Look inside
Crash kills local woman Lawrence police said a 19-year-old Lee's Summit man crashed his car and killed a Lawrence woman while attempting to ellude police. He will appear in Douglas County court today.PAGE 3A
Watkins spreads wellness
Free massages and door prizes attracted students to the Wellness Fair yesterday on
the lawn of Stauffer-Flint Hall. PAGE 5A
Restaurant to remodel
Paradise Cafe closed
Monday for renovations. Planned improvements include a remodeled
Splitting time
stage and late-night doughnuts. PAGE1B
Sophomore Clark Green and freshman John Randle will share playing time for the Kansas football team. PAGE 12A
Injury information
A new federal act lets player decide if hospitals release injury information. This year marks the first time the rule comes into play for all varsity athletes. How it effects players, coaches and what makes it into the media remains to be seen. PAGE12A
Weather Today
94 65
Not as hot
Two-day forecast Tomorrow Saturday 8760 8059
Isolated evening Cool thunderstorms comfortable Tim Bush, KUJH-TV News
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
Horoscopes 10A
Comics 10A
KANSAN
Thursday, August 28, 2003
The Student Newspaper of the University of Kansas
By Robert Perkins and Abby Mills rperkins@kansan.com and amills@kansan.com Kansan staff writers
At a time when many greeks are celebrating, the Zeta Tau Alpha women are in mourning.
Zeta Tau Alpha closes
Fraternity for women blames lack of housing for small recruitment, end of colony
On Tuesday, while other sororites were celebrating their bid day national officers from the Zeta Tau Alpha fraternity for women announced that it has closed its University of Kansas colony.
"The girls and I are disappointed," said Carrie Robertson, president of Zeta Tau Alpha's University of Kansas chapter. "But we understand."
Zeta Tau Alpha National President Julia M. Hill said the fraternity wanted to build a strong chapter at the University, but membership and recruitment numbers had been disappointing.
"Being small isn't necessarily the best thing for a sorority on this campus," she said. "They weren't going to put us through that."
brought that.
Last September, when the colonizing
effort began, the Zeta Tau Alpha pledged over 160 members. By May, that number was down to 128. Since then, membership has dwindled to 85.
In addition, Anja Winikka, Overland Park junior, confirmed that Zeta Tau Alpha pledged 16 new members in its first formal recruitment Tuesday, but quota was 45. The colony was unable to reach the its goal of sustaining 160 members.
Though it was supposed to have five years to work towards obtaining a charter, the national organization decided to pull
the plug on the colony. "We had outstanding women in our colony, and it breaks our hearts to let them go." Hill said in a press release. "However, it was apparent that the colony would continue to struggle and it would have been even more difficult to make this decision at a later date."
make this decision and Robertson said she didn't understand Zeta Tau Alpha's problem with attracting new members. She said it was one of the top three sororities nationally.
By Amber Byarlay
abyarlay@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
SEE ZETA ON PAGE 7A
Clouds clear for Mars view
A once in a lifetime event occurred last night.
night. With Mars the closest to the sun and Earth as it's been in 50,000 to 60,000 years, the University of Kansas' physics and astronomy departments held an open house at Lindley Hall to allow people to see the Red Planet.
Lesley Humphreys, Ashland, junior, peered into a student's personal telescope last night. Humphreys said she came to Lindley Hall out of curiosity.
Astronomy majors and three astronomy and physics professors, Barbara Anthony-Twarog, Bruce Twarog and Steve Shawl set up five telescopes on the lawn beside Lindley.
lawn beside Lindley. The event was originally supposed to include the telescope housed in the observatory on top of Lindley.
Twarog said Facilities Operations informed the event's organizers that support planks were removed from the roof's floor when it was renovated last year. Lighting was also removed. The lack of lights and support for large numbers of people made using the roof-top telescope a safety hazard, Twarog said.
scope a safety hazard, twarg sara.
Not being able to use the roof-top telescope didn't deter people from coming out to see the neighboring planet. About 200 people came to see Mars through the telescopes last night.
telescopes last night.
