THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2007
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2007
NEWS
3A
Brackets bring competition
BY ERICK R. SCHMIDT
An ocean, a five-hour time difference and the Florida Gators were all that stood between Allison Taylor and March Madness glory.
Unfortunately, it just wasn't to be.
Unfortunately, it just wasn't to be. The dream came knocked off when the Gators knocked off the Ohio State Buckeyes Monday in the NCAA basketball championship. Taylor, like thousands of KU students, had entered her bracket into Facebook's second annual bracket contest. Unlike many of those students, though, Taylor was doing her best to keep up with the tournament while she studied abroad in Paris.
"Before I came on study abroad, I had only missed a handful of home games in the past three seasons," Taylor, a Topeka sophomore, said. "I'm usually a diehard March Madness fan and watch every game possible, but this year it has been difficult to keep track of how all the teams have been playing."
Taylor said she tried to keep up with the bracket contest by visiting a sports bar she found in Paris that showed a few games.
In the contest, users filled out brackets and were awarded points based on the success of their selections. The owner of the top bracket won $25,000. The rest were just for bragging rights among individual networks.
Going into Monday's championship, Taylor was in second place among the KU network.
"I usually keep up with college basketball pretty well, so I felt like I knew some of the frontrunners for the Final Four," Taylor said. "But I didn't think my bracket would do this well because usually there are more Cinderella, and I didn't pick many upsets."
Patrick Johnson had no reservations picking Florida to win it all. He never considered going with the hometown Jayhawks; in fact, he missed by picking them to lose to Southern Illinois in the Sweet 16, and instead settled on the Gators to take the title. Why did he do it?
Johnson, a graduate student in Applied Behavioral Science, graduated from the University of Florida less than a year ago.
"I was the recipient of a lot of trash talk from those loyal to KU, especially when Kansas defeated Florida in overtime on a neutral court by 2 points in preseason play." Johnson said. "Luckily, our department in particular has a number of students and faculty with degrees from UF. In other words, I had a substantial support group."
Johnson's bracket was ranked among the best at KU going into the championship game. Even though Johnson correctly picked the Gators' title game victory, he finished with 165 points, five short of the winning total.
Dave Rombeck, 2005 graduate, was the lone person in the KU network to finish ahead of Johnson. Rombeck pulled away from the majority of Kansas fans when he picked the Jayhawks' Elite Eight loss to the UCLA Bruins and finished with 170 points.
Kansan staff writer Erick R. Schmidt can be contacted at eschmidt@kansan.com.
— Edited by Mark Vierthaler
FEES (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Services and Union fees will be reevaluated yearly by a Senate review committee. The review allows for small yearly increases, rather than bulk increases, such as this year's.
The Campus Environmental Improvement Fee increased $7.75. The increase allows for the creation of a new, full-time position to manage the bundling of recycling.
"An increase in recycling on campus created the need for the new position," Studie Red Corn, Shawnee junior and First Nations Student Association senator, said.
The Student Media Fee increased $2. The increase comes about to better fund student media groups. The fee last increased in 1978.
Jarrod Morgentern, Overland Park junior and Media Board
member, said the board has had to divide funds into smaller portions to accommodate new media groups.
The increase will allow for the board to better fund groups such as KIHK.
Senate also passed a decrease of $1 per fall and spring semester to the Student Readership Program.
The Student Readership Program provides free newspapers to campus. The program currently receives more money than needed to pay for the service.
The bill also created a fee for summer school students of $2 to fund the summer readership program.
"For the past two years excess money from the fee went to fund the summer readership program," Boots said. "It just makes sense for
the people using the program to pay for it.
Earlier in the semester, the Senate approved a $31 increase in student fees. The fees increased were for the expanded wireless initiative of $5 per semester, a $20 increase to the Transportation fee to purchase newer buses and a $6 increase to the Student Recreation Services fee to meet inflationary needs.
Next week students will have the chance to voice their opinions during elections when voting on a referendum to fund SafeBus.
Kansan staff writer Ashlee Kieler can be contacted at akieler@kansan.com.
Edited by Mark Vierthaler
The team traveled in late March to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and spent 11 days touring NASA facilities and preparing to test the arm in NASA's C-9 aircraft. The team separated into pairs and flew in two separate trips on the aircraft.
"They have to give astronauts special training just to perform this maneuver?" Hochman said.
