10A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY,APRIL3,2003
Hide-and-seek stresses agenda issue Senators approve Saferide increases
By Cate Batchelder
cbatchelder@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Courtney Kuhlen/Kansan
Last night, hide-and-seek became more than a ragtag game of neighborhood kids bored on a summer night.
The boundaries of the Delta Force hide-and-seek game are defined for the group congregated on Wescoe Beach. The game was organized to bring awareness to the need for more safety lights on campus.
Delta Force freshmen and sophomore candidates organized the event to emphasize one of its platform topics: campus safety.
"It's just to highlight the lack of lighting on campus and to see how many spots there are to hide," said Christine Moses, Topeka freshman and a Delta Force organizer.
Delta Force put campus safety on its agenda because of the results from a survey released by the KU Task Force on Women's Needs.
Forty-seven percent of KU female students who took the survey said they avoided taking classes at night because they thought campus was unsafe.
"Lighting alone doesn't necessarily solve the problem," Moses said.
In response, Delta Force plans to make sure sidewalks are kept visible and add more lighting and blue lights, which provide immediate contact to the KU Public Safety Office at the touch of a red button.
She said blue lights were a big concern because attackers could still assault, even with better lighting.
"We need resources to help prevent that," she said.
Andy Knopp, chairman of the Campus Safety Advisory Board, said he had worked with the board to fund more than $90,000 in lighting projects on campus
this year, including four blue lights. After the safety board collected more than
1,000 student surveys during Campus Safety Week last December. Knopp said the results showed that blue lighting was not as high a priority.
"Generally students feel safe, and the students who do not feel safe are a smaller minority who would be better served for by the "Jaywalk" service." said Knopp, Manhattan junior who is running for student body president with KUnited.
"Jaywalk," a KUnited platform
idea, is a volunteer service that would walk students home at night from libraries or tests.
Drew Thomas, Delta Force presidential candidate, said adding more blue lights would help make student-living areas safer.
He said it would be useful to have blue lights on campus, but the ultimate problem still existed of bridging the gap between where off-campus ends and on-campus begins.
Besides placing blue lights on campus, Delta Force wants to target gray areas such as the Lied Center parking lot, the walk from Memorial Stadium to GSP-Corbin Hall and the area between JRP Hall and the nearby residential areas.
But for the sake of the game last
night, the organizers limited the playing field to the triangular parameters set by Wescoe Hall, Fraser Hall and Spencer Research Library.
Ryan Mills, Fort Scott sophomore, is a Delta Force candidate for engineering senator who helped organized the event. He said before the game that he hadn't scouted out his hiding spot yet but was sure spots were everywhere.
Moses said she had heree on a spot underneath the Wescoe steps.
"It's like being a kid again," she said. "It been how many years since I played?"
- Edited by Julie Jantzer
Explosion causes 'total war' on terrorism
The Associated Press
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine president ordered a "total war" on terrorists after a bomb exploded yesterday near a bustling wharf in the southern port of Davao, killing at least 16 people, including two children.
Forty people were injured in the blast, the second in Davao in less than a month. The death toll would have been higher if the nation was not already on high alert for terror acts, officials said.
The government said it was looking for similarities to a March 4 blast that was blamed on a Muslim rebel group. That bombing killed 21 people, including an American missionary, at the city's international airport. Three Americans were wounded.
That Muslim group, the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF, condemned yesterday's bombing and denied
responsibility for the previous one.
Violence continued early today in Davao when gunmen lobbed two grenades and used a machine gun to strafe a Davao mosque, police said. There were no casualties or damage.
Davao is a predominantly Roman Catholic city on southern Mindanao island, home to a decades-old Muslim insurgency that has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months, including dozens in bombings and ambushes.
The attacks come at a time of debate over the mandate of U.S. troops in the war on terror in the Phillippines, where Muslim insurgents have battled the government for decades. Although President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is one of Washington's biggest supporters in the war on terrorism, she has ruled out a combat role for American soldiers.
Arroyo planned to go ahead with a scheduled visit to Davao on today. But she said the city was "in a state of lawless violence" and she would order the military to help police crack down on "lawless elements and terrorists."
