THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
NEWS
3A
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. 2008
TECHNOLOGY (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Robertson said one option for funding the expansion would be to charge students living in the residence halls a technology fee in addition to the $98.45 fee students paid for ResNet this semester. But she said one problem with this option was that students who paid the fee in the next few years might not have wireless Internet access because not enough fees would have accumulated by the time they moved out.
Information Services proposed a fee like this last year, but the Student Housing Advisory Board voted it down, requesting that ResNet make stronger plans for how they would use the fee to improve wireless access in
residence halls.
"Any time we take the next step, we want to make sure we're doing the right things to meet students' needs at that time." Robertson said. "We're thrilled we're getting it into the lobbies at this point."
All of the Big 12 schools provide some wireless access in residence halls. Kansas State University and Oklahoma State University are the only two that have completely wireless residence halls.
Natalie Kolega, Shawnee sophomore, lives in Hashinger Hall. Kolega said she didn't mind not having wireless Internet access because she usually went off-campus to study. As for an additional technology fee, Kolega
said she would pay if it was a relatively low fee, but it wasn't worth it to pay a lot for a service she might never use.
"It like people who are paying for free buses in their fees who don't ride the bus," Kolega said. "I think it's the same concept."
Kolega said she would support using the current ResNet fees to fund improvements to the wireless Internet coverage in residence halls.
But for now, Robertson said installing wireless in the large lobbies of residence halls would give students a lot more flexibility in Internet access.
Edited by Becka Cremer
- Kansas State University provides wireless internet in all residence halls.
- The University of Missouri provides wireless Internet in limited locations, including common areas on each floor. Wireless access is not available in individual rooms.
BIG 12 WIRELESS
- Texas Tech University provides wireless internet in residence hall lobbies but not in individual rooms.
- Texas A&M University provides wireless Internet only in honors residence hall. Texas A&M is planning to become fully wireless by 2012.
provides wireless Internet in residence hall lobbies and is planning to expand wireless access to individual rooms by Fall 2009.
- Iowa State University
- The University of Colorado provides wireless Internet access in some residence halls.
- The University of Nebraska provides wireless Internet access in some residence halls and is planning to expand wireless coverage to all residence halls by Fall 2010.
- Baylor University provides wireless Internet access in
common areas of residence halls, but not in individual rooms.
- Oklahoma State University provides wireless access in all residence halls.
- The University of Oklahoma provides wireless internet in some residence halls and is in the process of becoming fully wireless.
ENVIRONMENT
- The University of Texas provides wireless Internet access in all residence halls, but not every room has strong wireless coverage.
Source: Individual Big 12 universities
NASA researcher discusses climate change challenges, solutions
BY JOE PREINER
jpreiner@kansan.com
Global warming isn't all bad news.
Government policy might not be changing, but public awareness of the problem is on the rise.
That was the message James Hansen, NASA administrator and researcher, delivered Monday afternoon to a packed house at the Spahr Engineering Classroom.
Hansen's lecture, "Threat to the Planet: Dark and Bright Sides of Global Warming," focused on the continuous changes that affected the climate of the planet. He said the burning of fossil fuels played
a large part in the deteriorating condition of Earth's atmosphere.
"If we want to preserve a planet like the one we've had over the last 1,000 years, we've got to reduce the CO2 level," Hansen said.
The good news is that the severity of the situation is producing positive change. Hansen said the necessity of reducing greenhouse gas emissions had become a mainstream issue. He said the reduction of these emission levels
Hansen
would help minimize the effects of climate change that had previously seemed unavoidable.
"You're going to see changes," Hansen said. "You can mark my word on that."
Niall Kelleher, St. Louis junior, said he agreed with Hansen. Kelleher said he could see change coming with the continuing development of the scientific realm. He also said that he believed most people cared about climate change, but that contradictory arguments confused people as to what was really going on.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 30 percent since the Industrial
Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, according to an article on Encyclopedia of Earth, an online reference for environmental issues. The article also states that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere grows by about two parts per million each year. That growth overwhelms the earth's geologic system, which is accustomed to slow changes. These emissions are rapidly changing the atmosphere.
Hansen said the levels of carbon dioxide were at a point where they could cause polar ice caps to melt. He said the recent increase in melting had resulted in both Greenland's and Antarctica's ice sheets losing mass. Along with
"The public doesn't yet recognize that we have reached a point of emergency," Hansen said during his presentation. "They stick their head outside and think, 'This feels great.' We are very capable of changing the planet."
the melting polar ice, Hansen said climate change also caused animal extinction and increased the number of wild fires.
The main problem, according to Hansen, is carbon dioxide. He said half of the CO2 in the atmosphere today can be attributed to the burning of coal. Hansen said one solution was to eliminate the use of coal as a fossil fuel. If that solution was implemented, Hansen said, the
problem of global warming would become more solvable.
