4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAIDY KANSAN
MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 17, 2007
INTERNET
Web site caters to college students
College.com to provide social networking opportunities for classroom communication
BY MARK DENT
mdent@kansan.com
The old Facebook is back. Sort of.
College.com, a social networking site that started earlier this month, is trying to gain popularity by focusing on only college students. The network combines social life with academics. As of Friday, 16 KU students were on the network. College, com representatives declined to say how many total students belonged but said the site got 40,000 hits every day.
Facebook, another social networking site, originally let only college students create accounts. In the fall of 2005, it started to let high school students join. Now, anyone can join.
Sam Marks, a College.com representative, said creators and recent Florida State graduates Jason Levine and John Davidman saw Facebook's decision to allow everyone access as an opportunity to gain success by focusing on only college students. Davidman and Levine already had the domain name and began working to create College.com in October 2006.
"They've lost their core market by adding all ages," said Marks, who graduated from Florida State last semester. "They can have 80-year-olds talking to 14-year-olds. You don't want people like that checking out your events and stuff."
Instead of making College.com like other social networking sites
such as Facebook and MySpace, Marks said the Web site would be a "one-stop shop for socializing and the classroom." He said College.com could be a classroom portal similar to Blackboard. The site's creators wants professors to join so they can upload syllabuses, assign homework and communicate information to students.
Marks said that, ideally, College, com would like to make deals with colleges in the future so it could replace sites such as Blackboard as a classroom portal. He said they hadn't had discussions with any colleges about that yet.
College.com has several other features Facebook and MySpace don't have such as the alarm clock. Students can enter their cell phone numbers and a computer will call their phones at a designated time for a wake-up call. Members also can assign grades to professors, similar to ratemyprofessor.com.
The Web site also was trying to push the Greek feature, said Jeff Cambron, a marketer for College.com. Greek organizations can register their chapters. Students interested in rushing can browse through the registered fraternities and sororities to find more information about them. If a student likes a certain Greek chapter, he or she can submit a Rush form that the officers will see. Then the officers can contact the student.
"We want to show people how this is something not just fun but useful." Cambron said.
the extra features convince students to join? Nearly 35,000 people are registered with the KU network on Facebook compared to the 16 with College.com. Marks said College. com didn't want to compete head-to-head with Facebook. He said College.com could be an additive to Facebook because it had different features.
Clinton Brumm, Shawnee freshman, and Monique Langois, Wichita freshman, joined College.com after hearing about it on Facebook. Brumm said he liked how College, com only allowed college students to join, but he still liked Facebook more.
"There's more to do," Brumm said, "and more people there. But I could probably swing my vote if more people join College.com."
Getting more people is College.com's goal for the next year, Marks said. He said they want to focus on freshmen to help build their numbers. When school numbers build up, Marks said, College.com would connect with school administrations to try to sell its classroom portal idea.
Still, the biggest question is, will
To market their product, representatives from College.com are touring campuses throughout the country. They've been to Florida State and other southern colleges so far, but Marks said they planned to visit Midwest colleges, likely including Kansas, later this month or next month.
Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
PHILANTHROPY
Students raise donations spread word for St. Jude Up'til Dawn promotes campus cancer awareness
BY JEFF DETERS
jdeters@kansan.com
for St. Jude last year. Laranje Kyle, Shawnee senior and co-executive director of Up 'til Dawn, said the group wanted to exceed those numbers this year.
Allie Wilmes became involved with the student-led group Up till Dawn last year because her sorority, Delta Delta Delta, was active in philanthropic work.
Wilms, Highland junior, wrote letters to family and friends asking them for contributions to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., to help fight childhood cancer.
"It's a great way to get involved," Kyle said. "It's a good cause. It takes up a little bit of time. It's hard to ask people for money, but this is the best way to raise money
"I just love kids," Wilmes said. "I just
"It's hard to ask people for money,but it's the best way to raise money for those little kids."
The group will hold events throughout the week and will encourage students to sign up for a letter-writing event that will be on Oct. 3 at the Burge Union.
Throughout this week, Awareness Week at the University of Kansas, Up 'til Dawn will be out informing students about St. Jude and what students can do to help.
LARAINE KYLE Co-Executive Director Up 'til Dawn
think that it's so sad they have to go through that."
The University raised $55.000
A m Jackson, collegiate marketing representative for St. Jude, works directly with fund-raising for St. Jude and the Up 'til Dawn program. She said that
Jackson said it cost about $1.2 million a day to operate the children's hospital. The money is raised through public contributions and covers patient expenses.
since 1999, about $17 million had been raised through the program, which included a record $4.7 million last year.
