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Kansan
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February 8, 1999
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Vol. 109 · No. 89
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Vol. 109·No.89
The men's basketball team takes sole possession of second place in the Big 12 after defeating Colorado 86-80 yesterday.
SEE PAGE 1B
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
(USPS 650-640)
Low turnout may close KU voting site
By Nadia Mustafa
Kansan staff writer
The Student Legislative Awareness Board is fighting the county's decision to shut down a polling site at Allen Fieldhouse.
The county wants to discontinue use of the site, which was used by only 28 student voters in the 1993 City Commission elections.
Patty Jaimes, Douglas County clerk,
said the site was inefficient.
"My goal is to work as hard as it takes to convince the county to keep the site open," Moore said. "There's an administrative wall, but where there's a will, there's a way. We have to make sure that voters have access to a polling site."
He said he expected higher student voter turnout in this April's City Commission elections.
as public transportation, Saferide and bar ordinances.
Moore said he had received phone calls and letters each week from students concerned about city issues such
Jaimes said Daisy Hill and Jayhawker Towers residents could vote at Schwegeler Elementary School on Ousdahl Road instead.
"It's not cost-effective to have three people there for 14 hours with only 28 voters," she said.
He said he predicted that at least 500 students would vote at the fieldhouse site if the county kept it in operation.
Tom Moore, SLAB campus director, said he was angry about the county's decision. He said the fieldhouse polling site should remain open because it was convenient for many students.
"The county's decision is sending the signal that local officials do not want students to vote," Moore said. "We need to create a system that makes it easier for students to vote in local elections."
Moore said he planned to contact the Secretary of State's office about the
issue. He said SLAB would be able to get volunteer staff and funds to keep the site open if necessary.
Moore said he also planned to propose an at-large polling site at Wescoe Beach for coming years.
Tina Terry, Topeka junior and Naismith Hall resident, said she planned to vote in the City Commission elections. She said she would use the fieldhouse site if it remained open.
"It would be a good place to go to vote. It's close," Terry said.
Night patrol
Officer Richard Johnston cruises the streets of Lawrence during a night patrol. Johnston stopped more than seven cars and arrested one drunk driver during his Saturday night shift. While most drivers that are stopped by KU Public Safety officers aren't intoxicated, a few are. Photo by Erin McElhinney/KANSAN
See an average night in the life of a KU Public Safety officer on page 8A.
Board opts to merge bus routes
Half-hour pick-ups shorter rides expected
By Nadia Mustafa
Kansan staff writer
Students who ride the Sixth Street bus routes will be spending less time on the bus next fall.
The Student Senate Transportation Board has decided to combine the two bus routes that serve Sixth Street.
One of the results of the route changes will be shorter bus rides and pick-ups every half hour instead of every hour because both buses will be serving the same route.
The transportation board made its decision two weeks ago.
Maria Candia, Paraguay sophomore, sometimes has to wait on campus for more than an hour, she said, because she does not have enough time to go home.
"I don't like it when they pick me up every hour," Candia said. "I think it work much better every half an hour." Nicole Skalla, transportation coordinator, said the West Sixth Street route did not serve many apartment complexes and did not have many riders.
"It is the most inefficient route," she said. "We're trying to make the route more efficient."
The West Sixth Street route now extends to Eldridge Road. The board decided to cut off the route at Frontier Road. It will still serve the Boardwalk and Sunrise apartment complexes, but not Eagle apartment complex.
The Sixth Street and Crestline Road route will be extended to Frontier Road. Both routes will run through Highpointe apartment complex and Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall.
Skalla said that the disadvantage to the route changes was that students who lived beyond Frontier Road would no longer have bus service.
Skalla said the board did not want to continue extending routes further west because it was inefficient. She said she thought most students who lived in that area owned vehicles, so they could use the Park and Ride system.
The board also decided to include a stop
BUS ROUTE CHANGES
The Student Senate Transportation Board decided to combine the two bus routes that serve Sixth Street.
The Sixth Street bus will no longer go past Frontier Road.
A new stop at Haskell Indian Nations University was added for the East Lawrence route
The changes go into effect next fall.
at Haskell Indian Nations University on the East Lawrence route. The route now runs down 23rd Street but does not stop at Haskell because of the heavy traffic.
Skalla said creating a bus route to Super Target was no longer a possibility. She said it would be too expensive and impractical.
She said the board will be discussing the improvement of bus service to East Lawrence on 14th, 15th, New Hampshire and Rhode Island streets.
