Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Utsler)

Southeastern Louisiana football coach Mike Lucas left Hammond, La., on Friday afternoon with 57 able-bodied football players in tow. By the time Lucas and his team returned home late Saturday night, only 50 remained unscathed.

What horrible plight befell the Lions during those 32 hours? The Kansas Jayhawks.

The bigger, stronger and faster Jayhawks spent Saturday evening dismantling the Lions in a game that was over before the visiting team stepped off of the bus. The disparity of talent between the two squads was evident on the scoreboard, which read 62-0, and the training room, where seven Lions recuperated from their injuries.

“We’re a very young team and we have a program in its fifth year,” Lucas said. “We tried to come up here and not get demoralized, but when your best defensive lineman breaks his arm – he’s just lying on the sideline, yelling, with all of the other kids looking at him – it’s a bad scene.”

But the gap between Kansas and Southeastern Louisiana is not measured best in terms of total yards, points, pounds or inches. Millions of dollars separate the wealthy athletics departments at larger schools such as Kansas and the lower-budget departments at smaller universities in the vein of Southeastern Louisiana.

The small schools, often in need of some financial help, are turning to their more well-established counterparts for a little assistance. By traveling to play games against major-conference opponents, lower-tier Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) and Division I FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) programs are earning up to $300,000 each weekend of the football season. The more affluent schools from the FBS face restrictions when scheduling non-conference games against fellow FBS teams. But FBS programs are allowed to schedule FCS teams without being required to repay the smaller school with a visit in the next season.

Southeastern Louisiana pocketed $275,000 to fly north to Lawrence, lose and return home seven players short. To Kansas, which, according to the U.S. Department of Education, brought in an approximate total of $23 million last year, $275,000 is not a massive chunk of change. But for an athletics department that earned about $1.9 million last year, last weekend’s winnings represent a significant sum. Especially considering the school’s athletics department spent $450,000 more than it brought in last year.

“We are certainly not dependent on the guarantees paid to us,” said Dr. Joel Erdmann, Southeastern Louisiana athletics director. “They do help create opportunities for all of our other athletic programs that may not bring in as much revenue as a sport like football, but the money is not the sole reason the games are scheduled.”

The Southeastern Louisiana football program pulled in about $1.2 million last year, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The payout from last weekend’s Kansas game alone would account for about one-fourth of that total. The fact that three of Southeastern Louisiana’ s four non-conference games are against Division I FBS schools suggests the Lions are not earning the lion’s share of their revenue through ticket and merchandise sales.

“Playing up,” or playing higher-level teams in return for financial compensation, is not a phenomenon exclusive to Kansas. Across the nation, it has become a common practice in major college athletics, most notably football.
Schools everywhere are adding payout games to their schedules with the idea in mind that the games affect both participating programs positively. The big school that coughs up $250,000 easily recoups that and more by selling 40,000 tickets for $50 each and sends the fans home happy after an easy victory. The small school that comes to visit usually loses the game but also emerges a winner by potentially making enough money to fund its women’s basketball program for an entire year.

“You’ve got to schedule with the best interests of the program in mind,” Kansas associate athletics director Jim Marchiony said. “The key is to schedule for success. Bringing smaller teams in usually is a win-win for everyone involved.”

Kansas is one of many football teams that scheduled with success in mind this season. The Jayhawks’ non-conference slate includes three small-conference FBS teams, Central Michigan, Toledo and Florida International, and FCS foe Southeastern Louisiana. The games, which will most likely end with Kansas on top, will cost Kansas just over $1.1 million in all. If Kansas sells 40,000 tickets to each game, the school will bring in $2 million even before adding in merchandise and concession sales.

There is one possible drawback to this scheduling philosophy. If Kansas should lose to one of its four non-conference opponents, the team could lose respect from fans and be second-guessed by media. But during the tenure of Kansas coach Mark Mangino, the Jayhawks have never lost to an FCS opponent and have handled small-conference FBS teams with relative ease.

“I don’t mind playing one FCS team each year,” Mangino said. “And a lot of those teams are willing and eager to do it because it helps subsidize their programs.”

Smaller programs must find funding for non-revenue programs like volleyball, tennis and softball somewhere, and major-conference schools are often replete with funds they are willing to part with to ensure an easy victory. For the athletic director at a school such as Southeastern Louisiana, the decision to put New Mexico State, Kansas and Tulane – three sure losses – on the schedule is an easy one.

“Playing upper-level teams is really positive in two different ways,” Erdmann said. “In one way it’s positive because it generates some revenue through the financial guarantees. In another way it’s good because it can be a good experience for the players.”

Erdmann said the Southeastern Louisiana campus was full of excitement the week leading up to the football team’s trip to Kansas and the players’ adrenaline was pumping in anticipation of playing in a venue like Memorial Stadium.
After Saturday’s game, the $275,000 paycheck did not improve the mood of the Lions’ coach.

“You just hate to lose players, and we have five guys who are questionable for next week and two who are out for the season, including our best defensive player.” Lucas said. “It’s really not worth it. It’s not worth a nickel to lose a kid like that for the season.”

Lucas’ frustrations are most likely not over. Chances are, he will endure another drubbing in order for his school to enjoy a windfall when the Lions visit Tulane Sept. 22.

Worth it or not, the practice of scheduling payout games seems here to stay. Three weeks into the 2007 season, 47 of the 119 FBS teams have faced a foe from the FCS ranks. Thus far, the smaller schools have lost 45 of the 47 games – on the field, at least.

In a small garage behind a quaint house on Maine Street, Brandon Hinson and Curtis Williams tap their feet to a chill jam while methodically spinning a thin tube of glass then blowing it into a bubble bursting with color and patterns.
Hinson, an Overland Park native, and Williams, who is originally from Michigan and moved to Lawrence to study anthropology at the University of Kansas, are just two of the many glass-blowers in Lawrence spending eight or nine hours a day trying to make a living by wielding glass.

“Glass-blowing is just like any other craft; like being a blacksmith or a carpenter, you have to hone your skills and the only way to do that is apprenticing for a good teacher and devoting your life to learning and perfecting the skill,” Hinson says as he munches on a PB& J from the mini-fridge in his small studio.
When asked about how he got his first apprenticeship and how much he had to pay to learn this craft. Williams stated simply that he’d met a guy through a friend who wanted an apprentice and that he had been quick to sign up for the job.
“Some people will make you pay several thousands of dollars upfront to become their apprentice and others will just basically make you do anything they tell you to for a year but there is no money exchanged. No matter what, everything in the glass world has a price.” Williams said.
Hinson and Williams have a nice setup in their small little glass-blowing oasis. They have two stations fully equipped with everything one could possibly need to make all kinds of different glass pipes. Complete with torches, foot pedals, tools and other gear, each station is worth about $5,000.
“You start out with the bare essentials, and slowly you build up your gear. Certain patterns and looks can only be created by having specific tools,” Hinson said as pointed to a few examples on some of the pipes he had lying around.
Both Williams and Hinson have been blowing glass for about two years now, and have established a reputation in the Lawrence and Kansas City areas. Hinson has some of his pipes for sale at The Third Planet and Creation Station in downtown Lawrence along with stores in Kansas City, Mo., St. Louis, Las Vegas, Seattle and several other cities around the U.S.

