Volume 124 Issue 99
Friday, February 17, 2012
kansan.com
INTERNAL AFFAIRS
TICKET SCANDAL RETURNS
RACHEL SALYER rsalyer@kansan.com
The city announced Thursday two Lawrence police officers have been suspended after the Lawrence Police Department discovered speeding tickets had been dismissed in exchange for men's basketball tickets.
The announcement is a part of an earlier ticket scandal in which
seven former employees of Kansas Athletic Inc. were charged after illegally selling and profiting off of $1 to $2 million in football and men's basketball tickets. Mayor Aron Cromwell confirmed the suspension is because of the ticket finding. The person whose speeding tickets were dismissed and the one giving the basketball tickets is currently serving time in prison because of the University's
earlier case. Cromwell did not name the officers or former employee.
Cromwell said one officer had been suspended for the acceptance of the basketball tickets. Another officer was also suspended for not being forthcoming when the details started to emerge. He also said the exchange was not a one-time occurrence and happened over an extended period of time.
According to a report conducted by Foulson SieKin, a Wichita law firm, at least 17,609 men's basketball game tickets and 2,181 football game tickets were sold in the scandal between 2005 and 2010, though the report estimated the illegal sales started before then.
"It is unfortunate this issue has resurfaced," said Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, "but we really don't know anything new
about this aspect of the case. KU Athletics and the University have really moved on."
Marchiony said the University put measures in place to ensure illegal ticket distribution could not recur from new technology to new staff members.
Calls to the Lawrence Police Department Thursday were not returned.
Cromwell said despite the
TRACKING THE TICKET SCANDAL
"We have a hard community to police," Cromwell said. "I am proud of our chief and our officers. No one is perfect and we had someone make a bad decision and we took care of it as soon as we found out."
Edited by Nadia Imafidon
incident, he believes Lawrence has a strong police department.
May 2010
July 2010
University discovers athletic department employees illegally sold more than $1 million in basketball tickets, football tickets and parking passes since 2005.
March 7,2011
March 30,2011
April 14.2011
Federal prosecutors begin pressing charges against seven former employees for various offenses related to the ticket sales.
March 31, 2011
Jason Jeffries, former director of ticket operations, and Brandon Simmons, former assistant athletics director of sales and marketing, are both sentenced to two years probation.
Kassie Liebsch, former systems analyst in tickets office, is sentenced to 37 months in prison. She admits to personally receiving $100,000 in the scandal.
Rodney Jones, former head of the Williams Fund fundraising, is sentenced to 46 months in prison. Jones is ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution.
May 12, 2011
Tom Blubaugh, former Kansas Athletics contracted consultant, is sentenced to 46 months in prison and order to pay more $1 million in restitution to Kansas Athletics and the IRS.
Charlette Blubaugh, wite of Tom Blubaugh and former athletics director for ticket operations, is sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $2.65 million in restitution.
Ben Kirkland, former associate athletics director of development, is sentenced to 57 months in prison. Kirkland made more than $300,000 in the scandal according to prosecutors.
THEATER
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
Nick Kellum and Elaina Smith, and Joseph Carr and Margaret Hanklick dance together during the season premiere of Musical Theatre for Kansas Thursday night as a part of the two-show performance The Undergraduate Projects. The show continues tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the William Inge Memorial Theater in Murphy Hall.
Student directs show at University Theatre
KELSEY CIPOLLA
kcipolla@kansan.com
"You get a minimal budget, a minimal set so that it's only about your acting and your directing," Lufkin said. "This is supposed to be about the students that you're directing and what you can get out of them as far as your acting ability."
A limited budget, a month of rehearsal and a cast and crew comprised completely of students could be a director's worst nightmare. For Jacci Lufkin, it was a dream come true.
Lukin was excited about the chance to direct a project since opportunities for aspiring theater directors are often limited. But being in charge of the show isn't easy. Her first task was choosing a one-act play that could be successfully staged with the available
This year Lufkin, a junior from Melbourne, Fla, was the one student selected by the University Theatre Department to direct a one-act play.
She chose Tennessee Williams's "Auto-Da-Fe." Set on a porch in 1930s New Orleans, the story focuses on a mother soliciting gossip from her son, who is struggling with a secret. Lukfin was drawn to the one-act play because of its emotional intensity, but also because it required little set design.
resources.
