opinion
How will we impress our grandchildren?
Ryotaro Hayakawa came to Kansas to play baseball without knowing English.
tennis
Postseason play offers the Jayhawks one last shot at redemption.
twister
Eleven people are dead from the tornadoes that swept through the South on Tuesday.
index
Classifieds...5B
Crossword...10A
Horoscopes...10A
Opinion...11A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...10A
All contents; unless stated otherwise.
2007The University Daily Kansan
MEN'S BASKETBALL
BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS
Rush still hush on future plans
Depending on who you listen to, Brandon Rush has declared for the NBA Draft, decided to stay in school or is still torn.
About the only thing he hasn't done is announce he's running for the presidency. Given this week's events, it would probably take more than that to shock lajawhah fan
Rush
This is what is known: Rush, a sophomore guard, has until midnight on Sunday to decide if he
wants to make himself eligible for this year's NBA Draft. If he does, he still has the option of backing out before June 18, provided he doesn't hire an agent.
Kansas coach Bill Self met with Rush on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the situation. Rush has been meeting regularly with Self throughout the process to seek the coach's advice. He's also talked to his brother Kareem, who played in the NBA for five years. But there's been no word as to when a decision will be made.
Rush has previously said that he would enter the draft if he would be taken among the top 20 picks. That goal looks increasingly unlikely as several underclassmen declare their
draft eligibility. Currently, NBA scouts are projecting that Rush will be taken in the late first round or early second round.
The difference between a first and second-round pick is huge. First-round players – the first 30 picks
The same can't be said of Rush. The waiting game will likely continue through May, which would make it difficult for Self to replace Rush if he left for the NBA. Most of the top recruits will have already committed to schools by then.
receive a guaranteed two-year contract worth at least a million dollars. Second-round players receive nothing. They must negotiate with the team that selected
picks, as many as 20 might be college underclassmen, and any of them could withdraw their names before June 18, improving Rush's position.
them for their contract and are not even guaranteed to make the team.
If he remained at Kansas, Rush would be the star on next year's team in the absence of forward Julian
For updates on this story, see kansan.com.
But projecting at this point is more of an art than a science. Of the top 30
An announcement will come by the end of the week, but if that announcement is that Rush is making himself eligible, it doesn't resolve the question of where Rush will be come August.
Wright, who is leaving for the NBA. Freshman forward Darrell Arthur would also play a big role in the offense, assuming Wright's starting spot.
In recent days, rumors have begun to pick up that Arthur is beginning to consider entering the draft himself, but both he and Self have said that he will be
around for another season
Kansan senior sportswriter Michael Phillips can be contacted at mphillips@kansan.com.
Edited by Jyl Unruh
ODDS AND ENDS
Amanda Sellers/KANSAN
Randy Walker, sits at his dining room table with the biggest and smallest of his sock monkey collection. Walker has more than 200 in his collection, which draws many visitors to his doorstep to see the unique stuffed animals.
Transforming trinkets into art
Artist creates collectibles armed with trash, glue gun BY TYLER HARBERT
The neighbors are already asleep as Honey Boy bends over and unlatches the old wooden door to the cellar on the back of his house. He plods down the cement staircase and fumbles for the light switch in the cold, musty basement—his studio.
As the room becomes illuminated with light, Honey Boy pulls three clear plastic bags off a splintery wooden shelf, one filled with a colorful assortment of beads, another with various fake jewelry and the last one with aquarium rocks.
His gaze shifts to a metal lamp with a plain white shade as he sits on a stool in front of his workbench. He plants a cigarette between his lips and plucks a bead out of one of the bags. He will convert trashy trinkets and hot glue into art until he goes to bed.
His collectables, some of them politically incorrect, have been met with distaste or downright disgust. Walker said he understands why, but insists those objects have their place.
Walker has spent his life in trash dumps and salvage shops, collecting garbage and calling it art, which he sells along with strange collectables from booth number 150 in the basement of the Lawrence Antique Mall, 830 Massachusetts St.
Honey Boy (his artistic pseudonym) is Randy Walker, a Lawrence artist who takes nothing and turns it into something.
SEE FOLK ART ON PAGE 4A
Photos by Amanda Sellers/KANSA
A small chest adorned by Walker sits in his booth. The main contents used for this piece were glass chips and lots of hot glue.
Walker's glue gun sits atop a box of trinkets in his basement. He usually retreats to the basement to work on his projects surrounded by ornaments and armed with his glue gun for projects.
user can dolls sit on top of the store in Walker's kitchen. A lev of them are made from vintage wine and soda, cans and jugs, contain bottles for their arms and legs.
>> FINANCIAL AID
Students attempt policy reforms
BY TYLER HARBERT
Getting caught smoking a joint could cost a college student thousands of dollars in federal financial aid.
That's why Carrie Wallace, Lawrence senior, and Dana Maher, Omaha, Neb., senior, are trying to raise awareness about a provision in the Higher Education Act that denies federal aid to convicted drug offenders. Wallace and Maher are trying to form a student organization in connection with the national Students for Sensible Drug Policy organization.
"It's unfair that drug convictions are the only ones that lose aid," Wallace said.
PROFILE
First-time marijuana offenses are treated as misdemeanors in Lawrence, but in other states, drug possessions can be treated as convictions.
Students with drug convictions must disclose that on their FAFSA form, which could affect their eligibility for financial aid.
Wallace and Maher said although they were promoting looser marijuana policy, they're not potheads.
SEE AID ON PAGE 3A
Michiko Takei/KANSAN
Professor proves teaching does more than pay bills
Harry G. Shaffer, professor emeritus of economics, has been teaching at the University of Kansas for 51 years.
BY BRIAN LEWIS-JONES
"Good afternoon," Harry Shaffer customarily says to his class of about 450 students.
Sometimes, he'll repeat the phrase with his mild and scratchy Austrian voice to get the proper student response, but he said the first time usually worked.
A professor of economics, Harry began teaching at the University of Kansas in 1956. Fifty-one years later, he now teaches an introduction to economics course for non-majors. His wife of almost 20 years, Betty, said his course had inspired some students to replace
。
their majors with Harry's field of study. Coincidentally, an introduction to economics course originally inspired Harry to study the subject, write 11 books and teach in Lawrence for more than half a century, despite a persistent vocal chord condition that has left him voiceless at times.
"I don't plan to retire unless I absolutely need to," said Harry, who was born in 1919 in Vienna, Austria. He joked that his tentative retirement age would be 108 and said his students, five teaching assistants and
X
SEE SHAFFER ON PAGE 3A
*
100%