Tuesday inside
Senate voter guide
The Kansar editorial board voted to
endorse KUnited for Student Senate. With the elections tomorrow and Thursday, the Student Senate voter guide details candidates, platforms and referendums. SPECIAL SECTION
Turnin' it up The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival has 14 new acts and an extra day of music. The festival takes place June 17 to 20 at Clinton State Park. PAGE 3A
Attendance up
Ending its first year at the University, the new Athletics Department has almost met one goal: to increase attendance for all KU sports. Using aggressive promotions, it plans to do even more. PAGE 14A
Sweep possibility The Kansas softball team will take on Wichita State today at 3 p.m. The Jayhawks have never swept a Missouri Valley Conference team but today could be their opportunity. PAGE 14A
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KANSAN
Vol.114 Issue No.129
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
April 13,2004
IN ITS 100TH YEAR AS THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Platform feasibility
Officials comment on coalitions' main goals
By Ron Knox and Steve Vockrodt
editor@kansan.com
Kansan staff writers
With Student Senate elections starting tomorrow, both coalitions are making their platform issues known to students.
If some of the issues on both parties' platforms seem difficult to achieve, that's because they are.
City officials and University of Kansas administrators said that many of the issues may or may not be attainable and need to be planned out further.
KUnited is lobbying to place a nonvoting student position on the Lawrence City Commission. KUnited's presidential candidate Steve Munch said Senate
KUnited Issues
already had a community affairs director who works with the city, but he said that director had no legitimacy or clout.
"We want to make sure the students' voice is consistently heard," Munch said. "There are student issues that need to be addressed. A lot of students don't have time to keep up with it."
"I'd imagine it's a process of sitting down with the current mayor," Munch said. "As far as sitting down and talking, we haven't yet."
But Munch said the coalition hadn't spoken with the commission about allowing a student to join.
Senate officials brought a similar proposal to the commission three or four years ago, Mike Wildgen, city manager said.
Wildgen said he could not speak for the current commission's stance on the issue but that the former commission felt that students had enough opportunities to make their voices heard and that adding a student position would set a difficult precedent to other groups that wanted representation.
He feared that any other group in Lawrence could claim they deserved representation on commission as well, Wildgen said.
"The boat didn't float," Wildgen said.
contributed photo
"Students can run for city commission. That's the most obvious way of getting up there," Wildgen said. "Otherwise, they're represented by the people that are elected."
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SEE PLATFORM ON PAGE 5A
Doctors beyond borders
Medical students travel abroad, provide care to underprivileged
By Matt Rodriguez
mdrrogirez@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
They're wearing their medical scrubs in the 80-degree tropical heat. They're tired, sunburned and ready to get some sleep. After seven days in Belize, this group of 17 medical students and faculty has treated more than 570 people.
The students have treated villagers who had walked four hours for a free medical exam. They've taught children how to properly brush their teeth. They've tackled more challenging tasks such as removing an infected boil from one man's head. They wish they could do more.
Vincent Hayes, clinical assistant professor and International Oureach Program medical adviser, examined a boy in Belize who complained of stomach pain while Rick Moberly II, Grand Junction, Colo., second-year medical student observed.
But these second-year medical students have to get back to school — which starts in three days — where the tests and the other demands that make up the stressful life of a medical student are waiting.
They also need to get back to the University of Kansas Medical Center to work on their other international plans. From making sure seven girls in China will get an education through high school to caring for six villages in Belize to raising enough money to have 116 people tested for AIDS in Tanzania, Africa, the members of the International Outreach Program have set their sights across the world. With 40 students, the program is only one-and-a-half-years old.
"When you find an opportunity to make a difference, why not do it?" said Jane Jenab, the group's founder and second-year medical student from Denver, Colo.
Belize
Instead of doing what other medical students do during spring break --- study — 12 medical students used the $10,000 they raised to take three doctors and two nurses from the University to Belize. They traveled to San Jose and the Y'axche Conservation Trust, a joint-clinic run by the Mayans and Peace Corps that serves four surrounding villages in Belize.
as antibiotics, bandages and Tylenol. Jenab said the villagers knew all about vitamins and asked for as many as they could have. The group spent an extra $75 buying more vitamins before they left Belize.
