Wednesday inside
Bus route slow to catch on Students are slowly learning the new Jayhawk Express bus route and using the free ride more and more every day. PAGE 3A
Highlighting Heritage
Hispanic Her
Hispanic Heritage month kicked-off last night with a celebration in the Kansas
Union. The Multicultural Resource Center offers programs to highlight awareness all month. PAGE 3A
Sharing culture
A Japanese musical group, Michiko Fujimori and Shou no Kai,
played traditional instruments at Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall yesterday. PAGE5A
Big 12 success
Coach Mangino has found the key to success in Whitet- more's air attack. PAGE 1
Too many nominees
Kansan columnist Joey Berlin says the award for
men's basketball player of the year needs a new game plan. PAGE12A
Weather Today
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Two-day forecast tomorrow Frida
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Vol.114 Issue No.20
Talk to us
Tell us your news. Contact Michelle Burhenn, Lindsay Hanson or Leah Shaffer at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
index
Briefs 2A
Opinion 4A
Sports 12A
Sports briefs 2B
Horoscopes 10A
Comic 10A
KANSAN
Wednesday, September 17,2003 The Student Newspaper of the University of Kansas
By Abby Mills and Joe Hartigan amilis@kansan.com and jhartigan@kansan.com Kansan staff writers
Housing safety examined
Student's death prompts officials to consider new options
The recent death of Oliver Hall resident Eric J. Wellhausen has focused attention on the issue of safety in residence halls.
"We talk about this stuff all the time," said Ken Stoner, director of student housing. "Even when there hasn't been an incident, Safety is a huge priority."
an incident Safety Office.
Wellhausen was smoking a cigarette on a ledge or in a window outside his room on the seventh floor of Oliver Hall when he fell early Friday morning, according to Lt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office.
Stoner said the ledges were never meant to be stood upon, but are actually screens that block sun from rooms below them. The ledges also cool the building by acting like fins in a radiator, funneling cool air over the outside of the building.
While not structurally essential, Stoner said removing the ledges themselves would be expensive and would require a complete overhaul of the cooling system to increase capacity. This is contrary to information received for an article in yesterday's University Daily Kansan.
Removing wire screens from windows is a violation of student housing policy, but no system is in place for enforcement outside room inspections. If a student is caught, they are written up, and discipline follows regular residence hall procedures.
The department is considering other options to keep students off the ledges. Fire codes do not require windows to be able to open, Stoner said. But inoperable windows would cause other problems, particularly with ventilation, which is a key service of the windows. If smoke appears in the building, there has to be some way to get it out.
some way to get it out.
"Smoke is a bigger life safety issue than fire," he said.
Stoner said the windows are also important to keep the building comfortable.
Heating and cooling systems take a couple of days to switch over because residence halls are so large, Stoner said. The windows allow residents to control their own temperature.
tam to keep the building warm. "During the spring and fall, it would hurt temperature regulation," he said. "Windows need to be operable for the air conditioning and heating systems to work."
their own temperature.
The department also is considering the possibility of installing cameras to monitor when students have removed their screens and imposing fines for doing so, Stoner said. It would be the first punitive fine the department has ever levied.
Some residents think imposing a fine would help enforce the policy.
"A fine would probably be a good idea," said Andrew Kissel, Montgomery, Ala., freshman and resident of Hashinger Hall. "Just to make people aware that you're not supposed to be out there."
Stoner said the fine would also encourage residents to monitor each other.
residents so much. "It might make a difference for the roommate," he said. "It might generate peer pressure within the room."
If pressure Kissel said he thought some students might find cameras intrusive. Monica Reynolds, Eudora freshman and Oliver Hall resident, also disapproved of the possibility of the cameras.
"I think a camera would be a little overkill," she said, "A fine would be understandable and wouldn't create a problem for anybody, but cameras would be too expensive."
be too expensive.
Stoner said regardless of student housing policy, ending dangerous behavior was ultimately up to students.
was ultimately up to "The bottom line is everything is safe the way it was intended to be used," he said. "The room is safe, the window is safe, the ledge is safe. The behavior is unsafe."
Edited by Katie Nelson
"Magnificent" Scott McMahon, Omaha, Neb., junior, and "Jammin" Eric Jeannerat, Kansas City, Kan., senior, boxed at College Fight Night at The Cadillac Ranch, 2515 Sixth St, last night. The event was organized by Knockout Events, a traveling amateur boxing company from Denver.