Jackson said the name Up 'til Dawn was in honor of the families who stayed up until dawn, caring for those who were in need.
for those little kids."
Mondav
schedule
Tuesday
Monday
T-shirt handouts at Kansas
Union and residence halls
Thursday
The "Help Kids be Kids" event in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall includes games, prizes and a potato sack race.
Thursday
Tuesday
Flyer handouts on Wescoe Beach, T-shirt handouts at residence halls
Wednesday
Games and prizes on Wescoe Beach
Wednesday
For 51, Up 'til Dawn volunteers will "drive" students to class by pushing them on chairs.
Friday
For more information, go to groups.ku.edu/~uptildawn/index.html.
Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
IRAQ
Sunni leaders face political crisis
Assassination warnings cast doubt on U.S. military progress
BAGHDAD — An al-Qaida front group threatened to assassinate Sunni leaders who support American troops in Iraq as a Shiite bloc loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr falted Saturday from the Iraqi government's parliament base.
The two developments cast doubt over prospects for political and military progress in Iraq as the U.S. Senate gears up for a debate next week on Democratic demands for deeper and faster troop cuts than President Bush plans.
BY ROBERT H. REID ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a Web posting, the Islamic State said it had formed "special security committees" to track down and "assassinate the tribal figures, the traitors, who stained the reputations of the real tribes by submitting to the soldiers of the Crusade" and the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
"We will publish lists of names of the tribal figures to scandalize them in front of our blessed tribes," the statement added.
The threat against Sunni leaders came from the Islamic State of Iraq, which claimed responsibility for the assassination Thursday of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the mastermind of the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaida in Anbarr province.
In a second statement, the purported head of the Islamic State, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, said he was "honored to announce" a new Ramadan offensive in memory of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaida in Iraq killed last year in a U.S. air strike.
Hours after the announcement, a car bomb exploded late Saturday in a mostly Shiite area of Southwest Baghdad, killing at least 11 people up to buy bread at a bakery.
The blast occurred at the start
of Iftar, the evening meal at which Muslims break their dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. The blood-shed was a blow to government hopes that a peaceful Ramadan would demonstrate the success of the seven-
"We as tribesmen will act against the al-Qaida, and those standing behind it who do not want us to put an end to it."
month operation in the capital.
ALI HATEM AL-SULEIMAN Sunni Sheik
The Sunni revolt that Abu Risha spearheaded has led to a dramatic improvement in security in Anbar, although the province remains unstable. Nevertheless, the decline in violence in Ramadi and other Anbar cities has been one of the major success stories for the U.S. mission in Iraq.
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Still, the al-Qaida threats and the
"We as tribesmen will act against the al-Qaida, and those standing behind it who do not want us to put an end to it," Ali Hatem al-Suleman said.
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A prominent Sunni sheik told The Associated Press that the province's leaders would not be intimidated by al-Qaida threats and would continue efforts to drive the terror movement from their communities.
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With U.S.
assassination of Abu Risha, one of the best protected tribal figures in Iraq, could cause some tribal leaders in other Sunni provinces to reconsider plans to stand up against the terror movement.
and Iraqi overtures to the Sunnis under threat, the government faced a deepening political crisis with the announcement that al-Sadr's followers were withdrawing from the Shiite alliance in parliament. Al-Sadr's followers hold 30 of the 275 parliament seats.
The announcement, made to reporters in Najaf, meant the Shitteled government could count on the support of only 108 parliament members — 30 short of a majority.
Still, the decision by al-Sadr's followers will complicate further U.S.-backed efforts to win parliamentary approval of power-sharing legislation, including the oil bill and an easing of curbs that prevent former Saddam Hussein supporters from holding government jobs.
Al-Sadr's decision will also sharpen the power struggle among armed Shiite groups in the south, which includes major Shiite religious shrines and much of the country's vast oil resources.
The Sadrists threatened to bolt the Shiite alliance for several days. But tensions rose after arrest warrants were issued against Sadrist officials in the holy city of Karbala in connection with last month's Shiite factional fighting there.
In the Northern city of Mosul, authorities ordered all vehicles off the streets from late Saturday until sunrise Monday to enable security forces to search for explosives.
The ban was ordered after the Iraqi military announced it had found six booby-trapped cars and a would-be suicide bomber in the city Saturday.