Tuesday inside
Campus activism KU Students for Life planned a week of events to help gain awareness for its cause. The group will host a talk about the effects of partial-birth abortion at 7 tonight. PAGE 3A
Let him go in peace Sportswriter Ryan Greene wants Jayhawk fans to appreciate what David Padgett did for the men's basketball team this season instead of insulting his decision to transfer. PAGE 1B
Unusual election
Unusual election International students see differences between elections in their home countries and those in the United States.Erik Herron, assistant professor of political science,said these observations are common. PAGE 3A
Extra innings
Kansas lost 5-3
Illinois yesterday in 10 innings. The Jayhawks committed four errors in the game to the consternation of coach Tracy Bunge. PAGE 1B
Weather
Today
Umbrellas needed!
Two-day forecast tomorrow thursday 7050 6348 Mostly cloudy Cloudy — Justin Gesling, KUJH-TV
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KANSAN
IN ITS 100TH YEAR AS THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Vol.114 Issue No.134
Question of identity
Hacking incident raises awareness of theft
By Steve Vockrodt
svockrodt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
If you are not concerned about identity theft, especially after the recent hacking incident at Watkins Memorial Health Center, perhaps you should be.
On April 6, hackers managed to view all prescription records from the Watkins server from 1994 to 2004. The FBI is still investigating the incident.
With the possibility that hackers had access to students' names and social security numbers, students are ripe to become victims of identity theft, the fastest growing white-collar crime nationwide.
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Web site, identity theft complaints increased 33 percent from 2002 to 2003, from 161,836 to 214,905.
SEE ID THEFT ON PAGE 8A
Order a credit report from one of the three major credit reporting agencies once a year to ensure that no improper payments have been made. Credit reports, under law, cannot cost more than $9 and will be free starting in 2005.
MINIMIZING RISK OF IDENTITY FRAUD
Use passwords on your credit cards, bank and phone accounts instead of using your social security number, mother's maiden name or birth date.
Do not give out sensitive information over the phone, mail or Internet unless you initiate contact and know who you are talking to.
Get bank statements online instead of through the mail to avoid having account information stolen from your trash.
Don't carry your social security card with you. Leave it in a secure place.
■ Credit reporting agencies:
Equifax, Inc.
Options
PO Box 740123
Atlanta, Ga. 30374-0123
Experian
Consumer Opt-Out
701 Experian Parkway
Allen, Texas 75013
TransUnion
Marketing List Opt Out
PO Box 9728
Jackson, Miss. 39288-7328
Source: Federal Trade Commission
The pothead's holiday
"Four-twenty" has become infamous in both date and time, representing a time for smokers to light up joints, spliffs, pipes, bongs and hookahs worldwide. This code allows the subculture to communicate outside of the law's eyes.
a reason for some to light up
By Matt Rodriguez
mrodriguez@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Pot smokers have their own lingo, containing words such as B-sters, headies and shwag. The most popular pot slang goes hand-in-hand with today's date.
"Four-twenty" has come a long way from what once started as a meeting time for six teenagers to look for some wild pot. Today those words have become linked to a ritual that stoners and mainstream America are recognizing as the prime time to get high.
Whether it happens to be 4:20 a.m. or p.m., the number "four-twenty" justifies getting high for marijuana enthusiasts. Some pot smokers even go so far to celebrate by having 420 as their address or being able to say part of their telephone number is 420. Some die-hard smokers have already celebrated this morning with a 4:20 wakeen-bake.
high-school career but was always approached with comments about the date of his birthday. The smoker wishes to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job.
One smoker, whose birthday is today, said he didn't smoke pot for most of his
JOB.
"They would come up to me and be like, 'Dude your birthday kicks ass,' and tell me how lucky I was to have a birthday today," the Olathe senior said. "By the time I got around to smoking weed, I was saving my best pot up for weeks prior to my birthday."
SEE POT ON PAGE 8A
KUnited receives chalking penalty
By Andy Marso amaro@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
date Steve Munch.
