THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2008
NEWS
3A
ENDOWMENT (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
of his office Thursday and was unavailable for comment. However, Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, agreed with Seuferling's prediction.
"I think that's very much a possibility," said Roney, whose office handles the bulk of general scholarships. "What we don't know is what donors might do."
the same reductions, or the same situations', Seuferling said.
Roney said that donors who have major financial resources available sometimes contribute money for the University to spend immediately in situations like this rather than over time in an endowed fund.
"I think the important part is that student scholarships will remain a top priority, especially those that are renewable," she said.
Incoming freshmen and transfer students also might suffer from a lack of financial aid in the form of scholarships. This could make attending the University less attractive and drag down the University's national rankings.
"Unfortunately it does present a challenge, but at the same time, all other universities are dealing with
Lily Boyce, a Lawrence sophomore on a renewable endowment-funded scholarship, said she was not worried about her scholarship.
"I'm not worried at the moment because they told me not to worry," she said, referring to an e-mail she received Wednesday from
the University assuring her that she would continue to receive her scholarship. "Maybe I should, but for now, I trust them."
Daniel Foiles, Lenaex sophomore, said that he was not worried, but that the University's letter opened his eyes to the reality of the situation.
"If KU says that my scholarships are safe then I believe them," he said. "I guess the only thing that worries me is I didn't realize that my scholarships could be taken away for any other reason besides me not completing the academic requirements."
Edited by Rachel Burchfield
PRAYER SERVICE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Allison Richardson/KANSAN
Zach Siegel, El Paso, Texas, sophomore, Jordan Leboyer, Chicago sophomore, Michael Solganik, Overland Park sophomore, and others watch Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel speak at the Memorial and Solidarity Gathering on Thursday night. The memorial was playing tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
service.
"It's good to be some place with other people, honoring someone. People shouldn't forget the dead." Adkison said.
Along with the prayer service, the Lawrence Chabad Jewish Center is participating in the funds held for the Holtzberg's orphaned son, and the rebuilding of the Chadab House
in Mumbai. Other Jewish couples have already volunteered to work at the Chabad House in Mumbai.
"If this attack deters us we're giving into the terrorists," Tiechtel said.
A Jewish Shabbat will be held at 4:30 p.m. today at the Chabad House in Lawrence. There will also be a candle-lighting ceremony. This will
be part of "Mitzvot for Mumbai, A Global Campaign of Goodness and Kindness" the Lawrence Chabad House is participating in. The purpose of the campaign is for people to do good deeds and post them to the campaign's Web site in honor of the victims of Mumbai.
Edited by Ramsey Cox
LOCAL
KC mayor's wife heavily involved
BY ANDALE GROSS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The people of Kansas City thought they were getting a straight-shooter with financial smarts as their new mayor. What they got, critics say, is a henpecked husband who needs his wife to tell him what to do.
In an era when politicians get in trouble for infidelity, Mayor Mark Funkhouser finds himself under fire for his devotion to his wife, a sharp-elbowed New Yorker whose role as his closest adviser has locals wondering who's really running this city of 450,000.
"I knew Mark for almost 18 years as auditor and didn't even know he was married. It's not like he needed his wife when he was auditor," said City Councilman Ed Ford, a leading critic of Funkhouser and his wife, Gloria Squitiro. "I think we were all surprised that he felt she was so indispensable once he became mayor."
Squitiro ran her husband's campaign for mayor, and after he got elected last year, she took a desk near his office in City Hall.
That arrangement came to
end soon after a former mayoral aide filed a lawsuit last summer in which she accused Squitiro of making lewd comments around the office and calling the aide, a black woman, "Mammy".
The council responded with an anti-nepotism ordinance that bars Squitiro from volunteering in the mayor's office. Funkhouser vetoed it, and the council overrode the veto. Funkhouser shot back by suing the city, saying the ordinance infringed on his authority.
He also began conducting a large share of city business from his home, stunning members of the council.
"I think government business should be done at City Hall and not out of the mayor's home." Ford said. "Part of it's transparency. Part of it is 'Why is the mayor working out of his home?' It's obviously so Gloria can be by his side."
The Kansas City Star, which backed his candidacy, retracted its endorsement last month. Funkhouser has also become a routine target of the paper's editorial cartoons, including one this week that lampooned the power couple as "Nitro" and "Glycerin."
In a letter to the editor this week, one reader said: "I didn't
see her name on the ballot. I don't recall a two-for-one deal." Another wrote recently: "He should be removed from office immediately so he can spend all of his time with his wife without his job getting in the way. Separation anxiety problem solved."
Funkhouser said he and his wife are a political team. "The idea that I'm this infantile guy who's tied to his wife's apron strings and has to have her right there holding his hand — anybody who knows me knows that's silly," he said.
In an interview at the couple's home on Thursday, Squitti declared she has "never met a more manly man" than her husband, suggested her critics are annoyed by her brash personality, and said the couple's team approach is her way of helping him succeed.
As for the allegations in the lawsuit, the couple's lawyers said that Squitiro routinely gave affectionate nicknames to staffers and that the word "Mammy" came from Squitiro's adding an "e" sound to the word "Maam."
In a sworn statement, Squitiro acknowledged making sexual references but insisted they were jokes.