Students fight for pride
By Zack Hemenway
zhemenway@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"Fighting" Fernando Yaluk planted a running shoe, pulled his fist back and hit Chris Quackenbush with all the force his 139-pound frame could muster.
A loud cheer rose from the crowd, which was shouting drunken encouragement and crowding in for a better view, surrounding the ring in a cloud of cigarette smoke.
save the crowds this one-punch story was repeated over and over again through 19 bouts of College Fight Night at the Cadillac Ranch. 2515 Sixth St., last night. More than 20 fighters, mostly students, battled as a crowd of 300 looked on.
rette smoke.
Whether it was due to the two sips of beer he'd had for courage or the pre-fight song *Eye of the Tiger* still ringing in his ears, Yaluk, Asunció, Paraguay junior, gave the crowd what it wanted.
Yaluk's blow was a sensation Quackenbush, Overland Park senior, hadn't felt in a long time.
mute. He said before last week that Quackenbush staggered, but didn't go down. He fought back, swinging wildly until Kevin Shaw sounded the bell ending the one-minute round.
"The last fight I was in was in seventh grade," he said before last night's bout.
Shaw is co-owner of Denver-based Knockout Events. Shaw's company sets up amateur fighting events across the country.
a strict sense of
Fighters arrived at 8 p.m., lining up to be weighed on a small, dirty white bathroom scale. They would fight in either lightweight, middleweight or heavyweight classes.
Its unique, portable, 12-foot by 12-foot ring will appear in bars in seven states this year. The company's experience was evident as the night adhered to a strict schedule.
weight classes.
Next the fighters had to sign a legal waver. The document explains to contestants that boxing is "intense, stressful, and strenuous exercise with body contact"—a far cry from its golden-age nickname "The Sweet Science."
name. The sweet teacher.
Once the contestants understood the danger to their bodies, they were met with an assault on their minds — a two-hour wait before they would enter the ring. Some stayed, listening to rap music and maintaining a game face at ringside.
KitLeffler/Kansan
"Fighting Fernando" won the first fight of the night at 10 p.m. as Quackenbush returned, hair damp with sweat, to his cheering friends at the bar. Contestants were told to include their nicknames on the waiver. "Jabbing Joseph" and "Dangerous Darren" waited in the
"Sugar" Sean Murphy, 150-pound Overland Park sophomore, recovered after being knocked down by an opponent during College Fight Night last night.
wings for a chance at Fernando
wings of a champion
The overall winner in each weigh class received a choice of a leather championship belt or $100 cash. Jason Culleton, Knockout Events employee, said
SEE FIGHT ON PAGE 7A
Senate examines recycling program
By Paul Kramer
pkramer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The University of Missouri typically serves as a rival to the University of Kansas — competing for enrollment, tuition dollars and athletic glory. But when it comes to recycling, it provides inspiration.
A design for a recycling center similar to one in place at Missouri passed in a resolution at last week's Student Senate meeting. A trip to examine the facilities and program used at Missouri set up a plan for a system, although Missouri has a full-time staff and an online outreach and extension program, goals still off in the distance for the University.
"We want a recycling center that will service the entire campus and also be used by the Oread neighborhood," Sterner said.
the distance for the James Owen, School of Law senator, said he was approached this summer about the possibility and, along with Nick Sterner, community affairs director, researched the center.
The current system of recycling calls for the storing of collected materials in storage trailers on West Campus. The University owns one 1.5-ton truck for collections and has 50 multi-use recycling receptacles in 30 buildings around campus.
Sterner said. Sterner and Owen said they would like to provide a place for off-campus students and other city residents to bring their recyclables. Owen said people did not want to go all the way to Wal-Mart, Lawrence's only full-service recycling center, at 3300 Iowa St.
"This will make it more convenient for them," he said.
Office paper, newspaper, aluminum, #1 PETE plastic bottles, and cardboard are all collected by part-time student workers. The Department of Environmental Stewardship handles the collection and storage of the accepted waste.
3
and after the trailers are filled, contractors, such as Paper Stock Dealers of Topeka, come and empty the trailers.
Contractors will still have to come to the new facility, but they will do so less often because the building can hold more and would have the luxury of pulling up to a building designed for recycling — not just a trailer.
Funding for the current office and its workers comes from a $2 yearly student fee and matching administrative funds. Owen and Sterner do not expect increased student fees to maintain the new center. They said additional funds would come from the deletion of other charges currently included in standard
SEE RECYCLING ON PAGE 7A