Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Warmer and mostly sunny.
Kansan
HIGH LOW 62 31
Tuesday
November 2,1999
Section:
A
Vol. 110 • No. 53
Inside today
Protecting wetlands and riparian areas in Lawrence, Topeka and Kansas City will be the topic of a day-long seminar at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.
SEE PAGE 3A
Sports today
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Despite a sub-par performance in Stanford, Calif., last weekend, junior golfer Conrad Roberts finished his tournament with a hole-in-one.
SEE PAGE 1B
Contact the Kansan
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Opinion e-mail: opinion@kansan.com
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Editor e-mail: editor@kansan.com
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
(USPS 650-640)
Providing for parents
Student struggles combining classes, caring for mom
By Heather Woodward • Illustration by Kyle Ramsey
t is role reversal at its most poignant: the younger generation turning around to care for the generations who raised them.
When Diane Minear's father died in August, her mother's well-being fell to her and her siblings. Her mother's health has quickly deteriorated since then.
She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis — a disease that causes memory loss and muscle deterioration — about 25 years ago.
"I didn't know what taking care of her would be like," said
her would be like, said Minear, Tonganoxie
Milane, Tonganoxo junior. "She acts like a 12-year-old. Her memory has started to get really bad. She can't even order off a menu. We have to tell her what to order, which is hard.
to watch because she was always really decisive."
At least once a week, Minear drives from Tonganoxie to Topeka to give her sister a break from the 24-hour-day job. She does laundry and dishes and helps her wheelchair-bound mother get to the bathroom.
And then there are the finances. Minear now balances her 56-year-old mother's checkbook after having to take away her credit card. Her mother also lost her driver's license.
About 13 percent of older people live with their children, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
That responsibility is enormous in itself, but Mininear also carries a full KU class schedule, taking 15 hours this semester in history and prelaw.
"When my dad died in August, classes nad just started. I couldn't keep up with the homework," Minear said. "And of course my professors couldn't cut me any slack on things like pop quizzes. I just couldn't be in two places at once." For now taking care of he r
mother has become manageable, Minear said. Her sister has quit her job at a pharmacy in Topeka to care for their mother. But the next few years hold difficult decisions for the whole family, which has looked at options such as assisted living and nursing homes.
"We've talked about her living with us," said Minear who is married and has two young daughters. "But she didn't want to leave her home. We will have to consider her feelings, too."
Topeka-based Kelly Assisted Living, which also serves Lawrence, allows older people to remain in their homes while receiving various levels of care.
"We do whatever it takes to let people stay in their homes," said Renae Bulmer, branch manager for Kelly. "We can take care of everything from everyday needs up to skilled nursing and administration of medicine."
The baby boomer generation will start
But, she said, the demand for such care would increase drastically within in the next few years.
See BABY on page 3A
'Zero tolerance' alcohol policy may get tougher
By Nathan Willis writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Lori Hanson laughed when she read the letter.
A resident of Sellards Scholarship Hall, the Colorado Springs, Colo., senior, was one of the roughly 5,000 students who discovered letters from the Department of Student Housing in their mailboxes last November announcing a new "zero-tolerance" policy for alcohol on campus.
"Effective immediately, residents violating the alcohol policy will always receive a formal sanction associated with the infraction," said the letter signed by Ken Stoner, director of student housing. "Sanctions available include termination of contract."
Hardly language meant to inspire laughter. But Hanson and her friends at Sellards were amused.
"We thought it was funny," she said. "Sending a letter isn't going to do something about the problem."
And now, after a year under the policy, students say it hasn't, and numbers released by the department show little effect.
Housing authorities, however, remain concerned about drinking and are considering options for the future - options that include banning being drunk on student housing premises, banning empty containers and making all people in a room liable if any person is drinking. Those options probably will be considered by the Student Housing Advisory Board of the semester and could
by the end of the semester and could take effect by next fall.
Zero tolerance may be just the first step in housing's fight against alcohol.
How the crackdown began
Alcohol has been a problem in student housing for decades, Stoner said, but the University of Kansas has shifted the issue into the spotlight in recent years. Part of what spurred a demand for change was an October 1998 survey that gave the department some data to work with, he said.
The survey found that drinking was lower in student housing than in other types of housing. Still, 47 percent of underage drinkers reported that they had obtained or used alcohol in residence halls — ranking it beneath private parties, fraternities, bars and sororities but ahead of restaurants and liquor stores. Eighteen percent had obtained or used
Eighteen percent had obtained or used alcohol in the scholarship halls.
