The University Daily Kansan
Weather
Today: Cloudy with a high of 79 and a low of 61
Tomorrow: Cloudy with a high of 84 and a low of 59
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Monday, April 30, 2001
Sports: The women's softball team loses two games to Oklahoma.
SEE PAGE 1B
USPS 650-640 • VOL. 111 NO. 131
Inside: Community Blood Center hopes to collect 775 pints of blood in blood drive today and tomorrow.
SEE PAGE 3A
For comments, contact Lori O'Toole or Mindie Miller at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Art class students witness man's drowning
By Amanda Beglin writer at kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Nearly 20 KU students watched as a Lawrence man was knocked into the Kansas River by a gush of water while he was fishing Friday morning. The man died Friday night at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
George Weber, 80, was fishing from a level of concrete at the Bowersock Dam at 10:22 a.m. when the framework of the dam broke nearby. River water rushed toward Weber and two other men and swept them into the water.
Nick Erker, Wellington freshman, and about
20 other KU students witnessed the accident. His class, Introduction to Drawing, met at the river twice last week to draw landscape scenes.
Erker said classmate Jason Hoffman,
Lawrence freshman, jumped into the river to
help Weber. Erker, a lifeguard instructor, said
he took off his shirt and sandals and joined
Hoffman in the water.
"The water was shallow enough that you could walk out there," Erker said. "But I helped Jason pull him in because they'd gotten to a place where he couldn't touch the bottom anymore."
Erker said Weber's skin was blue when they had pulled him near the river bank. Weber had
"I just set at home for an hour, just sitting
no pulse and wasn't breathing, he said. Emergency Medical Services personnel were waiting when Erker and Hoffman pulled him ashore.
"Another guy in our class, Andrew, started giving him CPR," Erker said. "He only did that for about a minute because EMS got there really quick and took over."
Weber was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m.
Lance Meneley, Meriden junior, said he saw Weber fishing earlier Friday morning and was shocked by the accident.
there," Meney said. "I thought: 'Did that really happen?' That day was something very unexpected."
The two other men who fell into the river, Julius Brown of Topeka and Robert Robinson of Tecumseh, were rescued near the shore by Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical, said Rob Kort, battalion chief. Neither was injured.
Erker and Hoffman were taken to Watkins Memorial Health Center. Erker had several cuts on his feet and both had swallowed large amounts of water during the rescue.
Norman Gee, the drawing class professor,
was not at the river when the accident hap-
"Actually, I was called away moments before it happened." Gee said. "But I'm really anxious to talk to students about what happened."
Still, Erker said the mood in today's class would likely be somber and confused.
"I'm sure it will be a little awkward, a little strange," he said. "I'm sure we'll talk about it. The others were really shocked. This is obviously the first time something like this has happened. But the police chief talked to us and said there was counseling if we needed it."
— Lauren Brandenburg contributed to this story.
— Inked by Leinie Harrison
Senate effort seeks to help students sell books to peers
By Brooke Hesler
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff write
Students could soon save money on textbooks if a Student Senate book exchange gets rolling with enough registered students.
Through the exchange, students would be able to buy and sell their books to each other at lower prices than those charged by bookstores and online book-sellers.
Students who want to sell their books can pick up a form at the Student Senate office on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union.
Katie Holman, journalism senator and Prairie Village junior, said students could also fill out the form online at www.ku.edu/~senate.
Ryan Turner, Wichita sophomore, said she liked the idea of students working together to save money on books, instead of going to bookstores.
Eric Braun, University Affairs committee member and St. Louis sophomore, said the form would be available online by the end of this week. A list of books for sale would then be compiled and posted in residence halls, locations around campus and on the Senate Web site. Braun said.
Lacey Crowl, Lyons sophomore, said she looked at the Senate book exchange list last semester when it was time to buy books. She said she would do it again this semester.
"I think it's a really good idea. I got $2 out of a $35 book when I sold it back to the bookstores. I never make as much money. This makes two people happy." Turner said.
When Senate first tried the book exchange last semester, about 12 people listed books for sale. Braun said the program was still building momentum.
"I think if more people actually listed their books on the exchange, it would work really well," Crowl said. "I couldn't buy anything off of there last semester because there wasn't anything I needed."
"We're hoping for a better turnout," he said. "We're using this time and last time as a way to prepare. We're using it as a building block."
- Edited by Laurie Harrison
Travis Alderson stands in the kitchen, drinking beer at a typical college party on Tennessee Street. But Alderson doesn't look typical. His hair is cropped short in a crew cut; suspenders hold his fitted jeans, cuffed to reveal black workboots. Beneath the collar of his military flight jacket, a small patch makes a big statement.
"Skinhead."
Suddenly, a hand on his shoulder spins him around.
That night, Alderson, 25, a Lawrence automotive service shop manager, educated a houseful of partygoers about who skinheads are — and aren't.
"I am not a racist," he says firmly, leaning close to the man's face as a crowd gathers. "My friends are not racists. None of the skinheads in this town are racists."
