The University Daily Kansan
Weather
Today: Partly cloudy with a high of 59 and a low of 31.
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy with a high of 38 and a low of 32.
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Thursday, December 7, 2000
Jayplay: Kansan food critics sample crazy cuisine.
SEE PAGE 1B
Sports: Roy Williams will make his first public appearance in North Carolina tonight since turning down a coaching job there.
SEE PAGE 8A
(USPS 650-640) * VOL. 111 NO. 66 For comments, contact Nathan Willis or Chris Borniger at 864-4810 or e-mail editor@kansan.com
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Towers may prohibit smoking
By Vanessa Sincock Special to the Kansan
If it passes, a Jayhawker Towers ant-smoking resolution set for a vote on Sunday could mean a reorganization of the Towers community as soon as next fall.
The Jayhawker Towers Tenants Association is planning to vote on a resolution to make one or more of the Towers smoke-free. It might ban smoking in the entire complex.
"The Towers' front desk and central
housing receive complaints about smoking in the Towers," said Omega Tadesse, Ethiopia junior and JTTA President. "Residents often call the front desk complaining about their allergies."
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said recently that JTTA could make the recommendation for one or more of the Towers to become non-smoking to the Student Housing Advisory Board. Then it's up to the board — composed of three faculty, three University staff members and five students — to make the final decision.
"Kansas State University has banned smoking from all the traditional residence halls effective in fall 2001." Stoner said.
Currently, the University has a no-smoking policy in all the scholarship halls, as well as Templin, Lewis and Ellsworth halls. The Association of University Residence Halls is considering adding more halls to this list, Stoner said.
Towers residents may not have much time to voice their opposition or support. Fliers distributed by the JTTA that read
"What about smoking in the Towers? Your right to smoke and/or your right to breathe clean air is at risk!!!" were slipped under residents' doors yesterday morning. But the future atmosphere of the Jayhawker Towers could be altered within the next week.
What makes the smoking ban problematic at the Towers is that a partial ban would upset the way residents traditionally have
See RESOLUTION on page 5A
Father, daughter find quality time in school
By Brooke Hesler
Special to the Kansas
There was a time when Tim Lietzen helped his daughter, Emily, with her math homework. But roles were reversed this year when Emily Lietzen taught her father's civil engineering survey lab.
"It was hard," said Tim, 50, of having his daughter as his teacher. "At first it was a little embarrassing, but it turned out all right."
Emily, 20, is not actually the teaching assistant for the lab that Tim is enrolled in. However, during the first six weeks of the semester, she sat in on Tim's lab and even substituted several times.
"The chair of the engineering department was upset that I wasn't going to be his real TA," Emily said. "He thought I could get back at him for all the things he did when I was growing up, but actually there was nothing to get back at him for. He was a good dad. Both of my parents were great."
Tim and Emily, both are Kansas City, Kan., juniors.
which means they will graduate together with undergraduate degrees in civil engineering.
Although the pair will share the same graduation date, Emily said they probably wouldn't walk down the Hill.
"I don't put a lot of stock into ceremony," she said. "Neither does he. Actually, I think I probably get it from him."
Although Emily has been supportive of her father all along, she made it clear from the beginning that she wanted her space at school. Before school started this fall, Emily told her father he couldn't sit by her in class.
"I wanted him to make friends of his own," she said. "When we're together, we talk too much anyways."
Hustan Herrington, Kansas City Kansas Community College student and friend of the family, said the two talked a lot because they were close.
See ENGINEERING on page 5A
Tim Lietzen and his daughter, Emily, who both are Kansas City, Kan.,juniors, discuss an engineering problem before class. Tim, who has two bachelor's degrees and a master's degree, chose to begin working on a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the same time as his daughter. Photo by Matt J. Daugherty/KANSAN
The Spirit of Giving
Air Force ROTC members, Aaron Hedrick, Sparks, Nev., sophomore, left, and Mike Daigh, Mt. Hope senior, helped collect donations for Safehome, a Kansas City shelter and outreach program for victims of domestic abuse. Hedrick and Daigh collected the donated goods at Wal-Mart, 3300 Iowa St., Monday and Tuesday, and sorted them yesterday in the Military Science building. Photo by Christina Neff/KANSAN
Students say short break is bothersome
By Kursten Phelps
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
J. T. Gertken wants a little more time to enjoy the Brazilian sunshine during winter break.
The Hutchinson senior said this year's 25-day vacation from classes was barely enough time to be able to travel and enjoy himself before the spring semester starts Tuesday, Jan. 16.
