Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Mostly cloudy tomorrow with a chance for showers.
Online today
Wednesday
April 14, 1999
Section:
A
Vol. 109 • No. 130
Stump the computer with your knowledge of sitcom characters. Answer a series of yes-or-no questions to see whether the computer can guess who you've picked.
http://www.smalltime.com/nowhere/dictator
Sports today
Ryan Robertson, Kansas guard, plans to play for the Salina Cagerz, a USBL team, this summer.
SEE PAGE 1B
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KU men blacklisted via e-mail
(USPS 650-640)
By Jamie Knodel and Heather Woodward jkmodel@kansan.com, hwoodward@kansan.com Kansan staff writers
A humiliating blacklist has been circulating through University of Kansas cyberspace for at least a week.
An e-mail, labeled on the subject line as "BAD BAD BAD Boys!" arrived on the KU campus from the University of Iowa with a note that said, "Allright girls, I got a forward just like this one, and I thought University of Kansas should get on this list. Lord knows we have enough of them here. Put whoever you want on here, and send it to everybody you know."
A list of male KU students follows the note. Some are identified by both their first and last names, along with the names of their respective fraternities. Their names are followed by strong accusations or short anecdotes of a graphic sexual nature.
None of the listed men contacted by the Kansan were willing to comment about the e-mail.
Mark Johnson, a Kansas City, Mo., lawyer who specializes in media and First Amendment law, said the people who sent the e-mail could be held accountable for spreading information that was damaging to the men's reutations.
"An element of defamation is communicating inaccurate information from one person to another." Johnson said. "The act of sending e-mail is an element of defamation if the information is untrue and libelous."
He also said that although the number of people who received the e-mail determined the extent of damage to the men's reputations, a person who sent the e-mail to just one person could still be held accountable for libel.
Johnson said the men could sue for civil damages by alleging that their reputations had been damaged.
Emily Monckton, Alton, Ill., freshman, received the e-mail Friday and sent it to a few friends. She said she thought it was amusing.
"Ijust laughed," Monckton said. "I think people should know about these guys. it might be a little far-fetched, but I wouldn't want to go out on a date with someone who had that kind of reputation."
Monckton said, however, that she didn't know whether the accusations made in the e-mail were true.
Charity Alloway, Conway Springs senior, said she found out last week that she had dated one of the men on the list. She then asked her friends to forward her the e-mail, which she received on Friday.
"I was just amazed that someone would have the nerve to exploit one's reputation about something like that," Alloway said. "At first I thought it was funny, but then I realized that it was just silly and immature."
Alloway forwarded the e-mail to two of her friends who had asked to see it.
Neither Alloway nor Monckton realized that forwarding the e-mail could be libelous.
"I had no idea," Alloway said. "I thought about forwarding it to the guy I know, but I wasn't sure if it was my place to do that. From what I know about him, what was said in the email was totally untrue."
The version of the e-mail provided to the Kansan indicated that at least 23 women received the e-mail. Monckton and Alloway were the only two women willing to comment on it.
Wes Hubert, associate director of academic computing services, said if a complaint was filed about the e-mail, the University would follow the regular student affairs grievance policy.
"The medium here is incidental," Hubert said. "It would not be handled differently because it was an e-mail."
Edited by Allan Davis
Rain may dampen Senate voter turnout
By Nadia Mustafa
nmusfa@kansan.com
kansan staff writer
Despite a ballot marked by three referendums and numerous candidates, many predict that rainy weather will hinder voter turnout during Student Senate elections today and tomorrow.
Students will begin casting votes at 8 a.m. for student body presidential and vice presidential candidates and Senate seats. Referendums regarding a new $16 million campus recreation center; a zero-tolerance policy for hate crimes and sexual assault at the University of Kansas; and a joint citywide public transportation system between KU On Wheels and the City of Lawrence also will be on the ballot.
Jennifer Watkins, elections commissioner, said that she hoped for better voter turnout this year compared with last year's 19 percent but that the weather forecast was reason for pessimism.
"It's a disappointment," she said. "It's pretty much a given that when it's rainy, voter turnout decreases."
Watkins said that if the sun were to come out, more students would vote this year because of the coalitions' campaign platforms and election strategies.
If voter turnout today and tomorrow remains stable, it will be one of the highest turnouts in the past 10 years when only two coalitions have been on the ballot. In 1997, campaign issues such as campus safety, parking, enrollment, improvements to Robinson Center and fall break drew 15 percent of students to vote. In 1990, with five coalitions on the ballot, 23 percent of
the student body voted.
Amanda Weinberg, elections commission chairwoman, said she thought more students would vote this year despite the weather because of the three controversial referendums on the ballot. Also, she said, unlike past years, the candidates this year highlighted the differences between their coalitions.
said. "A lot of literature has been handed out, and there are conflicting stories about the recreation center."
Paul Schumaker, chairman of the political science department, said he was not sure why voter turnout in Student Senate elections was lower than turnout in city, state and federal races. "I imagine that it's because the stakes are less," he said.
