•Baseball P.10 • Ehlers feature P.5 • Diversions Section P.6 ON THE
The students’ voice since 1901 • Vol. 110 No. 20 • Thursday, March 3, 2011 • Emporia State University
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esubulletin.com
Rising global food costs ‘healthy for markets’ B eth E dmonds news@esubulletin.com Escalating food prices have caused students like Jennifer Parenti, freshman nursing major and mother of a two-year-old daughter, to reconsider what sort of food she buys at the grocery store. “I’ve been buying frozen vegetables because they’re a lot cheaper… it’s a
struggle to buy healthy things with the rise in food costs, especially when you have a set amount of money that you can spend, (but) I try to feed my child healthy things,” Parenti said. Parenti said she works part-time on campus for about 15 hours every week and she also receives aid from Social Rehabilitation Services to buy groceries for her family. However, even with governmental
aid to help feed her daughter, Parenti said the rise in food costs coupled with climbing gas prices may soon force her to seek additional income. “If it gets bad enough, I may have to get a night job,” Parenti said. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the food index is up 1.8 percent with the food at home index up 2.1 percent in the last year.
See FOOD...Page 7
According to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website...
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Infographic by Ellen Weiss
Through Artists’ Eyes BLACK HEART’S HOUSE OF ART PROMOTES BOND BETWEEN COMMUNITY, ESU
F
rom the motorcycle in the corner to the art
displays on the walls, Black Heart’s House of Art, 720 Commercial St., caters to many different types of people.
See TATTOOS...Page 3
Justin Thompson waits while John Armstrong works on his new tattoo Wednesday afternoon in Black Heart’s House of Art at 720 Commercial St. Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.
KBOR looking into dorm privatization
The Kansas Board of Regents has recently been commissioned by the Kansas Legislature to conduct a study to determine how cost effective it would be for uniCOUGHLIN versities to privatize residential facilities. “(Residential upkeep) is already an auxiliary function, which means that we don’t receive any state funding, so we don’t get money from tax income from Topeka – everything that funds housing is through what the students pay in terms of semester rates,” said Cass Coughlin, director of the department of residential life. According to a recent article in the
The Lawrence Journal-World, State Rep. Peggy Mast (R-Emporia) is in favor of the study because of the high shortfall in revenue within the next year. “Kansas is beginning to wake up and realize that things have changed,” Mast said in the article. “Our economy is not as affluent. It’s time we open our eyes and realize we need to look for savings.” Despite the current condition of the state budget, not everyone agrees that privatizing university housing is a good place to start. “There are some things that make privatization appealing to different universities and schools,” Coughlin said. “(For) a school that didn’t have housing and wanted to start housing, it would be a really significant financial undertaking to build a lot of new residence halls and so privatization makes sense then.” Coughlin said that privatization would prevent the debt of university housing
systems from being included in the state or university’s books, but since all six of the Regents schools already have housing, this would not change much. The debt from the recent renovation in the towers is held by residential life, not the university itself. “I feel like what would be too many different hands in the pot, too many different people that we would have to rely on to make sure everything got done,” said Tayler Wash, freshman secondary education major and resident of South Tower. Coughlin said privatization would affect the residential staff at ESU in years to come as a private owner would eventually begin to expand job positions. “From what I’ve seen, when a university or a college privatizes kind of midstream, there’s usually two to three years of changeover where the company will use existing staff,” Coughlin said. “In the short run, it is unclear if it would impact staff,
Online Poll Results : What would make the city of Emporia more appealing to prospective students? More variety in affordable housing near campus More job opportunities for students 0
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A state senate bill in Topeka could potentially grant grocery and convenience stores liquor retail licenses to sell beer, wine and liquor, and some local liquor store owners have concerns over how the expansion could hurt business. “If the bill is passed, it will more than likely be the downfall of not only myself but 70 to 80 percent of all liquor stores owners in Emporia,” said Aaron Sewell, owner of The Liquor Store, 507 Commercial St. Sewell said the bill will put a freeze on the number of liquor licenses in the state of Kansas for three years in June of this year if passed. This means that grocery and convenience stores will have to either wait three years or buy an already existing liquor retail license. According to a release by Tom Thomas, treasurer for Kansas Representative Don Hill’s campaign committee, the bill has advanced from the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, but it has not yet been considered by the full Senate. “Not many are confident in predicting the measure’s chances,” according to the release. However Larry Good, owner of Reeble’s Country Mart, 1020 Merchant St., said that the bill will essentially “level the playing field.” Sewell said that most liquor stores in Emporia are not equipped to sell anything other than liquor. In order for Sewell to sell other goods, he said he would have to make significant alterations to his building. “It would be me bulldozing this store and starting all over, and that’s not feasible,” Sewell said. The loss of jobs is one of Sewell’s major arguments against the bill. The Liquor Store employees include Sewell, one full time employee and six parttime employees. Sewell said the closing of his store would affect eight households. Desiree Dye, senior secondary theater and speech education major, said she does not think liquor stores will close down. She said people will continue shopping at liquor stores, regardless of the convenience in grocery stores. The bill states that all who sell or handle liquor and alcohol in these retail locations must be 21 years of age. Good said he sees no increase of underage drinking due to the new location of alcohol sales. “As long as IDs are checked as they are supposed to be, I don’t think it would hurt anyone,” Dye said. While the outcome of the bill is still up in the
See LIQUOR...Page 7
See KBOR...Page 3
More community events and festivals A greater variety of restaurants and businesses
Infographic by Ellen Weiss
S mantha J ones jones@esubulletin.com
Senate bill aims to expand liquor retail locations statewide B rianne S imon simon@esubulletin.com
C harlie H eptas heptas@esubulletin.com
“We were in business on Sunny Slope for two years and then Michele started doing her clothing thing and we just wanted to combine and have a really cool shop,” said April Armstrong, graphic designer and photographer for the shop and Emporia State alumna. The shop opened last Saturday with over 100 people coming through the store. The owners said they were glad to have moved to the new location on Commercial Street because it offers a better storefront and likelihood of walk-ins. They also said they enjoy being a part of the Main Street association. At the grand opening, the owners raffled off tattoos and clothing. They said the new location offers a new and different clientele. “We do a lot of custom work – we’d rather draw your tattoo up custom so not everybody has it,” Armstrong said. The business is a combination of Armstrong Design and Photography, Black Heart Cherry Clothing and Big Tobacco’s House of Ink. Michele Belli, creator of Black Heart Cherry Clothing, said she hopes the shop will expand the ESU art scene in the community. “We’re trying to bridge the gap between the community and ESU, and we want people to know that there are artists right here in town,” Belli said. Belli said the only major clothing line the store carries is Sailor Jerry and that they are the only business in Emporia to carry that brand. The rest of the clothing is original work by Belli and others. They said they want to be able to reach out
-In 2010, the national average of monthly participation for SNAP was 40,301,666. An increase of 14 million since 2006. -Kansas participation increased by 90,000 between 2006 and 2010, from 183,071 to 269,710.
Aaron Sewell, owner of The Liquor Store, sits in his store Monday afternoon and discusses the effect the new liquor law may have on small business in Emporia and around Kansas. Chris Franklin/ The Bulletin.