TODAY'S WEATHER: Afternoon sun with a high of 60. SPORTS: Softball begins Big 12 Conference tournament tonight.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
TALK TO US: Contact Leita Walker, Jay Krall or Kyle Ramsey at (785) 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
THURSDAY MAY 2, 2002
WWW.KANSAN.COM
ISSUE 143 VOLUME 112
Students shaky about going home to war, violent acts
By Leah Shaffer Kansan staff writer
"I can't afford getting stuck there with the situation," she said. "It's just going to be very risky."
For some international students, going home for the summer can mean returning to countries where violence occurs almost daily. Those students are faced with the dilemma of wanting to see their families yet not wanting to put themselves in danger.
Abujabr said she worried constantly about her parents and sisters who live in the area. She said her sister's house was close to an Israeli settlement and would often get shelled.
Raja Abujabr, a graduate teaching assistant from Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip in Israel, said she would be unable to return to there this summer because there would be no guarantee she would get out. Because of Israeli checkpoints, it is very hard to travel anywhere in the area and the borders are tightly sealed. Last night, Israel ended its five-month confinement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and pulled out of his compound in Ramallah.
"I wake up every morning wondering if they are alive or dead," she said.
In Venezuela, recent political turmoil worries Christina Medina, Maracay, Venezuela sophomore.
"It's a disaster. I'm not very sure if I'll be able to go home," she said.
Venezuela has been in economic turmoil since April 12 when a political coup ousted President Hugo Chavez and an installed an interim government of conservative politicians. The interim government shut down many of the Chavez reforms that would out land to peasants. However, two days later, thousands of protesters swept Chavez back into power, much to the dismay of wealthier classes who thought his laws would wreck the already fragile economy. But thousands of Venezuelans marched against President Hugo Chavez yesterday, the first opposition demonstrations since bloody street fighting and a failed coup three weeks ago.
Medina said she hoped to return home for the summer but she feared the situation would only get worse. Medina said she was very homesick, but didn't want to enter the country if violence erupted. The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Venezuela on April 16. The warning discourages travel to the country because of the unstable situation there.
Joe Potts, director of International Student Services, said students came to his office for help with these problems.
"I think I have to watch the news and see if I can go." Medina said.
Potts said the most common concerns for students were finances and housing for the summer if they stayed in the United States. He said that if there was economic turmoil in a country, the students' parents might be unable to support them if they remained in the United States.
OLIVIA SARI/KANSAN
HOME CONTINUED ON PAGE 9A
"We have to help them to manage their money and find sources of income," Potts said.
He said that another concern for students would be renewing their visas while in their home country. If that country is going through violent shake-ups, they
Christina Medina, Maracay,Venezuela sophomore is one of the many International students worried about being able to go home to their countries for the summer.
The Feminine Physique
Female athletes at the University of Kansas struggle to find a balance between bodies that can compete and bodies that match society's ideal
Story by Ali Brox Photos by Sara Shepherd
The muscles in Lauren Royall's back bulge as she strains for another pull-up. A junior rower at the University of Kansas, Royall lifts weights at 6 a.m. every Monday and Wednesday. She practices 20 hours a week, some on the technical aspects to rowing. She spends most of that time p her body for a 2,000-meter sprint on the water. The workouts have produced lasting effects.
Her shoulders become a little broader with each pull-up; her back more ripped with each stroke of the oar: enviable traits that have helped propel Royall into the first varsity-eight boat. But on Friday night, the jeans fit a little tighter in the thighs and the little black dress doesn't quite accommodate her shoulders.
"My shoulders are abnormally large." says Kansas swimmer Gwen Haley. "Clothes don't fit me right."
Like Royall and Haley, many Kansas female athletes
face a body image tug of war everyday.
Lauren Royall, junior rower, performs squat lifts at morning weight training. Royall says she feels buff after a workout but questions her appearance at home in front of the mirror. "When I go to try on that dress, and my back and my shoulders won't fit into it, I'm like 'Dang it,'" she said. "It's just stuff like that, the clothes not fitting."
See a body image tag or wall everywhere.
From a very young age, the images bombard women. A beautiful woman should look like Barbie, Buffy, Britney. Unfortunately, that ideal feminine body is downright unproductive for many female athletes.
"It becomes even more complicated for women athletes because they get such conflicting images," said Sharon Sullivan, graduate student who teaches a course called Images of Women in Popular Culture.
"They need to be strong for their sport and yet, there's repercussions — physical repercussions — to the exercise and kind of activities they do that affect the way their bodies look. They kind of get a double whammy there."
