By: Nicholas Renard

Frank Deford, eminent sports journalist and author, received the national William Allen White Foundation’s 2013 citation Feb. 8 in the Kansas Union, becoming the first sportswriter to receive the award.

“Deford has been, over these years, a premiere persona of excellence in American sports writing,” said Rich Clarkson, distinguished photographer and KU Board of Trustees member, during Deford’s introduction.

Beginning his career as a writer for Sports Illustrated, Deford proved his versatility, dabbling in both print and broadcast for more than 50 years. In addition to 18 published books, he has commentated for CNN and is a weekly guest correspondent on NPR’s Morning Edition.

He also served as editor-in-chief of the first daily U.S. sports newspaper, The National, which closed after 18 months.

The countless awards and accolades peppering Deford’s career include both a Peabody and a Christopher. He was awarded the National Magazine Award 1999 and voted Magazine Writer of the Year twice by the Washington Journalism Review.

He has also received an Emmy for work during the Seoul Olympics and numerous other degrees for journalistic excellence.

Deford mingled with KU students and staff during the day, meeting for hotdogs in the J-School’s Clarkson Gallery and discussing celebrity journalism with one class.

During his acceptance speech, Deford often cited his excitement in being the first sportswriter to receive the citation, a branch of journalism he said is viewed differently than others and perhaps not given the respect it deserves.

“I am so gratified to have received this extraordinary distinction,” Deford said. “I’m sincere in saying I feel that this honor for me does recognize, if obliquely, sports journalism, which I believe sometimes is too often overlooked.”

He went on to discuss contemporary sports writing’s heavy use of statistics, adding that excessive use of numbers in a story becomes overwhelming.

Deford also described the internet’s influence on journalism, and said it’s harder now to educate ourselves even with so much information readily available.

“Ironically, the broadband has made us narrower, the web has made us more direct,” he said.

By: Nicholas Renard

It seems Facebook can no longer go a week without some sort of makeover. In yet another tweak in the ever-evolving Facebook dimension, statuses will no longer be limited to text and photo announcements. Facebook users in the United States and eventually around the world will soon have the option of sharing how they’re feeling through assorted smiley faces and corresponding emotions.

This addition also includes the option to share details about anything you’re doing. Whether you’re watching a movie, reading a Reddit article or drinking a fine scotch, Facebook’s extensive information database will provide a corresponding icon, links to said movie or scotch and make a note of the activity on your timeline.

Testing for this feature began back in January but Facebook has decided to take the next step, introducing the feature first to US-based users and soon to a global audience.

There is a potential, as with any change in Facebook, that users will respond with overarching apathy, much like a lot did with the introduction of timeline. Many social media bloggers maintain that this is simply an aversion to change. They feel Facebook was perfect in its original form and has devolved with each subsequent refinement.

This truly begs the question: if users are turned off by Facebook alterations, will they embrace this new emotion feature or will it fall by the wayside like Farmville?

In my case, my profile has yet to be fitted with this new feature so I have been readily monitoring my newsfeed for any emotion or smiley usage. In the past week or so I have seen one friend use the feature in a status, and he used it only once. Perhaps most of my friends have also yet to receive this feature, they haven’t realized how to use it or are actively ignoring it.

However, in recent newsfeed examinations, I’ve noticed an excessive amount of emotionally charged statuses, specifically statuses chock-full of depressing song lyrics, explicit complaints about significant others and even blatant self-pity.

With all of these emotions smeared across my newsfeed do Facebook users even need more ways of expressing themselves?

Facebook news releases have stated the new emotion feature will feature over 200 preloaded feelings, not to mention seemingly limitless links to foods, movies and other activities.

These overly customizable updates, coupled with specific choices of advertised emotions, if used, may both increase our social connectivity and distance ourselves from one another.

Should emotions such as “Depressed” and “Worried” be explicitly stated such a high-traffic public forum? How would these overly honest updates be viewed by potential employers?

When Facebook has fully converted to this feature, at least for US-based users, we may see no change, or we may see widespread use. If this feature does hold noticeable consequences, we’ll just have to wait and see.

By: Nicholas Renard

In our early twenties we’re finally faced with that coveted period of self-discovery we strived for so dearly in our final days of high school. That bottled angst we dreaded to admit is finally given the loamy soil it needs to take root and flourish into something else. And as students fortunate enough to attend a Division 1 university, we are gifted with seemingly limitless opportunities for self-discovery. All of those years of struggle for self-expression have not been in vain. We can finally find ourselves.