The group was able to gather $90,000 worth of donated medical supplies, such
A student's parents who are members of the Peace Corps in Belize helped the students organize work with local officials and found a translator for those Mayan villagers who couldn't speak English.
SEE DOCTORS ON PAGE 6A
Violations upheld for KUnited Candidates
By Andy Marso
amarso@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Nick Lawler and Clarisa Diaz, archi-
The Elections Commission Hearing Board upheld complaints of elections violations against two KUnited candidates last night.
Nick Lawler an tecture senators, were each fined $10 for sending an e-mail on Architecture listserves telling students what they had accomplished in Senate this year,
For a story on yesterday's debate and the coalitions' expenses, see 3A.
Candidates are allowed to distribute campaign material to individuals but not to large groups of students, including through list-serves.
The debate about whether Lawler and Diaz had committed a violation centered on whether the e-mail, sent March 31, was campaigning or a routine update on Senate activity.
Diaz was at a mandatory lecture for a class and could not attend the hearing. Lawler was there and said the two of them had no intention of using the e-mail as a campaign tool.
"We didn't mention the elections, we didn't mention KUnited or polling sites, we didn't tell them to go vote," Lawler said.
He added that he had sent out a similar e-mail the year before, when he was also an architecture senator.
Catherine Bell, student body vice president, also attended the hearing. She said she encouraged senators to use list-serves to update their constituencies on Senate news whenever possible. Bell campaigned with KUnited last year.
Jeremy Antley, the complaint adjudicator for the board, said that because Diaz and Lawler sent the e-mail after they'd both declared their candidacies for this year, students who read it could understand it as campaigning.
"Any time you're an incumbent and you send out an e-mail like this, it will have this implication," Antley said.
Lawler said he and Diaz waited until March 31 to send the e-mail because there were architecture projects on Senate's line-item budget and they were waiting to see if the budget would be approved. Senate approved the budget in mid-March.
Lawler said he planned to appeal the decision to the University Judicial Board. Other election news
Nontraditional students will elect three senators this week despite a Senate bill passed earlier this year that allows only two nontraditional senators.
The bill, which passed March 3, replaced one of the three nontraditional senators with an appointed senator from Stouffer Place. The coalitions each fielded only two candidates for the nontraditional seats, thinking only two would be elected.
SEE VIOLATIONS ON PAGE 5A
Student politicians with personality
Munch: History lover, mature beyond his age
By Andy Marso
amarso@kansan.com
Kanaan staff writer
Steve Munch is still more than a year away from being able to stroll into a local bar and order a beer, but in a few days he could hold the top student position at the University of Kansas. Munch, Bellevue, Neb., sophomore, is running for student body president with KUUnited in the Student Senate elections tomorrow and Thursday.
If Munch is elected, he would be one of the youngest presidents in recent memory at 19 years old. But he's been growing up fast for a long time.
Munch's father was a history enthusiast who named their dog Quincy after John Quincy Adams. Steve was reading history books by fourth grade and even carried that passion over to Halloween.
Abbv Tillery/Kansar
Stuve Munch, Bellevue, Neb., sephomore, is running for president through KU United. Munch said running for president will allow him to be involved in changes at the University.
SEE MUNCH ON PAGE 5A
Blake Swenson is running for student body president with Delta Force — a coalition that has only won one presidential election in its eight-year history. But the coalition's track record doesn't bother the candidate.
By Andy Marso
amarso@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"Ive always liked the underdog," the Topeka senior said. "Growing up, my brother's favorite basketball player was Michael Jordan, and mine was Dominique Wilkins — the guy who never really won but scored a lot of points."
Swenson: sports fan; loves the underdog
Swenson's admiration of the underdog meshed perfectly with his love of Kansas basketball in 1988 — the year that Danny Manning led the Jayhawks to an unlikely NCAA championship:
Abby Tillery/Kansan
SEE SWENSON ON PAGE 5A
Blake Swenson, Tepeka senior, is the Delta Force presidential candidate. Swenson said that he hoped to continue work in politics after college.
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