GARTH SEARS

Moving beyond the local produce craze

2011-08-28T12:32:00.001-05:00

This article is my only published opinion article, but it was a great learning experience.

The Packer

You’re food savvy. So a friend asks you the best way to shop green at the supermarket. How do you answer?

Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is buying locally grown food.

“Local” is the war cry of many environmentally conscious shoppers, farmers, bloggers and retailers.

The trend reached mainstream status years ago. The 2007 Oxford American Dictionary word of the year was “locavore,” a term for people who eat locally grown food.

Late last year, even the world’s largest grocer got on board. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart announced a plan to double its local produce in U.S. stores to 9% by 2016.

But the goals of eating local — improving the environment, community nutrition, and access to healthy food for the poor — can be masked or undermined by what researcher David Cleveland calls the “local trap.”

Cleveland, an environmental studies professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara, studied this question in one of the most appropriate places on earth.

In terms of agricultural value, Santa Barbara County ranks in the top 1% of all U.S. counties.

In 2009, 82% of that agricultural value was from produce.

Yet 99.6% of the produce is exported out of the county. Nearly 97% of produce eaten there is imported.

The county’s produce was worth $900 million in 2008, including more than $300 million in strawberries, nearly $160 million of broccoli and $110 million of lettuce, according to the county’s agricultural commissioner’s office, which the study cited.

What better place to see how localization could affect a community and the environment?

Cleveland and six of his students did, with surprising results.

His study, published April in Environmental Science & Technology, found that if Santa Barbara County supplied all its own produce before exporting the then-remaining 89%, it wouldn’t significantly help the environment or the county’s nutrition — the two main goals of eating local.

It found that the agrifood system would shed less than 1% of its greenhouse gas emissions, and it wouldn’t necessarily affect the county’s nutrition.

From this study and others, there’s increasing evidence that local should not be a final goal. Instead, it should serve as one tool in a toolkit.

“Local may be necessary to reach some of the goals for improving our agrifood system, but by itself it is not sufficient,” Cleveland told The Packer, so we should be asking questions and doing research “to make sure that our localization efforts really accomplish what we expect them to.”

For example, the study says 100% localization could greatly improve the county’s nutrition — with nearly 40% of residents there classified as food-insecure, and with three times as many fast food and convenience joints than supermarkets and produce vendors — but won’t help yet because there are too many other economic, geographic or cultural obstacles in the way.

Solving problems

If those obstacles hurt a county in produce heaven, imagine the difficulty for counties in Utah or Kentucky.

Instead of chanting “local,” progressives should find a way to defeat those more pressing obstacles first.

But that’s not an easy sell.

A Huffington Post article on the study elicited 790 comments. Most were from green-minded people, and most were mad. They blasted a study that undermined the one-dimensional way they viewed big food companies.

Reading the comments there, you’d think Cleveland was a stooge for big ag.

It’s ironic because his research suggests producers and retailers too must go beyond local produce to seriously address the more fundamental goals of improving the food system.

In his own Huffington Post column later, and in comments to The Packer, Cleveland suggested major food system changes like the strengthening of local food distribution hubs.

He also thinks corporations should provide information to prove their local food claims.

Cleveland questions the “localness” of retailers that ship earnings back to headquarters instead of investing locally, or if the producers use non-locals to harvest. Eating local in America can hurt communities in Mexico. Both sides will find fault with Cleveland’s study.

But what about your green friend? What advice will you give?

To maximize the greenhouse gas emissions you cut, watch what you eat more than where it came from.

More than four-fifths of food-related greenhouse gas emissions come from producing the food, not transporting it, according to another study from Environmental Science & Technologypublished in 2008 by two researchers from Carnegie Mellon University.

The study found that the final delivery of food — the distance from producer to retailer, or how most people define “eating local” — is responsible for 4% of the system’s greenhouse emissions.

Eating chicken or produce instead of red meat or dairy for just one day a week, the study said, would reduce more greenhouse emissions than buying 100% local all week long.

Maybe your friend could use that advice.

Legends of Produce: Arnold Caviar

2011-08-23T11:15:00.000-05:00

The Packer

When Arnold Caviar bought Liberty Fruit Co. Inc. from his family 30 years ago, it came with just three straight trucks for hauling and a pickup truck.

His three children each got their name on one of the straight trucks.

“Are those different drivers?” someone asked him.

“Well, in some ways, they are,” he said.

Fast-forward 30 years, and not much has changed. Allison, 34, is a secretary. Cory, 39, is the IT director. Allen, 41, is president.

Caviar, 70, is proud his children joined him.

Other things did change. The company is now a $100 million-a-year Midwest produce giant, distributing to a nine-state area from Kansas City, Kan.

As the company grew, Caviar named more things after people he loves. Diversifying against the ups and downs of produce sales, he began a repacking brand, Mary’s Pride, named after his mother. He developed another branch, which does value-added produce and custom packaging. It’s called Carol’s Cuts, named after his wife.

“I had to do something so she wouldn’t get jealous of other companies with things named after their wives,” Caviar said.

For 15 or 16 hours, six or seven days a week, Caviar would do it all. He’d unload trucks, or clean the dock at 2 a.m. Carol pitched in a few days weekly while she was watching their children and helped out more when the kids grew older.

“You’ve got to work for what you get,” Caviar said. “I feel like I’ve put in my dues.”

That base of honest work remains with the company. Caviar demands integrity, chief operating officer Scott Danner said.

“He won’t put up with liars,” Danner said. “If you lie, you’re out.”

“I’ve worked for corporations,” Danner said, “and there you did anything you could to get to the goal. Arnold has instilled that we want to get to the goal, but we’re getting there the right way.”

Caviar backs up his words with dollars. He and the company give regularly to charities, such as Operation Breakthrough, Little Sisters of the Poor and especially Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Liberty Fruit has hosted a charity golf tournament for 12 years, with most funds given to the hospital. It’s earned a million dollars for Children’s Mercy.

Perhaps Caviar’s greatest accomplishment? Turning the family business into a business family of 300.

If you ask Caviar why, when other Midwest produce companies have failed and he — a thousand miles away from produce-growing coasts — has succeeded, he credits his workers.

“It’s not the Caviar business,” he said, “It’s the company business. People know the way I think. It’s everyone, from the highest manager all the way down.”

From two bonuses a year to an annual picnic at the company, Caviar said he treats his employees the way he wants to be treated, and they do the same thing back.

“It’s dedication, it’s love, it’s taking care of your employees,” Caviar said. “We do that. All the employees know that.”

But it’s a two-way street. If the company gets jammed with work, the employees are willing to put in 14 hours a day to take care of it. They say they’ll put in the hours anytime its needed for Caviar.

“Do they want to go home to their families? Absolutely,” he said. “But if you get in a bind, they’ll take care of you.”

“Eight years ago,” Caviar said, “I made one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in hiring Scott Danner.”

When Caviar hired Danner, he wanted to start stepping back from the company, bit by bit. Now that he’s 70, he wants to step back more, but it’s not easy.

“You can’t step back totally,” he said, “especially when you’ve worked that hard.”

The company still has his business strategy to build around. It’s not difficult to remember.

“Our whole thing is service, number one. Quality, number two. And price, number three,” he said. “We’re big on quality. It’s proven to be the right decision throughout the years.”

And spending money to make money?

“I’m all about that,” he said.

Liberty Fruit spent money to buy an old produce warehouse in 1994, where it now sits, and then spent more money to refurbish it. Then in 2007, it added a 9,000-square-foot processing plant expansion, which made it 13,000 square feet. In 2009, a 30,000-square-foot repacking and storage expansion paved the way for the company to grow to 162,000 square feet.

And, thanks to being a family business, decisions are quick.

“The big expansion was basically an hour’s discussion between Arnold, his son Allen and me,” Danner said.

The company isn’t sinking into complacency, however. Caviar and Danner mention the possibility of a second 30,000-square-foot expansion.

And then there’s Caviar’s granddaughter, 9-year-old Morgan, to name something after.

He suggests “Morgan’s Munchies.”

Legends of Produce: Ken Martin

2011-08-23T11:14:00.000-05:00

The Packer

He could have been a dairy farmer, or a mortician. In the end, he decided to grow citrus.

Ken Martin, who ran Rio Queen Citrus Inc. for decades, grew up on his parents’ small dairy farm in southwest Missouri. His brother still owns the farm.

Martin went to Southwest Baptist College, then later to Dallas Mortuary College. He became a funeral director and mortician in Fulton, Mo., where he met Sue Ware, the woman who would become his wife.

Sue’s father, Jim Ware, owned acres of citrus around Mission, Texas. He sent his daughter and Ken to the Rio Grande Valley on a six-month trial basis, to see if they liked it.

On April 1, 1970, as thermometers topped out at 100 degrees, the couple rolled into McAllen, Texas.

Martin managed the groves, drove the tractors, irrigated the soil, and did everything else. He also took night classes at the Texas A&I Citrus Center in Weslaco.

“He was a jack-of-all-trades in the early years of the company,” said Ken’s son, Mike, who is now the company president.

That first season yielded 17 loads of citrus. The company, then known as WareHouse Farms, was on its way.

The company grew bit by bit. It bought more acreage for citrus. Later, it diversified, offering grove care services. Then, in 1998, it acquired Elmore & Stahl, adding onions and melons to the mix. In 2000, it bought a citrus packing facility when the company acquired Interstate Fruit & Vegetable.

The produce industry, like any industry, faces constant change, Mike Martin said. Things aren’t the way they used to be when his father was new to the business. But some things never change.

“It still comes down to relationships. It comes down to doing what you say you’re going to do,” Mike Martin said. “It’s about your word, your integrity. That’s a big part of success.”

Kenneth Fox, whose Fox Packaging Supply has worked with Rio Queen Citrus for decades, said Martin could always “get the banks to go with him” because they could trust him. Martin has a sixth sense for business opportunities, Fox said, and he was a good listener, a sponge that absorbed information.

“He’s always been that way,” Fox said. “He absolutely never forgets. He’s a very smart businessman.”

Those talents led Martin to participate in multiple committees. He served on boards for the citrus center in Weslaco, Texas Citrus Mutual, TexaSweet, and the Texas Valley Citrus Committee. He was chairman of the Texas Produce Association in 1982 and 1983.

While Rio Queen Citrus has grown into a corporate structure with divisions and multiple commodities and growing areas, it still has the Martin family heart.

“They’re family-owned, and they came up the hard way,” Fox said.

That leads to the company making decisions quickly. Although he often works with the huge produce retailers with chain stores, Fox likes dealing with the Martins.

“He’s the kind of customer you want,” he said. “They live their business, so they know what’s going on. They’re pretty much always right on.”

Rio Queen Citrus executives don’t need to call a board meeting to make important decisions, Mike Martin said. When he started taking over the reins from his father, it was a slow transition.

“These days, he steps aside when things are rolling along,” Mike said at Ken’s induction into the Texas Produce Hall of Fame. “But I think he is really preparing for the next new season.”

Legends of Produce: R.T. Stanley Jr.

2011-08-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

The Packer

After working on his father’s farm, R.T. Stanley Jr. went off to college to pursue a job outside of agriculture.

“I was going to be a big businessman when I went off to college,” he said. “I didn’t realize farming was in my blood.”

Now, as someone who’s been named Georgia Farmer of the Year and served as the Vidalia Onion Committee’s chairman for a decade, the committee’s Grower of the Year, and a Georgia Farm Bureau county president, Stanley is both a big businessman and a farmer.

It started small, when Stanley quit college in 1964 to start sharecropping with his uncle.

He had married and was looking to start a family, and his father’s farm was too small to support a new family, so sharecropping was his only option.

He did that for four years, then made a down payment on his own 120 acres.

In 1974, his father approached him and offered to merge their operations so they could buy larger equipment together. They also invested in land together, 50/50, and mainly grew tobacco.

A year later, they made a fateful decision to experiment with 5 acres of Vidalia, Ga., onions — the same Vidalia onions that now enjoy international acclaim and a federal marketing order, thanks in large part to Stanley’s efforts with former U.S. Rep. Lindsay Thomas.

When Stanley’s first son graduated from the University of Georgia, he asked about joining the farm. Stanley made him an equal partner in his half of the business. His second son graduated from Georgia and did the same thing. The third son graduated from the same university, worked as a manager of a pine tree seed plant for more than a year, and then he joined his father and brothers.

“We started growing more onions, more tobacco, everything — peanuts, cotton, corn, soybeans — trying to diversify. Anything to survive on the farm,” Stanley said. “As those boys kept coming back from college, we didn’t have a choice but to get bigger.”

The youngest son’s return prompted an even bigger expansion. The company bought a nearby company called Manning Farms that processed onions and made relishes and dressings.

The processing plant helped steady the company when the weather hurt crops, Stanley said.

The company, Stanley Farms, since has put its revenue back into the operation, buying equipment or adding 100 acres here and there. After starting out with little more than 100 acres in 1968, the company now stands at 8,000 acres. And two years ago, the company added a processing and individual quick-freeze plant.

Stanley says diversification is necessary to survive long on the farm.

Despite its growth, the company had a rough year in 1980 because of crop and outside political issues, and they almost lost it all, Stanley said.

It made them appreciate the good years and their diversification, he said.

Stanley and his three sons are equal partners in the company, splitting everything four ways. They make the decisions the same way too. They take a vote. If it’s a 2-2 tie, then Stanley’s wife, Diane, breaks the tie. She’s done it two or three times.

“When someone’s outvoted, he joins right in,” Stanley said. “That’s how we make this family operation work. If we have a bad year, we suffer together. If we have a good year, we celebrate together.”

Stanley is an outgoing, generous and good man, said Sabrina Jarriel, office manager for Stanley Farms.

“He’s the main one that everyone goes to when they need support and guidance,” Jarriel said. “He’s all about helping everybody any way he can. Just an all-around good person. A good ol’ boy.”

Things are going well at Stanley Farms.

More than any other word, Stanley uses “blessed.” And throughout his company’s history, he’s met blessings with more faith and investment. And the company doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

Legends of Produce: Jerome Bushman

2011-08-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

The Packer

It can be hard to distinguish yourself when your last name is synonymous with Wisconsin potatoes, when you are the third generation inducted into the Wisconsin Potato Industry Hall of Fame, when your son is chairman of the board of the $100 million-a-year family business.

But that’s not the case for Jerome “Jerry” Bushman. He founded Bushmans’ Inc. in 1974 with an innovative idea, one that started the company down a Wisconsin potato giant’s path.

He wanted to defeat the calendar.

His son, Mitchell, chairman of Bushmans’ Inc., said that Wisconsin potato farmers harvested from August to May, and took summers off.

But potatoes for eight months a year created problems in keeping customers over the other four. Mitchell said his father recognized the importance of continuity with customers.

“He said the two hardest things to do were to start selling the new crop and finish selling the old crop,” Mitchell said. “It’s true.”

He said his father was the first pioneer in the area to see where things had to go. The company has kept the tradition, expanding its growing base to every major growing region in the U.S. and Canada.

Mike Carter, chief executive officer of Bushmans’ Inc., said the Bushman family has dealt in potatoes for 100 years.

Bushman rode the potato railcars between Galloway and Rosholt, Wis. – the headquarters of Bushmans’ Inc. today – and worked for his father on the family farm.

“It sounds like a Norman Rockwell painting,” Carter said.

That painting got bigger as Bushman started his own company and his family grew. He and his wife, Barbara, had two sons, Derrick and Mitchell, and a daughter named Tia.

Along with the growing family, he enjoyed his work. In second grade, Mitchell’s class did a report on parents. They asked what their parents enjoyed doing.

”Most parents said ‘bowling, fishing, that kind of thing,” Mitchell said. “He said, ‘Going to work.’”

Bushman started J&B Marketing when he started Bushmans’ Inc. Later in the 1970s, Bushman created Potato World Inc. and A&W Farms with partner Darrell Koehler. A&W Farms eventually grew 10,000 acres of potatoes, peas, beans and sweet corn until Bushman sold his interest in it in 1999.

Carter said that Bushman created a family culture that remains with the company today.

Now, Derrick and Mitchell are the principle owners of Bushmans’ Inc. and Tia works for other family businesses. The Rockwell painting reached maturity.

But it isn’t forced. Mitchell said Jerry never pressured him into being the fourth generation working for the family business.

“His philosophy was that it’s here for you,” he said, “but take the path you want because that’s where you’ll be successful.”

So Mitchell started his own company as a sophomore in college, following his first passion: helicopters. And it was Jerry’s co-signature that let Mitchell buy his first helicopter.

He did it for nine years before returning to the family business. Now he’s chairman of the board for Bushmans’ Inc.

“I call him the biggest cheerleader the potato industry will ever have,” Mitchell said about Jerry.

If there are potatoes in a grocery store anywhere near Bushman, you can find him handing out potatoes and $5 bills to the first 50 elderly women he sees, Mitchell said. He’ll explain how they’re grown and harvested.

“My children won’t even go to the store with him anymore,” Mitchell said. “He’ll be selling those potatoes.”

That outgoing nature served well with clients too. The produce world is now “very corporate, very structured,” Mitchell said, and people don’t interact the way his father does.

”His relationships with customers were more than work-related,” he said. “They got to be friends.”

His personality naturally led to his involvement in regional and national committees.

Bushman served on the board of directors of the Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association for 12 years, most recently from 1999 to 2005. He also spent several years on its marketing committee.

He also served two terms for the U.S. Potato Board and a combined 12 years for the United Fresh Produce Association, six years for the brokers division and six for the growers division.

Bushman has stepped back from the reins of his company, as much as that’s possible for a lifelong potato cheerleader. Call it semi-retired.

“He still plays a huge role in strategy. We continue to look to him for guidance,” Carter said. “He’s seen it all.”

Even if he misses a few days at the office, his presence is still felt.

“He likes to say that he stirs the pot,” Carter said, “and it takes five days to settle down.”

Legends of Produce: Ted Campbell

2011-08-23T11:10:00.000-05:00

The Packer

Just try to put a label on Ted Campbell. You can’t.

Can you call him a retail industry legend?

Sure. He’s worked in important jobs for some of the world’s largest retailers. He worked for Associated Wholesale Grocers. He’s been corporate director of produce for Supervalu. He was vice president of sales and marketing for Kerry’s Bromeliad Nursery. He was chairman of the Produce Marketing Association’s board of directors in 2000.

Throughout his career in retail, he has had to nudge others to take leaps of faith. Leaps he had already made.

Recognizing the markets for international produce and yearlong availability, Campbell helped take produce departments from 200 items to 700. And when he worked for Supervalu, he went to Chile to help its growers.

He remembers the farmers there saying, “the more I produce, the better,” but Campbell taught them that if they produced less, they would create bigger fruit, and they would make more money.

He also liked the new club store format he was helping to build.

The theory instead was having the best quality. Campbell said you buy quality items, sell them at break-even prices, and make profit off of the subscriptions. Make sure a high percentage — maybe 40% — of the inventory is in-and-out stuff, not regular items, making every trip to the store a treasure hunt. That built loyalty in customers and drove even more subscriptions.

Campbell received a wide range of experience from the retail world, but don’t assume that’s his only area of expertise.

“Most of my training is from the retail side of the business,” Campbell said, “But I’m a hybrid.”

He is the executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. And he defends the Florida strawberry industry like a bulldog.

When ABC News ran a story about how strawberry growers in the state were trashing millions of perfectly good strawberries after the prices in the market crashed, Campbell wrote a letter setting the record straight.

The story had explained that berries were so oversupplied farmers couldn’t make any money selling them, so they left them in the fields. The network pointed out that homeless people could use the wasted fruit but didn’t offer a way for the already-cash-strapped farmers to somehow transport them for free.

Campbell went to bat for the farmers.

“Our guys are very busy. They’re in the field, with a short season,” he said. “They didn’t have time to write a letter. They didn’t even have time to see the story. That’s my job.”

So he wrote. He called the ABC News story “an insult” to every American food grower. He said it vilified the Florida strawberry growers “at a time when they themselves are ensuring record losses.”

Campbell’s letter wondered why the story didn’t mention the other times and places farmers couldn’t harvest their crops, or the many growers who opened their fields to locals and charities, despite the risk of damaging other crops or being sued for an accident.

Campbell also submits public comments to the government on behalf of his organization, such as about PACA trust issues. He has been president of the Produce for Better Health Foundation.

You can put a label on Campbell, retailer or bulldog for growers or governing leader, but none of them fully fit. He’s a man who keeps learning and growing.

“You learn through every channel,” he said, “and apply what you’ve learned in every other channel.”

Legends of Produce: George Boskovich Jr.

2011-08-23T11:08:00.000-05:00

The Packer

After two years in the Army, George Boskovich Jr. was hesitant to join the family farm.

“It didn’t seem like there was enough going on, where they needed my services or could challenge me,” he said.

“Well, I was wrong.”

He now represents the third generation of Boskovich Farms Inc., but when he came on board in the late 1960s, Boskovich Farms was just beginning to expand.

The company leased refrigerated space from a celery shipper in Salinas, Calif., and they sent a load of green onions there with a retired salesman. The next morning, George Jr. called the salesman, who said he had sold them all.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “What snapped in my mind was it’s not the product, it’s the convenience.”

The company diversified, moving into more affordable or geographically convenient places, and expanded from one commodity to dozens. It now exports to several countries in Europe.

“They have a tremendous reputation as the green onion king, going back maybe 80 years or more,” said Rob Roy, president and general counsel of the Ventura County Agricultural Association.

As the company strove for convenience and diversity, it came across a unique way of cooling its produce.

“We were green before it was cool,” Boskovich said.

