Wednesday, February 18, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Senate will debate merits of lowering drinking age
By Melissa Nga
mmgo@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Legislation to oppose the current drinking age and to eliminate the position of holdover senators will be main topics when Senate meets at 6:30 p.m. today at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union.
The resolution to oppose the drinking age passed Student Senate committees last week after much debate.
"The 21-year-old drinking age is completely arbitrary," said Sam Pierron, Liberal Arts and Sciences senator and one of the resolution's sponsors. "You have every other legal right at 18 — you can stand trial as an adult or be drafted, but you can't have a drink. There's no justifiable reason not to have the right to drink alcohol at 18."
Pierron said that he thought many of his constituents would support the resolution.
"One of the things that Senate is often accused of is being out of touch with the student body," he said. "This is our way of showing that we care about the issues that affect students."
Another bill proposed for tonight's meeting would eliminate the three holdover senator seats.
Holdover senators, who have the same responsibilities as other senators, also are elected to serve on University Council. Holdover senators are elected by the outgoing Student Senate
Jason Fizell, Liberal Arts and Sciences senator, said holdover senators should be eliminated because they did not have a constituency.
who is against the bill, said that holdover senators did have an identifiable constituency.
"Last year's senators represented the whole student body when they elected the holdover senators." Jones said. "All the senators this year, including holdovers, work to represent the interests of all students. The bill doesn't say how taking the positions away will better Senate. We should be looking at giving students more representation, not less."
Other legislation pending before Senate includes a bill to finance the University of Kansas Public Relations Student Society of America, a bill to fund the KU Hillel Foundation's Holocaust Remembrance Day Speaker Urbach and a bill to change Senate Rules and Regulations concerning the Student Health Advisory Board.
New SUA officers selected
By Marcelo Vilea
mvlela@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Student Union Activities selected new officers for the 1998- 1999 academic year Monday night.
There were four positions available president, vice president for membership development. vice president for University relations and vice president for alumni relations. One position was not filled. The officers were
Scott Selected as Student Union Activities president
selected based on applications and personal interviews.
Kielyn Scott, Wichita junior, was selected as the new SUA president. She currently coordinates SUA special events.
As president, Scott will administer a budget of nearly $500.000.
"I've been involved with SUA for
three years. I love it," Scott said.
"You do awesome things, meet so many people. I want to give something back to SUA because it did so much for me. If I could make it a good experience to somebody else, that would be great."
Scott said that her goals as president would be to focus on the continuing improvement of the organization, to create a sense of community for SUA and to attract a variety of committee members.
"I want to diversify SUA, getting a lot of organizations involved and doing events with SUA," Scott said. She said she did not plan to do anything extreme during her administration.
"Just a lot of little changes, small adjustments, so that SUA can serve students better," she said.
Brett Generaux, Kansas City, Kan., senior, was selected as vice president of membership development. Generaux, who has been involved with SUA for five years, is SUA's current spectrum films coordinator.
He said he had not had time to
devise big plans for recruitment development yet, but he wanted to increase involvement of faculty, student organizations and student body with SUA.
"I want to get more committee interaction," Generaux said. "I want to make it easier for students to get involved with SUA."
Jeff LaCroix, Olathe junior, currently a co-coordinator for the Center for Community Outreach's alternative spring break program, was selected as SUA's new vice president for University relations.
The position for vice president of alumni relations still is open. Michelle Dennard, Chapman senior and outgoing SUA president, said that the selections board would wait a couple weeks to select somebody for the position. Dennard said she was pleased with the new board of officers.
"All of them had different leadership roles on campus and showed real interest to work with SUA," Dennard said. "I was really impressed with all the candidates, and I think we have a great group of people in the board."
El Niño warms Lawrence winter
By Susie Gura
sgura@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The weather consequences of El Niño have caused the warmer weather and precipitation shortage in Lawrence.
Snow boots and scarves probably still are in the back of Lawrence residents' closets due to the warm weather and lack of snowfall in Kansas this winter.
During an El Niño winter, more precipitation and warmer weather was expected, said Nathan Higgins, Overland Park senior and KU weather lab employee.
The precipitation hasn't come through, he said.
The total snowfall since January has been 1.04 inches.
Donna Tucker, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, said that it was unclear why Kansas was having such a mild winter, but that it was fairly unusual.
"Kansas winters during El Niño are not always consistent," she said. "We don't always get warm winters. Some are warm and some cool."
Statistics for the 1997-98 winter have not been compared with others at this point because the statistics are taken for December, January and February. Generally, this winter has been warmer than normal, Tucker said.
Although this winter cannot be compared with last year's, it can be compared with other El Niño winters, she said.
This winter is a typical El Niño winter, Higgins said.
SPARSE SNOW
Lawrence has seen a lack of precipitation this winter.
**Snowfall in Kansas**
■ Jan. 1-Feb. 17: 1.04 inches
■ Fall 1979-present: 14 inches
El Niño is a disruption of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe.
He said that because Kansas farmers' crops were not yet planted, they would not be affected by the lack of snowfall.
January 1989 was near the peak of a strong El Niño year. The weather phenomenon is an exaggeration of the usual seasonal cycle and is considered the warm phase of the cycle.
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