Brandon Dekosky, Overland Park senior, said it was refreshing to hear Hansen speak because he was able to approach climate change from many different angles. Dekosky said he also felt good about Gov Kathleen Sebelius' veto of the Holcomb coal plant proposal this year. The two coal-fired plants have been a hotly debated issue in Kansas since they were proposed last fall.
Hansen was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2006.
ECONOMY
Rescue package causes anxiety
Edited by Mary Sorrick
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Elation in the financial markets over the $700 billion bank bailout plan evaporated Monday and was replaced by alltoo-familiar anxiety, pummeling stocks and sending oil prices to their biggest one-day gain.
Worries that the rescue package would cost too much, drive up inflation, swell the already-bloated deficit and hurt the ailing economy also led global investors to flee the U.S. dollar.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trader Jason Weisberg studies his handheld device as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. Wall Street fell in early trading as investors nervously awaited further news about the government's plan to buy $700 billion in banks' mortgage debt.
The Dow Jones industrials lost 372 points, wiping out the gains the index made Friday after administration officials and congressional leaders promised swift action to get bad debt off the books of banks and end the financial crisis.
"Ivestors had a weekend to look at the news that was streaming out, and they are now finding fault in it," said Joseph Battipaglia, market strategist in the private client group at the investment firm Stifel Nicholaus.
Oil prices briefly spiked more than $25 a barrel before falling back to settle at $120.92, up $16.37, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That shattered the previous record for a one-day jump in crude oil, $10.75.
Monday was also the last day for investors to trade the October oil futures contract, adding fuel to the rally. But the November contract also saw a sharp gain, up $6.62 to $109.37.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a statement it was "closely monitoring today's large movement in the price of crude oil."
The government agency that regulates commodities markets said it was working with Nymex to "ensure that no one is taking advantage of the current stresses facing our financial marketplace for their own manipulative gain."
Four days after word of a massive government rescue plan began to hit the market, investors had little by way of details. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson introduced the plan Saturday in a document that ran less than three full pages.
Analysts said some of the gain could have come from large investors trying to cover short positions, or bets that prices would fall.
By Monday, investors still knew little about how the Bush administration would pay for mopping up the bad debt, how the process would work, who would run it and what the Democratic-controlled Congress would ask for to approve
the plan.
The Bush administration is already forecasting that the federal deficit will hit a record $482 billion next year. Analysts say the bailout costs mean a $1 trillion annual deficit not out of the question.
Lacking specifics, many investors — especially foreigners — sold U.S. dollars on worries that paying for the plan would increase the federal deficit and exacerbate inflation. Over the past year, overall inflation is at 5.4 percent.
"When you try to print $1 trillion, that will kill your currency, lifting oil prices, which then in turn will not help the stock market," said Gary Kaltbaum, who runs the money management firm Kaltbaum and Associates in Orlando, Fla. "It is a vicious cycle, and we are seeing that right now."
The 15-nation euro rocketed past $1.48 in late afternoon trading Monday, up more than 3 cents from Friday in its largest single-day move against the dollar since the European currency was introduced
Credit markets, the lifeblood of the economy, loosened a bit. They had seized up last week when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection and the government rescued giant insurer American International Group Inc. with an $85 billion, two-year loan.
The Dow finished at 11,015.69,
down 372.75 points, more than 3
percent. The sharp drop was reminiscent of last week's wild trading,
which included two days of
400-plus-point drops for the Dow
and two days of 300-plus-point increases.
in 1999. The British pound leaped to $1.8584 from $1.8365, and the dollar dropped to 105.40 Japanese yen from 107.01.
NATIONAL State assumes custody of minors in child porn case
NATIONAL
FOUKE, Ark. — Six minors have been temporarily placed in state custody as part of a child porn investigation after a raid on a ministry run by a man who says "consent is puberty" when it comes to sex, officials said Sunday.
The children will be in the custody of the Arkansas Department
of Human Services as investigators interview them, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said in a statement.
Sadler didn't say how long the interviews would last, but did say that courts would decide the children's status in the event of any "long-term separation" from the property of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in rural Fouke.
He did not say how old the children were,but an e-mail that
authorities inadvertently sent to media members last week referred to 12-, 13- and 14-year old girls.
The move comes after a raid Saturday by more than 100 federal and state authorities. Investigators said they were focusing on convicted tax evader Tony Alamo and his ministry, described by its critics as a cult.
Associated Press
Craig, Debby and Mary - Pharmaceutical Sales Team
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What: Information Session
Who: Eli Lilly and YOU
Where: The International Room-Kansas Union When: September 23, 2008
Why: We will be providing information about a free class to be held Monday nights beginning October 6,2008 through November 10,2008.
Free refreshments provided.
For more information, please contact University Career Services.
Be connected. Be inspired. Be a catalyst.
Visit lilly.com/careers
LILLY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER