THE UNIVERSITY MARY KANSAN
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2008
NEWS
3A
CAMPUS
Student groups offer something for everyone
Ducks Unlimited, Prison Ball Club and The Art of Living Club are among the more than 500 clubs available on campus.
BY JESSE TRIMBLE
jtrimble@kansan.com
Have an interest in ducks, prison ball or breathing? There's a campus group for you. There are 536 groups registered with the University and countless other unofficial groups that students can join. Ducks Unlimited, Prison Ball Club and the Art of Living Club are just a few this campus has to offer.
Alex Gordizella and Brian Baccariello, Lawrence juniors, are co-presidents of Prison Ball Club. Prison Ball Club has 43 official members, but has recruited many more on occasion to play the dodgeball like so.
DUCKS UNLIMITED MEMBERSHIP: 8 YEAR FOUNDED: 1995
Ducks Unlimited at the University is part of a national organization. Taylor Erickson, Herington junior and Ducks Unlimited president said the group wasn't about just waterfowl; it is interested in preserving all wildlife.
"You have to have something to hunt and you have to raise money to produce habitats for the animals you hunt," he said.
Erickson said getting the word out about Ducks Unlimited was difficult.
"Trying to market our group and get people more interested is the biggest challenge," Erickson said. "Most are confused because they ask how we can be hunters and are about conserving wildlife."
Erickson said the group had raised $2,500 by auctioning Ducks Unlimited merchandise to raise money, which was donated to Ducks Unlimited to save wildlife and conserve land.
Erickson said Ducks Unlimited wasn't yet a University-sponsored organization because groups must have support from a faculty member. He said the group hadn't made that step yet.
"Being able to meet with people at KU that have similar interests is one thing," Erickson said. "But if it's going towards a good cause, that's great, too."
Stephanie McCauley, Victorville, Calif., senior, is the only female member of Ducks Unlimited.
Ryan McGeenev/KANSAN
Both McCaulley and Erickson have hunting backgrounds and said they had grown up with the sport. McCaulley's family hunts both duck and large game. She said it was something she enjoyed, too.
McCauley said after hunting expeditions her family would always use every part of the animal. She said her mother made jewelry out of the feathers of ducks.
Erickson said the group planned to take hunting expeditions together.
He said the group would go out during the months of October through December for duck season and possibly February for goose season.
McCaulley said that for her, Ducks Unlimited was about conservation.
"It's really a club that's about the outdoors and nature — you don't have to hunt," she said. "It's just about doing your part to conserve these wetlands so they can live on for many years."
For more information, visit the "Ducks Unlimited at KU"
Facebook group.
PRISON BALL CLUB
PRISON BALL CLUB
MEMBERSHIP: 41
YEAR FOUNDED: 2008
Brian Bracciano, Lawrence junior and co-president of Prison Ball Club, said that the new group to campus wasn't just about having fun and playing ball, but that it had also been a tradition since middle school.
Prison Ball, Bracciano said, is a dodgeball-like sport that allows many people to join in the activity. He said the group had recruited more than 120 people to play before.
"It's definitely a lot more strategic than dodgeball," Bracciano said.
The game is played with the same types of balls and has two jails at opposing ends of the gym. When one person from a team is struck with a ball, they must go to the opposing team's jail and a member from their队 has to throw balls into the jail to get them out. When one member from a team throws the ball through the basketball goal, then the entire team is released from jail in a jailbreak.
Bracciano said he began a group at Free State High School and from there it had grown to forming a group on campus. He said Prison Ball Club was waiting to hear from Student Senate about funding for the group.
Alex Gordzica, Lawrence junior and co-president of the group, said Prison Ball Club was entertaining and fulfilling.
"It allows people to do something that they wouldn't normally
do", he said. "Plus, I think kids ourage have a lot of aggression and it helps get that out."
Bracciano said the group can't charge members an admission fee because it wouldn't get funding from Student Senate and the Ambler Student Recreation Center charges $15 an hour to use its gym courts.
Bracciano said the group had high hopes and would hear from Student Senate about the funding decision on Dec. 3.
"We're still using the same balls we bought back in high school," he said.
For more information, go to www.ku.edu/organizations or visit the "Prisonble: A KU Chapter" Facebook group.
THE ART OF LIVING CLUB
MEMBERSHIP: 20
YEAR FOUNDED: 2007
The Art of Living Club focuses on breathing and mind exercises.
Manas Bhatnagar, Bholal, India, sophomore and president, said certain sessions are targeted for different things.
"The Body, Breath and Mind session is one that is meant to relax you," Bhatnagar said, "It reaches the body and the mind."
Bhatnagar said he thought of the group as a way for individuals to handle their own share of stress and to uplift society.
