THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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THURSDAY, OCT. 1, 2015 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 12
ZOE LARSON/KANSAN FIRST-YEAR
FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS can choose to live off or on campus, despite an unimplemented recommendation from the Sexual Assault Task Force. News>> PAGE 2
KU FOOTBALL:
The Jayhawks will take on Iowa State in what may be the most winnable game left on the schedule.
Sports >> PAGE 12
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Lot 90 near the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
LIVING TOGETHER AND PLANNING A FEATURE FILM, the members of Rockhaven Films are hoping to start filming "Goodland" this month. Arts & Culture >> 5
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THOSE BLUE EMERGENCY LIGHTS ON CAMPUS? Turns out hardly anyone uses them, in favor of cellphones and other apps. » Kansan.com/news
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After backlash, including a petition and social media activity, following changes to student parking this year, the Kansan sat down with Donna Hultine, director of parking, to get the department's take on the issue.
Why have many of the yellow lots changed to red lots?
Hultine said construction is the problem. Construction equipment and worker vehicles have taken over several lots, and in the interest of moving staff and faculty closer to the buildings they work in, several popular student lots, including lots near JPR Hall and the Dole Human Development Center were converted to red lots.
The University has also allotted space in Carruth-O'Leary Hall to make a shared service center, where support service employees for a variety of departments work. Due to the higher volume of staff now working in the Carruth-O'Leary complex, extra parking was necessary, Hultine said.
Hultine said the department has started occupancy check-in lots, which will allow for underutilized lots to be assigned to graduate students. That would
free up more spaces in nearby yellow zones, she said. Hultine said she hopes underutilized spots can be assigned to graduate students. She clarified that the fenced off parking lot of Lindley Hall was formerly staff parking, and now that it's inaccessible due to construction, red zones had to be allotted to the staff of those buildings.
So where am I supposed to park now?
Hultine said there are yellow spots available, but not necessarily in the lot that may be students' first choice.
"Every yellow permit includes a disclaimer that the owner is not guaranteed a parking space — but what that really means is that the owner isn't guaranteed a parking space in the lot they want," she said. "There's plenty of yellow spaces available on the main campus, just not where people think to look. We try to tweet out places that have empty spots in peak hours in real time."
I've been driving laps around the Rec parking lot for an hour with no luck. Where's the next place to check?
"Immediately east of the Rec, lots 125 and 127 behind the field house, there are usually about a hundred open spaces
there, while lot 90 has people jam-packed." Hultine said.
She said the stadium lots have a substantial amount of unused parking, and on one occasion, she counted 400 open student spaces on the main campus at a time lot 90 was at capacity.
"I think [the issue of overcrowded lots] is a matter of people needing to understand where yellow zones really are," she said.
Why do I have to pay so much more this year to park over at west campus?
Students used to be able to buy a less expensive "Park and Ride" pass, which allowed them to park in West Campus and take a bus to the hill. But an engineering school study found that the only people using that parking were going to buildings on West Campus, Hultine said. Parking raised the price to match other passes that don't require students and faculty to park and take a bus.
Since the University has started building up West Campus with the pharmacy school and Multidisciplinary Research Building, and further research endeavors are planned, pharmacy students were buying cheaper passes only to park and walk across the street to their classes, she said.
Spots available vs. Spots sold
vs. Spots sold
2011-2012 Academic Year 2015-2016 Academic Year
YELLOW PARKING
TOTAL (includes West Campus) 39.3% oversold
MAIN CAMPUS 118.2% oversold
STUDENT PARKING 104.5% oversold
PARK & RIDE 3.3% undersold
LIED CENTER (AS Daisy Hill overflow) 30.5% oversold
YELLOW PARKING
TOTAL (includes West Campus) 17.4% undersold
MAIN CAMPUS 56.1% oversold
STUDENT PARKING 43.5% oversold
Previously, Park & Ride and the Lied center were separate passes. Currently, they're all one pass.
BLUE PARKING 31.6% oversold
BLUE PARKING 24.5% oversold
RED PARKING 30.5% oversold
RED PARKING 11.0% undersold
What sort of communication does the Parking Services maintain with the KU student body?
"We have open meetings in the fall and in the spring. What we hope to hear are student voices on how we can improve our services in the fall, and by the spring be working on implementing or tweaking those ideas," she said.
