MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2016 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 18

News ›› 2

Failing students get a second chance through new mentor program

Arts & Culture ›› 5

28th annual KU Powwow aims to promote indigenous culture awareness

Sports ›› 8

More from Kansas’ tournament run

THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904

THE UNIVERSIT Y DAIL Y KANSAN

L

OUISVILLE, Ky. — Ob-

jectively, it’d be difcult

to call it a disappoint- ment.

Starting in the summer,

Kansas won gold at the World University Games, followed by a title at the

Maui Jim Maui Invitation

- al. As the season pro-

gressed, Kansas nished

atop the Big 12 in both the

regular season and tourna

- ment, and notched a win in the Big 12/SEC Challenge along the way.

For all of that success, plus a spot as the top overall seed in the NCAA tourna

- ment and a trip to the Elite Eight, the team accom- plished several of its goals. Yet as the players sat in the locker room after their loss to Villanova, the mood re-

ected a different story.

The players’ eyes were red from the tears. Several sat with their heads in their hands, others with towels draped over their faces. All

eyes were on the oor.

In a season where so

many goals were surpassed, it wasn’t about what the team had done; it was about

what they hadn’t. “It never felt like

enough,” junior forward Landen Lucas said. As the nal seconds

ticked away in the game, the realization began to set in.

For one side: pure ela

- tion. The Villanova players

jumped around with each

other, realizing what they’d

accomplished: The rst Fi

-

nal Four of their careers. But on the other side,

it was agony: Unrelenting heartbreak and disappoint- ment. Devonte’ Graham’s eyes

lled with tears. He pulled

his jersey over his face as he sat on the bench. One seat to his right, senior forward

Jamari Traylor offered words of encouragement but there was nothing com

- forting to be said. “I hate that it had to end

like this,” Graham said. “It’s hard when people tell you not to hold your head down. We could’ve done some

-

thing really special.”

Graham had so often been the player whose smile brightened the team’s spir-

its. Not even he could mus

-

ter up anything other than a

look of despair.

Looking around the

locker room, it was the same way: Tears. Red eyes. Towels on heads. The only silver lining

came from an unlikely source.

One of the emotional leaders of the team, Traylor seemed like his heart had

been ripped out of his c hest. He stared blankly with his

held tilted to one side, an-

swering each question in

a monotone, lifeless voice.

His teary eyes glistened, amplied by the top lights

of cameras shining on his face.

Eventually, he was asked about the Kansas back

-

court: Graham and junior guard Frank Mason III. As he talked about them, the

look of sheer disappoint-

ment remained. But for one

moment — a split second — there was a glimmer of hope, a glimmer in his eyes.

“They pretty much came from nothing,” Traylor said.

In the end, the moment was nothing more than a

brief ash of light in a seem

- ingly endless abyss of dark- ness.

But for a second Traylor,

who also came from a life of

instability, was able to put everything aside, until it all

came crashing back down. Across the room, almost no one took the loss harder than Evan Manning, who sat next to Tyler Self. The two held blank stares; nei- ther said a word to each other. For Self, there’d be an-

other chance next year, but, for Manning, a four year

Kansas career had come to

an end and it showed. His

eyes were a brilliant color of red, as he seemed to be tak- ing it all in.

It w as d if c ult fo r hi

to express what the season

had meant. It was difcult

for all the seniors.

The team had come such

a long way.

Through team meetings, court-stormings, injuries

and — perhaps most of all —

hundre ds and hu ndreds o

the little moments: words,

thoughts, st bumps, high ves and tears shared be

- tween players — it was all over. Everything had come to an end. For that, while the se-

niors struggled to nd the

right words to say, it was a

junior who put it best.

“We’re going to look back and see how good this

team was,” Wayne Selden Jr., his voice slightly quiver

- ing, said. “We didn’t accom-

plish what we wanted to.”

Every two academic

years, Student Senate is

tasked with revising the

Student Code of Rights and

Responsibilities. The Code

outlines how the University can discipline students who

commit non-academic mis-

conduct.

Since the 1970s, the Code has only permitted for

students to be disciplined for violations that occurred on campus or at Universi

- ty-sponsored events. And since then University ad-

ministrators and the Stu

- dent Senate have made minor amendments to the Code.

In a Student Rights

Committee meeting March 23, senators were given

their rst chance to review

and amend the proposed version of the Code. While senators voted to move for- ward with the draft of the Code that administrators presented, several amend- ments were made and ap- proved by senators.

Freshmen Senator John

Foster’s amendment was approved. Foster’s amend-

ment eliminated language

that granted the University

jurisdiction to prosecute off-campus code violations. The Code is subject to 

- nal approval by Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, and

is enforced by the Ofce of Student Affairs, according to the current Code.

Current Code changes

In the administrative draft of the code, the most contested change is on new

language that would give the University jurisdiction to discipline students for misconduct that happens off campus. Specically, the Code

allows the University to hold disciplinary proceed-

ings against students if the violations occur on the

“University premises or at University sponsored or

supervised events or as oth

-

erwise required by federal, state, or local law,” accord

-

ing to the current Student

Code of Rights and Respon- sibilities. In an email correspon- dence dated Nov. 13, 2015

from Tammara Durham — vice provost for Student Affairs — to Student Body President Jessie Pringle and former Student Body

Vice President Zach George,

Durham said the University

has fallen behind peer in-

stitutions in protecting the rights and safety of all stu

- dents.

Durham’s email said

a draft of the new code,

supported by herself and Gray-Little, would be

shared with representatives

from Student Senate and

implemented at the end of the year after feedback from senators. Lance Watson, director

of Student Conduct and Community Standards, said the push for off-campus ju

-

risdiction language to be in

-

cluded in the Code is only to ensure student safety. “In our current code, we

have the ability to address

instances of sexual assault or violence off campus, and discrimination,” Watson

said. “Those are the only two things that can be ad-

dressed off campus, every

- thing else cannot. “So we wanted to look at

it broader, and be up with

more contemporary prac-

tices with peer institutions as well.”

In an email with Pringle

and George, Durham ad

-

dressed concerns about the jurisdictional language. “The jurisdictional lan

-

guage permits the Univer

-

sity to address, serious, sig

-

nicant, off-campus issues

that threaten the health and

safety of our community as well as a student’s right to participate in the educa

-

tional process,” she said in

the email. “The intention is to ad-

dress the needs of students who have been subje cted to such intense violence that it resulted in substantial in

-

jury causing absence from

SCOTT CHASEN

@SChasenKU

A stro ng s easo n l eft inco m p l et e

Kansas falls one game short of Final Four, losing to Villanova 64-59 in the NCAA tournament

Missy Minear/KANSA N