ON COMMON GROUND
The baseball team will play Texas Tech in a battle against the last place position in the Big 12.
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2007
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 138
1B
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
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PAGE 1A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Lawrence schools
Police responded to a 'vague' bomb threat Thursday afternoon. No bomb was found.
8A
opinion
Check out today's opinion cartoon.
rowing
The team travels to take on a strong Minnesota squad on Saturday. The regatta will be Kansas' first lake race this season.
2B
Virginia Tech
Experts have called the Virginia Tech shooter a 'textbook case' of school shooters. 8A
weather
TODAY
75 54
Mostly Cloudy
- weather.com
78 57 Partly cloudy
75 58 Scattered Texture
index
Classifieds. ... 3B
Crossword. ... 6A
Horoscopes. ... 6A
Opinion. ... 7A
Sports. ... 1B
Sudoku. ... 6A
》MESSAGE BLOX
Texts to alert students of danger
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
In an effort to improve communication between faculty and students and improve emergency response time, the University of Kansas will implement Message Blox. The program will send out text messages to students and faculty members' cell phones alerting them of class cancellations, weather-related KU activity cancellations, weather reports and emergency situations.
"After the microburst, we really realized that we have no effective way to handle rare emergencies like that," Frank DeSalvo, associate vice provost for Student Success, said.
The University's concern about establishing an effective form of
communication heightened after the massacre that took place at Virginia Tech on Monday.
Reid said that eventually he wanted to link Message Blox with Blackboard and other systems at the University and to give student groups the opportunity to send mass messages through the system.
"It just points out that there is a real need for a system like this," Mike Reid, director of marketing for KU Memorial Union, said. "It could have helped get the message out sooner than the 2 hours time it took at Virginia Tech. They found e-mail
SEE BLOX ON PAGE 3A
is great, but there's not a lot of access
when going to class."
》 ONLINE ORDINATION
MARK KEGANS CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Hohamed El-Hodiri (middle) officiates Sunday afternoon at the wedding of C.J. Jackson and Johanna Maska in Des Moines, Iowa, Masonic temple. El-Hodiri became a reverend of the Universal Life Church via the Internet in order to officiate his friend's wedding.
Mail-order matrimony
Internet churches make ministers of the masses
BY THE REV. BRIAN LEWIS-JONES
When two KU journalism graduates recited their marriage vows last Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa, the presiding "minister" was Mohamed El-Hodiri, an observant Muslim and a reverend of the Universal Life Church ordained via the Internet with a quick click of a mouse.
Johanna Maska and C.J. Jackson,
both 2004 graduates, said they preferred having their good friend and former professor officiate their wedding rather than a "standard minister" presiding at a "typically religious ceremony".
El-Hodiri, professor of economics, could marry the couple because he had joined the 20 million people the Universal Life Church has claimed to have ordained, entailing them to preside at funerals, baptisms, blessings and weddings (but not circumcisions, according to the church Web site). Seminary for El-Hodiri,
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, actor Tony Danza, the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Beatles John, Paul, George and Ringo, and millions of other instant ministers consisted of a cost-free, five-minute application process.
Founded by the late Kirby Hensley in 1959, the original mail-order ministry doesn't require tuition or attendance at a seminary, adherence to doctrine or even belief in god. Even though Kansas and most states once restricted wedding officiates to judges, ship captains, and a specific list of ministers, Hensley's church challenged and overturned those restrictions on First Amendment grounds.
At least two other University faculty or staff have officiated at weddings, and one irreverent student became a reverend just to raise holy hell with organized religion. Mainline Lawrence ministers warn that being an effective counselor for a couple planning to marry requires training
SEE MINISTERS ON PAGE 3A
》 SEXUAL VIOLENCE ASSAULT
Panties raise violence awareness
BY TYLER HARBERT
The GaDuGi SafeCenter, along with Sexual Violence Education & Support Services and the One in Four student organization, spread awareness Thursday about one form of violence that affects 25 percent of college women nationally; sexual assault.
"Regardless of whether or not you're sexually assaulted, you'll probably know someone who has been or will be assaulted," said Kristen Abell, program coordinator for Sexual Violence Education & Support Services.
Abell sat at a table that was covered with panties that belonged to survivors of sexual assault. The panty-line project Thursday was part of Sexual Violence Awareness Month.
SarahLeonard/KANSAN
SEE AWARENESS ON PAGE 3A
"It is estimated that 83 percent of women with a disability will be sexually assaulted in their life," Kristen Abell, Sexual Violence Education and Support Services Program coordinator, said. Abell displayed several pairs of undergarments in front of Wescoe on Thursday in order to raise awareness of sexual assault.
>> FINANCE
Repairs would stimulate economy
BY NATHAN GILL
Spending money to repair Kansas universities would be good for the state's economy, according to a Kansas Board of Regents report released in late March.
The report, produced by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University, said that if the university's estimated $727 million maintenance backlog was addressed, it would produce more than $1.6 billion for the Kansas economy.
Brett Zollinger, director of the institute, said that each dollar spent had an affect of more than $1. He said that an economic effect, called a multiplier, took place whenever money was spent.
According to the report, every million dollars spent on deferred
"A way of thinking about the multiplier is that money is spent as it is passed along," Zollinger said.
.
tenance would produce a $2.2 million increase in gross state product, a $644,500 increase in earnings and 19 new jobs. If the full $727 million was spent, those amounts would be $1.63 billion, $468.5 million and 13,964
iobs, respectively.
"It's going to have a trickle down, or ripple effect all around the state."
KIP PETERSON Kansas Board of Regents spokesman
Kip Peterson, Regents spokesman, said that spending money to fund such a large and costly construction project was bound to have a profound economic effect on Kansas.
Carl Parker, an institute policy fellow who prepared the report, explained that maintenance money would filter through the industries involved with construction projects. For example, if a company were paid to fix a building, that company would pay another business for related materials. That business would use the money to pay its employees, who would spend the money in their communities. The money, in effect, would multiply.
"It's going to have a trickle down, or ripple, effect all around the state," Peterson said.
Parker said the communities in which project money would be spent - university towns including Lawrence - would benefit the most, but that the state's entire economy would be affected.
Kansan staff writer Nathan Gill can be contacted at ngll@kansan.com.
Edited by Trevan McGee
.