When the company moved into its current day headquarters in Oxnard, Calif., it bought and remodeled a defunct freezer facility. And it made a deal with a neighboring coal generation company. The Boskoviches used the company’s steam from burning natural gas to power their refrigeration. The company now makes 170 tons of ice a day and sells it.

The company also expanded into processing its food and now supplies major foodservice companies. It even expanded beyond mixed vegetables to sell strawberries and other commodities.

The company’s diversification has helped make it a local industry leader in regards to year-round supplies and all the different services it offers, said Roy, who has known Boskovich for more than 30 years.

Boskovich said his grandfather was an immigrant from Croatia, and his traits are still with the company today, such as how tight-knit the company leadership is.

“We don’t make a move until we are in total agreement,” he said. “There’s no all-stars here.”

That family setting persists today, and it’s bolstered by Boskovich’s presence.

“George is just one of those rare personalities,” Roy said. “He’s the kind of guy to give you the shirt off his back. He’s a wonderful person. His stature in the industry is a big strength for them.”

But Boskovich, true to his no-all-stars words, has even bigger expectations for those who follow him.

“Now the fourth generation has joined in,” he said. “Every generation is going to bring something and add to it.”

Texas Produce Association Hall of Famer dies

2011-07-27T06:39:00.000-05:00

The Packer

Roy Schapira, owner of Valley Onions and an inductee into the Texas Produce Association Hall of Fame, died July 26.

He was born May 13, 1913, in Chicago, and died peacefully in San Antonio, Texas, according to Porter Loring Mortuary.

Before he started working in the fields, Schapira had jobs panning for gold and working in the garment district of New York. He also served on boards and advisory boards for Texas banks.

He lived with his wife, Ruth, in McAllen, Texas, for more than 50 years. He was an avid fisherman and storyteller.

He leaves behind his wife of 72 years, Ruth Susser Schapira; daughter Janet Westheimer and her husband Joe; son Jay Schapira and his wife Phyllis; grandchildren Michael, Julie and Jeffrey Westheimer, and Beth, Jamie, Gwen and Leslie Schapira; eight great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family directs contributions to The Barshop Jewish Community Center, 12500 NW Military Hwy., San Antonio, TX, 78231, attn: Tribute/GM Women’s Auxiliary Fund; The Jay N. Schapira MD Medical Research Foundation, Cedars Sinai Medical Office Towers, Suite 750W, 8635 West Third St., Los Angeles, CA, 90048; or the charity of the giver’s choice.

There will be a graveside service on July 28 at Beth El Memorial Park, 1715 Austin Highway, at 10 a.m., with Rabbi Barry H.D. Block, Rabbi Ari Plost and Cantor Julie Berlin officiating.

Former PMA director dies

2011-07-18T04:31:00.001-05:00

The Packer

Jerry Taylor, a former director of the Produce Marketing Association, died July 12 from cancer.

He was PMA director from 1979 to 1982, and he worked on packaging innovation throughout his career. He helped introduce the clear concept in produce packaging while a vice president for A&E Plastics Inc., Elgin, Ill.

Taylor’s early career was in produce. He worked for Roger Brothers Seed Co., Idaho Falls, Idaho, from 1969 to 1972. In 1972, he began working at Cal Fruit, La Mirada, Calif., until 1980.

In July 1980, he founded Creative Agricultural Packaging Inc., Hayden, Idaho, which introduced the design and marketing of the first preopened, recloseable vented bags for grapes, cherries and other produce.

Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Helen, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; daughter Kathy Moore, Hayden, Idaho; daughter Kelly Butkovich, Houghton Lake, Mich.; 7 grandchildren, stepbrother Charley Zavisch, Portland, Ore., and his mother and stepfather, Josephine and Charles Zavisch of Sun City, Calif.

USDA supports local ‘food hubs’ nationwide

2011-07-15T07:55:00.000-05:00

The Packer

Call it Craigslist, farmer style.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched an online resource to support the nationwide development of food hubs — resources to help small and mid-sized producers work together to gain access to larger buyers and more business.

It centers around two popular trends: locally produced food, and eating food from small farms. Food hubs help producers, buyers and transporters find each other in a region, and several small businesses working together can tap into larger opportunities they can’t earn alone.

Jim Barham, agricultural economist for the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, used the example of a hospital.

Hospitals need a large supply of food, regularly. It is the kind of customer that usually can only afford to deal with large, corporate suppliers. It can’t afford to send people to inspect and buy carrots from one farm and apples at another, Barham said.

Enter the food hub. If the local carrot grower and apple grower have already made produce available at a hub, and the hub has some truck companies on board, they can guarantee customers a large, regular supply of food with variety. They can start selling to larger customers like hospitals, Barham said.

Barham said food hubs need not not exclude large companies. In fact, he said, they can help where smaller suppliers cannot.

“Food hubs are geared to support local growers, but not exclusively,” he said. “They often use larger producers as a stopgap to ensure that they will always have the volume to meet buyers’ needs.”

The process can have appeal for the larger produce buyers too.

“Produce buyers are elated to work with regional food hubs,” Barham said. “It gives them access to product that they’re having difficulty getting from regular distributors.”

Barham said Sysco, Houston, works with some food hubs across the nation as aggregation hubs. It doesn’t need to do the on-farm pickups from smaller growers when they already have their produce pooled together.

The online resource is provided by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, as part of its food hub partnership with the Wallace Center at Winrock International, National Good Food Network, National Association of Produce Market Managers and Project for Public Spaces. It’s also tied into the USDA’s wider efforts with its local-driven Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign.

The resource site hosts information from USDA agencies and other research organizations, and a directory of identified food hubs and financial resources. Beyond buyers and sellers, the website has potential use for entrepreneurs, advocates, researchers, media and even policymakers. As the department expands its understanding of the food hub business model, the website’s contents will evolve.

Barham said the AMS is preparing a more comprehensive resource guide for food hubs, to be released later this year. That guide will feature more non-government resources and research, provided by research institutions and the other food hub partner associations.

It will also offer advice for new food hubs, like what is working well for other hubs and what isn’t. Barham said he is inundated by people asking about food hubs — their startup costs, the warehouse space, the leasing space, what insurance is needed, or what food safety protocol they should expect from producers.

Barham said he expected that wider resource to be on the USDA secretary’s desk by September or early October.

Purfresh introduces industry-first free solar monitoring

2011-07-08T07:39:00.000-05:00

The Packer

Imagine a service that will text message or e-mail a grower when his crops are in danger — for free.

Stress from the sun can take away half of a crop’s yield, according to Purfresh, which has introduced the Plant Performance Almanac. The solar stress monitor is available free on the Internet.

The program will even shoot you a message, specific to location, if bad conditions are headed your way.

“Our product is a dashboard that gives you insight into one of the biggest factors of crop quality and yield,” said Dave Cope, CEO of the Fremont, Calif., company.

The almanac tracks global conditions such as temperature, radiant heat and ultraviolet stress indexes. Users have access to historical, current and forecasted information. And location-specific messages can remind a grower to apply preventative protection.

Purfresh can help there, too. In 2008, Time magazine called Purfresh's spray sunscreen for plants, Purshade, one of the 50 best inventions of the year.

But solar stress isn’t the only thing in the company’s crosshairs.

“Soil type, slope direction, wind, rain, all of that stuff — it’s easy to imagine how all of those interplay,” Cope said. “What we have is a simple, very powerful application. But going forward, you’ll see us adding layers to that.”

The company may enrich the application for paying subscribers but plans to keep the currently offered services free, Cope said.

He added that the company understands agriculture and has a good relationship with growers, expertise with software, and one of the world’s leading experts in climatology, Eric Wood of Princeton University, as head of the company’s scientific advisory board.

Go to https://www.intellipur.com/plant-performance.jsp for more information.

Government rolls out food safety campaign with wacky commercials

2011-07-07T08:05:00.000-05:00

The Packer

A man sits on his couch, his face glistening with sweat. On the couch, to his left, a live lobster sits.

The man hits a button on a remote control, and nearly 10 fans of different types — desk fans, oscillating fans, a ceiling fan, even a box fan — turn on and blast the couch with cool air.

The man sets down the remote and picks up a glass of iced tea. As he looks over at the lobster, the all-caps word “CHILL” appears overhead in white.

It’s a commercial. The screen goes light blue, but CHILL is still there with the rest of its sentence: “CHILL RAW AND PREPARED FOODS PROMPTLY.”

The last screen shows the logos of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.

It’s one of the four public service advertisements the agencies created to promote food safety awareness. The commercials’ respective messages are chill, clean, separate, and cook.

The information is conventional: The ads promote the prompt chilling of raw and prepared foods, cleaning knives and surfaces when dealing with raw food, separating raw meat from produce and using separate cutting boards, and reaching proper heat levels and the use of thermometers for cooking raw food.

The advertisements are anything but conventional.

“They’re kind of crazy, but it certainly makes people sit up and take notice,” said Ray Gilmer, vice president of communications for United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C.

Gilmer was on a panel representing the food industry that discussed the advertisements with the agencies.

He said the theme of the talks was compromise.

“I think the experts wanted a fairly literal message, about exactly what consumers were supposed to do,” he said. The agencies “took that in mind, but they also didn’t want to make a boring commercial.”

In the commercial focusing on cross contamination, a woman stands in a living room between two chairs in opposing corners. Her arms are crossed as she polices the room. A live chicken stands on one chair, and a bunch of carrots is in the other.

As the chicken jumps down to the floor, the woman sternly points it back to its chair.

“It’s more memorable than showing a chef separating meats and veggies on a kitchen counter,” Gilmer said. “There was a balance between literal education and making it a memorable, creative campaign.”

While all the commercials feature a goofy and playful portrayal of the safety guidelines, they end with a simple sentence taking over the screen for a few seconds, getting to the serious advice at hand.

Gilmer noted the guidelines deal more with meat safety and less with produce. Regarding whether the ads were too goofy, he said he couldn’t speak for the fresh produce industry as a whole, but “anything that gets in front of consumers and reminds them” about ways to keep food safer is good.

He also likes that the ads focused on the consumer, because the majority of food contamination occurs in the home.

The ads are available on the USDA Food Safety YouTube channel.

Cool weather in Chile puts summer citrus outlook in question

2011-07-06T08:05:00.000-05:00

The Packer

A cold snap in Chile is leaving summer citrus importers unsure of what they’ll be bringing to the states in upcoming weeks.

David Mixon, chief marketing officer for Seald Sweet LLC, Vero Beach, Fla., said Chile’s citrus-growing areas had an unseasonable cold snap over the July Fourth weekend. Until the industry can measure the damage done to its crop, which can take a week or even 10 days, the forecast of exports to the U.S. is clouded.

Mixon said the temperatures recorded there indicate an “extremely high” likelihood of damage to the citrus, but “it’s hard to predict how the fruit will react, and there’s a lot of variables.”

Chile’s cold snap is just the latest weather hurdle for the industry. South Africa, which exported a record 1.5 million metric tons of citrus last season, dealt with a yearlong draught and hailstorms that will limit the nation’s citrus exports by 5% from last year’s record.

Mixon said Chile typically kicks off the summer citrus program in late May with its clementines. Then South Africa starts exporting citrus around the middle of June. Both countries’ seasons go through October. Peru — with fewer clementines and navels than those countries but more minneola tangelos — bolsters and diversifies the supply from the end of June through September.

Mixon said that while the industry expects less fruit out of South Africa, the fruit has had normal size and the quality has been “exceptional.” He said the external color and internal flavor were both strong and brix counts were 1-3 points higher than usual.

He said the prices of international citrus have been about average, with no anticipation for any major shifts, but the jury is still out on what Chile’s cold snap could mean to volumes and prices.

One fruit that probably won’t escape the Chile cold snap untouched is lemons. Mixon said he was definitely expecting smaller-than-normal volumes of lemons, and therefore higher prices, but even the extent of those changes are yet unknown.

As international production has ramped up, the domestically grown summer citrus supply is winding down.

Al Imbimbo, vice president of sales and marketing for Suntreat Packing & Shipping Co., Lindsay, Calif., said his company was selling its last load of California navels.

“I think there will be some people who will be shipping California navels through August,” he said, “but I have a feeling most will be shipped out sooner.”

He said his company had the opportunity to string out its last load, to try to catch a possible uptick in price as supply dwindles, but didn’t think the price would justify it. He said the quality of the fruit is good, and the sizes — of what they have left — were 72s, 56s, even some 88s.

Neil Galone, vice president of sales and marketing for Booth Ranches LLC, Orange Cove, Calif., said some major shippers will hold onto their navels as long as they can, but California is mostly done.

He said Booth starts its valencias in March or early April, before any domestic demand, to supply international interests. He said half of its valencia crop was harvested, and it has told its customers to expect them at least through August. He said the valencias have been mid-sized, peaking on 88s, with some 113s. He said the total estimate for California valencia production is 26 million boxes, which is close to average.

He said the average f.o.b.s for all grades and sizes are around $8.75, slightly stronger than last year. He said he expected the price to stay there.

TempTRIP tracks temperature from harvest to store

2011-07-01T07:27:00.000-05:00

The Packer

TempTRIP LLC, Broomfield, Colo., offers customers time and temperature data from harvest to store.

The company is using cloud computing — accessing data or using a program on the Internet, without needing to possess it on a computer’s hard drive.

“We can now graph your product’s journey on a map — literally from harvest to store,” Phaedra Culjak, chief operations officer, said.

A smart card is put on a pallet or case, or in multiple locations for more detailed information, and it’s scanned, which starts the time and temperature monitoring. It’s optional to have it scanned at every stop, to give data specific to each segment of the trip.

The information is collected by a reader and uploaded to TempTRIP cellularly or through a USB drive. Or, like NetFlix, users can mail the card to TempTRIP, which will post the data online within 24 hours.

Data for a trip using one card costs $5, but additional cards cost less. If other companies down the distribution chain buy in, it’s cheaper for everyone.

“It can be $2 a pallet,” Culjak said.

Mango volume may set record

2011-06-23T07:56:00.000-05:00

The Packer

As Mexico’s mango harvest shifts to the states of Sinaloa and Sonora, importers believe volumes will continue to stay strong.

For most of the year, the volume of imported mangoes has been racing against last year’s numbers: a little ahead one week, a little behind the next.

While shipments from Mexico and Haiti briefly dipped last year in early June, this year’s crop has surged to the highest volumes of the year, at more than 3 million boxes per week, according to a weekly report from the National Mango Board.

Gary Clevenger, a managing member of Freska Produce International LLC, Oxnard, Calif., said that 33 million boxes came from Mexico by mid-June, compared to 28 million last year. Industry experts think it will stay that way.

“We’re looking at numbers that look like they’ll exceed what we did last year,” National Mango Board executive director William Watson said. “I’m sure we’re going to see more mangoes imported from Mexico than we did last year.”

The board’s weekly report projects that America will still be importing more than a million boxes per week through July and into August.

Mexico is where the majority of America’s mangoes are grown. Watson said that the Michoacan crop is finishing up, and fruit is beginning to come from Sinaloa and Nayarit. He said those states will be supplying mangoes into September.

Clevenger said his company was already sourcing the tommy atkins and kent varieties from Sinaloa, and would be for a couple of months. Steve Yubeta, vice president of sales for Farmer’s Best International LLC, Rio Rico, Ariz., said his company would start sourcing from Sinaloa in mid- to late-July.

Both Watson and Yubeta cautioned that as supply comes from further north into Sinaloa, which experienced cold weather, there might be a slight drop in imports.

While the quantities of incoming mangoes are bigger this year, the individual fruits are smaller, Watson and Clevenger said.

Clevenger said the bigger fruit — the 7s, 8s and 9s — are receiving higher prices than last year, because there is a smaller supply. He said the larger kent mangoes were earning $5-5.50 out of Nogales, Ariz., for one-layer flats. But he said smaller fruit was earning less than last year, with 10s, 12s and 14s in the $2.50-3.25 range.

He said he expects mango prices to increase, especially as volume drops when the Mexican crops wind down.

The volume of mangoes may be record-breaking again, but importers and industry and officials have faith in demand.

Yubeta said mangoes have to compete with other summer fruits by the middle of the harvesting season, but they compete well. He said demand has increased in the last few years, and it continues to rise.

Clevenger said retailers, responding to consumer demand, are giving mangoes better placement in produce aisles.

“If we’re looking at an increase in volume, that reflects back on the product coming through,” Watson said. “Clearly there’s a new home for more of them. Consumers are still excited about eating mangoes.”

U.S. adults eating fewer fruits and veggies, or aren’t they?

2011-06-20T07:33:00.000-05:00

The Packer

A Gallup poll said that fewer U.S. adults are eating fruits and vegetables in 2011 than they did last year. But the Produce for Better Health Foundation isn’t on the bandwagon.

“I saw that poll from last year,” PBH president Elizabeth Pivonka said. “I’m not getting overly excited about it this year.”

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index has tracked health behaviors of Americans daily since 2008, asking them if they ate healthy the day before, and how often they have eaten five servings of fruits and vegetables in the last week, among other questions.

That’s part of why Pivonka is more apt to trust her own data, which uses two-week food diaries instead of a daily telephone poll, and examines five-year trends instead of one.

“The whole science of asking people what they eat is fairly complicated,” she said.

She said that PBH buys its data from the NPD group, which examined 2,000 households and 5,000 people, compared to the 1,000 polled daily by Gallup.

That data, from 2004 to 2009, says that Americans are eating about the same amount of fruits and vegetables as they were before.

In some ways, both sets of research agree. Gallup and NPD’s data suggest that seniors are eating less produce than before.

But Gallup only polled adults, while NPD’s data suggests that children aged 2-12, and especially 2-6, increased their produce consumption, bringing up the national average.

Of all race, gender, and age groups in the Gallup polls, Hispanics had the biggest decrease in eating fruits and vegetables in 2011.

“That surprises me,” Pivonka said. “A traditional Hispanic diet contains more fruit and vegetables.”

She did like that the poll also asked about other health-related topics, like smoking, and emotional and physical health.

“It’s nice in the sense that you can compare their response with other behaviors,” she said, “but it’s not a really good indicator of what people are actually eating.”

PBH website adds tools, updates look

2011-06-15T08:09:00.002-05:00

The Packer

The Produce for Better Health Foundation, Hockessin, Del., has a renovated website, improving navigation while adding information and social media tools.

“We’ve made so much information available to everyone, that it became kind of a tangle to find something,” communications specialist Jill Le Brasseur said. “We spent time to make everything more intuitive.”

The website — pbhfoundation.org — hosts information for every industry involved with food, an overview of the foundation’s activities, and an interactive resource for donor support, Le Brasseur said. And there is a new section devoted to the PBH’s annual meeting and a new section that details its activities.

She said the site also had “a fresher, updated, modern look.” It has a new color scheme, the section topics have been reworked, and now there are tools to share content through social media like Facebook or LinkedIn.

“It’s a fun-looking site now,” Le Brasseur said.

Cleveland produce man Lawrence Calabrese dies

2011-06-09T07:48:00.000-05:00

The Packer

A face seen in Cleveland’s West Side Market for more than half a century is gone.

Lawrence Calabrese, who ran the Calabrese Produce stand for decades with his brother, died June 5 at Parma Community General Hospital, according to a Cleveland Plain-Dealer obituary. He was 90.

Calabrese started working at his parents’ stand as a child — they opened it in 1919 — and later ran it with his brother, Richard.

Larry’s nephew, Rick, runs the three-stall-wide stand today, according to the Plain-Dealer. He took it over in 1995, but Larry helped for another three years.

Houweling’s recycles 2,000 tons of organic waste

2011-06-09T04:42:00.001-05:00

The Packer

Instead of dumping more than 2,000 tons of organic material into a landfill this year, Houweling’s Nurseries Inc., Camarillo, Calif., recycled it.

The tomato grower has partnered with Oxnard, Calif.-based Agromin, a company that specializes in renewing organic material, according to a news release. In the first quarter of the year, Houweling’s sent 2,156 tons of organic material — leaves, vines, coco fiber, tomatoes — to Agromin, which turned it into compost, mulch, and soil conditioners.

By avoiding putting the material into a landfill, 367 tons of methane were kept from the atmosphere, according to the release. That is the equivalent of almost 7,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

Washington apple foundation awards $27,000 in grants

2011-06-06T07:48:00.001-05:00

The Packer

The Washington Apple Education Foundation, Wenatchee, Wash., awarded $27,000 in grants to 12 community and school programs around the state, in an effort to boost scholastic success for farmworkers and their families.

Executive director Jennifer Witherbee said that the foundation’s grant selection committee made award decisions based on some key priorities, things like improving early education and high school dropout rates, enouraging upward mobility, and especially improving language literacy.

“The industry relies heavily on farmworkers, who often come from Mexico and South America,” Witherbee said. “A lot of our grants focus on helping families that need that additional assistance to be able to succeed at school or succeed at learning a new language.”

A grant of more than $2,000 was given to an elementary to purchase library and classroom supplies in Spanish. Central Washington University received $2,500 for a program that helps Hispanic teens. A school district received $1,500 to hire an after-school Spanish tutor. And the Friends of Buena Library received more than $2,400 for an eight-week English course focusing on basic and job-related communication.

The foundation is the charity of Washington’s tree fruit industry, and it has been awarding such grants since it was organized in 1994. Several companies and funds, as well as the foundation itself, contributed money for the grants.

A sobering reality

2011-05-11T16:02:00.002-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

When he discusses drinking, tragedy and lawsuits with people nationwide, Dave Westol gets rapt attention by flashing a picture of grim young men in dark suits and ties — their hands folded. Their heads bowed.

The picture shows the funeral of 19-year-old University of Kansas freshman Jason Wren, who was pronounced dead from alcohol poisoning on March 8, 2009, in his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

“I throw that slide up, and the audience inevitably becomes silent,” said Westol, a former chief executive officer of the national Theta Chi fraternity and now an official for the Fraternal Information and Programming Group, a nonprofit that educates Greeks nationwide on risky behaviors and legal liabilities.

