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The University Daily Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Thursday, March 1, 2001
Sports: The Jayhawks beat the Wildcats 77-65 last night in Manhattan.
See page 8A
Inside: A fire caused an abandoned fraternity house $300,000 in damages.
(USPS 650-640) • VOL.111 NO.101
See page 3A
For comments, contact Lori O'Toole or Mindie Miller at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.co
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Senate OKs fee increase to distribute newspapers
By Brooke Hesler
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Students will be able to pick up newspapers other than the Kansan around campus next fall with Student Senate's approval of the newspaper readership program.
Senate approved a student fee increase of $6.50 per student per semester in order to have the Kansas City Star, the Lawrence Journal-World, the New York Times and USA Today available at approximately 20 locations around campus. Ben Walker, student body president, said he'd received overwhelming support for the program.
"Students are seen as people who generally don't care," he said. "This program will make for better informed students because they'll know what's going on in their community. It creates a level of civic responsibility that is lacking right now."
Students would be able to swipe their smart cards in order to access lock boxes with the newspapers. Walker said that the system would ensure that only students — not faculty and staff — would have access to the papers.
Walker cited a survey conducted last month in response to the test pilot program which lasted four weeks at the beginning of the semester. The survey found that 40' out of 201 students surveyed would be in favor of a fee increase of $5 to $10 for the program. It also found that an additional 75 out of 201 students surveyed would be in favor of a $10 increase or more.
Mark Bradshaw, holdover senator, said with only 210 students surveyed, he didn't know whether the survey was representative of the student body.
"I am in favor of the program," he said. "I'm just not in favor of passing it tonight."
A referendum will appear on Senate elections ballots in April. Students will be able to vote on it if they are in favor of the fee increase. If the fee is approved at the state level this month, the program will still be in place in the fall despite the referendum results. In the future, Senate would be able to adjust the program according to the results.
Walker said he was against letting an April referendum decide the fee's fate because the Board of Regents, which must approve the fee increase, meets in March. This would have delayed the program by a year.
"We are a representative body," Walker said. "It's up to us to make these types of decisions."
Bradshaw also cited current problems with smart cards as a reason a delay might be to the benefit of students.
"It gives us more time for the cards to work," he said. "They screw up. They fall apart."
Approximately 5,000 newspapers will initially be distributed. Walker said if the need for more papers arose, the newspaper companies would provide the papers at no additional costs to students.
"They're not making any money here," he said.
However, if there is money left over because students aren't picking up as many papers, it would go to the Senate Media Board and be allocated to campus media groups.
"In theory, yes, it should be up to the constituents," Mills said. "But when you have less than 50 percent of the student body population voting, it doesn't really work."
The fee would come up for review in Senate every three years.
Also last night, Senate failed a bill that would have required senators to meet with their constituency groups three times during the semester.
Last night wasn't the last time Senate will see the bill, though. Justin Mills, holdover senator and co-sponsor of the bill, said he planned to reintroduce it in the next legislative cycle.
Walker, who spoke against the bill, said it was up to the constituents to decide if senators were doing their job, not Senate.
The bill would suspend senators who didn't complete their outreach assignments.
— Edited by Jason McKee
Mills said he saw Walker's point, but he still thought the bill was necessary.
Earthquake rocks Northwest
Students fear families' safety
By Amanda Beglin
writer @kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Several University of Kansas students from the Seattle area, including Rebecca McFall, Federal Way, Wash., sophomore, were jolted by the news of a major earthquake in Seattle yesterday morning.
"My whole family lives up there," McFall said. "The phone lines were jammed and it took me two hours to get through. I was so frustrated. I just needed someone — just one person to talk to — to see if everyone was OK."
The magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit at 10:55 a.m., said officials at the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in
Palmer, Alaska. It injured about 250 people and was centered near Olympia, 35 miles southwest of Seattle.
McFall said her parents were rocked by the onuake.
"My mom teaches in Seattle and she said she was under her desk," McFall said. "But she said the Seattle school districts kept the kids in school. They just calmed the kids down and figured it was the safest place to be."
McFall said her father, a Federal Way, Wash., city manager, had told her that the city made emergency preparations in case an earthquake occurred.
"From the people I've talked to, the city is in good condition," McFall said.
Robin Scullin-Taylor. Seattle freshman, said she found out about the earthquake during class yesterday afternoon.
"I'm a little more worried now than I was before," she said. "I'm worried about my mom because she was in the center of it in Olympia. I just talked to her (Tuesday) night, so it's weird to think about her being there."
Kyle Ramsey/KANSAN
Seoul-Taylor said she contacted the Seattle Red Cross in search of her mom and, because the organization wanted to keep the phone lines open, the two could only speak once the initial frenzy ended.
The tremors caused 9,000 power outages in Seattle as well as reports of building bricks dropping to the streets. Damage is estimated in the billions of dollars.