The Student Senate Elections Commission voted to certify KUnited's victory last night, pending payment of a fine that shocked presidential candi-
Waffen The commission's hearing board found the coalition in viola-
STUDENT
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SENATE
coalition in violation of the elections code for not removing its chalking from in front of Wescoe Hall before the election. The board fined KUnited $500, the full coalition limit for a minor offense. It also ordered KUnited to clean off the chalking within 24 hours.
"Off the top of my head, I'd say we're going to appeal," Munch said. "Five hundred dollars for chalking is ridiculous. We didn't endanger anyone, we didn't break any laws. You can get off with a fake ID for less than that."
According to the elections code, candidates and coalitions are not allowed to try to influence voters within 100 feet of the polling sites.
"As of today, there's still a giant KUnited chalking in front of Wescoe, so it obviously was in front during the elections," said Jeremy Antley, the commission's complaint adjunctor.
The chalking violation complaint was filed by the Delta Force coalition, but elections commissioner Dane Hague said he also filed a complaint.
"That 100-foot barrier is very important on election day, and they just pretty much blatantly ignored it," Hague said.
Hague said he contacted both coalitions the day before the elections and told them they'd have to remove their chalkings from the polling site areas.
He said he saw a Delta Force member cleaning up chalking with a broom and water later and called KUnited vice presidential candidate Jeff Dunlap to remind him to get the KUnited chalkings removed.
Hague said Dunlap called him back later and said the chalkings couldn't be removed because the commission hadn't provided any power washers
"Obviously that wasn't in the code anywhere," Hague said.
"I can't speak on behalf of Jeff, but in years past, that has been our understanding, that the commission does take care of that," Munch said.
Munch said he thought the board was trying to make an example of his coalition by finiting it the maximum amount.
KUnited has 48 hours to pay the fine or file an appeal. The election certification is pending the resolution of the violations complaint.
The commission certifies results each year after waiting a few days to give people an opportunity to appeal the results.
Edited by Abby Mills
Student wins playwriting competition
Junior wins national award, credits English professor for success
By Dave Nobles
dnobles@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
ACCTI—April 17, 2003
Paul Stephen Lim, a professor in the English department at the University of Kansas, watches from the audience as his student's play is performed at the Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival.
ACTI April 17,2004
The Story of Izanagi and Izanami, a play by Kristen Wirsig, is about to win the national playwriting competition in Washington, D.C.
He submitted the Colorado Springs, Colo., junior's play to the competition that helped shape his own goals as a professor.
"As a teacher, whatever you may be teaching,you want students to go on and
excel in their fields," Lim says. "I think it's part of my job to get the works of my students out there."
And get them out there he does.
And get them out there he does "It's exhilarating." Lim says about his work. "The best students are like good children. The payoff for me is to watch their new work."
By Sunday, one of his students will have won $500 and the right to have her play published by the Kennedy Center.
He sits in the audience, completely satisfied.
It was the first play Wirsig ever wrote during the first exercise in Lim's class.
ACT II — April 1976
Lim came to the University from the Phillippines when he was 24 years old. It was the summer of 1968.
He had just received his master's degree in English at the University but still considered himself a fiction writer, not a playwright.
But then he gets the call.
But then he got a Lim finds out that the first play he ever
And he wins the National Student Playwriting Award.
wrote, Conpersonas, has been entered in the Kennedy Center American Theatre Competition.
After winning the award, he begins teaching playwriting part-time in the English department.
"It was an experience that I'd never had before," Lim said about his reaction when he won the competition. "It was such a surprise, and then I was hooked."
He would become a full-time instructor at the University in 1989, and in that same year he starts the English Alternative Theatre as a way to get his students' work noticed.
Throughout this time, he would continue to share his enthusiasm about playwriting with his students, and he succeeds.
Lim would end up winning a gold medallion from the Kennedy Center in
SEE PLAY ON PAGE 3A
Mouan True/Kansan
English professor Paul Stephen Lim teaches a playwriting class and Kristen Wirsig, Colorado Springs, Colo. junior, is his student. Wirsig wrote a play that won the national playwriting competition in Washington, D.C., Saturday.
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