A / NEWS / TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
HOUSING
GSP will shift into a co-ed dorm after renovations
Chris Bronson/KANSAN
Gertrude Sellards Pearson Hall, 500 W. 11th St., is transforming to a co-ed residence hall. Renovations are scheduled to begin Spring 2011 and be completed by July 2011. Upon completion, GSP will reopen, housing both men and women, separated by floors.
BY ALLYSON SHAW ashaw@kansan.com
Both women and men will move their belongings into Gertrude Sellars Pearson Hall, 500 W.11th St., starting in the fall of 2012. The hall will become coeducational after other renovations to the 55-year-old residence hall.
The proposal was sent to the Board of Regents for approval nearly two years ago. Diana Robertson, director of Student Housing, said the decision was made for two reasons. The first, she said, was because there have been fewer and fewer requests for single-gender housing. The second reason was the dining center.
Robertson said women eat less regularly and just less food than men. So the way to make the GSP/ Corbin Dining Hall more viable is to add men to the dormitory. And
there are some other advantages to opening the dormitory to men.
"Going coed couldn't be a bad thing," said Laura Beth Shartzer, a senior from Roeland Park and a former GSP resident. "It'll be a chance to get to know more people. It will also allow for a better mix of greeks and non-greeks."
The dormitory will also go through extensive renovations. Robertson said the occupancy will decrease from the current 420 to 377. The renovation calls for more suite-style rooms and studio rooms to be installed. She said the renovation is expected to cost $13.1 million.
Jennifer Wamelink, associate director for residence life, added that GSP will be closed during the renovation.
women.
Nearby Corbin Hall will become the only residence hall on campus not open to both men and
"I wanted to live in Corbin because it's all-girls and a lot of girls go through recruitment together," said Megan Sullivan, a freshman from Overland Park and a Corbin resident. "Some people might feel uncomfortable having the connected dining halls when Corbin is just for girls, though."
Jayhawker Tower D will also be remodeled next year, and after that work is scheduled to begin on McCollum Hall.
Edited by Anna Nordling
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Nurse discharged from Air Force for being gay sues, takes a stand
In pointed cross-examination, Justice Department lawyer Peter Phipps noted Monday that Witt had engaged in an adulterous relationship with a married civilian woman in 2003. The woman, now divorced, is still Witt's partner, but the Air Force argues that Witt's disregard for policy in committing adultery set a bad example for others in the unit and justifies her dismissal.
"It's what I've spent over half my life training to do," Witt testified, her voice breaking. "I miss being able to be the one that that soldier looks at and I can do something for him. I'm not complete, and it kills me to not be there."
Proponents believe another big legal victory would build momentum for a congressional repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the 1993 law that prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but requires discharge of those who ac-
Witt joined the Air Force in 1987 and later became a flight nurse, helping to care for and evacuate soldiers wounded in Afghanistan. She was suspended in 2004 when the Air Force investigated her for violating "don't ask, don't tell." She was discharged three years later, while just short of becoming eligible for a full pension.
testimony last week from several of Witt's former colleagues, who said they didn't care about her orientation and that her firing actually hurt morale in their squadron, based at what is now joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma.
The case has been closely watched by those on both sides of the gay rights debate.
MILITARY
The Air Force maintains that Witt's firing was justified, and the appeals court ruling was out of line with 9th Circuit and Supreme Court precedent.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Earlier this month, a federal judge in California ruled that "don't ask, don't tell" violates the due process and free speech rights of service members. That opinion has no direct bearing on Witt's case.
Her lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of "don't ask, don't tell." In 2008, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considering the case held that the military couldn't discharge someone for being gay unless it demonstrated the firing was necessary to further military goals.
TACOMA, Wash. — A decorated Air Force Reserve flight nurse discharged for being gay took the witness stand at her federal trial Monday and told the judge it "kills me" not to be able to care for wounded soldiers while the country is at war.
Former Maj. Margaret Witt has sued the Air Force in hopes of being reinstated.
The case returned to U.S. District Court in Tacoma, where Judge Ronald B. Leighton must determine whether Witt's firing met that standard. Leighton heard
No one in her unit or any of her patients ever expressed concern about her sexual orientation, she told the judge.
"You agree that adultery is not consistent with high standards of integrity, correct?" Phipps asked.
"Yes." Witt responded.
knowledge being gay or are found to engage in homosexual activity
The government also argues that Witt acknowledged being homosexual to some of her close friends in the unit, forcing them to choose between loyalty to her and to Air Force policy.
