Volume 126 Issue 59
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
kansan.com
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FRANK WEIRICH/KANSAN
@SquirrelsOKU creator established his account after getting the idea from @FakeJeffWithe. He will remain anonymous after graduation.
SOCIAL MEDIA
A NUTTY ACCOUNT
@SquirrelsOfKU to end as anonymous student graduates
KYLE PAPPAS
kpappas@kansan.com
It began innocently enough. On a foggy night in January 2012, Squirrels, the KU student behind anonymous Twitter account @SquirrelsOfKU, was watching a Jayhawk basketball game and drinking with friends at The Connection apartments.
"@FakeJeffWithey was tweeting, and I was thinking, 'Hey, maybe I can do that too.' Squirrels said. "I knew I wanted something different. Not a player, because that had already been done, but something as random as I was. That's when I decided on @SquirrelsOfU." Squirrels, a history major from Topeka, will miss sharing his off-the-wall thoughts with students, as he plans to quit posting on the account permanently when he graduates next week.
the account has gained campus-wide notoriety over the past couple of years for its stream-of-consciousness, KU-related Twitter page commenting on aspects of life in Lawrence and on campus.
Through his various references to drunken nights stumbling through the student ghetto, Squirrels has become somewhat of an authoritative voice for partners in Lawrence as well.
social life.
"I'm not drunk as often as people think," Squirrels said. "I'd like to
the fall 2013 semester after she noticed that it was pretty popular on campus.
"It's just my random thoughts about everything throughout my day," Squirrels said. "There's a reason why it's plural. It's versatile. It is supposed to be from the perspective of all the squirrels on campus." Squirrels has amassed over 3,500 followers and is known among students for his unfiltered view on campus happenings and student
"I just thought the tweets were hilarious," she said. "They definitely give an accurate voice to the squirrels on campus that everyone thinks are so chill."
Connor Berg, a senior from
ANONYMOUS
Student behind @SquirrelsOfKU
"I just hope that possibly anything that I've said might've made somebody's day better."
ANONYMOUS
party? Hell yeah. Do I party often? When I can. But at the same time, I'm still a college student."
Interest in the account skyrocketed following last year's Halloween, when Squirrels was one of the first to share what would come to be known as the infamous "Boom Boom Room couple" photo. The account gained over 500 followers the day the picture went viral.
"It was really nice outside that day," Squirrels said. "So, I sat on my porch, drank a beer and just watched all the ridiculous comments come in."
Many students have enjoyed that the account has given a personality to something on campus that doesn't really have one. Jordan DeLeon, a sophomore from Olathe, said she began following the account at the beginning of
Wichita, agreed, adding that he's more likely to check the account after sunset.
Squirrels' eccentric personality and attempts to keep University students involved with the account have helped maintain its popularity.
One example of this is #CampusBeer, a campaign started by Squirrels a little over a year ago that involves hiding a beer between books in campus libraries, and then posting a photo of the location for students to find
"Nighttime is my favorite time to keep up with his feed," he said. "It lets me know of all the crazies out and about."
Oddly enough, that actually started as kind of a social experiment to see if people knew how to use the Dewey Decimal System
anymore," Squirrels said.
Squirrels said that, as far as he knows, @SquirrelsOfCU was the first college-themed squirrels account on Twitter. Since its inception, several other universities (@SquirrelsOFUA, @UCFSquirrels, @FSUSquirrels) have followed in his footsteps, creating campus squirrels accounts of their own.
"It's always nice to know that you've had an influence on people," Squirrels said. "I thought it was really cool just to show how creative KU students can be."
The anonymity that Squirrels has maintained allowed him to keep a low profile around campus, as well as allowing him to speak his mind more freely. He said that, even with the account closing down, he still won't share his identity.
"It's just easier to be anonymous," he said. "I'm not revealing myself now that it's over because it just seems like the right thing to do, the right way to end it."
As Squirrels graduates next week and looks to "travel Europe, the entire thing," he said he'd always be thankful for the opportunity to connect with KU students on the level that he has for the past two years.
"Squirrels has taught me that a lot of people have a lot of good things to say," he said. "I just hope that possibly anything that I've said might've made somebody's day better."
LAWRENCE
FRANK WEIRICH/KANSAN
Officials were at the scene where a body matching the description of Gianfranco Villagomez, a University student who had gone missing on Saturday morning, was found early Monday afternoon. Sgt. Trent McKinley said that investigators believe the body to be that of Villagomez. Family and friends have been notified.
