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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2004
PLAN: Points to determine seating
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23
The faculty and staff will also be relocated. They have been moved to sections 2,3,9,10,D,D1,K,K1,PandP1. Though the new plan will force faculty and staff from their old sections, it will allow them to be in the same area for every game instead of being all over the place, as was the case in years past.
Molly Mulloy, University Governance office coordinator, said in her 10 years in the office no other issue had generated as much interest and feedback from faculty and staff.
A study done by the office of the University Governance in December 2003 found that more than 200 newly available seats would allow up to 800 faculty and staff to attend games this season.
Ted Frederickson, professor of journalism, said some people viewed the plan in terms of dollars, but that may be shortsighted.
"Some faculty may think the Athletic Department sees every issue in terms of dollars," Frederickson said, "but most believe the faculty and staff seating plan that was negotiated with the University Council is a good one."
Accused athletes under go testing
The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The troubles of track and field, along with its triumphs, will be on display when the U.S. Olympic trials begin Friday.
"The law of the United States is quite clear," USATF chief executive officer Craig Masback said. "It says unless someone has received a full due-process hearing and found to be ineligible, they must be allowed to compete."
Tim Montgomery and five other athletes with doping accusations pending against them will be allowed to compete, the head of USA Track and Field said Tuesday.
That means world 100-meter record holder Montgomery, sprinters Christye Gaines and Michelle Collins, twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison and distance runner Regina Jacobs are free to enter the U.S. trials.
Montgomery and Gaines are entered in the 100, Collins and the two Harrisons in the 400 and Jacobs in the 1,500 at the trials held at Cal State-Sacramento.
Montgomery, Gaines, Collins and Alvin Harrison have been told by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency there is evidence they have committed doping offenses, even though they have not tested positive.
Calvin Harrison and Jacobs have tested
positive for banned substances but are contesting those results and are awaiting hearings on their cases.
"We do not intend to prevent them from competing at the trials," Masback said.
However, the International Association of Athletic Federations _ the sport's worldwide governing body _ can bar athletes from the Athens Games if there are doping cases pending against them.
— Edited by Jay Senter
The muddled situation has prompted the International Olympic Committee to allow the United States to make unusually late substitutions to its team.
The event runs through July 18, with the top three finishers in each event making the U.S. team for Athens, provided the athletes have met Olympic qualifying standards.
"The hearing is not going start before the trials, obviously," Montgomery's attorney Howard Jacobs said on Tuesday. "Beyond that I wouldn't want to speculate."
Montgomery and Gaines are bypassing U.S. procedures and taking their case directly to the international Court of Arbitration for Sports. But even in those two cases, the process might not be finished before the Olympics.
The other four accused athletes plan to argue their cases before a U.S. arbitration panel, but can take their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sports as a last resort.
The CAS findings are binding.
At the beginning of his teleconference, Masback read aloud a letter he has written to USATF's board of directors in advance of the trials. He spoke of the challenges the sport has faced in the past.
"But nothing is more challenging or dispiriting than the situation in which we find ourselves," Masback wrote. "Instead of a daily celebration of our great sport and our outstanding athletes, newspapers around the world are delivering news of scandal and shame related to some of our athletes and coaches."
Masback repeated his belief that the vast majority of track athletes do not take banned performance-enhancing substances. He attributed the drug use to "what appears to be a small subculture of cheating athletes and coaches."
Montgomery, Gaines, Collins and Alvin Harrison have been notified by the USADA that they face a lifetime ban from the sport based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. All are contesting the allegations.
The lab's founder, Victor Conte, and three others have been indicted on federal charges of manufacturing and distributing steroids and other performance-enhancing substances.