6A the university daily kansan
news
friday, august 29, 2003
GRADUATE/'Different world' shifted degree requirements
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a staff of 11 employees. Thompson works from home, allowing him to spend time with his two sons, picking them up from school and coaching their sports teams.
As he built his business, Thompson never regretted leaving the University without graduating.
"I don't think a degree would have made a difference," he said. "I got the knowledge I needed from books and articles."
These books and articles helped Thompson build a successful business. He is listed in the Kansas City phone book under New York Times and has expanded to include two financial dailies. He seemed to have his future mapped out: run the business, put his sons through school, and retire. But a marketing plan hatched 2,000 miles northeast of Lawrence clouded that vision of the future.
The New York Times corporation decided to centralize its business interests. Part of this plan was to try to control national delivery. This put Thompson, who orders his papers in bulk from the company, in a delicate position.
"The Times is my partner and my competitor at the same time," he said.
Thompson worried about his future. He knew many jobs required applicants to have college degrees.
He decided to leave the ranks of the "folder people," and asked advisers to dig up his record. He had no plan beyond that point. Thompson said he had bad experiences with correspondence courses and didn't relish the thought of sitting in a classroom for the first time in 30 years.
"I just thought I'd better find out what my options were," he said.
He left a message, and his confidential student folder was examined. For a philosophy degree, the situation was just as Thompson remembered. Luckily for Thompson, another major told a different story.
The Bachelor of General Sciences (Non-Major) degree was the product of the "different world" Thompson described. Increasingly-activist students didn't want to be restricted to degree requirements.
"It was a time of empowerment," Houston said. "Students wanted to be given the responsibility to create their own academic program."
The B.G.S. had the bare minimum of academic requirements. Like the current rule, 124 hours were required for graduation. The only other requirement was nine hours each in humanities, natural sciences and social sciences—the three-by-three familiar to liberal arts majors.
According to these requirements, Thompson didn't need his Western Civilization or language
classes. The adviser called him back and explained that, according to KU records, he could graduate whenever he saw fit. For Thompson, it seemed too good to be true. He filled out the graduation application, but decided not to spread the word of his new-found status until he received his notice in the mail.
"I wanted to make sure I could prove it before I told anyone," he said.
The letter, 30 years in the making, arrived a few weeks later. Thompson, who still thinks the story of the belated diploma is "not a big deal," told his family about it without much pomp or circumstance, and they reacted accordingly. His wife was pleasantly surprised, but his two sons, once they heard the full story, didn't exactly congratulate their father on his accomplishment.
"We started calling him a 30th-year senior," his 14-year-old son, Rafferty, said.
The only family members who seemed excited were Thompson's parents, who still reside in Mission where he grew up. Perhaps they remembered seeing their son off to college, and were happy to see him complete the journey. Thompson has another theory.
"I think they were just glad I got my degree after they paid all that money for me to go to school," he said. "It's finally become money well spent."
Thompson's mother, who sent her son a stuffed bear clad in cap and gown, disagrees.
"We were really happy for him," she said. "He can pretend he graduated when he was 24 instead of when he was an old man with a beard."
Thompson doesn't know if he graduated in May or over the summer ("I looked for my name in the paper," he said), but one thing is almost certain. He was the only member of the 2003 class who took a 50-year break between finishing school and picking up his diploma.
The story of Kyle Thompson's degree seems to be unique, almost one-of-a-kind. But no one knows how many Kyle Thompsons are lurking among the "folder people." Houston said the CLAS services office didn't have the resources needed to make sure no other unknowing graduates existed. While more students like Thompson are possible, the opposite situation was almost always the case, she said.
"We always get people who say, I think I need six hours to graduate," she said. "And we'll look at their records, and they need 26."
Kyle Thompson thought he needed six hours to graduate. It turned out all he needed was a phone call.
— Edited by JJ Hensley
DOWNLOAD/University records may be requested to identify piracy
general counsel, assured the senator that the industry would only target users who downloaded a significant amount of music.
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"RIAA is gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits only against individual computer users who are illegally distributing a substantial amount of copyrighted music," he said in the letter.
Not surprisingly, subpoenas for these substantial downloaders have started finding their way onto college campuses.
Currently, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College are using the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to dispute subpoenas sent to them, while Boston University is questioning the jurisdiction of the subpoenaes.
Though the RIAA has not sent any subpoenas to the University of Kansas, James Pottorff, Jr., University general counsel, said he would review them for validity if and when they arrived.
"The University of Kansas has not been presented with that see-
nario yet," he said. "But I can say that if it is a valid subpoena, the University will comply with it."
Potterfalf also said although it was not his main concern at the moment, he was interested in what would happen at MIT and Boston.
"It's nice to have some other universities take this thing on," he said. "We'll see what works out there before we decide we're going to make it such a big deal."
Pottorff said that while there were legitimate uses for file sharing programs, people who used them should be careful due to
fines that arose from accidental copyright infringement.
According to U.S. Title 17
Chapter 5, accidentally breaking
copyright laws carries a fine of
not less than $200, while willfully
breaking the law can be punished
by a fine of up to $150,000.
In an effort to reduce copyright infractions, Jenny Mehmedovic, assistant to the vice provost of information services, started a campaign to inform students about its consequences.
Sprawling suburbs may fuel obesity
Adding to the sprawl concern: Pedestrians and bicyclists are much more likely to be killed by passing cars here than in parts of Europe where cities are engineered to encourage physical activity — and whose residents typically are skinnier and live longer than the average American.
- Edited by Dave Nobles
The Associated Press
Those are conclusions of major new studies being published Thursday that call on urban planners and zoning commissions to consider public health in designing neighborhoods.
WASHINGTON - Sprawling suburbs that make it harder for people to get around without a car may help fuel obesity: Americans who live in the most sprawling counties tend to weigh 6 more pounds than their counterparts in the most compact areas.
"How you build things influences health in a much more pervasive way than I think most health professionals realize," said Dr. Richard Jackson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who helped edit the research, published in the American Journal of Public Health and American Journal of Health Promotion.
"Look at many new suburbs — there are not any sidewalks at all. ... The result is we just don't walk," added John Pucher of Rutgers University, who uncovered the U.S.-European disparities that CDC's Jackson called shocking.
There is growing recognition that ever-fatter Americans' tendency to be sedentary is at least
partially due to an environment that discourages getting off the couch and out of the car. Do adults walk three blocks to the bus stop, or drive to work? Can kids walk to school? Is there a walking or biking path to the post office, restaurant, a friend's house?
In a sprawling community, homes are far from work, stores and schools, and safe walking and biking is difficult. But Thursday's research marks the first attempt to pinpoint just how much that matters.
Rutgers University urban planner Reid Ewing rated the amount of sprawl in 448 counties that surround metropolitan areas — counties home to two-thirds of the population — and then tracked CDC data on the health of 200,000 area residents.
All other factors being equal, each extra degree of sprawl meant extra weight, less walking and a little more high blood pressure, he concluded. Someone living in the most sprawling county — Geauga County outside Cleveland — would weigh 6.3 pounds more than if that same person lived in the most compact area, Manhattan.
The nation's most compact areas were four boroughs of New York City - Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens; San Francisco County; Jersey City, N.J.'s Hudson County; Philadelphia; and Boston's Suffolk County.
Most sprawling were outlying counties of Southeast and Midwest metro areas: Cleveland's Geauga; Goochland County outside Richmond, Va.; Clinton County near Lansing, Mich.
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