Friday, March 16, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 3
Spring break
Alternative break connects cultures
By Brandon Stimnett writer@kanson.com Kansas staff writer
Johnathan Power, Wichita sophomore, paints a stairwell at the HOPE Care Center in Kansas City, Kan. He was one of 10 students who spent a Saturday preparation for an alternative Spring Break trip to New Orleans to work at an AIDS hospice. Photo by Katie Moore/KANSAN
There's a reason why Katie Harpstrite participates in the University's Alternative Spring Breaks each year, and it's not for the relatively inexpensive mid-semester getaway.
The Andover junior said she participated because she revealed in the opportunity to connect with people and to learn about people who live under different circumstances.
Harpstrite is preparing for her fourth Alternative Break and each time she said she came away with a new and meaningful experience. This time around she's heading to Houston to observe and help teachers in under-privileged schools.
The co-coordinator of the Alternative Spring Break program said 13 groups of eight to 10 students would travel by bus to perform community service in different cities across the country. Each student pays $170 for the trip, and the rest of
the cost is paid by various fund-raisers and grants.
Destinations range from Washington
D. C., where students will do an urban plunge by living among homeless people for two days, to Tuscan, where students
will work on trail maintenance and other environmental activities in Saguaro National Park.
Harpstrite recalled an experience she had during last year's trip to an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. Her group spent two days whittling wood to make stick-ball sticks for Native Americans on the reservation.
She said she and her group members, hands bloodied and raw from the wood, became frustrated after doing seemingly meaningless work for so long.
Harpstrite said her group's commitment to the reservation helped the students and the Native Americans connect on a personal level.
Curtis Sloan, Powhatten senior, is traveling to New York to help with sick and elderly people living in a health center. He said he wanted to interact with people from different cultures but he also was looking forward to seeing the Big Apple.
I probably seeing New York is the most exciting part because it's pretty glamorous," Sloan said.
— Edited by Melinda Weiner
Break offers KU parents opportunity to see family
By Michelle Ward
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Paola Hernandez's spring break plans include a special treat — relaxing with her family. Hernandez, graduate teaching assistant in Spanish, finds her days "jumpacked," leaving little time to spend with her husband, Todd, a fellow GTA in Spanish, and their 20-month-old daughter, Camila.
Many University of Kansas students have scheduled family time during the break. Students who are also parents often find a hectic schedule does not allow the quality time they want with their children. The upcoming spring break will provide a time for families to reconnect without the pressures of school.
The Hernandez family will travel to Denver for the week to spend time with Camila's grandparents. While the toddler does not understand that the family will be leaving, her mother said that she would be excited to spend time with her parents and grandparents.
"Family is the most important thing to us," Hernandez said. "This is an easier time for us to be together."
Shawna Hayes will spend the break with family, too. She will take her son, Eric, to Kansas City, Kan., to visit Shawna's mother, who can't wait to see her 2-year-old grandson. She has prepared for the visit by buying Eric numerous games and clothes, Hayes said.
"It might be more work than play," said Hayes jokingly of the visit. "I'm looking forward to the break."
Richard Hughes and his wife, a teacher in the district, are staying in town with their family during the week. Hughes, a graduate student, will "catch his breath" as he spends time with Julia, 4, and Jacob. 7 weeks.
"We have been so busy, we haven't had time to plan anything." Hughes said. "I know we will watch a lot of basketball."
Wen-Gyo Jeong, a doctoral student at the University, will celebrate an anniversary with his wife. So Young Jeong, and spend time with his son, Gene Sung Oh.
SoYoung Jeong said the family had no specific plans but wanted to spend time together.
"We will have all his friends over to play," said So-Young Jeong, who is working toward attending the University this fall.
Melissa Fast will take a few days off from work to spend time with her two children. Fast holds a full-time job while she seeks a teaching certification at the University. She wants to do something special with her children, hopefully taking them to the zoo in Topeka. She was not setting anything in stone yet, as she watched it pour outside yesterday.
"The weather will definitely have to improve before we do anything outside," she said.
— Edited by Joshua Richards
Warm weather plans prompt tanning frenzy
By Sarah Smarsh
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
With spring break just around the corner, bronzeed skin is making appearances across campus. Many students are visiting tanning beds to prepare their skin tones for a week in swimming suits and for the following season of minimal clothing.
Rachel Harvey, Lawrence junior, said she had been tanning for two weeks in preparation for her spring break trip to South Padre Island, Texas.
"Tan people look more healthy," Harvey said.
Tanned students cited a preference for a "healthy glow," but warnings about the long-term effects of tanning have pervaded society for many years. Ultra-violet radiation from the sun or from tanning beds has been widely linked to skin cancer. The American Academy of Dermatology recorded more than one million diagnoses of skin cancer last year.
Janna Laing, of Ultimate Tan, 2449 Iowa St., said her number of clients had jumped from an average of 150 per day to 450 per day in recent weeks.
"They come to prepare themselves for spring break," Laing said.
Still, many students make a habit of tanning.
Laing said her tanning office attempted to educate people about the potential dangers of tanning. Ultimate Tap posts health warnings near its tanning beds and encourages customers to wear protective eye goggles while tanning.
Kristen Reynolds has a great deal of color — her face, arms and legs are a deep brown. Reynolds, Atlantic City, N.J., freshman, said she used tanning beds four to five times per week and worked as a beach lifeguard during summers.
"When I’m pale, I just feel like I look like death." Rewelds said.
Reynolds said she didn't use the eye goggles in tanning beds and only used sunscreen on her nose while working on the beach.
"I don't really think about it," said Reynolds of the health concerns surrounding tanning.
Matt Alexander, Wichita senior, said he had tanned for the last two weeks because of his spring break plans in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
“it's better not to be completely pale when you go down there,” Alexander said. “I didn't want to spend the first three days paying for burned on the first day.”