"My best friend is Black," a resident of the house tells Alderson with an icy stare. "What the hell does that have to do with me?" Alderson responds, his face as steely as the toes of his boots.
With that, Alderson's hand is on the man's chest, pushing him over the kitchen counter.
Traditional skinheads are nonracist, working-class patriots
Skinheads don't win most battles for public understanding so easily. They wear the garb seen on neo-Nazis in movies like American History X, but they are not White supremacists. Rather, skinheads are self-sufficient, young members of the working class, some of whom are alienated by the American class system. All find support and fellowship amid a subculture of punk music, beer, patriotism, symbolic attire, short hair and a long tradition.
That tradition, which skinheads are willing to defend with their fists from "boneheads" — their term for neo-Nazis — is rooted in an unlikely union of Black and White youth in 1960s Great Britain. Skinheads take pride in their subculture, refusing to change their public persona despite its association with racism. Still, some skinheads asked that their names be withheld to avoid the negative preconceptions of that association.
The beliefs
Niel, 21, a junior at KU, became a skinhead in Fall 1999. True to skinheads' working-class ideals, Niel has done construction work since age 13 and is financing his own education with federal aid, scholarships and his wages.
Monty Maxwell, Lawrence freshman, became a skinhead at age 18 in Leavenworth and found his identity while
"I've always prided myself in working hard and trying to make my own way, rather than having it paid for me," says Niel, who worried that revealing his last name and major might hamper scholarship and internship applications.
earning minimum wage on factory floors.
"I realized the only person that was going to take pride in myself was me," says Maxwell, 25, the father of two young children.
That self-respect inspired Maxwell to pursue a history degree. Despite their blue-collar image, many Lawrence skins have gone to college; they view education as self-improvement that lends to the self-reliance they value.
Why they do it
Tom Meagher is a freelance writer with degrees in journalism and English, as well as a minor in Black studies, from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is also a Lawrence "skim" who embraced the scene at age 15 in Baltimore. Meagher, 24, admits skin-heads share "misanthropic" views.
"Like any sort of subculture, the roots of getting together are driven by the fact that all of us have felt alienated by society," says Meagher, a reporter for a soccer Web site. "When we go out, we don't
See SKINHEADS on page 6A
Two sororities tie for title at Step Show competition
Nine groups compete, raise more than $10,000 for scholarship funds
By Danny Phillips and Amanda Beglin
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writers
Two KU soriorities tie for first place at the National PanHellenic Council Step Show Saturday night for the first time in the show's eight-year history.
After two recounts ending with the same result, event officials at the Lied Center announced that Delta Sigma Theta and Zeta Phi Beta sororites had won.
The sororities, both dressed in black and blue, were awarded dual trophies for stomping and clapping their way to victory.
The six-member team, dressed in gold ties, played off The Matrix theme, complete with "agents" and a telephone booth built by fraternity member Al Harris, Kansas City. Mo. senior.
On the men's side, Alpha Phi Alpha won first place for the second year in a row.
But once the curtain is raised, said Jermaine Marshall, Ft. Worth, Texas, sophomore and Alpha Phil alpha step master, improvisation is also a vital component.
"Sometimes you have to react to the audience," he said. Some dancers stepped as 708 pimps and jail escapees, while other groups used props such as canes, machetes and whipped cream.
Stepping involves dance and tap moves combined with clapping, stomping, chanting and attitude.
Conway Ekp0, NPHC president and Lawrence senior, estimated the show raised more than $10,000.
The proceeds will be divided between two minority scholarships, the Latina Sullivan Scholarship Fund and a new scholarship in the names of Shyra McGee and Mark Tolbert Jr., two KU students who died in car accidents this semester.
Nine organizations participated in the show, and each was allowed 15 minutes on stage. Groups that exceeded the time limit were penalized, which might have cost Phi Beta Sigma a trophy, Ekpo said.
He said the fraternity was favored to win going into the event, but the six-member team, which had a red Chevrolet on stage to compliment its "70s theme, performed for more than 20 minutes.
Marshall said going into the evening he thought his fraternity had "an even shot" at winning. His group's act featured a member faking a sprained ankle and using his hands to beat his shoes to the beat while he sat on stage.
Tiffany Williams, Kansas City, Kan. senior, said practices for the performance had a difficult beginning.
When the eight performers of Delta Sigma Theta sorority weren't dancing on chairs, they were chanting and dancing side by side to music that parodied a Nightline newscast.
"We probably began in January," Williams said. "We practiced for three hours every day. We were working on straightening our arms and smiling and being exact."
"We don't care, because I think we both did really well." Sumler said.
"Everyone did really well. And we're so close to the Zetas. We're like sisters, anyway."
The two-organization tie didn't bother Amber Sumler, Wichita senior and Delta Sigma Theta step master.
Edited by Matt Daugherty
Jermaine
Marshall, Ft.
Worth, Texas,
junior, leaps and
stamps his feet
during the Alpha
Phi Alpha fraternity's Step Show
performance.
The show was presented at the Lied Center
Saturday evening, and proceeds were donated to scholarship funds.
Photo by J. E. Wilson/KANSAN