Before Jason Wren died, he was best known for his big heart and fun-loving nature. He was outgoing. He was athletic. He played for the KU lacrosse club.

But since his death, Wren is better known for how and where he died. His name has taken on a national and local role as an attention-grabber for experts like Westol and a wake-up call for universities. He is just one student among grim statistics that show significant alcohol abuse among college students — especially those at the University of Kansas — and even more abuse among fraternity members nationwide.

In the two years since Wren's death:
Wren’s family sued the KU SAE chapter, 10 of its members, the corporation board that owns the house and the national SAE fraternity. The lawsuit was settled last week and the settlement forbids either side from disclosing details, such as the amount of money awarded to the Wrens.
The tragedy that began with Jason’s death continued with the suicides of his younger sister and mother. His older sister and father are the only living immediate family members.
Lawrence police investigated but filed no criminal charges. The University investigated for possible hazing but didn’t punish the chapter. The national fraternity investigated but said it didn’t find evidence of criminal actions, while the Wren family lawsuit insisted that it did.
The KU SAE chapter agreed to host the Jason Wren Initiative for six years. It’s an annual program where speakers discuss alcohol abuse. But six days before the first one in April 2010, the national SAE fraternity busted its KU chapter for supplying its underage members with alcohol and expelled 22 active members.
The University has changed its policies: it now notifies parents when students have alcohol- or drug-related violations, requires incoming students under 22 to complete an online alcohol education course before they can enroll, eliminates campus chalking by bars and others who are not registered with the University, has an amnesty policy for underage students that allows them to avoid punishment for drinking when they call for help and introduced a new responsible-drinking campaign for students.
The joint alcohol policy of the KU Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association — the umbrella organizations for most KU Greek chapters — remains unchanged.

BEFORE

Jason Wren died in a fraternity, but he spent most of his time at the University elsewhere.

In August 2008, his freshman year, he moved onto the first floor of Oliver Hall. Five months later, he told his father he had to move out for violating undisclosed rules.

Jay Wren said he called the Department of Student Housing to ask why his son had to leave, but a representative told him that information was confidential because of the University’s privacy policy. According to a court filing by SAE’s lawyer, Jason was kicked out for repeatedly violating the University’s alcohol policy. Because it was mid-semester, he had nowhere to live. The filing said Wren was able to pledge SAE through a friend and immediately move into the house.

Diana Robertson, director of Student Housing, said in an email that — in addition to increased emphasis on alcohol education — the department has changed its policy. It now notifies parents when a student’s housing contract is canceled because of alcohol or drug violations.

Jay Wren told The Kansan that his son had downplayed his write-ups — that a resident assistant found a shot glass, and later a beer can, in his room, and that he had been seen holding a beer can for a friend while the friend used the restroom.

Reading about that claim in a Kansan story brought back memories for the resident assistant on the other side of that incident. Since Wren didn’t live on the RA’s floor, the RA hadn’t yet realized he wrote up the freshman whose death dominated newspaper headlines.

“I don’t feel guilty about it at all, but I feel like a part of the chain of events that caused this to happen,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said during security rounds on the night he wrote Wren up, he came across a group of five to 10 people who did “the whole scatter thing.” Then came his encounter with Wren, who he said was standing in the corner of the hallway holding a can behind his back.

“I said, ‘Dude, what do you got?’” he said.

The RA said Wren told him he was holding the beer can for a friend in the restroom. The RA replied that he would have to write him up anyway. He said he thought the can was Wren’s, and either way, he seemed drunk.

“I wouldn’t say he was screaming at me, but his voice was definitely elevated in frustration and anger,” he said. This was the second semester, so his violations were adding up. “He knew he was in a lot of trouble at that point. So that probably added to his anger.”

He said he wrote up Wren only once, but heard about him from the RA assigned to his floor. He heard that Wren was a genuinely nice guy.

“It was just that, whenever he got alcohol in his system, it just made him a different person,” he said, “like it does with everybody.”

Wren’s trouble at Oliver highlights that his problem began before drinking at SAE, but it does beg the question of why the fraternity would welcome a new pledge with that history.

Reuben Perez, director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said when he got the call informing him of Wren’s death, he wanted to know why SAE accepted somebody who already had been kicked out of University housing for drinking.

“You know that we rarely remove people from KU housing at all — rarely,” he said. “Didn’t that send a red flag in somebody’s mind?”

Shortly after Wren’s death, the national SAE fraternity said in a public statement that it had closed its investigation into the chapter and found no criminal actions or negligence by the organization, the chapter or its respective members that led to the death.

AFTER

“We believe this is a very unfortunate, isolated incident,” it said.

But the Wren family’s lawsuit said SAE correspondence between the national fraternity and its KU chapter showed numerous violations of rules and policies regarding underage consumption of alcohol and “providing alcohol to a visibly intoxicated member” on the night of Wren’s death.

The lawsuit also said that as punishment for those violations, the KU chapter was required to pay an increased risk management (insurance) premium and was strongly encouraged to implement at least one semester of alcohol-free living.

The house hosted an alcohol-free concert a month and a half after Wren’s death, and Jay Wren publicly asked for SAE to become an alcohol-free fraternity in memory of his son. The fraternity did later change some alcohol regulations, but it still allows alcohol in the house.

In a deposition in the Wren lawsuit, Frank Ginocchio, the general counsel and director of risk management for the national fraternity, said that about two years before Wren’s death the national fraternity considered, but voted down, a ban on alcohol consumption.

Ginocchio said he recommended the KU chapter become a dry house after Wren’s death. He said he spoke directly to John Stacy, president of the KU SAE house corporation and adviser to the chapter.

“They didn’t feel it was the right thing to do at the time,” Ginoccio said. “I think they felt that their efforts educationally and in the memorial service would be enough.”

While the Wren family lawyer, Steve Gorny, said the settlement forbade further release of testimony in the depositions, one of his early filings quoted Ginocchio as saying SAE chose not to ban alcohol “in part because it was too harsh of a punishment and out of concern that the collegiate members would choose to rent another property and the House Corp. would lose its tenants.”

SAE did commit to hosting the Jason Wren Initiative for six years, including the two already past, according to Kristin Wing, chair of the adviser board for KU SAE, but she expected it to go further.

Alan Fischer, KU SAE president, and Chaz Rumage, organizer of the second Jason Wren Initiative and a former KU SAE officer, agreed to be interviewed for this story but backed out when Stacy, the chapter adviser, told them that after the settlement they couldn’t publicly comment on Wren or the Wren Initiative, despite previous interviews with the media.

“If it’s under the heading of Jason Wren, we don’t talk about that,” Stacy explained, speaking for the KU SAE chapter and its house corporation.

“Our legal counsel advised us not to comment on the Jason Wren case, or events surrounding the case,” Kristin Wing, chair of the KU SAE adviser board, wrote in an email.

Jay Wren said it was a mistake for him to allow his son to live in a house with drinking, and he’s outspoken against underage members of any fraternity living in a house where alcohol is openly served.

SAE national officials failed to respond for comment to requests for interviews.

With an undisclosed amount of damages at stake, he no longer criticizes SAE, aside from his desire to have SAE become an alcohol-free house.

“The contract with SAE said that it didn’t allow underage drinking in the house,” he said in an email, “and I believe they are now enforcing that clause as there were many students expelled out of the house last spring. I’m very pleased to see this change.”

He also said he was pleased that SAE was continuing the Jason Wren Initiative.

“It’s my hope that SAE KU continues to carry on this initiative and that the house decides to eventually one day be dry and thrive, alcohol free,” he wrote.

Despite the house’s educational efforts, KU SAE was busted again.

Just six days before the debut of the Jason Wren Initiative, the national SAE fraternity said its KU chapter violated alcohol policies, first by buying alcohol with chapter funds, then by supplying it to underage pledges. As a result, 22 active members were expelled from the house.

NO UNIVERSITY PUNISHMENT

A young man died after a night of too much drinking when no one in the SAE house called for help.

Within a month, the university he attended shut down the chapter for at least five years. Members had less than two weeks to vacate the SAE house.

When you telephone the house now, you hear this: “The number you have dialed is not in service.”

But that student wasn’t Jason Wren. His name was George Desdunes. He attended Cornell University and died in February.

Officials from both Cornell and the University of Kansas caution against direct comparisons, given the differences — the University of Kansas is public. Cornell is private; Kansas is in the Midwest. Cornell is an Ivy League school in New York.

Travis Apgar, associate dean of students at Cornell, said in an email that Cornell SAE was in a school-owned house, but that is not what allowed the university to ban them for five years. Rather, Cornell uses a recognition policy with fraternities. Greek houses recognized as university organizations are subject to Cornell rules and punishment when rules are broken — whether they are on-campus or off-campus, in a university-owned house or otherwise.

The University of Kansas has no such policy. All Greek houses at the University are off-campus on private property. Many, such as SAE, are owned by a corporation board that oversees the chapter.

From the University’s perspective, a fraternity is simply one of the 637 student organizations registered. It can only face punishment for things that happen at its official events. Hazing is the only violation the University can look at when it’s off-campus.

The University investigated SAE for hazing but did not impose sanctions.

“The other factor that is significant to the discussion is whether or not it was an official function,” Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, said.

Days before any event, a Greek chapter must submit a form to the University, specifying a guest list, availability of alcohol, security and safe transportation. SAE did not file such a form for the night of Wren’s death, so the University didn’t consider it an official function.

“Unfortunately, the media — back when this hit — didn’t care to know the difference between a registered chapter event and a bunch of students hanging out,” said Reuben Perez, director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, which oversees the Greek Life office. “That particular night, most of the chapter wasn’t even present.”

“I know, in the eyes of the world, it was like we were trying to cover something,” he said.

Roney said that if a fraternity didn’t file the form for a planned event, the University could still investigate whether the event appeared to be sponsored by the fraternity — and therefore, an official function subject to rules.

“Everything we were able to learn about what happened that night at SAE was that there was no official function going on,” she said. “It was just an individual or two, sitting around drinking.”

Although Wren did not die during an offical function, in January 2010 then-IFC president Jake Droge told The Kansan changes were being made to the Intrafraternity Council and Panhellenic’s joint alcohol policy. But no substantial changes have been made.

As late as a month ago, the posted policy was dated 2007. After officials of both organizations were questioned for this story about promised changes, a new policy was posted online and backdated to March 23, 2010.

Amy Long, associate director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said Monday the changes made were only grammatical in nature.

“The document is currently under review for the future, as is good practice, and we anticipate changes in the near future,” she wrote in an email.

J.M. Angotti, IFC vice president of risk management, said in a statement, “Both IFC / PHA councils and the advisors understand that the Joint Alcohol Policy needs to be changed and are currently working to re-write the document.”

He said that IFC and PHA officers want it done before the end of the semester, but chapters have to vote on it first.

GREEK LEGAL LIABILITY

Dave Westol, a national expert on fraternities and their legal liabilities, has experience with prosecutions and lawsuits.

He was a prosecutor before he became the chief national executive of his fraternity, Theta Chi. And he’s been the director of policy interpretation at the Fraternal Information and Programming Group — a non-profit fraternity insurance advising group — since 1995.

During his 18 years as Theta Chi CEO, Westol had members die and he suspended chapters for bad choices. He knows it doesn’t take much to get sued.

“I told our men, ‘six or more, it’s going to be an event,’” Westol said. “If you’ve got alcohol, and there’s more than a few people, it’s going to be a chapter event, whether you like it or not.”

Westol speaks from the fraternity’s perspective, as in trying to avoid lawsuits. The more it looks like the fraternity was involved — which might mean a larger number of members present — the worse it is for them legally. While the University didn’t punish SAE after looking at the drinking surrounding Wren’s death, his family could and did sue.

The Wren family’s lawyer, Steve Gorny, made a compelling enough case that SAE and its lawyers were willing to settle. But under the terms of the agreement nobody can publicly say how much the Wrens received in the settlement.

In most cases, the chapter’s liability insurance, which would pay any settlements or judgments, is attained by the national fraternity. The national SAE fraternity is insured through James R. Favor and Company, based in Denver.

According to its website, the company was bought in 2006 by several national fraternities. One of them was Sigma Alpha Epsilon Financial & Housing Corporation.

Samantha Davis, who used to be her sorority’s social chair and vice president of risk management, said that parties at KU could be exhausting to plan — she had to account for her chapter’s rules, the PHA’s rules, and her national sorority’s rules at once — but that she was reminded by Panhellenic Association officials that legal liability didn’t end there.

“If it wasn’t a sorority function, but a bunch of us went to a bar together, and something bad happened to one of the girls,” Davis said, “all it would take is one of the girls’ parents to get the national sorority involved, because she was with all her friends from the sorority.”

She said regulations for official functions could be difficult to follow. She gave the example of a sorority hosting an event at a bar on Massachusetts Street, while following the IFC and PHA requirement that the host chapter provide transportation to and from its event.

“You’re not allowed to drive and meet us later, because that’s a liability. And you can’t leave with anyone else,” Davis said. “People want to walk down the street, but you can’t let them. You have to drive back to the house, and then drive back to Mass. if you want to do that.”

Westol said taking on a Greek affiliation meant additional responsibilities and legal liabilities. “That’s one of the things you give up” when you join a fraternity, Westol said. “You have to follow the policy. Now if you don’t want that, drop out of your organization, be released from your vows, and you can have all the keg parties you want and nobody’s going to care.”

POLICY CHANGES

In the two years since Wren’s death, the University has made several policy changes.

“I think the University focused even more closely on alcohol after Jason Wren passed away,” Roney said. “It gave us a sense of urgency — we really need to address this now.”

Under the new rules, if the University becomes aware of an alcohol- or drug-related violation through official notification, such as a police report, it notifies the parents of the student. The Department of Student Housing will now notify parents when a student’s housing contract is canceled because of alcohol or drug violations, which was not policy when Wren was kicked out of University housing.

Additionally, incoming students under the age of 22 must take AlcoholEdu, an online alcohol education course, before they can enroll in classes.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to say, ‘Oh, I loved taking it,’” Roney said, “But there is national research that shows that it is one of the best tools available, other than one-on-one counseling.”

The University also enacted an amnesty policy for underage students. They will not be punished for drinking when they call for help, either for themselves or for a friend.

“If you do the right thing and get help, then we’re not going to come after you,” Roney said. “For some students, that can be a deterrent. We wanted to take that off the table.”

The University now bans campus sidewalk chalking by entities not registered with the University.

“The only reason we changed the chalking policy was we were trying to stop the bars from chalking on campus,” Perez said.

He said it was part of the University’s effort to reduce the presence of alcohol.

“It reduces access to students,” he said.

For when students decide to be in the presence of alcohol, the University has established a new responsible-drinking campaign for its students called the Jayhawk Buddy System. It focuses on students sticking together when they drink, making sure that everyone is safe.

“We are firm believers that when Jayhawks take care of each other,” Roney said, “that will make a big difference.”

In February, during a timeout in the men’s basketball game against the University of Missouri, a full section of students performed a flash mob, breaking out into a choreographed dance for a minute and a half, and then took off their shirts to reveal red Jayhawk Buddy System shirts.

It drew thunderous applause at Allen Fieldhouse. The YouTube video of it, posted by Kansas Athletics, Inc., received more than 300,000 hits.

The second Jason Wren Initiative in April ended with KU SAE members handing out items with the Jayhawk Buddy System logo: a string-pull backpack, a koozie, a cup, a bottle opener with a small light, a poster and a business card holder with a SafeRide card inside.

RESPONSE TO UNDERAGE DRINKING

More than a thousand people were silent while Chaz Rumage, a former KU SAE officer who helped organize this year’s Jason Wren Initiative, asked the crowd some tense questions last month as he introduced the event’s speaker.

“How many times have you gone out to get blackout drunk? How many times have you carried a friend home from the bar? Did you ever laugh at him, put him to bed, and say “He’s going to feel that tomorrow?

“These are all things we thought the night Jason passed away,” Rumage said. “Think twice about it and ask yourself, ‘How do I want this to play out?’”

He paused.

“So, the serious part being said, we’re also here to have a good time.”

He flipped on a pair of sunglasses, black with neon orange framing. The audience snapped to life, laughing.

“We all like to have fun, and we all like to drink, and the reason we’re here is not to tell you ‘Don’t drink.’ The reason we’re here is to tell you to drink responsibly.”

The second Wren Initiative highlighted the prickly issues in trying to reach college students — especially the underaged — with responsible-drinking messages.

One can point to Wren’s death and say it means that underage drinking shouldn’t be tolerated. Another can say it means that the underaged need the most help with safe-drinking education.

Before his son’s death, Jay Wren admitted that he knew Jason drank. In one of his online comments reacting to stories about Jason’s death, calling himself “DenverDad” on kansan.com, he wrote:

“Why do we let our children, underage, sleep in a house that has open alcohol and no adult supervision? It was the biggest mistake in my life.

“The law doesn’t allow anyone under 21 to be in bars after 10 p.m., but it’s OK for them to be in ‘sleeping bars’ called fraternities?

“YES, I made mistake of going to bar with my son the weekend before he died, the weekend I helped him move. YES, I made an error in judgment that it would be okay for Jason to be in a fraternity …

“I have not had a drink since the day I heard of Jason’s death. Why can’t fraternities change? Why can’t the University change?”

Jay Wren said then he is against 21-year-old students and underage students living under the same roof in University housing and at fraternities.

While Perez doesn’t draw the line at 21, he does think freshmen shouldn’t live in fraternities.

“I think that’s a mistake,” he said. “The Greeks know I think that, and I’m not popular with that view. The women don’t allow it, and they’re doing very, very well.”

Regardless of Greek involvement, the underage question can get complicated for the University.

Roney said, “I am unable, as a University administrator, to design programs that focus on healthy alcohol consumption for students under 21, because if I do that, I’m encouraging people to break the law. Sometimes I feel like our hands are tied behind us because we know what’s happening, but we can’t really deal with it.”

University officials have suggested one idea for Greek underage drinking — and Greek liability in general: no in-house alcohol, and maybe even no in-house parties.

All of KU’s sorority houses are dry. Most fraternity houses are not.

“From a risk management perspective, that just amazes me,” Roney said.

She used to be an officer for a sorority’s corporation board, and said she would be “very, very reluctant” to serve as a corporation board officer for any house that allowed alcohol.

Perez said more national fraternities are banning house parties.

“If we had a no-party-in-house community, I’d be thrilled,” he said. “I’m good with that.”

But only a fraternity, its corporation board, or the national fraternity has the power to change a house’s alcohol rules. The University and its officials don’t.

AN INFLUENTIAL DEATH

Jason Wren’s death shook his family, SAE, the Greek community and the University. After his death, his 16-year-old sister, Victoria, and mother, Mary, both committed suicide. The Greek community is still trying to adapt its policies. The University introduced more alcohol education and awareness. Maybe these changes will save a life. Maybe these changes aren’t enough. For Jason Wren, changes don’t matter.

— Edited by Lisa Curran

Class teaches students how to spot fraud

2010-12-07T15:03:00.003-06:00

[I shot, edited, then voiced this video.]

The University-Daily Kansan

To his surprise, Paul Mason saw himself on the screen. Someone had videotaped him getting his morning coffee at Panera Bread and driving to the School of Business.

Maybe next time Mason will think twice before he turns his students into crooks, teaching them how to wash checks, steal credit card information, even swindle the elderly.

Callie Reber, a master’s student from McPherson, is in Mason’s “Fraud Examination and Forensic Accounting” class. Her group did a presentation on surveillance, and couldn’t think of a better target than Mason.

They always saw him with a Panera cup in the morning, and they asked an administrative assistant near his office what time he usually got in. She said 7 a.m., so by 6:30 they were waiting at Panera, 520 W. 23rd St.

“It made me think about how I follow the same routine every day,” Reber said. “He thought it was a good way to show a real-life example of a class concept.”

The class, ACCT 741, is a graduate level class designed for people who will work with auditing. For some like Reber, who will be doing auditing for a firm in Kansas City next year, that might be a career as an auditor for a big company. But fraud is becoming more commonplace. Mason said detecting fraud “is becoming part of the accountant’s toolkit.”

“It takes a thief to train a thief to catch a thief,” Mason said. “We teach them the things that crooks do.”

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 in 2010 — about nine months — there were 282 counts of counterfeiting or forgery in Lawrence, according to the Lawrence police website. There were 52 counts of false pretenses or swindling, 501 counts of credit card or ATM fraud, 33 counts of impersonation, and nine counts of embezzlement.

On campus last year, there was one reported forgery and no embezzlement — better than 2001, when there were nine counts of forgery and 11 of embezzlement. And there were six cases of fraud last year on campus.

Mason said forensic accounting is one of the hottest jobs in accounting. But while it’s a problem everywhere, even rearing its head here on campus, Kansas City “is not a hotbed” for the job, with many big companies basing their fraud detection in big cities such as Los Angeles and New York City.

The class trained students broadly. It started with an overview of fraud, talking about why people steal and the art of deception. From there, it moved on to specific methods of fraud. Finally, the class broke into groups, each of which mastered a method of fraud.

The groups are giving presentations this week about the type of fraud they researched, on varying topics: surveillance, fraud gadgets, identity theft, mortgage fraud and even check washing.

“These criminals, they spend all day perfecting these techniques,” Mason said. “We arm our students with the ability to identify them.”

Katie Cox, a master’s student from St. Louis who plans to work as an audit associate for a public accounting firm, is in the class too. Her group did its presentation on health care fraud.

“I keep feeling like my grandma needs to take this class,” she said.

