Friday inside
Campaign preparation Student Senate candidates are preparing for the upcoming elections. Campaigning will begin in full force after spring break. PAGE 3A
Permanent vacation Participants in Alternative Breaks say the experience stays with them long after they return home. This spring many students will volunteer at locations such as San Francisco. PAGE 3A
Weekend tournament
Kevin Ward has helped the Kansas golf team to strong finishes in its last
two tournaments. He'll try to continue his successful play this weekend. PAGE 10A
This old fieldhouse The University of Kansas Athletics Department will begin allocating the $12 million that was donated for the renovation of Allen Fieldhouse after the NCAA tournament. Fixing leaky windows, outdated bathrooms and locker room facilities will be priorities. PAGE 10A
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Dominick Parretta, Kansas City, Mo., senior comforted Kelly Laughlin, Kansas City, Mo., junior while she grieved following a Kansas loss last year.
KANSAN
IN ITS 100TH YEAR AS THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Vol.114 Issue No.117
Studying the sixth man
Search for positive image drives fans
By Bill Cross
bcross@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The first day of December 2001 was a good day for University of Kansas basketball fans. Kansas forward Drew Gooden logged a then-career-high 36 minutes en route to defeating the Arizona Wildcats, the fourth-ranked team in the country, in Tucson.
were chad in it.
"I showed up wearing my KU shirt, hat,
pants, socks, underwear, headband in my
second-row seats," Bloch said. He did not
let the jeers of the Wildcat-faithful dampen
his experience.
"I jumped up and down yelling and screaming every time Gooden dunked. Needless to say, I lost my voice before the game was over," he said.
Insane, spirited and demented are just a few words friends used to describe Bloch's obsession with Kansas basketball. But strange as it may seem, he is not far removed from a normal basketball fan at the University or fans of other sports teams.
Nyla Branscombe, psychology professor, has studied the motivation behind sports obsession. She said fans disassociate from unsuccessful sports teams, so those with long-term success, such as Kansas basketball, tend to have large, loyal fan bases because of the team's reliability. But, she said, every team has fans that are too dedicated to back away when a bad season hits.
Branscombe said fans also protect their self esteem by emphasizing negative aspects of opposing teams and their fans. For example, one of the hottest topics of conversation on campus this week was probably Missouri's first-round NIT loss to Michigan.
The search for a positive social identity is the primary motivation for sports fans, so their team and its fans must, in the fan's
mind, always be better than other teams, Branscombe said. Jayhawk fans, for example, will rationalize that Kansas is better than the Oklahoma State because the latter has not been to the Final Four recently. Oklahoma State fans will say the Cowboys are superior because they won this year's Big 12 Conference championship.
Most fans deny that they are subconsciously motivated. In his book True Believers, author Joe Queenan said he thought the Philadelphia Phillies were affected by a ceramic turtle in his living room.
"Without the intercession of the enchanted turtle, the Phils would have gotten creamed by the Atlanta Braves," he wrote.
TONIGHT'S GAME
SEE STUDYING ON PAGE 5A
First Name
No. 4 Kansas vs. No. 12 Illinois-Chicago
Tipoff: 8:55 p.m.
Where: Kansas City, Mo.
TV: CBS
Radio: V-100 | KMBZ | KLZR
For more on tonight's game, see page 10A.
2-year-old injured in traffic accident
By Ron Knox
rknox@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A KU student struck and critically injured a 2-year-old boy just before noon yesterday on the 1300 block of Kentucky Street.
Kennedy Jennifer Holland's Jeep Cherokee hit the boy, Benington resident Logan Prothro, as he exited a car on the right side of the street, said Sgt. Mike Patrickck of the Lawrence Police Department.
Prothro was taken by helicopter to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., but he was not yet registered in hospital records at press time. It takes about 24 hours for patients to be listed in hospital records.
Prothro was in critical condition when the helicopter lifted him from Memorial Stadium, Patrick said.
