CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, March 3, 1994
3
Death penalty elicits lively debate
Reaction to effect varies
By Roberta Johnson Kansan staff writer
Emotions, economics and history all influence the University community's reaction to the passage Tuesday of death penalty legislation by the Kansas Senate.
Phil Paludan, professor of history,
teaches courses on the history of the
U. S. Constitution. He said that more than 200 years ago, the creators of the Constitution did not object to the death penalty.
"The framers imagined a world with a death penalty," he said, "The Fifth Amendment says you cannot be deprived of life without due process. The converse says that if you use due process, you can deprive somebody of life, liberty and property."
Statistics show that African-Americans are more likely to be executed for a similar crime committed by a white person. Paludan said.
The problem arises in how much
you are bound to the Constitution of 1787 and how much your view is modified by the statistical influence," he said.
David Gottlieb, professor of law administration, said statistics showed that the death penalty would not deter violent crime.
"It's one of the worst things a state that's seriously concerned about reducing crime can do to itself," he said. "It doesn't reduce the level of crime."
Gottleib said that the installation of the death penalty would not save the Kansas Department of Corrections
William Arnold, associate professor of sociology, said that executions cost more, including lawyer's fees. He said the current 40-year sentence without parole was cheaper.
much money and would increase judicial costs.
Alberto Marquez, Wichita freshman,
said he didn't like the death penalty.
"We're wasting money," he said. "The Hard 40 is preferable. By the time anyone is out, they're old enough not to be able to commit a crime any-way."
"I don't think it's right," he said. "If you're so desperate to kill a prisoner,
you should move to a state that has it."
Other students thought that the death penalty should be extended to all murderers, not just the types listed in the Senate bill.
"We should have the death penalty for all murder cases," said Tony Sanchez, Topea senior. "This makes sure they don't do the crime again."
Pamela Young, St. Louis junior, said that the death penalty should be applied to murder cases with the exception of cases of reasonable doubt.
"If you take a life, you lose your right to yours," she said.
The next step
On Tuesday the Senate passed its death penalty bill by four votes. The House has three options: kill it or mutilate it.
Kill it.
Make changes and pass it.
If House changes the bill:
Gov. Joan Finney has said she would let the bill become law without her signature.
It will go to a joint committee to make compromises and then to each house to vote.
Quanah Gray, Overland Park sophomore, said that he saw two sides.
S. A. Moore/ KANSAN
Recycling throws out novelty tag
By Ashiey Schultz
Kansan staff writer
Mundane still gets the job done.
Despite the decreasing novelty, recycling is here to stay,
said Sue Ask, associate environmental ombudsman.
She said she did not mind if people were not as excited as they once were about recycling—just as long as they continued doing it.
"It has become a habit for people," Ask said. "People just don't get as excited about it anymore, just like they don't get excited about other mundane tasks."
Justin Krupp / KANSAN
Meg Bugg, St. Louis senior, said she had always been enthusiastic about recycling, but that accessibility had been a factor in how much she recycled.
Laura Hunyadi, Leawood junior, sorts through her trash looking for recyclable material at the Wal-Mart Recycling Center, 3300 Iowa St.
Bugg said she appreciated the convenience of the Community Recycling Center at Wal-Mart Discount Cities, 3300 Iowa St. She said she recycled products about every other week since the center opened in June 1993. She said the center offered more recycling options than the supermarket where she recycled before.
"You couldn't recycle everything in town that you can now," she said.
A number of her friends have recently taken up recycling, Bugg said.
"They are just finally realizing it's not that difficult to do, and they just feel kind of guilty," Bugg said.
She thinks more people have begun to regularly recycle the basics.
"Of the people I know, there are a lot of people that never did get around to recycling that are now," Bugg said. "It's just a way of life now."
Chris Stewart, community recycling coordinator at the center, said recycling had become a way of life for many people in Lawrence. Recycling is not just a lingering national phrase — it's forever, Stewart said.
Since its opening, the center has had to add four balers to bundle recycled goods, Stewart said. It was originally designed to handle 75 tons of recyclables a month. It handles an average of 175 to 200 tons a month now, he said.
Recycling was expected to taper off in the winter months, he said, but this year's recyclers did not let up. The center averaged 406,028 pounds a month November through January. That leaves Stewart wondering what lies ahead.
"I'm expecting us to jump back up come spring and summer." Stewart said.
Recycling awareness also tends to increase in the spring. But the April 22 observance of Earth Day has been going through some changes.
"Earth Day '90 was the big one," Ask said. She said that
the observance of the day's 20th anniversary involved more people than celebrations since.
"A lot of the Earth Day '90 activities were very big, big, singular events," Said.
Even if the novelty has worn off, Ask said, people would continue to recycle.
"If people are doing it without needing much encouragement to do it, then that is much better," Ask said. "It means that it's something that they are going to do for a while, and they aren't seeing it as a big sacrifice that they have to make."
The nature and size of observances has changed since then, she said. Those singular events have been replaced by smaller, more scattered activities like local clean-up projects.
Senate rejects NCAA equity fee
By Heather Moore and Ashley Schultz Kansan staff writers
The bill, which would have paid for the addition of women's crew and soccer clubs as varsity sport requirement with $2^{9}$
Student Senate last night failed a bill that would have raised student fees to meet NCAA gender-equity requirements.
STUDENT SENATE
cer clubs as varsity sports, failed to reach the two-thirds requirement with a 25-19 vote.
Critics of the bill said they did not think Senate should help the Athletic Department pay for the cost because the department should be able to absorb the expense on its own. They also said they did not believe raising student fees was worth changing students' perceptions toward women's athletics.
"I don't want the Student Senate to bail out the administration when they're in trouble," said Ami Hizer, Liberal Arts and Sciences senator. "Changes need to come from people's philosophies, not money."
But John Shoemaker, student body president and sponsor of the bill said that students should support KU athletics even if they don't attend the events.
"I'm embarrassed to think that I'm a part of a body that thinks only people who go to athletic events care about athletics," he said.
The bill would have helped pay for the $480,000 each year the new sports would cost. It was a response to Title IX of the Educational Amendment, which was passed by Congress in 1972 and prohibited sexual discrimination in collegiate athletics.
In other actions:
the Senate approved a bill to raise student fees to expand Watkins Memorial Health Center. The bill passed by acclimation, the highest recommendation Senate can give a bill.
The bill raises student fees by $15 for the fall and spring semester and by $7.50 for the summer semester. The money will pay for an expansion that would increase the size of Watkins by one-fourth.
Final plans for the expansion must now be voted on by the Board of Regents in April, said Jim Strobl, director of Watkins.
■ the Senate passed a bill requiring senators to attend the events paid for by the bills they have sponsored. The intent of the bill is to send a senator to each event Senate sponsors to judge its turnout.
the Senate failed a bill that would have capped spending for a year. The bill would have kept Senate from spending its reserves.
Jeremy Haas, Senate treasurer, estimated the current reserve at about $180,000.
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