Her group researched ways of swindling the elderly, such as through Medicare or by providing services that people don’t need.

“It’s made me a little less naive,” Cox said. “I had several ‘aha’ moments.”

In addition to preparing students to spot signs of fraud, Mason set up the presentations in an executive format to give students practice at presenting their research professionally. He encouraged students to connect to their audience.

So Cox and her group decided to start their presentation with a classic scene from “Happy Gilmore,” where an old woman complains of pain before Ben Stiller’s character responds that her back will hurt too because she “just pulled landscaping duty.”

There isn’t any doubt that the class was interesting for its students and taught them different methods of fraud. But the question remains whether it was more interesting or terrifying.

“It was the one of the most interesting classes I’ve ever had,” Cox said.

But now Mason will have to keep checking his rearview mirror for students with videocameras. And Reber, whose group did the spying, said the class made her more suspicious, too.

“I asked for a shredder from my parents for Christmas,” Reber said.

— Edited by Clark Goble

Lawrence considers ideas for trash disposal

2010-12-07T14:11:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

If you’re trying to rile up someone from Lawrence — you figure talking about recycling, unemployment and parking downtown ought to do it — then bring up the city’s new discussion on trash collection.

In early September, the city council told city staff to come up with a menu of options for the future of the city’s trash collection. In late November, the staff sent the council a memo with three main choices. Now, it’s up to the city council and neighborhood associations across the city to weigh in.

“We weren’t trying to generate ‘the solution’ or ‘the right answer,’” said Tammy Bennett, assistant public works director. “We want it to serve as the basis of discussion moving forward.”

The first option is to maintain the status quo, the rear-loaded trucks that require a crew of two or three people with no requirement for citizens to rent a cart.

But the other two options propose buying new technology, such as fully automated trucks with arms to pick up carts, which typically only require a one-person crew. That means fewer trash collectors, less wages and less workers’ compensation the city has to pay out.

One of the options calls for mostly new, fully automated trucks, while the second calls for a mix of those and status quo semi-automated trucks, which would mean crews of one and sometimes two.

The new trucks also touch on a big Lawrence topic: the environment. Any move to fully automated trucks would require residents to rent a cart from the city. The carts would be available in different sizes — 35, 65 and 95 gallons — and would require people to pay more for throwing more away. That’s a positive for the green community.

Bennett said the city heard from residents who wanted the price of disposal to be related to the amount of waste, even measured by trash collectors at the curb.

“That’s really challenging from the technical perspective,” Bennett said. “Not to mention that there’s a real risk of increasing illegal dumping.”

Bennett said the cart system is more “doable” and that other cities have gone to a similar system.

Even beyond the trash collection aspect, the city staff included possible recycling options and goals for reducing waste in the memo, which will spur debate about how the city will handle recycling.

Britten Kuckelman, a junior from Wichita, said the carts might help the environment a little, but the city should be focusing on recycling.

She said the city of Wichita collected both trash and recycle bins, and her family began throwing away more things in the recycle bin than the trash.

“People will do what’s convenient,” Kuckelman said. “Right now, recycling in Lawrence isn’t convenient.”

Also, buying the shiny new trucks comes with a catch. They need space to stick out that arm and pick up the trash, so parking zones might change, especially in the tighter streets around town.

Bennett said the city could never have only fully automated trucks, because the current rear-loaded option is the only way to collect trash in areas like downtown.

Consider the ‘student ghetto,’ the area between campus and downtown Massachusetts Street. It has older, more narrow streets with dense parking.

Caroline Kraft, a junior from Tulsa, Okla., used to live in an apartment near 14th and Tennessee streets. She said parking around there is already strained by a lack of parking space.

“It’s a big problem already,” Kraft said. “The last thing we need is to reduce parking.”

She said regardless of what the city decides to do, it can’t change parking in that tight area without making things worse.

“That would be one place that may always have to have rear-loaded service,” Bennett said.

While a fully automated truck could cost as much as $230,000 — $30,000 more than the truck the city uses now — it would save money in the long term by saving on wages and workers’ compensation for trash collectors.

From 2005 to 2010 so far, the average cost of workers’ compensation for Lawrence trash collectors was more than $215,000 per year, according to the memo from city staff.

Bennett said most customers probably wouldn’t notice much difference in service between a fully automated and semi-automated trash truck. The required carts and altered parking, however, might be a different story.

It’s now up to the city to decide if it wants to start buying the new fully automated trucks, and how many it wants to buy. Neighborhood associations and concerned citizens have a chance to voice their opinion in the coming months. The city commission meets every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Bennett stressed that the three options laid out aren’t final, or even exclusive. The city’s choice might be a mix of all three, or something entirely else.

“There are tons of options out there,” Bennett said. “This is just a starting point, a first step.”

— Edited by Alex Tretbar

New machine fights Lawrence potholes

2010-12-02T13:59:00.006-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Irony can be expensive. Emily Strusz hit a “ginormous” pothole on Iowa Street two weeks ago — while she was driving her car to the shop for an oil change and tuneup.

“As a poor college student, you cross your fingers that this one didn’t pop your tire or bend your rim,” Strusz said.

No luck. The mechanics told Strusz, a senior from Republic, Mo., that her rim was cracked and bent. A new one cost her $150.

“I’m used to hitting potholes in this town,” she said. “Lawrence is notorious for potholes and bumps in the road.”

But Lawrence may now have a solution to its annual pothole problem — a long-lasting fix for any time of the year.

“Notorious”

If you search “Eudora, KS potholes” on Google, you get 1,500 results. For Topeka, there are 15,000 results. Going east down K-10, DeSoto has 21,000, Olathe has 19,000 and Overland Park has 37,000 Google results.

But search “Lawrence, KS potholes” and there are 80,000 results. Only Wichita has more Internet pothole buzz with 240,000 results.

Lawrence is infamous for its special winter crop, the pothole, that pops up when winter weather and snow pulls apart asphalt’s structure. That reputation has been cemented in recent years when city crews were unable to make long-lasting patches.

“People got frustrated because they saw guys throwing asphalt in a hole, driving over it and pulling away,” said Mark Thiel, assistant public works director.

They did that because they only had a cold mix blend of asphalt available, which fixed the pothole for a day or two before it needed repair again. The hot mix asphalt — which is the blend for permanent fixes — can’t be used in cold months.

In addition to its two-day lifespan, the cold mix is also limited by road conditions: It can’t be used if the ground is too wet or cold.

Thiel said that during last winter — which was particularly snowy and harsh — city crews were patching up as many as 400 to 500 holes a day with the temporary mix.

A new fix

But now the city has a new machine that allows city crews to apply a permanent fix in any month.

It’s called spray-injection patching, and it works like this: the crew clears the hole of debris, sprays oil into the hole, fills it with oily rocks, then regular rocks, and then rakes over it to try to even it out. You can tell a patch is from the new machine if it has reddish-brown rocks.

Instead of hours, Thiel expected the spray-injection patches to last months, if not years.

It can be applied while snow is still on the ground. The wetness doesn’t matter, Thiel said, only that the asphalt is above freezing temperatures.

Thiel said the traditional process could take five workers 30 minutes to fill a hole, while the new machine takes two workers five minutes, “with the same — if not better — results.”

The new machine cost $168,000, which Thiel said was closely comparable to the price tag of the traditional machines the city could have bought.

“It was an easy decision,” Thiel said.

Thiel said the city would continue to use its older cold mix technology after storms and whenever the city gets into pothole “crunch time.” The old fixes would be needed after storms to provide temporary relief until the new machine can stop by.

“It’s only one machine and we’ve got 800 miles of roadway to take care of,” Thiel said. “We obviously can’t be everywhere right away.”

But the idea is to reduce the overall amount of potholes “that pop back up after a storm,” he said, which should mean easier maintenance and quicker responses.

The city bought the machine in September and has used it since, filling up potholes across town.

“We’re trying to get ahead of the winter,” Thiel said, like a football coach talking about an old rival.

— Edited by Alex Tretbar

SIDEBAR: D&D Tire, 1000 Vermont St., receives customers with small and big pothole problems.

Jason Climer, the shop foreman, said the immediate impact of driving over a pothole can result in a damaged tire, broken rim or problems with the car’s alignment.

But there can be long-term effects also. If a driver allows bad alignment to go untreated, then the tires will prematurely wear out and there might be lingering steering problems.

If a driver hits a pothole hard enough, the car’s tie-rod ends can break or take damage, Climer said, meaning safety issues for the driver.

Report a pothole to the city with this report form.

Pothole reporting phone number: (785) 832-3456

Lawrence Police searching for a new chief

2010-11-28T13:57:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Lawrence is set to hire a police chief by the end of the year, the first time the city will hire a new chief of police in the lifetime of most University students. Former police chief Ron Olin vacated the job he had held since December 1987 to work for Kansas Athletics Inc. on Sept. 1 to fill its new position of director of security/internal controls.

The deadline to apply for police chief is Dec. 6. Applications must be submitted online and can be found on the City of Lawrence website.

Applicants must have a four-year degree in law enforcement, political science or a related field, nine years of “increasingly responsible experience” with municipal police, four years in a management role and a master’s degree is preferred, according to the online job description.

Capt. Tarik Khatib has served as interim police chief since Olin came to the University.

— Edited by Abby Davenport

Study reaffirms KU alcohol abuse prevention efforts

2010-11-23T13:38:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

About ten days after the University debuted its newest responsible-drinking campaign, a large federally funded study concluded that similar campaigns can help cut down on the dangerous habit.

The Jayhawk Buddy System, which began this month, is the latest effort made by the University to curb the problem. The new program encourages students to stay with a ‘buddy’ while drinking.

Colleges and surrounding communities that team up to combat alcohol abuse have been met with some success, according to a recent press release for a study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse. The study tested the effectiveness of 14 California public universities’ alcohol abuse prevention programs and will be published next month in the the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

Its findings in some ways reaffirm the concerted effort made by the University and city organizations in recent years to promote safer drinking habits among students.

The University

After two alcohol-related deaths in early 2009, the University has been pushing for more responsible student drinking.

Beginning in the semester after these deaths, incoming students who were 21 or younger were required to take an online alcohol education course. And the University already had SafeBus and SafeRide, which are available at night for KU students who need a ride home.

The Jayhawk Buddy System debuted Nov. 1. Similar to the successful universities in California, it focuses on off-campus drinking, since the University has a dry campus.

Molly Kretzer, a senior from Wichita, was on a team that came up with the Jayhawk Buddy System. Her team was one of six that did research on responsible-drinking campaigns at campuses across the nation in associate professor of journalism Bob Basow’s campaigns class.

Kretzer said that KU students go to bars more often than those at other universities, probably because of the strict dry campus rules.

Her class also found that students respond better to positive messages — not preaching or scare tactics. She said the best option was a positive message coupled with strict enforcement, a sort of good cop-bad cop routine. Those two elements — a publicized campaign and more enforcement — were the two key factors to preventing alcohol abuse, according to the California study.

“We didn’t just say, ‘Give us your best ideas.’ We said, ‘Go out and research what works,’” said Frank DeSalvo, associate vice provost of student success and customer of the campaigns class.

The community

One of the most important aspects of success of the schools in the California study was that the universities weren’t alone, but got support from the community and local law enforcement.

“It has to be a multi-faceted approach,” DeSalvo said. “No single thing will work.”

The GaDuGi SafeCenter, Douglas County’s rape crisis center, created the Safe Bar Alliance over the summer. It’s a coalition of bars, restaurants, and taxi services who have agreed to keep an eye out for their patrons’ health.

“It’s not just a title,” Kretzer said. “It’s something they must do.”

Kretzer, who also is working with the alliance, said the companies who sign up are obligated to stop harassment and help drunk people find a safe ride home, and bartenders even have to know the phone number to a taxi, “instead of being a bystander.”

Kretzer said seven bar owners communicated with her campaigns class from its start, and she is trying to recruit as many Lawrence bars to join the alliance as she can.

“It’s just going to take time,” she said.

DeSalvo said the “unified front” between University and community told the students two things.

“One, you’re important to us,” he said. “Second, you’re doing a lot of things right, and we’ll reinforce that. We’ll remind you.”

The future

While the Safe Bar Alliance is adding as many new bars as it can, the University has plans on its side of the fence, too.

DeSalvo said his office is working with SafeBus to put its stops in more convenient places for students.

A website for the Jayhawk Buddy System is expected early next semester, and DeSalvo said he hoped that a corresponding toolkit would be ready by spring break.

The University police have started putting the buddy system logo on their cars, but it’s only on a few so far.

“It’s an easy partnership we have with student success,” University police chief Ralph Oliver said, “and we want to keep it that way.”

Oliver said the police was in the process of being educated about the buddy system and they would be able to talk about it, for example when people at a basketball game ask about the logo.

DeSalvo said that one of his office’s biggest challenges was dealing with the high rate of student turnover from year to year. It’s difficult to get a message out to people if a third of them leave every year.

“The ultimate goal is for us to encourage a culture change in the students,” he said. “That takes time.”

— Edited by Michael Bednar

ABOUT THE STUDY

The study started in 2003 and examined 14 large public universities in California. Then, half of the universities and their local communities started combining responsible-drinking campaigns with stricter enforcement on students drinking off campus, while half stayed the same.

Students at the enforcing universities did better than the others. They are about 6 percent less likely to get drunk anywhere, 9 percent less likely to get drunk at off-campus parties, and 15 percent less likely at bars and restaurants.

The study’s press release pointed out that the most successful schools were the “universities with the highest intensitity” of cracking down, complete with heavy publicity and highly visible enforcement.

Students didn’t just choose to go elsewhere, either. The study reported that non-targeted areas like parks, beaches and residence halls didn’t see an increase in alcohol use.

Between 500 and 1,000 students per campus per year filled out an online survey for four years for the study.

Making the rounds with KU Public Safety

2010-11-21T13:37:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Editor’s note: On Nov. 10, reporter Garth Sears rode with an officer from the KU Public Safety Office during his shift. His account of the night is below.

The lights on top of officer Robert Blevins’ car flashed red and blue as his car screamed as loud as it could. He flew north on Naismith Drive. at 50 miles per hour. He parked his car behind Tower A of the Jayhawker Towers, ran up the stairwell to the fourth floor and followed the racket of a fire alarm to a door.

“EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY,” the recorded voice blared. Some smoke wafted out into the hall, as he opened the door.

Inside, two women sat on their couch, looking a little sheepish. One had burned her dinner, setting off the fire alarm, and she couldn’t help but smile at the commotion she had caused. She had the charred remains of dinner on a plate in her lap, explaining the alarm without words when the emergency responders got there.

“It’s still edible, right?” Blevins asked, laughing.

Public Safety Office Building

The KU Public Safety Office has its own dispatch center, which calls police from the Public Safety Office and fire trucks from the city when people on campus need help. During the last academic year, it called fire trucks to campus 495 times, not including winter break, according to a city report. In fact, because of the similarities in dispatch centers, Douglas County can use the University’s dispatch room in a pinch.

If you call 911 from a cell phone, cellular companies have worked with the city and University to pinpoint your call — off-campus calls go to the Douglas County dispatch center. But if you call while on campus your emergency call goes to the University dispatch, and maybe Blevins will be the one who comes to help you.

Satellite buildings further west

Blevins listens to the Lawrence Police Department’s radio for crimes in progress while driving on patrol, which he said was his way of monitoring the area just outside of his jurisdiction.

“Things have a tendency to drift onto campus,” he said.

As he drove, eyes darting toward the dark spots, he talked about his love of working at the University, especially compared to other police departments.

To be a police officer in Kansas, a trainee must complete 560 hours of basic training at the state law enforcement center. Another 640 hours of in-department training follows, including some basic training and ride-alongs with a training officer, before the trainee can be put on general assignment, according to the KU Public Safety Office website.

The University and city police back each other up when there is an overload of calls. Blevins has occasionally responded to calls from the city.

Bagley Dr., outside the Stouffer Place apartments south of Daisy Hill

For Blevins, it all started with a class project in junior high: find a job you think you’d like and go tag along with someone in the profession.

So he had an adventurous ride-along with his cousin, who worked on the traffic unit of the Lawrence Police Department.

His cousin was the closest officer to a residential burglary call. As they approached, they saw the car matching the description from the victim. His cousin got the guy.

“That’s when I caught the bug,” Blevins said.

He’s been working as a University policeman for more than four years.

“My dad told me, ‘When you pick out your job, pick one that makes you happy,’” Blevins said. “I’m happy.”

19th St. east of Iowa St.

Robert Blevins can turn into Officer Blevins quickly.

He has the unusual ability to be completely immersed in a conversation, right before he flips a tight u-turn unexpectedly, revs up his engine, and turns on his siren.

“They had a light out,” he said of the navy blue Saturn pulled over in front of him.

The process was the same every time Blevins pulled someone over: He shined his bright car-mounted light on the driver’s side, radioed University dispatch to give them the car’s information and his location, and walked up to get the driver’s license and registration.

The woman kept staring at her rearview mirror to see what Blevins was doing. She looked nervous.

Called to Jayhawker Towers

There was some kind of physical confrontation reported at the Jayhawker Towers that dispatch called out on the radio. Another officer was already there, but she needed help getting the account of the person who reported the incident.

Blevins was there within a minute or two. He pulled up to the parking lot west of Tower A, got out of his car, and started looking around.

It took him less than 15 seconds to find the man, in a gray shirt and sweats, with a blue jacket.

The two men stood at the foot of a cement staircase, and Blevins had a foot on the first step and his hands in his pockets. They stood side-by-side, like they were discussing the weather or the latest basketball game. It seemed to calm the man down.

At 7:10 p.m., the other officer came over to talk to Blevins about what he found out. The incident seemed less criminal all the time. It was okay for him to leave.

“Everything’s fine,” the other officer radioed back to dispatch.

Patrolling West Campus again

Blevins is used to respect.

He’s an unassuming, friendly guy. He’s certain to ask anyone who crosses his path, “How are you doin’ tonight?”

But people still step out of his way, or perhaps stutter when they first talk to Blevins. When he walked through a crowd of students, their eyes darted from his badge to his gun to his handcuffs.

“When you’re in one of these marked cars, they’ll wait for you to go at a four-way stop, even though they were there first,” he said.

Parking garage near Allen Fieldhouse and the Burge Union

Blevins checked out spots like parking garages for the same things he was looking for in West Campus, because they’re both areas with parked cars and few people around.

He said these patrols rarely catch an act in progress, but that didn’t meant crime went undetected.

“The public is really our eyes and ears,” he said. “Police are very dependant on the public.”

In fact, the number of car burglaries has been down for the last few years. According to crime statistics published on the Public Safety Office’s website, there were 115 car burglaries in 1999. The number was in the 70s, 80s, and 90s from 2000 to 2004.

But from 2005 to 2009, the last full year of statistics available, the number of car burglaries was in the 30s and 40s per year.

Fire call to Jayhawker Towers

A dispatcher announced a fire alarm at the Jayhawker Towers. Blevins was visibly hurried, the most he had been that night. His hands scrambled to grab and put up his speed gun, then they grabbed the steering wheel.

He left the parking lot, made two lefts, then flew up Naismith Avenue to get to the towers.

It took him less than a minute from the radio call before he started climbing the stairs.

After he realized it was just smoke from cooking, he exchanged information with a member of towers staff to file an incident report. Then they had to wait for the firefighters to arrive so they could turn the alarm off and do their own report.

Blevins was joking with the women while they waited.

“What are you guys watching?” he said, looking at their TV.

Moments later, two tall firefighters wearing heavy equipment also completed the hike up to the fourth floor.

Everyone was laughing, smiling and joking while the alarm blared.

“You guys been busy tonight?” Blevins asked the firefighters.

Maybe not that night, but firefighters are often busy coming to campus. They did it 495 times last school year, not including winter break — more than two per day. And fire trucks went to the Jayhawker Towers 52 of those times, according to a report from the city.

That means firefighters responded to the towers more than 10 percent of the times they came to campus last year.

— Edited by Roshni Oommen

University uses campaigns class project

2010-11-17T13:34:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Molly Kretzer’s homework has been posted on University police cars, doors of local bars and even the big screen at Memorial Stadium.

That’s where the Office of Student Success is putting the logo for its new responsible-drinking campaign called the “Jayhawk Buddy System,” which started in Kretzer’s campaigns class. In the class, which was taught by associate professor of journalism Bob Basow last spring, students do research and develop a campaign for a client.

Kretzer, a senior from Wichita, said students in her class traveled to several universities across the nation to research effective responsible-drinking messages with money donated by O’Malley Beverage, a local distributor for Anheuser-Busch.

Frank DeSalvo, associate vice provost for student success, said his office used the research to learn a couple of things about how to reach students.

“Students don’t like to be preached at, threatened or scared,” he said.

That’s why the “Jayhawk Buddy System” campaign focuses on positive actions students can take. There’s even a positive acronymn for the plan that goes with it: IACT.

“We know that students who get in trouble are often the ones who get separated from their friends at the end of the night,” DeSalvo said.

Kretzer’s campaigns class did the research together but divided into six groups that came up with different campaign proposals for their customer — the University. Kretzer was on the five-member team that proposed the buddy system.

The Office of Student Success took the proposal and made changes to it before introducing it to the University Nov. 1. For example, Kretzer said, her group’s proposal didn’t include IACT, but it did include suggestions for how to handle the campaign, like with Greek Life or during Hawk Week.

“As soon as we gave our presentation, it was in their hands,” she said. “It was their product. That’s the point of the campaigns class.”

She said the class took its research approach mostly from the model at the University of Virginia, which focused on in-depth polling to delve into the students’ behavior. They conducted their own focus groups with freshmen and sophomores, asking about their habits and opinions on certain key topics like fake IDs or binge drinking.

