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8A the university daily kansan
news
friday, february 20, 2004
U.S. urges Americans to leave Haiti
The Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide declared yesterday he is ready to die to defend his country against a bloody rebellion, indicating he plans to cling to power. The U.S. government, citing continued violence, urged Americans to leave Haiti.
Aristide's defiance and Washington's warning came as the United States and other countries were preparing a political plan to resolve the crisis. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the plan could be presented to Haitian government and opposition leaders as early as today.
The Pentagon said it was sending a small military team to assess the security of the U.S. Embassy
and its staff in the Caribbean country.
The announcement came as an unconfirmed report surfaced that two embassy vehicles were fired on earlier in the week. An American in Haiti who spoke on condition of anonymity said that six armed men stopped the two vehicles in Port-au-Prince on Monday night and fired the shots, hitting a vehicle but causing no injuries.
The last major government bastion in northern Haiti was Cap-Haïtien, where armed supporters of Aristide patrolled the city Thursday, vowing to fight any rebel attempt to seize control. Frightened police remained barricaded in their station, saying they were too few and poorly armed to repel any attack.
that is what it takes to defend my country," Aristide told stony-faced police officers honoring slain comrades at a ceremony in Port-au-Prince, the capital in the south.
"I am ready to give my life if
"If wars are expensive, peace can be even more expensive," warned Aristide, who has survived three assassination attempts and a coup.
Amid the chaos, the United States urged Americans to leave Haiti. More than 20,000 Americans, at least a quarter of them missionaries, are registered with the U.S. Embassy.
Peace Corps personnel were being withdrawn, and other U.S. citizens should leave while commercial transportation is still available, the State Department said.
"American citizens should be aware that the U.S. Embassy has prohibited travel by its staff outside of Port-au-Prince," the warning said.
It said the embassy's ability to provide emergency services to citizens outside the capital was limited and had "drastically decreased in recent days due to numerous random roadblocks set up by armed groups."
In Washington, Powell said the emerging political plan does not contemplate Aristide's stepping down before his term ends in February 2006, as Haiti's political opposition and rebels are demanding. But he said the United States would not object if, as part of a negotiation with opposition leaders, Aristide agreed to leave ahead of schedule.
ELECTION: Searching for new sexual-assault-prevention coordinator
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Farokhi and Weller lost their elections last spring,but they're still pursuing the platform.
Working with student body vice president Catherine Bell, they drafted a proposal and planned to bring it before the Tuition Advisory Committee during a meeting last fall.
But Provost David Shulenburger had to leave the meeting early and didn't get a chance to hear the proposal.
"It wasn't that anything went wrong, we just didn't have time to
address new issues," Bell said.
Farokhi, Weller and Bell plan to bring the proposal up again at the committee's meeting.
The duties of the part-time sexual-assault prevention and education coordinator include coordinating programs and presentations, writing materials and brochures and counseling students who require information and support.
Corrina Beck, who formerly held the part-time position, contributed to the proposal for a fulltime position.
"Frequently I find that I have
three times more work than I am able to do in 15 hours per week." Beck wrote. "A full-time Sexual-Assault Prevention and Education Program Coordinator would certainly not be struggling to find projects to work on."
Beck left the part-time position recently, spurring an employee search by Kathy Rose-Mockry, director of Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center.
"The position is currently open and we hope that by the end of next week it will be closed," Rose-Mockey said.
was critical and that, without a doubt, there was enough work to support its expansion. She said that at the University of California-Davis, where she used to work, there were multiple full-time employees devoted to sexual-assault prevention. UC-Davis has an enrollment of 30,229. The University's Lawrence campus has an enrollment of 26,814.
The Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center estimated that it counseled 30 student victims of sexual assault last year.
Rose-Mockry said the position
— Edited by Henry C. Jackson
VOTING: Survey says young people know little about government
A survey compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures reported that eight out of 10 people 25 years old or younger knew the name of the Simpsons home town (Springfield), while less than half knew the party of their state's governor.
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In the same survey, more than half of the youngest voters had participated in volunteer service.
Some Campus Compact panelists didn't think that was enough.
"When you look and see if service politics can revitalize our democracy, the results are a little bit mixed," said Fabrico Rodriguez, executive director of Philadelphia Jobs with Justice.
Rodriguez said that in light of recent political events including the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the controversial 2000 presidential election, service politics weren't enough.
"At best, it's an inadequate response. We're filling the belly of a corpse when we need to be performing CPR," he said.