NASA (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
The team expected the device would make a complete coil while in zero gravity, Terrell said. The arm coiled as expected, but would work better if it had a stronger structural support.
"The purpose was to see how this works in the environment it was designed for," Terrell said.
"We have a very preliminary design," Terrell said. "We know from the results we need to modify the design to make it more useful."
Terrell said that while on the flight, he felt like he was swimming, except that when he flailed his arms and kicked his legs he did not move.
Stiles said the team would soon make a final report for NASA that summarizes the project's results. She said she hoped to perfect the arm's design and reapply to the NASA program next year in order to perform more flight tests.
Kansan staff writer Nathan Gill can be contacted at ngill@kansan.com.
— Edited by Jyl Unruh
BROWN (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
At the time, he thought he could handle it internally within the federal government, but wished he would have turned to the public so the whole nation could have gotten involved. He knew he would have gotten fired if he had said something, but it could have inspired people to fix the problem.
Lisa Martinez, masters student in social welfare, and Al Araiza,
Overland Park resident, evacuated from New Orleans together after Hurricane Katrina hit. Martinez said she didn't blame Brown for what happened in response to Katrina.
"It's more than one man. He didn't come in with the ax and break the levee." Martinez said.
She also agreed with Brown that the government should have federalized a response and took over the
city from the beginning. Araiza said most of the low-economy population didn't have what it took to prepare an individual response, or to survive on their own.
Kansan staff writer Danae De-Shazer can be contacted at ddeshzer@kansan.com.
—Edited by Lisa Tilson
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THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS
funded by:
SENATE
Passover at KU Hillel
April 5th,2007
The rooms are as follows:
Tues April 3 - Alcove E (3rd Floor)
Wed April 4, Alcove C (3rd Floor)
Thurs April 5 - Alcove G (3rd Floor)
Friday, April 6 - Governors Room (5th Floor)
Monday, April 9 - Alcove C (3rd Floor)
There will be no lunch served on Saturday or Sunday.
Passover Dinner
KU Hillel will be serving Kosher-for-Passover dinners each night during Passover from 6-7pm at Hillel. Contact Program Director Matt Lehrman at (785)749-5397 or mlehrman@kuhilui.org to RSVP or.
pay for any meals.
Visit kuhillel.org for prices and more information! Save money by prepaying or by purchasing meal packages!
PAID FOR BY KU
EASTER AT LIBERTY HALL
www.RenaissanceLawrence.com a-birth of social, cultural and spiritual empowerment
Sunday, April 8th @ 11:00am
Liberty Hall, 644 Mass Street
Free parking and cookies!
DOLE INSTITUTE OF POLITICS STUDENT ADVISORY BOARD
Gov. Holden and special guests Mark Abel, Steve Krake, and
This event is at the Dole Institute of Politics on KU's West Campus
"Ink by the Barrel: The News Media &
4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5
Abels, Steve Krake, and Kit Wager will discuss whether the
Members of P.A.D. get exclusive insight into the law school process as well as a chance to meet other me-law students at KU.
Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law Fraternity
or the problem.
The Deadline to join P.A.D. Pre-Law Fraternity
is unpredictable
Application Deadline!
Applications for the Spring 2007 Deadline to join BAD must be turned in by later April 6th.
Turn in applications to the Freshman - Sophomore
Advisory Center (128 Strong Hall)
visting kuadu/phialphacelta/nember.html
Turn in applications to the freshman-Sophomore
P.A.D. must be turned in no later than April 6th.
Find the application on the P.A.D. website at ad:
Advising Center (120 580 high st)
attn: Pre-law Advisor
Any student thinking about law school is encouraged to apply.
PRE-PHYSICAL THERAPY CLUB
Guest Speakers Camilla Wilson, WSU and Brian McKiernan from Rockhurst Thursday, April 5 Watkins Health Center 2nd Floor, Crimson Blue Room 6:30 p.m. T-shirts available!
SIGN UP AT THE MEETING!
KU Four-Square Club
Four-Square Friday
11:30-2:30
Wescoe Beach
Join the KU Four-Square Club
for a quick game
SEE YOU ON THE BEACH!
WANT TO BE INVOLVED?
Center for Community Outreach
Come to an informational meeting
April 9 at 7:30
Alcove E of the Kansas Union!
Come to an informational meeting
Find out about how you can
coordinate one of 15 volunteer programs or apply for a position in the office!
Questions? Contact cco@ku.edu