Tuesday
April 29, 2003
Vol.113. Issue No.144
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Contact Kristi Henderson, Jenna
Goepfert or Justin Henning at
864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS A weekend on the road with the Kansas baseball team p.1B Josh Duran
SARS slows study abroad plans
By Nikki Overfelt
noverfelt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome is putting some students' study abroad plans on hold.
Todd Barrett, Hiawata senior, was planning on leaving for a three-week trip to Beijing on May 22, but the SARS outbreak has postponed his plans.
"It's kind of frustrating, but we also realize it's for our best interest," he said.
Barrett was scheduled to go with the Kansas Asia Scholars on a grant from the center for East Asian studies. The students going on the program plan to study
different aspects of the Chinese culture and then come back and educate others about their findings, Barrett said. His project would focus on hospice programs in China.
Depending on when the outbreak of SARS is under control in China, the group is looking at going during the last three weeks of the summer or over winter break, Barrett said. If neither of those options work out, two groups might go next summer.
Barrett is not the only one whose plans are on hold because of SARS.
The office of study abroad is postponing other summer programs, but not canceling any, said Susan Gunbeck
Tedesco, director of the office.
"We keep thinking the crisis will peak and then it'll be safe again," she said.
A School of Business program that was slated to go to Taiwan will be relocated to Germany.
One KU student who was scheduled to go to Beijing with a program through Columbia University will not be able to go because the program was canceled. Two other students scheduled to go to Beijing this summer are waiting to hear about their programs. Gronbeck-Tedesco said they would probably wait and go in the fall, but the situation was not finalized yet.
So far no KU students have had to
SYMPTOMS OF SARS
return home from programs because of SARS. Grombeck-Tedesco said.
- Fever greater than 100.4
- Overall feeling of discomfort
- Headache
"He's not in an area that has a lot of cases." she said.
The office has been talking to one student in Hong Kong about once a week, she said. Gronbeck-Tedesco said the student has asked to stay, and she thinks he will be able to finish his semester there.
- Mild respiratory symptoms
- Dry cough and trouble breathing after two to seven days
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Gronbeck-Tedesco said that she realized that students plan their academic lives around these trips, so the office is trying not to let SARS change the program too much.
"We're trying not to cancel unless we absolutely have to," she said.
Trickling
Edited by Leah Shaffer
Kelley Weiss/Kansan
Paul Kopecky, Des Moines junior, shows the two things he wants to balance in life - time and money. "It's not the money that drives me but the ability to have a true lifestyle, which is the control of both time and money," he said.
E-commerce generates money for KU student
By Danielie Hillix and Robert Perkins editor@kansan.com Special to the Kansan
Paul Kopecky will arrive in a Hummer stretch limousine to his graduation party in two years. He plans to invite everyone he knows to celebrate his simultaneous exit from college and the working world.
"I want 3,000 people at a big retirement, I mean graduation party," the Des Moines, Iowa junior said.
In fact, it will be a retirement party as well.
His extravagant celebration will be funded with the millions he expects to make through Quixtar, an e-commerce mall where a variety of products from computers to laundry detergent to vitamins are sold for what the company says are discounted prices.
Alticor, the company responsible for Amway, started Quixtar. A year and a half ago, Kopecky bought a multi-level marketing franchise from Quixtar. Now, instead of relying solely on the University of Kansas and his business degree, Kopecky plans to get both an education and a fortune from Quixtar.
"Success with Quixtar is determined on strictly ambition," Kopecky said. "Who can develop themselves into someone who can understand success principles and apply success principles. Because they're not taught at a university, I'll say that again. Success principles are not taught at a university."
Kopecky is one of the thousands of people who have bought into the multilevel marketing business craz and its promise of riches. More than 720,000 people joined Quixtar in 2001 with the thoughts of building their own fortune through the multilevel business plan.
Anyone can become an independent business owner, or IBO, through the Quixtar franchise. A one-time setup fee of $125 gives a member IBO status, as well as access to Quixtar's Web site.
"This is a business concept most people aren't familiar with," Kopecky said.
