SNOUTS ARE WET
Kansan
Weather
Today: Snow with a high of 40 and a low of 29
Tomorrow: Cloudy with high of 39 and a low of 25
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Tuesday, January 30, 2001
Sports: The Jayhawks lose to the Tigers 75- 66 last night in Missouri.
See page 1B
Inside: Student creates Web site where others can swap textbooks.
See page 3A
For comments, contact Lori O'Toole or Mindie Miller at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 111 NO. 80
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Falcon, eagle among e-mail servers to be phased out
By Cássio Furtado
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
KU students and faculty will be required to move to a new e-mail program by May, and reaction to the change has been mixed.
The University will eliminate student e-mail servers such as falcon and eagle by the end of the semester, and students will no longer be able to access their e-mail through the aging Telnet program.
Instead, students will access their
mail through the Microsoft Exchange server, which includes features such as file sharing, threaded message board discussions and an address book, said Thelma M. Simmons, Ex change project coordinator.
Students will have to use the Microsoft Outlook program after May 31 to access e-mail f rom Exchange. Falcon, eagle and other servers will be shut down after that deadline. Simmons said. Greg Smith, Olathe senior, said students
E-MAIL CHANGE
exchange@ukans.edu
What's happening:
Students and faculty will be required to move their e-mail accounts to the new Microsoft Exchange server by Thursday, May 31 as old servers such as falcon and eagle are phased out.
What it means:
Exchange, accessed through the Microsoft Outlook program, offers file sharing, class message boards, word processing and spell-check in addition to e-mail service.
More information:
Students with questions about the new e-mail program can visit the Web site www.ukans.edu/computing/students, call 864-0200 or e-mail us@ukans.edu
wouldn't be pleased about having to learn a new e-mail system.
"I don't like it. Students have gotten used to the programs they're using," he said.
But some students said they were looking forward to the change.
John Liddell, Olathe sophomore, said that Outlook was better because students could check other e-mail accounts and Microsoft Exchange servers. Users will also have access to a built-in word processor and spell check.
"It's really user-friendly and easy-to-use." Liddell said.
Students and faculty who activated new University e-mail accounts since last June are already on the new system, Simmons said.
Twenty-five percent of the University's students and 70 percent of the faculty already use Outlook, she said.
Students will be able to use a new Web-based e-mail service to access their messages away from home, much like the current Webmail system.
Students will also be able to access class message boards with messages divided into subtopics.
Simmons said students would have several additional features available if they used Outlook, including the option to collaborate on projects by sharing files and documents in public folders.
Simmons also said professors would be likely to use Outlook to assign work or to post class materials.
"The University is trying to move everyone to one electronic communication system." Simmons said.
The new Web site, which will appear similar to the Outlook program, will be www.mail.ukans.edu.
The new system will offer increased file space for students' Web sites — up to 10 megabytes, from the current five megabytes.
For more information on how to migrate e-mail messages and files, go to www.ukans.edu/computing/students, call 864-0200 or e-mail exchange@ukans.edu.
Edited by Brandy Straw
IN-DEPTH LOOK
Garden City The western Kansas as a model for com dealing with diversi
The lifestyles of thousands of Garden Citizens are stuck in a holding pattern until
The western Kansas town serves as a model for communities dealing with diversity.
ConAgra, one of the county's meatpacking plants, decides to rebuild or take its beefpacking plant somewhere else.
A third of the plant was destroyed in a Dec. 25 fire. ConAgra officials say if they rebuild, they will start by Sunday, April 1, but the plant won't open for at least a year.
Story by BriAnne Hess Photos by Nick Krug
Finney County is home to two meat processing plants — IBp, Inc. and ConAgra — which employ about 5,000 people. Before IBp, Inc. was built in Holcomb in 1980, about 24,000 people lived in the county. In the past 20 years, its population has grown to more than 37,000.
The population has grown more diverse as well, with immigrants from Mexico and Southeast Asia.
The fire left 2,100 people out work, and the community is starting to feel the aftershocks.
Thirty students had left public schools because of the ConAgra fire, said Linda Trujillo, director of supplemental programming at the school district. She said that number would probably double by the middle of the week. About 1,100 students of the 7,900 students enrolled in the district had one or both parents working at the plant.
