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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Sports: The life of a walk-on football player? Nothing but hard work.
See page 1B
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2000
(USPS 650-640) * VOL. 110 NO. 144
Inside: Officials released the cause of last year's Texas A&M bonfire collapse.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Athlete accuses football players of battery
By Mindle Miller
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Lawrence police are investigating a University of Kansas women's soccer player's allegations that two Jayhawk football players sexually battered her in a parking lot in February.
The 22-year-old victim said she waited more than two months to report the battery to police because her coach, Mark Francis, advised her to go to the KU Athletics Department first. But she said football coach Terry Allen only made the players run stairs, so she decided to go to the police.
Allen, Francis and Bob Frederick, athletics director, did not return phone calls yesterday. Doug Vance, assistant athletics director, said the department had no comment yet.
The victim said that she went out with some friends to the Yacht Club, 530 Wisconsin St., at about 11 p.m. Feb. 26. According to a statement released by the victim, she consumed three drinks between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., but was not drunk.
One of the suspects walked up behind her twice, grabbed her waist and lifted her into the air. When she protested, the suspect laughed in her face and walked away.
When the bar closed at about 2 a.m., the victim walked to the crowded parking lot with two friends, who left her alone while they went to get a jacket from a car. As she was waiting, the two suspects approached her from behind.
The suspect who had bothered the victim inside the club again grabbed her around the waist and lifted her into the air. Despite her pleas for him to put her down, the suspect threw her on top of a nearby vehicle. The victim said she was acquainted with the suspects, who are 18 and 19, but did not know them well.
They held her down while they touched her between her legs and spanked her, according to her report. They were laughing and saying, "You like that, huh? I hear you like this kind of stuff."
The victim said that she was kicking and screaming but that she did not stand a
chance against the football players, who were both about 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed at least 230 pounds. The victim said she fought her way free and tried to strike the suspects, who laughed at her attempts.
She ran to where her friends were standing and told them that she needed to leave. One of the suspects approached her again and asked if she wanted to get back on the car. She started to cry and left with her friends.
She said she struggled with what happened for several days, losing sleep and feeling sick. She told her academic tutor about the battery, and he suggested she tell her coach.
She met with Francis on Feb. 29, and he encouraged her not to go to the police before talking to Allen. But he also said that a serious crime had been committed and that talking to police might be appropriate.
The victim and her coach met with Allen on March 2. According to her report, Allen gave her two options:
First, he told her that she could go to police, but stressed that pressing charges would be an unpleasant experience and discourage her from doing so. He added that if she did tell police, he would not punish the players as hard because the criminal justice system would do it instead.
■ Or, Allen said, he would punish the players in an "appropriate way" if she promised she would not press charges. He would not explain to her what he meant by an "appropriate way."
On April 14, the victim's academic adviser told her the two suspects had sexually battered another KU student. The victim said the players should be punished so they could not hurt anyone else.
According to her report, the victim waited almost two months for Allen to punish the players. On April 18, Bob Kincaid, assistant director of student-athlete life, told her the players' punishment had been to run stairs at Memorial Stadium. When she asked Kincaid if he thought that punishment justified what the players had done to her, he asked, "What kind of punishment would you want them to have? What would make you feel better?"
Sgt. George Wheeler of the Lawrence Police Department said police had contacted one suspect, who admitted putting the victim on the car but not to touching her. Police have not contacted the second suspect.
The victim said the athletics department's response made her feel worthless. She said she thought punishments were administered inconsistently for football players.
"Dion Rayford messed up a drive-thru window at Taco Bell but did not physically harm anybody," she said in her report. "He got suspended from the team right away and did not get to play his senior game."
She said the suspects had physically and psychologically assaulted her but still were allowed to play in the spring game and practice with the team.
"The worst part is that I know both (players) are laughing about what happened, and they know nothing is going to happen to them," she said in her report. "It hurts me that these guys have not been punished at all for what they have done to me and possibly other women."
City moves closer to new student issues advisory board
By John Audlehelm
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The City Commission last night took the first step toward creating a board that would advise the commission about student concerns.
The second and last hurdle for the Lawrence Advisory Board on University Student Issues will come next week when the commission will vote on the ordinance one more time. The commission must pass an ordinance twice for it to become law. Last night's vote was unanimous.
Michael Henry, former community affairs director for Student Senate and Overland Park senior, has spent this semester advocating the idea.
Henry said one issue the advisory board would soon
"We're very excited by this," he said. "This was some of the most enjoyable work I had."
deal with would be coordination of the public transportation system.
He also said he was glad the new ordinance included representatives from Haskell Indian Nations University. Both the University of Kansas and Haskell would have three representatives on the nine-member board.
Students from both universities could address rental property issues, Henry said.
Commissioners thanked the students for their efforts.
Andrew Bailey, Student Senate's new community affairs director and Lenexa freshman, said he was excited to be taking one of the positions.
"We appreciate Student Senate taking the initiative," commissioner Mike Rundle said.
The board will be composed of the Lawrence mayor, vice mayor and city manager or his or her designer; the KU student body president, student body vice president and community affairs director for Student Senate; and the Haskell student body president, student body vice president and another Haskell student senator.
"I've got some big shoes to fill," he said. "I think there's a lot of exciting issues coming up for students."
Rich Barr, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical Department fire marshal, said the department held an annual competition to educate students about fire safety.
In other action, the city commission. Recognized the winner of this year's residence hall fire safety program. Oliver Hall.
In other action, the city commission:
"It's a fire survival program," he said.
The competition was to see which residence hall had the highest percentage of its students attend the program.
Barr said Oliver had 330 students attend - about 57 percent of its 580 students.
