THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011
WWW.KANSAN.COM
ELECTION SUPPORT
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 136
BY ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON
amcnaughtonkansan.com
A little more than 20 percent of the student body participated in the Student Senate elections last week. This is an increase of 8.9 percentage points from the previous year, with some professional schools recording their highest number of voters.
But this by no means represents the highest voter turnout for elections.
In the 2009 elections, 23.4 percent of the student body participated. Some attribute the high turnout that year to the contentiousness of the four coalitions that were running. A few procedural changes may have contributed to the turnout.
Multiple polling stations on campus provided easier access and more options for student voters where, historically, only one polling station was available at the Kansas Union.
Michael Fee, the elections commission chairman, said at one point last Thursday at the Wescoe Beach polling station, students were "cramming in line" to cast their votes before the deadline.
The application of social media networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter also increased with this election season.
Justin Hitt, Renew KU's campaign manager, said he found that social media was the most efficient way to reach out to student voters.
Fee, a senior from Hiawatha, said the commission also used those networks to tweet about the multiple polling locations and even to create a Facebook event urging students to vote.
Another first for the Senate elections was the reminder to vote that appeared anytime someone logged
onto a campus computer.
There was a link on the University's homepage that allowed students to directly access the online voting site.
But while Fee said the commission "did a little bit" by tweeting and with the link, he said most of the credit goes to the coalitions and their campaign efforts.
"I think this year they stepped in up and it was really competitive." Fee said.
Hitt, a junior from Shawnee, said Renew KU's campaign efforts included tabling, chalking, and engaging students in dialogues.
He said it was a good competition and when one coalition thought the other was more engaging, they would step it up a notch.
Senate has a long way to go to reach Hitt's goal for voter turnout, which at a minimum would be 25 percent, but he said this is a great start.
Alex Rippberger, a junior from Olathe and KUnited coalition member, said KUnited really made an effort to talk with every single student who passed by. He said it was about wanting to hear from the students and getting to know them and what they want to see at the University rather than pushing information about KUnited.
Echoing Hitt's sentiments regarding the competition, Rippberger said he always tried to get just one more vote.
Libby Johnson, a senior from Lawrence and the student body president-elect, described the process as "word-of-mouth campaigning."
"Everyone knew a unique group of students to appeal to because we had a huge coalition with a ton of people involved," Johnson said.
Johnson said she views the turn-out as a huge success, but said the
PERCENT OF STUDENT BODY VOTERS:
2008: 16.5 percent at
4,207 votes
2009: 23.4 percent at
5,921 votes
2010: 12.09 percent at
3,063 votes
2011: 21 percent at
5,192 votes
important thing is that the num bers continue to go up.
"The important thing is to continue to make sure students know how relevant it is to their lives," Johnson said.
Edited by Sarah Gregory
ASTRONOMY
Pluto's story includes KU alum who found it
Artem Bagiev/KANSAN
**Artemis Baskov/KARAK**
Michael Bryers presents his book *Pervial's Planet*. The novel was inspired by the story of KUI alum and astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.
BY IAN CUMMINGS icummings@kansan.com
Clyde Tombaugh couldn't have known how heavily the odds were stacked against him.
In 1928, he finished high school in Burdett, Kan., but had no career prospects or money for college. He spent his time building telescopes, grinding the mirrors by hand in a basement for hours. He couldn't know that the stock market crash and the dust bowl years would soon bring ruin across the plains. Tombaugh sent a letter to an observatory in Flagstaff, N.M., hoping for a job.
Two years later, Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto.
Author Michael Byers tells the story in his novel, "Percival's Planet," which he discussed Tuesday at the Kansas Union. It was originally scheduled in February to fall among the Kansas statehood sesquicentennial, Tombaugh's birthday and the anniversary of Pluto's discovery, but was delayed by this winter's ice storms.
Byers was introduced Tuesday by Steven Hawley, physics and astronomy professor at the University of Kansas, who participated as an astronaut in the Hubble Telescope missions that produced many of the space photographs on display at the discussion.
The department of physics and astronomy opened the event with a guided tour of Tombaugh
I probably always will," he said.
The search for Pluto was driven by Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian who threw his fortune behind the search for what he called "Planet X." Lowell predicted the location of the planet based on calculations that showed the planet Uranus wobbling in response to some object's gravitational pull.
memorabilia and modern science exhibits. Dan Dutcher, a junior from Wichita, volunteered to help out even though he no longer studied astronomy. He said he had enjoyed astonomy ever since he first observed the stars on camping tines as a young boy.
It was Lowell's observatory that Tombaugh wrote to in 1928, and the astronomers gave him the job of searching the sky for Planet X. The work was tedious, and done in the dark and cold of an observatory at night. Tombaugh spent hours and months staring at photographic plates that contained thousands of stars and other objects, searching for one dot that would appear out of place.
"I've done this; it is soul-crushing," said Bruce Twarog, physics and astronomy professor at the University. "You just sit there with this piece of equipment for hours on end."