“To be honest, I’m not really sure where all my pipes are now,” Hinson said, “I’ve sold most of my pipes to a wholesaler for the last year, but I’m finding now that it’s better to cut out the middle-man and to travel around the country selling my work to different stores on my own. It’s a good way to establish a reputation by meeting business owners face to face, and by establishing good rapport it will help me in the long run. Also, I’m proud of my work and that makes a difference.”
The first year Hinson started his business, sales were low and it was hard to establish a clientele. Now Hinson can easily make $2,000 a month, and that number will only get higher as his work improves, his goal would be $7,000 a month, which would put him at around $84,000 a year.
Williams, has a little different outlook on his glass. For him it’s more of a hobby. He makes a good living, but hasn’t devoted his life to the extent that Hinson has.
“I started by making pendants and beads,” Williams said, “then I moved on and started making pipes at the pipe ranch over by Freestate Glass. Now, I inherited this shop after my teacher moved away and Brandon and I have been doing really well working together and sharing the shop. Most glass-blower’s have weird relationships, it’s usually all business and lots of times relationships like Brandon’s and mine will end in estrangement.”
The world of a glass-blower is cutthroat with lots of competition just like any art form. The only way to make a living is by standing out and creating excellent pipes with different and eye-catching patterns, Hinson explained. The best way to make one’s business lucrative is by having a large repertoire of work. Each pound of glass, depending on the color, can range from $40 all the way up to $120. In order to keep themselves on track and turn a profit, Hinson and Williams have a daily goal of blowing $250 worth of glass.
“Most of the pipes I make are called one-hitters,” Hinson said while picking up a small glass pipe resembling a pacifier, “They are the easiest and only cost me about $2 or $3 make, but I can sell them retail for up to $20.”
One of the most fascinating things about glass-blowing is how entrancing and beautiful it is to watch. It takes extreme concentration and one has to have an artistic eye to know which colors to combine and how to manipulate the glass in one’s favor.
“It’s all about balance, breathing and having nimble hands. There is a lot of art in pipes, and it’s easy to tell a good glass-blower from a bad one. Oftentimes I can tell which artist made a certain pipe just by the mistakes they make over and over again,” Hinson said.
However, the art of blowing glass does have a dark side. Often times it can be hazardous to your health when just staring out and apprenticing, and even long afterward.
“I burned myself a lot at first,” Williams said, “but the most dangerous thing about glass-blowing is the long term effects it can have on your body. There’s a lot of carbon and toxins in the air that are released from the glass. Also, the UV light from the flame can cause skin cancer on the arms and the face. Brandon and I try to be as health conscious as we can when we are working, by covering our arms and wearing googles.”
When asked why he chose to blow glass and live in Lawrence, Hinson replied, “Well it beats waiting tables, and Lawrence is a great place to learn how to blow glass because there are so may people who are into it. I also have plans to go back to school and this would allow me to live in a place where being a glass-blower is widely respected so I can continue the craft and go to school as well.”
Hinson has plans to start his own glass-blowing program at the University of Kansas, and is looking forward to exploring more art-focused forms of glass-blowing such as using soft glass instead of hard to make vases and glassware.
“Soft glass-blowing is what most people think of when they think of glass-blowing. It’s a completely different way of blowing glass. It’s much easier to make a living blowing pipes because there is more of a demand on the market for a pipe rather than a $300 glass vase. However, it would be cool to be able to both someday.”

Patrick Martin has been an avid Chipotle burrito eater for close to a decade. Ever since eighth grade the Kansas City, Mo., native has averaged about one burrito a week. He enjoys Chipotle because it provides restaurant quality food at a fast food pace with reasonable prices.
“I always go to Chipotle because its cheap, it fills me up and the burrito is always high quality,” Martin explained.
That quality has increased over the last six years.
At Chipotle they call it “Food with Integrity”, a program started to introduce naturally raised pork, chicken and beef to its restaurants. Since 2001, Chipotle has gradually instituted naturally raised meat. They currently offer at least one natural meat in every state in which they operate. Kansas is one of the most recent areas to have all three natural meats in all restaurants. Chipotle’s business has increased greatly since the adoption of the “Food with Integrity” program as the company continues to increase the number of restaurants carrying natural meat. Even increasing burrito prices can not keep customers away.
The program stresses that no growth hormone or antibiotics be given to the animals. All animals are also vegetarian-fed with no animal bi-products. Around the country, all of Chipotle’s pork is naturally raised, along with 73% of all chicken and 46% of Chipotle’s beef.
“We hope to have all naturally raised meat within the next couple of years,” said Chris Arnold, Chipotle’s director of hype, hoopla and ballyhoo.
In 2002, Chipotle served only naturally raised pork. That same year, Chipotle began to integrate naturally raised chicken into a few restaurants. The company’s total revenue from 2002 was $204.6 million and it more than doubled in 2003, up to $515.3 million. .
“We think Food with Integrity continues to help drive business for us, and our business keeps growing,” Arnold said. “More and more people are finding food of this kind and the better restaurant experience very relevant.”
Chipotle first began serving naturally raised beef in 2003 in a New York restaurant. Since then, all restaurants in thirteen states now carry natural beef. Kansas was one of the more recent states to adopt natural beef, in early 2007. In that span of four years Chipotle’s revenue rose 42.7 percent and continues to rise in this fiscal year. The company saw a 33.9 percent increase in 2nd quarter revenue between 2006 and 2007.
The restaurants gross profit has also increased since the birth of “Food with Integrity”. A company’s gross profit is expressed as a percentage that explains how much total profit they made in a fiscal year. For example if Chipotle’s gross profit was 5 percent that means they made five cents from every dollar they sold.
Since “Food with Integrity” began Chipotle’s gross profit has risen steadily. In 2002, the year Chipotle introduced natural chicken to its restaurants, the company’s gross profit was 10.35 percent. That number rose to 14.6 percent in 2003 and 15.8 percent in 2004. The trend continued into 2006 with a gross profit of 20.55 percent. While the cost of the meat they purchase has gone up the company has seen a stable increase in its business since the adoption of “Food with Integrity”. The naturally raised meat costs more than the meat Chipotle used to get but the consumer has shown an interest in the higher quality product the restaurant provides.
Before food with Integrity was implemented, the meat used was lower quality than the naturally raised meat the restaurant uses now.
“It was higher grade than you'd typically get at a fast-food restaurant, but before naturally raised, it was commodity beef,” Arnold explained. The meat Chipotles in Kansas now use is from small, usually family owned ranches. One provider, Coleman Natural, has over 800 farms participating in the “Food with Integrity” program.
Even though the restaurant has more than doubled their revenue in the years since “Food with Integrity” began, burrito prices have risen in areas with naturally raised meat.
“There's always a price premium for this better meat,” Arnold said. “We've been able to raise our menu prices to cover that higher price, and consumers have demonstrated a willingness to pay more for food when they know we're using better ingredients.”
Chipotle’s “Food with Integrity” program was not designed for carnivores only. The restaurant purchases cheese from cows that are not given rBGH, recombinant bovine growth hormone, which increases milk production. In January 2007 Chipotle increased its percentage of organically grown black and pinto beans to 25 percent.
Some people might ask, from a straight business angle, has “Food with Integrity” been worth it? Many factors now affect Chipotle’s business that other restaurants don’t have to deal with. For example, there was a winter freeze in California in 2007 which affected the avocado crop. This freeze also affected the citrus crop, a main ingredient in Chipotle’s vinaigrette dressing for their salad. A restaurant that doesn’t have fresh products wouldn’t have been affected as much as Chipotle.
The ethanol initiative has also affected Chipotle’s business. The company explains this in their Second quarterly report from 2007; “Due to increased demand for ethanol the cost of corn has increased substantially… This has led to upward pricing pressures on many of our raw ingredients including chicken, beef and pork and we expect that pressure to continue for the remainder of 2007 and into 2008.” Corn is a main ingredient in the all vegetarian feed that Chipotle and its meat providers require the animals to eat. The rise in ethanol production has led to an increase in the price of corn, increasing Chipotle’s food costs.
“When we add these better ingredients, we have to raise the prices to offset. Our customers don't mind. They're willing to spend a little more money for better food.”
This hasn’t stopped the customers from coming in. With more restaurants than ever boasting naturally raised meet, Chipotle’s first quarter revenue in 2007 was $49.1 million more than the first quarter of 2006.
Now in its fifth year of “Food with Integrity”, Chipotle strives to continue its natural meat initiative. The only problem in the company’s way is the supply of naturally raised meat in the United States.
“It'd would be great if the supply were available and we could be serving all naturally raised meat and organically grown produce today,” Arnold explained, “but the supply isn't there. The point of ‘Food with Integrity’ is that the work is never done. It's a process.”
I asked Martin if he knew about “Food with Integrity” at Chipotle. He said he saw “FWI” on a cup once while he enjoyed his steak burrito. He also recalled a billboard he saw in Kansas City, Mo., this summer.
The billboard read “Meat from Farms. Not Big Pharm.”
“It was nice to see that a big company like Chipotle is looking out for the little guy,” Martin said.
Chipotle has done a great deal to give the consumer a better product. They spend more money to ensure the quality of the restaurant’s meat and other products. Chipotle has been forced to increase prices marginally but have seen willingness from customers to pay for a better product. The company spends more money, as does the consumer, but everybody is willing to help out if it means a humane life for our countries animals.

Ottawa University women’s basketball coach Bruce Tate sits in his office at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon.

And while Tate isn’t strategizing how the Lady Braves can improve their defense for the upcoming season or what their next practice will focus on, he’s working on something equally as important. He is planning for one of his team’s many fundraisers that will take place the next day when they will sell programs and t-shirts at Ottawa’s first home football game.

“We do a lot of different fundraisers,” Tate said. “It’s a goal for every athletics department to get stuff paid for without it coming out of your team’s budget.”

Tate and all of his players participate in concentrated fundraising events to defray the high costs associated with supporting a collegiate athletic team. Tate, also the assistant athletics director at Ottawa, said that each of the college’s thirteen sport teams uses fundraisers and they add up to $25,000 per year for each team.

The game plan for receiving additional cash is not exclusive to Ottawa. The trend of raising money through fundraisers is sweeping the nation. At least four colleges in the vicinity of Lawrence use the method.

