4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008
» EVENT
Dole Institute program pairs politics with pepperoni
BY BRENNA HAWLEY
bhawley@kansan.com
upcoming pizza and politics
Today, a correspondent for the New York Post will speak to students about what it's like to ride in Hillary Clinton's personal jet and report her campaign's every move. He, along with a man elected to the Kansas legislature at 22 years-old and the woman responsible for overseeing more than 1,700 insurance companies in Kansas, are part of the revamped Pizza and Politics program.
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, which plays co-host to the events with the University of Kansas Alumni Association, said that attendance had doubled this year compared to 2004, the year the program started.
Geoff Earle, New York Post reporter who covers Clinton campaign
Thursday, March 6 at 12:20 pm at the Alumni Association
Tom Cox, Shawnee senior and organizer of the event, said the program, which is held during lunchtime and offers free pizza and a
Sandy Praeger, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Tuesday, March 25 at 12:20 pm at the Alumni Association
Other speakers will be confirmed later
political discussion, averaged 60 students per event. Cox works for the Dole Institute.
Cox said this year he wanted to find speakers who would appeal to more students. Cox said that he chose speakers and then organized a discussion based on the speaker's area of expertise.
"My goal was to get students whod never heard about Pizza and Politics to hear about it," Cox said. "If nothing else, they're interested in a free lunch."
Cox coordinated a lunch last fall that brought in Josh Svaty (D—Ellsworth) and Kevin Yoder (R—Overland Park), two Kansas legislators who were less than 30 years old. Swaty was 22 when he was elected to the State House of Representatives, which made him the second-youngest elected representative ever in Kansas. Yoder was a former KU student body president, so Cox said many students came to the event because it related to them.
Svaty said he liked talking to
the students because they were so interested and engaged in politics already and because it was a fun atmosphere.
"We stayed quite a while afterward to talk to. Svayted. Svyted."
Cox, who said he researched for this event and others, said he walked out more informed each time.
"It's difficult to walk out knowing the same amount as when you went in," Cox said.
Amanda Applegate, Wichita junior, said she had been going to Pizza and Politics for about a year. She is now the chairwoman of the subcommittee for Pizza and Politics, and even as a pharmacy major, she said politics were important.
"Politics affect everybody whether they like it or not." Applegate said.
Applegate said she pushed to bring in Sandy Praeger, Kansas Insurance Commissioner, as a guest. Praeger will talk about health care reform and the presidential candidates' health insurance plans, which Applegate said should appeal to pharmacy and pre-med majors as well as political science majors.
"Politics affect how we will practice." Applegate said.
Jonathan Earle, interim director of the Dole Institute, started Pizza and Politics in fall 2004 as an idea borrowed from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He said it was a way to attract people who wouldn't normally go to West Campus to Dole Institute events. In summer 2006, a student took over the program and now a student-run board monitors it.
Earle said the guests often spoke at other Dole Institute events but he asked them to come early for Pizza and Politics. He said he paid speakers for their travel costs but nothing else, and the students in charge organized all lunches and helped choose the speakers.
"I tell them to put me into bank-
ruptyc with how many pizzas we have to buy," Earle said.
Earle said the event was even advertised by Marc Langston, Wichita senior and three-year Pizza and Politics veteran, who put on a pizza slice costume.
"I'll never forget introducing myself to Senator Dole in his law office in Washington, D.C. as he remarked 'I think I saw a picture of you as a pizza.' Langston said.
Today's speaker, Geoff Earle, is the Washington, D.C. correspondent for the New York Post and is covering Clinton's presidential campaign. Earle travels with Clinton on her personal jet and stays in the same hotels, so he is close to the politics and can tell students what it is really like on the campaign trail. The event will be from 12:15 to 1:45 p.m. at the Adams Alumni Center.
—Edited by Samuel Lamb
POLITICS
Tension escalates as Venezuela stations troops on Colombian border
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARACAS. Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez portrayed himself as a man of peace Wednesday, even as he moved tanks and soldiers to the Colombian border in a growing crisis set off by Colombia's weekend attack on leftist rebels hiding in Ecuadorine territory.
Most of the 9,000 soldiers mobilized by Chavez have reached the frontier and are "ready to defend the sacred sovereignty of the homeland" if necessary against Colombia's U.S.-supported military, the defense ministry said. Ecuador said it sent 3,200 soldiers to its border with Colombia on Monday.
Chavez blamed the crisis on the
U. S. "empire and its lackeys" — Colombia's conservative government — saying they pose a constant threat of war in the region, not Venezuela or Ecuador. "We are peace. We are the path to peace." the leftist leader said in a televised speech.
Chavez and his ally, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, have been seeking international condemnation of Colombia for the commando raid on Ecuadorean soil that killed a key Colombian rebel leader and other guerrillas Saturday.
They scored a victory of sorts in Washington on Wednesday, where the Organization of American States approved a resolution drafted jointly by Ecuador and Colombia declaring the attack a violation of Ecuador's sovereignty. The resolution also
called for OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza to lead a delegation to both countries to help ease tensions.
The United States was the only OAS nation offering Colombia unqualified support. Many other countries worried openly about the attack inside Ecuador, which along with Venezuela has been accused by Colombian officials of providing refuge to leftist Colombian guerrillas.
Correa called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a liar who "wanted war," and warned that if the attack went unpunished, "the region will be in danger, because the next victim could be Peru. It could be Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, any one of our countries."
Uribe, whose decision to attack
the rebel camp reflected his frustration over the ability of guerrillas to find refuge across poorly patrolled jungle borders, said he would not mobilize troops or allow his nation to be drawn into war with his neighbors.
The attack killed two dozen rebels, including Raul Reyes, the public face of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who was involved in
the hostage negotiations.
Ecuador's security minister, Gustavo Larrea, conceded that problem. The FARC had promised not to operate inside Ecuador, and the attack showed the rebels "did not keep their promise," he said. Correa suggested Colombia's attack was carried out to sabotage efforts by Venezuela and Ecuador to persuade the rebels to release more hostages.
Colombia's government says its commandos recovered a laptop computer full of documents that it alleges show FARC has ties to both Chavez and Correa.
In Washington, a top U.S. diplomat said American experts would soon examine the computer's hard drive. "This is the first time that we've stumbled across something coming from the FARC drawing such a straight line" between the rebels and Chavez, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon said.
In his speech, Chavez did not refer to Colombian allegations that he had given $300 million to the FARC and conspired with the rebels to embarrass Colombia's government. Venezuela earlier denied the
charges.
Other documents released by Colombia suggest Reyes was secretly negotiating with representatives of France, Venezuela, Ecuador, the U.S. and other nations on freeing hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American defense contractors.
Those representatives were salo to include Larrea, Ecuador's security minister, who said he didn't rule out the possibility the rebels still might release Betancourt.
"We think an adequate response, in this critical moment for the Andean region, is that they free the hostages," he said.