Kretzer said the class found that students consistently overestimated the drinking habits of their peers, thinking that others drank more regularly or dangerously than they actually did.

“If people realize they are in the majority, it might change how they act,” she said.

Kretzer said the University of Virginia’s approach used the in-depth information to create positive messages, and it found out that those positive messages worked better with students. Her group applied that lesson to its buddy system proposal, adding ten rules of partying that correlate with the research they did.

“Count sheep, not shots,” she said, as an example of a rule. “More than 40 percent of KU students have not passed out from drinking.”

Kretzer said the University of Nebraska was a good example of effectively implementing a drinking campaign, because it coordinated the police, the community and the university well.

“Their community efforts are intense,” she said.

She said Lawrence’s partnership between community and University isn’t as strong as that in Lincoln, Neb., but things like the safe bar alliance — another project that used the class’ research — are improving that partnership.

“It’s being built right now,” she said.

Chief Ralph Oliver of the KU Public Safety Office said the University police have “jumped right on top of” the campaign. The logo is on a few police cars, but not all yet.

“When people have too much alcohol, it can go medical or criminal,” he said. “We prefer to deal with less life-threatening situations.”

Oliver said his officers would be able to discuss it with anyone who asks about the logo, like when they work crowd control at a football or basketball game.

DeSalvo said the community pitched in with this campaign. In addition to the funding from O’Malley Beverage, he said that Lawrence-based advertising agency Callahan Creek donated the campaign logo and bars around town are now sporting the logo.

“It’s a multidimensional effort, and we are not alone in this,” he said.

DeSalvo said that now that his office has debuted the campaign with its IACT slogan, they want to enhance it. He said the office is developing a website for it that he hopes will be up by the beginning of spring semester. The office is also developing a toolkit, planned for release early next semester, that would give information and advice, like how to divert someone’s attention away from drinking.

DeSalvo said no matter where the campaign goes from here, it will involve students’ input and be student-centered. That makes sense for a campaign started by students.

“They’ve given us the blueprint for this program and we intend to follow it,” he said.

— Edited by Lisa Curran

UDK crime report: November 17

2010-11-17T11:10:00.000-06:00

A student was the victim of aggravated robbery Nov. 7 near the intersection of Seventh and Mississippi streets. Her keys, iPhone (valued at $300), and wallet were stolen.

Sometime between Nov. 1 and 8, a student's home on the 1300 block of Ohio Street was burglarized. His MacBook was stolen, a loss valued at $1,500.

Police searching for Oliver Hall fire suspect

2010-11-15T13:32:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Police are looking for the person who tried to start a fire late Friday night in Oliver Residence Hall, 1815 Naismith Dr.

Someone tried to set fire to a banner on the seventh floor of the dorm, said Capt. Schuyler Bailey with the KU Public Safety Office. The fire occurred sometime between 11 p.m. Friday and 12:30 a.m. Saturday on the north wing of the floor, he said.

Anyone with information about the person or fire can call the University police at 785-864-5900, or call anonymously to the KU crime stoppers at 785-864-8888.

— Edited by Roshni Oommen

Police forward indecent exposure case back to University

2010-11-14T13:30:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

After two students reported that a man was watching porn and masturbating at Watson Library on Oct. 25, University police have forwarded the case to the University administration, according to a statement from Capt. Schuyler Bailey of the Public Safety Office.

“Unfortunately, the reported incident did not meet the strict requirements of the statute on indecent exposure,” the statement said. “The complaint has been referred to the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Success. However, any report from that office will not be public record.”

That’s news to the reporting students — Dylan Kingsley, a senior from Kansas City, Kan., and Emily Preheim, a junior from Overland Park — who identified the man on a photo lineup.

Although neither woman said they saw the man’s penis, they did witness him looking at porn on a computer on the fourth floor of Watson Library, in a computer lab, and masturbating. When the man got up to leave, there was a stain on his chair and his pants. Kingsley said the police swabbed the stain on the chair for DNA.

They said they last heard from police that the man would receive a notice to appear in court, and if he didn’t, a warrant would be issued for his arrest.

“I’m a little confused by it,” Kingsley said about the statement. “What measure is actually being taken?”

The women completed a two-week process of cooperating with the police’s investigation, they said. After an unsuccessful initial photo lineup made from mugshots, police made a composite sketch with Preheim. From it, they said, police had a lead, and the man was identified on a second photo lineup made from driver’s license pictures.

The women said they’re frustrated the many hours of cooperation — the composite sketch took Preheim three hours — didn’t lead to legal action against the man, especially after police found him.

“I think it’s bullshit,” Preheim said. “It was a waste of our time.”

— Edited by Abby Davenport

Student arrested on charges of operating under the influence

2010-11-14T13:26:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

An 18-year-old University student was arrested early Saturday morning on the 1600 block of Crescent Road on charges of operating under the influence after he crashed his vehicle, police said.

Lawrence Police Sgt. Kirk Fultz and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office booking recap said Samuel Schlotterback hit a retaining wall and a fire hydrant, flipping his Subaru over.

Fultz said a witness saw people from another car help Schlotterback flip his Subaru upright before trying to drive away when police arrested him.

According to the booking recap, Schlotterback was also charged with failure to report an accident, having no insurance, and leaving the scene of an accident. He was booked after 2:30 a.m. and posted bond the same day.

— Edited by Abby Davenport

UDK crime report: November 12

2010-11-12T11:07:00.000-06:00

A student reported an assault Nov. 8 on the 1600 block of W. 15th St. His roommate pushed him, causing him to hit his head and back. An arrest was made.

School of Business audited over course fees

2010-11-11T13:23:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Of the $30 million the School of Business has raised since 2004 from course fees, a third-party accounting firm reported that the school spent 99.8 percent appropriately.

The report addresses concerns from several MBA students who lodged complaints with the Kansas Board of Regents this summer. The findings are from an audit by BKD LLC, the same accounting firm that investigated the Athletics Department ticket scandal.

The report “confirms that we have used those funds for the benefit of our students and the advancement of the programs in our school,” said William Fuerst, dean of the School of Business.

Some of the MBA students also called for Fuerst to be fired. He announced Sept. 22 that he would step down after the academic year, but a school spokesperson told The University Daily Kansan that his resignation wasn’t related to those demands.

The school instituted the course fees in 2004, and the tuition proposal for it specified where the money could be used.

BKD LLC’s audit found that 0.2 percent, or about $60,000, of the $30 million in spending was inconsistent with the original fee proposal. BKD reported that almost $28,000 in payroll to some professors over the summer of 2005 was inconsistent with the fee proposal. The audit also found that the school used more than $24,000 of course fees inappropriately to pay for fees related to accreditation and membership in the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The proposal established a student advisory committee, responsible for overseeing how the course fees were spent. But the committee was disbanded by 2006, perhaps the students’ biggest complaint.

Provost Jeffrey Vitter called disbanding the committee “an oversight,” and said that keeping the committee might have prevented conflict.

“Could we have avoided the controversy by having a mechanism in place?” Vitter said. “I think the answer is yes.”

The committee was re-established Oct. 21 and agreed to meet again to discuss the findings of this review.

Course fees, also called differential tuition rates, represent about 40 percent of the school’s budget. On top of normal tuition, business students paid an extra $102 per credit hour in course fees this semester, and master’s business students paid an extra $187 per hour.

BKD’s report, released Thursday, includes an appendix accounting for just under $30 million, listed by year and broken down into 17 categories of spending.

“If this doesn’t answer the issues of critics, then that’s their issue,” Vitter said. “I don’t think anything will ever answer their issue.”

In a response letter at the end of the report, Fuerst said the school will review what BKD identified as inappropriate spending with the student advisory committee.

Vitter said the committee will receive reports on expenditures and planned expenditures in the future.

Although BKD found that the school spent nearly all of the fee money appropriately, the report also said the fee proposal was vague in places and that “there could be differences of opinion” about whether an expenditure conflicted with the fee proposal.

The provost’s office contracted BKD to perform the audit, which cost an estimated $50,000 and was overseen by a committee of students, faculty and staff. The provost’s office paid for the audit with private donations.

— Edited by Alex Tretbar

Photo studio aims for alternative glamour

2010-11-09T13:20:00.000-06:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Beadre Angermuller had her picture taken at a new studio in town just weeks after giving birth, even though she was still carrying some baby weight.

“Holy crap, that’s me?” she said when she saw her picture. “It made me feel a hell of a lot better about myself.”

That’s the point at Bombshell, located at 613 N. 2nd St., a photography studio that focuses on making women look beautiful regardless of size, age or anything else. Although the company uses computerized effects to make their pictures look like vintage pinups, the goal isn’t to alter the woman’s appearance.

“That’s what I hear over and over and over,” co-founder Carol Ann Zuk said. “‘Wow, that really is me. And look at me.’”

Carol Ann Zuk and John Gladman, the owners and operators of "Bombshell"

Zuk said if you ask women if they like themselves, too many say no. Speaking from personal experience, Zuk said she was never happy with herself until she was into her 40s.

“I didn’t think I was good enough,” she said.

Body dissatisfaction is especially high among college women, where 91 percent of women reportedly attempted to control their weight through dieting, according to The National Eating Disorders Association.

“There’s a stereotype of ‘The College Woman,’” said Bailey Bosc, a senior from Mission.

As soon as they get to campus, she said, women can feel like they’re expected to do certain things.

“You’re supposed to wear this, supposed to look like this, supposed to hang around these people,” she said.

Often these body-images are distorted, Zuk said.

“Their boyfriends like them better than they like themselves,” Zuk said about a lot of college-aged women. “And they don’t believe it. It’s sad.”

Zuk said that is the reason she is trying to help the self-esteem of women by making beautiful pictures with their real bodies.

“It has to start with you liking yourself,” Zuk said. “You can’t get healthy from an unhealthy perspective.”

Dozens of women — even Zuk’s 87-year-old mother — have their pictures on Bombshell’s Facebook page. It’s apparent from the Facebook comments that Bombshell isn’t a company with customers so much as a club with converts.

Sam Hamm, who graduated from the University in May, got her picture taken at Bombshell, along with her mother and her little sister, who is still in high school.

One part of the photo shoot was designed around Hamm’s mother’s favorite show, “Bewitched,” and featured the girls riding brooms in front of a yellow moon.

“I was laughing the whole time I was at the studio,” she said. “I was actually wondering if I’d have a good, serious picture.”

Hamm also wanted something more provocative, so she has another picture posed in front of a bubbling bathtub with a towel held over her chest and hands to an agape mouth, as though she’s just found somebody peeking at her.

“They cater to what you’re comfortable with,” she said.

Even though some of the pictures are seductive, Zuk said the goal is to keep them within good taste. “Classy, tasteful, just different — we’re not what you see in the mainstream media,” she said.

It’s obviously working. The studio opened on May 16, doesn’t do advertising right now and, yet, is booked for two or three weeks in advance.

Zuk said the customers were the company’s best advertisements. Even Angermuller — Bombshell Girl No. 63 — took a job at the studio two weeks ago, answering calls and emails.

Bombshell also takes men’s pictures couple’s pictures and children’s pictures, all using the same digitally painted technology.

— Edited by Emily McCoy

The process

Carol Ann Zuk and photographer John Gladman work together to make a picture that's half photography, half art. A woman comes in, gets her hair done -- but no makeup besides lipstick -- and models for a vintage 1940s style pin-up.

Then Gladman uses a computer to paint, a process that takes him at least two hours. He paints makeup on the woman, and paints the whole picture in a style that's soft and warm, just like a vintage pinup. He's been digitally painting for 15 years.

Zuk said only a couple of companies nationwide used the painted effect for the vintage pinup look, and Bombshell was the only one she knew that painted makeup on.

For more info:

Bombshell | 613 N. Second St. | 913-669-3423

Website | Bombshell's Facebook page

Police investigate vandalism at the Union

2010-11-06T14:17:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Public Safety Office Sgt. Bob Williams has confirmed a case involving vandalism at the Kansas Union, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd, today.

Williams said the Jayhawk statue in the front of the Union was knocked over, and two ATMs there were damaged.

Police are working on the case, but no suspect has been identified yet.

UDK crime report: November 5

2010-11-05T11:58:00.000-05:00

A student reported to police that his driver's side window was shattered Oct. 22 on the 1500 block of Tennessee Street. The damage is estimated at $300.

A student reported hood and grill damage to her car Oct. 22 on the 3100 block of Ousdahl Road. The police report did not estimate the damage.

Two students reported disorderly conduct Oct. 23 on the 1800 block of Naismith Drive.

A student reported a stolen purse Oct. 24 on the 1000 block of Illinois Street. She lost items valued at more than $200.

A student reported criminal damage to the back window of her car Oct. 24 on the 1400 block of Regency Place. The damage was estimated at $500.

A few students reported an aggravated battery Oct. 24 on the 900 block of Vermont Street.

Student takes lead at local studio

2010-11-01T14:14:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Austin Roberson had to make an unusual decision as a high school freshman: play football or dance.

He had been dancing since he was 11, after his sister’s studio needed a Danny for a six-city tour of Grease. And he liked playing football too. But he didn’t have time to pursue both.

“I had to pick,” he said.

That choice led the sophomore from Silver Lake to a lifelong passion for dancing, a road that will travel through the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St., at 7 p.m. tonight.

Roberson has been a dancer for almost 10 years, but tonight is his debut as a choreographer. The Point B dance studio, 3115 W. 6th St., is putting on an hour-long show tonight, called “B Moved,” featuring the work of seven choreographers, many new like Roberson.

Most of the choreographers and dancers – dozens of them – are University students and alumni, but there are also high school seniors, other college students, and other Lawrence residents involved. They will be dancing to a wide range of music, from hip hop and contemporary songs to more lyrical or jazz-based music.

The show will have 13 pieces that tie small stories into a larger program, one that deals with different stages in life. One piece is about someone dying of cancer, another called “Let It Be” about letting life run its course.

Roberson is dancing in seven pieces, and choreographing two of them – one is a simple duet of dancers, but another, called “Jar of Hearts,” features eight women dancing alongside himself.

Roberson dances as a man who goes around consuming love, cheating on people, unable to stop. The women around him are his lovers, who react with varying emotions – perhaps happiness for the end of a poisonous relationship, or anger and jealousy for losing a man.

“He didn’t assign emotions to us because he wanted it to be natural,” said Julia Morgan, a sophomore from St. Louis dancing in “Jar of Hearts.”

Morgan said it varied from practice to practice, but she thought she would be representing an angry or frustrated side tonight.

Courtney Bone, who graduated from the University in May, is also dancing in several pieces, including “Jar of Hearts.” She said she liked the natural approach Roberson picked.

“If you can dance how you truly feel, you’ll give a great performance,” she said.

Cathy Patterson, the owner of Point B and organizer of “B Moved,” said the program is similar to “So You Think You Can Dance” with its modern music and dance styles.

Roberson said he wanted to be a dancer for awhile, able to quickly give a for-instance of how his career might go: Lawrence, to Kansas City, to Chicago, to Broadway – “Anything,” he said. “I don’t want to be here my whole life.”

He would want to do a little choreography while he dances, but would turn to choreography especially later in his career.

“Nobody’s going to hire you as a dancer when you’re 50,” he said. “That’s just the honest truth.”

So he’s learning about choreography, not only for his future career, but to help him in his dancing now. He stayed casual with his dancing partners, joking alongside them when the music stopped. Dancers who have worked with him said he’s open to their input. But when correction or instruction was needed, he wasn’t shy.

“It doesn’t seem like he’s never done this before,” Bone said.

Patterson said she was trying to foster the love of dance in people like Roberson, as well as provide them opportunities to learn. Everyone who talks about the studio emphasizes that it is inclusive and encouraging and that it’s fun, not a competition.

“Sometimes we have a 45-year-old dancing next to an 18-year-old,” Patterson said. “We just want to dance.”

She said she started her studio three years ago because too many college students who loved dancing as they grew up didn’t have anywhere to dance now. Her studio teaches drop-in classes, meaning you only pay for the classes you attend, whenever you have time to attend them. And you have to be 17 to attend a class, so only a handful of high school seniors attend.

It’s a studio designed for college-aged students with hectic schedules who just love to dance.

“We have this vibe,” she said. “When people get here, they’re drawn to it.”

The studio presents a company every spring that many of the class-takers participate in, including Roberson, Morgan and Bone. But “B Moved” is the studio’s first fall event, and Patterson said she wanted to incorporate more choreographers learning the craft.

Morgan said the studio was an amazing place because nobody was judgmental — of each other, or even of a new choreographer working in that role for his first time — which in turn made the dancing more fun.

“You can go there and be whoever you want to be,” she said. “As long as I’m in Lawrence, I’ll be coming back.”

— Edited by Roshni Oommen

UDK crime report: October 29

2010-10-29T17:25:00.000-05:00

A student reported to police that his driver's side window was shattered Oct. 22 on the 1500 block of Tennessee Street. The damage was estimated at $300.

A student reported hood and grill damage to her car Oct. 22 on the 3100 block of Ousdahl Road. The police report did not estimate the damage.

Two students reported disorderly conduct Oct. 23 on the 1800 block of Naismith Drive.

A student reported criminal damage to the back window of her car Oct. 24 on the 1400 block of Regency Place. The damage was estimated at $500.

A few students reported an aggravated battery Oct. 24 on the 900 block of Vermont Street.

Kansas scientists research water loss in aquifer

2010-10-26T17:23:00.000-05:00

The University Daily-Kansan

Here’s the problem with one of the world’s largest aquifers, which supplies about 70 percent of the water in Kansas: Scientists don’t know much about it, like which parts of it lose water the quickest.

The High Plains Aquifer, also called the Ogallala Aquifer, is a vast layer of underground rock and sediment that holds water. It stretches from South Dakota to Texas. Water levels in some parts of it, including western Kansas, have dropped as much as 200 feet since the aquifer was first tapped into in the 1940s.

“Virtually every earth science student in the United States has been hearing for decades about the developing crisis in water supplies in the Ogallala Aquifer,” said Greg Ludvigson, an associate scientist with the Kansas Geological Survey, who has been hearing about it since his education in the 1970s.

But now, recent technology and a $381,000 grant from the National Science Foundation has allowed the Survey to start working on answers. In the next few months, Survey scientists will be drilling in seven locations in southwestern Kansas to collect samples of the aquifer sediment.

“We’re looking at it from step one, the bare basics of it,” said Jon Smith, assistant scientist at the Survey and principal investigator of the project.

Smith said the project is designed to help scientists understand how the aquifer’s sediment is composed, how it holds water, and how different regions of the aquifer might be more or less productive.

“That piece of the puzzle isn’t clear to us yet,” Smith said. “That layering, that architecture of the aquifer.”

Scientists have studied the aquifer for a long time – Ludvigson said it’s a water source of strategic importance to the whole country – but the problem has been collecting a reliable sample that doesn’t fall apart.

“You go to the beach and stick a coffee can into the sand. If you pull it up, all that sand falls out of the bottom,” Smith said.

But now, the Survey will be able to capture foot-long, two-inch-wide samples from as much as 400 feet below the earth’s surface. Smith said the Kansas Survey was the only one in the Midwest with a rig capable of that, and it will be the first to gather these full samples from the High Plains Aquifer.

It’s an “exploratory study to show what we’re capable of, right now,” Ludvigson said.

The aquifer is vital to irrigation, the lifeblood of farming in western Kansas. Learning which parts of the aquifer are losing water quicker than others can help policy-makers, farmers, and city managers decide how to handle their water supply quicker.

Someone down the line will have to make some decision about how much water can be drawn from a certain area, Smith said. “And right now, there’s really not a very good answer to that question.”

Scientists will be able to build off the Survey’s research, take the same technology and drill other parts of the aquifer, and also apply the new knowledge to other aquifers around the world.

Now, in the months before the project starts, Smith said the Survey has used the rig north of Wichita, drilling into the aquifer, to “run it through its paces and deal with the kinks.”

— Edited by Tim Dwyer

UDK crime report: October 26

2010-10-26T17:18:00.000-05:00

A student reported an attempted aggravated burglary Oct. 19 in the 1500 block of Eddingham Drive.

A student reported criminal damage to the rear left fender of a Honda CR-V on Oct. 20 in the 1100 block of Louisiana Street. The damage was estimated at $800.

A student reported an instance of disorderly conduct Oct. 20 in the 200 block of Indiana Street.

Two students -- a resident and a neighbor -- reported a broken storm window Oct. 21 in the 1300 block of Ohio Street. The damage was estimated at $200.

A student who was the victim of battery past midnight on the morning of Oct. 22 refused to testify about it. A different student reported the incident to police. They were in the 700 block of Massachusetts Street.

Students report man masturbating at Watson Library

2010-10-25T14:12:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Two students reported to the KU Public Safety Office at about 2 p.m. Monday that a man was looking at sexually explicit websites and masturbating in a computer lab on the fourth floor of Watson Library.

Two friends, Dylan Kingsley, a senior from Kansas City, Kan., and Emily Preheim, a junior from Overland Park, were using the lab at the same time as the man.

Kingsley said she was sitting with her back turned to the man and her friend, Preheim, was sitting on the computer next to him. Preheim and the man were separated by a pillar.

“I turn to look at her, and I see that a kid’s looking at porn,” Kingsley said. “Right next to her.”

Kingsley said she called Preheim to tell her. They used calls and texts to discuss what the man was doing, and what they should do next.

Sgt. Gary Wieden, shift commander of the Public Safety Office, and Capt. Schuyler Bailey, its spokesperson, declined to comment on the case.

Ford plans the end of the Crown Victoria

2010-10-21T14:09:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

For decades, ‘Crown Victoria’ might as well have been named ‘Cop Car’ — but not anymore.