“The majority of our athletic programs use outside fund raising projects to help supplement their team budgets,” Baker University Sports Information Director Jerod Kruse said.

Baker and Ottawa Universities are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, an athletics association for the country’s smaller schools. But that that doesn’t mean the fundraising movement is only found at universities with fewer students.

According to the New York Times, major collegiate athletic departments are also implementing fundraising events for its non-revenue sports. Across the country, from Penn State University to the University of Utah, non-revenue squads are generating extra cash with activities ranging from cleaning football stadiums to holding bake sales.

The Ottawa athletic department reported a grand total of more than $2 million in revenues last year. The number, of course, is far from the revenue Division 1-A colleges bring in during a fiscal year. Nearby Division 1-A school, the University of Kansas, earned a grand total in revenues that exceeded Ottawa’s measly figure by more than $60 million, according to the U.S. Department of Education. But both athletic departments share something in common: its non-revenue sports out-number its revenue sports.

Only football and men’s basketball made money for the University of Kansas last year. The two sports combined revenue of nearly $23 million easily cancelled out the money the other twelve teams lost. The numbers are similar at other major colleges, which has driven those schools to require the programs losing the most money to hold fundraisers.

But the University of Kansas has not held any fundraisers for its athletic teams. Sports with the highest expenses and smallest revenues like the rowing team, swimming and diving team, and track and field team have never held fundraisers in Lawrence.

“We don’t really use fundraisers except for the Kansas Relays,” KU Track & Field Administrative Assistant Debbie Luman said. “But that’s not to say we wouldn’t do one in the future.”

One person that wouldn’t be surprised to see Kansas jump onto the fundraising bandwagon is Bruce Tate. He said that the sheer economics of athletics have gotten to a point where fundraisers are unavoidable – even for major state universities.

“Some of the stuff coaches want eat up a good percentage of an operational budget,” Tate said. “Some administrators don’t see things like new practice jerseys or shoes as a necessity, you just have to hold fundraisers to get money for your program now.”

It’s also become easier than ever to start the fundraising process for a program. Instead of starting at the grassroots level, organizing events and promoting them, at least one Kansas City area company allows teams to skip those steps.

Crowd Systems provides entire staffs to work at everything from concerts, festivals and Kansas City professional sports games. The company is helpful in hiring college teams as employees and giving them opportunities to raise an excessive amount of money in just one day. Tate said Ottawa often went through Crowd Systems and that it provided benefits other than just monetary ones.

“The Royals and Chiefs games, it’s just going through such a hectic day and getting money at the same time,” he said. “It’s a good team-building activity and shows an athlete a way to earn the things they are enjoying in athletics.”

The activities can do more than just improve team camaraderie and allow coaches to buy simple necessities like shoes, though. At Ottawa, the women’s basketball team takes a trip every other year to play in a tournament largely financed by its fundraisers.

These tournaments aren’t in Pittsburg, either. The locations the Lady Braves descended upon in the past include Las Vegas, the Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas. Tate said the cost would be around $1,500 per player but is minimized by the school’s dedication to fundraising. He also said the ability to impress potential recruits with a promise of a basketball vacation makes a difference that would be too valuable to forfeit by cutting fundraising programs.

But not every athletic department using the route of fundraising to get extra money is planning on keeping it that way. Every team at Park University in Parkville, Mo., held fundraisers in past years to help with things like equipment costs. However, Athletic Director Claude English recently developed a booster club in hopes that it will bring support through contributions.

“We’re in the very ground level stages right now with our formal support organization, the Pirate Club,” Park Sports Information Director Steve Wilson said. “Our teams do fundraise on the team level to supplement their budgets but the Pirate Club should really get the fundraising efforts off of the ground.”

With luxurious trips, recruiting advantages and not having to worry about a team’s budget hanging in the balance, it’s clear that fundraisers in collegiate athletics are here to stay. The only question now is how many more universities will begin to rely on the technique.

The poster that greets potential borrowers at the Countrywide Home Loan office, 4931 W 6th St., makes owning a home seem like a straightforward transaction. The poster advertises the possibility to “realize your dreams” through home ownership and encourages homebuyers to “downsize the down payment, not the dream house.”

Unfortunately for some less-qualified buyers, the dream ends before it can truly begin. Throughout the United States, homeowners who financed their homes with adjustable rate mortgages are feeling the consequences of interest rate hikes as their adjustable rate resets to a level as much as three percentage points higher. The result is a rise in the number of delinquent mortgage payments and foreclosures throughout the country. Jackie Freed, a consumer credit counselor for Housing and Credit Counseling Inc., said many consumers who visited her agency faced foreclosure because they were unaware of the details of their adjustable rate mortgage.

“Usually they were told by a mortgage broker that they could refinance in two years,” Freed said. “They are frustrated by the fact that it was not accurate information. They couldn’t refinance [because of bad credit] and are stuck with the loan. So they are frustrated, but they are also distraught, because it’s their home they are losing.”

Many first time homebuyers fall victim to the lure of low interest rates for the first two years of the adjustable rate mortgages without considering the rise in payments after the rate is reset two years later. As a result people delinquent in their payments are being forced to fight creditors for their homes. Lawrence residents have seen a 10-percent increase in the number of foreclosures during the past eight months according to Douglas County Sheriff records. Rising foreclosure rates in Kansas, and nationwide, can be attributed largely to mortgages given to inexperienced subprime borrowers, meaning those with low credit scores or borrowing more than $417,000.

People with credit problems are hardly the only consumers who remain uneducated about the details of their mortgages. A study by the Federal Trade Commission published in June showed that two-thirds of those with adjustable rate mortgages were not aware that a prepayment penalty would be exacted if they refinanced their loan with a different lender. Even more surprising, the study found half of homebuyers could not correctly identify the total loan amount. Freed said she saw about 10 people per week unable to pay their mortgage payment because of unexpected changes to subprime adjustable rate mortgages.

Lawrence attorney John Becker said he has witnessed the number of homeowners seeking his help to retain their homes increase by more than double in the past four years. Becker said many of his clients were misled by lenders trumpeting low rates for the first two years on adjustable rate mortgages. Most were buyers unqualified for fixed rate loans because they lacked the financial stability and credit rating required. Instead lenders offered adjustable rates that sneak up on borrowers unprepared for changes in their monthly payments.

“We call them ‘ninja’ loans,” Becker said. “Most of the buyers have no income, no job and no assets.”

Not surprisingly, statistics released on Sept. 6 by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed the percentage of Kansas homeowners with prime, low-risk, fixed-rate mortgages in the process of foreclosure at 0.66 percent, while 5.07 percent of Kansans with subprime adjustable rate mortgages were faced with repossession of their homes.

Diane Fry, a home loan consultant for Countrywide Home Loans in Lawrence, attributed this difference to consumers who borrowed more than their financial situation allowed even though bad credit and adjustable rates strained their budgets. Fry said the vast majority of those confronting the possibility of losing their homes were in trouble because they were unable to make payments once their rates reset and monthly payments rose drastically.

“A large portion is people who have challenged credits and got into really high interest rates loans they probably shouldn’t have,” Fry said. “All of those bad credit loans were one-year adjustable or three-year adjustable rates. Now that those are coming due people can’t pay them. For some, they went from a 9 percent to an 18 percent interest rate.”

Despite the increase in foreclosures in Lawrence and throughout Kansas, Fry said the market would slowly begin to even itself out. Countrywide Home Loans is no longer pushing adjustable rate loans to those ineligible for fixed rate mortgages. Instead, the company is not even funding the majority of subprime loans and is shifting focus to qualified and responsible borrowers, Fry said.

Becker and Freed agreed that foreclosure rates should eventually stabilize, but each said homebuyers would still face obstacles when acquiring a home loan. Although she tried to stay impartial, Freed said lenders must explain terms and conditions in order to avoid uninformed and unprepared homebuyers and buyers must stay educated to avoid predatory lending.

“I think that there are problems on both sides,” she said. “There are problems with lenders getting people into loans that they shouldn’t have gotten into. There are also problems because people don’t read their loan documents.”

Whether the fault lies with uneducated consumers or opportunistic lenders, foreclosures in Lawrence and across the nation have reached a point that is forcing reform from both sides of the bargaining table. The short-term result may be difficulty for those looking for subprime mortgages, but in the long run market stability should benefit both lenders and borrowers alike.

Scott Anderson sat at his girlfriend’s laptop computer; frustrated with the wireless home network he was attempting to set up. The couple had just purchased cable Internet for their apartment, but the installation was proving problematic. Instead of finding his wireless router, her laptop found tens of others, including one named Freenet.

