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Students react to Les Miles' first season as KU football coach
Thursday, December 12, 2019
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UDQ: How and why did KU become a dry campus?
The Student Voice Since 1904
Vol. 139/Issue 30
KU to replace campus coffee with Starbucks
WHAT’S NEW AT KU News on deck at kansan.com
UDK file photo
Lucy Peterson
@petersonxlucy Contributed by Fally Afani
New Lawrence band
Thighmaster, a local garage band, formed earlier this year. It will release its first album, “Between the Knees and Squeeze,” Friday, Jan. 10.
'Black Talk' podcast
KU Black Student Union has created a podcast this semester where three students and their guests cover topics within the Black community.
Photo illustration by Sarah Wright/UDK
Faculty Senate asked administration to wait on renewing a controversial contract. It was signed on Oct. 8.
Data sparks doubt KU signed a nearly $300,000 contract with an analytics company to review researchers and professors despite strong objections Nicole Asbury @NicoleAsbury
Contributed by JaRen Dailey
Law school mental health resources
KU School of Law Assistant Dean Leah Terranova is working to improve student mental health, drawing on her own experiences to improve resources on campus.
Over faculty objections, the University of Kansas recently agreed to pay a contractor $283,000 a year to help assess how it and its professors are performing nationally. The University renewed a fouryear contract with Academic Analytics in October to analyze its overall performance compared with national peers. But weeks before the University
signed the contract, Faculty Senate sent an email to Chancellor Douglas Girod and Interim Provost Carl Lejuez requesting a delay for at least a year, given the $20 million budget cut from which the University is still recovering. Faculty Senate said the University didn’t provide clear answers about how Academic Analytics would do its work. And the product is not worth the cost, as faculty have claimed the data is faulty. “We’re concerned it’s a large cost in the current constraints of
the budget we have,” said Faculty Senate President Shawn Leigh Alexander. “We didn’t understand why [Lejuez] couldn’t just wait a year and evaluate it more. The response to that was basically, ‘The price will go up if we wait.’” The company has been a partner with the University since 2010, said company spokesperson Tricia Stapleton in an email to the Kansan. The current contract signed lasts until 2023. The Kansan received a copy of Continue on page 2
Lawrence library loans SAD lamps to patrons, hopes to brighten days Rachel Kivo
@RachelKivo
Ronnie Lozano/UDK
On the horizon
Emma Pravecek/UDK
KU men's basketball to play UMKC Saturday
Tipoff against the Kangaroos is at 4 p.m. at the Sprint Center.
The Lawrence Public Library is hosting ongoing events called “‘Light’ Reading at Your Library” with seasonal affective disorder lamps to help combat seasonal depression. Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that occurs at a certain time each year, usually in the fall or winter. Community resource specialist Kate Gramlich bought SAD lights for herself around eight or nine years ago after being referred by her therapist, she said. When she started seeing positive changes in her mood, she said she thought Lawrence locals could benefit from the lights as well. In 2016, the Lawrence Public Library purchased its first four SAD lamps. “[SAD Lamps] help reset your circadian rhythm so you can sleep better,” Gramlich said. The lamps trick your brain into thinking there’s more light, Gramlich said. The Lawrence Public Library has allowed patrons to check out SAD lamps and take them home for free since 2017, Gramlich said. Locals and students are able to Continue on page 4
Students practice Capoeira in Robinson Center.
Liam Mays/UDK
Capoeira club teaches Afro-Brazilian art form Nick Cornell
@CornellNickM
Liam Mays
@LiamWMays
Participants stand in a circle known as a “roda,” clapping to the rhythm of the drum-heavy Afro-Brazilian music as two students kick, dodge, cartwheel and dive out of the way of their opponents. Once a week, club members meet to practice this Afro-Brazilian art form known as Capoeira, which combines martial arts, aerobics, dance and sport. The form, created in the 16th century, has endured despite being outlawed in Brazil until the 1930s because of the dangerous nature of the art form when utilized for self-defense — as it was in times of slavery, said Tera Fazzino, who is a co-adviser of the club and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kansas.
To disguise this, “they added flow to have elements of dance,” Fazzino said. Capoeira initially began as a class at the University but is now open as a club to students and the general public. “Capoeira will be what you want it to be,” said Luciano Tosta, instructor of the class and club and associate professor of Brazilian literature and culture. “It is defined as an art expression, though its practice takes many forms.” Given the long history of Capoeira, those who attend a meeting will learn not only about the art of movement but also about the history and culture of the martial art form. “Brazilian culture is so interwoven into the art. You can’t just learn the move and call it,” Fazzino said. “You have to learn the names of the steps, and you have to learn the music that goes Continue on page 3
The University of Kansas will replace all on-campus Roasterie locations with Starbucks in fall 2020, following the end of its contract with the Kansas City, Missouri-based company. The University is choosing not to renew its contract with the Roasterie because of the company’s new business model, said David Mucci, director of KU Memorial Unions. The Roasterie is shifting to focus on bottled and canned coffee distribution. Due to the University’s contract with Pepsi, distribution of bottled beverages can only be those which are owned by Pepsi. “Starbucks made more sense as a marketing and sales strategy,” Mucci said. Each Roasterie location will be replaced by Starbucks branding and products. While the locations will not be serving Starbucks food, most of them will provide the full Starbucks drink menu. Locations without the full menu will still serve Starbucks brand coffee beans. The distribution of Starbucks brand beverages on campus began in 2017, according to an amendment to the University’s Pepsi agreement. “We have that strategic partnership with Pepsi already where they have Starbucks bottled beverages in campus stores and schools with vending machines, so that provides a definite benefit to us,” said Zach Thomason, Student Senate’s chief of staff and member of the Union Board. The 10-year contract with the Roasterie will end on June 30, 2020. Mucci said the University is in the process of signing an agreement with Starbucks to go into effect on July 1, 2020.
KU researcher charged with multiple felonies Nicole Asbury @NicoleAsbury
A University of Kansas researcher was criminally charged after an investigation found he allegedly used his employment to avoid paying sales tax and obtain discounts for his own benefit or for the benefit of another person, according to a news release from the Kansas Attorney General’s Office Monday. Liuqi Gu, 37, was charged on two counts of theft and four related criminal charges. Gu is a postdoctoral researcher in the University’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Continue on page 2