THE UNIVERSITY DAILY WANSAH
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NEWS MANAGEMENT
Editor-in-chief Trevor Graff
Managing editors Allison Kohn Dylan Lysen
Art Director Katie Kutsko
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT
Business manager Mollie Pointer
Sales manager Sean Powers
PAGE 2
NEWS SECTION EDITORS
Associate news editor Emily Donovan
News editor
Tara Bryant
Sports editor
Mike Vernon
Associate sports editor Blake Schuster
Copy chiefs
Lauren Armendariz
Hayley Jozwiak
Elise Reuter
Madison Schultz
Entertainment editor Hannah Barling
Design chief
Trey Conrad
Designers Cole Anneberg Allyson Maturey
Opinion editor
Will Webber
Photo editor
George Mullinix
Special sections editor Emma LeGault
ADVISERS
Web editor
Wil Kenney
The University Daily Kansan (ISSN 0746-4967) is published daily during the school year except Friday, Saturday, Sunday, fall break, spring break and exams and weekly during the summer session excluding holidays. Annual subscriptions by mail are $250 plus tax. Send address changes to The University Daily Kansan, 2051A Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue.
CONTACT US
editor@kansan.com
www.kansan.com
Newsroom: (785) - 765-1491
Advertising: (785) 864-4358
Twitter: KansanNews
Facebook, facebook.com/thekansen
The University Daliy Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of The Kansan are 50 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at the Kansan business office, 2051A Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS, 66045.
Media director and content strategist Brett Akagi
KANSAN MEDIA PARTNERS
Channel 31 in Lawrence for more on what you've read in today's Kansan and other news. Also see KUH's website at tv.uku.edu.
KANSAN MEDIA PARTNERS
Check out KUJH-TV on Wow! of Kansas
KHK is the student voice it 'rock' n' rock or ringlea, sports or special events, KH9.07 i' for you.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2013
weather.com
2000 Dole Human Development Center
1000 Sunnyside Avenue
Lawrence, Kan. 86045
What's the weather, Jay?
Thursday
HI: 28
LO: 12
Sunny. Zero percent chance of precipitation.
Wind ENE at 9 mph.
HI: 27
LO: 16
Afternoon snow showers. 30 percent chance of snow.Wind NNW at 14 mph.
Can you feel the snow tonight?
Friday
Saturday
HI: 25
LO: 6
"Naaaaants ingonyaaaa amabagithi baba!!!!"
Cloudy AM and sunny PM.10 percent chance of precipitation. Wind N at 14 mph.
Hakuna matata... It means no flurries.
Wednesday, Dec. 4
**What:** Professional Edge Breakfast:
Persuasion
**When:** 8 to 9 a.m.
**Where:** Edwards Campus, BEST
Building, Conference Center
**About:** Public event with Kerry Benson
with breakfast served at 7:30 a.m.
Thursday, Dec. 5
**What:** The Identity Wheel: Dimension of Diversity
**When:** 1 to 3 p.m.
**Where:** Joseph R. Pearson Hall, Room 204
**About:** Workshop with presenter Blaine Hardy
What: Disability, Emancipation and the U.S.
Civil War
When: 4 p.m.
Where: Spooner Hall, The Commons
About: Lecture with David Roediger from the
Bold Aspirations visitor and lecture series
Friday, Dec. 6
**What:** Is Western Science an Indigenous Knowledge?
**When:** 10 a.m.
**Where:** Spooner Hall, The Commons
**About:** Public event with senior research scientist Jorge Soberon from the Idea Cafe
What: The City Dark: A Search for Night on a Planet that Never Sleeps
When: 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Malott Hall, 2001
About: Award-winning documentary film
Saturday, Dec. 7
What: Study Abroad Orientation
When: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Where: Budig Hall, East Lobby
About: Orientation for winter, spring and spring break study abroad participants
MILITARY
What: Jazz Border Showdown
When: 8 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Mo.
About: Battle of the bands between University of Kansas Jazz Ensemble I and University of Missouri Concert Jazz Band
University ranks 23rd best four-year school for veterans
AMELIA ARVESEN
aarvesen@kansan.com
Newspaper clippings of Jayhawk basketball articles were among the many letters Devin Trees received during his year serving in Afghanistan. When he returned home, the University not only welcomed him as a fan, but as a newly enrolled student veteran.
Early in November, the University ranked as the 23rd best four-year school for veterans by Military Times in the fourth annual "Best for Vets" survey. Eighty-six other institutions made the list out of thousands of nationwide applicants — D'Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y., was rated the best — but the University was the only representative from Kansas.
