SPORT 'FPIE offensive attack BACK PAGE Women's hoops hits the road packing a confident I FEATURE semester PAGE 3 Don't let your finances run dry this spring Kentuck Kernel Thursday, January 12, 2006 Celebrating 35 years of independence www.kykernel.com UK gives wish list to state legislature School pushes for $18 million more in general funds to keep Top-20 Business Plan on track early By Sean Rose mt KENTUCKY mm With the state legislative session just underway. UK has started to lobby for its top priorities: the bio- pharmaceutical complex. the hospi- tal expansion project and greater bonding flexibility. Above all that. however. UK is asking for about $18 million more in operating funds this year to hire more faculty and hold down tuition as much as possible, said UK spokesman Jay Blanton. UK is also asking for $80 million in state bonds to complete construc- tion on the bio-pharmaceutical complex. The state allotted $40 mil- lion for the first phase of the pro- ject last year. UK’s pharmacy school is cur- rently eighth in the nation, and Blanton said UK needs the new fa- cility to keep up with the competi- tion. “Other leading pharmacy schools have much more space than we have," Blanton said. Blanton added that Kentucky has a shortage of about 400 phar- macists and that the new facility will help address that problem by doubling the college’s enrollment. The other major project UK is focusing on is its new patient care facility. UK needs $150 million in bond authorization before the con- struction can start. “We have a great facility and staff, but it needs to be updated." Blanton said. “That patient care fa- cility is over 40 years old and needs to be replaced.” Blanton said one reason these are UK’s first priorities is because they meet the needs of the state. “Each of these priorities ad- dress needs that Kentucky has to make it more educated. healthier and wealthier.” Blanton said. Dall Clark, UK‘s director of cap- ital construction. said these pro- jects contribute toward UK’s top«20 plan. “Any expansion of the hospital and pharmacy school are certainly part of our quest to become a topZO research institution," Clark said. UK is also asking for more flexi- bility to use its own money to pay See Funds on page 2 Bush defends domestic spying B_y Michael A. Fletcher m: kisnmcrou eosr LOUISVILLE, Ky. A- President Bush yesterday defended his decision to allow government eavesdropping on the phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorist col- laborators in the United States. saying the program is legal and essential to averting potential attacks. “I understand people’s concerns about government eavesdropping." Bush said in response to a question about the program during a citizens” forum here. “I share their concerns as well." Even so. he added, the program is important to his presiden- tial duty to protect Americans. Bush's comments on the eavesdropping program came in response to a question posed during a campaign-style event here aimed at shoring up support for the war in Iraq as well as the nation's broader anti-ter- rorism effort. The president‘s forum here was differ- ent than most of the events he attends na- tionwide. Usually he speaks to carefully screened partisan audiences and takes no questions. White House aides described Wednesday's audience of business and community leaders as bipartisan. and Bush opened himself to unscripted audi- ence questions during the town-hall-style event. The domestic spying program has drawn fire from members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, who think it oversteps the president’s authority and violates civil liberties that are part of the nation‘s fiber. The National Security Agency program began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11. 2001. terrorist attacks as a way to help the nation‘s intelligence agencies See Bush on page 2 Abortion dominates hearing By David G. Savage Los ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON w Abortion remains the divide in American politics and constitu- tional law, a fact that was on display during the third day of Senate hearings on the nom- ination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court. For much of Wednes- day. Alito —— who likely would cast the deciding vote on several pending abortion cases —— was a silent witness as senators told him why the Supreme Court should preserve or reverse its abortion rul- ings. The debate turned on whether the right to abor- tion was “settled law." Abortion has been 1e gal since the court‘s Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. and has been upheld several times since. Is that long enough to make it settled law. or precedent? And when can precedents be overturned? The correct answer was clearly in the eyes of the beholder. Sen. Sam Brownback. R-Kan., compared See Allto on page 2 A demand for discipline amt sum | surr UK head coach Tubby Smith talks to his players in a timeout during the second half of UK's 57-52 loss to Vanderbilt on Tuesday night. Dropped from the rank- ings for the first time in almost five years, the Cats are on a two-game losing skid and have fallen to 10-5 - one fewer loss than all of last season. Cats too Wild for Tubby By Ryan Wood iHE KENTUCKY KERNEL While there appeared to be multiple problems with the men’s UK basketball team Tuesday night against Vander- bilt. head coach Tubby Smith believes one issue precedes all others. “It’s a matter of discipline, or lack thereof." he said. “Everybody thought they were going to be the guy to sal- vage the game or pull us out of the rut. Everybody tried to do too much and when you try to do too much. others stand around and don‘t get involved." With Tuesday night‘s 57-52 loss to Vanderbilt. the Cats (10 5, (H Southeastern Conference) dropped two games in a row for the first time since January 2002. setting off alarms in Big Blue Nation. The game before. UK suffered the largest loss of Smith‘s tenure in a 73-46 blowout at Kansas. prompting Smith to say. “We're just not very good." After the Vanderbilt game. Smith blamed his team‘s inabil- ity to overcome poor execution on a lack of maturity “That's the concern I've had with this team all year long. the maturity level.” he said. “(We‘ve) got to start forgetting about the mistakes we’ve made and start moving forward." The players have also no- . Tubby Smith talks to junior center Shaqari Alleyne on the sidelines dur- ing the UK- . Louisville . game on Dec. ticed a lack of discipline on the floor, "W *‘re not executing." See Cats on page 2 There is definitely a lack of discipline. We’re just not clicking not playing as a team.” - Randolph Morris, UK sophomore center, on the Cats' two-game losing streak UK proposes more tsunami aid UK wants federal funds to help three universities in Indonesia reorganize in wake of ‘05 disaster By Dariush Shale nit mrucxv KERNEL A little more than a year af- ter the tsunami disaster killed more than 200,000 people in In- donesia. UK is trying to inject some new life into the region. The College of Agriculture is putting forth a twoyear. 31 mil‘ lion proposal to the federal gov- ernment to assist three universi- ties in Indonesia to reorganize after the damage sufl‘ered in the wake of the tsunami. The Col- lege of Business and Economics. the College of Engineering and the Martin School of Diplomacy are working on the plan. The three institutions that would be helped would be the University of Lampung, Brawi- jaya University and the Univer- sity of Syiah Kuala. In October. the University of Syiah Kuala received a donation of $32,000, raised by the students, faculty and staff of the College of Agri- culture. Michael Reed. director of in- ternational programs for agri- culture and a professor of agri- cultural economics. helped work on the proposal for three months. and said the goal is clear. “It would be to improve the teaching and services of those public universities," Reed said. To help accomplish this, UK staff and faculty have already traveled to the region to help the schools reorganize its curricu- lum and structure. Reed himself visited about a month after the tsunami hit. “it would involve them, de- velop their curriculum and help them realize how a university can be used in improving devel- opment and governance.” Reed said. “If we did a good job. it could help them make their uni— versities relevant to the region they‘re in." Reed also said the proposal would include possibly bringing lndonesian faculty to UK to earn degrees they can use when they return to their universities. Reed pointed out the fact that unlike universities in America. institutions in lndonesia have little interaction with the com- munity and typically don‘t seek involvement with local business- See Aid on page 2 Newsroom: 257-1913