“I’ve seen these guys around town, but I have no clue what they are about.” said Anderson.
Not everyone can afford the Internet like Anderson. A Lawrence non-profit is seeing to it that just because someone cannot afford Internet service they do not have to suffer a cost to their future. Lawrence Freenet has worked since 2005 to provide Internet to the city of Lawrence, regardless of income. Approximately 80 other communities in the country offer a similar service.
Freenet began offering service in the middle of 2005 on a voluntary pay basis. Users could choose to pay $15 a month or they could access the service for free.
“What we found out is that building a wireless network is expensive,” said Matthew Del Vacchio, Director of Internal Operations at Lawrence Freenet. “It’s very expensive, actually.”

Freenet found two options that would allow it to pay the bills and still serve the community. One option was to switch to an ad based model. Users would have a banner with ads constantly on their browser screen while using the free Internet network. Metrofi in San Francisco pioneered this method of Internet delivery.
“There’s a lot of technology that goes into displaying the ad and what allows people on.” said Del Vacchio. “We found out that that just wasn’t a realistic goal.”
Facing this technological roadblock, Freenet opted to go a new way. They switched to a model where those who can pay, pay for those who cannot.
“Our goal is for one out of every ten users is on for free.” said Del Vacchio.
Free users are qualified by income and number of dependants.
“We give them a free Internet account. If they don’t have a computer, we give them a computer. If they don’t know how to use it, we teach them how to use it.” said Del Vacchio.
The computers Freenet provides are donated by the community. Volunteers come in on Saturdays and cleanout and update donated computers to be sent to deserving families. Freenet accepts any used computer, even if it is old or will not even start. They take apart those computers that are too far gone and use the parts to make better machines.
Freenet intends to expand and get more city support. So far the city has allowed the company to put its nodes and base stations on city property. While being appreciative of what the city has done so far, Freenet hopes in the future they will do more. Del Vacchio hopes the city will help fund the service by buying up a large chunk of the service and becoming an “anchor tenant.” The case is tough to plead to the city since there is not a working model to show that success is a possibility.
“I respect their reservation in it and I hope that as our technology improves and the service improves and it starts to become more clear to the municipalities what different advantages are to using a wireless network that they’ll give us a try as an anchor tenant.” said Del Vacchio.
Should Freenet secure a deal with the city, Del Vacchio anticipates having a much easier time selling the project to potential investors. The benefits to the city from Del Vacchio’s perspective are great. Freenet and the Lawrence Police Department are collaborating on a test project to provide wireless Internet to police cars so officers can do paperwork from their vehicles from anywhere in the city.
Beyond the police department, potential uses include city employees such as building inspectors who work outside the office, wireless transmitters to read water meters, and even reading parking meters wirelessly from City Hall.
“Our ultimate goal is to drive the price of data to zero.” said Del Vacchio. “We believe that access to the Internet should be free.”
In order to access the service a user need only register with Freenet and login to the nearest Freenet wireless node. Home users only have to login once with their special wireless router, while laptop users must login once a day. The wireless nodes are located all around town attached to streetlights and traffic signals. Information goes from the wireless nodes to base stations located atop large city structures such as water towers and City Hall. The last stop on the data’s tour of Lawrence is the Freenet headquarters, where it is sent off to the Internet and the return data makes its way along the same path back to the user. All of this takes place in a fraction of a second.
“To explain it simply, it’s like having a bunch of Linksys routers set up, but it’s a lot more powerful and a lot more sophisticated, but the technology is the same.” said Del Vecchio.
The distance from a wireless node dictates the manner in which a user can access the network. A person living within 200 feet of a node can use the internal antenna of any wireless device they may have, such as a laptop. The signal gets weaker over distance and these devices have a hard time connecting further than that. From 150 feet and further, Freenet recommends that users purchase a wireless modem from them. These modems are far more powerful than anything for sale from a normal vender and will allow users to have a quality experience from up to 1,000 feet.
“The ultimate goal is to put up enough radios that you wouldn’t need one of the routers anywhere.” said Del Vecchio.
Paying users have a $20 monthly fee, but 10 percent of that bill can be filled as a tax deduction since Freenet is a non-profit company. On top of the $20 monthly fee, a paying user living beyond 150 feet from a node will have to install a wireless modem. Various wireless routers can be purchased for between $121 and $199 or the modems can be rented for between $7 and $11 a month, depending on the model of modem.
The additional cost of the wireless modems has turned some away. Karla Stone lives just far enough away from the nearest wireless node on 6th Street to have trouble connecting to the Freenet network with just her laptop’s wireless card.
“It was slow and that was pretty much what did it.” said Stone.
Her distance from the nearest node would require her to rent or purchase a wireless modem. She went back to using Sunflower Broadband’s cable Internet service instead, since she already owned a cable modem and the cost of renting the new equipment would negate the saving she had hoped for.
“It seems like a good idea, it’s just not there yet.” said Stone.
The cost of the new equipment did not deter Scott Anderson back on 15th Street, his frustration had built to the point of desperation.
“I wish I had known more about this before I signed up for service.” Said Anderson. “Now I’ve already spent $80 on a cable modem and so I am kind of stuck with it. But it may be worth switching anyway.”

In the last decade, the National Weather Service, one of the largest employers of meteorologists, filled all of its new positions and made no plans to increase hiring in its existing positions. This is not exactly the kind of news Jesse Lundquist, a senior in the atmospheric science department at KU, wants to hear.

Lundquist hoped for a career with the National Weather Service but with the job outlook estimated to remain stable, he knows that he has to keep his options open. He spent his last two summers interning at private meteorology firms instead. With decreased hiring by the National Weather Service, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates job opportunities to be greater in the private industry than in the Federal Government.

Nationwide, business is booming for the private meteorology industry. In June, the American Meteorological Association reported a 40 percent rise in the private meteorology market from $940 million in 1995 to $1.5 Billion today.

In the last 10 years, the number of private meteorologists in the nation increased from 2,500 to 7,200, according to the American Meteorological Society. WeatherData, a private meteorology company in Wichita, Kan., created five new positions in the last few months alone. Mike Smith, CEO of WeatherData, said the company had to hire more people to accommodate for its growth in business.

“We’re a 26-year-old company and the amount of inquiries we’re getting now is greater than it’s ever been anytime in our history,” Smith said. “Our service has been so effective for our clients that many of them are telling others about us. It’s creating a snowball effect.”

Weather or Not, a private weather consulting firm based out of Shawnee, Kan., has experienced a snowball effect, as well. Over the last three years, Weather or Not has increased its full-time staff by 50 percent, said Sara Croke, president of Weather or Not. She attributed the increase in staff to an increase in the company’s business. Croke said that in the last few years, Weather or Not’s business with public works has increased by 30 percent.

“It’s all about word of mouth,” Croke said. “The public works directors that we work with are saying: ‘They’re good. We like them. You ought to use them, too.’”

The private meteorology industry has the recent boom in technology to thank for its growth. Advancements in radar, satellite and computer technology over the last 20 years have drastically improved weather forecasting, according to the American Meteorological Society. The lead time for tornado warnings increased from five minutes in1987 to 13 minutes in 2004. Temperature and precipitation forecasts have improved as well. The American Meteorological Society said that 48-hour precipitation forecasts are just as accurate today as 24-hour forecasts were a decade ago.

“We can do so much more with weather forecasts now than we used to be able to,” Tucker said.

The increased ability to narrow forecasts down to specific times, sites and precipitation amounts has placed a greater demand on meteorologists to provide more personalized forecasts. The National Weather Service forecasts strictly for the general public and does not make specific forecasts, but the private industry does.

“Private forecasters basically do everything the National Weather Service doesn’t have time to do,” said Tucker.

Industries such as farming, construction, insurance, and even transportation are all cashing in on the benefits of industry-specific weather information - the kind of information provided only by the private industry.

The heavy construction industry, especially, has a lot of money tied up in the private weather industry, said Croke, president of Weather of Not. Depending on the size of the job, a construction company can lose anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 per day because of the weather. Construction projects are only allowed a certain number of working days. When weather causes delays, companies can face up to $20,000 per day in late penalties alone.

Accurate forecasts for specific locations become crucial to companies financially, Croke said. If the forecast calls for a rainstorm, a construction business needs to start thinking about whether or not it is worth it to send and pay people to work, only to have them leave early because of the weather. If the company calls off a day of work and then it quits raining, it can lose money, too.

“That’s wasted money as far as a contractor’s concerned,” Croke said.

Croke said that companies can turn to private forecasters to help them make those kinds of decisions.

Not all companies see hiring a private meteorologist as the only way to save money. Some companies are decreasing the number of meteorologists they hire and spending more money on computer forecasting technology instead.

“Some feel they can make more of a profit that way,” Croke said.

Advancements in technology have resulted in computer programs capable of forecasting the weather. Croke said that some companies are using computers rather than live meteorologists to forecast because computers are cheaper and more efficient.

“What Weather or Not is seeing is a lack of accuracy and personal service,” said Croke.

