Kansan
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Today: Partly cloudy with a high of 41 and a low of 16.
Saturday: Partly cloudy with a high of 36 and a low of 23.
Sunday: Partly cloudy with a high of 50 and a low of 26.
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Friday, February 16, 2001
Sports: Mario Kinsey has left the men's basketball team.
SEE PAGE 1B
Inside: The February Sisters present The Vagina Monologues to benefit local women's services.
For comments, contact Lori O'Toole or Mindie Miller at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
SEE PAGE 3A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
International cards used as fake IDs
By Erin Adamson
Kansan staff writer
Some underage students may be getting into local bars with their International Student Identity Cards.
The card is sold locally at Council Travel, 622 W. 12th, and is intended to be used by students during international travel.
Police seized an international identification card from a University of Kansas student on Feb. 1. at Fatso's, 1016 Massachusetts St., between 11:00 and 11:15 p.m.
Det. John Lewis said an officer asked the student for his identification and the student handed the officer his wallet. The wallet contained a driver's license listing the student's age as 19 and an international card that listed his age as 21.
Lewis said he thought that the case had been written un as possession of
false identification and that police would be looking at the paperwork the student had filled out to get the card.
Council Travel sells the card for $22, and students can apply to it at the Student Union Activities window in the Kansas Union.
Michael Burns, vice president of marketing for Council Travel, said he thought abuse of the card was minimal compared to the amount of cards the company sold in a year.
He said that Council Travel sold more than 500,000 cards in the United States annually.
Burns said that Council Travel's company policy did not require travel agents to ask for a driver's license or passport when issuing the card. But he said that the company trained its agents to ask for identification or a school transcript that included the student's date of birth.
Burns said the card was not legal
identification.
"It is purpose to verify student status." Burns said.
Council Travel of Lawrence requires students to show a KUID and a class schedule to get the card. The student is also asked to verify their date of birth and the spelling of their name. However, a student could apply for the card by giving
the travel agent a false date of birth in order to obtain the card.
Trevor Kilgore, Council Travel employee, said the business sold a considerable amount of cards to students traveling abroad.
"In a busy month, anywhere from 60 to 120." Kilgore said.
Sara Kapser, employee of the Red Lyon Tasher, 944 Massachusetts, said the bar generally didn't accept international identification of any kind, but
would sometimes accept a passport.
Kelfel Aqui, owner of Coco Loco Mexican Cafe, 943 Massachusetts, said his business did not accept international identification.
"It has to be a Kansas driver's license," Aql said.
— Edited by Jennifer Valadez
Nontraditional life
KU dads balance college, children
By Michelle Ward
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"It was very important to keep Derek close to us," Brookover, 20, said. "I wanted to keep Alyssa in a family situation. I didn't want her to grow up with just me."
Derek Schmidt makes dinner for his daughter, Alyssa, as the two spend precious time together laughing and talking. He see his daughter almost every day, but the 3-year-old "Shorty," as her father calls her, lives primarily with her mother, Emily Brookover, Garden City senior.
As with many fathers who are also students and employees, Schmidt tries to juggle conflicting responsibilities, including the most important one—his daughter.
Fathers who double as college students often study with the goal of improving their children's lives by improving their own. It is a difficult task to balance these multiple roles, Schmidt said, and he often finds a high degree of stress in his own life.
"The hardest thing is balancing the needs of my daughter with school and work," said Schmidt, Lawrence resident and Johnson County Community College student.
Brookover admits the difficulty of the dueling roles, but she said she thought it was a common problem.
"It's hard being so young," she said.
"You have to balance your social life with friends while still basically being a teenager with the responsibilities of being an adult, a parent."
Schmidt, who was raised by a single mother, said he felt the need to have a strong presence in his daughter's life. He and Brookover made the decision to attend college together so they could both be there for Alysas. The two, who are no longer dating, both made sacrifices to agree upon living in Lawrence.
"We have always said when it comes to Shorty, it's the both of us," Schmidt said. "We are partners in this together. It's hard, but I wouldn't trade it."
Schmidt, 21, said it was a struggle to find enough hours in the day to get everything done that he needed to do. He works between 30 and 35 hours a week while taking 18 credit hours at Johnson County. Aside from those full-time responsibilities, he is helping to raise his daughter. The need to do everything often leads to feelings of guilt, he said.
"When you see Shorty for the first time at night, all she wants to do is play," Schmidt said. "I feel guilty because I am trying to do homework, and I know she needs me."
Schmidt no longer just has himself to consider, as he and Brookover must coordinate their class schedules, study times and what little social life they have.
Brookover said that parenthood limits her social opportunities. Though she hasn't yet reached the legal drinking age, she said it didn't matter because the bar scene didn't appeal to her.
"When I have time by myself, I would rather sleep than go out," she said.
