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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Wednesday February 24,1999
Section:
Sunny and warmer
Online today
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Check out this site about the new movie about the '80s.
Vol. 109 · No.101
Sports today
http://www.200cigarettes.com
The Kansas women's basketball team faces the Oklahoma State Cowgirls tonight in Stillwater.
SEE PAGE 1B
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Senate to review holdover bill
By Nadia Mustafa Kansan staff writer
Student Senate committees will consider a bill tonight for the third consecutive year that would eliminate the position of holdover senator.
At the end of each year, Senate elects three holdover senators for the next year to provide the new Senate with historical knowledge of events and issues that Senate deals with each year.
"We always have a good portion of senators
Holly Krebs, holdover senator and the bill's co-sponsor, said that holdover senators were not necessary because almost one-third of Senate is composed of senators who had served before.
having historical knowledge," she said. "Holdover senators just feed the self-perpetuating nature of Senate because it tries to do exactly what it has done in the past. Precedent is not always the best thing to pay attention to. It doesn't allow for a revitalization of Senate."
Krebs said the position was undemocratic and unrepresentative because holderover senators were not popularly elected and did not
Krebs said she accepted the position of hold over senator because it already existed and she wanted to be involved in Senate. She did not agree, however, with the fundamental principle of the position. She also said that she would have been involved with Senate through other means if she had not been elected holdover senator.
represent any identifiable constituency.
"There's a feeling that holdover senators copped out of the campaign part of Senate, and we're not as accountable that way," she said. "It really comes down to a way for people who did not get elected to get into Senate. Many people who support the positon are just looking out for themselves."
If University Affairs and Student Rights committees pass the bill, Senate will consider it next Wednesday. The position would not be eliminated until after the April elections.
(USPS 650-640)
Finance and University Affairs committees will review a bill to give the elections commission $4,320 to operate the polling sites at Grace Sellards Pearson Hall, Gentrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall and Ekdahl Dining Commons.
The funds would pay for poll workers' fees, ballots and magnetic strip reader rental to prevent voter fraud. This is the first year KUID card readers will be used during Senate elections.
Jennifer Watkins, elections commission chairwoman, said the commission was hoping that the administration would pay for the readers next year as part of its Smartcard initiative.
Multicultural and Finance committees also will consider a bill to pay the $1,000 speaker fee for the Venerable Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan monk, sponsored by Students for a Free Tibet. Gyatso, who lives in exile in India, will
See SENATE on page 2A
Students dunk their way to head of class
Course makes dreams come true for would-be basketball stars
By Derek Prater
Special to the Kansan
It's a dream for every young basketball fan — to one day fly through the air and dunk like Mike.
For the past four years, Lockwood has offered spring sessions of Jump Training, a class he developed that focuses on vertical leaning and explosiveness.
Bob Lockwood, facility director for health, sport and exercise sciences at the University of Kansas, is working to help students grasp that dream and reach their fitness goals.
Not surprisingly, Lockwood said most students at the basketball-crazy University took the class for basketball-related goals.
"In student terms, do you play above the rim?" Lockwood said. "Some day you want to dunk a basketball, and that's a real possibility for a girl 5-foot-10 and up."
However, the class is not for everyone. Lockwood said.
The class, HSES 598, is open to all University students, and Lockwood has had a variety of students take the class. He said at least 28 students were enrolled this semester.
The seven-week program consists of three high-intensity hour-and-a-half workouts each week that push students to extreme levels.
"It was exhausting," said Rob Dyson, Olathe senior, who took the class two years ago. "Everyone has heard stories of how people throw up in that class."
Thad Crane, a Hutchinson junior enrolled in the class, called it the most intense workout he had ever had.
Lockwood said the intense nature of the workouts created a team atmosphere within the class. Students push each other to reach their goals.
"We're all in it together." Crane said. "We help each other get through."
The regimen that Lockwood developed consists of exercises aimed at four areas:
speed, strength, flexibility and polymetrics, which emphasize speed and a full range of movement.
Workouts include jumping exercises and sprints and involve only the use of body weight as opposed to weight-training.
Lockwood said the initial inspiration for the class was his desire to do a research-based program that would look at muscle biopsies. He knew that students were interested in improving their vertical leaps, and the program would provide an opportunity to evaluate muscle fiber. Lockwood did the research program the first semester the class was held but no longer does it.
Lockwood said he also had personal interest in jump training from his background in volleyball and gymnastics. Additional inspiration came from his son, who was his most successful protege. His son was able to dunk with two hands by the end of his high school basketball career.
Not every student can expect to be able to dunk after completing the program, Lockwood said. However, students often see dramatic improvements in explosiveness and leaping ability after a recovery period of several weeks.
Lockwood said students had improved as much as seven inches in straight power jumps with no take-off approach and as much as 13 inches for jumps with an approach.
The bottom line for some students, however, starts at the rim. Crane was hesitant to say that he expected to be able to dunk.
He said students also had been pleased with the way the workouts sculpted their lower bodies.
"You're looking at a real streamlined look from the waist down," Lockwood said. "A lean, sleek type athlete."
"That's my goal." Crane said. "I'll be on the rim at least."
