Congressional bracketology

LJWorld.com weblogs Lawrence in the News

Posted by Terry Rombeck March 13, 2007 at 9:26 a.m.

Congressional bracketology

¢ If you prefer politics over basketball, check out this feature of [CQPolitics.com][1]. It breaks down the NCAA Tournament basketball teams by the member of Congress who represents the colleges' campuses - in case you'd rather root for a Congressman instead of a particular team.The [New York Times][2] story about the Congressional Quarterly breakdown notes that KU is in a unique situation.A few schools are so large, or so strategically located, that their campuses are spread out over more than one congressional district. The University of Kansas - one of the top teams in this year's tournament - is located principally in the state's 3rd District, represented by Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore, though the school's west campus (west of Iowa Street) is in the 2nd District, represented by Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda.¢ The KU men's basketball team is getting national mentions for its low graduation rate. One posted today is at [Insiderhighered.com][3].Of the three No. 1 seeds, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a Graduation Success Rate of 70 percent, but the University of Kansas has a rate of 45 percent and Ohio State University lags with a GSR of 38 percent and a federal graduation rate of just 10 percent._You can also read the [Journal-World][4] story on the topic that ran today.¢ Kindergartners at an elementary school in Wichita have - not surprisingly - picked KU to go all the way in the NCAA Tournament, the [Wichita Eagle][5] reports._Why KU? "We live in Kansas," said 6-year-old Abbi Taylor. Enough said.¢ A KU graduate has been named the new president of Newman University in Wichita, the [Wichita Eagle][6] reports. Noreen Carrocci has masters and doctorate degrees in speech communication and human relations.¢ Tim Miller, a KU professor of religious studies, has a portion of his book "The Hippies and American Values" quoted in a [Palm Beach Post][7] story about the status of the hippie.His take: "You can live in the way that the hippies did and do, and there are still people around who proudly call themselves hippies. But I think it was a social movement at a particular time and a particular place and a particular culture. In a sense of the totality of the culture, now society has moved on to something else." [1]: http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/03/cqpolitics_study_shows_which_l.html [2]: http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/03/12/cq_2394.html [3]: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/03/13/ncaa [4]: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/mar/13/ku_teams_graduation_rate_lags_seeding/?ku_news [5]: http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/16889754.htm [6]: http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/16892129.htm [7]: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/accent/epaper/2007/03/13/a1e_hippy_0313.html