While computer weather models have improved greatly, they are still not 100 percent accurate. A computer can always malfunction, and if companies are making important decisions based solely on what a computer outputs, it could be a major problem, said Croke.

“What it comes down to is: do you want to make a $30,000 decision based on a weather model?” Croke said.

She said that companies need a person, not just a computer, which they can turn to when they have questions about the weather.

“We’re seeing a real need for accuracy and live meteorologists for people to talk to,” Croke said.

Based on the current market conditions, this need for private meteorologists should continue to grow. In June, the American Meteorological Society estimated a market increase of 10 percent to 25 percent in the next five years – equal to a market size worth up to $2.8 Billion.

For atmospheric science students getting ready to graduate and anxious about where to find a job, these numbers can seem quite attractive. Lundquist said that though his goal is to eventually end up at the National Weather Service, he is willing to do what it takes to get there.

“If I can get to the National Weather Service by starting with the private industry, I’m all for it,” Lundquist said.

With the American Meteorological Society estimating an increase of 2,000 more private meteorologists in the next five years, Lundquist may be one of those thousands.

Anything good on TV lately? That question might generate a negative response from a Kansas Jayhawk football fan. As the football program under coach Mark Mangino continues to rise in wins and fan support, the Jayhawks are still finding it difficult to find a place in the college football television landscape, and it could get even harder.

The Jayhawks were only on national television four times last season, with the locally-owned Sunflower Network broadcasting an additional four home games. Sunflower usually broadcasts on tape delay the next day any home game that isn’t televised on another network. Much to the displeasure of many Jayhawk fans, Sunflower might not be allowed to broadcast any games in the future.

As the Jayhawks opened one of their most anticipated football seasons earlier this month with an impressive 52-7 win over Central Michigan, many fans were left wondering why the replay wasn’t shown the next day on the Sunflower network. For the first time in over 20 years, Sunflower wasn’t allowed to broadcast the game thanks to the Fox Sports Network. FSN, which in 2003 signed a 10-year contract worth over 100 million with the Big 12, has the exclusive rights to the replays for every Big 12 game not shown on other national networks. In the past, Fox Sports has given Sunflower permission to broadcast the games. This year however, was different. According to Sunflower’s General Manager Patrick Knorr, the move to not allow his station to broadcast the game came at the last minute.

“ We didn’t know we weren’t allowed to broadcast the game until the day before. The representatives at Fox Sports didn’t work with us at all. It was hard to communicate with them,” Knorr said.

Knorr said the main issue was money for the rights to broadcast the games. Sunflower struck a last minute deal before the second game to broadcast the rest of the non-conference games. The local cable station though, is unsure if they will be allowed to air any additional Big 12 games this season. Negotiations are set to continue this week.

For Kansas, losing the Sunflower broadcast is just another setback in their ongoing struggle to get more television exposure. The Big 12 television contract with ABC/ESPN and Fox Sports is widely regarded as one of the worst for a conference its size by most television experts. Metro Sports reporter Mick Shaffer doesn’t understand why the local teams can’t find a way to get on the air.

“ With all the different networks broadcasting football games, it is crazy to think that some of the teams aren’t on television.” Shaffer said.
The current deal calls for only three games to be shown on Saturday, so six teams are left without any television exposure. Unlike the Big 10, which is broadcasted on both ESPN networks and ABC, the conference usually has all of its teams on national television.

Rivals.com recruiting expert Jon Kirby explains it’s not only the fans who are hurt by this, but the team as well. Most programs use their television exposure to sell their program to a potential high school recruit, but because of Kansas and the Big 12’s lackluster coverage, it is harder to get the recruit’s attention.

“This is a major problem for the local schools. I am talking to kids in Kansas City and St. Louis, which are Big 12 cities in Big 12 states, but because they are bombarded with Big 10 football games on their TV every week, they are choosing those schools instead,” Kirby said.

Kansas junior wide receiver Marcus Herford noted it was tough sometimes for his family down in Desoto, Texas to watch him play on Saturdays.

“ For them to watch me play, they have to travel 10 hours up to Lawrence and see me in person. It doesn’t make any sense to me that instead of showing Kansas games in Texas, they are showing games from the east or west coast,” Herford said.

While perennially powerful football schools such as Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska don’t have to worry about getting on television, it is the schools lower in the football pecking order such as Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State that have to fight over the scraps left on the plate. Iowa State, a program similar to Kansas can also relate to the poor TV coverage. For Andy Pollock, who runs Cyclonenation.com, he can sense among the members of his online community the frustration in the lack of TV exposure for his favorite school.

“Most, if not all, Cyclone fans hate the Big 12 package. Being a "lower tier" team as far as fan base is concerned, we don't get on television very much if at all,” Pollock said.
Iowa State has had its own problems with Fox Sports Network. The universities local cable provider, Mediacomm, couldn’t reach a deal with FSN and had to discontinue broadcasting the games. While ISU’s in-state rivals the Iowa Hawkeyes, which is part of the Big 10 network, is on television almost every week.

“With Iowa being on TV every week, it helps them draw in new fans and recruits, it gives them a huge advantage over us,” Pollock said.

While the Big 12 appointed Dan Beebe new commissioner last week, fans shouldn’t expect any changes to the television contract which runs through 2011. KU’s associate athletic director Jim Marchiony thinks by the time a new contract is worked out, the way the media broadcasts football games might change.

“There is so much technology coming out, it is tough to know what new ways and new forms of media we will be broadcasting Kansas football to our fans,” Marchiony said.
For now though, Kansas fans can only hope that Fox Sports and Sunflower agree to a deal in the future that will keep Kansas football games on TV. Or local fans might find new channels to watch – or new teams to root for in the future.

Technical Training Gets A Boost In Lawrence
Thanks To Two-County Education Partnership

While some people pine for love and others yearn for just a good vacation, Lawrence business and industry leaders for years have sought something more practical: technical training for their employees. Last week, their wait ended.

A dozen business managers and employers from throughout the Douglas County area gathered last Thursday at the Weststar Energy facility to learn how to improve their skills in the workplace. The class, administered by Johnson County Community College, focused on a wide range of practical topics, from dealing with discrimination to communicating more effectively.

Symbolically the class represented more than a small gathering. Local business leaders and others hope it will ignite a movement to increase on-the-job training in the Lawrence area, helping employees become smarter, more skilled and more savvy on a variety of issues facing today’s workforce.

Education leaders at KU have high hopes for the partnership that recently kicked off between Douglas and Johnson counties. The alliance named the JCCC as the leading provider of technical programs to Douglas County.

“We’re so pleased to see these technical classes being offered in the Lawrence area,” said Fred Pawlicki, Executive Director of Continuing Education at KU.

KU officials say that the more training they do that’s current and comprehensive, the better equipped the employees in the area will be to succeed in today’s challenging work environment.”

The push to get a more comprehensive technical program to Douglas County began in 2004 after the KU Institute for Policy and Social Research released a study that said Douglas County workers did not have the technical training required to meet the needs of area employers.

The report called for improved collaboration among the business community, schools and students to achieve a common goal: to bring more technical programs to Lawrence.

In previous years, technical classes have been offered sporadically throughout Douglas County, most often at at high schools and at the Weststar Energy facility, located on 27th Street. However, the KU Institute study said many students have been prevented from participating in these classes. Reasons cited included the distance between schools, coordination of school schedules, transportation issues, and lack of awareness.

Employers are hailing the new technical classes as a big step in the right direction.
“You’ve got to like the fact the classes are so convenient. They can held early in the morning or during the lunch hour, so they can really work well into employees’ schedules,” said Dave Loch, North American team product leader for Sauer Danfoss, the worldwide equipment manufacturer based in Lawrence.

Last week’s“Workplace Skills” class is the first of many technical classes that JCCC will offer in Douglas County. Course instructor Tracy Bedell likes the way KU is taking the best instruction out of Johnson County and bringing it to Lawrence.

“The skills class will prove to be valuable regardless of your standing within a company,” she said. “With this training, I know I’ve given participants the tools to go back and use, whether they’re a supervisor or a business owner or they’re looking for their first job.”.

Additional classes are expected to begin at the end of the year. Topics of future classes will be driven by specific requests from businesses that need the training, JCCC officials say.

“We’re still trying to determine what direction we should go. That’s why the feedback we receive from participating local businesses will be crucial,” said Loralee Stevens, JCCC’s coordinator of community outreach.

Based on existing JCCC technical classes, a wide variety of course offerings could be coming to Lawrence. JCCC has more 50 different career and technical programs each with highly specialized concentrations. JCCC’s expansive course catalog ranges from classes on computer training and accounting basics to healing customer relationships and developing a mentor program.

“The likelihood of us being able to provide our entire career and technology offerings off campus is not feasible with specialized equipment that can’t be duplicated,” said Stevens. “But we are looking at what portions of programs we can duplicate in Lawrence.”