See STUDIES on page 5A
Ron Andrews, Lawrence sophomore, takes his son, Mikey, for a quick spin around the living room before dinner. Andrews said his time away from work or class was devoted to his son. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Permanent fix for potholes not available until spring
By Amanda Beglin
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Recent snowstorms that took minutes to fall have created potholes that will take the city weeks to fix.
University and city street crews have been filling potholes this week after last Friday's snow storm, but the streets won't be permanently repaired until weather conditions improve.
City manager Mike Wildgen said that Lawrence street crews have used temporary patching materials because the city's asphalt plants were closed for repairs during the winter. The plants normally provide hot-mix asphalt for major road construction projects.
and rock combination that is safe to drive over immediately after it is poured. However, the mix will not last as long as hot mix, which will be used to permanently repair the roads in the spring.
REPORT
- To report pot-holes in Lawrence, call 832-3456.
Larry Rawlings, Facilities Operations assistant director of construction, said University crews were using crushed gravel to fill pot holes on campus until the weather improved. Then maintenance crews will patch holes with the cold-mix.
"It is a waste of time to use the cold-mix right now," Rawlings said. "With all the water running around the potholes right now, it won't last. Cold-mix, by nature, is not supposed to last. The gravel will hold up until we can fix them."
Rawlings said the crews had patched sections of Sunnyside Avenue, Naismith Drive, Jayhawk Boulevard in front of the Kansas Union and various parking lots. Kerry Marsh, service manager at Jack Ellena Honda, said his department had not been asked to inspect cars for pothole damage and most pot holes should not cause damage.
"If you're driving 30, 40, in town speeds, you should be okay," Marsh said. "A small pothole may cause you some sensation, but it's not necessarily a bad thing for your car. If you hit a pothole hard enough to jar your teeth, there's probably some damage."
Marsh said a car's alignment and tires would be most likely to be damaged by a pothole.
"A good way to tell is if the steering wheel wobbles, especially at higher speeds," Marsh said.
Most pothole damage is covered by insurance, but it rarely costs more than a $500 deductible to repair. Marsh said.
Wilden said that driver concerned that potholes may have caused damage to their cars could file a claim with the city, but that they likely would not win.
"Potholes are a pretty common thing." Wilden said. "You're supposed to drive for the conditions, and potholes are part of the conditions. The only case might be if there was a 10-foot pothole that we just ignored and didn't clearly mark. But that's not a pothole, that's a complete failure of the street."
- Edited by Matt Dougherty
Alumnus directs new NBC movie
By Sarah Smarsh
A KU alumnus will make his mark on television's February "sweeps week" when his directorial effort, the made-for-television movie *The Princess and the Marine*, airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on NBC.
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Mike Robe, who graduated from the University of Kansas in 1966 with a bachelor of science in journalism and received a master's of science in radio/television/film in 1968, has received critical acclaim as a director, producer and writer in Hollywood. Robe made a name for himself with such successful television movies as With an Intent to Kill and Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story.
Robe's current movie, a conclusion to NBC's Valentine's
ALUMNUS MOVIE
week celebration, is based on the true story of a forbidden love between U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Jason Johnson and Bahraini princess Meriam Al-Khalifa. Mark-Paul Gosselair, who also played Zack Morris on NBC's Saved By The Bell, and Marisol Nichols, of the TV drama Resurrection Blvd., star as the young lovers who made international headlines when Al-Khalifa snuck out of her family's mansion, and her country, to escape the marital confines of Muslim religious beliefs.
■ KU alumnus Mike Robe's directorial effort, the Princess and the Marine, will air at 8 p.m. Sunday on NBC. The movie is based on a true story of forbidden love.
"It's an interesting portrait of
a brave young woman willing to risk everything to be with the man she fell in love with," Robe said Saturday, while he was in Lawrence for Kansas' basketball game.
He said one of the movie's most impressive feats was creating Middle Eastern scenery in Palm Springs, Calif., where the made-for-TV movie was filmed. He referred to a scene near the "Tree of Life," a huge tree that grew out of the desert near Saudi Arabia. The tree was digitally photographed and then inserted into shots done in the California desert.
Robe's years at the University led to a career of major movie projects and high-tech special effects. When he was a student, Bruce Linton, professor of journalism and theater and film, ran the department of theater and film and convinced Robe, who had dabbled in acting and
"He made me think that maybe it was a possibility," said Robe as he looked from Oldfather Studios, where he's a board member, to the adjacent apartments he lived in as an undergraduate.
advertising, to think seriously about film making.
"Pretty ironic, isn't it?" he said of his former living quarters. "I used to stand on my balcony and look over at this building."
Robe said his dreams started to take shape when he entered the Air Force and was named the motion picture production officer. After his military service, he delved into the world of Hollywood, where he was "discovered" by Steve Mills, then the head of NBC's movies and mini-series department.
Robe said his writing had caught Mills's eye.
See GRADUATE on page 3A
KU alumnus Mike Robe stands in front of the present location of the film studies department, Oldfather Studios. Robe directed a made-for-television movie that will air Sunday on NBC. Photo by Joanna Fewins/KANSAN