With a ship getting ready to leave, the area outside the wharf's gates — where passengers can catch public transport or eat at a row of food stalls — was teeming with people when the bomb exploded at about 7 p.m., blasting a shallow crater along the highway in the city's Sasa district.
Farewells turned to cries of pain and anguish. Health official Dolores Castillo said many victims were vendors and children. A Roman Catholic nun who just arrived on a boat was killed as she sat in the back of a car stalled in traffic while leaving the wharf. Another nun and the driver were injured, witnesses said.
van about 100 yards from the site when the bomb went off.
Larry Laura, 39, was drivino
Police chief Supt. Isidro Lapena said initial investigations indicated the bomb was stashed in a barbecue food stall.
"I ... saw people shocked, speechless, crying and just watching bodies scattered on the ground a few seconds after the blast," he said.
"We think the security at the pier worked because the attackers were not able to bring the explosive inside," Lapena said.
Arroyo, who chastised officials at Manila's international airport and largest mall for lax security during surprise visits last week, went on radio to urge vigilance.
"We must not be intimidated," she said. "The police and the military alone cannot do the job. This is a total war requiring the full attention and resources of the entire community.
By Henry C. Jackson
cjjackson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Finding a ride home at night may be a bit easier for students now, but it will cost them.
Student Senate last night
Student so approved a bill that will increase the number of cars in the Saferide program by three and will frowm.
and will, for the first time, add a summer program.
The additions to Saferide will increase student fees by $2, but students will not have to pay the increase until after the proposal clears the Board of Regents.
"We realize there's a huge demand for Saferide," Aaron Jacobs, off-campus senator said. "Students need to have a safe way home. We feel by expanding Saferide more students will use it."
The new cars will be used to meet increased demand on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. The summer program, which will be started on a trial basis, will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Last night's bill also approved an increase in funding for Saferide advertising.
Last night's bill was a longstanding project for the Transportation Board, Eric Braun, transportation chairman and a co-author of the bill, said.
"I felt strongly enough about this that I've been working on it for two years." Braum said.
Braun, St. Louis senior, said the Transportation Board was initially concerned about the increase in student fees. A survey in Fall 2002 changed his mind. The informal poll showed that 80 percent of students would approve of a $2 to $3 increase in student fees if it went toward expanding the Saferide program.
David Mitchell, graduate senator, said though the bill's increase in student fees raised concerns, decreasing drunken driving took precedence.
STUDENT SENATE
Student Senate approved
What happened:
expansions to the Saferide
program, including
program, including Three new cars
A summer program on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights
Increased advertising for the program
What it means:
A $2 increase in student fees after approval from the Board of Regents
"Anything Student Senate can sponsor to decrease drunk driving is a welcome step." Mitchell said. "All the student deaths related to drunk driving at KU that I can remember could have been prevented by a call to Saferide."
Last night's bill passed nearly unanimously, with only one nay vote and minimal debate. Michael Roessler, graduate senator, said he voted against the bill because he was concerned about the increase in student fees.
"I guess I wasn't adequately satisfied that summer usage was worthwhile," he said. "I wasn't adamantly against the bill, but I wasn't sufficiently convinced that the bill was necessary in light the tuition increase and other fee increases."
Mitchell said although he voted for the bill, he would have liked more discussion of the bill.
"Anytime you increase fees it's always an issue." Mitchell said. "I think Senate weighed it heavily, but it might have been better to see more debate."
"This is just one step, it's not the end game," Jacobs said.
Jacobs said last night's bill would be the starting point for any further increases in the Saferide program.
Further additions to Saferide won't be seen until after the effects of the new cars, increased advertising and summer program could be gauged, Jacobs said.
Edited by Andrew Ward
Robinson arraigned on more charges
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. Serial killer John E. Robinson Sr., already sentenced to death in Kansas, was arraigned Tuesday in Missouri on charges of killing two women and a teenage girl.
Robinson, 59, sat silently through his first appearance in Cass County Circuit Court as Associate Circuit Judge William
Collins entered "innocent" pleas for murder, fraud and forgery. Collins also scheduled a preliminary hearing May 14 for Robinson.
Prosecutors have the option of presenting the case to a grand jury instead of holding the preliminary hearing, Cass County Prosecutor Chris Koster said.
The Associated Press
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