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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011
NATIONAL
PAGE 5
ROB CARR/AP FILE PHOTO
In this Feb. 7, 2010 photo, the Florida A&M University band performs on the field before the NFL Super Bowl XLV football game between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints, in Miami. Florida A&M University President James Ammons is suspending all practices and performances of the school's famed Marching 100 band until investigators can determine what led to a member's death last week. Ammons announced Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011, that the school will form an independent task force to look into the death of 26-year-old Robert Champion.
Hazing causes death
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI (AP) — Two decades ago, the now-ousted director of the Florida A&M band warned in a letter about the dangers of hazing among the famed "Marching 100" ensemble, saying "it would be very difficult for the university and the band should someone become killed or hurt."
In the following years, however, hazing seemed to become a bigger — if not a more public — problem. Police investigated several serious cases and students were arrested. Anti-hazing workshops were held. Dozens of band members were suspended. University officials and the marching band community were keenly aware of the persistent hazing, yet it continued and is believed to have played a role in the death this month of a 26-year-old drum major, Robert Champion.
Champion's death started a blame game of sorts, with the historically black college in Tallahassee firing its band director, Julian White, accusing him of "misconduct and/or incompetence." In turn, White released more than 150 pages of documents showing that he warned the university for years about what was going on.
The chair of the Board of Governors, which oversees Florida's public universities, wrote a letter to FAMU trustees Tuesday saying it would investigate whether the university administration took appropriate action to address White's concerns.
A former band member told The Associated Press on Tuesday that White looked for ways to eradicate a culture of hazing that existed in many instrument sections of the band. White invited band members to anonymously report hazing and even had police come along on some away games, former drum major Timothy Barber told AP.
In 2001, trumpeter Marcus Parker was paddled so severely
that he ended up hospitalized with kidney damage. White had police escort the trumpet section off the field to be interrogated to show he would not tolerate hazing, Barber said.
About a dozen people pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and received probation in that case, though it's not clear what actions, if any, the university took to punish them.
After the arrests, White approached Barber for help in getting rid of hazing. One area he focused on: A white wall in the band's practice field where nicknames for the instrument sections were prominently displayed. Becoming a member of these groups — the clarinets were known as "The Clones" and the tubas were the "White Whales" — meant becoming part of a tradition and a band that has played Super Bowls, the Grammys and presidential inaugurations.
But some sections had their own violent initiation rituals. White bought buckets of white paint and asked Barber to cover up the section nicknames on the wall.
"Tim, we have to find a way to eradicate these subsections of the band," Barber said White told him. "Cover the names so they see this is not something supported by the band staff."
While White documented his efforts to stop the hazing, it's possible he could've done more on the front lines, according to Richard Sigal, a retired sociology professor at County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J., who has studied hazing.
"Maybe he just had a problem that was beyond his ability to control it," Sigal said. But in general, "If the person at the top issued a zero tolerance policy for hazing and oversaw what the people under him were doing, then there was no hazing."
hazing played a role, but no one has been willing to shed any more light on what actually happened Nov. 19 after the football team lost to its rival, Bethune-Cookman. Police have said only that Champion started vomiting and complained he couldn't breathe before he collapsed on a band bus outside their hotel in Orlando.
The details of Champion's death are unclear. Authorities, the school and an attorney for his family said
The university has announced an independent review and Gov. Rick Scott has asked state investigators to join the sheriff's department in its investigation.
University officials declined interview requests for this story, but president James Ammons, who earned his bachelor's and master's from FAMU, issued a statement late Tuesday.
"Our incidents are few, but nevertheless hazing and harassment continues to be a problem," White wrote the then director of bands William P. Foster in 1989 after a hazing death involving a fraternity at Morehouse University. "It would be very difficult for the university and the band should someone become killed or hurt because of hazing."
"The university has a zero tolerance policy toward hazing. Period. But it is becoming increasingly clear that hazing continues to exist — at FAMU and across the country at other universities, colleges and other elements — because hazing survives and thrives in a culture of secrecy and a conspiracy of silence. I am committed to illuminating this dark corner of Florida A&M University and the American culture ... illuminating it and eradicating it."
White is fighting his dismissal, which is why he submitted the documents to the school, including dozens of suspension letters for hazing over the last decade, and communications alerting university police.
In the weeks before Champion's death, White suspended 26 band members for hazing.
Libraries and coffee shops extend hours during finals
LAWRENCE
BREANNA MCCARTHY
bmccarthy@kansan.com
While some students may think it's too soon to start thinking about them, finals start in less than two weeks and many students are wondering where they'll be able to do their studying.
3 a.m. The help desks at those locations won't stay open all night. At Watson and Anschutz, the help desk will close at midnight from Sunday through Thursday and at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Spahr will maintain those same closing hours from Sunday through Friday, but on Saturday,
"I get really distracted in the library, especially Anschutz."
The KU libraries will be extending their hours starting Sunday, and cafes in those libraries will also stay open l
VANESSA PHILLIPS Wichita senior
Both Anschutz and Spahr libraries will be open 24 hours, but Watson Library will close at
the help desk will close at 5 p.m.
Some students, though, won't be doing their studying in the libraries, Vanessa Phillips, a senior from Wichita.
said she'll either study in her apartment or at a coffee shop.
"I get really distracted in the library, especially Anschutz, because I know a lot of people" she said. "I'll take study breaks to walk around, and I'll get distracted by talking to other people, so it's not a solid place for me to study."
A few coffee shops downtown will be open late. Both Henry's, 11 E. Eighth St., and The Bourgeois Pig, 6 E. Ninth St., will be open until 2 a.m. Java Break, 17 E. Seventh St., is open 24 hours.
However, some shops downtown will close at their normal times, so if students plan on visiting Milton's, Starbucks, Aimee's or Z', they should know that they'll have to leave at 10 p.m. or earlier.
—Edited by Jason Bennett
UNIVERSITY
KU Endowment relaunches more informative website
IAN CUMMINGS icummings@kansan.com
Students can now visit KU Endowment's website either to give or get money.
The redesigned website, launched Nov. 16, highlights functions of KU Endowment that weren't as well-known before, according to Rosita Elizalde-McCoy, senior vice president of communications for KU Endowment. Included on the website is information about Endowment's student loan program, which offers up to $2,000 per semester to students. Medical students often
take advantage of the loans, according to Elizalde McCoy, they are open to others as well.
But promoting the student loan program was only one of the changes. Others included promotion of modest donations and simplified website navigation.
On Tuesday, for example, the site announced a $100 gift by "Linda" to the KU Women 4 Women fund. Elizalde-McCoy said the announcement was made to encourage others to donate even small amounts. She said the average online donation was $250 and Endowment is on pace to bring in more than
$1 million online this year.
Part of Endowment's research studied the "abandonment rate" among online visitors, Elizalde-McCoy said. The abandonment rate measures the number of people who find the site too complicated and give up donating online.
In order to make the site more friendly to visitors, Endowment looked at successful online fundraising efforts at other universities, including Oregon State, University of California, Los Angeles and Oklahoma State.
Edited by Rachel Schultz