Thursday inside
Jayplay
Learn how to analyze your dreams, discover their meanings to
your waking life ... A KU professor inspires local writers to visit strange new worlds ... Take an around-the-world trip with our New Year's Eve guide. JAYPLAY
Calendarfunding
Student Senate committees passed a bill to fund the
Women of Distinction calendar but not without spirited debate.
Full Senate will vote on the bill at next week's meeting. PAGE 5A
Tournament time
The Kansas volleyball team makes history tonight as it will play in its first NCAA
Tournament match. PAGE 10A
Tough on team
Bill Self is showing the Jayhawks what it takes to be tough
enough to meet his standards. PAGE 10A
Free tickets
KU students can get free Tangerine Bowl tickets courtesy of the Athletics Department. PAGE10A
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return brief warm-up of sunshine — Matt Laubhan. KUJH-TV
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Briefs 2A
Opinion 4A
Sports 10A
Sports briefs 7A
Horoscopes 8A
Comic 8A
KANSAN
Thursday, December 4, 2003
The Student Newspaper of the University of Kansas
Photo Illustration by Megan True
Hazing still found on campus despite changing greek mentality
By Abby Mills almills@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Vol.114 Issue No.71
An August hazing at Sigma Nu fraternity has focused discussion on the secret world of new-member relations in the greek community at the University of Kansas.
This was the ninth reported hazing in
“It’s been a great conversation starter,” said Angie Carr, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University. “What I've seen from this incident is that organizations are coming out and saying, 'We do this, this is OK?'”
On Aug. 13, Lawrence police were called to the Sigma Nu house at 1501 Sigma Nu Drive, where Steven Weith had been knocked unconscious. The Olathe sophomore hit his head during a ritual that involved tossing pledges into the air.
the last eight years at the University, but the first since 1998. The five-year gap in reported hazing incidents may hint at a changing mentality within the greek community.
"A lot of chapters have realized that it's kind of a thing of the past," Billy Santoro said about hazing. "As the years go by, it's becoming more and more obsolete."
Santoro, Scottsdale, Ariz., junior, is the president of the Interfraternity Council.
The ritual that injured Weith had been a tradition for at least four years, said Jason Watson, Sigma Nu president. The Lincoln, Neb., senior said the tradition was tied to work week—a week in which new members and officers work together to prepare the house for the upcoming year. Everyone works at least eight hours
a day and bars and parties are off-limits.
Tradition gone awrv
By midweek, Watson said, tensions usually run high so officers surprise pledges with a night of fun.
Here's what happened that August evening, according to Watson.
The night began with beer case races, which pitted new members against old members to see which team could finish a case of beer the fastest. Then, new members sat one-by-one in a rant chair to vent all the frustrations of the past week. At the end of each rant, the new member was lifted out of the chair and tossed forward to symbolize moving past those difficulties.
Neither activity was mandatory, Watson said, and there were several members who did not participate.
Watson said Weith was the last person to participate and was just too inebriated
SEE HAZING ON PAGE 3A
Professor's film chosen for Sundance festival
By Magyle Newcomer
mnewcomer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer *
Confederate States of America, written and directed by Kevin Willmott, assistant professor of theater and film, was selected from thousands of entries to be screened in a group of 13 films called American Spectrum.
A film created by a KU professor will be featured at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 15 to 25 in Park City, Utah.
Sundance is the first festival to accept CSA. Willmott said his film would compete for the Audience Award. The film that receives the most
votes as a viewer favorite wins the prize.
Willmott said his ultimate goal was to have the film released nationally.
Matt Jacobson, assistant professor of theater and film, was the director of photography for the film. He said screening at Sundance was a huge stepping in reaching that goal.
"It's getting your film in front of a lot of people who could help you get your film in front of a lot more people," Jacobson said.
Jacobson said making a film was like realizing a vision and all filmmakers, whether they're in Kansas or Los Angeles, wanted to share their vision with as many people as possible. He said that just screening CSA at Sundance would accomplish that goal, and if the film was bought by a distributor, it would have succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
dreams. After receiving grants from the University and the Black Filmmakers Coalition in 1997, Willmott began production of the film, which depicts the United States as it would be today if the South had won the Civil War. Slavery is alive
Willmott
SEE SUNDANCE ON PAGE 5A
Coroner: Student died soon after fall
By Joe Hartigan jhartigan@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Wellhausen's blood alcohol content was listed at 16, twice the legal limit for persons 21 years old and older. The legal limit for blood alcohol content among
Eric Wellhausen died almost as soon as he hit the ground after falling from the seventh floor ledge beneath his Oliver Hall room on Sept. 12, said Donald V. Pojman of the Douglas County Coroner's Office.
Wellhausen
minors is .02.
Friends who were with Wellhausen in the hours before he died had said Wellhausen only had a few beers before falling off of the ledge.
Wellhausen died because his heart burst and bled due to pressure from the fall,
according to an autopsy report from the Douglas County Coroner's Office that was released yesterday.
"He couldn't have lived another five or 10 minutes." Pojman said
The report indicated that someone had written a term offensive to homosexuals in black marker on Wellhausen's left cheek. Someone had also drawn male genitalia on his leg, according to the report.
Wellhausen, a Mount Prospect, Ill., freshman, had stepped out onto a ledge beneath the seventh floor of Oliver Hall to smoke a cigarette at about 1:30 a.m. Sept. 12, friends of his said.
After he fell, he lay in the grass for between 30 and 45 minutes before anyone realized he needed medical attention, said Lt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office.
Wellhausen was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
The coroner's report indicated there were no injuries to Wellhausen's head or neck. Approximately two liters of blood filled Wellhausen's chest, according to the autopsy report.
Five students have accidentally fallen out of University residence halls in the last decade. Three other schools in the Big 12 Conference have each had one incident of a student falling from residence halls in that same time span. The other eight schools in the conference have not had any incidents.
The ledge that Weilhausen fell from is intended to block the sun from shining into the window below. It is not built for people to stand on.
Since Wellhausen's death the University of Kansas has begun a project to place stickers on the windows inside residence halls warning students of the dangers of standing on the ledge. Part of the project includes a $125 fine to students who remove the screens from their windows.
-Kansan staff writer Abby Mills contributed to this story.
Involvement key for freshman duo
by Johanna M. Maska
jmaska@kansan.com
Kansas saint writer
Edited by JJ Hensley
Before the interview, the room is straightened. With bed sheets neatly tucked, closets open to display dozens of hung jackets and shirts and desks completely void of work to be done, Reggie McKeithen finishes looking over his space. He's pleased.
"An interview?" McKeithen asks. "We don't know anything about an interview."
He's kidding. He and his roommate, Antwan Winkfield, have prepped the room for the interview.
Winkfield and McKeithen has always adhered to one rule: live to
impress.
McKeithen and Winkfield, Kansas City, Mo., freshmen, live together on the fourth floor of Ellsworth Hall. Both are alumni of the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo., and have been best friends since the eighth grade.
inseparable since their time together in the Junior ROTC program, Winkfield and McKeithen both said they wanted to be involved at the University. For Winkfield, a role in Student Senate is his goal. McKeithen plans to expand the campus National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Both are currently involved in the Black Student.
SEE FRIENDSHIP ON PAGE 5A
Happy holiday hunting
Megan True/Kansan
Cara Cramer, Pratt first-year law student, spent yesterday afternoon Christmas shopping at Hobby Lobby, 1801 W. 23rd St. Cramer said she was trying to spend money she didn't have.
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