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Sports >> 8 More from Kansas tournament run
News 2 Failing students get a second chance through new mentor program
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MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2016 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 18
Arts & Culture >> 5 28th annual KU Powwow aims to promote indigenous culture awareness
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
A strong season left incomplete
Kansas falls one game short of Final Four, losing to Villanova 64-59 in the NCAA tournament
Clay Young, Svi Mykhailiuk and Hunter Mickelson keep their heads down in the locker room after losing to Villanova 64-59.
Missy Minear/KANSAN
SCOTT CHASEN @SChasenKU
OUISVILLE, Ky. - Objectively, it'd be difficult to call it a disappointment.
Starting in the summer, Kansas won gold at the World University Games, followed by a title at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.
As the season progressed, Kansas finished atop the Big 12 in both the regular season and tournament, and notched a win in the Big 12/SEC Challenge along the way.
For all of that success, plus a spot as the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament and a trip to the Elite Eight, the team accomplished several of its goals. Yet as the players sat in the locker room after their loss to Villanova, the mood reflected a different story.
The players' eyes were red from the tears. Several sat with their heads in their hands, others with towels draped over their faces. All eyes were on the floor.
In a season where so many goals were surpassed, it wasn't about what the team had done; it was about what they hadn't.
"It never felt like enough," junior forward Landen Lucas said.
As the final seconds ticked away in the game, the realization began to set in.
For one side: pure elation.
The Villanova players jumped around with each other, realizing what they'd accomplished: The first Final Four of their careers.
But on the other side, it was agony: Unrelenting heartbreak and disappointment.
Devonte' Graham's eyes filled with tears. He pulled his jersey over his face as he sat on the bench. One seat to his right, senior forward Jamari Traylor offered words of encouragement but there was nothing comforting to be said.
"I hate that it had to end like this," Graham said. "It's hard when people tell you not to hold your head down. We could've done something really special."
Graham had so often been the player whose smile brightened the team's spirits. Not even he could muster up anything other than a look of despair.
Looking around the locker room, it was the same way:
The only silver lining came from an unlikely source.
Tears, Red eyes, Towels on heads.
One of the emotional leaders of the team, Traylor seemed like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. He stared blankly with his held tilted to one side, answering each question in a monotone, lifeless voice. His teary eyes glistened, amplified by the top lights of cameras shining on his face.
Eventually, he was asked about the Kansas backcourt: Graham and junior guard Frank Mason III. As he talked about them, the look of sheer disappointment remained. But for one moment - a split second
— there was a glimmer of hope, a glimmer in his eyes.
"They pretty much came from nothing," Traylor said.
In the end, the moment was nothing more than a brief flash of light in a seemingly endless abyss of darkness.
But for a second Traylor who also came from a life of instability, was able to put everything aside, until it all came crashing back down.
I hate that it had to end like this."
Devonte' Graham Sophomore guard
Across the room, almost no one took the loss harder than Evan Manning, who sat next to Tyler Self. The two held blank stares; neither said a word to each other.
For Self, there'd be another chance next year, but, for Manning, a four year Kansas career had come to an end and it showed. His eyes were a brilliant color of red, as he seemed to be taking it all in.
It was difficult for him to express what the season had meant. It was difficult for all the seniors.
The team had come such a long way.
Through team meetings, court-stormings, injuries and — perhaps most of all — hundreds and hundreds of the little moments: words, thoughts, fist bumps, high fives and tears shared between players — it was all over. Everything had come to an end.
For that, while the seniors struggled to find the right words to say, it was a junior who put it best.
"We're going to look back and see how good this team was," Wayne Selden Jr., his voice slightly quivering, said. "We didn't accomplish what we wanted to."
Administrators seek control over off-campus violations
CONNER MITCHELL
@connermitchellO
Every two academic years, Student Senate is tasked with revising the Student Code of Rights and Responsibilities. The Code outlines how the University can discipline students who commit non-academic misconduct.
Since the 1970s, the Code has only permitted for students to be disciplined for violations that occurred on campus or at University-sponsored events. And since then University administrators and the Student Senate have made minor amendments to the Code.
In a Student Rights Committee meeting March 23, senators were given their first chance to review and amend the proposed version of the Code. While senators voted to move forward with the draft of the Code that administrators
presented, several amendments were made and approved by senators.
Freshmen Senator John Foster's amendment was approved. Foster's amendment eliminated language that granted the University jurisdiction to prosecute off-campus code violations.
In the administrative draft of the code, the most contested change is on new language that would give the University jurisdiction to discipline students for misconduct that happens off campus.
The Code is subject to final approval by Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, and is enforced by the Office of Student Affairs, according to the current Code.
Current Code changes
Specifically, the Code allows the University to hold disciplinary proceedings against students if the violations occur on the "University premises or at
University sponsored or supervised events or as otherwise required by federal, state, or local law," according to the current Student Code of Rights and Responsibilities.
In an email correspondence dated Nov.13,2015 from Tammara Durham — vice provost for Student Affairs — to Student Body President Jessie Pringle and former Student Body Vice President Zach George, Durham said the University has fallen behind peer institutions in protecting the rights and safety of all students.
Durham's email said a draft of the new code, supported by herself and Gray-Little, would be shared with representatives from Student Senate and implemented at the end of the year after feedback from senators.
Lance Watson, director of Student Conduct and Community Standards, said
the push for off-campus jurisdiction language to be included in the Code is only to ensure student safety.
If [administrators] don't take our voices into consideration and our constituents' voices into consideration, then are they really listening to students?"
Modeline Dickerson
Student Senate Rights
Committee chair
"In our current code, we have the ability to address instances of sexual assault or violence off campus, and discrimination," Watson said. "Those are the only
two things that can be addressed off campus, everything else cannot.
In an email with Pringle and George, Durham addressed concerns about the jurisdictional language.
"So we wanted to look at it broader, and be up with more contemporary practices with peer institutions as well."
"The jurisdictional language permits the University to address, serious, significant, off-campus issues that threaten the health and safety of our community as well as a student's right to participate in the educational process," she said in the email.
"The intention is to address the needs of students who have been subjected to such intense violence that it resulted in substantial injury causing absence from
SEE STUDENT CODE
PAGE 2
The Student Senate version of the Code was approved by the Student Rights Committee with an amendment that removes language allowing off-campus jurisdiction.
Just the facts
The University administrators' version of the Student Code would grant KU jurisdiction in prosecuting off-campus code violations
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little must approve the change. Some senators are concerned it will not pass without the approved amendment.
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