WHO WILL IT BE?
1B
Last week it was Brandon Rush, Monday it was Sherron Collins. Saturday against Texas Tech, whose turn is it?
KANSAS
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2007
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 78
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 1A
campus
Plans to distribute The University Daily Kansan off campus stall in the wake of a dispute about the legality of the project.
arts
Four plays written by three students will
compete at a regional festival in Iowa next week.
basketball
The Athletics Department will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day at the KU women's basketball game tomorrow night.
football
Ed Warinner
Ed Warinner returns to Lawrence as the new offensive coordinator
Warinner
weather
index
Classifieds...6A
Crossword...7B
Horoscopes...7B
Opinion...7A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...7B
All contants, unless stated otherwise,
© 2007 The University Daily Kansan
A positive drug test with the NCAA results in a one-year suspension.The same at Kansas equals extra laps.
BLOWING SMOKE
KU doesn't echo NCAA's tough stance on drugs
ARTICLE BY C.J. MOORE PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA SELLERS
"It's rehearsed. They tell you
you're going to have to do three or four sessions with some kind of
counselor or
Swanson
psychiatrist. They just sit there and talk to you about drugs. It's real elementary."
Source: NCAA survey of institutions with drug testing programs
JASON SWANSON
Former football player
The most common drugs that schools test for are marijuana (98 percent), cocaine (97 percent) and amphenatamine (95 percent).
> An average of 242 samples are sent to the NCAA for annual testing at an average cost of $8,118.
figures
Athletes who test positive during an Athletics Department-given drug test aren't suspended until after their second offense. First offenses often result in extra running and mandatory counseling.
"It's rehearsed," Swanson said. "They tell you you're going to have to do three or four sessions with some kind of counselor or psychiatrist. They just sit there and talk to you about drugs. It's real elementary."
KANSAS' POLICY
Jason Swanson stands self-consciously in a bathroom. He's not alone.An employee of Drug Free Sport, who he just met, watches Swanson as he washes his hands, drops his pants and urinates into a cup.
Less than a week later, Swanson, home in California for Christmas, gets a phone call from team physician Larry Magee. Swanson fears what comes next. About a week before his random drug test, he smoked marijuana with friends. Magee informs Swanson, then a junior quarterback for the 2004 Kansas football team, that he failed the Athletics Department's drug test. He was relieved when Magee recited the department's more lenient sanctions imposed on first-time drug offenders.
Swanson said he was retested every 40 days and had to do extra running time in the morning.
Had he failed a drug test administered by the NCAA, Swanson would have been suspended from the team for his entire senior year. College drug testing is a puzzling system of policies, procedures and penalties wherein the discipline dished out to an athlete depends on who busted the offender. The NCAA, conferences and individual schools all test for banned drugs, but each is free to impose widely varying penalties for identical offenses. For example, the NCAA
"I didn't miss any playing time, practice time, nothing," he said.
suspends an athlete for one year for marijuana use; Kansas requires counseling, more drug screening and extra running. The Big 12 Conference doesn't test for marijuana but instead focuses on performance enhancing drugs.
Testing is also more haphazard than random. Some Kansas athletes said they were here four years without ever being tested, even though KU policy requires all incoming athletes to be tested when they arrive.
"It doesn't matter what the punishments are, people are going to do what they do" Swanson said. "The punishment usually is just running, which we do all the time anyway."
While the NCAA and contenences come down hard on drug use, individual schools try to deter drug use with policies that the athletes don't always take seriously.
WHY THEY TEST
Kay Hawes, director of media relations with Drug Free Sport, said most colleges tested their athletes to put a stop to drug use before the NCAA found out Hawes didn't mention the NCAAs stifter penalties.
FOR MORE ON DRUG TESTING SEE PAGE SA
WEAK PENALTIES
Former Kansas quarterback Jason Swanson attended counselling sessions after his positive test. Swanson said the process included information about heroin and meth and was "real unnecessary."
>> LAWRENCE ON TV
Local Burger earns national attention
Sundance series focuses on environment
BY DANAE DESHAZER
The network's upcoming series, "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," focuses on people that are concerned with health and the environment.
Local Burger, a downtown Lawrence restaurant, will be featured in a new Sundance Channel series for its commitment to providing organic meals that are healthy and fast. The Sundance Channel finished filming Thursday on location and will air the episode in February.
"Local Burger fits into this focus because we serve local foods. When you do that, you decrease fuel usage and support the local economy. People don't realize that they feel bad after eating other foods because of the additives or loss of nutritional value. Our food is clean, no hor-
SEE SUNDANCE ON PAGE 3A
Sarah Leonard/KANSAN
Courtney Gray, Lawrence resident and assistant manager at Local Burger, prepares soy patties for frying during the bursy lunch hour. Local Burger is a fast-food restaurant that offers an all-organic menu with locally-raised meats.
>> CAT TRACKER ACCIDENT
Y
Man injured in K-State bus wreck moves to rehabilitation wing
BY ERICK R. SCHMIDT
Victim's condition improves to fair
A man injured in a fan-bus accident Nov. 18 has been upgraded from serious to fair condition and is now in the rehabilitation wing of the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan.
Christian Ori Orr of Hays was injured on the Cat Tracker bus before last season's Kansas vs. Kansas State football game. The bus ran into the leaving Hill Road overpass that connects the Daisy Hill residence halls to West Campus, John Green of
Shawnee was killed in the accident. Orr was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
The Douglas County District Attorney's office is considering whether charges will be filed in the accident against the driver of the bus. The driver, Brent Simonsson of Salina, had a restricted driver's license at the time of the accident. Simonsson's license had been restricted because of prior DUI convictions, and he was not licensed to drive a commercial vehicle.
Cheryl Wright, assistant to the district attorney, said no timeline had been set for whether charges would be filed. In early December, Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson requested more
SEE CAT TRACKER ON PAGE 3A
>> WEATHER
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Maintenance crews work hard Thursday to remove the ice that had accumulated during the week. Workers began Saturday to clear sidewalks and parking lots before students returned for classes.
Ice storm causes clean-up
BY JOSEPH HUNT
Facilities operations workers at The University of Kansas were left scrambling to clear off ice this weekend because of the cold temperatures. Workers began clearing snow and ice Saturday as it continued to fall. Larry Rawlings, assistant director of faci-
operations construction, said clearing the ice was a tough job.
"A good share of facilities operations has been involved," Rawlings said. "We use different equipment, depending on whether the ice has been treated first."
SEE WEATHER ON PAGE 3A