The downtown route now goes only to 11th and New Hampshire streets, and the East Lawrence route goes only to 19th Street.
Journal editor accepts KU award
Kansan staff writer
By Chris Hopkins
Albert R. Hunt, executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal, was awarded the 50th annual National Citation Award of the William Allen White Foundation.
"A look at the other recipients is awe-inspiring and more than a little humbling," Hunt said during his acceptance speech.
During Hunt's stay at the University of Kansas, he spoke on a panel that discussed media sensationalism, spoke with students in a political science class and met members of KU student media before he accepted the award Friday at the Kansas Union Ballroom.
Hunt followed in the footsteps of past winners such as: Bill Kurtis, David S. Broder, Bernard Shaw, George F. Will, Charles Kuralt, Jim Lehrer, Robert MacNeil and Walter Cronkite.
Journalism school dean Jimmy Gentry, who presided at the ceremony, said Hunt had earned his place among those names.
The award was named for William Allen White, who was the editor of The Emporia Gazette during the first half of the century.
White won a Pulitzer in 1923 for an editorial he wrote for the Gazette. The KU school of journalism is named for White.
Before the award ceremony, Hunt had the chance to speak in Burdett Loomis' Legislatures in the United States class. Gerald Seib. Hunt's colleague at The Wall Street Journal, joined him.
Tesia Hostetler, Topeka senior, said
See Hunt on page 2A
Albert R. Hunt, executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal, speaks on a panel discussing sensationalism in the media. Hunt was awarded the 50th annual National Citation Award of the William Allen White Foundation. Photo by Christine Neff/KANSAN
Grant to finance campaign to reduce binge drinking
By Kristi Reimer
Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas has received $450,000 from the Kansas Health Foundation to launch a media campaign that has been shown to reduce binge drinking on other college campuses, University officials said.
The program will replicate a model developed at Northern Illinois University, said Associate Provost Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, who will direct the project at the University. Most of the money will be spent on advertisements illustrating that heavy drinking is not normal.
the normative behavior."
"While students may think everyone is involved in binge drinking, the reality is that most of them aren't," McCluskey-Fawcett said. "The goal is to publicize
The University will work with Michael P. Haines, who developed the program at Northern Illinois University.
The University will buy ads in The University Daily Kansan and on television and radio stations, place them on buses and hand out literature at events such as New Student Orientation, she said.
McCluskey-Fawcett said the campaign did not take a punitive tone or rely on scare tactics.
"This is the opposite of 'This is your brain on drugs,' she said. "This presents the data of the reality of what people are doing."
While binge drinking rates on college campuses have held steady nationwide, Northern Illinois University's binge drinking has dropped by 35 percent since
"While students may think everyone is involved in binge drinking,the reality is that most of them aren't. The goal is to publicize the normative behavior."
Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett
Associate Provost
the program was introduced,
according to the NIU Web site.
Arizona University also has had
success with the program,
McCluskey-Fawcett said.
An October 1998 survey conducted by the University and Haskell found that 58 percent of KU students had engaged in binge drinking in the past two weeks.
A full-time facilitator will be hired to handle the project, and the Office of University Relations, the School of Fine Arts and the School of Journalism also will participate.
"This is all about educating our young people so they can make smart and safe decisions about alcohol," Chancellor Robert Hemenway said in a statement.
The University applied for the grant as part of a joint community effort with Haskell and Lawrence to prevent alcohol abuse.
Kevin Yoder, student body pres
"That was the kind of message I tried to convey to the committee," Yoder said. "It doesn't matter if an 18-year-old has a beer, just like it doesn't matter if a 30-year-old has a beer. What does matter is if he'd drinks so much he goes out and has a wreck or has to drop out of school."
ident, was a member of the Joint City-Universities Task Force on Alcohol Abuse Prevention that in January issued a set of 18 recommendations to curb alcohol abuse. He said the NIU model was the right approach because it did not focus on underage drinking.
"There's nothing wrong with
Yoder said he agreed with the basic premise of the campaign that some people drink but not everyone gets extremely drunk regularly.
The Kansas Health Foundation is a private organization based in Wichita. Its mission is to improve the overall health of Kansans.
drinking, but there is something wrong with abusive drinking," he said.
"We're concerned about the health-related issues that might result from drinking," said Mary Campuzano, vice president for programs at the foundation. "Most typically in young people college-age, we're talking about car accidents, and there have been national incidents reported of alcohol poisoning."
The $450,000 grant will be spent during 41/2 years and is part of a $1.5 million statewide campaign that also will include Fort Hays State University and two other colleges.