An IBO gets his first paycheck by purchasing items from this Web site themselves, Robin Luymes, manager
SEE TRICKLE ON PAGE 7A
Quixtar pricing offers little advantage
By Danielle Hillix and Robert Perkins editor@kansan.com Special to the Kansan
When making a sales pitch, Quixtar independent business owners, or IBOs, repeatedly mention that they receive discounts on items they buy through quixtar.com. They say that the $125 setup fee that an IBO pays can be quickly and easily recouped through the savings offered on the Web site
The Better Business Bureau says that Quixtar members can buy products at preferred pricing.
But a little research raises some big questions about Quixtar discounts.
IBO Carlos Borda, La Paz, Bolivia sophomore, allowed the Kansan to use his account to log on to the password-protected quixtar.com Web site. In the online mall, we chose three common items and looked up the prices on quixtar.com. The items we chose were an IBM ThinkPad computer, standard bathroom cleaner and Dr. Marten sandals. Note that no price included shipping and handling fees.
We wanted to see if the prices offered on quixtar.com were indeed lower than what an average shopper could get with a little bit of bargain hunting.
The computer was an IBM ThinkPad A31 2652 with a Mobil Intel Pentium 4
Processor, a CD-ROM drive, 20 gigabyte hard-drive, 128 megabytes of memory and Windows XP. Quixtar offered its IBOs the "discounted" price of $1.574.
We went to ibm.com and found the same computer retailing for $1,419. That's a difference of $155. Advantage: ibm.com.
Quixtar fared no better on the bathroom cleaner. The online mall offered the L.O.C.-brand Plus Bathroom Cleaner Starter Pack for $18.05. The kit includes a spray bottle and 16.9 ounces of concentrated cleaner, which when added to water makes 67.9 ounces of cleaner. This translates to approximately 27 cents per ounce of cleaner.
Quixtar touts its partnership with Dr. Martens on its Web site's front page. Quixtar IBOs can buy a pair of Dr. Marten's men's Fisherman sandals for $91.08.
The Web site drugstore.com charges $4.99 for 29.3 ounces of Lysol Basin, Tub, and Tile Cleaner, already mixed and packaged in a spray bottle. This translates to 17 cents per ounce of cleaner. Advantage:drugstore.com.
Or they could go to nordstrom.com and buy an identical pair for $89.95.
Advantage: nordstrom.com.
— Edited by Andrew Ward
Architecture Studio 804 burglarized over weekend
By JJ Hensley
jhensley@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
What he got was a bizarre foot chase after a suspected burglar that didn't end until officers caught up with Spainhour, a colleague and the suspect walking down the road.
Graduate architect Brian Spainhour was just looking to get to architecture Studio 804 early on Saturday morning to get work done before the other architecture students arrived.
Based on police reports and recollections of student workers at Studio 804, 1718 Atherton Court, here's what happened:
One or two young men broke into the house in East Lawrence designed and built by upperclass and graduate architecture students, sometime after 3 a.m.
SEE BURGLARIZED ON PAGE 8A
By Aaron Showalter and Mandalee Meisner
editor@kansan.com
Special to the Kansan
Legislation to peck out cockfighting
This time last year, Wayne Woody spent 10 hours a day caring for his 200 roosters. Now, only empty pens greet him in the morning on his property outside of Baldwin City.
Last summer, Woody, a 1954 graduate of the University of Kansas, gave away all of his chickens because he knew that impending laws would soon make his hobby, breeding roosters for fighting, pointless.
"Up until last year, the Legislature didn't see anything wrong with it," Woody said. "It's not just about chickens. People got to stop and figure out they're taking our freedoms away."
Next month, a federal law will take effect that prohibits the transport of roosters across state lines for the purposes of fighting. Although animal rights activists scored a major victory with the new anti-cockfighting legislation, breeders like Woody see it as a loss of a longstanding and cherished rural pastime.
Cockfighting has been illegal in Kansas since 1976, but some breeders
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SEE COCKFIGHTING ON PAGE 8A
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