Friday inside
Stickers successful
Resident assistants inspected windows before winter break and found no sticker violations. The stickers were placed on windows to prevent residents from removing the screens. PAGE 5A
Fewer merit scholars The University changed its National Merit Scholar policy, discouraging out-of-state students. The University attracted 65 out-of-state scholars last year and only four this fall after the University stopped offering out-of-state tuition.PAGE 9A
Spider attack
Kansas men's basketball dropped a close game
against the Richmond Spiders 69-68 at Allen Fieldhouse last night. PAGE1B
Tangerine crush
North Carolina State set several records in
its 56-26 victory over Kansas in the
Tangerine Bowl. The loss wrapped up a 6-7 season that saw the Jayhawks make their first bowl appearance since 1995 and ends the career of star quarterback Bill
Whittemore. PAGE 12B
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KANSAN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
January 23, 2004 IN ITS 100TH YEAR AS THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Vol.114 Issue No.77
MRC begins building plans
With $500.000 remaining to raise. March 1 deadline is set
By Andy Marso amarso@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
No foundation has been dug and no bricks have been laid, but the new Multicultural Resource Center will start to become a reality today. On paper, anyway.
After a semester of uncertainty about funding, the Multicultural Resource Center Building Committee will meet for the first time today to start planning the new facility, which will be located on the
north side of the Kansas Union.
The committee, appointed by provost David Shulenburger, is made up of student senators and University administrators.
The 13-person committee will be chaired by Richard Johnson, Associate Vice President and Dean of Students and will include four student representatives: student body vice president Catherine Bell, residential senator Lase Ajayi, holdover senator Casey Collier and law senator James Owen.
Student Senate approved a $3.50 per per
son, per semester increase in student fees in April 2003. The increase paid for $1 million of the new center's $2.5 million cost.
But Shulenburger put the committee appointments on hold until the Kansas University Endowment Association could find donors for the remaining $1.5 million.
The Association received a pledge of $1 million from a private donor and is still looking for $500,000, but Shulenburger decided to form the committee just before winter break anyway.
"In most cases we don't form a build
ing committee until funding is identified," Shulenburger said. "But in this case it was so important we felt we had to."
The committee has until March 1 to complete a building plan. Bell said she didn't think it would be difficult to meet that deadline. She has folders and binders bulging with with plans already. Bell is part of a MRC task force formed during Jonathan Ng's term as student body president.
SEE MRC ON PAGE 7A
Kit Leffler/Kansan
Juniors Jon Stuart, St. Louis, and Steve Logan, Chicago, gulp down drinks while hanging out at the Brew Hawk, 7th and Massachusetts, on Wednesday, Jan.21. "It's a good place to start drinking before you go out for the night," Stuart said.
Bars concern city officials
By Laura Pate
lpate@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The number of bars in downtown Lawrence is growing and that scares some Lawrence city commissioners and residents.
Twenty-seven of today's drinking establishments existed in downtown Lawrence in 1994. Now, the total number is 44, said Lisa Patterson, communications coordinator for the commission.
That increase has some commissioners concerned. David Schauer, Lawrence
city commissioner, said the increase in drinking establishments could drive out retail establishments. He said the number of retail stores in downtown Lawrence had decreased by 50 stores in the last 20 years. He expressed a desire for balance among retail and drinking establishments.
"I don't want to three years from now see 60 drinking establishments and say at some point we crossed the line," Schauner said. "I don't think we will know when we crossed the line."
ments in the city. The ordinance requires any drinking establishment that receives its liquor to earn at least 55 percent of its profit from food sales.
In 1994, the Lawrence City Commission established an ordinance to curb the increase of drinking establish-
The BrewHawk, 733 Massachusetts St., earned 56.3 percent of its profits from non-alcohol sales this period. But because 5 percent of those sales were from cigarettes and not food, the BrewHawk did not meet the requirements of the ordinance and the business was placed on probation. This is the second time the city has cited the BrewHawk.
SEE BARS ON PAGE 7A
Spike Lee lends name to film
By Dave Nobles
dnobles@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
At the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, the South has risen again with the help of another Lee.
This time, instead of an army and a general, there is a movie and a producer.
America, a film written and directed by University of Kansas associate professor Kevin Willmott, was chosen to play at the festival, which began Jan. 17 and ends Sunday.
C.S.A. The Confined
Awards, a film written
C. S.A. uses documentary-style storytelling to illustrate what America he like, if the
University of Kansas associate professor Kevin Willmott's film, C.S.A. The Confederate States of America was selected to play at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Famed director Spike Lee praised the film and added his name as an executive producer.
South won the Civil War and appears as though it was a broadcast on Confederate Television. The main focus of the film is slavery and the faux documentary includes jarring images like an American alliance with Nazi Germany and advertisements for a slave shopping network.
Willmott
Contributad Art
As one of 14 films in the American Spectrum category at Sundance, the film met with four sold-out showtimes and the interest of an accomplished director.
Through a mutual agent with the William Morris Agency, director Spike Lee was able to view the film before the festival and offered to lend his name to it as an executive producer.
The Right Thing, and Bamboozled, said he wanted to help get the film noticed.
Lee, who has received critical praise for directing films like Matcolm X, Do
"Confederate States of America is an eye-opening, jaw-dropping and insightful look at the history of America.
SEE SPIKE ON PAGE 11A
University lobbyist leaves for D.C. post
By Anna Clovis aclovis@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
two and a half years after becoming the first executive vice chancellor for university relations, Janet Murguia is leaving the University of Kansas.
Murguia came to the University in 2001 after working in Washington D.C., for 14 years. Murguia became the first executive vice chancellor for university relations after the restructuring of the university relations department. A native of Kansas City, Kan., she has two bachelor's degrees and a law degree from the University.
Effective in March, Murguia will be the executive director and chief operating officer of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest public policy advocacy group for Hispanic Americans.
Murguia said she would continue to be an advocate for the University after she leaves.
"It is hard to leave," Murguia said. "I have a passion for higher education, but I have an equal passion for the Hispanic
community and the issues that they face."
Murguia
issues that they face." In her time at the University, Murguia said she felt proud of the work she and her department had completed. She said her biggest accomplishments were preparing an integrated marketing communications effor
"I regret that I feel like I'm leaving too soon, but this other opportunity, you can't control when those come up." Murguia said. "The ability to make that kind of impact doesn't come along every day."
that unites all of the KU campuses. She was also proud of increasing the percentage of diversity on campus and helping the University in Topeka during times of decreased funding.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway named Kevin Boatright to fill Murgula's position on an interim basis. Boatright, formerly the associate executive vice chancellor for university relations under Murguia, said he did not view his role as a caretaker for the position.
Murguia said her decision to leave was not because she was yearning to get back to Washington D.C., but because the opening at the council was put on an earlier time track and was an opportunity she could not miss.
"We're not grinding to a halt, and we're not heading off in a radically different direction," Boatright said. "The two themes will be continuity and connecting with faculty."
Boatright said the department would be shorthanded for the time being, but would focus on priorities such as the upcoming integrated marketing communication effort.
Boatright will also take over Murguia's role in lobbying for the University. With her departure coming during the beginning of the legislative session,
SEE OFFICIAL ON PAGE 11A