THURSDAY APRIL 14,2005
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3B
ture to
Cross
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
Out of all the papers that subscribe to Alom's columns, the first to catch it was the Duluth News Tribune in Minnesota.
Copy editor Nikki Overfelt, a KU graduate, read the story and changed the wording.
In the journalism school, we're all proud of Overfelt. She did her job.
Other editors did not, and Albom did not.
Too often, quality reporters can become untouchable to editors.
Then the reporters get lazy.
Then the reporters get lazy. Jayson Blair got lazy when he plagiarized and invented sources.
Albom got lazy, but his transgressions are not in the same league as Blair's.
Albom conducted interviews and accurately reported what the sources told him. He just used the wrong tense.
Bob Steele, a writer for the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, wrote that Albom committed an "ethical sin" and that his column was deceptive.
"Sin" is a strong word; "assumption" is more accurate. Professional writers prewrite to meet deadlines, but it never should have left the paper until all the facts were checked.
The Free Press is investigating the errors.
Albom's work will not run during the investigation, and his punishment should end there.
Once the paper finds that it was the failure of several people all the way up the paper's chain of command — it should forgive Albom, and so should his readers.
Albom's erroneous column
is available online at
http://www.freep.com/sports/
album/mitch3_20050403.htm
His apology, which ran four days later, is at http://www.freep.com/sports/albom/mitch7e_20050407.htm.
♦ Cross is a Kansas City, Mo.
senior in journalism. He is
Kansan sports editor.
CREW
Fundraisers bring team closer together
Crew team spends time raising money, making friends
BY KRISTEN JARBOE
jkjarboe@ansan.com
KANSKAN SPORTWRITER
Wescoe Beach welcomed more than student senate campaigners last week. Passers-by found the KU crew team accompanied by the rowing machines it used for training.
The event was a cross between a promotion and a fundraiser for the team and was set up from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. The machines posed a challenge for students. One challenge was who could go the fastest for 500 meters. The winner was rewarded with a free T-shirt.
Last Saturday, crew was also set up on Ninth and Massachusetts streets to raise money and promote the club.
"We do a ton of fundraising," rower Loral O'Hara, Sugar Land, Texas, senior, said. "The majority of our funding is self-raised."
Extracurricular activities and travel have created a close-knit group.
Each member has to pay an up-front cost of $120 per semester. Costs include facilities, travel expenses, or maintenance and a suit — which is about $75. Crew also has to purchase its boats, which cost around $18,000 each.
Additional fundraisers must exist for such big expenses. The team also does an Erg-a-Thon in the spring, where team members row a certain distance to earn money. This year, the team doubled its profits compared to previous years.
CREW SCHEDULE
Crew members also participated in a fundraiser called Renta-Rower. The KU faculty received e-mails from the team that asked if they need odd jobs completed, such as mowing lawns. Each member must complete eight
Crew has three regattas left this season.
Date
April 23
April 30
May 13-14
Place
Indianapolis
Topeka
Philadelphia
Event Indianapolis Invitational Great Plains Regatta Dad Vail Regatta
Source: Kansas crew club
"Fundraising is really important for us. It's a huge aspect of being on the team." Stephanie Patton Crew team member
hours of manual labor.
"It's a great way to get to know everyone," rower Stephanie Patton, Bellevue, Neb, senior, said. "It's also a good way for the novice rowers to meet the older rowers. Fundraising is really important for us. It's a huge aspect of being on the team." Patton is also team captain.
Crew also cleans Allen Fieldhouse after basketball games, sells Little Caesar's pizzas, and goes door-to-door to collect money. The team bonds through fundraising activities.
The team practices all year. The varsity team practices from 5:30 to 7 a.m. at least four times a week. In the winter, the team has to practice inside on rowing machines four times a week, from 6 to 7 a.m. The novice team practices from 4 to
6 p.m., five days a week.
She said she wanted to do cross country at Kansas because she did it in high school, but she decided to try crew first. As a freshman she made the semifinals in the national club championship in Philadelphia.
O'Hara, the president of the club's executive board, started out as a freshman.
Novice rower John Devins, Fairway junior and University Daily Kansan sportswriter, has enjoyed his experience. He started in the fall.
"It was a great experience," she said. "I was done with running and stuck on rowing at that point."
New challenges keep her coming back, she said. Now that she's president, she's involved with that challenge.
Joel Harvester, Newton junior, said he liked the transition from his high school sports of cross country and track to rowing.
ONLINE COURSES OR
"Rowing capitalizes on skills from other sports that you can bring," he said. "This sport shows you don't have to be the best, but you can be a part of the best. It combines good athletes, all working as hard as you are. You have to keep your end of the bargain in the boat, working through the pain and never giving up."
Edited by Jennifer Voldness
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