Edited by Steph Brewer
Natalie Lucas, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore jumps off a gymnastics pad as instructor Bob Lockwood observes her form. Lucas is part of a physical education class designed to help people increase their jumping abilities through various exercise. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
Students to construct house for low-income family
By Heather Woodward
Kansas staff writer
Graduate students in the School of Architecture and Urban Design will spend most of their time during the next couple months building a house for a low-income family.
Kanson staff writer
Today a graduate architecture studio class, which has 13 students, will begin building a two-story house at 1144 Pennsylvania St. in conjunction with the City of Lawrence.
The class members already designed the house, but building the house will complete their final project toward completing their
Daniel Rockhill, professor of architecture and urban design, said only the first floor of the house would be completely handicapped-accessible.
"There will be reduced cabinetry in the kitchen so that someone in a wheelchair could get to the sink without a cabinet in the way," Rockhill said. "In the bathroom, there will be grab bars by the seat, and the bathroom is big enough that someone in a wheelchair could turn completely around without any difficulty."
graduate degree in architecture. This is the first house that was designed to be semi-handicapped accessible.
- Edited by Sarah Hale
The class will build the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with $92,000 of the city's money. The lot cost about $20,000 and the demolition of the house that sits on the lot now, which has been vacant for 24 years, will cost about $3,000. The remainder of the money will go toward construction costs.
This is the second year the architecture class has done the project with the city.
The Lawrence City Commission approved the project last night.
Lynn Goodell, director of the department of housing and neighborhood development, said part of the agreement was to provide affordable housing for a low-
income family. He estimated that the house would sell for about $75,000.
The 13 students are expected to graduate in May, but Rockhill said he doubted the project would be finished by then. All of the students have agreed to continue working until the home is completed, and the city has set July 31 as a final deadline.
"I think it's a good thing because the only way for the city to provide housing to low-income families is to subsidize somebody somehow." Goodell said. "The City of Lawrence has several programs where it supplements the educational process at KU. This way, we're helping to produce architects."
Miranda Grieder, Austin, Texas, graduate student, said she was excited about the project.
Rockhill said the students would work 12-hour days at least six days each week to build the house.
"I think the best thing about it is not only getting the experience but being able to help other people,"
Grieder said. "People who qualify for low-income housing will get a much better product because we donate the labor, and we research the materials and the construction. We put a lot of thought into how the house all comes together."
Texas man found guilty in dragging death case
The Associated Press
JASPER, Texas — A white supremacist was convicted of capital murder yesterday for chaining a black man to a pickup truck and dragging him to his death in one of the nation's grisliest hate crimes since the civil rights battles.
Jurors deliberated less than 2 1/2 hours before returning their verdict against John William King, who now faces either life in prison or execution. The panel of 11 Caucasians and one African American began the separate punishment phase yesterday afternoon.
King appeared to have no reaction when the verdict was read.
Sheriff Billy Rowles gave a thumbs-up to a relative of victim James Bryd Jr. Several Byrd family members broke into tears as did King's father, Ronald.
Courtroom spectators applauded the verdict until State District Judge Joe Bob Golden admonished them.
His son, Ross Byrd had a similar reaction.
"We win and yet we still lose because we don't have him back," said Mary Verrett, Byrd's sister, outside the courtroom.
King: Could face execution for the June murder.
Byrd's daughter, Renee Mullins, dabbed her eyes and nose with a tissue as she called the verdict "a breath of freshair."
"All I know is that there's one down and two to go," he said.
King, a 24-year-old laborer, was the first of three white men to be tried in the June 7 slaying. The body of the 49-year-old Byrd was torn in two — a head and right arm severed from his torso — when he was pulled nearly three miles while tied by his ankles with a 24 1/2-foot logging chain.
In closing arguments today, prosecutor Pat Hardy outlined the evidence against King, likening Byrd's attackers to "three robedriders coming straight out of hell."
"After they dragged that poor man and tore his body to pieces, they dropped it right in front a church and a cemetery to show their defiance to God, to show their defiance of Christianity and everything most people in this county stand for," Hardy said.
Prosecutors argued Byrd was conscious, suffering horribly as he vainly tried to save himself during the dragging.
To make King eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors had to show Byrd's murder happened in conjunction with another crime and argue the abduction of Byrd amounted to kidnapping.
In his closing, defense attorney Brack Jones concentrated on the kidnapping argument.
Jones said he thought the tying of Byrd's feet and the dragging was the method of death and not intentional kidhapping.
A pathologist testified Monday that Byrd was dragged alive and in excruciating pain along the bumpy county road. When the pickup swerved into a left-hand curve, Byrd's chained body swung to the right, where he was beheaded by a concrete culvert.
was sentenced.
An ex-convict with dreams of starting his own racist group, King had been waiting for an opportunity to make a name for himself and his fledgling white supremacy group, the Texas Rebel Soldiers, prosecutors said.
While in prison, King told one inmate he wanted to "take a black out" to prove himself as a white supremacist. He covered himself in racist tattoos, his defense attorneys contended, to prevent attacks from the mostly black population at Beto.
In a November letter to The Dallas Morning News, Kadmined he had been riding in the truck with Brewer and the other co-defendant, Shawn Berry, on June 7 when they offered a ride to Byrd.
A letter recovered by police from King to codefendant Lawrence Russell Brewer revealed that blood-stained clothing, missed by police, was still in his apartment. DNA tests showed that the blood was Byrd's. Until that letter, there were no witnesses to place King in the truck at the same time as Byrd.