Monday inside
Teaching meditation
A Tibetan lama was in town this weekend helping Lawrence residents learn the relaxing
benefits of meditation. PAGE 3A
Smooth Transition Student Senate voted to transfer responsibility for the multicultural resource handbook from the Graduate and Professional Students Association to the senate communications director. PAGE 3A
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead Day of the Dead passed yesterday without its usual festivities because the Museum of Anthropology has closed. PAGE5A
Freshman breaks the books
Freshman quarterback Adam Barmann set a Kansas record for passing yards in a game by a freshman. PAGE 3B
Shoot out
The Kansas soccer team shut down Oklahoma State 2-0, on Friday.The Jayhawks are preparing for
the start of the Big 12 Tournament against Oklahoma later this week. PAGE12A
Weather Today
Vol.114 Issue No.51
73 54
Warm and Breezy
Two-day forecast tomorrow Wednesday
6743
Cloudy and Cooler
5441
0
Chance of Showers
-Eric Kratky
Talk to us
Tell us your news. Contact Michelle Burhenn-Rombeck, Lindsay Hanson or Leah Shaffer at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
index
Briefs 2A
Opinion 4A
Sports 12A
Sports briefs 9A
Horoscopes 10A
Comic 10A
KANSAN
Monday, November 3, 2003
The Student Newspaper of the University of Kansas
Biographer studies power
Abby Tillery/Kansar
By Zack Hemenway
zhemenway@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Pulitzer prize winner Robert Caro spoke at the Lied Center last night. Caro spoke about former President Lyndon B. Johnson, the subject of his latest book, The Years of Lydon B. Johnson; Master of the Senate.
It was hard to imagine the words were being spoken by one of the world's most successful biographers.
"I never had the slightest interest in writing a book about the life of a single man." Robert Caro said last night.
The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner then clarified his philosophy to the Lied Center crowd.
"All my books are about the study of power, in one form or another," he said
Caro spoke for an hour about his most recent "study of power," The Years of Lyndon B. Johnson: Master of the Senate. The event was part of the Presidential Lecture series sponsored by the Robert I. Dole Institute of Politics.
Master of the Senate, which earned the author his second Pulitzer, is the third volume in what will become a four-part biography of the 36th president. Caro initially planned to split his work into three volumes. However, as he began to examine Johnson's years as Senate leader, he decided it merited an entire book.
Johnson made a meteoric ascent from
"Johnson really ran the Senate." Caro said.
freshman senator to party leader, and he led the legislative body with nearly absolute power.
Caro described how Johnson controlled the group, utilizing back-room maneuvers, leaning heavily on political allies and even resorting to physical intimidation.
He related stories of how Johnson would hold a fellow senator's lapels to get his attention or corner him upon entering the chamber.
One such tale involved Johnson kicking former Senator Hubert Humphrey in the shins when the latter did not move as quickly as Johnson desired. Caro thought the story had to be exaggerated
— until he found a newspaper account of Humphreys bruises.
Caro's speaking style mirrored the cover jacket of his work, which features simple, block capital letters and few graphics. Caro spoke clearly but quietly, usually keeping one hand in a pants pocket and using the other to gesture lightly, never raising it above his sternum.
"I'm more comfortable writing than speaking in public," he said at the opening of his speech.
Departing Dole Institute director Richard Norton Smith said Caro added an important perspective to the lecture series.
"He's arguably the preeminent student of power in modern biography," Smith said.
Smith, a noted historian in his own right, will conclude the lecture series Nov. 23. Roger Wilkins will speak Sunday and David Gergen Nov.16.
Ravi DeSilva, Topeka graduate student, bought Caro's book after hearing him speak. DeSilva said he thought Caro would help him understand Johnson, whom he called "a man of contradiction."
Near the end of his speech, Caro related a quote, explaining the theme of his biography.
"I think the book could clarify things for me," he said. "You have to weigh his ruthlessness with what he accomplished."
"Whatever else may be said about me," Caro read, quoting Johnson. "I do understand power."
Timetable features help;slows enrolling
- Edited by Doyle Murphy
By Maggie Newcomer
mnewcomer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"It's a pain in the ass," David Stauffer, Olathe senior, said.
The revised online timetable of classes has proved to be a hurdle for students in the race to enroll.
The online timetable was changed this year to make searching for classes easier for students, Cindy Derritt, interim registrar said.
Changes include a help link marked by a question mark icon at the top of the Web page and a narrower search for classes.
Unlike the prev. "It's a pain in the ass."
David Stauffer Olathe senior
unable, which displayed all classes in a school or department at once, the new setup lets students narrow their search to a
specific course.
This feature makes finding a specific class easier, but for students who want to browse for elective courses, the new timetable may actually be slowing them down.
"It takes a while to get used to," Stauffer said. "I wish we had the old timetable back."
One click would take students where they wanted to go with the old system. Now students have a series of choices to make before seeing their course options. Students can choose to see only open sections, only classes on Tuesdays or only classes on the University of Kansas Edwards Campus, among other things.
Stauffer said it took a little practice to figure out how to find the business courses he was looking for. He said if students didn't know the exact course number, it took longer to search.
Derritt wanted to remind students that they could enroll at or after their appointment time. Enrollment appointments are available through each student's Enroll and Pay account. Derritt warned that students who don't check their holds before selecting classes would be barred from enrolling until their holds were cleared. Holds are only listed in a student's personal portfolio.
Although he would favor a hard copy of the timetable, Stauffer said that dealing with the online version was worth the trouble to avoid long enrollment lines in Strong Hall.
Students can enroll for the Spring 2004 semester without being charged late enrollment fees until Jan. 23, 2004. The last day to drop a class with a full refund is Jan. 22, 2004.
KitLeffler/Kansan
Stray felines find homes
- Edited by Doyle Murphy
Mickie Jenks opened the kennel door at her sister's farm in Finland last Tuesday, where feral cats are now housed, receiving care and recuperating from neglect during their time at KU. "Cats do better in packs, and hopefully since there are a lot of them they won't run off when we let them out..." Jenska said.
Students and Animal Outreach of Kansas use determination compassion to find homes for stray cats.
BY ROBERT PERKINS
1
Julia Franklin, Topeka senior, refused to abandon the cats to their fate.
In response to the Sept. 18 University Daily Kansan article "Campus cats to lose home," Franklin, a member of AOK, decided to rescue the cats.
Without the powerhouse's walls for shelter during the winter, the cats' future looked grim.
Four stray black cats now sit together in the warmth of their new home in a barn.
Left alone, the cats went feral; that is, became too poorly socialized to be handled.
No one is positive where the cats came from, but many believe that they were KU students' pets that found themselves without a home when their owners went home for the summer, said Judy Carman, one of the three founding members of Animal Outreach of Kansas.
Until recently, the cats roamed the area around the old University of Kansas Powerhouse building; an area that is now fenced off as construction workers demolish the powerhouse to make way for the new Hall Center for the Humanities.
"I saw that and said 'We've got to do something,'" she said. "We can't ignore it."
AOK started in 2001 with three animal lovers who met at a candlelight vigil for a mother cat that had been tortured to death.
Since then, AOK has grown to an organization with 20 active members and more than 100 people in its e-group.
Franklin has been in it almost from the beginning ever since she saw footage of a slaughterhouse.
She said that joining AOK changed her life.
She said that joining NOK changed for me. "It made me realize that I can change the world a little bit," she said.
Franklin said that usually AOK just tried to raise
SEE HOMES ON PAGE 6A
N
---
A