NEWS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009
3A
CRIME
Charges dismissed in alleged robbery case
charges have been dismissed against the man accused in a robbery on campus last week, according to the district attorney's office.
"The University of Kansas Office of Public Safety learned through further investigation that the alleged incident may not have occurred in the manner
originally reported." Charles Branson, Douglas County District attorney, said in a news release Wednesday.
Police said the 19-year-old who reported the crime, who doesn't attend the University, said he was walking to his vehicle parked in the southwest corner of the parking lot near the tennis courts when he was approached by two unknown white males.
The man said one of his attackers held him down while the
other punched him in the face. He said the attackers took his wallet and told him not to call police before leaving the area in a white Cadillac. The man said his wallet with a credit card and driver's license were stolen.
KU Public Safety Office arrested one of the suspects Friday, a 21-year-old Perry man. The man was released Wednesday when the charges against him were dropped.
Brandon Sayers
COMMUNITY (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Rio de Janiero.
"I don't get out much to do this kind of stuff so it should be fun," Putrah said. "I really enjoy everything this group stands for. I
want to help the cause."
The foundation is holding the fundraiser Friday from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., at Cielito Lindo, 815 New Hampshire St., for Brazil's National Day of Racial Consciousness.
"It keeps children out of the streets. They live in dangerous places."
Earlier Friday at 3:30, former Brazilian Minister of Racial Equality, Maldie Ribeiro, will visit the University's Multicultural Resource Center. She will speak to students about the issue of race in Brazil, said Pedro dos Santos, doctoral candidate in the department of political science.
CLARICE AMORIM President of Two Brothers
"It keeps children out of the streets," Amorim said. "They live in dangerous places. Who knows what can happen to them or what they may get involved with in the
Dos Santos said all profits from "Samba Night" will go toward the Two Brothers school that University Portuguese Professor Paul Sneed started when he founded the Two Brothers Foundation. Clarice Amorim, Racife, Brazil, senior and president of the group, said the school served to both educate and protect youths.
streets."
Scott Montana, Leawood junior and member of Two Brothers said the group raised $1,200 with its most recent fundraiser in March. He said with the rate of exchange between the U.S. dollar and Brazilian real, that
amount of money could fund all the expenses at the school for two entire months.
"That's a lot of money for kids in Brazil." Montana said. "We're hoping to get at least that much, if not more, this time around."
Amorim said Ribeiro, just like many of the students at the Two Brothers school, was from a poor neighborhood of Brazil. Amorim said she hoped the fundraiser would help support students at the Instituto dois Irmaos and help them escape the slums.
Dos Santos said the group had tried to help Briero visit for a couple of years, but this trip would be her first to Lawrence. He said he
thought the timing of her visit this November seemed perfect.
Dos Santos, who met Ribeiro personally while conducting research in Brazil, said Ribeiro established the National Day of Racial Consciousness, or "Zumbi Day", while she was minister. She picked Nov. 20 out of remembrance for a famous former slave named Zumbi. Zumbi managed to escaped slavery in the 17th century and form a refuge for other fugitive slaves before being captured and killed Nov. 20, 1695.
"Coming from a family that is very racially conscious and very aware and very proud to have the Afro-descendant heritage, it's a very important day," Dos Santos said.
After the talk with Ribeiro Dos Santos said he is looking forward to dancing at Cielito Lindo with both experienced and new Samba dancers.
"Most of the music we're playing there is my music," Dos Santos said, smiling. "I gave it to the DJ."
Follow Ray Segebrecht at twitter.com/rsegebrecht.
Edited by Alicia Banister
SENATE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
City senior, said the policy never would've allowed staff members to "barge in."
"We're not trying to abuse anyone's rights or take anyone's rights away," she said. "We're not trying to be big brother. Those aren't anyone's intentions and that's not how the policy would play out."
The Student Housing Advisory Board, which encompasses all governances of Student Housing, passed this policy change last spring. As part of the Student Code of Rights and Responsibilities, it needed to be approved in the student rights committee before moving to full senate.
Proposing this policy change was held off until this fall. This change was presented to the alcohol subcommittee Oct. 29, and the vote resulted in a tie. Because of this, both favorable and unfavorable sides of the vote — reasons members supported and opposed the change — were presented to the rights committee. Changing the University's alcohol policy has been proposed twice before, but has never passed the student rights committee. Although it didn't pass, chairwoman of the alcohol subcommittee Emily Williams said those from Student Housing had given good arguments.
"I think there was substantial debate and I glad that we were
able to see it in this venue and that we had representation," she said. "I think it was critical that student housing had the option to come and speak."
The subcommittee also gave a separate report with recommendations for combating alcohol abuse. There were 11 favorable recommendations on combating alcohol abuse in the report, which were presented to the rights committee. The rights committee voted to pass these recommendations for investigation and implementation by the Office of the Vice Provost for Success.
"We're not trying to abuse anyone's rights or take anyone's rights away. We're not trying to be big brother."
Favorable recommendations generally included increased funding and advertisement for counseling resources, more educational outreach for responsible drinking, and giving students an "opt in" policy for parental notification, similar to the "opt in" policy for parental access to grades. These recommendations were discussed by the subcommittee and presented to the rights committee as favorable or unfavorable.
recommendations were education and awareness-based. She said the committee never considered the extremes of banning alcohol or promoting a dry community. Instead, the group explored creative methods of encouraging responsible, moderate drinking, while discouraging alcohol abuse — drinking to the point of blackout.
