CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, April 4,1996
3A
Candidates seek to raise involvement
Cesar Millan
Cesar Millan, Kansas City, Mo., senior, Voice coalition candidate for student body president:
"If you can show students results from getting involved with the Senate, that is the key. They see that they can really make a difference."
Senate election turnout, student interest sparse
By Scott MacWilliams
Kansan staff writer
Student Senate elections are coming up, and candidates would like to draw more students into the process.
Cesar Millan, Voice coalition candidate for student body president, said the best way to increase involvement was for senators to get
out and talk to constituents.
Grey Montgomery, Vision coalition student body presidential candidate, said Senate also has used email to increase accessibility.
But some students said Senate did not inform them of its regular functions. The recreation center referendum was cited as an example.
"I didn't understand the process. It
wasn't clear to me at all," said Nikki Emerson, Topeka freshman. "I think they should give students the opportunity to vote, but they need to let the students know all about the issue first."
Emerson said she didn't vote in the referendum because she wasn't sure about the issue.
However, the referendum did draw more voters than typical Senate elections.
"We had a 15 percent turnout for that vote, and we usually only have a 12 to 13 percent turnout for the Senate elections," Millan said. "I think the fact that this was such a huge pocketbook issue motivated people to get out and vote."
Grey Montgomery
Grey Montgomery, Junction City senator, Vision coalition candidate for student body president:
"We've instituted Student Senate Awareness Week and Student Senate phone polling of their constituencies, and we added e-mail accounts for the senators last fall. The Senate also has a home page, and we could post all the senators e-mail addresses there along with the current bills."
Dog gone? Call this number
Recording service helps pet owners find lost animals
By Scott MacWilliams Kansan staff writer
Michelle Newton, Parsons junior, poses with Boomer. Newton volunteers for the Lawrence Humane Society, 1805 E. 19th St., by making recordings describing pets brought to the center. Boomer is one of the many animals waiting to be adopted at the Humane Society.
Michelle Newton may have lost her dog, but she is helping others find their missing pets.
The Lawrence Journal-World ACCESS service provides the recorded information about animals that have been brought to the humane society.
Newton, Parsons junior, started making lost animal description recordings for the Lawrence Humane Society.
"I lost my dog last August," Newton said. "When I called the ACCESS number for lost pet descriptions, I found out it hadn't been updated since Feb. 15."
Newton said the staff at the humane society was simply too busy to make the recordings, so she decided to help.
Newton makes the recordings weekly and said there were more dogs to be listed than cats. She hopes to start making the recordings daily.
"It doesn't take that long to record them," Newton said. "I spend more time driving out there to get the listings."
The number is 865-5000, and the ACCESS code is 2010 for the dogs listing and 2011 for cats.
Newton said she wanted students to know about the service so that if they lost a dog or cat they could get a description of pets recently brought to the humane society.
Newton said the recordings are limited to 90 seconds and that she had to hurry to get all the dogs listed.
The recordings for Mar. 17-25 listed 17 dogs and seven cats brought in to the humane society.
The listings include male Lhasa mix, a red Cocker mix, a black Dane/lab mix, and a neutered male black Scotty in the lost dogs category. In the cats listing there was a brown neutered male tabby, a blue cream classic female and a brown tabby with some white.
"We've had 13 calls on the dogs and 11 calls on the cats in the last eight days," said Tom Hitt, ACCESS line coordinator for the Journal-World.
Hitt said the current time limit of 90 seconds for messages could be
expanded to three minutes if necessary to accommodate all the lost animals.
"I think people need to also call the society every day if they have lost a pet," Newton said. "They are very busy down there, and the sooner people get their pets back, the better for everyone."
Kim Roberts, public relations coordinator for the society, said volunteers are always welcome there.
"We have people take pets out to nurses-
homes in our pet-facilitator program," Roberts said. "We also need help in the office, caretakers for the animals and foster care for newborns."
Roberts also said that they are planning a 5K "Mutt 'n Strut" fund-raising-race on May 5 with owners running with their pets.
"We also have volunteers help with humane education in the schools," Roberts said.
Interns gain insight into legislative areas
By John Collar Kansan staff writer
When state senators were considering cutting funds that allow University of Kansas students to use credit cards for tuition payments, Lucy Ridgway had to fight to keep her mouth shut.
"I was just shaking," said Ridgway, Jackson, Miss., senior. "I wanted to say something. Nothing was discussed about how students would be inconvenienced."
Working as a legislative intern, Ridgway said this incident taught her that students should have a stronger voice in the Legislature.
Burdett Loomis, professor of political science and instructor of the POLS 497 course, said that during this year's legislative session, about 20 KU students were working as interns for state legislators.
Requirements for the course include keeping a journal, writing a paper and obtaining an evaluation from the intern's Statehouse supervisor.
During her internship, Ridgway was assigned to work with State Sen. Richard Rock, D-Akansas City, because he was a member of the influential Ways and Means Committee, which approves appropriations bills before sending them to the Senate.
"He was very good about making the experience a positive one," Ridgway said.
Ridgway said she discovered that KU's
budget did not occupy as much legislative time as she thought it would.
The Ways and Means committee is more unified than others because its members work so closely on many difficult issues, she said.
Loomis said that students often started the internship with a negative view of government but that their perspective could change.
"They end up seeing that these are good people trying to work out tough issues," Loomis said.
Instead of performing regular office duties such as opening mail and writing letters, the interns may follow a particular bill and examine the issues and constituencies involved, Loomis said.
Todd Schieffer, Prairie Village second-year law student, worked for State Rep. David Adkins, R-Leawood.
Schieffer followed the legislative activity on a bill sponsored by Adkins that would reform the state's juvenile justice system.
Schieffer said that of the two chambers, the House of Representatives was closer to the citizens.
"People are more concerned with the day-to-day realities of their constituents," Schieffer said.
As a lawyer, Adkins is able to provide insight into the legislative process, he said.
"He has a lot of experiences that he can share with me to make it more meaningful," Schieffer said.
Residence hall floods
Three floors of Oliver Hall sustained water damage
By Eric Weslander Kansan correspondent
During spring break, maintenance workers in Oliver Hall shut off the water to make a few routine repairs. Everything went according to plan until they were finished.
"When we turned the water back on, all the commodes and urinals flushed at the same time," said Jeff Carmody, assistant director of custodial services for the department of student housing. "All that water going through the pipes at the same time was too much."
The result was a flood that drenched the south wing of the third floor and dripped down into the first and second floors.
Carmody said that most of the damage was done to the Academic Resource Center. Water ruined the ceiling tiles and soaked the carpet. The ARC has been temporarily relocated to the hall government office.
Carmody said that it was too early to estimate the cost of the damage to the ARC.
"Fortunately, the computers were covered at the time," he said.
The water also damaged approximately ten residents' rooms, including the room of resident assistant Chip Hardin. Hardin, Leavenworth junior, said that anything on the floor at the time of the flooding got wet.
"I have a couple of bags of stained clothes and a few pairs of shoes that were stained," he said. "Everyone's carpet was soaked, but they shampooed and dried them before we got back."
Oliver Hall complex director Kate McCarthy said that the University would pay for the cleaning of the damaged clothing. If something is damaged beyond repair, residents can fill out a claim form and return it to her.
McCarthy's apartment and the assistant complex director's apartment were also damaged. McCarthy said that her stereo, telephone, and VCR were ruined, but that her losses were covered by renter's insurance.
"I lost a couple shoeboxes full of photographs," McCarthy said. "That can't be replaced."
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