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STUDENT SENATE ELECTIONS WEEK ★★★
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Tomorrow: Cloudy with a high of 64 and a low of 45
Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Sports: Drew Gooden announces he'll return for his junior season. SEE PAGE 1B
Inside: Section analyzes trials and tribulations of finding living accommodations in Lawrence.
For comments, contact Lori O'Toole or Mindie Miller at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
SEE PAGES 6A AND 7A
(USPS 650-640) · VOL.111 NO.120
Career service now available for students at enrollment
WWW.KANSAN.COM
By Cassio Furtado
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Students enrolling for summer or fall classes will be able to get a head start in planning their careers.
The optional campus fees selection form for the fall semester allows students to sign up for career counseling and planning and for job search services right away.
Previously, students had to sign up directly with University Career and Employment Services or with their respective schools.
Career counseling and planning cost $25. and job searches cost $40.
The form still allows students to buy sports tickets, parking permits, bus passes or Student Union Activities movie cards.
Gail Rooney, director of career and employment services, said the two options first appeared on the options form for the summer 2000 semester.
She said they weren't included in last fall's or this spring's forms because by the time their inclusion was approved last spring, there wasn't enough time to include the new options in the forms.
But she said the first experience with the options had been positive.
"It was very good for the career counseling and planning option," Rooney said.
She said that last summer, 470 students registered for the career counseling option, and 59 for the job search option.
Rooney said that not many students registered for the job search option because during the summer, most students were freshmen or transfer students, who usually weren't very concerned with the job search at that stage in their college careers.
Lindsay Sproul, Andover junior works at the options table in Strong Hall.
"We are hoping it goes very well this time," Rooney said. "It's an opportunity for juniors and seniors."
She said that only seven students had registered for one of the two new options yesterday. Sproul also said that not many people had asked questions about it.
"It could be better if there was a lower fee," she said. "It sounds like a good option, but I don't get it because it costs $40."
Tracy Lucas, Wichita junior, said she wouldn't sign up for any of the new options.
"The School of Education helps us out enough that you don't need that," she said.
Lucas said she thought career counseling and job search services should be provided for free by the University.
"I think pretty much it's a waste of money," she said.
Julie Silver, Carbondale senior, said she didn't know that the new options were available to students.
"It seems like a good thing," she said.
Hate crime
Anti-gay message left on students' dorm door
Episode not the first for KU sophomore
Bv Brooke Hesler
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Curtis Dixon and Galen Steover got a rude awakening yesterday morning.
The words, "AIDS kills fags dead" were crawled in red permanent marker on the door of their seventh floor room in Lewis Hall.
Dixon, Kansas City, Kan., sophomore, who identified himself as bisexual, said he had no idea who wrote the message. He said no one in the residence hall ever said anything to him about his sexual orientation.
"I just think it's dumb that people are being so childish," Dixon said. "I thought we were in college here."
Dixon said the message was written sometime between 3:30 and 10:30 a.m. He said the message wasn't there when the hall had a fire drill around 3:30 a.m. yesterday. However, when a friend came to his door around 10:30 a.m., she discovered the message.
Stoever, Garden City sophomore and homosexual male, said this wasn't the first time he'd been the target of such messages.
He said that when he was a resident last year on the tenth floor of
"I thought KU was this really accepting place, and then that happened."
Galen Stoever
Garden City sophomore
Ellsworth Hall, someone scrawled anti-gay messages on his message board several times during the spring semester.
"When it happened last year, it was really difficult," Stoever said. "I thought KU was this really accepting place, and then that happened."
He said he'd filed a police report, but the person was never caught.
Steover said he suspected the same person was responsible for yesterday's message.
He said the handwriting appeared similar.
"I might have suspicions of who it might be, but there's no way I can really say for sure." Stoever said.
Dixon said it was disheartening that things like that had to happen, but he didn't give the messages any weight.
"I'm not surprised," he said. "I would
like to believe society is becoming better, but there's still a lot of work to be done."
Besastian D'Amico, Topeka freshman and roommate of Dixon and Stoever, said that although he is not gay, the message still offended him.
"I've never been on the receiving end of hatred," D'Amico said. "It does kind of piss me off that people have to go and do that."
D'Amico said he'd never heard anyone in Lewis Hall say anything negative about the sexual orientation of the men.
"It was quite disturbing," he said. "In Topeka, we have the whole Fred Phelps thing, but it's a little different when it happens in your own room."
The men notified the student housing department about the incident and filed a police report yesterday afternoon.
Randy Timm, assistant director of student housing, was looking into the matter, but he did not return phone calls yesterday.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call the Lawrence Police Department.
- Edited by Sydney Wallace
Gettin' soaked
Commission shows unity names Rundle
An early afternoon storm drenched students yesterday, but some students took the deluge in stride. Photo by J. E. Wilson/KANSAN
By Erin Adamson
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
After years of serving on the City Commission and having been passed by once for the job, Mike Rundle took his seat as mayor of Lawrence last night.