By John Audlehelm
Sharp makeover A former barbed-wire factory is polished into a downtown gem
Writer @ kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The old barbed-wire factory on Lawrence's river front is ready to open.
And this time, developer Mike Elwell, who missed his original lease's completion date by seven years and missed a prominent opening last September, wants to open the building to the public this month — and he really means it.
According to his lease with the city, Elwell must get his occupancy permit before June or start to pay $100 a day.
Elwell's last hurdle is obtaining a power connection from a transformer behind city hall.
So he will be done in May — or maybe June.
so he will be done in May—or may be done.
"Unless something else happens," Elwell, 57, said.
"At the rate we're going, it seems like something always does."
Elwell is turning the downtown Barbwire building, the last of Lawrence's old industrial buildings on the river, into a restaurant, bar, coffeehouse and art gallery — a project that has taken him more than a decade.
It started in 1989 when Elwell was looking for a place to display his collection of metal sculptures.
The city didn't know what to do with the rundown building. Developers of the Riverfront Plaza mall, whose time has come and gone as the years have rolled by, just wanted the crumbling building to go away.
So after two years of negotiations with New Jersey-based Chelsea GCA Realty, who owned the mall, and the city, who owns the land, Elwell became the building's long-term lease.
Besides a dance floor and coffeehouse, Abe and Jakes Landing, 8 E. Sixth St., will also have a full bar. The business's developer, Mike Elwell, hopes to open the building, located between City Hall and the Riverfront Plaza mall, by June. Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
He spent three years repairing the crumbling structure and since 1994 has worked to replace bird nests and dirt with an indoor sculpture gallery and a mezanine level built to mimic an English village theme.
Elwell explains the delays by listing the obstacles he has faced—a list that includes two floods, 18,000 pounds of elevator counterweights and pigeons.
Why has Elwell stuck with his vision of a unique place in downtown Lawrence where people could enjoy art, music and drinks and watch the river go by? "You get to a point of no return," Elwell said. "You've come this far, and there's some light at the end of the tunnel."
But Elwell has invested as much emotion as he has money.
He said his point of no return came last year, when the city wanted to renegotiate his lease to protect the city's property and Elwell's investment.
Steve Jansen, director of the Watkins Community
A building with history
Museum of History, 1047 Massachusetts St., said the Barbwire building began in the 1890s as The Consolidated Barb Wire Co. drawing mill and cranked out wire from steel for seven years.
Since then, it has been used by a variety of industries. It most recently operated as a cardboard factory for the Lawrence Paper Co., which moved in the 1960s. Elwell said the barbed-will mill once was the biggest employer in Kansas, with about 300 workers.
From law to art
Elwell was a Douglas County attorney in the early 70s. His title changed to district attorney during his tenure.
Elwell then became a district judge, retiring in 1985. He said he quit because he got tired of dealing with all "the bad people."
"I didn't get to meet an awful lot of nice people coming through the court." Elwell said.
From time to time, he strayed from a proper judicial demeanor.
Once, during a particularly messy divorce hearing in which the couple was squabbling about every possession they had, Elwell flipped a coin to decide the issue.
Another time, on a boring Friday, Elwell received the case of a man who had been picked up for hitchhiking on the Turnpike but who Elwell said had obviously intended to pick marijuana.
"I ordered him to be hanged by the neck until dead," he said.
It wasn't until then that Elwell realized the man hao a shutter.
"He said, 'B-B-But you honor, they don't h-hang people for hitchhiking in N-N-New York,' he said. "I said, 'We don't either, but from now on, don't hitchhike on the Turnpike.'"
Since he retired from the bench, Elwell has more free time on his hands and sometimes fishes the Kaw alongside men he had sent to prison.
Elwell said the idea to renovate the Barbwire building came in 1989, when he was looking for a place to display his metal sculptures — which he has been
By Jim O'Malley
By Jim O Malley
writer@kansan.com
wiler@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Library imposes fines as methods to get its books back
It's the end of the semester: time for papers, projects, final exams — and paying library fines.
Unpaid fines are one of the loose ends students need to tie up at the end of a semester. General Accounting puts a hold on the records of students with unpaid fines, said Justin Scholtes, student assistant in the Registrar's Office and Overland Park sophomore. Those students can't enroll or get copies of their transcripts until the fines are paid.
"If you owe money to the school, you're not going to be able to take advantage of the
school's services." Scholtes said.
The library system sends out its own overdue and fine notices, but if fines remain unpaid, they are sent to the comptroller's office, said Julia Rholes, assistant dean of libraries. She said that fines hadn't been sent to the comptroller since August because of computer system changes but that now they would be.
Diane Goddard, comptroller, said her office billed students for up to four months. The office won't send students' unpaid fines to a collection agency while they are enrolled. She said the vast majority of students paid their fines while they were students.
"We don't send many of these out for collection," she said.
Samuelson said the record fine included lost book charges.
Big fines are rare. But people can get them selves into trouble by running up fines, said Sarah Couch, head of Watson Access Services
The biggest fine Samuelson can remember was about $2,000, but most students' fines don't come anywhere near that.
Damaged books also generate fines. Gary Samuelson, office specialist in the fines office in Watson Library, said dogs and water were the most common culprits.
Rholes last lost book charges were what produced the big fines. Charges for the cost of replacing lost books can generate three- and
There are fewer excuses for running up big fines now. Since August, most books can be renewed online, Rholes said. Books checked out for six-week or four-month terms can be renewed twice online.
four-figure fines.
"But we don't have lots of these," Rholes said. Students can appeal fines they think are unfair, Rholes said. And sometimes the librarians give people breaks for special circumstances such as illness. But it's not routine, she said.
Rholes said she had no exact figures, but that online renewals had reduced the library's fine revenues. But it's worth it to make library use more convenient, she said.