Ford Motor Co. has decided to phase out its popular Crown Vic, as it’s nicknamed, by next year, leaving police departments across the country to decide on a new model.

Crown Vics are extremely popular with police forces across the nation — the Detroit Free Press reported last year that the car had captured as much as 75 percent of the national police car market.

“Whenever I see a Crown Vic behind me, I slam on the brakes,” said Katherine Lindboe, a senior from Fairway. “I’ll squint to see if it has lights on top.”

Capt. Schuyler Bailey from the Public Safety Office said the University of Kansas police have eight Crown Vics, making up the majority of their fleet.

“It’s what we’ve driven for a while,” Bailey said.

But police here on campus and across the nation now have to decide on another model. Bailey said the University police aren’t necessarily focused on a particlar vehicle, though.

“We don’t specify the car, we specify the features we need,” Bailey said.

He said the police replace about four cars every two or three years with money from their budget.

When they do, they send a request to the state with specifications and the number of cars they need. The state then sends a notice out to manufacturers and dealers, who can respond with an offer.

Bailey said the police have options as to which cars they buy. They decide based on features offered and price. He said the police have bought Chevrolet cars before, but not often.

“Usually, they’re Crown Vics,” Bailey said.

Ford is unveiling a new model for police, the Taurus-based Police Interceptor, by the end of next year. It will have four-wheel drive, compared to the Crown Vic’s rear-wheel drive.

But for the first time in decades, Ford will have to check its rearview mirror.

Police nationwide are already using Dodge Charger vehicles, and Chevrolet is also unveiling a police car next year: the Chevy Caprice PPV.

The Detroit Free Press interviewed a Chrysler spokesperson last year, who said the company wanted to increase the Charger’s police car market share from 17 to 40 percent this year.

Without a standard ‘Cop Car’ patrolling the streets, Erin Robinson, a junior from Lawrence, said it might take her longer to recognize she was zipping by a cop, for better or worse.

“In times of crisis,” Robinson said. “Not just if I’m speeding.”

— Edited by Alex Tretbar

Campus burglaries on the decline

2010-10-18T18:04:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Budig Hall has been missing a projector since September, a loss valued at $4,200. The burglary was unusual because of what was looted and because there simply haven’t been that many burglaries this year.

The number of burglaries on campus have been steadily dropping for more than a decade. In 1997, 348 burglaries were reported on campus. In 2009, the most recent year available, there were 63, according to the Public Safety Office’s 10-year crime statistics.

“We work hard to educate the campus about crime prevention and much of that is paying off,” said Capt. Schuyler Bailey of the Public Safety Office.

Jamesia Carter, a sophomore from Kansas City, Mo., said the blue emergency phones posted around campus and the police patrolling campus make her feel safer. She said she knows all of the security officers at her dorm, GSP, too.

Based on the past 12 years of records, the two years with lowest incidents of burglary were in 2007, with 98 burglaries, and in 2009, with 63.

Bailey said the KU police have increased both the number of cameras in parking lots and the number of police officers on patrol. Bailey also attributes fewer burglaries to smarter decisions by people on campus – things such as locking doors or not leaving belongings unattended.

“The community recognizes they can fight crime through simple changes,” Bailey said.

DAISY HILL

Someone snuck into a supply room and stole the Budig projector off a shelf during a September weekend, according to crimereports.com, the website that the Public Safety Office links to for its daily crime log. The case is unsolved.

But as a testament to reduced burglary recently on campus, only two other alleged burglaries are listed on crimereports.com. Both involve cars that were parked outside of a dorm on Engel Road.

Twice this semester — once on Sept. 3 and once on Oct. 2 — carsparked on Engel Road were burglarized. The car that was allegedly burglarized in September was missing a bookbag with books and money that was valued at $453. The car that was allegedly burglarized in October was missing cash and an iPod, valued at $540. Neither case has been solved.

Residence halls pose extra security problems for University police, because the halls include clusters of homes and cars.

Yet the number of burglaries at residence halls improved dramatically last year. There were 30 dorm burglaries in 2007 and 38 in 2008. But, only nine burglaries allegedly occurred last year, according to the University’s recent Clery report.

Bailey said the police work with the Department of Student Housing to keep students living on campus safe. Among the programs to protect students is an employee training program.

“Officers spend a lot of time in the halls talking with staff, conducting presentations and simply having a presence in the buildings,” Bailey said.

Kristi Marks, a sophomore from Eureka, said the cameras that the University installed at the doors of her dorm, Corbin Hall, makes her feel more safe.

Marks said her car was broken into at Corbin last year, but it wasn’t her who reported it to police. Police informed her — with the guilty man already caught.

“I think police response here is excellent,” she said. “They’re very efficient.”

The Clery report — which counts burglary differently than the 10-year crime stats online, because it doesn’t include car burglary — tracks how much of campus crime happens at dorms.

Even comparing them to the burglaries on campus overall, the number of residence burglaries on campus are improving.

Of all burglaries on campus, 46 percent happened in residence halls in 2007. Again in 2008, the amount stayed at 46 percent. Last year, the nine dorm burglaries represented only 24 percent of burglaries that occurred on campus.

Bailey said residents in particular should know that they can help fight crime on campus.

“Report things and people who look out of place, lock doors, follow the rules regarding the swipe card door system,” he said. “It all helps.”

— Edited by Emily McCoy.

Fritzie transferred to Colorado hospital

2010-10-18T17:07:00.000-05:00

Brief not posted on kansan.com; PDF for Oct. 18 (Page 2A)

Matthew Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell who was injured during a Phi Gamma Delta fraternity party, was transferred Sept. 27 to a Denver-area rehabilitation hospital specializing in spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries, hospital officials confirmed Friday.

Fritzie was transferred from the University of Kansas Hospital to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo.

The US News and World Report has ranked Craig Hospital as a top 10 rehabilitation center in the nation for 21 consecutive years, since 1989 when the rankings started.

Fritzie was life-flighted from the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, 1540 Louisiana St., to the KU Hospital on Sept. 17 for head trauma after he dove into a temporary pool made from sandbags. According to a University report on its hazing investigation into the fraternity, Fritzie said he was "ordered" to "swan dive into the pool."

The University placed the fraternity on a two-year probation for violating the University's hazing policy. Some activities relating to the Sept. 17 party were part of the violation. However, its investigation did not substantiate that Fritzie's injuries were the result of hazing.

UDK crime report: October 18

2010-10-18T17:02:00.000-05:00

A student reported criminal damage to two of her truck's tires Oct. 4 in the 1500 block of Wakarusa Drive. The damage was estimated at $400.

A student reported criminal damage to his Ford Explorer on Oct. 8 in the 400 block of W. 14th Street. The damage was estimated at $1,500.

A student reported criminal damage to her Honda CR-V on Oct. 12 in the 1100 block of Louisiana Street. The damage was estimated at $800 and occurred sometime between Oct. 7 and 9.

A University worker reported a theft valued at more than $1,500 on Oct. 13 in the 800 block of Ohio Street. Most of the items were personal, such as boots, clothes and makeup, and everything was found the same day.

Reported rape over fall break

2010-10-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

A female student reported to police that she was raped early Wednesday morning in a University parking lot behind The Wagon Wheel, a popular student bar at 14th and Ohio streets.

Police confirm that a rape took place in a University parking lot.

The student said she was raped in University parking lot 100 between 2:30 and 3:10 a.m. Wednesday by an unknown man, according to a University crime alert posted Thursday afternoon.

Capt. Schuyler Bailey of the Public Safety Office said the rape reportedly happened between cars in the lot “directly behind” The Wheel.

Bailey asked that anyone who saw what happened call the Public Safety Office at 864-5900. Any tips can be called in to the Crime Stoppers hotline anonymously at 864-8888.

According to the University website, there is another section of lot 100. Bailey said the section involved was the larger section of lot 100, right off of Ohio Street, not the section on the west side of Stephenson and Pearson Scholarship Halls, by Sprague Apartments.

A University crime alert encouraged students to be aware of their surroundings, walk in groups and stay on lighted pathways.

— Edited by Anna Nordling

Hearing commences for Delta Chi rape suspect

2010-10-11T21:13:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

The preliminary hearing for a former Delta Chi freshman pledge was held today.

The suspect of an August alleged rape case at the Delta Chi fraternity house, 1245 West Campus Road, had his preliminary hearing scheduled today, according to Cheryl Wright, assistant to the Douglas County District Attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Dec. 20 at 1:30 p.m.

According to a Lawrence Police Department report, an 18-year-old Lawrence man sexually assaulted a female University of Kansas student after she fell asleep in the fraternity house the night of Aug. 20. The suspect was charged with rape and aggravated sexual battery Aug. 23.

Mariel Dryton, a sophomore from Leawood, was there the night of the alleged assault. She said there was a party and most people seemed to be having fun. Dryton said there wasn’t any indication that anything was wrong.

The international Delta Chi fraternity announced in an Aug. 24 statement that it was investigating its University chapter, pending the suspect’s criminal case.

“The Kansas Chapter and its members have continued to fully cooperate with the local authorities in their investigation,” Karl Grindel, assistant executive director for Delta Chi, wrote in an email. “Since there is currently an ongoing criminal investigation, Delta Chi will conclude its review once the criminal justice system has taken its course.”

FIJI placed on two-year probation for hazing

2010-10-10T21:11:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

The University of Kansas placed the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, more commonly known as FIJI, on two-year probation on Friday for hazing, and the investigation report released to the Kansan is full of new details explaining the circumstances of the incident as well as the extent of the fraternity’s repercussions.

THE RESULTS

Based on the investigation, University officials said three forms of hazing may have taken place from August through September.

— Extreme embarrassment or ridicule, through forcing pledges to wear costumes.

— Personal servitude, by pledges having to clean actives’ apartments.

— Endangerment to physical health, by “providing a culture where underage drinking was permitted, encouraged, and possibly forced,” the report said.

However, during an administrative hearing, University officials determined that only two forms — subjection to ridicule and personal servitude by new members — were substantiated as violations, said Jill Jess, a spokeswoman for University Relations.

“After a thorough investigation, the evidence substantiates that members of Phi Gamma Delta violated the university’s hazing policies,” said Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, in a news release Friday.

No individuals were under investigation for hazing, and no individuals were punished, Jess said. She said it was strictly an investigation into the fraternity as a whole.

But the fraternity itself is investigating individuals.

“The fraternity believes that the actions of a few members have resulted in these findings,” the Kansas chapter of the fraternity said in a statement. “Graduate trustees have been selected to review all actions of the fraternity, continuing the investigation into the findings of the University, and undertaking a membership review to determine which members will be allowed to continue as members.”

Bill Martin, the executive director of the national fraternity and its spokesman in this investigation, was out of his office Friday. He hadn’t returned an e-mail and his office directed all calls regarding the investigation to him.

THE INVESTIGATION

Although every name has been redacted, the report said University officials interviewed the man hurt at the fraternity Sept. 17, who said he was “ordered” to “swan dive into the pool.”

Matthew Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell, was life-flighted from the fraternity house, 1540 Louisiana St., to the University of Kansas Hospital that night for head trauma after he dove into a temporary pool. The hospital confirmed his presence and also his release Sept. 27.

Fritzie was one of about 30 people affiliated with the fraternity who were interviewed for the report.

He alleged that not only did active members provide him with alcohol, but that they made him drink it.

According to the report, Fritzie said he was placed in “timeout” in the corner of a second-story room that night, while active members sat at a table in the middle, drinking.

“They tossed beer cans at him and told him to drink,” the report said, and he “did not think he could say no.”

Besides describing his “timeout” as happening on the same day as the injury, Fritzie also detailed several other allegations that University officials investigated as hazing.

Fritzie alleged:

— Pledges were forced to fill and move heavy sandbags to build the pool in the weeks before the party, sometimes until as late as 2 a.m., and active members – “actives” – would throw sand on pledges while they worked.

— “Actives would pour beer on a pledge’s face, forcing the pledge to drink,” the report said.

— Pledges were required to do two exercises, “wall sits” and “bow and toes,” where “pledges were required to balance on their toes and elbows,” the report said, and were yelled at for getting tired.

— Pledges had to dress up as a character assigned to them by actives. Some of the costumes – like “Goth girl” and “fairy godmother” – were embarrassing.

— Pledges were forced to clean the homes of junior and senior fraternity members.

Among the 23 other pledges besides Fritzie and six active members interviewed, differing accounts of what happened that night arose.

The pledges said that making sandbags and building the pool was hard work, but that it was a joint process that active members helped with and oversaw.

Some of the other pledges were asked if it was required to clean the apartments of actives. Every pledge asked said no. But an unnamed active member admitted that pledges had cleaned his apartment.

The same active member said new members were supposed to clean houses, and then asked the interviewer whether it was hazing. The interviewer asked him what he thought. He replied, “I suppose it is,” the report said.

One pledge said that only one person dove into the pool, but one of the other active members said others were also diving in from on top of the sandbags, according to the report.

Many of the pledges were adamant that Fritzie was not forced to jump into the pool. One member said that Fritzie knew how deep the pool was and that he wasn’t hazed. Another two members said he was not told to jump in, the report said.

Two active members said they saw Fritzie stand on top of the sandbags and jump in from the back of the pool.

FIJI’S PUNISHMENT

While the fraternity is on probation, it cannot participate in University events such as intramurals and Rock Chalk Revue.

The University news release also said FIJI would have to adopt all decisions made by its national office through the graduate trusteeship.

This means that FIJI will be alcohol-free through the 2011-2012 school year and no social events will be allowed on chapter grounds through the spring of 2011.

FIJI will be required to shorten its new-member education program to eight weeks and it will be coordinated by the graduate trustees.

Every chapter member will also be required to participate in community service hours.

— Edited by Anna Nordling

Jayhawks shave heads for breast cancer

2010-10-09T21:06:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

They were about to buzz off Grace Chin’s short, black hair.

“I’m not scared,” Chin said, sitting on the chair. “Do it.”

It was two weeks ago when Chin, a senior from McPherson, was talking about starting a head-shaving event in October, to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

That was when the topic hit home.

“The day I first talked about doing this event, my mom visited me up here and told me they found a cyst in her breast,” Chin said. “She’s flying back to Korea to get it removed.”

Doctors haven’t performed a biopsy yet to know if it is malignant or benign, but Chin is now a member of an always growing group – people on campus affected by breast cancer.

Chin and Jac Jewell, a second-year graduate student from Flint, Mich., organized a hair-shaving event Saturday in the lobby at Ellsworth Hall, which they were calling “The Bald and the Beautiful” on their fliers.

It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. Just some dorm residents coming in, pitching in some money to shave people’s heads, and getting to talk to two breast cancer survivors from Lawrence, Jewell said.

With students coming in and out of the lobby to watch, six people had their hair buzzed – Chin first and five men after her – while the crowd was joking and laughing.

Before the event, Jewell said he hoped for $50 in proceeds from Ellsworth’s spectators. After the event, he said they had raised about $120, which went to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

But Saturday was about much more than the money — it was about the bonding. The survivors at the head-shaving event turned a serious issue into a supportive conversation, packed full of laughs.

Jewell said he lost his mother to cancer, and one of his favorite elementary school teachers recently lost her battle with breast cancer. He said a few thoughts about his losses came up Saturday, but that’s not what the buzzing was about – it was about bonding.

“I hope people had an educational moment from having the survivors there to talk to,” Jewell said.

That was Saturday’s theme — turning a serious and sad topic into a supportive conversation.

Carrie Rangel, a Lawrence Memorial Hospital operating room nurse of 11 years, was one of the two survivors there.

“I want young women to know – it can happen,” Rangel said. “I was diagnosed when I was 31. It was the furthest thing from my mind.”

She was accompanied by her husband, Patrick, the man who had been married to her for two weeks when she was diagnosed.

The Rangels will be in Tampa Bay, Fla., at the end of October for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. November will mark Rangel’s third anniversary as a survivor.

Rangel’s mom had cancer, too, but she said she never would have buzzed her head to support her. And when she was sick, she never wanted anyone shaving their heads on account of her. Her explanation is simple: “It sucks.”

She said she admired the six newly buzzed heads.

“What they can relate to is, ‘I can’t just fix my hair how I normally would,’” Rangel said.

Katelyn Farlow, a freshman from Tecumseh, watched Saturday. She said she was surprised by statistics from the pamphlets there and interested by the head-shaving.

“I thought it was a great way to open our eyes,” Farlow said.

Paul Sneed, a professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese, decided to buzz his hair that day too when he found out what was happening.

“I’m proud of them for having this program,” Sneed said.

— Edited by Anna Nordling

Phi Gamma Delta placed on probation for two years

2010-10-08T21:04:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Breaking story, web-only

The University of Kansas has placed the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity on probation for two years for hazing, a violation of the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

"After a thorough investigation, the evidence substantiates that members of Phi Gamma Delta violated the university's hazing policies," said Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, in a news release.

However, according to the release, the "investigation was not able to substantiate that hazing resulted in any physical injuries."

Matthew Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell, was life-flighted from the fraternity house, 1540 Louisiana St., with head trauma after diving into a temporary pool.

Frtizie was life-flighted to the University of Kansas Hospital and was released Sept. 27.

No individuals were under investigation for hazing, and no individuals were punished, according to Jill Jess from University Relations. She said it was strictly an investigation into the fraternity as a whole.

While the fraternity, also known as FIJI, is on probation, it cannot participate in University events such as intramurals and Rock Chalk Revue.

Additionally, the news release said that FIJI will be required to adopt all decisions made by its national office.

This means that FIJI will be alcohol-free through the 2011-2012 school year, and no social events will be allowed on chapter grounds through the spring of 2011.

FIJI will be required to shorten its new-member education program to eight weeks, to be coordinated by the graduate trustees.

And every chapter member will be required to participate in community service hours.

The national Phi Gamma Delta fraternity was unable to be reached for comment.

Bill Martin, the executive director of the national fraternity and its spokesman in this investigation, was out of his office Friday. He hadn't returned an e-mail and his office directed all calls regarding the investigation to him.

Updated drug evades police, law

2010-10-04T20:59:00.001-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

The problem with making K2 illegal was that the law is nearly impossible to enforce.

K2, a synthetic drug with compounds that affect the same brain receptors as marijuana, has been outlawed in 13 states. Kansas was the first to outlaw it in March.

But just as easily as legislators banned K2, chemists made K3.

K3 has several variations and names, such as “Heaven Scent” or “Syn.” The new batch of creations is legal and acts exactly as K2 did — they just use different chemical compounds than the ones that made K2 made illegal.

The K3 variations are also sold in several places around Missouri, including Columbia, where the University of Missouri is located. This is all in spite of the fact that K2 was made illegal on Aug. 28 in this state.

Jill Wieneke, a spokeswoman for the Columbia, Mo., Police Department said, “Visually, you can’t tell the difference between the old K2 and the new stuff.”

She said if police come across a bag of white powder, they can test for cocaine, meth and heroin. However, the police don’t have a test for K2.

“It’s almost an unenforceable law,” Wieneke said. “It’s difficult to crack down on something you can’t identify.”

Although K3 is sold in Columbia, stores in Lawrence still might hesitate to sell it, especially in light of how quickly authorities dealt with K2 last year. Food and Drug Administration agents raided Sacred Journey, 1103 Massachusetts St., in February. The FDA confiscated the store’s stock of K2 along with other herbs, although K2 was legal at the time.

Sacred Journey’s supplier, Oskaloosa-based Bouncing Bear Botanicals, also had its warehouse raided. The company’s owner, Jonathan Sloan, was arrested during that raid for possession of controlled substances. All charges against him were later dropped.

Sgt. Matt Sarna of the Lawrence Police Department said that K2 hasn’t been a problem since it was outlawed. .

Regarding the law’s enforceability, he said the police haven’t had to “touch the legal aspects of it” yet.

“Until something comes up, we haven’t reached that hurdle,” he said.

Coffee Wonk, 3535 Broadway Blvd., in Kansas City, Mo., has sold a version of “Heaven Scent” for a while, but changed the chemical compounds after the August ban to ensure it was still legal. Coffee Wonk was robbed around 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 29. The robber took cash and packets of “Heaven Scent.” During the investigation, Coffee Wonk also had its supply of “Heaven Scent” confiscated by Kansas City police.

Police told Micah Riggs, the owner of the coffee shop, that if his supply didn’t contain any of the illegal compounds he previously sold, he would get his stock back soon. He still hasn’t gotten it back.

The colored states have outlawed JWH-018, the compound used in K2.

Coffee Wonk will still sell “Heaven Scent,” once they get it back anyway.

The laws against K2 prove that police both locally and across Missouri take it seriously. But the question of how well they can enforce these laws remains.

Kinsey Belger, a sophomore from Overland Park, said she smoked K2 when it was legal. She said the police were fighting a losing battle.

“If they want to make it illegal, whatever,” she said. “They’re just going to come out with K3, K4, K5.”

— Edited by Emily McCoy.

SIDEBAR: JWH-018, the compound used in K2, is currently illegal in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Tennessee.

John W. Huffman, from Clemson University, developed the JWH compounds, named after his initials, while he researched the effect of marijuana. There are hundreds of the JWH compounds, and some respond more strongly to humans than others. K2 used a JWH compound, and most legal K3 blends do also.

City project aimed at clearing game day traffic

2010-10-02T20:57:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Game days at Memorial Stadium are filled with traditions: tailgating, waving the wheat, parties and bumper-to-bumper traffic.

With around 50,000 people descending on Memorial Stadium each home game, traffic jams are inevitable.

“It’s beyond the capacity of any road system,” city engineer Shoeb Uddin said. “That’s just the reality of it.”

A map to show where the city will install fiber-optic cable in an effort to alleviate traffic and congestion during game days. The cable will run along Sixth and Iowa Streets and will eventually make the street lights there remote-controlled by the end of March.

