Tuesday
February 4, 2003
Vol.113. Issue No.89
Today's weather
31°
Tonight: 18*
KANSAN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Tell us your news
Contact Kristi Henderson. Jenna Goepfert or Justin Henning at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
Jayhawks grab victory from Tigers' jaws; birthday boy, Lee, shines from bench p.1B
Commission votes on Title IX rule
University complies with athletic equality rules and standards
By Kevin Flaherty
kflaherty@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics voted Thursday on several proposals to fix problems with Title IX, which would change the way the office of civil rights determines if an institution is following the law. The University of
Kansas would comply with all of the new standards.
Title IX is a section of the Education Amendments of 1972 that was created to prohibit sex discrimination in educational programs, including intercollegiate athletics.
Janelle Martin, associate athletic director of compliance at the University, said the University had several ways of staying compliant with Title IX.
"We work with the coaches to make them aware of rules and regulations," Martin said. "Also, we have our chief
financial officer work with them to write budgets and we check on a monthly basis."
Martin said the University currently complied with Title IX to the best of its knowledge.
According to a press release issued by The Associated Press, the 15-person commission only looked at the athletics side of the amendments and recommended several changes to Rod Paige, Bush administration education secretary. It takes an act of Congress to fundamentally change the law, but Paige has the power to alter how compliance is
The advisory commission proposed to change a standard that allows schools to comply by having a male-female athlete ratio "substantially proportionate" to that institution's male-female enrollment.
measured.
According to a gender equity report released by the University of Kansas, enrollment is 48 percent male and 52 percent female. In athletics, 52 percent of all athletes are male and 48 percent are female.
One change would establish a number of roster spots on each team that count
toward Title IX compliance.
The current standard is counted by the actual number of athletes on a team. This can become a problem when a sport tries to attain an identical number of male and female athletes. If the sport attempts to find 20 male and 20 female athletes for the team and there are not enough women to fill the spots, the Office for Civil Rights may find an institution noncompliant.
Under the new rule, if the school made 20 roster spots available for both men
Rec center cars worry neighbors
SEE TITLE IX ON PAGE 5A
By JJ Hensley
jhensley@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas' new recreation center is a long-awaited addition for health-conscious students and faculty. But, the center's neighbors in University Place don't feel the same way.
In the neighborhood bordered roughly by campus and 19th Street, residents fear traffic from the center will only make a bad situation worse.
"We just want to make sure that the rec center isn't built so that to get there you'll have to drive through the streets of University Place, especially 18th Street," said Jonathan Earle, University Place Neighborhood Association vice president and assistant professor of history.
Those fears of traffic invading the University Place neighborhood should come as no surprise to anyone who has attempted to drive through the neighborhood following a basketball game, Earle said.
Even on a normal day, traffic through the neighborhood regularly exceeds city limitations for a residential zoned area. More than 2,100 cars crossed Illinois Street on 18th Street on a weekday in October 2000, according to a survey commissioned by the neighborhood association. David Woosley, city traffic engineer, said a limit of 1,000 cars per day was desirable for residential streets.
Though many students and faculty are expected to use the new center when it's scheduled to open in August. University officials say the facility shouldn't affect traffic through University Place in any way. Users of the center are expected to use lot 90, west of the construction, to access the building, said Bob Rombach, University project manager.
"There will be an increase in traffic, but we're expecting it to be foot traffic, Rombach said. "Basically it's not a driving-to facility, it's a walking-to facility."
Regardless of the facility's impact on traffic, University Place residents are prepared to ask the city's Traffic Safety Commission to install traffic-calming or diverting devices in the neighborhood. Those could range from speed bumps to single-lane access on certain streets.
"It has less to do with the rec center than it does with the general traffic flow in and out of the University on a daily basis," said Leslie Tuttle, neighborhood association vice president and assistant professor of history and Western Civilization.
Diverging traffic to 19th and Naismith streets would be the best overall solution, Tuttle said.
—Edited by Anne Mantey
Nate Vormehr, Lawrence resident, no longer writes his graffiti tag on public walls. After police caught him writing graffiti in February 2001, he has moved to writing legally in a friend's garage.
Graffiti writer tagged with fine
By Cate Batchelder
cbatchelder@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
For Nate Vormehr, a beautiful day called for writing graffiti.
The wind was a little brisk, it was early February, but still an awe-inspiring day to go down to the catwalks of the I-70 bridge over the Kansas River and paint a piece from his drawing book.
"I was out there painting and next thing I know, I got a cop on each side — both with their guns out," he said.
The police arrested Vormehr for his graffiti. He spent the night in jail. His father paid the $600 bail, but heavier fines followed. The then-19-year-old Lawrence native opted to pay a $2,000 diversion instead of receiving the felony. He was able to get a diversion because it was his first offense.
In court he said the prosecutors determined the square footage of the cement that was covered with graffiti at the catwalks. Vormehr said they blamed him for all of the graffiti to set an example.
As part of his punishment, Vormehr worked the summer of 2001 painting over graffiti on the bridge's foundation of 10-foot tall columns measuring 30 to 40 feet around. He said dragging ladders through the swampy jungles near the Kansas River was punishment enough.
"It was horrible. And that wasn't
In tomorrow's paper, part three of the five-part series highlights those who paint over and clean graffiti.
even the worst part," he said. "The worst part was I knew people who had done pieces up there. I knew who had done them and I was watching them be destroyed, basically."
Andrew Giessel, former graffiti writer and friend of Vormehr's, said the punishment was meant to break Vormehr's spirit. To paint over other
SEE GRAFFIT ON PAGE 5A
Former 'Real World' Powell talks hip-hop
By Henry C. Jackson
cjjackson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
For just a 35-year-old, former Real World cast member, journalist and paid speaker, Kevin Powell has been a lot of places.
"I feel like the Forrest Gump of popular culture." Powell says. "I end up in all these weird places — Real World, Vibe, BET, The Washington Post — talking to all kinds of people."
Last night, Powell helped kick off Black History Month at the University of Kansas with a speech at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. One topic covered in Powell's hour-long speech was the decline of hip-hop culture.
"The difference between hip-hop and music during the Civil Rights Movement was there people like John Coltrane naming songs 'Alabama'; Marvin Gaye writing songs like 'What's Going On'," Powell said. "We're right smack in the middle of the bling-bling generation. Hip-hop's never been a political movement."
Powell said the tendency of young hip-hop artists to live lavishly perpetuated miseducation.
"Am I supposed to be excited when I see rappers on Cribs?" Powell said. "They've got these wonderful houses, the only thing missing is the bookshelf."
Powell said the primary way to fix the problem with the hip-hop generation was education in black history. About 100 people, mostly African-Americans, attended Powell's speech, which was sponsored by the Black Student Union, Student Senate and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
One topic of Powell's speech was affirmative action.
"Affirmative action was created to right historical wrongs," Powell said. "People are manipulating history when they talk about reverse racism."
Barry Barnes, Lawrence resident, said Powell's perspective and wisdom was multi-generational.
"He was one of the first reporters to cover hip-hop, and I think that will mean a lot in the future," Barnes said. "I think it's important for younger people to see
Jared Scarea/Kansan
Kevin Powell, center, a freelance journalist and author, talks about the stereotypes of Black athletes with Black Student Union President Mark Dupree, Kansas City, Kan., junior, and Vice President C'Nea Hatches Valparaiso, Ind., sophomore. He is on a lecture tour this winter.
someone who knows hip-hop and is still educated. It moves people."
-Edited by Anne Mantev
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