"Anything over 19 percent will be good," Weinberg
Voter turnout is usually about 25 percent in Lawrence's general elections, a little less than 50 percent in Kansas elections and a little more than 50 percent in national elections.
Sites at GSP and Oliver halls will be open from 4 to 7 p.m. today and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow. At the Unions and the cafeteria, sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. tomorrow. Haworth, Strong and Wescoe Beach sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. both days.
"Transportation was an issue for me when I lived in the residence halls and had trouble getting to Wal-Mart," he said. "And I want to vote against the recreation center because we have Robinson and don't need a new center."
Polling sites are located at Wesco Beach, the rotunda of Strong Hall, the fourth floor of the Kansas Union, outside Haworth Hall, the second floor of the Burge Union, the lobbies of Oliver and Gertrude Sellards Pearson halls and at Ekdahl Dining Commons.
Sean McGrath, Bonne Terre, Mo. senior, said that he didn't vote last year but that he would vote this year because he was interested in the recreation center and public transportation referendums.
Edited by Sarah Hale
Under the weather
Jennifer Downing, Salina senior, uses a copy of the Kansan as protection from the rain as she hurries toward Watson Library. The rain yesterday could be followed by more showers today and tomorrow. Photo by Erin McElhinney/KANSAN.
Dana Blecher, Steinhard Fellow with the Jewish Campus Service Corps, displays some of the illustrations created for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Students and visitors also wore ribbons and cut outyellow Stars of David in the foyer of the Kansas Union yesterday. Photo by Erin McElhiney/KANSAN.
Students remember Holocaust horror in the Kansas Union
By Dan Curry
It was terribly simple.
By Dan Curry
dcurry@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Jews wore yellow, Jehovah's Witnesses wore purple, homosexuals wore pink, gypsies brown and criminals green stars for Jews and triangles for the rest.
That's how Nazi soldiers differentiated between those who lived and the 11 million who died in their death camps, said Allison Hammer, St. Louis. Mo., sophomore.
Hammer was one of the KU Hillel members who helped students remember the horror of the Holocaust yesterday during Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Students cut out yellow stars from felt, drew pictures and pinned on ribbons at a table inside the Kansas Union.
Lindsay Striker, Minneapolis freshman, said she never had celebrated Holocaust Remembrance Day at a university setting.
"It's good because so many people can be here," Striker
Dana Blecher, Steinhardt Fellow and KU graduate, said that Hillel wanted people to leave the table feeling positive, rather than oppressed.
Memorial candles were on the table in the Union, but they were unlit because of fire codes.
"We know it's emotional," Hammer said. "People can express their emotions creatively here."
Elsewhere, they burn all day, Hammer said. Candles would be lit and placed in the death camps to remember individuals who died.
"The motto of the day is "Remember." Hammer said.
Jewish students at the University of Kansas are doing more than remember the Holocaust, however.
said. "Not just Jewish people but people from all different backgrounds."
They're taking steps to keep another holocaust from happening.
Teri Levich, Wichita junior, said the Jewish Student Council was sponsoring a clothing drive to aid the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
"What's happening now in Kosovo is similar to what happened during the Holocaust," Levich said.
She said the council would contact the Salvation Army and the Red Cross about delivering the clothing.
— Edited by Keith Burner
Clothing of all types can be dropped off at the Hillel Office in the Kansas Union, Zeta Beta Tau and Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternities and the Sigma Delta Tau sorority, Levich said.
Senators say bickering can distract from goals
By Nadia Mustafa
nmusfa@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Although most of its members admit Student Senate often falls victim to partisan bickering and a lack of student outreach, they are adamant that Senate is an important and effective body at the University of Kansas.
During the past five years, Senate has implemented many structural and procedural reforms to ensure a quasil-system of checks and balances. It also has continued to pass legislation that improves the lives of students, despite its rank compared to the administration — in the University hierar-
chv.
Deidre Backs, off-campus senator, said that reforms during the past two years have ensured that one coalition did not control Senate.
As an example, she cited a change this year in which standing committee members, who had been present at the three meetings before elections, could vote for next year's committee heads. She said the policy prevented inactive members from swaying the vote on a partisan basis.
Holly Krebs, holdover senator, said one non-legislative reform was that many senators had tried to break down partisan walls outside of campaign season.
Part 3 of 10
n Yoder,student body
"Senators have made a big effort to bridge the gap despite partisan or ideological differences," she said.
Kevin Yode president, listed several actions Senate had taken during past years to police itself. He noted the addition of
multicultural senatorial seats to maintain diversity and legislation that created a student judicial board to hear complaints from student organizations and Senate. The board has not yet been implemented.
He said that Senate gradually
has decreased the student body president's authority by requiring that he or she select executive staff positions from a pool of applicants chosen by an advisory committee.
Also, Yoder said, Senate has made changes to the process of funding student organizations. Previously, organizations could request funds at Senate meetings. Now, organizations that already have received funds must apply to the Finance Committee for line-item funding.
"It's more standardized, and Senate does not spend all day looking at funding for stamps," he said. "This way, groups get a fair shake."
See SENATORS on page 2A