6A the university daily kansan
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mursdav, october 30, 2003
news
Lindsey Gold/Kansan
Kayce Seidl, Omaha freshman, talked with fellow members of the Kansas cheer squad at practice on Tuesday evening. Seidl, a microbiology major, has been cheering competitively for seven years. She practices three days a week and attends open gym once a week where the group works on tumbling.
Freshman cheerleader breaks stereotype, has goal to succeed
By Zack Hemenway
zhenmenway@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Every face in the crowd and every name in the phone book has a story behind it. Every week, Kansan staff writer Zack Hemenway tells the story of a randomly selected KU student.
From Hollywood movies to high school hallways, the title of cheerleader carries with it a certain image.
Kayce Seidl's roommate tries to stop these stereotypes before they start.
"She says, 'My roommate's a cheerleader,' and they'd say, 'A cheerleader?'?" Seidl, Omaha freshman, said. "But before they could say anything else, she'd say, 'no, she's smart.'"
Seidl, a microbiology major, said movies like Bring It On helped cultivate people's ideas of ditsy, appearance-obsessed Barbie dolls.
"They make cheerleaders look dumb," she said. "It's
Seidl has been cheerleading competitively since the seventh grade, and her squad in Omaha, Neb. won three straight national championships. She tried out for the University of Kansas squad this fall and made the team.
cheesy and exaggerated."
Maintaining a constant smile is an important aspect to cheerleading. Seidl said she enjoyed doing the tumbling lifts and performances and that creating a happy appearance was no problem. But Seidl admitted that even she didn't smile all the time.
"When they're winning it's a lot easier," she said. "But if I don't want to smile, I'll just turn away from the stands for a second."
Seidl said she loved being in front of the crowd, going to competitions and most other aspects of cheerleading. But she said she didn't want to be labeled.
"I went to a party, and a girl told everyone I met I was a cheerleader," she said. "I don't think it's a big deal. It's just something I do on campus."
Seidl's decision to come to the University wasn't an easy one.
Faces in the Crowd
Her two older brothers both stayed in the Omaha area to attend school, and her family's roots are in Iowa.
"When I said I was coming here, my brothers said they'd disown me," she said with a laugh.
If Seidl continues with her current major, she'll split her time between cheerleading and a heavy science curriculum during the next four years. Seidl said if she stayed with microbiology she would attend medical school after college.
Her friend Luke Kingry said he thought she could succeed if she stayed with the major. Kingry, Omaha junior in microbiology, helps Seidl with her classes.
"She'd be great in microbiology," he said. "She's really good with science."
Right now, the only certainty in Seid's plans is a job working with
children. If she goes to medical school her goal will be pediatrics. Seidl said she also was considering majors in pediatric physical therapy and elementary education.
"I love kids, I've always worked well with them," she said. "You get a chance to be a kid yourself."
Seidl worked with children for a year and a half volunteering at Children's Hospital in Omaha. She said that working with sick children could be depressing at times, but that as a whole, the experience was fulfilling.
"It's so great when you can make them smile," she said. "Their faces would just light up."
Making people smile is an important part to Seidl's life and goals.
Shawnee district attorney seeks Topeka mayor's ouster
From volunteer work to cheering at games, keeping a smile on her face serves as the primary strategy in accomplishing this goal.
Edited by JJ Hensley
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Mayor Butch Felker, suspended from office over allegations that he violated campaign finance laws, maintains that the Shawnee County district attorney lacks the legal authority to oust him.
An ouster trial is scheduled Nov. 17 to 18 before Eric Rosen, the Shawnee County district judge who suspended the mayor on Oct. 17.
On Monday, Felker attorney Michael Francis asked Rosen to dismiss the ouster action, dismiss the suspension and reinstate Felker to office.
District Attorney Robert Hecht responded in a document filed
Tuesday that he isn't trying to remove Felker from office "merely" for Campaign Finance Act violations, but because that under the civil ouster law he has "forfeited his office and should be removed."
Fetker willfully acted with misconduct, willfully neglected to perform a legal duty and committed an act that violates a penal statute involving moral turpitude. Hecht wrote.
When the Legislature passed the Campaign Finance Act in 1981, legislators gave authority to oust elected officials, other than judges and state legislators, to the attorney general, Francis wrote.
Felker's contention that Hecht doesn't have authority to oust him focuses on wording in the Kansas Campaign Finance Act.
attorney has no authority to bring an ouster action under the Campaign Finance Act and, therefore, lacks standing to proceed."
"Only the attorney general can bring an action to oust a mayor for violations of campaign finance laws," Francis wrote in a seven-page filing. "The district
Felker is in the third year of his third four-year term as mayor.
Maryland man says media bias made fair trial impossible
BALTIMORE — A 61-year-old man who stockpiled ammunition and told police a race war was coming pleaded guilty yesterday to misdemeanor weapons charges, saying he had been demonized by the media and could never expect a fair trial.
Lovell Wheeler spent nearly four months in jail after police seized gunpowder, guns and ammunition from his home. He was unrepentant yesterday, telling Judge Lynn K. Stewart that he had been arrested on a warrant "bogus as a two-dollar bill" by "jack-booted thugs."
more than five pounds of smokeless gunpowder and storing smokeless gunpowder in something other than its original containers. He received a five-year suspended sentence and three years probation under the plea agreement, and was freed.
Wheeler pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, possession of
The Associated Press
Wheeler said he had been falsely described in the media as a white supremacist and a member of a neo-Nazi party.
He's accused of falsifying a campaign finance report from his 2001 mayoral campaign to hide questionable contributions and the identities of some contributors. Felker, who admitted committing the violations, was fined $7,500 in July by the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.
"I'm not white." Wheeler declared, turning to face the courtroom crowded with reporters. "I'm a half-breed Indian. You can see by the shape of my face. And I'm not a member of any organization."
Police raided Wheeler's house July 1 and seized 62 pounds of
smokeless powder, 22 guns, ammunition, body armor and weapon parts. During the raid, Wheeler handed officers literature from the National Alliance, a neoNazi group based in West Virginia, and told them a race war was coming, according to court documents.
He was initially granted bail of $2 million, but a judge revoked it after prosecutors argued Wheeler was a threat to the community. The case was championed by civil libertarians, who argued it was unusual and unfair for a man to be held without bail on misdemeanor charges
Wheeler agreed to forfeit the guns, ammunition and gun components seized and agreed that he will not obtain any of those items for three years. *
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