But now we’re faced with a different challenge. While we’re treading water in a sea of stimulating academia and novel sociality it’s easy to forget about the individuals who helped us get this far.

I’m writing this today because today is Easter. I am not a religious man, nor has my immediate family ever demonstrated a shred of piousness. We never went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve or went to a Palm Sunday service. For the record we had no formal interaction with the church whatsoever.

This religious abstinence is fine by me and my parents would agree with me. Our liberal secularism does not yield itself well to Christian doctrines.

So what’s the significance of Easter?

When I think about all of the aid I’ve received from my parents I feel somewhat smothered. I think about the undying emotional support they’ve provided me throughout the years. The late night phone calls when I’ve gotten into trouble, the care packages in the mail with a gift card for groceries. The love and the trust. When I think about these things I find myself fearing that any form of reciprocation is futile.

My attempt at paying it all back brings me to Easter when I was five years old.

At that age there was no possibility in my mind that any holiday heroes could be fake. Santa Clause was absolutely real, I thought, I saw his handiwork every December. Leprechauns were probably real too, heck why not? And so, of course, so must be the Easter Bunny.

Yes, the Easter Bunny, that doe-eyed, floppy eared marmot whose marsupialesque egg-laying tendencies transcended years of evolutionary logic. He was out there somewhere during the rest of the year. Kicking around his lavish warren, weaving baskets and synthesizing peanut butter eggs out of God knows what.

He seemed benevolent, but I always possessed a certain sense of distrust toward him. Nay, I feared him. I couldn’t help but feel threatened by an unusually-sized garden pest who somehow had extensive knowledge of my taste in sweets.

I expressed this fear to my parents about a week before Easter. They assured me that everything was fine and that he was a friendly, albeit intimidating, force.

So for days leading up to Easter I would lay awake in fear of the arrival of this hopping beast. How could he know I loved Reece’s Pieces and Shrinky Dinks without having eavesdropped on my life for a considerable time? How could he know where I would leave out my Easter basket? What hope could my childhood innocence stand up to those beaveresque pearly whites? He knew so much about me, and I so little of him.

And so I lay with one eye open on Easter’s eve, my five-year-old brain running on overdrive, hoping against hope that I would be safe from The Bunny for another year.

When I awoke to find my basket chock-full of goodies I felt the relief wash over me like Cadbury Crème. I rifled through my newfound spoils and smiled. But my luck wasn’t over. I went to open my bedroom door and found an unusual dark pile near the threshold.

It was rabbit feces.

The horror gripped me instantly. He was here. That rascally rabbit was real and he was in my room the night before and I’ll be if he didn’t have the nerve to take a dump on my floor.

I immediately broke into tears and ran to my parents’ room to tell them the sorry news. They embraced me and did their best to quiet my sobs. Then they told me that it was a good sign. The Easter Bunny would not have relieved himself in my room unless he felt truly comfortable doing so.

Wait, what? My infantile mind considered this for a minute. Of course he did that in my room. He knew I was frightened and wanted to assure me of his kindness. Not the most tactful way of showing it, though, I thought.

After that my parents probably took me to an egg hunt or to my grandparents’ house for lunch. I’m not sure, I don’t remember.

What I do remember is when mom and dad finally told me a few years later that the rabbit scat I discovered was simply dog kibble they arranged in a pile for some festive laughs. I didn’t get a laugh out of it. In fact, when they told me of this it was my first hint to the lie that was the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause and the Leprechauns. I cried.

But on that fateful Easter morning when I was five, I didn’t cry. I was no longer afraid of the Easter Bunny, instead, we were pals.

And that’s all thanks to you, mom and dad. You and your silly rabbit poop prank. Your clever and unorthodox child-rearing methods allowed me to live and banished my fears. Maybe it was an insignificant occurrence, but I still think about it every Easter and I am eternally grateful.

Don’t lose sight of your family this Easter. Give mom and dad a call, grandma too. Tell them you love them and tell them some good news about your life. They deserve it.

Addendum: A year after the rabbit poop stunt, I was walking with a friend of mine and his father back from an Easter church service us kids were forced to attend. On the shoulder of his dusty street lay a dead, mutilated rabbit. It had been hit by a car, and hard. His father took one look at it and immediately professed that it was the Easter Bunny. I cried instantly.

By: Nicholas Renard

These days, social conceptions of feminism tend to steer men away rather than invite them. In turn, this effectively counteracts one of feminism’s most basic doctrines: equality.