No charges had been filed against Holland, Prairie Village senior, although police will continue to investigate, Patrick said. He said he did not suspect alcohol or drugs to be a factor.
"The investigation hasn't concluded, but I don't have any indication that it was anything more than an accident," Patrick said.
Prothro exited his grandmother's car and darted into the street, said Amanda Wolfe. Overland Park senior, who was driving behind Holland.
driving beyond the child
Wolfe said the Jeep ran over the child
as his grandmother screamed from the
curb.
Paramedics arrived minutes later and assisted the boy, said Kerry Nowak, Lawrence resident, who owns the lawn where the boy was carried.
"He wasn't crying or moving. He was pretty lifeless," Nowak said.
Wolfe said the accident was so sudden and unexpected that it could have happened to anyone.
"You see what could happen," Wolfe said, "and you know there's nothing you could do about it."
Edited by Michelle Rodick
Task force looks at smoking issue
Group will report to City Commission at end of this month.
By Laura Pate
lpate@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
In two weeks, the smoke may clear on an issue that has people fuming.
Photo Illustration by Abby Tillery/Kansas The task force appointed by the mayor has been gathering information about the effects of second-hand smoke.
In response to complaints about secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants, Mayor David Dunfield appointed a task force last April to research second-hand smoke issues. The six-person task force has been researching the effects of second-hand smoke, the economic impact a smoking ban can cause and the smoking laws of other cities and options to minimize the effects of second-hand smoke. Lawrence bar owners, citizens and a professional researcher make up the task force.
The task force plans to meet with commissioners March 31 to discuss the findings of its study and to suggest alternate courses of action the city could take in dealing with second-hand smoke. Until then, commissioners have remained relatively mute and objective on the topic. Commissioners want to talk to the task force before they reach any conclusions, Dunfield said.
David Kingsley, president of the smoking task force, said that second-hand smoke presents a major health hazard to employees. He knows a non-smoking woman who worked as a waitress in a smoky restaurant for approximately 30 years before doctors diagnosed emphysema. She could not continue to work because she had difficulty breathing and
occasionally used an oxygen tank.
He also knew a young woman who died from an asthma attack after coming home from working at a restaurant. Although he does not know if the smoky restaurant caused her asthma attack, it could not have helped, he said.
Smoking must be regulated in bars and restaurants, he said. Limiting smoking is not an issue of taking a bar or restaurant's freedoms away, it is an issue of protecting employees, he said.
"Why would a smoker have the right to cause an employee harm?" Kingsley said.
Matt Williams, Tonganoxie senior, has breathed smoke for two years as a bartender at the Sandbar, 117 E. Eighth St. He favors a smoking ban.
.
"I would like to have smoke not blown in my face," he said.
But ultimately, it is the employee's responsibility to stay out of a smoking environment if need be, Williams said.
SEE TASK FORCE ON PAGE EA
Kenneth Audus, professor of pharmacy, was announced as the new dean of pharmacy Monday. Audus has been a part of the faculty since 1986.
Abbv Tillery/Kansar
New pharmacy dean has 'realistic view'
By Rupal Gor
rgor@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Kenneth Audus, who was selected as dean of pharmacy Monday, began his career in pharmacy when he was in high school, working part-time for a pharmacist in South Dakota.
"I asked him a lot of questions about pills and drugs, and how those things actually worked," Audus said.
The pharmacist told Audus, who is also a professor of molecular and integrative physiology, to get a degree in chemistry and pharmacology. So he did.
Audus went to the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D., and began medical school in the graduate program.
His graduate adviser, Mike Gordon, accepted a job at the University of Kansas and Audus took that opportunity to follow him to Lawrence.
Audus was able to transfer to KU Medical Center in the pharmacology program. From there, he received his post-doctorate in 1984 and joined the faculty in 1986.
A
His 20 years with the School of Pharmacy doesn't seem that long, he said. Audus said he was fortunate to work in the school with such influential colleagues. He said the senior faculty had shaped him to be a good role model and to deal with changes in the school.
SEE PHARMACY ON PAGE 5A
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