The Center for Community Outreach is coordinating Campus Compact activities at the University of Kansas in order to motivate students to vote. The center will sponsor a voter registration rally during Into The Streets Week March 1 to 7, said Kevin Hager, the center's co-director. Volunteers will register students all week at Wescos Beach.
But the register-to-vote movement may not be what young people need or want, said Paul Johnson, graduate director of the Department of Political Science. Civil duty isn't a clear picture for students, and voting isn't always the clearest path to political involvement, he said.
"Less than half of all Americans vote," Johnson said, "so there must be some doubt as to what our civil duty is."
—Edited by Cindy Yeo
City to sue state over gay marriage
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — After sanctioning more than 2,800 gay marriages in the past week, the city sued the state of California yesterday, challenging its ban on same-sex marriages on constitutional grounds.
Mayor Gavin Newsom said he doesn't regret giving out marriage licenses before the city filed a legal challenge to the state's marriage laws, but added that he's
Two judges already are considering challenges from conservative groups seeking to halt the marriage spree that began last Thursday.
The city's lawsuit, filed late yesterday afternoon, asks that those cases be consolidated into one.
"The city and county of San Francisco is going on the offensive today to protect the mayor's action" allowing gay marriage, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said.
glad the question is now in the courts.
"I think what we have done is affirm marriage here in San Francisco," Newsom said. "We affirmed it because we are celebrating people coming together in their unions. I feel affirmed as a married man by what's happened here in San Francisco."
A lawyer for a group trying to halt the gay marriages described the city's move as a delaying tactic.
"This is as much a maneuver to keep this in court and keep the issue alive as it is anything else," said Benjamin Bull, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.
"The attorney general has assured me that he will vigorously defend the constitutionality of the law" barring gay marriage, Schwarzenegger said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said San Francisco's same-sex marriage licenses "fail to meet legal standards."
Researchers: Vaccine can stop lung cancer
The Associated Press
DALLAS — An experimental vaccine wiped out lung cancer in some patients and slowed its spread in others in a small but promising study, researchers say.
Three patients injected with the vaccine, GVAX, had no recurrence of lung cancer for more than three years afterward, according to the study of 43 people with the most common form of the disease, non-small cell lung cancer.
The findings were published in Wednesday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The research was funded in part by Cell Genesys, a pharmaceutical company that hopes to produce the vaccine.
researchers at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, is years away from reaching the market, if ever. The researchers hope to apply for Food and Drug Administration approval in three years.
The vaccine, developed by
"The results are very promising for patients with non-small (cell) lung cancer, which is frequently resistant to chemotherapy," said Dr. John Nemunaitis, a Baylor oncologist who led the study.
Non-small cell lung cancer is the nation's leading cause of cancer death, killing more than 150,000 people each year. The disease is related to smoking and is often difficult to treat. Treatment usually involves removal of the tumor, chemotherapy or both.
Blueprints Leadership Conference
WHO: All KU students who want to enhance their leadership skills and make great contacts!
WHAT: AN AMAZING Leadership Conference
WHEN: Sat., February 28, 2004 8:30a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Kansas Union
THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
REGISTER TODAY!
www.ku.edu/~bprints
Registration forms are now available at the Center for Campus Life, 400 Kansas Union or online at:
COST:
$10
Registration forms due:
February 23, 2004
ARE YOU
READY TO
TAKE THE
LEADERSHIP
CHALLENGE...
REGISTER TODAY!
www.ku.edu/~bprints
The University of Kansas Department of Theatre and Film and The University Theatre present The KU Theatre for Young People in
Really Rosie
Book and Lyrics by Marilyn
Music by Carole King
STUDENT
SENATE
Morgan Stanley
Consultancy
Directed by Joanne Klein
Musical Direction by Michael D. Johnson
Choreography by Leslie Bennett
Scenic & Lighting Design by Mark Reesey
Cortentine Design by Anna Wiescocke
1:30 p.m. • Saturday, Feb. 21, 2004
2:30 p.m. • Sunday, Feb. 22, 2004
Crafton-Preever Theatre
General admission tickets are on sale in the KU ticket offices: University Theatre, 864-3982; Lied Center, 864-ARTS; SUA Office, 864-7469; and on-line at kutheatre.com; public $10.00, all students $5.00, Ku faculty and staff $8.00, senior citizens $9.00; both VISA and Mastercard are accepted for phone and on-line orders. The University Theatre is partially funded by the KU Student Senate Activity Fee. This program is presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Celebrate the joy of Maurice Sendek's poetry and stories. Join us for a FREE public reading of his works featuring surprise guest readers. Noon - 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 21, Border's Books and Music, 7th and New Hampshire.