But through dedicated activism and commitment, one KU student is hoping to change that.

It’s hard not to notice JT Hammons when he walks into a room. His large stature and fiery-red beard instantly command your attention. Before sitting down, he lights a cigarette with a monogrammed Zippo and unbuttons his suit jacket.

“I always dress for a serious situation,” he says. “If you look like you’re exerting power, men will listen.”

JT Hammons, sans beard, KU senior in philosophy and African studies. Photo courtesy of Nicholas Renard.

Hammons is 23 and will graduate KU this month with a double major in philosophy and African Studies. He’s been here five years now and is moving to Buffalo in August to study law at University at Buffalo SUNY.

It’s hard to find Hammons without a suit on these days, and he likes it that way.

But he wasn’t always as serious, or as well-dressed, as he is now.

“I was a bad student when I started here,” he says. “I really had no idea what to do.”

After moving here from Portsmouth, Va., Hammons’ family moved once again to Valley Falls, a rural town north of Lawrence. He didn’t have much of a choice for schools and figured KU was his best bet.

After beginning his university career as a psychology student, Hammons found his major dull and quickly allowed his extra-curricular activities get the better of him, spending his nights partying and playing video games instead of studying.

Before long, he failed a class and found himself on academic probation. But in the spring he enrolled in an introductory political science class, kindling a new interest.

“I became interested in political theory, especially government practices and economic theory,” he says.

Hammons’ appreciation for politics soon grew. He educated himself on tax reform and social inequality, dubbed himself a “Democratic Socialist” and began to confront problems. His grades improved, too.

Then, in the spring of 2011, KU Student Senate ceased funding for the Willow Domestic Violence Center, a Lawrence shelter and counseling service for victims of domestic abuse. This didn’t sit well with Hammons.

“I thought it was contradictory of the most liberal university in Kansas,” he says.

He subsequently worked with campus organizations to gather signatures and raise awareness about the funding cut. Their efforts were successful and funding was eventually reinstituted.

That fall, his on-campus involvement grew even more. He joined Senate Finance Committee and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), and became an active member of both, volunteering, raising awareness and tabling along Jayhawk Boulevard.

In December of that year, he was elected president of CSW and honed his politics.

“Feminism is very holistic,” he says. “If you’re going to correct issues in a holistic manner you must engage men.”

His seeds of change took root with a bi-weekly Freaky Friday event on campus, promoting smart reproductive health and providing free contraceptives. He says he even became known as Condom Guy.

He says he got into people’s faces and discussed themes like male sexuality and male self-pleasure. He even provided diagrammed instructions for finding the male G-spot, which he articulately justifies.

“We live in a society that stigmatizes sex and glorifies violence when in reality, sex is natural and violence is unnatural,” he says.

Hammons’ attempts at a more male-inclusive form of feminism culminated this year with Bro-Choice, a social media campaign aimed at including men in the feminist movement through education and discussion.

“Society stipulates how men are supposed act,” he says. “Bro-Choice brings men into the reproductive justice movement and helps them understand the harmful effects of gender roles for men.”

Bro-Choice hopes to mitigate double standards and challenge gender roles, specifically on the subject of rape.

“Society says when a woman is a victim it’s her fault,” he says “But in reality it’s not a woman’s right to not be raped, it’s a man’s job to not rape her.”

Hammons’ ultimate goal with Bro-Choice is to educate men on topics like hyper-masculinity and the inappropriateness of sexual assault-centered jokes; things he feels are too commonplace.

“Just listen to XBOX Live,” he says “Young kids are saying ‘I’ll rape this, I’ll rape you,’ but rape is not a joke.”

In July, he’ll be leaving the small-town comfort of Lawrence for Buffalo to study civil litigation. He says he’s not interested in practicing, though. He’s thinking bigger.

“I’m going to law school for the skills and networking necessary to start political work,” he says.

After attaining a law degree, Hammons plans to campaign for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding for abortions. He’s also intent on establishing a national policy for comprehensive sex-education, something he says should be an important government responsibility.

“A good way to punish people for sex is with a child,” he says. “Why wish the birth of a child on high schoolers who haven’t even had a chance to graduate?”

Hammons is excited to get into the political game, and hardly nervous about leaving Lawrence. He says Kansas will always be his home, but he can’t quite succeed fully here.

“I don’t know what I’ll miss until I miss it,” he says. “My mom raised me to be very independent.”

It shows.

In today’s digital age, many of us are digitally connected nearly 24/7. Amid this proliferating media maelstrom, it’s easy to get caught up in the information undertow.

