8A the university daily kansan
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news
friday, September 26. 2002
Megan True/Kansa
Wichita sophomore Esther Hoang poured a liquid into a beaker in her chemistry lab class yesterday afternoon. Hoang is planning on majoring in biology and going on to medical school.
Student finds family support
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.
Roommate requirements in Wichita sophomore Esther
Faces in the Crowd
hoang's house are strict non-smoker, no pets, must
have a job. Oh, and one more thing. Potential residents must be members of Hoang's family.
Hoang's father bought the house for Hoang and her brother, freshman Etter Hoang. The third bedroom sits vacant, waiting for high school senior Tina's arrival next fall.
"My dad's a real family guy," Hoang said. "He wants all of us to be together."
Hoang's father takes family togetherness seriously. Every other weekend, he, Hoang's mother, and her younger sister
The family stays close by spending this weekend time together. Hoang's parents, who are Chinese, cook traditional meals for the children.
Hoang said she missed her family and enjoyed seeing them so often. But she said that it was hard at times to balance being on her own with having her parents here.
make the three-hour drive to Lawrence and spend the entire weekend at Hoang's house.
"Sometimes I go out with my friends, and they'll call up and say, 'It's getting late, you should come home,'" she said.
Hoang said her phone usually rang with these check-in calls about 10 p.m.
Visits every other weekend and check-in phone calls on a college sophomore daughter help explain why the first word Hoang uses to describe her parents is "strict." But she said knowing about her parents heritage helped her to understand their attitudes.
"I know they've been through a lot of hardship," she said. "They didn't have much education, and they wanted a better education
and a better future for the next generation of our family."
Hoang's parents have roots in China, but spent much of their lives in Cambodia. They lived in that country during the rise of the Khmer Rouge, the oppressive military regime which took over the Cambodian government in 1975. They fled the country in 1984, and after a brief stop in the Philippines, came to the United States, like so many others, with no money, little English-speaking skills and big dreams.
Hoang said her parents had worked tirelessly since coming to the country to provide a better life for their children. She remembers her father working two jobs while attending classes when she was young.
Her parents work hard for their children, and they want Hoang and her siblings to return the favor.
"They expect a lot out of us," she said. "It makes you push yourself harder to do well."
Hoang said her parents' expectations and her experiences with American culture didn't always match.
"In our culture, we're expected
to study really hard and not leave much time for play," she said. "In America, it's more equal between work and play."
A meeting between Hoang and her parents' when she was 16 years old illustrates this conflict.
"They asked me what my goals were in the future, and what kind of career I wanted," she said.
Hoang was a sophomore in high school.
Hoang and her parents decided her career goal should be in medicine. She's been on that path ever since, majoring in biology at the University and planning to attend medical school after graduation.
Hoang said being the oldest and the first in her family to attend college combined with her parents expectations produced a great deal of pressure. But she said the look on her parents' faces when she graduated would make her hard work pay off.
"I know it'll be special," she said. "To see their kids graduate from college — that's their dream."
Local Internet connection tax may become permanent
LAWRENCE — The state says it stands to lose nearly $100 million a year if Congress passes a bill banning state and local governments from taxing Internet access.
The legislation, which was passed by the House and is before the Senate, makes permanent a ban on taxing Internet connections. A temporary ban on the taxes, first enacted in 1998, runs out on Nov.1.
— Edited by Shane Mettlen
New language clarifies that all types of Internet access ranging from dial-up connections and high-speed DSL to cable modems cannot be taxed.
The Multistate Tax Commission, an organization of state tax officials, said that language was too broad.
They said it eventually could exempt the telecommunications industry from all state and local taxes as telecommunication companies gradually start using Internet technology to deliver all of their services.
Supporters of the bill say it will keep Internet access affordable.
Kansas officials said the damage could be as high as $100 million annually to the state treasury.
"We think it has the potential
to have a very big impact on the states," said Richard Cram, director of policy and research at the Kansas Department of Revenue.
Governor, Kathleen Sebelius said the new language in the bill would ban the wholesale taxes that the states have always assumed they could levy.
"This amendment would greatly broaden the effect of the moratorium to include telecommunications services that Kansas currently considers taxable," Sebelius said.
In addition, she said the bill provided an incentive to telecommunications companies to provide traditional voice services, which have long been taxed, over the Internet, then claim the law bars states from taxing it.
It provides an obvious method for telecommunication companies
kansan.com
The state would probably lose from between $5 million to $10 million under the bill due to the loss of Internet taxes.
Cram said the state currently collected about $98 million in sales taxes from telecommunications services of all sorts.
to provide telecommunications services via the Internet, and that would be protected from taxation under the new language of the bill," Cram said.
The Associated Press
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