But the city is starting a $500,000 project this fall that will help alleviate game day traffic jams and allow the city to respond to traffic issues quicker in problem areas.

The city will be installing fiber-optic cable along Sixth Street and Iowa Street and making the street lights there remote-controlled by the end of March.

On Sixth Street, the cable will start at Massachusetts Street and go west to Iowa Street. There, the cable turns south, and every light on Iowa Street between Sixth and 23rd streets will be changed, too. In all, about a dozen lights will become remote-controlled.

When there is an accident or a major change from normal traffic – 50,000 people attending a football game, for instance – the city will adjust the timers on the traffic lights to decrease congestion.

Right now, the only way for the city to adjust the timing of a light is to send someone to change the timer at the intersection. After the project, the city will be able to control those lights from anywhere, even from an engineer’s home late at night.

There will initially be six cameras installed at some of the intersections so the city can monitor the traffic in real time.

“We can monitor those from our office on a large screen on the wall,” Uddin said. There won’t, however, be someone sitting at a desk constantly watching and adjusting traffic.

After games at Memorial Stadium, 50,000 people leave in all directions. The campus cradles the stadium all along the south, making traffic escape that way difficult.

Many cars move southwest with the eventual goal of getting to Iowa Street. For those cars, the light at 15th and Iowa streets would be remote-controlled.

Traffic can also move north, where a large portion of the crowd walks and parks for a game. The ‘state streets’ – Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine and Missouri streets – are the only direct path for someone at the stadium to get to Ninth Street for escape. For those cars, the lights further north along Sixth Street and the one at Ninth and Iowa streets would be remote-controlled.

Chris Keary, the University’s Public Safety Office assistant chief of police, said police change many normal streets to two-lane, one-way streets to help clear out the mess. While the game crowd is leaving, a car cannot drive toward the stadium.

Eric Thibeault, a senior from Hutchinson whose house is at Illinois and 10th streets, said it’s impossible to drive to or from his house during that time.

“Traffic can be bumper-to-bumper an hour after the game,” he said.

There are also officers posted at dozens of intersections near the stadium to help traffic along and ensure pedestrian safety.

Uddin stressed that the city’s new system would not make the football traffic jams go away, and it’s not designed to replace the system the University already has for controlling crowds. But it will help clear out traffic quicker.

The project should be done by March, barring another harsh winter like last year, Uddin said. If it goes well, the city would try to expand the system to 23rd Street, which would affect basketball game days even more than the proposed light upgrades.

The city and state are splitting the cost of the current project, which will begin the end of this month or the beginning of November. Uddin said an expansion to 23rd Street would require more state funding, but he didn’t know how much.

— Edited by Joel Petterson

Injured fraternity pledge released from hospital

2010-09-28T20:49:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Matthew Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell, was released Monday from the University of Kansas Hospital where he was being treated for head trauma sustained at a fraternity party Sept. 17, the hospital's patient information department confirmed today. People from the nurses station who previously worked with Fritzie declined to comment on where he was taken.

Fritzie was life-flighted to the hospital after diving into a temporary pool at a party at Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, 1540 Louisiana St., also known as FIJI.

The University placed the fraternity on interim suspension Thursday pending a hazing investigation. Jill Jess, a spokeswoman for University Relations, said the investigation was connected to Fritzie's injury.

“After the accident we were made aware of allegations of activities that could be construed as hazing,” Jess said.

Dangerous road paves the way for pedestrian accidents

2010-09-28T16:36:00.000-05:00

Story not on kansan.com; PDF for Sept. 29 (Page 1A)

When Jessica Horn's class moved to northwest campus, her teacher had one warning for the students.

"The first thing our teacher did was warn us about this intersection," she said. "Everybody was talking about the easiest way to cross without getting killed."

That dangerous intersection is the meeting point of 11th Street and West Campus Road.

For the most part, West Campus Road is charming. It starts northward at the Chi Omega fountain, passes fraternities and sororities on the left side and nears JRP on the right side. At this point, the road loses all of its appeal.

The road winds around JRP and becomes eastbound 11th Street heading downhill toward Memorial Stadium, essentially designed for confusion.

Although there is a designated path for pedestrians to walk toward the Triangle fraternity, they don't always use it.

"It's almost lucky if you get across okay," Horn, a freshman from Hoyt, said. "A lot of the drivers aren't paying attention."

The drivers are confused by the intersection, too. Although there are four places for cars to turn, the right of way is L-shaped, going along the bend.

So, a driver coming up the hill from Memorial Stadium would be free to bend onto West Campus Road, while a car one directly faced would have to stay at a stop sign until traffic cleared.

Drivers new to the intersection are often puzzled, which only adds to the confusion and timidness of the walkers.

Matt Phillips, a junior from Wichita, is an education major who spends significant time near JRP. He said he was always cautious when he crosses the street. He called the intersection "a blatant free for all."

Jenna Mittelmeier, a senior from Iola, said she walked to school from the other side of the Triangle house -- from Ninth and Michigan streets -- which limits her route options.

"There's no other way besides crossing this road," she said. "It makes you a little nervous."

In 2004, through the Campus Safety Advisory board, students requested that the University of Kansas figure out a different crosswalk or good alternative.

Since that time, the University has been working on and off with the city, which is responsible for the streets, to find a solution. Last month, the University sent a letter to Dave Corliss, Lawrence's city manager, asking him to initiate a study of the area to "determine safe alternatives for pedestrian crossing."

"We want them to evaluate it with a fresh set of eyes," said Jim Modig, director of design and construction management at the University.

Modig said the University had a few options they were proposing to the city, but ultimately the city would have to look at the research and make the final decision.

The original 2004 student request asked the city to provide a lit path beyond Triangle fraternity, as if West Campus Road extended straight for walkers. Modig said that never materialized because of the complications of trying to install University lighting and material on private property -- the fraternity.

In 2008, officials from the University, city and local neighborhood met to discuss crosswalk options along both roads. As a result, the city asked the University for pedestrian counts. The University then used an engineering student to generate the count, which will be used by the city to analyze traffic, as well as to prioritize how important this intersection is to address. This information was included in last month's letter to the city.

The City Commission has sent the task to staff, meaning the city is only beginning to schedule when they will have an answer by.

Modig said the process can take a long time, and not only on the city's end. For example, once the University knew it needed pedestrian counts, it had to wait for the next semester to start, so that assessments would be correct.

Waiting is further compounded by the neighborhood, which will have input with any decision the city makes. In the original 2004 request, nearby people opposed the new lamps as light pollution.

Now that the University has sent in a pedestrian count and requested city attention, it's up to the city to propose a plan for the intersection.

--Edited by Emily McCoy

FIJI faces hazing investigation for injury

2010-09-25T20:46:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

The party’s over.

The University has placed the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity under interim suspension – the first University suspension in six years – pending a hazing investigation after a party where a student was life-flighted to the University of Kansas Hospital for head trauma.

THE INJURY

Matthew Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell, was life-flighted around 8 p.m. Sept. 17 after diving into a temporary pool at the fraternity, also known as FIJI, 1540 Louisiana St.

Lexie Engleman, the Lawrence battalion chief, made the decision to fly the student to Kansas City. She couldn’t comment on his condition, but said the injuries were severe enough to require sending him to a level-one trauma hospital.

Michael Cray and Ted Peters, sophomores in neighboring Phi Delta Theta, 1621 Edgehill Road, said a group of women was at the FIJI house during the accident but came over to Phi Delta Theta after.

Cray and Peters said they learned from the women that Fritzie came up from the pool struggling and convulsing. They said people helped him out of the water and stabilized his neck before paramedics arrived.

Cray and Peters said Fritizie couldn’t feel his lower body and arms.

“Throughout the night, we heard progressively better statuses,” Cray said of Fritzie’s condition.

Representatives at the University of Kansas Hospital confirmed Fritzie’s presence there but were unable to comment on his current condition.

Fritzie’s father, who was at the hospital, also declined to comment.

THE PARTY

Lawrence paramedics arrived at FIJI about 8 p.m. and airlifted Fritzie soon after.

But that didn’t stop the fraternity from partying.

Kelsey Fairbanks, a freshman from Olathe, said she got to the fraternity house about 9:30 p.m. but stayed only a short time.

She said she was carded when she arrived and overheard at the party that people were being carded because the police had arrived.

She said no one at the party was talking about what happened to Fritzie.

Ramona Yoder, a freshman from Newton, said she was there from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. She said no one was discussing Fritzie’s injury.

Yoder said the party appeared to be over when she walked by the FIJI house again at 1:30 a.m.

The most recent Phi Gamma Delta newsletter, which was from the spring 2010 semester and is available on kufiji.org, discussed some of the parties it hosts, including FIJI Island.

The University’s Interfraternity Council didn’t return calls and e-mails regarding whether FIJI had submitted a Party Notification Form for its party. Fraternities are required to turn in a PNF for all of their functions, regardless of whether they involve alcohol. The PNF is supposed to include a guest list and account for a sober member who constantly monitors the front door as well as other security measures.

If the party involves alcohol, the fraternity is required to turn in the PNF four business days in advance. The guest list and chapter roster are due 48 hours before the event.

THE FRATERNITY REACTS

On Monday, Sept. 20, three days after Fritzie’s injury, the FIJI house issued a statement.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Matthew Fritzie and his family. We are all praying for a full and speedy recovery,” it said. “We are investigating the events of the evening and will take appropriate disciplinary action if any of the Fraternity’s rules or policies were violated.”

The international Phi Gamma Delta fraternity released a statement Sept. 25, saying it was also investigating its Kansas chapter.

“Phi Gamma Delta International Fraternity shares the University’s concerns regarding the allegations of hazing that have been brought forward,” the statement said. “The Fraternity has suspended the activities of the chapter pending investigation of the allegations and a decision on any disciplinary action. The Fraternity and involved Phi Gamma Delta alumni have been in regular communication with University representatives and will continue to cooperate with the University.”

THE SUSPENSION

Thursday, Sept. 24, six days after the injury, the University suspended the FIJI house pending an investigation to determine whether hazing was involved.

Marlesa Roney, vice provost for Student Success, suspended the fraternity based on University code, according to a press release.

“The University absolutely will not tolerate hazing of any kind,” Roney said in the release. “Such violations of human dignity are always taken seriously and confronted immediately by this University.”

Officials from the Office of Student Success will conduct the investigation.

“After the accident, we were made aware of allegations of activities that could be construed as hazing,” said Jill Jess, spokeswoman for University Relations.

Jess declined to comment about how the University was tipped off to the allegations of hazing.

A student found guilty of hazing can face up to two years of suspension or at least two years of expulsion. An organization found guilty of hazing can be suspended for up to two years or face removal of organizational registration for at least two years, according to the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

Meanwhile, Jess said the suspension meant the fraternity would not be able to participate in any events such as intramurals as an organization during the investigation.

Other benefits that the fraternity will not have during the investigation include the ability to request funding from the student activity fee through Student Senate and the official use of University facilities, according to the University’s policy on student group registration information.

THE PRECEDENT

The last time the University suspended a fraternity was in October 2004 when it suspended Kappa Alpha Psi for almost two years after its international fraternity investigated allegations of hazing.

A University hearing panel, composed of University staff and a student, determined the fraternity had violated the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

The University allowed the fraternity to reapply for the status of a registered organization after those two years, but under several conditions.

For example, no current members of Kappa Alpha Psi at the time would be allowed to participate again in the fraternity, even as alumni.

It wasn’t the most severe penalty the University could have given for Kappa Alpha Psi or for Phi Gamma Delta now — the fraternity’s total expulsion from the University is also on the table.

— Edited by Joel Petterson

Fraternity placed on interim suspension

2010-09-24T20:43:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Breaking story, web-only

Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, also known as FIJI, was placed on interim suspension Thursday pending a hazing investigation by the University.

Marlesa Roney, vice provost for Student Success, suspended the fraternity based on University code, according to a press release.

“The University absolutely will not tolerate hazing of any kind,” Roney said in the release. “Such violations of human dignity are always taken seriously and confronted immediately by this University.”

Officials from the office of Student Success will conduct the investigation.

Jill Jess, spokeswoman for University Relations, said the suspension meant the fraternity would not be able to participate in any events such as intramurals as an organization until the investigation has been completed.

Matt Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell, was taken to the University of Kansas Medical Center for head trauma after diving into a pool at the fraternity Sept. 17.

“After the accident we were made aware of allegations of activities that could be construed as hazing,” Jess said.

The international fraternity has since released a statement saying it has been cooperating with the University’s investigation.

“Phi Gamma Delta International Fraternity shares the University’s concerns regarding the allegations of hazing that have been brought forward,” the statement said. “The Fraternity has suspended the activities of the chapter pending investigation of the allegations and a decision on any disciplinary action. The Fraternity and involved Phi Gamma Delta alumni have been in regular communication with University representatives and will continue to cooperate with the University.”

Fritzie was life-flighted from the fraternity around 8 p.m. Sept. 17.

Kelsey Fairbanks, a freshman from Olathe, said she got to the fraternity house around 9:30 p.m. but only stayed a short time.

She said no one at the party was talking about what happened to Fritzie.

Ramona Yoder, a freshman from Newton who was there from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., said the same thing as Fairbanks — no one was discussing Fritzie’s injury.

Yoder said after she and her friends left at 1 they walked somewhere else. On their way back to their own house at 1:30 a.m., they saw that the Phi Gamma Delta party had ended.

The party at FIJI finished about five and a half hours after Fritzie was life-flighted.

Yoder said there was a pool that had three walls of sandbags piled up and the fourth end was open and faced the house, but she didn’t know if it was the pool that was involved in Fritzie’s injury.

The University policy on hazing is listed in the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. It says a student is hazing if they threaten another person’s mental or physical health or if they cause serious bodily harm to or repeatedly try to make unwanted contact with another person.

It says hazing includes any action, activity or situation that recklessly endangers — intentionally or negligently — someone’s mental and physical welfare.

“It is presumed that hazing is a forced activity regardless of the apparent willingness of an individual to participate in the activity,” the policy says.

UDK crime report: September 21

2010-09-21T16:32:00.000-05:00

A student reported $500 worth of damage to their car Sept. 14 on the 1000 block of Tennessee St.

A student reported a stereo valued at $500 stolen from their car Sept. 14 on the 3200 block of W. 27th St.

A University worker reported a theft of items valued at $400 Sept. 16 on the 200 block of N. Michigan St.

Students reported an aggravated assault and aggravated burglary of an unspecified value Sept. 16 on the 1400 block of Ohio St.

FIJI issues statement about injured student

2010-09-20T20:38:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

The Phi Gamma Delta fraternity released a statement Monday regarding the KU student injured Friday at the fraternity, also known as FIJI. Matthew Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell, was flown to the University of Kansas Hospital around 8 p.m. Friday. Fritzie injured himself while jumping in a pool, said Sgt. David Hubbel of the Lawrence Police Department. According to student sources, the pool was built by members of the fraternity for a party.

The statement expressed condolences to Fritzie and his family.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Matthew Fritzie and his family. We are all praying for a full and speedy recovery,” the statement said. “We are investigating the events of the evening and will take appropriate disciplinary action if any of the Fraternity’s rules or policies were violated.”

Kelsey Fairbanks, a freshman from Olathe, said she got to the fraternity house around 9:30 p.m. Friday. She said she was carded when she got there, and overheard at the party that people were being carded because the police had arrived. Fairbanks said no one at the party was talking about what happened to Fritzie.

Representatives from the hospital were unable to comment on Fritzie’s status.

— Edited by Joel Petterson

Student injured at FIJI fraternity

2010-09-19T20:36:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

A University student was injured at the Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity house, 1540 Louisana St., on Friday night.

Lawrence paramedics flew the man to the University of Kansas Hospital after he suffered head trauma around 8 p.m.

Sgt. David Hubbel of the Lawrence Police Department said the man injured himself by diving into a pool.

Lawrence battalion chief Lexie Engleman said she made the decision to fly the man to a Kansas City level-one trauma hospital because of the severity of his injuries.

Student sources said the man was Matt Fritzie, a freshman from Stilwell. A representative at the hospital, Barbara Hunter of patient information, confirmed that Fritzie is being treated there.

Fritzie’s father, who was at the hospital, declined to comment.

Calls to FIJI president Joseph Moore were not returned.

Michael Cray and Ted Peters, sophomores in next-door Phi Delta Theta, 1621 Edgehill Rd., said a group of women were at the FIJI house when the incident happened but then went to Phi Delta Theta after.

Cray and Peters said they learned from the women that a man dove into water and came up injured, struggling and convulsing. They said people helped him out of the water and stabilized his neck before paramedics arrived.

Cray and Peters said the man couldn’t feel his lower body and arms.

At about 8 p.m. the men from Phi Delta Theta saw an ambulance arrive.

“Throughout the night, we heard progressively better statuses,” Cray said about the injured student’s condition.

— Edited by David Cawthon

Court date set for August rape case

2010-09-15T20:30:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Sexual assault has already entered the campus discussion this year, and local resources are fighting to inform the public and help anyone who needs it.

According to a Lawrence Police Department report, a female University of Kansas student fell asleep the night of Aug. 20 in the Delta Chi fraternity house, 1245 West Campus Rd., and then an 18-year-old Lawrence man sexually assaulted her. The suspect was charged with rape and aggravated sexual battery Aug. 23.

The suspect is out of jail. His next court appearance will be Oct. 12 at 9:30 a.m. to schedule a preliminary hearing, according to Cheryl Wright, assistant to the Douglas County District Attorney.

The suspect’s lawyer did not return calls.

Mariel Dryton, a sophomore from Leawood, was there the night of the alleged assault. She said there was a party and most people seemed to be having fun, and there weren’t indications that anything was wrong.

She said that an arrest made in a fraternity shouldn’t represent the fraternity or Greek life poorly in general, because it paints one person’s mistakes on the group they belong to.

“I think it was a bad choice by a single person,” she said. “It doesn’t reflect the Greek system at all.”

The international Delta Chi fraternity is conducting an investigation into its University of Kansas chapter, according to an Aug. 24 statement.

“The Kansas Chapter and its members have continued to fully cooperate with the local authorities in their investigation,” Karl Grindel, assistant executive director for Delta Chi, wrote in an email. “Since there is currently an ongoing criminal investigation, Delta Chi will conclude its review once the criminal justice system has taken its course.”

Eli Underwood, the president of the University’s Delta Chi chapter, did not return calls.

Useful Numbers

24-hour Kansas statewide crisis hotline: 1-888-363-2287

Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center: 785-864-3552

KU Counseling and Psychological Services: 785-864-2277

GaDuGi SafeCenter: 785-841-2345 or 1-888-899-2345

Getting help

According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice study, a quarter of college women will be the victim of rape or attempted rape before they graduate.

There are a number of University and local resources available to the victims of rape, and their family and friends.

The Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center has programs designed to help those in need of information, advice, or empowerment.

Kathy Rose-Mockry, program director of the resource center, said one of the key services the center offers to victims of rape is providing a one-stop connection with counseling, legal, or other kinds of help.

“We can cut through some of the red tape by connecting students,” Rose-Mockry said, “instead of them having to go place to place, and having to relive the event again and again.”

She said the center doesn’t only help victims of rape or harassment, but also those around them. For example, she pointed out the importance of a victim’s friend being knowledgeable, because they are often the place a victim will turn to for help.

The center distributes a handout for such a friend about supporting victims, including information about common reactions a victim might have and phone numbers to call.

Rose-Mockry also encouraged those who need it to contact the University’s psychological and counseling services for help.

The GaDuGi SafeCenter provides 24-hour support for victims of sexual crimes in Douglas County, and an advocate can be paged at any time by calling 785-841-2345.

Both GaDuGi and the University’s women’s resource center promote local events that raise awareness of sexual crimes and promote empowerment.

— Edited by Abby Davenport

Students to compete in “Strong man” games

2010-09-15T20:27:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Need a tow truck? For Skyler Farley, a junior from Lawrence, pulling a truck with his bare hands isn’t a big deal.

That’s why he’ll be at Watson Park on Saturday, participating in the 2nd Annual Next Level Games, which include the “Strongman Challenge,” the “Prowler Challenge” and an obstacle course. The competition will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The “Strongman Challenge” involves pulling a truck, flipping a 450-pound tractor tire end-over-end and a “farmer’s walk” of hauling heavy items through a course.

Farley said he participated in an internship at the University of South Florida during the summer, where he worked out with a group of people training for “strong man” events. Now he incorporates it into his regular workouts, and said it helped him with normal weightlifting.

“It’s like, ‘Oh, I just pushed a truck or I flipped this tire,’” Farley said. “Everything seems easier after that.”

While he said the truck pull didn’t require much attention to mechanics or timing — “it’s pure effort” — the tire flip does.

“Your time can be completely screwed up if you keep putting your hands in the wrong spot,” he said.

With the technical complexity of simply flipping a tractor tire, it isn’t surprising that there are “strong man” classes offered locally.

Chris Dellasega, a second-year graduate student from Pittsburg, is a strength coach for Next Level Fitness — the company hosting the competition — and has instructed a “strong man” group. He’ll be helping run the event Saturday.

He said that it could be difficult to train for a “strong man” event because many weightlifting techniques pinpoint one thing, while tire flips and truck pulls use multiple muscle groups in different ways.

To put it differently, flipping a tire is a three-dimensional effort, compared with bench pressing something up and down.

Dellasega suggests mimicking the event as closely as possible in training.

“One of the best ways of getting good at flipping a tractor tire is to flip a tractor tire,” he said.

Although the “Strongman Challenge” is the most unusual part of the Next Level Games, the two other stages are designed to give the competition some balance.

