Tuesday
September 24, 2002
Vol. 113, Issue No. 24
Today's weather 76°
Tonight: 51°
KANSAN
Tell us your news Call Jay Krall, Brooke Hesler or Kyle Ramsey at 864-4810
Mangino wants football team to aim for consistency p.1B
N
New organization petitions to reform financial aid eligibility
By Nathan Dayani
ndayani@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Although Hal Beckerman could use the money, he hasn't applied for federal financial aid since his freshman year after being convicted of a drug-related crime.
"I haven't applied for it since because I knew I would get rejected," said Beckerman, Prairie Village, senior.
However, the KU branch of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, an organization new to campus this fall, wants to help students like Beckerman and others who are ineligible for financial aid because of prior drug convictions.
Chase Cookson, president of the KU branch of the organization, said the group is trying to get 10,000 students — roughly one-third of the student body — to sign a petition against 1998 amendments to the Higher Education Act. The amendments effectively make students ineligible for financial aid if previously convicted of a drug-related crime.
The KU branch of the organization will send copies of the petition to Kansas senators and representatives in Washington after meeting its signature quota, said Cookson, Wichita, junior. Although Cookson said he did not expect the petitions to radically influence Congressional policy, he said the petition would send a powerful message.
"It will let them know that the students of the University of Kansas disagree with any law that is discriminatory," he said.
Cookson said the amendments to the Higher Education Act had a disparate impact on students who came from lowincome families and could not afford a college education without financial aid.
Cookson also said he hoped the petition would influence Kansas representatives to co-sponsor or support H.R. 786, a bill to overturn current drug provisions in the Higher Education Act.
Chris Johnson, associate director of student financial aid, said since January, seven KU students who applied for federal financial aid were rejected because of prior drug convictions. Johnson said those students were also ineligible for state-sponsored financial aid because that aid was dependent on federal eligibility. He also said students convicted of violent, but not drug-related crimes could be eligible for financial aid.
According to the organization's Web site, the Department of Education said about 43,000 would-be students have lost financial aid eligibility in the 2001-2002 school year because of drug-related convictions. SSDP's site also estimated many more students, such as Beckerman, chose not to apply for financial aid because of their ineligibility.
The first public meeting of the KU chapter will be held Oct. 6 at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union. Cookson said he encouraged anyone interested in the organization to attend the meeting.
But until Congress changes its amendment to the Higher Education Act, students like Beckerman will have to survive college without financial aid.
college without financial aid. "It really angers me because I could be a violent felon, I could have been convicted of armed robbery and still have had financial aid."
— Edited by Christine Grubbs
Kansans protest Cheney
KU students among demonstrators rallying against VP's Iraq policy
By George Schulz
gschulz@kansan.com
Kansan staff wriener
"It's ironic that we criticize Iraq for ignoring U.N. guidelines when we consistently ignore U.N. guidelines ourselves."
Demonstrators gathered yesterday outside the Ritz Charles Hotel in Overland Park to protest the Bush administration and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Shaun Morell Salina graduate student and member of KU Greens
Cheney came to Kansas with his wife, Lynne, to speak in support of third district Congressional candidate Adam Taff, Shawnee, a former Navy pilot who recently won the Republican primary and will face off with the Democratic incumbent
The group of protesters included students from the University of Kansas who disagreed with Cheney's foreign policy position on Iraq.
from Lenexa, Dennis Moore, in November.
Shaun Morell, Salina graduate student and member of the KU Greens, said he believed the Bush Administration was not working hard enough to gain United Nations support for a strike on Iraq.
strike on Iraq.
"It's ironic that we criticize Iraq for ignoring U.N. guidelines when we consistently ignore U.N. guidelines ourselves," he said.
SEE PROTEST ON PAGE 5A
Janette Salisbury, employee at Cafe Luna and KU graduate, checks to make sure the coffee maker is working correctly.
Anna Johnson has a backpack that weighs about 30 pounds on any given day.
"My backpack was so heavy the other day I could hardly walk upstairs," said Johnson, Minneapolis, Minn., senior.
Every day students with heav
Lindsay Gold/Kansai
bags on their backs put themselves at risk for chronic back pain later in life. Missy Caywood, staff physical therapist at Watkins Health Center, said overloaded bags could cause compression of the spine, pinched nerves or scoliosis, which is a side-to-side curving of the spine.
"A good rule of thumb is that a backpack should weigh no more than 10 to 15 percent of your body weight," she said.
Investing in a good book bag is one way to alleviate an aching back. Sunflower Outdoor and Bike Shop, 802 Massachusetts St..has
an array of bags for all shapes, sizes and needs.
"It's not so much the pack that hurts the back, it's how it's carried," said Lee Collard, hard goods buyer at the store.
SEE BACKPACKS PAGE 5A
Sipping a hazelnut raspberry mocha, Aisha Chaudhri, Overland Park junior, studies ancient philoso-hv in Cafe Luna, 12th Street and Oread Avenue.
Coffee shop perks up near campus
Lindsey Gold/Kansas
By Molly Gise
mgise@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
When Cafe Luna opened for business last week, its three coowners had less than $100 in the shop's bank account.
Brian Kalar, Steve Hochhurn and Janette Salisbury combined their money to open Cafe Luna at 12th Street and Oread Avenue.
"We decided we were going to do it and pulled all our resources together." Salisbury said. "Somehow it worked."
Unable to secure a loan, they saved and borrowed money from friends and cut corners to open Cafe Luna for about $16,000.
They chose the coffee shop's location near campus to draw in students, said co-owner Kalar, Lawrence resident.
The small building, located directly behind The Crossing, had housed a coffee shop in the past, Kalar said. That coffee shop suffered from a lack of advertising and competition from the now-closed
Glass Onion, he said.
The owners are focusing on advertising, such as fliers and possibly a sign in front of the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, Salisbury said.
Past failures and competition from several local coffee shops did not the deter the dream of Dream Luna's owners.
"We recognized there should be a
local coffee shop that's close to cam pus," Kalar said, "and we recognized that we wanted to be it."
Cafe Luna's walls are decorated with work from local artists. The owners would like to add sculptures and live music, said Salisbury, a Lawrence resident and a University of Kansas graduate. She made the metal sign that hangs outside of the shop.
Cafe Luna offers baked goods from the Community Mercantile and sells fair trade coffee. Fair trade coffee is purchased directly from coffee bean farmers instead of going through a distributor.
Buying coffee in this way ensures coffee farmers receive fair compensation for their products, Salisbury said.
Cafe Luna's location is convenient for long breaks between classes, said Evan Lance, Shawnee sophomore. Lance has an hour-long break between a class at Smith Hall and another at the Kansas Union. He spent that hour yesterday at Cafe Luna.
"I can either hang out at the Union or hang out here," Lance said.
Lawrence boasts more than 10 locally owned coffee shops. Because students make up a significant part of coffee customers, Cafe Luna's location will make it a strong competitor, he said.
"We're several blocks closer to them," Kalar said.
Cafe Luna is open every day from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
— Edited by Melissa Shuman