JCCC’s presence in Lawrence provides a much needed break for companies like Sauer-Danfoss, which makes hydraulic pumps and motors for farm equipment and construction vehicles. They are used to having to send employees to different counties for training.

“If someone is hired and they don’t have the technical skills needed and the company is willing to train them, the problem has been, there is no where to train,” Loch said.

Other business leaders like Loch would like to see a permanent location for technical training in Lawrence rather than the temporary facility at Westar , but for now, they’re happy with the new JCCC arrangement.

Lack of technical training has been a problem in Douglas County for years.

According to industry leaders, the problem is that Douglas County is one of the few counties statewide without a technical or community college of some sort. One reason, ironically, may be the sheer presence of the University of Kansas.

“Even though Lawrence is growing and there are opportunities in terms of business, we are very limited because there is no community college,” said Bruce Passman, Deputy Superintendent of Lawrence Schools. He explains that each community college in Kansas is assigned a service area. However, counties with state universities, such as Douglas County, are excluded from that service area.

Moreover, Douglas County remains one of the only counties in Kansas that’s populated by a state university but whose university represents a single source for higher-education funding. Manhattan, Kansas, by comparison, does not have a community college but does play host to the Manhattan Area Technical College.

Speculation surrounds the reasoning behind this long-standing absence of technical training programs in Lawrence. Some even call it a monopoly. “KU just doesn’t seem to be interested in technical training,” Loch said.

Permission has to be granted by KU officials each time a school wants to teach a technical training class in the Lawrence area. The same goes for any college or university. Permission must be granted from that school so that programs aren’t duplicated.

While most of time this procedure is just common courtesy between schools, some industry insiders attribute the lack of other educational programs in Lawrence to the dominating presence of KU.

KU officials make no reference to that claim.

“The bottom line is that KU doesn’t offer these programs but we’re now bringing in the best providers,” Pawlicki said.

Whatever the real reasons why Douglas County has lacked technical skills programs in the past, educators and employers alike agree the future for such training looks bright indeed.

“I think it’s the start of a wonderful partnership between KU and JCCC,” Pawlicki said.. At long last we can both provide our different areas of expertise and provide the kind of industry-leading, expert training that the Douglas County workplace expects and deserves.”

In the midst of conducting climate research in Australia’s Simpson Desert this summer, Steve Hasiotis, KU geology professor, unearthed new evidence on past global warming trends. Hasiotis concentrated on the desert’s soil communities, a first in the science community, examining the trace fossils of invertebrates during rapid climate change.

“What we found is that even the soil community isn’t safe from rapid climate change,” Hasiotis said.

Yet this is only the tip of the iceberg as Hasiotis started connecting specific insect trace fossils left behind with their proper insect relatives as of current day and patterns began to emerge. Hasiotis speculates that this could possibly be used as indicators for what our earth will be going through in the future with global warming.

“Because insects have been collected and catalogued for centuries, there is a wealth of information readily available to chart timelines of future climate activity,” Hasiotis said.

During his research, Hasiotis compared soil communities of a period in earth’s history of rapid climate changes that most mirror what our planet is presently going through. In Earth’s past, rising climates have produced localized mass extinctions of species, melting of the ice caps, and reducing the size of several present day animals.

"Everything operates in cycles and what we're going through now is no different than what's happened in the past," Hasiotis said.

Dr. Stephen Hasiotis, associate professor of geology, has been conducting research in the area of rapid climate change for several years. Hasiotis is currently finishing research paper for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences.

“He always has some new and exciting research going on,” said Professor Robert Goldstein, chair of the geology department. “We’re very lucky to have him here at KU.”

When Mike Carlson, Lawrence, senior, wakes up around noon on Sundays, he is usually worn out and hungry. After long weekends, which begin for Carlson on Thursdays, his cupboards are always bone dry and he is never in the mood to go shopping. Luckily for Carlson, as well as many other Lawrence and Manhattan residents, foodpatio.com allows him to order food online to be delivered directly to his doorstep.

“I don’t even want to get dressed on Sundays, and I certainly don’t want to leave the house to get food. Foodpatio.com takes care of this problem for me,” Carlson said.

Carlson represents one example of the hundreds of people who have an account with foodpatio.com.

Foodpatio.com also lets users to place carryout orders. Customers can pick up their carryout orders as soon as they arrive at the restaurants. People with jobs or busy students, who spend a majority of their days in hurry, can take advantage of cutting long lines around the lunch hour.

This convenient innovation was made possible by an optimistic, up and coming entrepreneur named Justin McAuley.
McAuley, who is a KU alumnus, founded and owns foodpatio.com, which services the Lawrence and Manhattan communities.

The site requires users to sign up and create a profile before placing orders. After an order is made a fax along with an automated phone call is sent directly to the restaurants. Signing up for foodpatio.com is free. Users only need to provide an email address along with a contact phone number. A home address is required for delivery orders.

Foodpatio.com subscribers can choose from eight restaurants in Lawrence: Bambinos, Pizza Hut, Gumby’s, Wheat State Pizza, Pizza Shuttle, Pita Pit, Big’s B-B-Q, and Jersey Mikes. In Manhattan, users can only chose between Planet Sub and Pita Pit. All restaurants deliver except Jersey Mikes.

The idea for foodpatio.com arose during McAuley’s junior year at KU after he enrolled in entrepreneurship classes. He credits those classes with energizing him to consider starting his own business.

“I guess you could say my entrepreneurship classes inspired the idea. They definitely showed me that starting my own business was a reasonable and possible goal,” McAuley said.

Determined to go in to business for himself, McAuley put his mind to work. He realized that in a college town like Lawrence a majority of the citizens spend a lot of time online and spend a lot of money eating out. These two factors combined led to the formation of foodpatio.com.

McAuley’s target market went beyond tired college students looking for a way to eat without getting off their feet. He wanted to aim at the busy, on the go college student as well.

Rob Rossiter, Omaha, Neb., senior, works at the Wagnon Computer Lab inside Summerfield Hall at KU, and he says he places carryout orders from his desk at work.

“Foodpatio.com saves me a bunch of time on my lunch break because my orders are ready as soon as I walk into the restaurant. I love not having to deal with the lunch rush,” Rossiter said.

Rossiter can multitask; while doing his homework and assisting students with their computer complications, he can order his lunch and save 10-15 minutes by not waiting in line once he arrives at the restaurant.

McAuley felt strongly that he had a lucrative idea, but before could get anywhere with turning an idea into a reality he needed to develop a functional and easy to use website.

Admitting that he knows next to nothing about designing a webpage, McAuley yielded to the experts for assistance.

He called the KU Computer Science and Engineering Department, and requested assistance with a web design project. The engineering department emailed its undergraduate and graduate web designers, and received around 20 responses. McAuley said he interviewed 10 people and selected three for the job.

He credits the web design team for making foodpatio.com possible.
“My web design team did awesome work,” McAuley said. “They really made foodpatio.com possible. I had a vision, but they were able to make it a reality,” McAuley said.

With a website up and running McAuley’s focus became selling restaurants on the idea of taking online orders.

“I had a sales pitch that I took to each restaurant manager. I explained to all of them that they were missing out on a large chunk of revenue, and I was essentially offering free advertising for their companies. Plus there was no risk for the restaurants because they could not lose money,” McAuley said

Foodpatio.com receives a small percentage of each order placed from the site, but restaurants do not owe it anything other than what it brings in.

“Basically I don’t make my 10 cents until they make their 90 cents,” McAuley said.
Actually foodpatio.com earns from 5 to 10 percent per order placed. The percentage depends upon the restaurant. All of the restaurants except Pita Pit and Gumby’s Pizza have delivery minimums ranging from $6 to $10, so foodpatio.com is earning no less than 30 cents on most orders.

Joe Sholz is the store manager at Wheat State Pizza, and he says foodpatio.com works well, but it is not changing Wheat State’s business.
“We tried an online ordering system before, but this one [foodpatio.cm] works better because it sends an automated phone call along with the fax,” Scholz said. “I don’t think it has been a big money maker for us, but I don’t think they have advertised enough yet.”

McAuley estimates that he invested $10,000 into foodpatio.com, and he anticipates that the company will rise above red numbers before the end of the year.

“We are not in the green yet, but we will be soon, and that will help me get advertising, and hire people to make foodpatio.com bigger,” McAuley said.

Advertising represents the key to making foodpatio.com widely popular throughout Lawrence and Manhattan, but McAuley has not had the funds to run any ad campaigns.

He wants to get an ad in the University Daily Kansan and create brochures to hand out around the dorms on campus, but the UDK turned him down multiple times, and brochures are too expensive.

“If I could get some ads in the Kansan than everyone at KU would know about foodpatio.com and I think a lot of people would like using it.”