"I'm going to have to rush back here right around the time classes start, which makes it hard to beat the holiday traveling rush." Gertken said. "It's hard for the average student trying to
travel cheaply."
But Provost
David Shulen-
burger said
despite some studen-
tors' concerns
about final
exams ending
Thursday, Dec.
21,
the University cal-
ender was accept-able.
"You have all these tradeoffs," Shulenburger said. "I think our calendar is decent because people didn't want to start earlier in the fall or get out later in the spring."
WINTER BREAKS
1999-2000
Finished ended Dec.
16, 1999
Spring semester
began Jan. 18,
2000
32 days of vacation
2000-2001
Finals end Dec.
21, 2000
Spring semester begins Jan. 16,
2001
25 days of vacation
Source: University Registrar
Richard Morrell, University registrar, said a calendar committee determined each academic year's calendar. The calendar must be constructed to include at least 75 instructional days per semester and at least five days of final examinations. he said.
"We try to figure out how late in August we can start and still get done in a reasonable time in December." Morrell said. "Our concern when we get to scheduling the fall semester is more when to start in August than how long winter break will be."
Jennifer Lissondra, Overland Park senior, said winter break should be longer to accommodate an intercession. A six-week break, she said, would give students a chance to study abroad or do an internship between the fall and spring semesters.
"I was thinking about doing the photography in Nepal study abroad program," Lisondra said, "But it's so short that it doesn't seem like you get your money's worth."
samantha Billingley, Kansas City, Kan., senior, said this year's vacation seemed significantly shorter than those in previous years.
"I guess stop day does seem kind of late," she said. "I'm just going to work over break, so I guess a shorter break will mean less money."
Shulenburger said when fall break was implemented next year, final examinations would run Monday through Friday, but the duration of winter break would not be affected.
- Edited by Worisa Chulindro
University hopes to provide off-campus Internet service
Bv Jason Kraill
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Jason Krall writer@kansan.com
The University is looking into offering its own service to students. The service could offer direct access to the KU library network, course availability during enrollment and other resources as though the computer were wired directly to the KU network from an on-campus computer lab. An e-mail sent last week to all KU dial-in account customers to
Students living off campus soon may have a new choice for a high-speed Internet service provider the University of Kansas.
The University now offers only dial-up connections through telephone lines for $70 per year. An additional $10 to $30 fee is assessed for users who exceed 70 hours of use each month.
gauge interest in higher-speed service said it would cost between $35 and $40 per month and would require a contract for at least nine months — $315 to $360 for nine months or $420 to $480 for a year.
Some off-campus landlords and housing complexes offer high-bandwidth Internet connections for an additional fee. Some administrators said attempting to wire those students off-campus who didn't have
cable modems, digital subscriber lines (DSL) or other high-speed lines would be too costly. However, they do want to offer an Internet service to deliver through cables owned by other companies as early as next year.
John Louis, director of networking and telecommunications services, said the service might allow KU students to share files through a network much as they do in campus housing. The service would only be available to students who already have a high-speed line.
"To the person at home, the way the configuration comes up on the computer would be very similar to a
networking software," Louis said. "The greatest value is going to be in having the KU environment wrapped around you. That will probably be what draws people."
Louis said NTS wanted to have the service up some time next year. However, the project's start-up costs could prove too great.
"It looks really good right up until you start looking at the cost," Louis said. "We still have a lot of details to work out yet."
In the long run, however, the option could be cheaper for students off-campus than dial-up connections. As telephone-based 56K modems grow slower because of more massive download sizes and more complex Web sites, students pay their phone company for more minutes using their dial-up connections, Louis said. Home cable modem hookups with Internet service can cost between $30 and $60 per month.
- Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
Chris Eckert, Topeka senior, has a DSL connection where he lives offcampus. He said he'd be interested in linking to the KU network from home but said he also was stuck in a contract for Internet service through Southwestern Bell. Some students might not be able to switch because they may be locked into contracts for months at a time, Eckert said.
What's happening: University administrators hope to provide an Internet service that would allow students off campus with high-speed connection lines to connect to the KU network.
INTERNET PROPOSAL
What it means: Students off campus with cable modem or digital subscriber lines (DSL) would be able to log onto the KU network for file sharing, library databases and other resources as though they were working from an on-campus computer.
**Virgin's next:** Networking and Telecommunications Services wants to produce the service by next year, but costs to develop the service could prove too high.