Women's golf team took first place at Sunflower Invitational for the second year in a row.
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At McCollum Hall, international students come together, meet new people and adjust to life in the United States.
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WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 4,2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 35
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 1A
One can at a time
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Megan Renz, St. Louis junior, helps build the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and Sigma Chi fraternity's replica of the Campanile, the University of Kansas' World War II memorial. The project was part of the Can-struction competition, a Homecoming activity in front of Wescoe Hall.
BOARDWALK REMEMBERED
Though physical injuries have begun to heal for those who survived, most of the lost mementos and possessions will never be replaced. For the survivors, the only option is to try to rebuild and remember.
TRYING TO SURVIVE
BY ANNA FALTERMEIER
Part 2: Survivors struggle to get back on their feet
One year ago, Eli Greenbaum awoke to smoke and sounds of explosions. He thought he was going to die.
Greenbaum, then a Ph.D. student, jumped out the window of his third-story Boardwalk apartment toward the asphalt parking lot below. Two policemen held a beach towel to soften his fall; it didn't help much, but it was all they had at the time.
His girlfriend, Dawn Davis, had jumped minutes before him. "They just tried to catch her as she hit the pavement," Greenbaum remembers.
Almost a hundred people lived in the Boardwalk Apartment Complex building that burned down. And though three residents died in the Oct. 7, 2005, fire, the vast majority of residents lived.
The year since finds many residents struggling to regain their health and put back the pieces of their lives.
When Davis jumped, she broke her back, pelvis, tailbone and wrist, but survived.
Greenbaum was afraid that if his girlfriend didn't get out before him, she wouldn't make it out.
"She had a Chihuahua and was looking everywhere for her dog and breathing in all kinds of
smoke," he said.
She was so disoriented from smoke inhalation that he made her stick her head out the window to breathe.
"I think if I wouldn't have been there she would have died," Greenbaum said. "If someone was going to die, I wanted it to be me."
Davis' Chihuahua didn't survive.
Davis suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and was unable to be interviewed. Though she still has nightmares, Greenbaum said she's doing better physically.
Greenbaum didn't escape injury. When he jumped out the window, the bones in both of his heels snapped in half. He was wheelchair-bound until February.
A year later, Greenbaum can walk about five minutes before his feet swell up. After a few hours, the pain is so bad that he has to get off his feet altogether. He also wears special pressure stockings every day or his feet swell up.
But his condition is improving.
"I just walked all over Chicago this weekend," he said. "It hurt, but I did it."
Greenbaum is trying to move past the fire, and he's doing it while studying geckos. He earned a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology in
SEE SURVIVOR ON PAGE 5A
ONLINE
Go online to kansan.com to view all the parts of the series and to leave your comments.
CAMPUS
Part 3: THURSDAY The family of Jose Gonzalez, one of three to die in the fire, has had a year to grieve.
University resubscribes to plagiarism detector
Despite recent price increases, student privacy concerns University renews turnitin.com subscription for two years
BY DARLA SLIPKE
The University of Kansas renewed its subscription to turnitin.com, a service that detects plaquiarism.
The subscription expired Tuesday, but the University signed up for a two-year subscription, which would start immediately. Lynn Bretz, director of University communications, said the transition should be "seamless."
Four years ago, the University paid $6,000 for turnitin.com. Last year, the University paid $14,000 for the service. The University considered not renewing its subscription because of the price increases.
The decision for renewal came after the University considered a variety of other options and after concerns about cost and papers going into the database were resolved, Bretz said.
Bretz said the University was pleased with the cost of the service, but said she could not disclose the price until the contract was no-
Some students expressed concerns about their papers going into the database of turnitin.com, which holds tens of thousands of papers. Some worried that the company would use their papers as examples. Bretz said students and faculty would be able to remove papers from the database. She said the University would set up a system with the Writing Center to allow students access to retrieve their papers.
cessed.
The University initially subscribed to turnitin.com when 22 percent of 1,250 randomly selected students admitted to plagiarizing. In the same survey, 50 percent of students said it was easy for them to get away with academic misconduct.
Students have mixed reactions about turnitin.com. Stefani Rahardaj, De Soto freshman, said turnitin.com was a useful tool. She said the University should keep using it.
junior, said if there was no way to get caught he would be tempted to plagiize.
Faculty members are pleased with the renewal. David Dewar, assistant director of the Humanities and Western Civilization department, said he used the program when he had reason for suspicion. He had caught students plagiarizing before, but not with the turnitin.com program.
Jessica Mulvayn, Leavenworth sophomore, said the service was pointless. She said students who didn't plagiarize could get in trouble if what they wrote was similar to what appeared on a Web site.
Latchit Patel, Leavenworth
"I think it's a good idea." Dewar said. "Anything that can be done to curtail plagiarism is a good thing."
Kansan staff writer Darla Slipke can be contacted at dslipke@ kansan.com. Kansan correspondent Dustin Dye contributed to this story.
- Edited by Brett Bolton
Prices overall have inflated at an average rate of 3 percent each year since 1987, but textbook prices jumped at least 6 percent in the same time frame.
FINANCES
The study, "College Textbooks; Enhanced Offerings Appear to Drive Recent Price Increases," stated that students at a four-year university would spend more than 26 percent of their money on books and supplies this year.
Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) commissioned the study with several other Representatives earlier this year because it was the top constituent complaint about education. The textbook industry is a "classic broken market," Wu said in a press release.
Textbook prices rise faster than inflation
Textbook prices have increased at twice the national rate of inflation over the last 10 years, according to a study released at the end of the summer by the Government Accountability Office.
"Every year that the cost of textbooks doubles compared to the overall average of prices is another year students experience an even greater barrier to a college degree," Wu said in the statement.
BY DAVID LINHARDT
Linse Eriksen, Aurora, Colo,
juniar, said she spent about $500
this semester for her books, which
is more than the national average.
Eriksen is majoring in English and
many of her classes require multiple
books.
"This semester was awful." Eriksen said. "The cheapest book I got cost $20."
Eriksen is getting frustrated as she spends more money on books each semester and her student loans pile up.
The study found that freshmen in 2003-04 paid an average of $898 per year for textbooks. That means students pay more than $28 per week for books — and some books may only be used a few times during the semester.
"It's just not necessary," Eriksen said. "Books don't cost that much to make, so they shouldn't cost that much to buy."
New college textbooks can be marked up 23 percent or more before a student purchases them. Used textbooks, which are generally in far greater demand, are marked up as much as 33 percent of their market value, according to
SEE STUDY ON PAGE 5A
Part 4: FRIDAY
Students speak out KU students take action to help those suffering in Darfur 4A
Structural problems that doomed Boardwalk are common to local apartments
SPORTS TRACKER
GLOBAL
UPDATE
N. Korea threatens nuclear
Charges filed in NASCAR Battack
weather
Classifieds...5B
Crossword...4B
Horoscopes...4B
Opinion...7A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...4B
45
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© 2006 The University Daily Kansan