The length of the show also allowed Lukfin and her actors, Julie Miller, a senior from Hutchinson, an! Alex Roschitz, a junior from Kansas City, Kan., to develop both the comedy and drama of the play. Roschitz said that being a part of a two person cast was something he had never done before, but it gave him an opportunity to explore his character and play off of Miller. Working with a student director instead of a professor or an outside director was also something new.
"It's so raw; it's so easy without anything else," Lufkin said. "You could do this in a park. You could do this in a stairwell."
"It's a totally different experience from anything I've had," Roschitz
After "Auto-da-fe," the recently formed group, Musical Theatre for Kansas, will perform a thirty-minute musical love story. Gil Perez-Abraham, a junior from Wichita, said the group members, like Lufkin, were excited to have a chance to show off skills that aren't always showcased in the theater department.
said. "It was just really easy for us to find compromises, to give new ideas to each other. It was never personal. Decisions were never I'm right, you're wrong."
"It's so unique for a university to have this kind of opportunity for the students, just to have the group and the performance opportunities." Perez-Abraham said.
The second performance is tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the William Inge Memorial Theatre in Murphy Hall. Tickets are available on the University Theatre website.
Edited by Anna Allen
CAMPUS GROUPS
From left to right: Vickie Blanco, a senior from Overland Park, Hattie Balford, a junior from England, Zach Phillips, a senior from Olathe and Jordan Boyd, a senior from Topeka, run toward the center line for a ball during the prison-ball tournament at the Amber Student Recreation Center Wednesday night.
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
Cash prizes awarded by SUA in brutal Rec Center contest
VIRAJ AMIN
vamin@kansan.com
Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. The five essential rules of dodgeball were in full force Wednesday night at the Ambler Student Recreation Center.
Student Union Activities hosted a dodgeball tournament that consisted of 10 teams, and each team had seven players with at least three women on the team. The tournament started out as double-elimination, which means a team must lose twice to be eliminated from the tournament. After half the teams were eliminated, the tournament switched to a roundrobin format where all five teams played each other once. The teams with the two best records would face off in a best two out of three series.
The tournament used prison ball rules, which differ slightly from regular dodgeball rules. If you are hit anywhere on the body, including your face or head, you're out. The ball is live until it touches a ceiling, a wall or floors. This means a ball is still live if it bounces off a player, which is different from normal dodgeball, where a ball is only live if it has not touched anything.
When you're hit you go to "prison",
which is located on the opposing
team's baseline. You can get back in the game if a teammate throws you the ball and you catch it behind the opposing team's baseline. In dodgeball's normal rules, if you are hit by a ball, you are out for the remainder of the game.
DAKOTA STRANGE
SUA Spirit Coordinator
"Whether it's dodgeball or something else, we would like to see this continue to help student organizations who have smaller budgets."
Another unique characteristic
Dakota Strange, spirit coordinator in SUA, was happy to see a student organization win first place. The tournament was originally exclusive for student organizations, but because of the lack of teams, SUA opened it up to all students.
Strange said SUA held this tournament to benefit student organizations and to help with its budgets. He also hopes to make this an annual event.
of prison ball rules is the "shame ball", which is larger than the rest of the balls. If a teammate catches the shame ball while he or she is in prison, two teammates can get out of prison.
SUA opened the tournament up to all students, but it was geared more toward student organizations. The winning team received $225, and second place winners received $150.
"It was a good showing from student organizations, and we received a lot of positive feedback," Strange said. "We want to continue events like this in the future. Whether its dodgeball or something else, we would like to see this continue to help student organizations who have smaller budgets."
"We are holding a basketball tournament for the Boys and Girls Club," Marello said. "We are giving the kids free t-shirts, so the money will be put to good use."
The Sports Management Club captured first place and the $225,
Index CLASSIFIEDS 11 CRYPTOQUIPUS 4 SPORTS 12 CROSSWORD 4 OPINION 9 SUDOKU 14
after winning game three in the final series. Adam Mareello, a senior from Lenexa and member of the Sports Management Club team, said the money would be used to fund an event that the organization is hosting next week.
Edited by Corinfe,Westeman
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Today's Weather
Don't forget
To learn about "Our Dangerous Universe" with Washburn astronomy professor Brian Thomas at 7:30 p.m. in Malott Hall. Be careful out there.
Beautiful day with sunny skies and light winds between 5-10 mph
Good day to wash the "Trans Am."