"It's an opportunity of a lifetime," said Amanda Mai, Hutchinson freshman, who viewed Mars last night at Lindley. "It's something that's not going to happen for thousands of years. It's something special."
thousands of years. Mikey Frankenfeld, Lawrence resident, went to Lindley with his family to see Mars for a moon journal project the family had
started. Frankenfeld said he had been paying attention to the planet too.
three-dimensional it was wonderful. The event's organizers were concerned
"I saw it about a week ago and have watched it almost every night," Frankenfeld said. "Last night it looked almost three-dimensional it was so bright."
about cloud cover obscuring Mars. But the planet was visible by 10:30 p.m.
A panel was visible by 10:30 pm. The threat of a cloudy view did not keep people away from Lindley.
"Even if it were raining I think people would still come." Anthony-Twarog said
Olathe sophomore, helped to monitor the open house and was impressed with the number of people at the event.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to bring astronomy to the general public," Swift
SEE MARS ON PAGE 7A
Computer problems continue
By Steve Schmidt
sschmidt@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Fighting computer viruses and worms seems to be a never-ending battle for University of Kansas information technology professionals.
9 professional With about 17,000 computers connected to the University network, their efforts trying to defend system users takes place on a large battlefield.
Jenny Mehmedovic, coordinator of information technology policy and planning, said problems like widespread worms would continue on such a large network, with so many unknowns in cyberspace.
Mehmedovic said the same easy connection to the Internet users enjoy through the University could also hurt them because they don't necessarily know to whom they are connected.
know to whom they are connected. Three main nuisances have been plaguing the University system since early August: the MS Blaster worm, the Sobig.Fe-mail worm and the Nachi worm.
Allison Lopez, external relations coordinator of information services, said every new virus or worm posed a unique problem.
Mehmedovic said system administrators were actually dealing with more attacks than people might realize.
"There's an unprecedented maliciousness to propel these worms into cyberspace," Lopez said. "They're very active because they take a new approach. With every generation of viruses and worms, we have to sit down and start our learning process all over again."
SORTING IT ALLOUT
Lopez said system administrators were still responding to worm disturbances in
Here are some helpful Web sites to protect your computer from worms and viruses:
viruses
www.grisoft.com — Download the
AVG antivirus for free.
Download a
www.zonelabs.com Download a firewall.
www.ku.edu/acs/virus — Download Sophos antivirus and programs to kill viruses and worms and patch your computer.
windowupdate.microsoft.com
latest Microsoft updates
smaller pockets of the system, but the problem was not as bad as last week.
Downloads resnet.ku.edu — information and downloads for viruses and worms that have been prevalent on campus.
download latest Microsoft updates
resnet.ku.edu — information and
Luckily for the University community, Academic Computing Services' Web site provides information on the most prevalent viruses and worms, and patches and downloads to get rid of viruses.
downloads to get rid of viruses.
University students, staff and faculty can also download Sophos, an antivirus program, for free off the Web site. Mehmedovic said it was a step in the right direction, but still there was no cure-all with new malevolent computer codes being invented everyday.
"People are always trying to invent new ways to get into the Microsoft products and other products," Mehmedovic said. "I don't think it's going away."
said. "I don't think." Lopez said users should never open unfamiliar attachments and should realize that file-sharing creates additional
Joel Hartenbower, president of AM/PM PC Services, said his computer repair company has worked on about 300 computers since the MSBlaster worm appeared in mid-August.
He credited the recent influx in worms and viruses to three causes. First, users on broadband connections such as DSL or cable modems don't have a good firewall. Second, users don't have an antivirus program or it is outdated. Finally, Microsoft users don't update their computer regularly at windowsupdate.microsoft.com, he said.
vulnerability.
Hartenbower recommended going to an electronics store and buying a hardware firewall for $30 to $80 for maximum protection, but said www.zonelabs.com provided a good free firewall.
According to Hartenbower, worms such as the Sobig. F have caused the most problems. Sobig. F can restrict access of data, he said.
sends out information to other computers. A Trojan is an application that gets loaded onto a computer through an unprotected computer, or a program which allows someone on the outside access to that computer.
data, he said. "It's the latest variant and it's not a very friendly one," Hartenbower said.
Hartenbower said that users can try to get rid of less harmful viruses such as the MSBlast themselves by downloading the appropriate virus killer programs and patches, but to consult the experts for deadlier computer diseases.
Edited by JJ Hensley
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