THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Tomorrow's weather
Kansan
Chance for thunderstorms
Tuesday
April 13, 1999
Section:
Online today
To review yesterday's coverage of all the candidates running for student senate, look online.
Sports today
http://www.kansas.com/election
Vol.109·No.129
Kansas swimmer Tyler painter may have a future as an Olympian. For now, he juggles life as a student and an athlete.
SEE PAGE 1B
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Candidates field student questions
By Nadia Mustafa
mnsatfa@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Sentiments were divided among about 150 students who showed up at Wescoe Beach during the lunch hour yesterday to listen to Student Senate candidates answer questions about campus issues.
At the informal debate, student body presidential and vice-presidential candidates took turns fielding students' questions about a new campus recreation center, student apathy, corporate contracts, parking problems, public transportation, improving education, Pride Week and Senate's effectiveness.
Many students in the audience said the candidates' responses sometimes seemed to be prepared campaign statements that they molded into answers to fit various questions. For many students, the event only cemented their existing loyalties to either coalition.
Ale Cornelius, St. Louis freshman, said that she was impressed by the responses given by Korb Maxwell, YOU candidate for student body president, and his running mate, Dede Selbel.
"I don't think Delta
"I don't think"
Force was as prepared or as articulate," she said.
"YOU impressed me with their control.
I'm going to vote for YOU."
Chris Eckert, Topeka sophomore, said that although the YOU candidates' responses were more polished, he was sketical about
some of their claims. He said he would vote for Seth Hoffman, Delta Force candidate for student body president, and his running mate, Mary Liu.
"I was confused by their waffling between sweeping out the old and sweeping in the new and being the most experienced," he said. "Even though they're not the smoother speakers, Delta Force addressed the issues well. Hoffman wasn't afraid to be blunt."
Out of 10 student questions posed at the debate, one student asked the candidates that, if elected, what would be the one instantaneous "dream" change they would make at the University?
Hoffman said that he would increase voter turnout in Senate elections to 100 percent. Maxwell agreed with Hoffman, but said that student representation and input in the chancellor's office, provost's office and on University boards and committees were also necessary.
Another student challenged the candidates to explain how they would represent a student body of whom allegedly 75
See CANDIDATES on page 2A
Korb Maxwell, YOU candidate for student body president, answers a question from an audience member during an informal debate on Wescoe Beach. Maxwell and the other presidential and vice-presidential candidates for Student Senate debated in front of a crowd of about 150 students yesterday. The elections for Student Senate will take place tomorrow and Thursday. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Shooting for a new rec center
Trey Yost, Perry,
Okla., junior, shoots
a layup in front of
Strong Hall yesterday.
Yost and others
played basketball at
a booth that promoted the proposed new recreation center. Elections will be held tomorrow and Thursday.The recreation center, Student Senate races and other issues will be on theballot. Photo by MaitJ. Daugherty/ KANSAN
Brownback's talk sparks differing campus opinions
Senator tied abortion to Social Security woes in El Dorado speech
By Kristi Reimer
kreimer@kanson.com
Kansan staff writer
Comments from Sen. Sam Brownback linking abortion to Social Security's woes surprised and angered some people at the University of Kansas, while others thought he had a valid point.
Brownback, R-Kan., told an audience Saturday at Butler County, Community College in El Dorado that Social Security was in trouble partly because abortion was depleting the work force. He also joked that Kansans should start having more children to bolster the labor market.
Lorraine Bayard De Volo, assistant professor of political science, said she thought Brownback was playing off citizens' fears about Social Security to promote his views on abortion.
"It's not clear whether that's out of his own ignorance or whether he's hoping Kansans are ignorant enough to buy his warped logic," Bayard De Volo said.
She said that Social Security's troubles began long before the Supreme Court's decision in Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal in 1973 and that a high birth rate would not solve them.
death rates from illegal abortions, an increase in demand for Welfare services and a global pollution crisis, she said.
In addition, criminalizing abortion would cause a rise in
The Social Security program is in trouble because its trust fund is empty, so funds for retirees are paid by current workers. As the baby boom generation retires, there will be more people drawing from the program than control.
than contributing
Allan Cigler, professor of political science, said he wasn't sure that Brownback was being completely serious in his speech.
"I found the notion that there is $p$
Brownback: Said work force hurt by abortion.
relationship between abortion and Social Security a strange linkage to make, one I suspect people will ridicule. "Cigler said. "I can't believe anybody seriously would frame Social Security problems that way. That's a big stretch."
Cigler said increasing the population wouldn't solve Social Security's problems because more people didn't necessarily mean more jobs.
mean here. But he said that Brownback's remarks might have been tongue-in-cheek and that people needed to be careful in drawing broad conclusions.
Bayard De Volo said that even
if Brownback was joking, his comments should not be ignored.
"The fact that he's blaming women who have had abortions for the awful Social Security problems still has ramifications," she said. "It's a politically irresponsible joke."
Not everyone at KU thought Brownback's comments were off base. Joseph Reitz, professor of business, said he made the same point linking the Social Security crisis to abortion in a talk last year. He said that since the Roe vs. Wade decision was handed down, 35 million abortions had been performed.
"There are a lot more old people and fewer people in the labor force," Reitz said. "You can pretty well see what's happening with Social Security."
He said he was surprised that more people hadn't made the connection.
"It's not a matter of opinion or belief but of stark economic fact." Reitz said.
Scott Wallisch, Hazelwood, Mo, junior and co-leader of KU Students for Life, also said that Brownback's ideas had merit. By Wallisch's calculations, about 5 million people would be in the work force by now if their mothers hadn't opted for abortion.
"To say that's the only reason Social Security is in trouble — that's wrong," Wallisch said. "But he does have a very interesting point."
Brownback could not be reached for comment.
Edited by Chris Fickett
Senate targeting student parking woes with Park and Ride
By Heather Woodward
hwoodward@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Student Senate has never made a secret of the fact that parking is an issue it wants to address.
Last fall, 300 parking permits were issued for spaces at the Lied Center where students could park and ride a bus to campus. Next fall, 500 permits will be available.
In recent years, what Student Senate has done to alleviate parking problems can be summed up in two words: Park and Ride—a service of KU on Wheels.
"Park and Ride is something that Senate had tossed around for three years," said Nicole Skalla, senate transportation coordinator. "We decided to do it this year as kind of a pilot to see if it would work, and it's proved to be very successful. Handling an extra 300 people is really a pretty big load for us, so it's been easier to work in steps and increment."
Senate appoints three students to the parking board, which is made up of students, faculty and parking administrators who act as an advisory committee for the parking department.
Since 1997, the parking department has added 1,730 new student parking spaces. Once a new 800-space parking garage is built next to the Kansas Union, an additional 150 spaces also will be available for students. Metered parking will take up 500 spaces, and the remaining 300 will be divided equally between students and faculty. Senate lobbed the parking department for the even split.
Student parking concerns have been with over-flow at Gertrude Sellards Pearson and Goble Hill and th
Corbin Halls and the Part 2 of 10
scholarship halls. Other concerns include rising permit prices, which are not expected to increase next year.
The parking department oversells the number of spaces that those residence hall lots can handle, leaving permit holders fighting for a place to park.
"We haven't completely tackled the oversell issue," said John Vaglio, Senate vice
Jason Williams/KANSAI
chair of the parking committee. "There's just not enough parking for all those girls at GSP-Corbin. We've talked about the possibility of having the local neighborhood sell permits because you can't just keep
creating parking when there isn't space." Donna Hultine, assistant director of parked, said that one solution might be to
See SENATORS on page 3A