Alexander said that he thought tanning made people more attractive and that he hoped medical technology 30 years from now would take care of health problems caused by tanning.
"I'd rather be tan now and worry about that later," he said.
Edited by Joshua Richards
KU students to compete at competition in Arkansas
The team members began to meet last fall to discuss the boat's design, the concrete mix that would be used and reinforcement techniques. They also chose the eight people who would paddle the canoe, began training them before winter and obtained $5,000 for materials from Student Senate. The total cost for the project is about $12,000.
Jones said she hoped increased participation and money would result in a trip to the national competition this summer in San Diego.
She is the unofficial captain of the women's team because of her experience in last year's canoe race and for her hrist as a member of the Kansas Women's Rowing team during her sophomore year, she said.
Continued from page 1A
But Jones said the only advantage rowing gave her in the concrete canoe was having previous time in a boat.
make a final display of the boat.
"Rowing doesn't really help me." Jones said. "It's like the difference between basketball and volleyball. There's a ball, but they're completely different sports."
In fact, last year she lent her brawn to the project because it seemed a little confusing. This year, however, she said that she had learned valuable organizational skills.
"Last year I was like, 'What do I do?' and i sanded stones," Jones said. "But
"The design on the computer was the hardest part," she said. "Trying to figure out what dimensions we need is tough."
Scholz estimated that the team would spend about 3,000 hours on the canoe by the time of the competition. That includes the hours spent on the water, time spent in Learned Hall at meetings, construction on the canoe and the time spent preparing a paper, display and a skit for the competition.
Designing things and writing papers about them is nothing new for engineers, but Jones said the canoe project was unique in that it gave all those involved a hands-on experience.
Mary Gillillain, Edmond, Okla., freshman, said she could handle the practice, but the hardest part of the concrete canoe experience had been in the classroom.
Jones and her team lifted weights in the winter when they couldn't be on the water and just last week went to Clinton Lake Marina to practice. The team plans to be on the water about five hours per week before the competition.
"As engineers we're always doing stuff on paper and we never get to make anything," she said. "Anything can be made on a computer but to actually make it—that's really valuable to engineers."
this year, in terms of project management. I learned a ton."
Apartment residents protest cable cancellation
Edited by Doug Pacey
Continued from page 1A
Berkley Flats, said the management wanted to keep its residents happy and would be more than willing to talk with residents and address their concerns.
Chris Weaver, a Valentine, Neb., junior who has lived in Berkeley Flats for three years, said he had renewed his lease early in April 2000 to avoid the rent increase, but said he was not informed about the termination of free cable service.
"I didn't think it was quite fair." Weaver said. "It could have been a communication problem. I don't want to save they did it on purpose."
He said he had come back to Lawrence in August and found out that he was being billed for cable service by Sunflower Cablevision.
Weaver said he had received his $300 compensation and renewed his lease with Berkeley Flats for one more year.
Jessica Zahn, another Berkeley Flats resident, said she was not as lucky or as forgiving as Weaver.
"If they had been honest and forefront about it then I wouldn't have had a problem," she said.
Zahn, Wamego junior, said even though she had warned Berkeley Flats that she would take legal action, she had yet to receive her concession.
Zahn said that she had been told in May that the customary rent increase would not affect people who had been residents before then.
Du Vale said he still felt upset because the majority of the tenants had yet to receive a reimbursement.
"No mention whatsoever was made about the cable issue," she said.
Zahn also said that Berkeley Flats was advertising free basic cable service to new tenants even though, according to Whitehead's letters to DuVale, the complex was aware of the service change in May.
"It resolves the issue for me, but it doesn't resolve the issue for the rest of these people," he said.
drive after drinking.
Continued from page 1A
Sentencing went well, Bland's family says
praying at a young girl in a courtroom. Tom Bath, Scott's defense attorney, could not be reached for comment yesterday. He had suggested three months spent outside of a correctional facility, or on house arrest. He said the community's safety would be enhanced if Scott's story convinced someone not to
*Twenty-four months is a small price to pay for taking a youth life*. Cameron said.
She said she had considered what Lisa would want the sentence to be.
"The other thing I want you to remember for the rest of your life has to do with the word mistake," she said. "What you did was not a mistake because you set it in motion intentionally. When you make a decision, you own it."
resulted in a longer sentence.
Before delivering Scott's sentence, Judge Janette Sheldon questioned and talked to Scott.
Members ofLisa's family said yesterday
afternoon that they had been concerned about what sentence the judge would impose, but thought the sentencing had gone well. Even so, they said, it could never make up for the loss.
In the courtroom, Jim Bland, Lisa's husband of eight-and-a-half years had been the first offi's family members to speak
— Edited by Courtney Craigmile
"This by no means makes us happy," said Yolanda Reyes, Lisa's sister. "It saddens my heart. It's sad all the way around."
He said he thought one of Lista's best friends had best summed up the loss when
Scott addressed Lisa's family and the court in tears.
she wrote, "What are our lives without Lisa? Imagine if the world were suddenly deprived of the color blue. Nothing would ever look or feel the same again, left with only memories of what used to be."
Herequested that Scot serve three years in a correctional facility, the maximum allowable punishment, followed by probation, community service and talking with others about the tragedy.
"I know what I've taken from you," he
said. "I'm so sorry for what I've done and the pain I have caused."
He said he had read through letters from Lisa's family and friends and would think about the loss for the rest of his life. He said he intended to share his story to possibly spare others a similar loss.
Jim Blair said it would be positive if another loss could be prevented, but nothing would ever replace his wife.
"In the end," he said, "he will be set free and start his live over and Lisa will not." — Edited by Drew Price
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