The Seattle-Tacoma airport was evacuated and closed to inspect for possible damage.
earthquake magnitudes, measures of earthquake size, are calculated from ground motion recorded on seismographs. An increase in one full number, such as 5.8 to 6.8, means the quake's magnitude is 10 times greater.
damage. The quake erupted from 30 miles underground, causing the land to fluctuate in rolling motions. Television stations 140 miles away in Portland, Ore., were inundated with phone calls from viewers reporting these occurrences. Portland office buildings reportedly swayed for 20 to 30 seconds during the quake.
A quake with a magnitude of 6 can cause severe damage, while one with a magnitude of 7 can cause widespread, heavy damage.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
One step closer to resolution
Local family copes with loss, courts
— Edited by Jason McKee
By Lauren Brandenburg
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Felicia "Lisa" Bland's family still feels every day the loss of a wife, mother, sister, daughter and aunt five months after Bland died in a car accident on Kansas Highway 10.
--case as long as possible, though it's frustrating. We'd like to see resolution because then it would be done."
Each time the hearings for the 16-year-old driver charged with involuntary manslaughter are postponed, resolution is one step further away than before. The family is learning to cope with the death and learning about the legal process that seems so slow.
Sean Scott, Shawnee resident, was scheduled to appear before the Johnson County District Court at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 14 to set a trial date or enter a plea, but the appearance was rescheduled for 10:30 a.m. today. This was the second time the hearing was continued. The hearing was initially scheduled for Feb. 5, and then continued to Feb. 14.
Bland's family was initially frustrated with the length of the legal process but said they were getting used to it. They are working to keep a positive outlook about the process.
"As far as the legal system part, they seem to think it's pretty standard for this to happen," said Jim Bland, Felicia's husband of eight-and-a-half years. "I guess the defendants have a right to delay and work on their
Bland said he hoped the postponement of the hearing would give Scott enough time to reflect on the incident and admit he did something wrong.
Bland said he was somewhat relieved that the hearing was moved from Valentine's Day, but that the continuances dragged out some of the pain.
The loss is fresh every day, Bland said. He said he would visit the cemetery daily for the rest of his life.
"I don't know how to describe this kind of loss," he said. "For me personally, I've basically lost myself. It's almost like a huge part of you's been ripped out. The old me's basically gone."
"It's frustrating in general because you have to relive this over and over every day," he said. "I relieve every day that night when I heard the news. As long as the trial is unresolved, that's always going to be sticking with me."
But Bland said he did not mind the length of the process if it would ensure the correct resolution. He did not want things to be rushed if it would taint the process, he said.
"It's a catch-22," he said. "We'd like to have it
See FAMILY on page 5A
When Felicia "Lisa" Bland (right) died five months ago, she left her husband Jim Bland and her daughter to deal with a drawn-out court process. She was killed in a car accident on Kansas Highway 10, and hearings for the 16-year-old driver charged with involuntary manslaughter have been postponed twice. Contributed photo
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaks to law students and faculty at Green Hall. In his speech yesterday, he talked about his concerns with the Bush Administration's stance on environmental issues. Photo by Christina Neff/KANSAN
RFK Jr. speaks to students
Environmental lawyer calls for action, criticizes Bush Administration
By Donny Phillips
writer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. doesn't believe nature is God, and said it shouldn't be worshipped as such.
But he thinks everyone from lawmakers to the average citizen has a stake in America's environmental destiny.
"Our obligation to the next generation is sustainability," Kennedy, the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, said to a group of 150 law students at Green Hall yesterday afternoon.
The senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council had strong words for industries that ignore or circumvent environmental law and the
new George W. Bush administration which plans to repeal many of the law the companies are evading.
Before delivering his "Our Environmental Destiny" lecture, Kennedy took the reigns of a class for first-year law students.
Kennedy said people who knew of polluters in their neighborhoods should take action. He said citizens had rights to protect their environment, including the right to hold a hearing and to request an Environmental Impact Statement.
He spoke about how he was gathering litigation teams around the country to battle the industrial farming industry,
"They're cutting up the pie that belongs to both you and me," said Kennedy, referring to the Republican-controlled Congress.
Although the Bush administration said repealing federal laws would return control to the states and local communities, he said the real benefactor would be corporations that could manipulate local issues to their advantage.
specifically the pork industry.
He said corporate hog farms were "shattering the fabrics of rural communities" by driving small farms out of business and contaminating local water supplies.
Kennedy said protecting the environment was not about preserving nature for everyone's enrichment.
"We're protecting it for our sake," he said. "We ignore that at our own peril."
Chris Randle, Kansas City, Mo., first-year law student, attended the class Kennedy taught. He said Kennedy made some good points, but didn't appreciate the political jabs Kennedy took at the new president.
Justin Palmer, Lawrence first-year law student, said Kennedy was correct in pointing out how Congress talked about supporting a free market but actually prevented one by giving subsidies to polluters.
"That whole theme was really on the mark," he said.
- Edited by Jacob Roddy