See COMMUNITY on page 6A
The people hit hardest by the plant closing are those who didn't qualify for unemployment benefits
Penney Schwab, director of Mexican American Ministries in Garden City, said that about 50 percent of the workers at ConAgra weren't eligible for employment — and 30 percent of the work force may have had legal papers that wouldn't pass an Immigration and Naturalization Services computer check, she said.
The immigration process has become urgent to those laid off by the plant.
"We held a citizenship seminar last Friday for ConAgra employees," Schwab said. "We expected 60 and had more than 300. We couldn't get them in the building."
Maria Felix waits by her son Fabian's bedside. Fabian, 8, is dying from an unspecified degenerative brain disease. Felix has already lost her eldest son, Victor, to the same disease and is allowed to remain in the United States where Fabian may receive better health care.
Stephenson account fixed after misuse
By Cynthia Malakasis
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A former Checkers employee was found responsible for an incident of fraud Involving Stephenson Scholarship Hall's account with the grocery store, said Jim Lewis, Checkers owner.
According to the police report, someone who was not from Stephenson used its account number twice to purchase grocery items, charging $64.21 on Dec. 23 and $249.26 on Dec. 28.
Deb Carter, account manager for scholarship halls, said the issue was no longer a concern for the scholarship hall. Carter said as soon as they received the bill, they checked with the grocery store and explained that the items had not been purchased by scholarship hall residents. The owner of Checkers then reported the incident to the police.
"We didn't have to pay anything," Carter said.
Dusten Crighton, scholarship hall director at Stephenson and Fort Collins, Colo., senior, said as hall director, he was responsible for purchasing items at Checkers and other vendors using the hall account number.
"I go down there, pick up the food, give them the account number and then they send the bill to student housing," he said.
Crichton said $56,000 was available in the food account for the entire academic year and the people who had access to the number were himself, the hall's proctor and its president.
specify whether the number was changed from year to year.
Lewis declined to comment about Checkers' procedure for allocating account numbers to scholarship halls. He also refused to give any information as to who and how many of his employees would have access to that number.
"It's no big deal," said Chris Owen, Olathe sophomore. "It's been taken care of."
Justin Ward, Belle Plaine sophmore, also said it was not a major issue, but he said he was surprised by the incident.
"I guess it's surprising that it's that easy for someone to charge stuff on our account," Ward said.
Edited by Jason McKee
Queer Radio finds global, diverse audience
By Sarah Smarsh
Kansan staff writer
A local radio program addressing alternative lifestyle issues is receiving global attention.
Queer Radio, 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays on KJHK, 90.7 FM, has built a wide and diverse following with its anything-butmainstream program. KJHK is broadcast live and continuously on the Internet, allowing Queer Radio to reach listeners on the other side of the planet.
Adult English classes at the Berlitz School of English in Dortmund and Berlin, Germany, tune in to *Queer Radio* weekly to learn about culture in the United States.
A medical doctor in Cuba listens and emails his thoughts to the show.
Querer Radio host Donald "Buck" Rowland, Lawrence graduate student, hands over his album selection to co-producer and sound engineer Brad Koehler. Querer Radio airs 4 to 6 p.m.
Mondays on KJHK. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Feedback crops up from all across Europe. Co-producers Buck Rowland and Brad Koehler said the universal exposure helped spread what they believed was a universal message.
"It's to share a part of mine and Brad's experiences — how everyone's lives are tied together," Rowland said. "And to give voice to unheard voices among communities at large."
Praga Kahn of Lords of Acid and Mel White, a reverent working to change the Christian Right's views about gay people.
In 1999, the Gay and Lesbian American Awards nominated Queer Radio for an award.
Those voices have included Boy George.
But for Koehler, the show's sound librarian, the greatest reward is the chance to challenge ways of thinking.
"It breaks down stereotypes," Koehler said of the show's effect on its listeners.
Koehler said the audience's demographics revealed a desire for knowledge among people of many lifetimes.
"We have more straight listeners than gay listeners," he said.
No matter who is listening, Rowland and Koehler say they have a responsibility to address important issues.
After a string of assaults on gay men in downtown Lawrence last spring, Queer Radio did a series of shows on the topic. The Lawrence Police Department then invited Rowland and Koehler to participate in a police meeting.
Queer Radio is now in its fourth semester at JKHK, which usually limits special programs to three semesters. But because of the show's success, the station granted it an extension.
For now, Rowland and Koehler are continuing to spread their message.
"It makes people even within the gay community realize that it's about more
than being gay." Koehler said. "It's about being human."
- Edited by Jacob Roddy
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