Royall experiences those whammies first hand. She swears there's a difference between the mirror in the weight room and the one in her sorority house. She feels buff after doing pull-ups at practice and is proud of her big shoulders.
"But then, when I go try on that dress, and my back and my shoulders won't fit into it. I'm like 'Dang it!'"
Royal said. "And then, what's totally annoying is, when your back and shoulders do fit into it, then it's too loose on your waist and then your highs are back to
being huge again. It's just stuff like that, the clothes not fitting. The hard bodies of female athletes aren't the ones on the covers of fashion magazines. Rowing coach Rob Catloth said the optimum body type for a collegiate rower was quite different than what society had deemed ideal for women.
ety had deemed ideal for women.
"The average size of our team is 5'9" to 5'10". I'd say 160 to 175 pounds, "Catloth said. 'So those women are not going to fit the body image you see in *Glamour* magazine.'"
True, but those women can also row a grueling mile-and-a-quarter race at a dead sprint.
"If you're 5'10", 185, and that's your body type, and you can go row 20 miles in a day, and do the workouts we do everyday, then how do you consider yourself as not in shape?" Catloth asked. "You're doing basically all you can with your body."
Some women still push their bodies to both extremes. With the amount of calories a university athlete can burn during one practice, the decision not to eat enough calories and lose some weight can be tempting.
Kristen Reynolds, a sophomore rower, said Catloth was aware of the temptation facing his rowers not to eat enough.
"Rob always reminds us, especially on winter training and spring training trips where we're practicing twice a day. He reminds us just to eat because we need energy because we've been practicing so much." Reynolds said. "We've been burning so many calories that it's important that we get enough food in our system. Because, if not, you just won't survive the workouts."
Royall agreed that Catloth watched the team members' eating habits.
"There have been girls who aren't eating." Royall said. "And he'll get onto them." Catloth isn't the only person concerned about the athletes' eating habits. Royall said her mom worried, also.
"Every time she sees me she says, 'Be sure you're eating enough,'" Royall said. Trying to maintain femininity while constantly building muscle to make their bodies perform at the highest level is a constant conflict for female athletes. Andrea Branson, a five-time All-American pole-vaulter who is no longer competing, can remember how she how surprised she was when a male coach's comments about another pole-vaulter at a track meet questioned the woman's sexuality.
Branson described the other pole-vaulter as a very muscular woman who, from the back, could have been mistaken for a man. The coach said if he were a woman who looked like that, he would wear his hair a little longer and would put on some makeup.
Branson couldn't believe what she was hearing. The comment angered her. She asked herself. How was having longer hair and wearing makeup going to help an athlete compete any better?
SEE BODY IMAGE ON PAGE 8A
Insurance costly but worth it. students and officials say
By Melissa Shuman Kansan staff writer
Students graduating in a few weeks will face the challenge and expense of purchasing health insurance or risk paying thousands of dollars out of pocket if injured.
Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Watkins Memorial Health Center and the Kansas Insurance Department all agree that having enough medical coverage can prevent financial disaster.
Jennifer Bottger hasn't had to use the benefits of her health insurance yet, but she knows she needs it in case something happens to her.
Botter, Belleville senior, plans to graduate in May and has her own health insurance plan ready. She is a 22-year-old on an individual plan called Blue Choice from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas.
"My mom keeps telling me the $117.31 a month is worth it," she said.
Bottger's parents pay her monthly premium. They found they could save $300 a month if they bought their daughter an individual plan. Her father is retired, so he qualifies for health insurance from Medicare,
and her mother gets insurance through her emolyer.
Bottger and her parents looked for several different plans when shopping for insurance. She said the insurance plan from MEGA Life and Health offered through the University didn't have the type of coverage she was looking for.
"We looked at the KU plan, but the Blue Cross and Blue Shield had better coverage for what I needed," she said.
By "better coverage," Bottger means her insurance plan covers more of her health care costs. Her plan also continues after graduation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans spend more than $1.3 trillion each year on health care. Yet in the year 2000, 38.7 million Americans did not have health insurance. More than 7 million of those were 18 to 24 years old. Steve O'Neil, consumer assistant representative for the Kansas Insurance Department, said many people didn't realize the need for health insurance even though they could afford it.
Sue McKelvey, assistant business office
SEE INSURANCE ON PAGE 9A
READING IN THE RAIN
OLIVIA SARI/KANSAN
Michelle Sudyka, Omaha, Neb. Sophomore, leafs through a damp book at the sidewalk sale outside the Kansas Union. The KU Bookstore sidewalk sale yesterday sold such goods as textbooks, Final Four clothing and school supplies.
1
9
1
---
1