Stoner said that students and the administration had partially bought into an attitude of irresponsible behavior — which was something the department had to work against.
POTENTIAL ALCOHOL POLICY CHANGES IN STUDENT HOUSING
Being intoxicated on student housing premises would be against the rules. Now, only consuming or possessing alcohol in student housing is forbidden.
- Empty containers would be against the rules. Now, students can possess containers to alcoholic beverages provided the containers no longer have any alcohol in them.
All students in a room could be held resp. if able any student in the room was drinking. Now, only roommates and the students caught drinking can be held responsible.
"We have institutionalized things that are not OK to do." Stoner said.
The 1998 alcohol survey's results seemed to confirm this. Although 87 percent of those in student housing reported that they knew housing's alcohol policies, only 50 percent felt the policies were enforced.
So part of the reasoning behind zero tolerance and any future changes in policy is to change the attitude and the image that housing presents to students.
“It’s here to get a message across,” Stoner said. “To eliminate the impression that we didn’t do anything and weren’t going to do anything.”
Zero effect?
However, many students said that zero tolerance had also failed to get the message across.
Zero tolerance eliminated the initial warning residents got for their first alcohol violation and stiffened penalties, which now include hall probation, room or building reassignment and expulsion from student housing.
Numbers compiled this summer by housing showed that the number of alcohol infractions reported last year declined to 203 from 251 the year before.
However, Jennifer Wamelink, assistant director of student housing, said that because Lewis Hall was closed for renovation last year, the real rate of infractions remained basically steady.
Matt Capen, a St. Louis sophomore who lived in McCollum Hall last year, said that when zero tolerance was introduced, some students on his floor feared a crackdown. But it never materialized, and the amount of drinking never changed, he said.
"If you stand at a door on a Friday night, you can watch 30 or 40 people with bookbags or suitcases full of alcohol walk through," he said.
See STUDENTS on page 3A
Students, fraternity receive citations for violating city law
By Lori O'Toole writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
When Dan Billen came home Sunday from a weekend out of town, he found a citation from the City of Lawrence sitting on his kitchen table.
The citation informed Billen, Topeka freshman, and his four roommates that they were living in violation of a city ordinance prohibiting more than four unrelated people from sharing a house. The citation said one of the students had to move out as soon as possible.
He said he and his roommates were unaware that they were breaking any city laws, and the real estate agent they were going through to rent the house had not informed them of the law.
"I was sad," said Billen, who will move to Topeka to live with his parents and commute to school. "So many people do this."
said there were no exceptions to the rule, which has been on the books since 1966. However, houses that have been restructured to include several individual apartments can have four unrelated people living in each apartment.
The five students sharing the house at 2564 Jasu Drive in the neighborhood southeast of 23rd and Naismith streets were not the only students to receive such a notice.
"Maybe we were just misinformed," Billen said. "There's so much of this going on. I don't know how they can be fair about enforcing it."
Mike Wilden, city manager, said the city sent a notice to Jordan Strauss, president of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, 136 Indiana St., on Oct. 25. He said members were living in violation of the code since the house was located in a single-family zoned area.
house had been used for some greek events, including social events and formal recruitment. Not all of the members live in the house, but it is where mail and phone calls to the fraternity are directed.
The City Planning Department
Wildgen said the city responded to complaints from neighbors when issuing citations, and that the city has written several each month. However, an Oct. 20 article in the Kansan was what brought the situation at Billen's house to Wildgen's attention.
Strauss said the city misunderstood the purpose of the house. He said the fraternity did not have a chapter house this year, but that the
Wildgen said there was usually no fine involved unless the residents refused to comply with the law after they had been notified. He said the multi-person living situation had become more popular.
"It seems to be happening more and more, especially south of campus," he said. "That type of life style is accepted in apartment-type areas, but when you move
Dan Billen, Topeka freshman; Carl Holden, Topeka sophomore; Jay Mullinix, Wichita sophomore and Doug and David Everhart, Topeka seniors, play a game of pool in the house that they are renting. Professor of psychology James Juola is renting the house to the five students while he is on sabbatical. The students received a citation for violating a city ordinance prohibiting more than four unrelated people from sharing a house. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
See ORDINANCE on page 2A
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