McAuley also thinks spreading the word around freshmen dorms is vital to the growth of foodpatio.com.

“A lot of freshmen don’t have cars, they don’t know their way around town, and they are not familiar with the local restaurants,” McAuley said.

Foodpatio.com has 500 subscribers just by using word of mouth. That number could grow exponentially. With little less than 28,000 undergraduates at KU and a little more than 23,000 undergraduates at Kansas State, McAuley hardly scratched the surface of the demographic his company aims at.

The site began operation last spring, but McAuley was still a college student then, and he could not devote the same amount of time to growing his business as he can now. Since he graduated last May he has been planning advertisement campaigns, talking to potential investors, and thinking of ways to make foodpatio.com more successful.

He says he is not sure where the business is headed long term, but he want to continue running the show for the foreseeable future.

“I am always on the look out for an investor or potential buyer, but for now I am committed to making foodpatio.com a better business by adding restaurants and serving more people. I definitely think it has a bright future, I just need to spread the word.”

McAuley is currently on the job interview circuit, but being an entrepreneurship drives him. He wants to be a business owner instead of climb the corporate ladder.

“Owning my own business has always been my dream,” McAuley said.
He says foodpatio.com has a future, and that will be true as long as the word spreads throughout the Lawrence and Manhattan communities and students keep ordering food to their doors or from their computers at work.

Retail clothes store closed: big effect on Asians?

Although Qi Zhang can still smell the essence of Abercrombie perfume while passing 647 Massachusetts Street, where the retail store Abercrombie & Fitch used to be located, she can’t get in there anymore.

Downtown used to be one of Zhang’s favorite places in Lawrence because that’s where she can get name brand clothing without driving to the malls in Kansas City. But after Abercrombie was closed beginning of this fall semester, she doesn’t even want to go to downtown anymore. She feels like there is no place to shop.

Qi Zhang, a business major freshman at the University of Kansas, came to Lawrence from China two years ago. During the two years of her American culture and style exploration, she gradually became a loyal customer of Abercrombie & Fitch, because it seemed like the clothes in their brand always fits her 5’10 and 130lbs body.

One day Zhang came to downtown like usual, and she found out that not only the door of Abercrombie & Fitch was locked, but also she couldn’t even see any advertisements on the windows like before. “I was so surprised and I didn’t know what happened to them,” Zhang said.

Abercrombie & Fitch was closed on Aug 18, 2007, two days after the school started. According to what the store assistant manager Raven Correll told Lawrence Journal World, the store was closed because “We were the lowest in our district every single day, and they didn’t want to renew the lease.” But while it seems really unpopular among the Lawrence local people, a lot of Asian people who used to be its fans now have to drive to Oak Park Mall to get their clothing.

Abercrombie & Fitch joined Gap and became one of the national retailers in downtown Lawrence since 1997. It was accused several times for discrimination of fat people because of its models and giving preferential treatment to employees that they "ranked" as most beautiful and best bodies.

“Our medium size is like their large size, so it’s almost like a size bigger,” said Annie, the store manager of Gap next door.

But that seems like no problem for a lot of Asian people. “In Korea, our size seven or eight is like size extra large here,” said Se Hyun Kim, a senior piano student from Korea. “Sometimes it is a little bit hard for me to find something that fits my body.”

According to the book “Body Size Accounts for Most Differences in Bone Density Between Asian and Caucasian Women”, Asians have lower body mess index and smaller frames than whites. One of the comments for the news “Abercrombie & Fitch to close on Aug 18” on LJWorld.com, someone called LawrenceRes (Anonymous) said, “I've seen a couple of items in there that I liked enough to pay a bit higher price for but I couldn't purchase because I'm not a size 10 or smaller.”

Smaller size clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch sometimes might offend some larger people, but it naturally becomes a lot of Asian people’s best choice.

“I’m 5’4 and I only weigh 90lbs. I don’t have eating disorder, it’s just I have extremely small bones,” said Yue Zou, an Accounting major freshman from China. “I’ve been looking for jeans that fits me since I came here last winter, and they are either too big on waist or too short for me, even it’s a size zero. And then I found Abercrombie & Fitch. They are perfect for me.”

Another reason that Abercrombie & Fitch is popular among Asian people is because of its International fame. Although it closed its store in Lawrence and the one on the Kansas City Plaza, it seems like the company is doing very well in other places. The company just opened its first European flagship store in London in March 2007 and plans to open more. It plans to open the first Asian store in Japan in 2009, and it’s going to open a first flagship Hollister store in New York City as well. On the Forbes Global 2000, which is the annual ranking of the top 2000 corporations in the world by Forbes magazine this year, it ranks 1391, compared to the rank 1466 last year, it’s moving 75 spots higher. On August 22, 2007, the company said earnings rose 24% in the second quarter, powered by higher sales from more stores.

For International students, the easy way to follow the trend is to go to some stores that they’ve heard of. According to Annie, the store manager of Gap, the customers who comes in this store is a good mix of local people and international people, “I’d say half half,” Annie said. And according to several other retail stores in downtown, like the American Eagle Outfitters and The Buckle, international students who come into their stores also occupies a large percentage of total customers. While one of the local stores, Creation Station, said that there are some international people come in sometimes, but “there is a certain number of local people who come here a lot.”

The population of Lawrence is about 80,000, including 30,000 students from KU, and the number of international students is about 1,650. If half or a lot of its customers who come in to Gap are international students, that means not only international students are a big support of downtown retail stores, but also means most of international students are shopping in retail stores.

“After Abercrombie is closed, I feel like there is almost nothing in downtown right now. I lost one of my best choices,” said Kim.

Knowing that just having Asian or international students as supporters is not enough for a store to keep going, Zhang said, “I hope they are not closing the store in Oak Park mall as well, otherwise even if my friends and I are driving, we have nowhere to go.”

A lot of people call Lloyd Hetrick every month. Some want help, some want energy, and some want experience. In flight, that is.

Hetrick Air Services is the local FBO, or airport service center, at Lawrence Municipal Airport, which provides many necessities including charter flights, repairs, refueling and flying lessons. Three years ago, Hetrick noticed a difference in the calls he got every month—people wanted to know if he was offering lessons in light sport aircraft.
“When the light sport pilot’s license was first offered, we got a lot of calls from interested people,” Hetrick said. “We recently ordered a Cessna SkyCatcher to try to spark new activity in the Lawrence.”

Hetrick isn’t the only person purchasing a brand new light sport aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration introduced the new category of aircraft three years ago. Since then, more than 50 aircraft have been developed, said the Experimental Aircraft Association.

But it’s not the small companies that are making a big flight into general aviation. Major aircraft companies Cessna and Cirrus Design have just started to produce light sport aircraft. The small planes, which cost much less than the planes the companies typically sell, will not be impressive money-makers for the companies, but that is not the goal. The aviation business is seeing a decrease in its customer base, so the goal is to give more people an easy and cheap way to become involved in aviation.

Cessna announced its intent to produce a light sport aircraft, called the SkyCatcher at the EAA Airventure Oshkosh air show in 2006, and the prototype was revealed on the first day of the air show this July. On the same day, Cirrus released its own prototype at the show, called the Cirrus SRS, or the Cirrus SR Sport. These aircraft, priced around $100,000, were created to draw in new people to the aviation world.

The FAA has measured a steady decrease in student pilots during the last ten years, with numbers falling from 96,101 in 1997 to 84,866 in 2006. To Pia Bergqvist, media relations manager for Cessna, this is a looming problem.

“This decrease is a concern to us because most clients are private pilots, like student pilots,” Bergqvist said. “A lot of people don’t start flying because it’s too expensive.” For Cessna and Cirrus, the light sport aircraft are the answer to this problem.

The FAA introduced light sport aircraft as a new flight category three years ago. The FAA requires planes to be lighter than standard personal planes, have one or two seats, and carry less fuel. Pilots of these aircraft require less training and less hours flying with an instructor than what is necessary for a private pilot’s license. No night flying is needed for certification and pilots do not have to deal with controlled airspace. The aircraft and its license are meant for recreational local flight rather than business or cross-country flight. The aircraft are also cheaper than standard aircraft, which makes them appeal to a wider base of people.

The cheaper, factory-built light sport aircraft are what Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, associated professor of aerospace engineering, thinks is a good middle ground for people interested in aviation.

“FAA regulations have allowed the new category of aircraft to come into being,” Barrett-Gonzalez said. “There was a large split between homebuilt aircraft, which take a lot of time to build, and real certified aircraft from the factory, which are too expensive for most people. Light sport aircraft are fulfilling the dream so many of us have of flying. The idea of having something almost as convenient as a car that only costs slightly more than a car is appealing.”

