WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM VOL.117 ISSUE 75
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
PAGE 1A
STUDENT SENATE
Coalition decides spring candidates
BY NATE MCGINNIS
The Ignite coalition has named its two main candidates for the Spring 2007 campaign season.
Adam Hurly, Sioux Falls, S.D., sophomore, will be the coalition's candidate for student body president and Austin Kelly, Lawrence junior, will be his running mate for student body vice president.
Hurly was a senator during his freshman year and currently serves as Student Senate executive secretary.
Hurly said previously working on Senate allowed him to learn the dynamics of the group.
"I'm able to see the direction Senate is going and the direction I want to take it." Hurly said.
Kelly had previously served as the finance committee associate senator and is currently the student body assistant treasurer.
Kelly said his previous Senate service would be a valuable asset if he was elected vice president because he already deals with many of the student groups important to campus. He said the vice president would be responsible for maintaining these relationships as well as building new ones with student groups.
"Senate helps students and student groups," Kelly said "That's what Senate is about."
Hurly and Kelly have yet to hammer out a solid campaign platform for the spring, but are instead waiting to hear input from students and student groups to learn what issues are important to them.
Despite this, Hurly and Kelly said they have a few ideas about things they would like to change about Senate: make it more public on campus and increase awareness on the resources Senate has to offer students.
"We want to have accessibility to Senate, accountability and transparency," Kelly said.
Kansan staff writer Nate McGinnis can be contacted at nmcginnis@kansan.com.
- Edited by Jacky Carter
All contents, unless stated otherwise
© 2006The University Daily Kansan
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index
Suspect charged with death of student
>> CRIME
BY DAVID LINHARDT
A 24-year-old KU student was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident that killed another KU student, according to jail records Tuesday.
Joshua L. Walton was allegedly driving the Toyota Camry that struck and killed Ryan Kanost, Manhattan
senior, as he crossed the street Sept.
23 at 13th and Kentucky streets.
The charges against Walton noted he was driving while intoxicated. He was briefly booked at the Douglas County jail on Monday and released on $25,000 bond later the same afternoon. Lawrence Police finished the investigation more than a month ago and Douglas County district attorney Charles Branson had been reviewing the case and weighing charges against Walton.
Branson was in court all day and unable to comment, his office said.
Kanost
turned himself in to Lawrence police the day after the accident but was not
Walton had
arrested or charged at the time.
Kanost was walking with friends that night from one party to another when the vehicle struck him. Kanost was pronounced dead at the scene.
A Lawrence Police accident report stated the vehicle was driven in a "reckless and careless" manner and that it did not swerve or try to avoid Kanost. After the accident the vehicle continued traveling northbound on
Kentucky street.
Kanost was crossing the street at a crosswalk and had the legal right-of way, according to the report.
Kansan staff writer David Linhardt can be contacted at dlinhardt@ kansan.com.
— Edited by Jacky Carter
Laney Allbritten, Cunningham senior, ties a ribbon onto a display Friday at the Ribbons of Life display and vigil at South Park. The ribbs carried messages from those affected by AIDS and HIV. Douglas County AIDS Project sponsored the event. Allbritten volunteers for Douglas County AIDS Project and an adoption agency in Oklahoma City.
Vanessa Pearson/KANSAN
Advances in treatment improve prognosis for AIDS victims
It changes who you are
as a person when you lose so many people that you love and care about.
BY DARLA SLIPKE
TAMI ABONDANO GAINES
Allbriten, Cunningham senior, was getting tested because her boyfriend at the time was HIV positive, and they had been having unprotected sex off and on for two years. She said she half expected to contract the virus, but wasn't prepared for the devastating news that day: She was HIV positive. Allbrritten went out to her truck and sobbed.
Laney Allbritten recalls sitting in the waiting room of the Douglas County Health Department, anxiously awaiting the results of her HIV test in August 2004.
Thirteen years earlier in a hospital room in Houston,
Lawrence resident Tami Abandano Gaines heard the same grim news from a routine HIV screening, but hers came as a complete shock. She was unaware that her husband at the time had been using intravenous drugs. Gaines was three and a-half months pregnant at the time with her third son.
Allbrritten, 25, is among the estimated 1,200 Kansans with HIV, the virus that attacks the immune system and causes AIDS. Gaines, 45, is one of another estimated 1,200 Kansans who have developed full-blown AIDS.
SEE AIDS ON PAGE 4A
There's a whole element
of not knowing if you're going to be accepted. more importantly rejected.
LANEY ALLBRITTEN
>> FINANCIAL AID
Officials warn against FAFSA scams
BY DAVID LINHARDT
According to a University official, some companies try to charge as much as $600 to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for students, even though the FAFSA is free to fill out.
With the deadline for filling out the application approaching on March 1, state university officials are warning students against scholarship scams and companies that offer to fill out the FAFSA for a fee.
If students need help, KU administrators will help them complete the FAFSA for free. Stephanie Covington, associate director of the
KU Office of Student Financial Aid, said.
Marc Alexander, vice president for operations at Student Financial Aid Services in Davis, Calif., said his company encouraged students to fill out the FAFSA themselves. However, Alexander said, no one would double-check or edit the application — it would go immediately to the Federal Department of Education.
The FAFAA-assistance companies compare themselves to tax-preparation services. Their service is to ensure that the form is filled out correctly.
"Our value is in the eye of the
beholder," Alexander said. "We review the FAFSA application, track its progress daily and notify students when it's processed."
The company operates www. fafsa.com, where it offers its FAFSA preparation and review service. The cost ranges from $50 for renewing FAFSA applications to $80 for processing a new one. The firm also offers to do a speedier version of the FAFSA with students over the phone.
Alexander said firms like his would make sure FAFSA applications were done "as perfectly as possible", catching typos and making sure earnings and tax amounts are
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SEE FAFSA ON PAGE 6B
in the right fields.
"We had some students receiving e-mails or letters from that company," said Lawrence Moeder, assistant vice president of Student Financial Assistance at K-State. "We thought we should let students know that the federal government doesn't charge" to fill out or submit a FAFSA.
Free information about student aid:
>> http://scholarshipsku.edu
>> www.fnaid.org
>> www.fastweb.com
At Kansas State University last month, student ad officials sent warning e-mails to students about fafa.com and the services Alexander's company offers.
FAESAfacts
To fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA),
www.fafsa.ed.gov
Source: KU Office of Student Financial Aid
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