JAYHAWK SOCCER TEAM UPSETS NO.11 TEXAS A&M IN THE BIG 12 TOURNAMENT
Kansas will play Missouri this Friday after defeating the Aggies 4-2. SPORTS | 1B
Jayplay INSIDE
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2008
VOLUME 120 ISSUE 56
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
CAMPUS
Voting open for game day T-shirt contest
Five finalists remain out of more than 300 entries for The University Daily Kansan's "Search for the Shirt" contest, which aims at finding an official game day shirt for KU athletics events. Students can vote for their favorite slogan online at Kansan.com until next Thursday, Nov. 13.
ECONOMY
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
Owners fight rising costs of imports, cut quantities
The decreasing value of the U.S. dollar has made importing goods expensive for local businesses. Owners of businesses such as Hobbs, The Bay Leaf and Au Marché have had to cut back on imports and raise prices to be able to pay bills.
FULL STORY PAGE 5A
Photo Illustration by Jon Goerina
BUSINESS
Local bakeries affected by wheat prices
Rising wheat prices have caused local bakeries and pizza shops to raise prices and look for new ways to cut costs. Some local businesses have raised prices by as much as 46 percent in the past year and half.
FULL STORY PAGE 4A
After a night at the bars
DUI arrests in Lawrence have declined since 2003, but 18 percent of students say they have risked the fines, license suspension and social consequences of drinking and driving.
BY JOE PREINER
jpreiner@kansan.com
The bars are closing. It's 2 a.m. Ryan has been drinking for nearly six hours. On an average night, he consumes anywhere from five to 10 drinks, usually a combination of shots and beer. He and his friends stumble out onto the sidewalk in downtown Lawrence.
And then Ryan drives home.
"I don't usually get wasted." Ryan said.
"So when I leave, I am still feeling fine"
Ryan, a Kansas City, Kan., senior who said he didn't want his last name included, doesn't get pulled over this time. In fact, he has never been pulled over despite drinking and driving more times than he said he could remember during the past two years. Ryan is lucky.
and $1,000.
The most recent statistics available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said about 1.46 million people in the United States were arrested for driving under the influence in 2006. In Lawrence, DUI arrests have dropped 30 percent since 2003, according to the Lawrence Police Department's crime statistics.
Eighteen percent of KU students said they had driven after consuming at least five alcoholic beverages, according to the 2006 National College Health Assessment.
The Lawrence Police Department, which has jurisdiction over Massachusetts Street and the surrounding area, issued 219 DUI tickets in the first six months of this year. The department has issued an average of almost 42 DUIs each month for the last three years.
The penalties for being caught driving under the influence of alcohol can be severe. Michele Kessler, attorney and associate director of Legal Services for Students, said there were two different sides to the legal implications of a DUI. One part of the process involves state laws and a suspension of a driver's license. The other involves those of the city or county where the offense occurred.
Kessler said some chose to fight DUI tickets. A request for a hearing has to be filed within 10 days of the ticket, or the case can't be heard in court. She said the process entailed two separate cases, which addressed the licence suspension and fine attached to the infraction. The city charges first-time offenders between $500
Jenny McKee, health educator for Student Health Services, said the fine was put into perspective by how much students spent on alcohol. McKee said the University's online e-CHUG program, which monitors students' drinking habits, reported the average amount an average student spent on alcohol during a year was $999.04.
Kessler said a DUI charge can hinder a student's future endeavors. In addition to monetary consequences, Kessler said, the criminal offense could damage one's reputation and affect a person's ability to get a job.
Kim Murphree, records manager for
"We've had incidents where students get in the car, put the key in and pass out," Kessler said. "You're operating even though you didn't get on the street."
Kessler said police officers needed a probable cause to pull someone over if they suspected that person of driving under the influence.
Sgt. Bill Cory of the Lawrence Police Department said police looked for drivers who commit basic traffic infractions, such as swerving, having burnt- up headlights or failing to stop completely at stop signs.
Lawrence Police Department, said the decrease in DUIs could be attributed to the police actively enforcing drinking and driving laws. She said the department also encouraged citizens to report suspicious driving.
Edited by Becka Cremer
DUI numbers
$500 - minimum fine for a
DUI
$1,000 - maximum fine for first-time DUI
48 hours spent in jail for a DUI
100 - hours of community service to avoid jail-time
Source: Michele Kessler, attorney and associate director of Legal Services for Students
ECONOMY
University looks for more ways to trim spending
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announces 3-percent budget cuts; Chancellor's Office awaits advice from Regents
BY RYAN MCGEENEY
rmcgeeney@kansan.com
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announced Wednesday that state agencies would face 3-percent budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year. While Sebelius said she planned to spare K-12 education from the belt-tightening, most state institutions, including the University, will have to find ways to carve enough from their individual budgets to reach the $60 million cut.
The decision stems from a meeting of the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group, an agency within the Kansas Division of the Budget. On Tuesday, the group reduced the 2009 fiscal year General Fund forecast by $211 million.
Nicole Corcoran, press secretary for Sebelius, said the governor had instructed heads of all state agencies to fill only essential positions at this time, and that deeper cuts for fiscal year 2010 were likely.
Sebelius said that a state tax increase was likely off the table, because Kansas families were already having difficulty
Lynn Bretz, director of University Communications, said Wednesday afternoon that the Chancellor's office was awaiting guidance from the Kansas Board of Regents regarding how the University should meet the coming budget restrictions.
The $137 million budget shortfall is largely attributed to a decline in income tax revenue, as well as reduced property taxes as home values have sunk in the wake of the collapsing housing bubble.
weathering the financial downturn.
"KU's mission is to provide a high
quality education to the students on Kansas," Bretz said. "For some time, we've been focusing on how to do that as efficiently as possible. When we got word this summer about the potential for budget cuts, we began looking hard at ways we could trim our expenditures. Obviously, with the governor's announcement today, we'll need to continue that approach."
Bretz said that the University began evaluating expenditures in July, when the governor's office announced 1- to 2-percent budget cuts. With Wednesday's
announcement, Bretz said that KU administrators and Regents would continue working with legislators in much the same way to find the most reasonable ways to deal with the economic downturn.
"One thing we ask people to keep in mind is that we're all looking at a short-term budget shortfall," Bretz said. "But over the long term, KU's mission is to help create an educated workforce for Kansas, which is exactly what the state will need to grow the economy."
—Edited by Becka Cremer
index
Classifieds. ... 3B Opinion... 7A
Crossword. ... 6A Sports... 1B
Horoscopes. ... 6A Sudoku... 6A
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2008 The University Daily Kansan
CALIFORNIA BANS
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
As many as 18,000 same-sex marriages could be affected. NATIONAL | 5A
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