Standard private airplanes tend to cost over $250,000, according to Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association. He says many people do not want to spend that much money buying a factory-built airplane when a cheaper light sport aircraft is available.

“People are getting a basic recreational aircraft priced from $50,000 to $110,000. It is a brand new airplane out of the factory in their price range,” Knapinski said.
That is why Cessna is not in it for the money. In 2006, Cessna says it delivered 1,239 aircraft, had $4.2 billion in new airplanes delivered and $8.5 billion future airplanes sold. The SkyCatcher is currently selling for $109,500. A Cessna Citation, a private business jet that is one of the company’s best-selling aircraft, can sell for more than $5.5 million.

“The SkyCatcher really isn’t a moneymaker for us,” Bergqvist said. “It’s a strategic airplane for us to get people into flying and into Cessna. People tend to stay with an aircraft brand.”

Brand loyalty is also important to Cirrus, which is adding the SRS to an already successful line of personal aircraft including the SR-20, the SR-22 and the development of a personal jet. The purpose of the SRS is to increase options for all people interested in aviation.

“Our corporate mission is to grow the industry,” said Kate Dougherty, spokeswoman for Cirrus. “You need many different price points so all different kinds of people with socio-economic backgrounds can get into flying. We asked ourselves, how do we make Cirrus aircraft available to more people? How do we make them available to training centers, mom and pop FBOs and university training centers and also have Cirrus training and service centers?”

The Cirrus SRS was the answer. The aircraft will be priced around $100,000, almost $150,000 cheaper than the SR-20. The lower cost will allow flight schools to buy planes rather than lease them, says the Experimental Aircraft Association. The price also makes the airplane more appealing to more people as a starter aircraft.

“People want the light sport aircraft because it’s an affordable aircraft that they can train in and also have the safety of parachute,” Dougherty said.

The parachute is a feature unique to Cirrus aircraft. All Cirrus aircraft are designed with the feature, which Dougherty says is what makes the SRS attractive as a training aircraft.

Cessna hopes to differentiate its light sport aircraft from others in the industry by creating a different focus. It also produces the 172, which is used as a training airplane across the country and is sold new for more than $200,000. The Skycatcher is meant to be a sort of replacement. Instead of a parachute, Cessna says it is designing the SkyCatcher’s whole body with training in mind.

“We want to make sure it will stand up to rigorous training environment of a training airplane. We are doing a lot more structural testing than is required by the FAA,” Bergqvist said.

Pricing aside, the light sport aircraft enlarges the aviation market for another reason—less stringent training requirements. The light sport aircraft license requires 15 to 20 less hours of flight training than a private pilot license, which requires a minimum of 40 hours, Knapinkski said. Less hours means less money spent on training to new pilots.

“In some parts of the country, it costs $150 to $200 an hour for lessons for a private license,” Knapinski said. Instead of spending more than $6,000 for this license, the light sport aircraft offers a much lower total.

“If people can get in airplane that will be $2,000 to $3,000 for a license, it will bring more people into aviation,” Knapinski said.

Those additional people are definitely appearing. Two and a half weeks after the SkyCatcher was revealed, Cessna had sold 720, generating more than $75 million according to Aug. 9 numbers. Cirrus has gotten more than 1,000 requests for more information about the SRS since its release.

Unfortunately, these people are going to have to wait for their new airplanes. Cirrus is still testing its aircraft and hopes to deliver the first SRS in July 2008 at the EAA Airventure Oshkosh show. Cessna will not start delivering SkyCatchers until late 2009, when 50 aircraft will be produced. Production will later be ramped up to 700 aircraft a year, but that’s still a long wait to buyers today.

Lloyd Hetrick knows he will have to wait for his new SkyCatcher. When the aircraft finally comes, he will start preparing to offer flight lessons in the light sport category. Until then, he’s content to wait.

“I’m getting a quality Cessna product,” Hetrick said. “I wish I didn’t have to wait two years, but I looked at other options available and I didn’t like them. Mine will be a quality-built airplane.”

For many couples, the sound of ringing wedding bells invokes visions of flowing white dresses, smiling crowds and handfuls of rice tossed high into the air.

But that idyllic vision, just like the flying rice, at some point must fall back down to earth.

“Having that perfect wedding is just so expensive,”

Beverly Falley, owner of the Lawrence Travel Center, said. “The cost can be pretty intimidating.”

With the rising popularity of destination weddings, though, many couples are beginning to realize that it doesn’t have to be.

Deb Frederick, 46, got married in July in St. Thomas, one of the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The price of her wedding ceremony? $1,200.

“We knew we wanted our wedding on the beach,” Frederick said. “The ceremony was small and beautiful and also happened to cost us a lot less than your big, traditional wedding,”

Frederick is one of the growing number of newlyweds to choose a destination wedding, which wraps the wedding ceremony and honeymoon together in one all-inclusive package.

Located in exotic settings such as Jamaica, Cancun, Mexico, or the Virgin Islands, destination weddings are becoming a more popular choice for couples who want to get the most wedding bang for their buck.

“We’ve had a 25 to 30 percent increase in destination weddings in the past couple of years,” Anne Walters, travel agent for Lawrence’s Carlson Wagonlit travel agency, said.

The growing popularity of destination weddings seen by Walters and other Lawrence travel agents is a trend exhibited by the country as a whole. Kim Guse of Weddings On the Move, a national company specializing in destination weddings, said that the past three years have seen a definite increase in the number of couples capitalizing on the affordability of getting married in vacation hotspots like those in the Caribbean.

“It’s hard to nail down an exact number,” Guse said, “but it would be impossible not to notice how many people are traveling for their wedding.”

For Kansans paying for their own wedding, a comparison of traditional weddings and destination weddings yields a compelling argument for the latter. Wedding industry statistics from Jaeger Interactive Communications estimate that of the 2.3 million wedding ceremonies that will take place this year, the average will cost $26,800. The most common age for a first marriage rests between 27 and 29 years, an age group in Kansas that averages an annual salary of about $57,000. At that level, the typical Lawrence couple can expect to spend almost half of their income this year on their wedding.

A destination wedding in Mexico, Puerto Rico or St. Lucia, however, could cost the same couple as little as $3,000.

“I’ve scheduled weddings for just a few thousand dollars for couples who don’t pay for their guests,” Falley said. “It’s more expensive for the guests, but it’s great for the couple.”

Ruth Dixon, the national affiliate program coordinator for Destination Wedding Travel, Inc., said that travel expenses for an engaged couple and their guests can range from between $750 and $1,100 per person, including the airfare and hotel stay. Travel costs associated with a destination wedding are comparable to the cost of the average five-day vacation, she said. For this reason, destination weddings tend to have much shorter guest lists than traditional weddings.

“Especially for couples on their second or third marriage, it’s just easier and sometimes more enjoyable to have fewer guests,” Falley said.

For both Deb Frederick and her husband, Mark, their St. Thomas wedding was their second marriage.

“One of the biggest draws for us was that we could have a smaller, more intimate ceremony” Frederick said. “It was just us and the six kids.”

The Association for Wedding Professionals estimates that the average wedding has a guest list of about 170 names. Most destination weddings will have less than a tenth of that.

“For the guests, it’s an excuse to go on a trip anyway,” Falley said. “And the intimate atmosphere of weddings with fewer guests can be just as much of a plus for people as price or location.”

The beauty of her wedding location was a top priority for Frederick, whose ceremony was decorated with tropical flowers and a tiered wedding cake. Wedding photos show the couple set against a clear blue sky with ocean waves lapping the island sand in the background.

“Who wouldn’t want to get married on a beach?” Frederick said. “Coming from the midwest, we’ll snap that chance right up.”

Couples expecting a quick, easy wedding in a foreign location, however, should think twice. The process of obtaining a marriage license in a foreign country can often get a bit complicated. Marriages in France, for example, require a 40-day stay in the country prior to the actual marriage ceremony. In Mexico, a marriage license costs $200 and comes attached to a three or four day waiting period. Prerequisites like these may drive many couples to have their wedding on a cruise ship or, like Frederick, in the Virgin Islands, where the wedding remains under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Government.

Still, as the price of traditional weddings continues to rise each year, travel agents like Anne Walters expect the popularity of destination weddings to rise right along with it. An array of different vacation destinations, too, have begun to cash in on the business of non-traditional destination weddings. Disney World, for example, recently made fairy tale weddings available at its resort outside of Orlando, Fla.

“A lot of companies are seeing that this is a market they want to get in on,” Walters said. “The wedding business is a $60 billion a year industry, so this is a trend that we probably won’t see the end of any time soon.”

Though it remains to be seen how many people will actually take Disney World up on its offer of a fairy tale wedding, Frederick doubts many people would be disappointed with a tropical destination wedding of their own.

“Everything was perfect,” she said. “The pictures and memories are fabulous. I wouldn’t do anything differently.”