THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2008
NEWS
3A
Velcro buddies
Jessie Fetterling/KANSAN
James Milin, Chicago sophomore, and Luke Brummer, Wichita sophomore, race each other while attached to elastic bands Tuesday afternoon on the lawn of Stauffer-Flint Hall as a part of the Earth Day celebration hosted by SUA.
》 ADMISSIONS
Championship could attract more students
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
The University of Kansas might get more than a shiny trophy and a nice ego boost from its NCAA National Championship. The recent athletic success may give the University a boost in admissions applications as well.
A study done by researchers at Virginia Tech and the University of Pennsylvania gave proof to the widely held belief that the more athletic success a school has, the more applications they'll receive.
Jaren Pope, an assistant professor of applied economics at Virginia Tech, completed the study with his brother, Devin, an assistant professor at Pennsylvania's
Wharton School.
According to the study, an NCAA Championship in basketball is likely to result in a 7 to 8 percent increase in applications the following year.
Lee Furbeck, associate director of admissions and scholarships at the University, said she did not anticipate an increase until the 2009-2010 school year.
"Most of our enrollment deadlines had passed before they won the championship," Furbeck said.
The study gives quantifiable evidence to the myth that has been called the "Flutie effect," after Boston College was flooded with applications following its Doug Flutie-led football victory against Miami in 1984.
The study also found that schools that make the Sweet Sixteen have a 3 percent boost in applications the following year, while just making the NCAA tournament is good enough for a 1 percent increase.
"Even if we hadn't won, we had a commercial on prime time and that's something we wouldn't normally have had," Furbeck said of the KU commercial, which aired during the national championship game. "It results in more folks looking at what we offer."
But Furbeck said she didn't expect the "Flutie effect" to hit the University, mostly because Kansas basketball is already a household name.
of his college decision three years ago. He grew up in Missouri and said he fell in love with Kansas basketball as he watched former Kansas guard Jacque Vaughn and the Kansas teams of the 1990s.
"I just knew I would come here," Grace said. "Not only because of basketball, but because I loved KU, and I wanted to see games in the Fieldhouse."
Ben Grace, Tulsa, Okla., junior said sports played a significant part
Even if Kansas sees an increase in applications next year, Furckeb said it might be hard to attribute the increase solely to the championship.
"There may be other things we change in our recruitment efforts next year as well." Furbeck said.
Edited by Russell Davies
》 ECONOMY
Campus affected by food price increase
BY ANDY GREENHAW agreenhaw@kansan.com
As worldwide demand continues to drive up the price of food, KU Food Services is monitoring market trends and exploring its options to keep campus food prices as low as economically possible.
Nona Golledge, director of KU Food Services, said the national average cost of food increased about 4 percent in 2007, which is up from the historical 2.5 annual increase during the past 10 years.
"We anticipated prices would go up this year so we did raise some prices, but not across the board," Golledge said. "We've only increased prices on items that have become noticeably expensive in order to balance the costs."
She said she didn't know yet whether other prices would go up in the future to counter the rising costs. But she said her department wanted to avoid that.
"This year, the rising cost isn't isolated to just one food group but the entire wide range of food items have been impacted," Golledge said.
Golledge said the rising cost of food prompted KU Food Services to raise some of its prices on campus. Golledge said coffee prices increased about 4 to 5 percent because the University's coffee supplier raised its prices. Anything that contains grain has also become more expensive, she said, and campus salad bar prices have climbed a small percentage.
"We'll keep monitoring trends and try to respond in a responsible way to keep us financially sound while keeping our customers' best interests at heart." Golledge said.
Glenn Barnaby, professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, said four main economic factors were driving the price of food up: worldwide increase in demand, the sinking
value of the dollar, rising fuel costs and the weather. Some of these factors are interrelated.
The sinking value of the dollar, for example, is increasing worldwide demand, he said, because U.S. exports are cheaper for foreign countries to import.
"Even though our economy is having problems, China continues to grow at an annual rate of 8 percent," Barnaby said. "The low value of the dollar makes grain cheaper overseas. As long as Asian countries continue to grow at the same rate, commodity prices will continue to rise."
Both the increase in worldwide demand and the decline in the dollar's value are contributing to the rise in fuel costs, which Barnaby said was making it more expensive to transport food and livestock feed. He said the price of fuel was driving the prices for all goods in the United States.
The weather determines how much farmers are able to supply the growing demand. Barnaby said dry weather in southwest Kansas this year could bring about a poor wheat crop during harvest in late June or early July. Wheat peaked at $13 per bushel about a month and a half ago, but he said a good wheat harvest this summer could easily drop the price about 30 percent.
Barnaby said it would take two good harvests in a row for grain prices to fall considerably.
Barnaby said the rise in food prices wasn't bad for everyone. Farmers, he said, were profiting from the spike in exports.
"When you're talking about an increase in prices, it always depends on which side of the desk you sit," he said. "Farmers probably don't consider these high prices to be bad, but buyers have the exact opposite perspective, which is true in any economy."
Edited by Patrick De Oliveira
THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS April 23, 2008 funded by: SENATE STUDENT
DANCE N' DODGE
Nothing But Nets
DODGEBALL TOURNMENT!
SPRING FUN!
PRIZES!
SAVE LIVES!
Sat April 26th, 2008
Robinson 12-4pm
Refreshments Served
$6/Person $36/Team
Register at: kunothingbutnets@gmail.com
Register at: kunothingbutnets@gmail.com
ATTENTION STUDENTS!!!
DON'T FORGET TO PAY YOUR CLASS DUES DURING ENROLLMENT.
BOARD OF CLASS OFFICERS
Spring Art Sale
DURING ENROLLMENT. CLASS DUES CAN BE FOUND UNDER THE LIST OF OPTIONAL CAMPUS FEES. THESE CLASS DUES HELP TO FUND THE BOARD OF CLASS OFFICERS, WHICH DISTRIBUTES THE H.O.P.E., C.L.A.S.S., AND CAMPANILE AWARDS AT KU AND HELPS TO FINANCE MAJOR CAMPUS EVENTS. GRADUATING CLASS OF 2009-YOUR SENIOR DUES HELP TO PAY FOR THE SENIOR CLASS GIFT, SENIOR MOTTO, AND SENIOR BANNER, SO MAKE SURE TO CHECK THESE DUES OFF UNDER OPTIONAL CAMPUS FEES. B O C O THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS BOARD OF CLASS OFFICERS
Featuring the works of: Metals/Jewelry • Textiles • Ceramics
Wednesday April 30th
Thursday May 1st
10AM-7PM
Kansas Union 4th Floor
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