"I probably always will," he said.
In February 1930, Tombaugh did find a dot out of place - Pluto. The discovery instantly made him a renowned astronomer and opened
SEE PLUTO ON PAGE 3A
CAMPUS
Project uplifts LGBT youth
BY ADAM STRUNK
astrunk@kansan.com
There was nothing too sacred or controversial for author and sex advice columnist Dan Savage to discuss in his speech to the 500 students who packed Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union Tuesday night. Yet it was possibly the least controversial subject, the "It Gets Better" project, which Savage created, which garnered the majority of the crowd's attention.
Newt Gingrich's marriages, marijuana legalization and Biblical hypocrisy.
The project, which Savage began in response to last year's string of LGBT teen suicides, features more than 10,000 online videos of people telling lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender youth about their experiences and ensuring the watchers that "It Gets Better." The videos have more than 40 million views.
During his speech, Savage said that the goal of the program was simple: "Reach these kids with the message that it gets better before these kids hurt themselves. Mission fucking accomplished."
"The kids who most need to hear from us are in the churches, schools and homes where we would least
Savage said that he received numerous emails from people saying that the project had changed or saved their lives. He said it was important for LGBT kids dealing with problems such as bullying to hear from LGBT adults who had gone through the same experiences. But in order to reach the kids and save lives, Savage said the project first had to have a way to make the message accessible to those who needed it most.
While many have lauded Savage's "It Gets Better" project as a great way of reaching out to LGBT youth who are going through hard times, others expressed concerns with the project's overall message.
"We clearly weren't the only people who had heard these stories about these queer kids and ached inside," Savage said.
"It's telling queer youth that there's nothing that can be done about their situation right now," Gadd-Nelson said. "It's saying that it's completely out of your control, bullies will be bullies and you'll just have to get used to it."
Rachel Gadd-Nelson, the educational outreach coordinator of KU Queers and Allies, which cosponsored Savage's talk, expressed concerns that the "It Gets Better" project did not work to solve current issues, but instead encouraged LGBT youth to tough it out.
be invited" he said. "It wasn't until Youtube that we were able to kick down the doors."
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This word cloud shows the most-used words in the 'about' section of itgetsbetter.org. The bigger the word, the more often it appeared in the text. Powered by wordle.net.
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS FOR GAYPRIL
Andrea Gibson: Tomorrow, 7 p.m., Hashinger Auditorium.
Mia Mingus: April 26, 8 p.m. and April 27, 7 p.m., Jayhawk Room.
Brown Bag Drag: April 29, 12 p.m., Kansas Union.
Pride Parade: April 30, 11 a.m., South Park.
Pride Prom: April 30, 10 p.m., Wilde's Chateau.
Classifieds. .7A
Crossword. .4A
Cryptoquips. .4A
Opinion. .5A
Sports. .10A
Sudoku. .4A
- By Max Lush
INDEX
WEATHER
Forecasts by KU students. For a complete detailed forecast for the week, see page 2A.
All contents, unless stated otherwise; © 2011 The University Daily Kansas
NATIONAL 3A
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Jayhawks participate in marathon
The Boston Marathon featured Kansas students who finished with a memorable experience.
Thomas Robinson cited for battery
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
"We are aware of this situation due to the fact that Thomas notified me immediately following his being interviewed by the police that morning, at approximately 2 a.m., about an incident that
Kansas forward Thomas Robinson, who is expected to be the focal point of next year's team, was cited for misdeanor battery for an April 10 incident outside of The Cave, 1200 Oread Ave.
Robinson
occurred just prior" coach Bill Self said. "Thomas is fully cooperating and we will not have any further commen't about this situation as
the investigation plays out."
Robinson, according to witnesses, was one of several basketball players there — the Morris twins, Conner Teahan, Mario Little and Brady Morningstar were also there — but at 20 he was the only underage team member at the 21-and-up club. According to the police report, though, Robinson was not under the influence of alcohol at the time.
"We just saw some pushing from the front of the crowd," said Matt Rissien, a senior from Overland Park, who said he witnessed the incident. "And then The Cave security were yelling with the players at the front. Things got really heated and the players and security guys were yelling at each other, until eventually what seemed like 10 cop cars pulled up, and the players and their group were separated across the street, with The Cave employees on the other side of the street near The Cave."
Rissien said the police then questioned bystanders about what happened.
"It all happened really fast," he said.
Robinson is a sophomore and announced earlier this month that he would be returning to Kansas for his junior season after speculation that he would enter the NBA draft. He is the second basketball player to be cited with misdemeanor battery over the course of this school year. Senior Mario Little was arrested for a Dec. 16 incident in which he pushed his girlfriend into a sink and got into an altercation with Alex DeLeon, a catcher for the Kansas baseball team.
The police report lists two victims, both employees of The Cave, and states that neither of them were injured.
Edited by Amanda Sorell
TRACK|10A
A hardknock childhood
Reese Hoffa is a high-ranked shot putter who competed in the Olympics, but his childhood tells a different story.
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