Police preliminarily identify missing student's body
EMILY DONOVAN
edonovan@kansan.com
Police have preliminarily identified a body found at 1:30 p.m. as Gianfranco Villagomez, the 23-year-old University student who has been missing since Saturday morning.
The body was found in the grass behind the home at 837 Avalon Rd.
Preliminary information does not indicate foul play. An autopsy and further investigation are planned for today.
"Family and friends were notified by officers late this afternoon," Lawrence Police spokesperson Sgt. Trent McKinley wrote in a news release. "At their request, they ask for privacy as they deal with this tragic loss."
Earlier yesterday, his friend Sarah Alig, a graduate student from Kansas City, Kan., described Villagomez as a role model.
of his way to wave and say hi to acquaintances. When Villagomez was a resident assistant at Hashinger Residence Hall, he greeted freshmen from other floors by name, said one of those former freshmen while helping to distribute flyers.
"He's very gentle-hearted. He's goofy and kind," Alig said. "He's so hard-working and dedicated to whatever he does."
Through the Help Find Gianfranco Villagomez Facebook page, Alig and other friends have distributed fliers throughout downtown Lawrence, knocked on doors and talked to media.
The search team met Sunday at the apartment of
She said he always went out
Marieliza Suarez, a junior from Lenexa and president of the Peruvian Association of Lawrence.
jayhawk, she said.
Suarez had only met Villagomez at the party Friday night. She's not surprised so many people feel close to Villagomez and have banded together to search.
"You're always going to be a Jayhawk," she said.
"It has a lot to do with that kindness and empathy." Alig said.
Villagomez was last seen leaving a friend's birthday party around
SEE MISSING STUDENT PAGE 2
YU-KYUN LEE
CITY
"It's just car after car after car and it takes forever, because there are so many stoplights that you get stopped at every single one," junior Susie McClannahan said.
ylee@kansan.com
When McClannahan tried to go home to Prairie Village, Mo., for Thanksgiving, she got stuck in the rush-hour traffic on 23rd Street going out of town.
Lawrence to update old traffic sensors
Getting caught in the worst of Lawrence's traffic can have you sitting more than moving.
"It's really bad if you want to turn and you miss your turn signal and then you just sit there for eight different signals with straight traffic and other turning traffic." McClannahan said.
STAY UPDATED ONLINE AS THE STORY DEVELOPS
Things may change,however, with a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation
payment of transportation. Lawrence received $129,250 that will allow city to expand the intelligent transportation system on the city's major roads.
The intelligent transportation system works by connecting the traffic signals with fiber-optic cables and using computers, cameras and additional software to be able to view the real-time traffic at the city's traffic operations center.
With the grant, the city will update the traffic signal system along Clinton Parkway from 23rd and Iowa to Wakarusa, from Wakarusa Street to Sixth
The technology of monitoring and managing real-time traffic could also take the stress off of police officers during heavy game-day traffic.
"If we have a big event and we had a peak flow of traffic, we can adjust the traffic signal timing to help move traffic," City Engineer David Cronin said. "We are still experimenting with the technology, and it's a work in progress."
"Right now when we have football games or basketball games, we have to put officers on traffic control positions and override the traffic light system," said Sergeant Trent McKinley of the Lawrence Police Department. "If technology was in place to manage that, that would benefit us."
visit Kansan.com for more information
Ultimately, the new addition will help the flow of traffic going across the city, east to west.
Index
The technology can be used to fix a malfunctioning traffic signal from the traffic operations center without having to send people out, speeding up the response time. Also, the traffic center can change the traffic signals to alleviate traffic at rush hours.
"Once we get the South Law-
rence Trafficway, there's going to be a lot more traffic taking that,
so we are trying to think ahead to get that up," said James Risner,
CLASSIFIEDS 9
CROSSWORD 5
Street and from Sixth Street to K-10.
CRYPTOQUIPS 5
OPINION 4
SPORTS 10
SUDOKU 5
All contents, unless stated otherwise, $ \textcircled{c} $ 2013 The University Daily Kansan
Don't forget
SEE TRAFFIC PAGE 2
It's National Human Rights Dav
Today's Weather
Mainly sunny. Southwest winds at 5 to 10 mph.
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This isn't looking bad now