Devin Trees (right), a veteran and student at the University, found support and encouragement from faculty, students and campus organizations when he returned from his year-long deployment to Afghanistan.
The ROTC program is great because it offers a military environment with a disciplined structure in a laid back atmosphere," said Trees, who is from Leawood. "But I think more importantly, those of us who have been to war and come home experience some form of PTSD or readjustment issues and everybody is very understanding."
Beyond the numbers, Lawrence and the University provide a comfortable and welcoming community for all veterans. Patrick Fagan, a former Navy captain and 1966 graduate from the ROTC program, was drawn to Lawrence
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
by the small community atmosphere after serving for more than 30 years.
The University alone boasts nearly 700 veteran students, not counting the surrounding community. Faculty and staff add to the large, diverse population of veterans on campus, which offers students a shared experience that words can't quite explain.
"There's military involvement in almost everything, so it's easy to integrate and feel part of the community quicker," Fagan said.
"There is a language that's common among them that you really don't discover until you come back into civilian world," said Randy Masten, assistant director of the Office of Graduate Military Programs and retired Army Foreign Area Officer. "We're just here trying to ensure that what they've got is a safe landing."
"The student veteran is well disciplined, they'll show up to class, and they'll probably strive to have a high GPA," Masten said. "I know we're getting really good students with every veteran that comes to us."
Trees joined the Army when he was 21 and spent the required time in basic training before heading overseas. He said training was an intense process — he was broken down and remolded into a disciplined officer.
At first, Trees was nervous to return to school being out of classes for years, but helpful University Registrar administrative staff members put him at ease. He said classes have been tough, but he knows he will receive a respectable education.
The Military Times survey focused on academic rigor, availability
ity of programs, retention rates, loan default rates, graduation rates, student-faculty ratio, veteran enrollment and percentage of tuition covered by the GI Bill.
The University has made the rankings every year,but as the competition grows stronger,Masten and the administration look forward to future improvements
in the program.
"They've served the nation and the people of Kansas, and now it's our turn to return the favor," Masten said.
Edited by Kayla Overbey
NATIONAL
People walk in front of an administration building on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame is suing the Obama administration over a federal mandate that its health insurance plans for students and employees cover birth control.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Notre Dame fights back against birth control
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame on Tuesday filed another lawsuit opposing portions of the federal health care overhaul that forces it to provide health insurance for students and employees that includes birth control, saying it contravenes the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in South Bend claims the Affordable Health Care Act violates Notre Dame's freedom to practice religion without government interference. Under the law, employers must provide insurance that covers a range of preventive care, free of charge, including contraception. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of contraceptives.
The lawsuit challenges a compromise, or accompodations, offered by the Obama administration that attempted to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. The law requires insurers or the health plan's outside administrator to pay for birth control coverage and creates
TH
TEC
Notre Dame says in the lawsuit that its employee health plans are self-insured, covering about 4,600 employees and a total of about 11,000 people. Its student health plans cover about 2,600 students. The lawsuit says the health plans do not cover abortion-inducing products, contraceptives or sterilization.
Notre Dame argues that the fines of $2,000 per employee if it elimi-
"The government's accommodations would require us to forfeit our rights, to facilitate and become entangled in a program inconsistent with Catholic teaching and to create the impression that the university cooperates with and condones activities incompatible with its mission," he said in a statement.
"The U.S. government mandate, therefore, requires Notre Dame to do precisely what its sincerely held religious beliefs prohibit — pay for, facilitate access to, and/or become entangled in the provision of objectionable products and services or else incur crippling sanctions," the lawsuit says.
a way to reimburse them.
a way to remember
The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre
Dame's president, said that wasn't
enough.
W
nates its employee health plan, or $100 a day for each affected beneficiary if it refuses to provide or facilitate the coverage, would coerce it into violating its religious beliefs.
Daniel Conkle, an Indiana University professor of law and adjunct professor of religious studies, said Notre Dame's arguments are similar those in a case last month where a federal judge in Pennsylvania granted the Pittsburgh and Erie Catholic dioceses a delay in complying with the federal mandates.
the Obama administration argues that the burden on the Catholic entities is minimal, Conkle said. Notre Dame and other Catholic groups say it's substantial.
Steve Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at Catholic University of America, said the administration's accommodations "are sufficient to protect the Catholic conscience for administrators of these plans at Catholic universities." But he said the lawsuits were still needed.
B
the accommodations "really rest on the good graces of the administration and those good graces could disappear with a new administration," he said.
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