dan Smith, dean of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
At a time when advertising spending in traditional media is declining, celebrity gossip titles such as Star, Us Weekly and In Touch Weekly are growing. That helped overall newsstand sales for magazines edge 1 percent higher, to $2.39 billion, in the first half of
2007.
"The increase is almost entirely attributable to the growth of the celebrity magazine" said John Harrington, who runs industry consulting agency Harrington Associates.
Any time a magazine can boost newsstand sales past its average, the revenue is booked nearly entirely as profit, Harrington said: "People prints 2.5 million copies and sells about an average of 1.5 million. if they have an issue that sells 2 million, the extra half million goes to the bottom line."
Associated Press
FREE ADVANCE SCREENING! Tuesday, February 5, at 7:30pm at the Woodruff Auditorium.
Q&A WITH MEMBERS OF THE CAST AFTER THE SCREENING!
PICK UP PASSES AT:
SUA Box Office, Level 4, Kansas Union: 9AM to 5PM
OR RSVP ONLINE:
Campuscircle.net/screening/KanWildWest
Flip Camcorder raffle at the screening!!!
Event Compliments of SUA