Although Rundle received a unanimous vote from the Commission, he did not receive unanimous support. Commissioner Marty Kennedy told the assembled public that he struggled with the decision of whether to support Rundle as mayor but would vote for Rundle in the interest of insuring unity on the Commission. Kennedy did not explain his hesitancy to support Rundle.
Traditionally, after a commissioner serves a year as vice mayor, that commissioner is nominated as mayor by the other commissioners. The Commission's decision in 1990 not to nominate Rundle as mayor had upset some members of the community.
Rundle: appointed mayor of Lawrence
Carol Henderson, a Lawrence resident who helped with Rundle's campaign, said she was happy to see Rundle take the mayor's seat.
"We really do feel like he's our mayor," Henderson said. "We've waited so long. He never got to be mayor in 1990."
Many of Rundle's supporters were present at the meeting wearing green and white "I like Mike" buttons.
Jim Henry turned over his seat as mayor to Rundle and remains a commissioner.
The selection of a new mayor and vice mayor followed the swearing in of new City Commissioners.
Sue Hack replaced outgoing commissioner Erv Hodges on the Commission and was chosen as the new vice mayor. She will serve a four-year term.
David Dunfield and Marty Kennedy also were sworn in as commissioners for the second time. Dunfield will serve a four-year term, and Kennedy will serve a two-year term.
Rundle said he was excited to have the chance to serve as mayor.
"I have looked forward to it as I did in 1990," Rundle said. "I believe the challenges layed before us at the Bert Nash conference earlier are worthy of our support."
Rundle said the goal of the community-wide conference, which was held in January, was maintaining a supportive community for Lawrence residents. He said that would be important to him during his time as mayor and that he would speak about his goals and ideas for his mayoral term at upcoming Commission meetings.
On his first night as mayor, Rundle cautioned against the City Commission and the Planning Commission disregarding the development guidelines set forth in Horizon 2020, the planning document compiled by community members, city and county staff and commissioners to address the future development concerns of Lawrence.
— Edited by Megan Phelps
Early-morning alarm rains on Lewis Hall residents' sleep
By Sarah Warren
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The residents of room 501 in Lewis Hall awoke at 2:30 yesterday morning to flashing lights and a flood of muck rushing into their room.
A hallway fire sprinkler outside the door to the room had gone off, spraying dirty water into the hallway, which in turn streamed into the room and caused the building's fire alarm to sound.
completely engulfed in water, but instead of rushing around to save their things, the women headed out of the building with the rest of the residents.
"The hallway slopes slightly, so it all went to our room," said Tania Nazir, Overland Park freshman.
When the women returned to their room, there already were 3 to 4 inches of standing water, said Katie Harris. Olathe sophomore.
When Nazir and her three roommates entered the main room of their suite; their film flops were
Books and papers on the floor were dripping black, the clothes in laundry baskets on the floor in their closet were sopping wet and the blue carpet had turned a muddy shade of black as it absorbed the muck.
"Water was all over every place." Harris said.
"Everything was completely saturated."
Amanda Smart, Leavenworth sophomore, said she didn't attend her ancient philosophy lecture yesterday because the book she would
have discussed in class, Introduction to Aristotle,
was drenched and unreadable.
Smart's roommates also lost important academic materials.
Harris' portfolio for industrial design was dampened, and Nazir's science lab materials were soaked.
The roommates were awake for nearly five hours cleaning up the mess with wet/dry vacuums, mops and fans.
Nazir said several members of the hall staff staved up to help.
At 530 a.m., Jenni Gottschalk, Leavenworth junior and fifth floor resident assistant, bought the girls doughnut holes and bagels.
The girls didn't go to bed until after 7 a.m., but they said trying to sleep was impossible because
This was the first time the sprinkler system had been activated in Lewis Hall since it was opened after renovations in 1999, so the water had been stagnate in the hall's pipes for two years.
the stench of the dirty water permeated the entire room and made it difficult to relax after the tough night.
The roommates said the student housing department had said it would consider paying for their clothing to be laundered and for a rented rug.
Gottschalk said the cause for the alarm was still under investigation by the department.
"There wasn't a fire, and the cause is still unknown," Gottschalk said.
Harris said it could have been much worse if it
had come from the sprinkler in the suite's main room.
"We were pretty lucky, all things considered," Harris said.
Smart said she wished that the girls hadn't spent all Monday afternoon cleaning their room.
The adjacent two rooms, the room across the hall and the three rooms directly below room 501 sustained minor damage as well, Gottschalk said.
"We had just vacuumed the entire thing." Smart said, "and we never do that."
Officials from the student housing department could not be reached for comment.
Edited by Matt Daugherty