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MONDAY, MAY 2, 2016 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 28
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
Shaher Ibrahimi, a senior from Kansas City, Kan., will serve as one of Kansas' 33 delegates at the Democratic National Convention July 25-28 in Philadelphia.
Missy Minear/KANSAN
Bernie Sanders delegate's passion for politics fueled by experiences growing up in a low-income, refugee family
> CONNER MITCHELL
@ConnerMitchell0
A third University student has been elected to serve as one of Kansas' 33 delegates at the Democratic National Convention July 25-28 in Philadelphia. Shaher Ibrahimi, a senior from Kansas City, Kan., will join Damien
Gilbert and Justin Kim at the convention as a Bernie Sanders delegate.
Ibrahimi said he took an interest in politics from his experiences growing up in a refugee family who came from Afghanistan. After living in Section 8 Housing, or government-authorized, low-income accommodations, he realized the
'I'll try and do something for you,'" he said.
The convention Ibrahimi, Gilbert and Kim will attend is the formal nominating process for the democratic candidates for president and vice president of the United States. Each state is given a proportional amount of delegates and superdelegates
to award a candidate. Delegates pledge their vote at the national convention to a candidate based on the results of the state primary or caucus. Superdelegates are not bound to support either candidate.
"I eventually understood that politics were played a little differently in both of those arenas. How do you maximize treating everybody with respect and dignity even if they don't have much to offer? In politics, it's, 'What do you have to offer?' and then,
Ibrahimi said his interest in this particular election, and his pledged support to Sanders, centers on
effect politics has on people's lives.
shifting the window of political discussion to a more liberal line of thinking. He compared Sanders' candidacy to that of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s.
"Bernie right now is almost in the same sense a New Deal democrat as EDR was back then," he
SEE DELEGATE PAGE 2
Fundraising event will benefit Lawrence Shelter
▶ CONNER MITCHELL
@ConnerMitchell0
Students Empowering Local Futures, a University student organization, works with the Lawrence Community Shelter to raise awareness about the homeless community. On May 4, the student volunteers and Lawrence shelter will host a fundraising event.
You can't help but realize that these are people just like us."
Alex Kong co-founder of SELF
Alex Kong, a senior from Lawrence who co-founded the organization last fall, said he hopes the event raises both money and awareness for the shelter's growing opportunity to help guests.
Drew VonEhrenkrook, director of employment and jobs at the shelter, said the event is not something the regular shelter staff would necessarily have time to coordinate, and he was especially thankful for SELF and the student volunteers.
"I think it's great that we can showcase not only these wonderful volunteers and what they're doing but getting these stories out there as well," VonEhrenkrook said. "I think what [people who attend the event] will come away with is the resilience these individuals have. Getting that awareness out there is incredibly helpful to our cause."
Kong said he began volunteering at the shelter a year ago. He began by helping guests fill out online applications for jobs and
housing. He said he wanted to increase his outreach when he realized his role allowed him to only help one guest at a time due to the shelter only having one computer.
Kong formed the group when he began working with other students. Kong said SELF has been able to provide the Lawrence Community Shelter with 15 computers and put together an after-school program for children at the shelter. The organization has also arranged a series of monthly health presentations.
"You can't help but realize that these are people just like us that, especially as college students, we can just be a step or two away from the same situation from having that financial instability," Kong said.
"We take it kind of personally when we see in other news sources that people are digging on the shelter and doing that without realizing who the population is," he said.
The group will hold a fundraising event at 7 p.m. May 4 at Maceli's Banquet Hall & Catering on 1031 New Hampshire St. Tickets for the event, which can be purchased at the shelter website, are $25 and include a full meal.
Kong said the goal is to have 100 attendees at the fundraiser, which would raise $1,300 for the shelter. He said there will also be a silent auction with donated items from various partners around the community, which could raise the event total to around $3,000.
He said one of the goals is to raise awareness of Lawrence's homeless community.
- Edited by Skylar Rolstad
AP Photo The Kansas University rowing team practices on the Kansas River under threatening clouds as a storm front moves over Lawrence, Kan. early Tuesday morning, April 26, 2016.
Lack of Douglas County community tornado shelters a complicated issue, officials say
TANNER HASSELL
@thassell17
As spring comes around in Kansas again, eyes turn to the sky nervously with every thunderstorm that rolls through. The possibility of a tornado is an annual ritual those in the Midwest are used to.
Dangerous weather is sometimes synonymous with finding shelter. However, Douglas County and Lawrence do not have designated shelters, and officials say the issue is complicated to address.
According to the National Weather Service, there were 40 tornadoes in the state of Kansas during 2014. Between 1950 and 2014 there were 39 tornadoes in Douglas County, causing 48 injuries and 1 death.
Jillian Rodrigue, the assistant director of emergency management for Douglas County, said shelters for severe weather have been a topic discussed by the County and City Commissions but have never been addressed due to the complexity of the issue.
"There's a conversation around storm shelters just about every year. It's very difficult because of the guidelines surrounding shelters."
"When a storm shelter is built into a new building it affects the standard of the construction," Walthal said. "If a space or building is not constructed with the appropriate features or it's not designed to withstand severe weather then it can't be designated as a public shelter."
"The biggest problem is the potential for people to leave good shelters to seek out public storm shelters and put themselves in danger while doing so," Rodrigue said. "The guidance we give is for people to move to an inner room in their home with no windows during a tornado."
City of Lawrence Building Safety Manager Barry Walthal said building codes play a big part in the designation of storm shelters.
Rodriguez said. "There are specific rules for storm shelters regarding a certain amount of time in which you can get them open and then close them and also about how many shelters to have within a certain proximity that allows people to get there within the time frame. It's something that the commissions have decided not to do thus far."
Rodrigue said having public shelters would also require someone to open the shelters in severe weather situations, which could endanger people leaving their homes to seek out the shelters.
Walthal said conversations that have occurred regarding community shelters have focused around mandating new buildings be built with storm shelters in the plans, but no action has been taken.
"The code used by the city for storm shelters give outlines on designs for individual shelters all the way up to community shelters, but there isn't anything currently mandating the building or designation of shelters for the public," he said.
Teri Smith, the director of Douglas County Emergency Management, said community shelters are an issue that often come up in the "after action" discussions, which are done annually after every storm season.
"Our 'after action' reviews are an opportunity to address questions that the community has about storm safety, and community shelters has been brought up on different occasions," Smith said. "It's an ongoing discussion. We really want to look at it and determine what is best for everyone in the community."
Edited by G.J. Melia
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