NATIONAL
Police find missing people to be a misunderstanding
PALMDALE, Calif. — Families of the missing fretted. Deputies fanned out across the high desert on horses and in helicopters. Neighbors marveled at the commotion of patrol cars and satellite trucks that appeared suddenly in their quiet streets.
"I guess it was a misunderstanding, and I'm sorry about that," Martha Clavel, 39, told KNX radio about 24 hours she and the other three adults and nine children were reported missing by worried husbands.
The only people who seemed to take the disappearance of 13 adherents of a breakaway religious sect in stride were the members themselves, who were found enjoying the afternoon in leisure and praver in a park Sunday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"These letters read like a will and testament. They read like goodbye letters," said sherriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. "Coupled with the two husbands that come in and tell us 'Our wives are missing, we believe they are under the spell of this lady,' deputies had no choice but to treat the matter seriously, said Whitmore.
Before Sunday, when the group of El Salvadoran immigrants were found just before noon at Jackie Robinson Park near Palmdale, they were last seen very early Saturday by a sheriff's deputy who discovered them praying in their parked vehicles outside of a Palm-dale high school.
The two men showed deputies letters saying the group was awaiting an apocalyptic event and would soon see Jesus and their dead relatives in heaven.
They accused the group's purported leader, 32-year-old Reyna Marisol Chicas, of "brainwashing" members of the group based in Palmdale, a northeast Los Angeles County city of 139,000.
When the deputy made contact, adults in the group told him they
By the next morning, up to 70 deputies were combing over a 700 square mile checkerboard of suburban neighborhoods, unfinished subdivisions, weed-covered lots and desert wilderness in search of the missing group members.
But others sketched her as a virtual shut-in, whose children never joined other neighborhood kids in play and who often held late-night multigenerational gatherings in her home.
On Chicas' usually quiet street, neighbors craned their necks at the deputies and reporters gathered outside her seemingly empty two-story gray stucco home.
"She was really quiet. She kept to herself," said across the street neighbor Cheri Kofahl, who saw
"That's our husband. When you go somewhere overnight, you don't know what's going to happen to you right?" Alma Miranda Pleitez told KNX radio at the park shortly after she was found. "So you leave your information to your husband."
Later in the afternoon, the two men reported the members missing.
Some described her as a friendly and devout — if somewhat hapless — woman who was devoted to her two young children, a boy and a girl.
were praying against violence in schools and against sexual immorality, specifically premarital sex.
In a purse that one member left with her husband, investigators found cell phones, identifications, deeds to property, and letters indicating the adherents were awaiting the Rapture.
Group member Alma Miranda Pleitez, 28, said fears for their safety were unfounded.
Pastor Felipe Vides, whose 400-member parish consists mostly of immigrants from Latin America, said Chicas left the congregation about two years ago without much explanation.
About six months ago, the group had planned to head to Vasquez Rocks, a wilderness area near Palmdale, to await a catastrophic earthquake or similar event, but one member of the group revealed details of the trip to relatives, Parker said. The trip was called off and the member kicked out.
The adults, who expressed shock at the notion that they might harm themselves, formed a caravan of two minivans and a pickup truck and presumably returned to their worried families.
Authorities had known of Chicas' group before this weekend's incident.
"She appeared normal, calm. We didn't see anything strange," Vides said.
groups of 12 to 15 adults and children gather in Chicas' home several times over the summer.
This time, the episode ended when deputies, after a tip from a local resident, arrived at the park and found the children playing on swings and the adults on a blanket praying out loud in Spanish.
But Deputy Thomas Kim said Chicas was held for a mental evaluation after authorities determined she was not able to care for herself or others.
Before apparently forming her own religious group, Chicas was a member of Iglesia De Cristo Miel, a Christian congregation that meets in a large tan church building with a sloping tile roof beside an empty lot in a Palmdale neighborhood.
One night, about a week ago, the group didn't leave until 2 a.m., Kofahl said.
Chicas gave investigators a false name and was rambling during questioning, Kim said. She told deputies she had no children, even though her two kids were with her.
The children were in sheriff's protective custody Sunday afternoon, Kim said.
News that the group was found safely came as Whitmore was briefing reporters on the ongoing search.
He had just answered a question about Chicas' relationship with her former church when a deputy pulled him aside and whispered in his ear. Relief washed over his face as he struggled not to grin.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we just found them," he said, allowing his face to break into a smile. "They are alive and well."