The “Prowler Challenge” requires competitors to push a weighted sled, similar to what a football team uses for practice, and an obstacle course that focuses on agility.

“We’re not just looking for big, bulky people or bodybuilders who aren’t functional,” said Laura Richards, who co-owns Next Level Fitness with her husband.

She said about 40 people had signed up so far this year, compared with about 50 last year.

A team of three University of Kansas track athletes will also be competing Saturday, despite not having experience flipping tires or pulling trucks.

“I have no basis to go by, besides going as hard as I can,” Brian Bishop, a junior thrower from Cantrall, Ill., said.

Bishop said he’s been sticking to his track workouts, but adding more repetitions to weightlifting in preparation for Saturday.

Dan Hitman, a sophomore javelin thrower from Ocean Township, N.J., said he’s approaching Saturday’s “strong man” events like any other weightlifting event — he’ll simply try his hardest and have fun.

“It’s kind of a weird thing to be having a good time with,” he said, “but we’re definitely a different breed.”

Single competitors pay $50 and teams pay $75 to register. The male and female champions will each win $200, and team champions win $150.

From 1:30 to 3 p.m. anyone can sign a waiver and try one event with a Next Level instructor for $5 or three events for $10.

For more information about the competition, go to nextlevelrising.com. To avoid paying a late registration fee ($10 for single competitors and $15 for teams) e-mail Next Level Fitness through the same website.

--Edited by Lisa Curran

Students and parents have resources

2010-09-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

Students who are living away from their parents for the first time face a tough transition now — only the second full week of the semester — from family member to that college student.

For some, that means liberty from cautious or even overbearing parents. For others, it means a tough time away from the people who have surrounded them since birth.

“It’s nice, but honestly, I miss them,” Olivia DeWitte, a freshman from Luray, said about her parents. “Back home, if I had car problems or needed something, they could come help me. Now, they’re three hours away. It’s kind of a struggle.”

Though others exist, the extreme change to college can be one of life’s most important.

“Any transition in life will affect your well-being, your relationships, and your performance,” said Omri Gillath, assistant professor of psychology. “Especially if you move a long way to college, you will be torn from your social network, away from your family, away from support and love. You’ll have to make new friends, and deal with all the challenges of college.”

The transition isn’t limited to students. Parents can have a difficult time learning to let go and embracing a new relationship with their children.

“You might be able to physically take your student to class, but you can’t make them be engaged in the classroom,” said Jane Tuttle, associate vice provost for student success. “All along we’ve learned you can’t make a baby walk before they want to. That’s a hard lesson for parents to learn.”

Tuttle, who coordinates the parent services program at the University and is a parent of a college student herself, emphasized that every situation – given the variables of family economics, the distance between parents and children, and other factors — is different.

“It’s individual for every family,” she said. “One size does not fit all.”

Tuttle said they update parents with useful information in their monthly newsletter, The information can range from important school dates to suggestions for keeping a good relationship with children.

Tuttle said that, for example, making plans for the holiday vacation can be stressful.

“We tell parents to share their expectations. Don’t expect your student to want to spend all their time with family,” she said. “So if Aunt Ethel’s 90th birthday party is a command performance — do not miss — then you need to tell your student up front: ‘I really expect you there, we need you there, but if you need to be doing other things the other time you’re here, I understand.’”

Tuttle said they have a phone line for parents, 864-5872, and an e-mail address, parents@ku.edu. She said parents will even call when they haven’t heard from their child, asking for help finding them.

“You are no longer able to protect them and be there and do all the things you used to. But they should know if they need anything – forget if you’re going to punish them – you’re going to lend them an ear,” Gillath said. “The huge difference we see in our studies between kids that are adjusting and those that are dropping out of college is whether or not they know that there is someone out there for them.”

Gillath said it’s important to find a healthy balance between autonomy and independence. Students need to be able to make their own decisions, but also to know that their parents support them.

Parents, just like newly independent students, have a hard time making the adjustment.

“One mother was really very concerned this summer about who’s going to make sure that her son got to class,” Tuttle said. “The fact of the matter is that you’ve had him for 18 years, ma’am. If you don’t trust him to get to class, then perhaps he needs to go to a school where he lives at home and you can get him up. Really, only he’s responsible for his choices.”

DeWitte said her relationship with her parents is good. She said she talks with her parents every day, but that they’re not overbearing.

Still, even with supportive parents, making the move to live independently for the first time – particularly in a new town – is challenging.

Sometimes, only time can ease the difficulty.

“I knew the transition was going to be hard, but I don’t know — I want to go home all the time,” DeWitte said. “Once I meet more people, it’ll get better.

— Edited by Sean Tokarz

If your parents called the hotline, how would you react?

“I would be upset since they didn’t trust me, but I understand since they’re paying.”

-Christina Baker

“I would feel bad, but I don’t think they are. I’m no longer a burden to them.”

-Josh Darrell

“I would be a little surprised because I live 30 minutes away. But if it happened when I was a freshman, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

-Vidit Shah

“I would call my parents. Just to check in.”

-Christopher Santee

Graphic by Drew Anderson

School of Business issued grant

2010-09-05T20:21:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

A grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce is in the process of funding two major programs for The School of Business.

The first program benefiting from funding was developed by Wally Meyer, director of entrepreneurship programs in the school. RedTire LLC is a concept loaning program that will aid in the training of students with hopes of taking over a business. RedTire revolves around the idea of pairing appropriate student teams with retiring business owners in Kansas, with the potential take-over or purchase of that business in mind.

The teams will train under the business’ current owner. After learning the ins and outs of their assigned business, the teams will then be in better position to buy the company from the owner. RedTire will then underwrite and guarantee the loans that the teams take out to buy the company.

Meyer said RedTire will begin by trying to match five graduating student teams to five owners by the spring semester. He said the main goal of the program is to have a portfolio of about 25 companies that students are getting matched with on a regular basis.

“We have received a number of phone calls from businesses that want us to go to work for them already,” he said.

RedTire can be most beneficial to retiring business owners with no means of passing the business on to a family member or business partner; in other words, those looking to sell.

Courtney Petrehn, a senior from Hillsdale in the entrepreneurship program, said teamwork is key in respect to RedTire.

“With a team, you can have brainstorming from different perspectives and you can help each other,” she said. “If the different team members are pursuing their one vision from different perspectives, I think the program could be very effective.”

Meyer said preventing businesses from closing throughout Kansas is vital to maintaining the jobs, taxes and services generated by them.

The second new program receiving grant funding is called “Growing Your Own Business.” It is a four-course program offered by the entrepreneurship program that will give in-depth skills to non-business students wanting to start their own business.

This is Meyer’s first semester teaching the class, made up of 93 students with majors varying outside of the normal business class track.

“The musician can start his own music services business or his own retail sheet music business,” Meyer said. “They will know how to raise capital for the company, how to negotiate the money necessary to be able to start the company, how to keep score so you know what’s working and how to improve the performance of your business – all of the components of being able to start running a business.”

After completing the four-course set, non-business students will receive a certificate of entrepreneurship, which Meyer said should then work in their favor when applying for a business loan.

“This program is potentially even more impactful on the economy than RedTire,” Meyer said. “Every new successful business that starts is a huge contributor to more jobs, better jobs, and more money in the local economy, which is good for all of us.”

Craig Bell, a junior from Olathe majoring in chemical engineering, enrolled in the class this semester. He said it’s approachable for non-business students.

“If terms come up we don’t understand ... He’s open to us saying, ‘Hey, what does that mean?’” Bell said about Meyer.

Lynn Bammel, a senior from Wichita in the entrepreneurship program, said it provides a good opportunity for those with little business education.

“The classes are not conventional," she said."It’s very hands-on. It’s like, ‘Here’s a project, go do it, and we’ll talk about it.’”

The School of Business, specifically the school’s entrepreneurship program, earned this Department of Commerce grant once before two years ago. Meyer said both of the new programs were jump-started by the first program, but the new grant will fund the program even further since its turning operational.

“We were able to demonstrate, for the first two years, that we were able to work on projects that would generate millions of dollars worth of economic value for the state of Kansas,” Meyer said. “And once those plans were implemented, it employed literally hundreds of our fellow Kansas citizens.”

Both the new projects are likewise designed to further generate business in Kansas.

— Edited by Leslie Kinsman

Anthologist speaks of inspiration for change

2010-09-01T20:19:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

“The Heath Anthology of American Literature” has certainly changed how American literature is taught at the University of Kansas and may have affected the course of American literature on a much larger scale.

Paul Lauter, the general editor of the anthology, spoke about the changing academics in American literature Wednesday night at the Kansas Union and yesterday morning at the Hall Center for Humanities.

Lauter said his experiences with social movements in the 60s led him to envision a new kind of anthology — one that included the voices of minorities and women. In becoming a success, the anthology forced other anthologies to follow suit.

“We widened the definition of what is called literature to include texts like blues lyrics, letters, nonfictional prose — generally seen as marginal to literary study,” Lauter said during his lecture yesterday.

More than 20 years after its initial publication, the anthology is used for American Literature I and II, and it has changed the way both students and professors approach the class.

“It’s forced me to reevaluate what we call good writing,” said Susan Harris, the Hall distinguished professor of American literature and culture.

Stephanie Lanning, a senior from Shawnee in an American literature class, attended Lauter’s lecture Thursday. She said it was easier to engage with the anthology because the voices of women were included.

Lanning said the students in her class read a dramatic story about a woman who faced physical hardship.

“It was really interesting because it was about a female — usually, with that kind of story, you hear about a man,” she said.

The extra voices of minorities and women add context to the usual history learned in class. More voices offer perspective on the same events.

“It allows texts to have a dialogue and contrast with one another,” said Philip Barnard, an associate professor who teaches American literature. “You can trace cultural transformation in a different way. You can tell historical stories better with it.”

— Edited by Lisa Curran

Presence of algae indicates larger problems

2010-08-31T20:15:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

The water may taste a little less funky, but problems with Lawrence’s drinking water supply have only just begun.

The Kansas River is pumping smelly water to town from an upstream reservoir, Tuttle Creek Lake near Manhattan, Kansas, according to the Kansas Health and Environment Department.

Usually, Clinton Lake is the source of weirdness in the city’s water, because of a blue-green algae bloom in the lake that creates the smelly compounds MIB and geosmin. But this time, the guilty bloom is in Tuttle Creek Lake.

The bloom will die soon and Lawrence residents will have temporary relief from the awkward taste and odor. But the funky water is just the beginning of ways that Lawrence – and cities all over the Midwest – is facing the limitations of reservoir water.

“They try to build reservoirs for a specific life span, assuming in 100 years we’ll have found a different solution,” Don Huggins, an aquatic ecologist at the Kansas Biological Reserve, said. “The problem is some of our reservoirs are filling faster than what’s projected.”

Every reservoir – including Clinton Lake – is slowly filling with sediment from in-flowing rivers, and will eventually be unusable.

“We ought to be focusing, right now, on what we can do to prolong the life of the reservoir,” Huggins said. “That means better watershed management and better lake management.”

Taking steps to fix aging reservoirs through methods like dredging them are often too expensive for cities to perform without more money.

“The shallower our reservoirs get, the less water we’ll have available for our use, and probably the water quality will get worse – not only in terms of supporting recreational fishing and aquatic life, but also of drinking water.”

The shallower the lake is, the more opportunity for wind to stir the water, throwing the settled nutrients up from the bottom. That allows more blue-green algae to grow, so expect funky water more often as reservoirs fill up with sediment over time. Even if the algae isn’t terribly dangerous, the increase in the blue-green algae’s presence is an indication that the reservoirs are getting older, Huggins said.

And that means time is running out.

“That’s where we get involved. You have to start thinking about how you use water and how you waste water,” Huggins said. “I know that’s the last thing people want to consider. ‘Why can’t I have all that I want? It’s a natural resource’ – but it has a finite availability.”

Limiting the sediment that goes into rivers would help delay Clinton Lake’s expiration date, but so would conserving the use of its water.

“If students at KU were more aware of that, and were aware of remedies of that, like conserving, they would be very likely to speak up and give some effort to solve those problems,” said Marshall Wetta, a junior from Silver Lake.

While it won’t solve the problem of either rejuvenating local reservoirs or finding another source of water, students can help prolong the use of water from Clinton Lake and other reservoirs by conserving the amount of water they use.

“That’s something, as citizens, we’ve got to come to understand. Managing our water resources is going to take more of an effort,” Huggins said. “I suspect that, throughout the Great Plains, we’re all facing the same issues. It’s just that we haven’t pulled our heads out of the sand.”

— Edited by Michael Bednar

City dealing with funky water problem

2010-08-21T20:09:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

There’s something funky in Lawrence, and it’s not the parties or music — it’s the water.

The city’s water has a funny taste and smell because of extra blue-green algae in Clinton Lake and the Kansas River, where Lawrence gets its water.

The algae have by-products, geosmin and MIB, that create the earthy or musty taste. Geosmin literally means “earth smell.”

“The water tastes moldy,” Leanne Tracy, a junior from St. Louis, said. “It tastes off. I noticed it first at my home, and then at a restaurant, so I knew it was happening all over.”

Tracy even bought a water filter to try to fix the taste.

Your tap water is safe to drink because it has gone through one of the city’s two treatment facilities, one at Clinton Lake and one near the Kansas River, Jeanette Klamm, project manager for Lawrence’s utilities department, said.

She also said they are trying several fixes such as adding things to the water and changing how it’s filtered.

The taste and smell should be getting better soon — possibly within a few days. But as Klamm pointed out, there are no guarantees. It can be a difficult problem to solve.

It’s possible for the entire city to get its water from either plant and normally many people get a blend of both. So when there are complaints about the water, it can be hard to pinpoint which source the person got their funky water from.

In this case, Klamm said, many complaints have been coming from around the treatment center for the Kansas River.

Klamm said Clinton Lake’s facility is designed to handle reservoir water, which has these issues more often, while the river’s facility is designed for river water.

The problem is that reservoirs upstream from Lawrence are releasing their water.

“The river doesn’t have river water,” Klamm said. “It has reservoir water from upstream.”

That is why the algae — followed by smelly geosmin and MIB — are in the Kansas River too and is a key reason for the extra funk in Lawrence’s water.

Another problem in fixing the taste is figuring out how it started.

“By the time we notice the buildup of geosmin and MIB, the algae has already broken down, so the cause might have already dissipated,” said Don Huggins, aquatic ecologist at the Kansas Biological Survey.

The best way to eliminate the water’s funk seems to be adding activated carbon to the water.

“Activated carbon is like charcoal, heated up so much that it creates tiny pore holes,” Huggins said.

The geosmin and MIB get trapped in its holes.

“In a sense, the carbon absorbs it, and then the carbon is filtered back out,” Huggins said.

Huggins said the same process is used in many home water filters because the carbon holes trap other contaminants also.

One problem with adding activated carbon is its cost. Filtering it from the water and sending it back for recycling and reuse, is expensive.

Another problem with carbon is that its tiny, granular size is hard to manage.

“Carbon will clog our filters,” Klamm said. “At a certain point, we can’t keep adding carbon anymore. We’re at that point now.”

Even if the city wasn’t trying to fix the taste, the problem would work itself out anyway. Algae have a normal life cycle and they will eventually die out.

— Edited by Clark Goble

Ceremony time change is a result of weather, scheduling concerns

2010-08-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

Story not on kansan.com; PDF for Aug. 19 (Page 3A) | Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The University is changing it commencement time for the class of 2011's graduation.

Commencement will be held at 10:30 a.m., rather than in the afternoon. The time change will push back other ceremonies to Friday and Saturday.

Since 1990, the ceremony has started at 2:30 p.m., a particularly warm part of the day during a hot month.

Avoiding the heat and other weather problems was one of the reasons for making the time shift, according to Jeff Weinberg, an assistant to the chancellor and member of the University's commencement committee.

Weinberg said more thunderstorms happen in the afternoon than in the morning, and that the time shift would be better for travelling families.

"This will allow families to enjoy downtown Lawrence, or to catch a plane in Kansas City, which is harder with later ceremonies," Weinberg said.

Will Leach, a senior from Overland Park, said he liked the new ceremony time.

"I think it's smart," he said. "You get out of the heat, and it's less of a time constraint."

Leach said the earlier time also allows for more flexibility with holding and attending graduation parties.

Some students are not as thrilled about the earlier schedule for commencement. Jessica Brooks, a senior from Pleasanton, expressed concern that moving the ceremony to an earlier time would cause families who live farther away extra costs.

"I'm fortunate that my family lives close. But some families, like in western Kansas, would have to come in the night before and stay at a hotel now," Brooks said. "More families can't make the trip in a day which is harder on them."

Weinberg said the commencement committee evaluated the whole process every year.

"If we come across any issues with the morning time, we'll address it immediately," he said.

--Edited by Michael Bednar

KUPD works with other jurisdictions

2010-08-16T20:05:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

A man has an emergency on campus. He dials 911. Where does his call go?

Whether he’s on a cell phone, land line or one of the 78 blue emergency phones on campus, his call goes to the dispatch center at the Public Safety Building, 1501 Crestline Drive.

If it’s a call that requires police response, the University of Kansas Public Safety Office sends a car. If the call involves a fire or requires medical attention, the dispatch center will radio to the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Department to send the appropriate vehicles.

The center has Enhanced 911, which means that the dispatch center will receive the man’s location along with his call, even triangulating the location of a cell phone with nearby cell towers.

It’s all simple enough, except that the entire campus is enclosed within the jurisdiction of another police force.

If the man has his accident just outside of campus, his call goes instead to the dispatch center with the Lawrence Police Department, 111 E. 11 St., and a different department would intervene.

There are potential problems with one police jurisdiction located entirely within another’s. But the campus and Lawrence police coordinate well, according to Chris Keary, the University’s assistant chief of police.

Both dispatch centers will actually use the other for an overflow of calls – “mutual backup,” Keary said. They use the same computer system and monitor each other’s radio, too, so there’s no confusion in a case of multiple calls about the same incident.

Marjorie Hedden, the evening shift supervisor at the Douglas County dispatch, said that the similarities were so close that her staff could even move into the University’s dispatch center in an emergency.

Keary said that some cellular companies were even working with both departments to determine the exact latitude and longitude of the campus jurisdiction for their Enhanced 911 cell phone locator.

When questions arise about which department is responsible for dealing with a crime – say an on-campus crime spills off campus – the police officers on scene quickly solve them based on things like where the crime started.

“We figure it out: ‘Whose is this?’ ‘Is this a crime?’ ‘Who’s going to report this?’” Keary said. “We know where our jurisdictions are, and we’re good at working it out.”

Strictly speaking, property owned or operated by the University or any of its associations — Endowment, Alumni, Athletics, or student — is under the jurisdiction of the Public Safety Office, including all streets and property adjacent to campus.

But University officers are allowed authority off campus in two ways. They are allowed to follow up on crimes that started on campus. The city of Lawrence and the University also have a jurisdiction agreement that allows University officers to use authority in off-campus areas of Lawrence if they think a crime is occurring. They are allowed full authority given to the Lawrence Police Department until one of the Lawrence police officers arrives.

“We work well together,” Hedden said. “For us, it’s no different than working with the other local governments, which we do all the time.”

— Editd by David Cawthon

Summer student exodus strains local businesses

2010-08-15T19:59:00.000-05:00

The University-Daily Kansan

While students took it easy this summer, local businesses faced an annual three-month crunch — how to cope with several thousand of their customers leaving the city.

The University of Kansas had nearly 24,000 on-campus students last semester including commuters, compared to fewer than 100,000 Lawrence residents. The University represents almost a quarter of the city’s population.

Many students went home for the summer, or on vacation somewhere, and each departure was another lost opportunity for Lawrence businesses. Every business felt the pinch differently and each has a different method of getting through the summer.

Ken Holloway, assistant general manager at Ingredient, 947 Massachusetts St., said that fewer customers meant that more unused food spoiled in addition to reduced sales, so their summer inventory had to be smaller while costs stayed high.

Holloway said Ingredient had especially been feeling students’ absence in the dinner crowd. So in addition to attracting the Massachusetts Street crowd, they have been promoting new dinner-only menu items and promotions.

“There’s a huge difference not having all the kids in town,” Holloway said. “But we can survive on downtown traffic and locals.”

Other businesses, like Abe and Jake’s Landing, 8 E. 6th St., depend on students. In fact, Abe and Jake’s was closed during the summer.

According to general manager Ryan Lantz, money is generated from holding wedding receptions and other events year round, especially during the summer wedding season.

Lantz said that when the club reopened with school, they would advertise and reach out to students — both familiar patrons and those new in town.

The feast-and-famine sessions for University Book Shop, 1116 W. 23rd St., aren’t limited to summer, though — they feast for about two weeks every semester.

According to store manager Colby Venema, the bookstore gets about 90 percent of its sales from textbooks, and therefore does half of its yearly business during the first two weeks of school.

The bookstore still faced a summer slowdown and employed about half of its usual number of workers during the summer. During those two big weeks, the store will have twice as many workers, quadrupling its numbers from summer’s end to school’s beginning.

Ron Hassen, owner of Ray’s Liquor Warehouse, 1215 W. 6th St., said he noticed the summer absence of students in a couple ways — the Thursday and Friday nights were slower — but not many.

He said the students old enough to buy alcohol tended to be the ones who live here year round, compared to younger students in the dorms. And as Lawrence slowly expands westward, bringing in more residents and a more diverse economy, there are more non-student customers in town.

Hassen said his summer effect of losing students was worse 20 years ago when Lawrence was more geographically centered around the University. But more recently, he has experience with liquor stores near Sixth and Wakarusa Streets on the northwest edge of town that actually see business increase in the summer.

— Edited by Clark Goble