Williams said the majority of the
KYLE LUCKETT
President of the
Association of University
Resident Halls
legislation.
"One of the things we have to recognize is our limited authority. For instance, we can't lower the drinking age," Williams said.
Williams said she was very pleased the recommendations for combating alcohol abuse passed the rights committee. The recommendations passed last night will be discussed at the next full senate meeting on Dec. 2.
Follow Megan Heacock at twitter.com/meheacock.
Edited by Alicia Banister
OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. — A 2-year-old in north Mississippi has done something few toddlers can: He helped his mother give birth to his brother. Bobby Favazza told The Commercial Appeal she went into labor this past Friday and gave birth on the family's living room couch in Olive Branch. She said her toddler, Jeremiya Taylor, got her a towel and caught the baby before firefighters arrived to cut the umbilical cord.
CAMPUS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
City emergency services supervisor, Greg Mynatt, said the 911 call about Favazza was probably the third this year about a woman in labor, but usually the mother makes it to the hospital before delivery.
She had been scheduled for a cesarian section on Dec. 6.
on green space was the Anderson Family Football Complex near Memorial Stadium, which opened August 2008. The construction of the complex required the removal of about 50 older trees, according to Tom Waechter, assistant director with Design and Construction Management.
Associated Press
Favazza gave birth to a 7-pound, 4-ounce baby boy, Kamron Taylor.
Neil Steiner, Tulsa senior, said he worked for DCM when construction began on the complex. Steiner said his boss sent him down to the site to photograph the trees set for demolition.
NATIONAL 2-year-old helps mother give birth to baby boy
Weinberg said the construction teams were as careful as possible to minimize the trees removed, and Waechter said that with the cedars planted around the new football practice field and other saplings planted farther up the hill, more trees were planted than were cut down.
"After I took pictures of over 50 trees, I stopped," Steiner said. "It was disheartenting to say the least."
Steiner said his involvement with the destruction of the trees helped him become more involved in sustainable engineering. As the president of the KU chapter of Emerging Green Builders, he is trying to engage professors and peers in a discussion about working with green space, rather than against it.
"There's a misconception that man is in competition with nature, so we're competing against green space," he said. "I think it's a pride thing."
Jim Merrill, 1972 journalism graduate now living in Leawood, said he could remember looking across Iowa Street from his fraternity house on 19th Street and seeing farmland instead of the concrete Park and Ride lot.
Alumni, veteran staff and current students warn against the further destruction of historic green space on campus because of its significance to the campus's nationally recognized beauty.
"It's hard to tell people not to grow, but I'm hoping the campus doesn't get too much bigger," he said.
Ken Armitage has been affiliated with the University for 53 years. A professor emeritus in ecology and evolutionary biology, Armitage
OFFICE OF STUDY ABROAF
The University of Texas
NATURAL CAUSES
During the next 50 years, the elms grew upward of 30 feet tall. Then, in the 1960s, Dutch Elm Disease swept through the country, claiming the lives of nearly all of the Jayhawk Boulevard elms by the late 1980s.
said that although he didn't think it was possible to keep all the green space, it was important to try.
"The green space is just as much a part of campus as its buildings," he said. "If you maintain the campus heritage, you need to maintain these important open, green spaces as much as the historical buildings."
Armitage has seen first-hand the role disease has played in the disappearance of once cherished landscape.
In 1956, when he first came to teach at the University, dozens of American Elm trees lined Jayhawk Boulevard.
early 1920s, the elm canopy was one of the most significant landscape efforts to come out of Hare and Hare, a landscape architecture firm that played a major role in the early development of campus.
According to Steven Green, assistant director with Facilities Operations, the department's spending budget was reduced from $1.36 million in the 2007-2008 academic year to $1.304 million for the 2008 academic year.
"The green space is just as much a part of campus as its buildings."
Livinggood said the population of historic trees has significantly diminished in the past 10 years as the trees reach their life expectancy or fall to the power of Kansas windstorms and harsh winters.
The effects of age, weather and disease are almost as threatening to remaining green space as development is.
But it's not just restoration that the University isn't able to afford, she said. As the University budget continues to diminish, so do the
Livingood said a plan was in place to restore the tree canopy, but the University lacked the funds to make it possible.
Planted in the
"We all wish we had a far greater budget to do that, but they do a really good job with the budget they have to work with," she said of the work of Facilities and Operations.
Mike Lang, campus landscape manager, said he had limited the use of the water truck and stopped mowing in some areas to compensate for the budget cuts.
KEN ARMITAGE
Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
THE FUTURE
treatment plans to preserve and restore the areas. Included in the report are Marvin Grove, Potter Lake, Jayhawk Boulevard and Prairie Acre — all areas that could potentially be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
"When you've got that kind of institutional memory with all of your alumni, that's something youd like to preserve, something you'd like to keep." Livinggood said. "It's very much a part of KU and a very important part of KU."
Among many other things, the plan identifies significant green space on campus and proposes
Livinggood and other developers expect to consult the Campus Heritage Plan in the future before making any drastic changes to campus.
funds available to care for existing trees and landscaping on campus
Livingood said she
And several people agree — without the trees of Marvin Grove or the tranquility of Potter Lake, campus would seem like a different place.
hoped to get areas on the registry because development on the land would have to go through a lengthy process before approval.
Follow Aly Van Dyke at twitter.com/alyvandyke
— Edited by Anna Kathagnarath
HPV Fact #11:
You don't have to actually have sex to get HPV—the virus that causes cervical cancer.
There's something you can do. Visit your campus health center.
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