KU Parking and Transit
Hultine said her office hosts open meetings, accepts email feedback and sends broadcast emails to the student body whenever significant policy changes are decided. The Student Senate Parking Commission can also provide input. Multiple attempts to reach members of the commission were unsuccessful for this story.
Edited by Maddie Farber
Kansas suicide prevention centers aim to reach young sufferers through text and chat programs
VICKY DIAZ-CAMACHO
@vickyd_c
VICKY DIAZ-CAMACHO/KANSAN Dianne Kalisz, a suicide attempt survivor and Active Minds president, stresses the importance of self-care.
It was 1999. Her mom, who had a mental illness, was arrested during her senior year in high school. Shortly after, her dad — a Holocaust survivor — started to decline in health.
Dianne Kalisz's depression began early in high school after a friend's death but escalated as a senior. It began with selfharm.
By the end of her freshman year in college, she could hardly get out of bed and would drink to get through the day. She was 19 and also struggling with her sexual orientation. After a broken relationship, she was devastated and had no one to turn to. Later that year, she attempted suicide.
"I was lost, and I felt my only option was suicide," said Kalisz, a junior from Brownsville, Texas.
"I may not always enjoy it or even like it, but I recognize that I am learning how to live, how to actually live and that's progress," she said. "That's hope and sometimes that's all we need."
She attempted suicide two times after her first attempt in '99 — her most recent attempt was about four years ago. Kalisz was honest and said she still wrestles with suicidal thoughts from time to time. She said it's important to remember self-care.
Today, she's the president of the University's chapter of Active Minds, an organization dedicated to reducing stigmas about mental illness. She went back to school 15 years later with one goal in mind: help others in the same situation.
In Kansas, suicide prevention counselors are trying technology-based methods to help people faster. Texting and other technology-driven programs aim to curb suicide rates, according to a 2011 report by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology. Because younger people use technology more, national suicide lifelines have added tools, like texting programs, to try to reduce suicide.
Chris Maxwell, the project coordinator who began a chat program at the Kansas Youth Suicide Prevention Resources Center, said people can reach out when they want and say what they need to in a matter of seconds, which might better help counselors k now what to do in a moment of crisis.
"I want to die," read one message. Chats like these spur conversations that can last as long as two hours." Maxwell said . "It's just like a floodgate releasing at that point. We're on the same path to innovative ways to connect with people who are in crisis."
The Kansas Youth Suicide Prevention Resource Center is the main initiative to reach suicidal young people faster. The center runs the only suicide prevention lifeline in Kansas. It is a branch of the national Suicide Prevention Resource Center supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In January 2013 the center joined the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Crisis Chat program and saw a surge in users.
Chat counseling conversations are typically straightforward.
Kalisz said she's a strong believer in these chat programs because of the common goal: the survival of another human being.
"I mean what could possibly more important than that?" she said.
The chat program has been in the works since March 2014 and launched in June 2014. The program was fully accredited by Contact USA on Sept. 29. Since its launch, the number of counselors — both on the phone and online — has doubled, and the number of online users has tripled.
Between June 2014, when the headquarters started offering the crisis instant messaging service, and January 2015, counselors saw almost more visitors than ever before. Since joining the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Crisis Chat, almost 300 people have visited, Maxwell said.
Crisis counselor Dan Schamle, who's been at the phones since 1984, said he thinks technology-driven programs are a good idea to serve more of the
Statistics Report.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 34, according to 2015 data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 7.4 percent of adults 18-25 seriously consider suicide in 2015.
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded the Kansas center a $1.5 million grant for a three-year span. Any new plans within the state are funded through that grant. Maxwell says the funding works in connection with statewide system changes to increase suicide prevention awareness.
The chat program began with two counselors and by targeting only Douglas County. One month later, the center expanded to every county within Kansas. Users can type in any
ment stages.
"We know it needs to happen quickly, but we want to be a little more cautious with the planning stages this time around," Maxwell said.
"Researchers show these messages went into much more intense conversations. Chats will frequently start with very direct language about their desperation," he said. "The nature is just very intense."
He says messaging lends itself to anonymity but at the same time opens new lines of communication. Text or online chat messages could provide the sufferer a platform to vent without embarrassment or haying to share feelings in front of a stranger, Maxwell said. Counselors are also able to direct sufferers to help while paying at-
SEE SUICIDE ON PAGE 2