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VOL.104,NO.134
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNI
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WEDNESDAY. APRIL 12. 1995
.1 OF KANSAS
(USPS 650-640)
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Despite the action on the court, few fans turn out for Kansas women's basketball games.
The Kansas women's basketball team fights just to find an audience
Story by Jenni Carlson Photos by Jarrett Lane
Sitting at her locker, Angie Halbleib's nerves are pumped to about the same level as the rap music blaring in the hawk hook room.
"Gosh, we've got to win this," she says to teammate Shelly Canada.
This is the Kansas women's basketball team's biggest home game of the season. The third best team in the nation, undefeated Colorado, is waiting for the Javahaws to take the floor.
Halbleib is waiting, too. She has already dressed,
had her ankles taped and pulled back her hair with
the same blue scrunchie that she has worn all season.
And then, the waiting is over.
"Packin' em in tonight," Halbleib says sarcastically in the team's huddle.
Let's go, Kansas," Coach Marian Washington yells. The women move down the tiled hallway onto the dimly lit Allen Field House track. But even from the dark, they can see the emptiness.
But they don't come.
Is this really Allen Field House, home of the Jayhawks? The 16,300-seat arena dwarfs a crowd of 3,574 people. Several hundred of those are Buffalo faithful.
"How can people not want to come to this game?" Canada wonders.
Kansas has struggled with promoting its women's basketball team for years. This year was no exception. The Jayhawks were nationally ranked throughout the entire season but averaged 1,974 fans in their 12 home games.
They are not alone. Across the nation, most women's programs play for handfuls of people.
Some say drawing a higher attendance is a lost cause. Students won't attend games. Kansas and other teams must rely on a fan base of families and senior citizens.
But there are programs that are beginning to break the traditional mold. They say their success is due in part to marketing and growing media exposure.
Lynne Mixon, Kansas director of athletic promotions, is working on a plan to better market Jayhawk women's basketball.
Sitting in her cluttered fieldhouse office amid paperwork, posters and filfers, Mixon talks about the future of Kansas women's basketball. She and her staff are awaiting 'survey results from successful women's programs across the country. They will devise a new marketing plan with the results.
"It's still in the formative stages right now." Mixon admits. "We just need to find out what whatever turns the
key to make people come out."
Mixon already has several ideas for the marketing plan. She wants to get Kansas women's basketball coach Marlan Washington and her players more involved in the community through projects such as a Junior Jayhawk Club, parent-child sports camps and image advertising.
To hear Mixon talk, it sounds like she's piecing together a TV show.
She hopes to find a second corporate sponsor to supplement Payless ShoeSource. Sponsors increase visibility, stimulate interest and pick up the tab.
Also on the horizon is the television contract the new Big 12 Conference signed with Liberty Sports, which owns several Prime Sports Network regional affiliates.
Marketing women's sports means turning games into events. Mixon hopes to have more promotional games like the two this past season with special prices and special entertainment.
"I think that's the next step we need to take," Mixon says.
Tickets for the in-state battle with Kansas State were halfprice, $2.50 for adults and $1.50 for children, with a Payless receipt. The Bud Light Dare Devils bounded around the court at halftime, and players met fans in a post-game "Fan Jam."
Payless also sponsored "Fill The Fieldhouse II." They gave away free tickets for the Northwestern game, and the Jayhawks drew their largest home crowd of the season.
But there are dangers in the side show and free-seats approach.
"When you give something away, people think it may not be worth it," says Mixon, who is in her first year at Kansas.
Arlo Oviatt, assistant professor of journalism, who produced advertising campaigns for corporate clients such as McDonald's, Nintendo and Budweiser, agrees that not charging admission can be a trap. He believes that women's basketball needs to cop an attitude.
"Say. 'We're as good as men's basketball. Come see what you are missing.' Oviatt advises.
See BASKETBALL, Page 5A
Study on busing not authorized
REAL members are upset about released information
By Ian Ritter
Kansan staff writer
Members of the REAL coalition and some Student Senate executive officers are upset about information released about the busing system at the University of Kansas.
At a Monday night debate between the two coalitions, REAL and United Students, a packet was distributed detailing the potential effects of changing the current KU busing system to a system run by both the City of Lawrence and Senate.
