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NEWS
NEWS A play about a dropout art school student opens tonight in the basement of the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building. PAGE 3A
SPORTS
Today's soccer match against Iowa State is a critical game for Kansas. This could be Kansas' last home game of the season. PAGE 12A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2004
VOL. 115 ISSUE 50
www.kansan.com
Justice visits campus
Clarence Thomas answers questions for law students
BY STEPHANE FARLEY
sfarley@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
After 13 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas said he didn't feel like he had changed all that much.
"I've just grown up a little and grown out some," Thomas said, motioning to his waist.
Thomas answered questions for law students yesterday at Green Hall, east
of the Burge Union. It was his fourth tribo to the University of Kansas.
Thomas said as he got older, he found he had a lot more questions than answers.
Thomas told the story of a young man at a another school who made the mistake of telling Thomas he was allpowerful because he was a justice. Thomas told the student he was expelled.
The man told Thomas he couldn't do that, because he didn't have the authority. That young man was the last to understand what he had just said, Thomas said.
"We're just human beings," Thomas said.
"We're just human beings."
All of the Justices may be smart and hardworking, Thomas said, but he's
never found one who is omniscient.
Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Justice
Stephanie Hart, Atlanta junior, and Robert Gordon, a sophomore at the University of Missouri-Kansas City,
Thomas answered students' questions for the scheduled time of one hour. He then stood outside the room for about 30 minutes and shook hands and talked with students.
came to hear Thomas because their constitutional law classes. Hart said she'd always wanted to be a lawyer and grew up on shows such as Law & Order. Thomas' speech affirmed her thoughts on the Constitution, Hart said.
Hart, who's majoring in political science, wants to study corporate law.
Thomas was personable, Gordon said
He said the fact that Chief Justice William Rehquist had been in the news lately had raised his interest in coming to see Thomas.
Rehnquist was admitted to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on Oct.22.
SEE VISIT ON PAGE 6A
Steven Bartkoski/KANSAN
Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, listens to a student's question in room 104 at Green Hall. Justice Thomas was at the University Wednesday and Thursday speaking to law school classes.
Can you spot the ghost?
Members of the International Student Association dance at Abe and Jake's Landing, B E. Sixth St, last night. Members arrived in costumes from clowns to ballet dancers.
London Harness/KANSAN
Trick-or-treat for good cause
Students collect cans by going door to door on Halloween night
By Ross Firch
rfitch@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
A group of college students will be trick-or-treating this weekend, but not for candy. They will be collecting canned goods for the hungry.
The Concerned, Active and Aware Students organization (CAAS) will be having its second annual "Trick-or-Treat So Others Can Eat" event on Halloween night. The service project is part of CAAS' month-long theme of Hunger Awareness at the University of Kansas.
The volunteers will head out into Lawrence neighborhoods, targeting family-based and well-lit areas of West Lawrence.
The goal for this year's event is to draw 300 volunteers and fill five SUVs with canned goods, said Jennifer Donnally, Lawrence junior and co-coordinator of CAAS. That is more than last year's 135 volunteers and three SUVs, but Donnally said the group was confident.
"This year, we've talked to a lot of organizations, and they're putting forth volunteers," she said.
It also helps that Halloween is on a Sunday night because more students can come out, she said.
HOW TO VOLUNTEER
Meet at 5 p.m. Sunday in the KU Memorial Stadium Parking lot by Kansas Union tunnel entrance.
Trick-or-treating is scheduled to last until 8 or 9 p.m.
Volunteers can wear a costume.
source: Concerned, Active and Aware Students organization
Katie Jensen, Minneapolis senior and co-director of Center for Community Outreach (CCO), said she was confident CAAS would meet its goal, as long as enthusiastic KU students helped out.
The event can help students feel more a part of Lawrence, she said.
"Volunteering within the community gives students a 'place' in Lawrence, and can create lifelong connections to the city and its people," she said.
The Lawrence community was receptive to CAAS last year, though citizens were a little surprised, Donnally said.
"People think it's weird seeing college students trick-or-treating, and then they realize it's community service, and they're overjoyed," she said.
Donnally encouraged volunteers to make the evening more fun by wearing costumes, she said.
Polls and polarization
SEE TRICK-OR-TREAT ON PAGE 6A
Columnist speaks about partisanship, elections dividing the country
By Ross Frch
rftitch@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
That was the message from David Brooks, conservative The New York Times columnist, last night. Brooks spoke to students and others about U.S. polarization in the context of next week's election as part of the Kansas Economic Policy conference. Brooks has been the editor of The Weekly
America is polarized, and that's why this election is tied and could go down to the wire again.
Brooks said the Midwest was the battleground where this election would be won. So far, this campaign has been a great carnival, Brooks said.
Standard, a contributing editor at Newsusek and the Atlantic Monthly and a weekly commentator on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS.
"If this gets settled on November second, we're going to miss it when it's gone," he said.
Regardless of who becomes president, the social and political catalyst brought about by impending court challenges will overshadow everything else
good about both candidate's campaigns and ruin his presidency, Brooks said.
The most remarkable and scary aspect of this year's campaign is its similarity to the atmosphere in 2000.
"Everything in America changes except for politics," he said.
Americans have seen a war, an attack on their soil and other national events, but the nation is still completely polarized at election time, he said.
Brooks said "paradoxical geographical zones," the idea that where
David Brooks, New York Times columnist, laughs at a question during a news conference. Brooks held the news conference yesterday in the Rhodes Conference room at The Dole Institute of Politics to express his views concerning the election in four days.
SFE POLLS ON PAGE 6A
Steven Bartkoski/KANSAN
The University Daily Hall
111 Stauffer-Flint Hall
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
(785) 864-4810
© 2004 The University Daily Kansan
The University Daily Kansan
Volleyball
The Kansas volleyball team travels to Manhattan tomorrow to face Kansas State. The Jayhawks have not defeated the Wildcats since 1994. PAGE 12A
Scholarship Halls
Scholarship Hall residents will have a new place to meet because the late Juanita Strait's home will be renovated into the Wilma Crawford Community Center. PAGE 5A
Index
4
Newa Briefs 2A
Weather 2A
Opinion 4A
Comics 10A
Crossword 10A
Classifieds 11A
Sports 12A
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