THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 27,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Consumer issues from Zelda to fries
COMMON CENTS
This week seems like a prime time to do a "state of the union" consumer run-down. Here are bits and pieces of consumer issues, complaints and controversies in the news this month, as well as some that should be Americans' confidence plummet
The consumer confidence index dropped to its lowest point, 64.0, since 1993 this month. According to Tuesday's msnbc.com article "Consumer confidence crumbles," other factors are to blame include rising oil prices and a weak stock market.
In other words, we're in more trouble than when Clinton first took office, people wore hammer pants and slap bracelets, and Beavis asked for TP for his bunghole.
Consumer confidence is monitored by economists to determine spending trends and is a strong indicator of where the economy is headed.
Would the announcer be Carson Daly?
ESPN reported Monday that in the event of war, CBS may move March Madness coverage to
Nicole Roche
proche@kansan.com
cable networks such as MTV. VH1 or TNN. Let's all hope this information is relevant to KU fans if the time comes.
The Zelda lovers have it
Video game sales increased by 10 percent in 2002 to a total of $10.3 billion, according to USA Today. This is the second year video game sales have outnumbered box office sales, which brought in $9.3 billion last year. No word yet on the number of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome cases in 2002.
Where are the new card machines?
Although gold chip readers were supposed to be phased out in the last month, KU Card Program Coordinator Nancy Miles said the process was taking longer than expected.
Students will receive an e-mail when the transition is complete,
Miles said, which should happen around spring break.
Meanwhile, Coke has removed his card readers from machines, leaving changeless students up a creek — but never fear, copies can still be made with KUID cards.
Where are the new fries?
But John Munsterman, second assistant manager at McDonald's, 4911 W. Sixth St., said his restaurant had not made the transition to the new fries.
McDonald's announced in September it would switch to new, lower fat fries. A Sept. 2, 2002, msnbc.com article states, "All 13,000 domestic McDonald's restaurants will use the oil by next February."
"I haven't heard anything about it," Munsterman said.
Don't forget the pizza delivery man/woman
One reader posed the following question about my Feb. 13 tipping column: "What about pizza delivery boys? We always get stiffed."
For this I returned to tipping.org for a professional
opinion, which suggested $1 or $2 for short deliveries, $2 to $3 for longer distances and $5 or more for large deliveries. Of course, if you're having a pizza delivered in sub-zero, icy conditions, take mercy and offer a bit more than a buck.
Finally, unalienable rights for... cell phone users?
Yesterday's edition of USA Today stated that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) unveiled a cell phone user's bill of rights yesterday. The bill would ensure that customers could keep their cell number when switching companies and access pricing plan info from carriers.
Interestingly enough, however, nowhere does the bill ensure a cell phone user's right to talk loudly about his or her personal life in public places. Go figure.
Each week reporter Nicole Roché covers a different consumer issue. She is a Wichita senior in journalism.
Tutoring program to host study social
By Eddie Yang
eyang@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
study social.
Students Together Excelling in Education as Peers and Hawk Linkwill be sponsoring the Hawk Link Step Tutor Social at 7 tonight in the Kansas Union.
Belinda Hinojos, graduate teaching assistant and stEp coordinator, said the study social was the third it had hosted.
"It's a time in which we take a break from studying," she said.
Hinojos said there would be food, drinks and games at the
Before the study social there will be tutors available from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Multicultural Resource Center.
She said 55 students were involved with the free tutoring program offered.
The program is designed to provide academic tutoring as well as mentoring for first-year students of color.
Hinojos said tutors could help students in Spanish, math, English and some of the sciences.
According to the Hawk Link Web site, the program is in its
fourth year to recruit and retain students of color. It was one of three retention programs recognized nationwide with the Retention Excellence Award at the National Conference on Student Retention in Washington last year.
Hawk Link collaborates with a number of services across the KU campus, including the Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center, the Office of Admissions and Scholarships and the Office of Student Financial Aid to recruit and retain minority students.
"If students have questions about enrollment or advising, we are able to point them in the right direction," he said.
Juan Izaguirre, assistant director of the multicultural resource
office, said about 200 students were involved with Hawk Link, which provides services to help students succeed in academics.
Izaguirre said tutors were normally available Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Students who want to meet with a tutor must go to the Multicultural Resource Office and fill out a request form.
Edited by Julie Jantzer
By Lauren Bristow
Ibristow@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
SUA puts forth effort to bring in speakers
Well-known speakers such as Ralph Nader, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Gloria Steinem have made visits to campus in past years, but students may not know the work that goes into bringing these speakers to the University of Kansas.
"What the committee generally does first is decide on a possible budget, and then we start brainstorming who we, as students, would like to see speak," said Quinn Gorges, SUA forums coordinator, co-chairman of the Student Lecture Series and Wichita senior.
"This year we decided to formulate a list of speakers that represented the diversity on campus," he said.
Student Union Activities and Student Senate have teamed up each year since 1992 to present the yearly Student Lecture Series. To begin planning the lecture, a committee made up of representatives from both organizations forms near the end of the fall semester to plan the event.
After deciding on a list of possible speakers the committee determines whether any of those speakers are available.
"We felt around to see who would be able to come," said Lauren Stewart, SUA vice president for University Relations and Wichita sophomore.
Following a past tradition of surveying campus organizations, this year the committee sent an e-mail to the organizations Listserv requesting them to choose three people from the
proposed list of 10 speakers they would like to see speak.
Top choices included film director Spike Lee, poet Maya Angelou and feminist-activist Gloria Steinem, Gorges said. Lee spoke in 1997, so the committee decided to try to secure a date for Mava Angelou.
"My main objective was to get a big name to campus that would pack the house," said Andy Wymore, co-chairman of the Student Lecture Series and Leawood junior.
The first step is to have the proposed budget approved by both groups before writing a contract for the speaker, Gorges said. The budget includes speaker fees, airport transportation, a dinner at the Union prior to the event, a small gift for the speaker, the Lied Center rental fee and a reception at the Lied Center after the speech.
The committee secured about $32,000 this year for Angelou's visit, but because of conflicting schedules, the group had to move on to its next choice — Steinem, Gorges said.
After speaking with Steinem's agent, the committee and Steinem signed a contract that secured the date of the speech. Steinem spoke Feb. 10 at the Lied Center.
"We had the most successful Student Lecture Series in close to five years." Wymore said. "Last year we had something like 400 attend, this year we had almost 1,900."
- Edited by Julie Jantzer
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