According to the report, the research was done by the Student Senate Transportation Board of Directors.
But Eric Medill, chairman of the campus transportation board and student body vice president; and Sherman Reeves, student body president; said that the packet never was authorized but was prepared solely by
Chair Browning; Senior Q&E team
Impus transportation boar-
member
"Ultimately, I was just upset because this was made public before I was even aware of it," Medill said. "The fact that it was released before my knowledge — it tends to make me wary of the motivation behind the study."
Browning said that he had made
MINORITIES: Student
Senators say minorities are an important component of Senate .
Page 3A
Browning said that he had made a mistake by claiming that the study was done by the campus transportation board when it was he who had done the study on his own.
Browning said the study was assembled based on suggestions from four campus transportation board members.
The study discourages a cooperative busing system run by Senate and the city. KU's current busing system, KU On Wheels, receives complete financing from Senate.
The United Students coalition has supported maintaining the current bus system, while the REAL coalition has supported working with the city to develop a new system.
United Students presidential and vice presidential candidates, Kim Cocks and Dan Hare, supported the study during the debate.
The study focuses on three examples of bus systems: the student-run KU model, the University of Iowa system which has been REAL's example of a university working with city government, and a new KU system which involves the city.
According to the study, students at KU would be paying a minimum of $48 more a semester for busing if the city were involved in financing the system.
During the debate, Cocks said that Bryan McClatchey, director of campus transportation at the University of Iowa said, "Why would you want to change your current system?"
"I did not speak with him, but members of our coalition did." Cocks said.
McClatchey said that he did not remember making such a comment unless it was to ask what KU students thought was wrong with the current system.
McClatchey also said that some of the information in the study was inaccurate.
The study said that it cost the University of Iowa $4 million a year to run the current campus busing system.
See BUSES, Page 3A
Wal-Mart's recycling center at 3300 Iowa St. is cutting its hours back.
Page 8A
Homosexual stereotypes perpetuated by fear
Research says myths about gays are wrong
By Robert Allen Kansan staff writer
When the Kansan last week reported that Eric Moore, former director of LesBiGay Services of Kansas and former Student Senate candidate, had in 1990 been convicted of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child under 12, it touched off a storm of protest regarding the stereotype of gays and lesbians as child molesters.
Experts agree that many stereotypes of gay and lesbian people have no basis in fact and that they are perpetuated by fear or misunderstanding.
The belief that homosexuals are more likely to molest children is untrue, said
"The stereotype that gay people are predators of children is remarkably inaccurate," he said. "Gay and lesbian adults prefer sexual relationships with gay and lesbian adults, just like heterosexual adults prefer sexual relationships with adultheterosexuals."
Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare.
A study published in the July 1994 issue of Pediatrics found that in 82 percent of the child molestation cases studied, the alleged offender was a heterosexual partner of a close relative of the child.
"The research indicates that the great bulk of children who are sexually misused are misused by heterosexually oriented persons," Dalley said.
ices at Watkins Memorial Health Center.
"And unfortunately, homosexual people are defined by their sexuality, as opposed to the rest of the population," she said. "Homosexuals are lawyers, politicians, university professors and athletes. They cover the whole spectrum of society just like everybody else does."
But despite the fsearch, people still hang onto the old myths about homosexuals, said Pamela Botts, associate director of counseling and psychological serv-
Fear and supersition and other kinds of irrational things drive these stereotypes, she said.
There is no evidence to support this, he said.
Dailey said that students in his classes often had preconceived notions about gays and lesbians.
"They have learned that they are recruiting children to become gay," he said.
Some students also believed that to some extent, gays and lesbians are more promiscuous than heterosexuals.
"They would have to go a long way to be more promiscuous than heterosexuals," he said. "Heterosexuals aren't doing too well with monogamy."
Combating stereotypes is difficult, Dailey said.
"I think stereotypes probably change when the holder of the stereotype begins to suffer from having the stereotype," he said. "Parents who have stereotypes about gays often change their stereotypes when they find out that one of their children is gay. They very often work towards correcting it."
"Probably the most effective method in dispelling fear and changing attitudes is a personal relationship with someone who is in a group different from ourselves," she said. "Get to know somebody."
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