He said the ultimate goal for the group is just to have fun.
The group offers three different sessions and meets every Wednesday at Hashinger Hall.
Certified breathing instructors teach the course and the group also brings in yoga instructors on occasion.
The club gets its name from the Art of Living Foundation, which is a national organization with courses in stress relief. According to the group's description, there are no religious components to the sessions and are primarily simple techniques of meditation, yoga and breathing.
"The instructors for the course all have full-time jobs," Bhatnagar said. "This is just volunteer work for them."
For more information, go to www.ku.edu/organizations.
Edited by Becka Cremen
ARTS
New theater to offer jobs, opportunities
BY BRANDY ENTSMINGER bentsminger@kansan.com
The old Pachamama's building at the corner of 23rd and Kasold streets looks common at first glance, but it will soon house what will be the only Shakespearean theater in Kansas.
The building's Shakespearean atmosphere — a double roof and woods with a creek and a footbridge in back — drew Victoria Hartman in.
Hartman, a playwright who recently moved to Lawrence, first noticed the building's potential while sitting on a bench outside it, finishing rewrites for her play, "Monsoon Christmas." Hartman has since developed a plan to use the building as the home of the Shakespeare Repertory Theater Company. The theater will offer students the opportunity to watch Shakespearean plays and to participate in the productions.
The building that was formerly Pachamama's Restaurant will soon be turned into a Shakespearean Theater and will employ KU students through independent study classes and internships. Students in the departments of English, theater and music and dance will have the opportunity to work at the theater, which is planned to open by next summer.
Jackie Koester, Hoisington sophomore, played the "Lady of the Night" in the University Theatre's production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" last semester.
The company plans to present five performances each season and feature professional and local actors. It will also offer about 30 independent study opportunities and internships for college students, programs for students in secondary school and training for people interested in careers in Shakespeare.
"Shakespeare's themes still have significant meanings and relevance, even in today's generation," Koester said.
Koester said a Shakespearean theater in Lawrence would give students the opportunity to explore themes such as love, hatred and passion and the history behind Shakespeare's works.
Hartman is working to build partnerships with the department of theatre and film; the department of music and dance and the schools of fine arts, business and education at the University. She said she
hoped to work with schools and universities in Lawrence, Topeka, Ottawa, Manhattan and Kansas City.
Paul Laird, professor of music and dance, spoke with Hartman about the project. He said the theater would give musicology students who generally worked with papers and presentations a chance to design, perform or arrange music for a production.
Hartman said she plans to create a managing producer position to help handle the budget, ticket sales and daily business of the company.
Joe Haugh, Leawood senior, is a marketing major with a concentration in entrepreneurship. He said an internship such as the one at the theater would be beneficial for business students.
"You actually get to put some of what you've learned out in the real world." Haugh said.
Hartman said she was excited about the design for the theater, which will include a T-shaped stage to allow for more interaction with the audience. The building will also include set and costume shops and three acoustically designed practice rooms for art forms such as stage fighting, clowning and Elizabethan dance.
Professionals from Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Mass., will teach some classes for a month-long intensive professional actor training program. Hartman said the company inspired her to start her own theater in Lawrence.
In the spring, the theater will sponsor a number of fundraisers to pay for expenses, including an "Amazing Shakespeare Race" based on the CBS program "The Amazing Race." Hartman will ask businesses to donate money for the event, which will feature contestants racing to four Kansas cities in three days, performing tasks related to Shakespearean works. The winning team will receive $10,000.
Hartman said the goal for the theater was to be self-sustaining in
Along with playwriting, Hartman is also a director and producer. Her play "Monsoon Christmas" was well received around the country, winning awards such as Critics Choice in
Edited by Becka Cremer
three to five years. She said the projected yearly revenue was $150,000 from class tuition and $300,000 from ticket sales.
The Shakespeare Repertory Theater Company is scheduled to open for the 2009 spring/summer season.
the L.A. Times for seven months and four NCAAP Image Awards. The play will premiere in New York this spring.
NATIONAL Agency found Joe the Plumber info illegally
TOLEDO, Ohio — An agency director improperly used state computers to find personal information on "Joe the Plumber," a government watchdog said in a report released Thursday.
There was no legitimate business purpose for the head of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services to order staff to look up the records, Inspector General Tom Charles said.
Investigators weren't able to determine whether the searches
were politically motivated, the report said.
Gov.Ted Strickland suspended the agency director, Helen Jones-Kelley, for a month without pay after reviewing the findings.
"All these searches were done in the midst of a national political campaign," the report said. "But we did not find any evidence that shows the data was accessed or information released in response to media requests in an effort to support any political activity or agenda."
Associated Press