LAWRENCE
Barber wins NAACP businessman of the year award
BY CARNEZ WILLIAMS editor@kansan.com
Martin "Marty" Watson, owner of Watson's Barbershop, hovers about his storefront shop chatting with customers as he styles a man's hair, clippers buzzing. Watson never seems to touch the ground, despite the fact that he's been standing all day.
Watson, 24, jokes back and forth with a steady stream of customers flowing in and out the door. Business for him is as good as usual, something he attributed mainly to quality work and professionalism.
Martin "Marty" Watson trims a customer's hair Thursday afternoon. Watson was named the Lawrence 2008 NAACP Minority Businessman of the Year.
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
"If I sit anybody down I know they're coming back," Marty said. "Within 15 minutes you get good conversation, a quality cut and your time — my full attention."
Watson, also the Lawrence 2008 NAACP Minority Businessman of the Year, said he has somewhat of a monopoly in Lawrence. Watson says only two licensed black barbers reside in Lawrence: him and his employee Tim "Nellie" Nelson.
Marty serves about 15 to 20 customers a day, ranging from KU athletes and coaches to business professionals. No matter who the customer is, Marty's gift of gab will put them at ease, Kasey Cullors, Wichita senior and Marty's roommate, said. Marty is the same person at home as he is at work.
"Marty is probably the youngest old person I know," Cullors said. "You think this person has got to be 50."
Equally important to some patrons is Marty's role as a counselor. Earle Mosley, a former KU football coach, said most coaches and players do not live a normal life.
cial child.
"Everybody needs somebody to talk to, someone they trust," Mosley said. He also said that the players can find some normalcy.
Coming to Marty's provides him and his players a comfortable place to relax, often with talk about sports, women, politics and the occasional gossip.
As a child she said he could talk to anyone.
Marty's outgoing personality and eagerness to get to know people, is what Camellia Watson,' his mother, said made him a spe-
His sister, Kendra Watson, 30, also said the fun-loving jokester that customers see today is the same outgoing, chunky kid she nicknamed "Fat" growing up in Parsons, a small town in southeast Kansas. She watched as he started up his first business, "Watson's Back-Porch Barbershop," as an eighth grader.
"He enjoyed talking to older people," Camellia said.
There, Kendra said she saw Marty's personality and hair-cutting skills culminate. Every day after school, friends, family, teachers and community members lined their backyard for Watson's $2 haircuts. People came from across southeast Kansas for haircuts.
"People still ask for him," Kendra said. "People come all the way from the Pittsburg area because they remember he cut hair."
His brother, Ronald Watson, Jr., 27, said Marty was always the most creative one in the family.
He said when he and Marty weren't playing baseball or basketball or wrestling each other in a heated exchange, Watson would always draw designs for his customer's hair.
Tim "Nellie" Nelson, left, Martin "Marty" Watson, center, and Benjamin "Vinnie" Van Sickle, right, serve a variety of customers from KU football players to business professionals in Watson's Barber Shop. Watson has been cut hair for most of his life.
All three alluded to how much their father Ronald Angelo Watson, also a business owner, influenced Watson. His father died when he was 16 years old.
"He has always seemed to be his own free spirit," Ronald, Jr., said. "He kind of made his own path of how to do things."
Marty won't be missing any parts of his sons' lives. He has three sons: Kyle, 3, and Adric and Gabriel, both 1. All three boys live with their mother. They often spend time with him in his shop, just like he did with his dad.
"It was kind of a chip on his shoulders," he said. "I think it motivates him to be a businessman."
He spent countless hours working side-by-side with his dad, every day before school, washing.
Ronald, Jr. said Marty often felt snubbed because his father missed part of his life.
pressing and mending clothes at his dad's cleaners, working to beat the day's heat. The business was run by Ronald and his family and serviced all of southeast Kansas.
"He showed us the value of hard work at an early age," Marty said.
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
A large portrait of Ronald, alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X with an image of the cleaners, hung opposite Marty's barber chair as he recalled the day his father died.
In August 2000, Ronald, an outgoing, humorous man, who always wore his "good hair" neatly slicked back, woke up early one morning with chest pains. Later that day, Marty, then at basketball practice, got the worst call of his life: his mother was rushing his father to the hospital. He was having a heart attack.
Marty rushed to see his dad. As he arrived, doctors were trying to stabilize him and move him to a Missouri heart hospital. They couldn't. Ronald died shortly
"When I got there they were still working on him." Marty said. "After a few hours of fighting, his heart just gave out."
after.
Camellia said her husband's death devastated Marty. He was so distraught, his grandmother bought him a car, just to keep him motivated to graduate from high school.
She said Marty began working harder than usual to compensate for his dad not being around. He took up a job at a local printing press. Suddenly, Marty felt like the family's provider, the man of the house. His brother and sister were already in college. His mother was in a state of shock.
and worked as a barber in several shops. He opened his own shop in 2005.
Three weeks after graduating from Parsons High in May 2002, Marty moved to Wichita to attend Old Town Barber and Beauty College. Only nine weeks later, Marty graduated from the barber school as the youngest licensed barber in Wichita at 19. Marty moved to Lawrence in 2004
"When he starts something he'll finish it," Camellia said. "And he finished it in a hurry."
Patrons say Marty's get-it-done business style as well as his fun-loving attitude and the overall friendly atmosphere at Watson's
Barbershop,keep them coming back.
Marty said he has only been able to do this by getting their respect, not just their money.
"They don't have to choose me." Marty said. "The fact that they do is an accomplishment."
Edited by Arthur Hur