As students in the digital age, we’re quite accustomed to online interaction whether on Facebook or Twitter. So the question stands, which reigns supreme?

Facebook currently boasts a roughly 1 billion users worldwide, with more than 155 million of those in the United States, making it the most highly used social networking site.

Facebook’s accessibility options are known far and wide. Photos, notes and status updates are easily shared and publicized. With comments and the “like” button, any contribution one makes can be quickly evaluated by his or her online friends.

While most companies tend to thrive on innovation, Facebook’s popularity seems to dip whenever a major makeover occurs. In fact, in the past six months, Facebook has lost more than 2.8 million users, an estimated 1.75 percent loss.

It seems Facebook tends to lose users after most aesthetic and interface-related changes, most specifically after switching from the original profile layout to the now-standard timeline style.

This reluctance to change may be rooted in Facebook’s original style of a no-nonsense, streamlined social networking site. Its original simplicity once lent itself well to novice internet users who were previously unsure about social networking. Now that it is becoming a more complex and busier interface, some users find themselves frequenting Facebook less and less and some are even unplugging for good.

Last month, Facebook received yet another redesign, a fine-tooling of the newsfeed and layout in an attempt to mitigate the current clutter some users find distracting. Things like ads, group sponsored photos and memes that crowd news from close friends. The news feed feature was also modified to allow for increased personalization.

These changes in search engine algorithms allow Facebook users to more thoroughly customize their news feeds to show updates only from specific friends and groups, much like picking and choosing artists or genres on a Pandora radio station. Many social media critics contend that this endlessly customizable news feed is not only rarely utilized, but simply not worth the work.

Aaron Deacon, the president of the Social Media Club of Kansas City, said Facebook is organized well enough.

“It doesn’t seem to be over cluttered,” he said. “And in terms of a real-time news source, I think Twitter is more useful. [Twitter] is set up and built to be that way and Facebook isn’t, which is not a weakness of Facebook.”

Facebook, though, is convinced it is and by moderating the supposed news feed clutter, Facebook hopes to hang on to its current users and attract more individuals uncomfortable with social networking sites, specifically the elderly.

Twitter, which celebrated its seventh birthday last month, has currently more than 500 million registered users, far less than Facebook.

But having fewer users doesn’t necessarily reduce Twitter’s credibility.

By allowing users to upload instant messages of up to 140 characters, Twitter has revolutionized the way we learn, communicate and connect. With the introduction of hashtags, heaps of information can be organized with ease and accessed almost instantly. And with Twitter users now sending an average of one billion tweets a week, organization is paramount.

But Twitter isn’t limited to instantaneous commenting and media promotion. In the case of the Arab Spring, social media, particularly Twitter, became invaluable. The rapid dissemination of uncensored, explicit material minute by minute united activists like never before and allowed for the even the overthrow of powerful despots.

Information regarding support communities, opportunities for aid and live video feeds allowed for quick and informed organization. Protests were quickly organized and citizens found they could fearlessly communicate.

Twitter is also being used by law enforcement agencies around the world. Officers and dispatchers can instantly tweet crime reports for the day, inform anyone of police business and advertise when arrests are made, specifically to curb drunk driving.

Twitter tends to draw far less criticism than Facebook, most likely due to its simplified structure and lack of serious makeovers. Its chronologic, real-time presentation of tweets is generally favored over Facebook’s nonlinear newsfeed hodgepodge.

Deacon likes Twitter. He uses it more than Facebook and finds it to be effective for what it is.

“Its limitations are built into what it is. There are so many tools out there that you take at face value and you use what you like and ignore what you don’t,” he said.

And it seems many Twitter fans are doing just that. Take these figures for example. Justin Bieber has 37 million followers, that’s 8 million more followers than Barack Obama and 20 million more than Twitter itself. Youtube and Instagram are hovering around the 20 million mark, 10 million more than CNN, the highest followed news source, and almost 14 million more than ESPN, the highest followed sports source.

It appears that the majority of Twitter users follow what’s popular: popular music, popular apps, and popular people. News and sports sources tend to take more of a back burner, a remarkable trend given Twitter is prided on its dependable punctuality.

So which is the ultimate alternative? The answer is up to you. Both Facebook and Twitter offer exceptional accessibility and convenience, whether via a computer or mobile device. Neither is any more or less reliable for facts either, one must simply take other users’ comments heavily salted.

Both also offer exceptional opportunities for global communication and self-marketing.

When choosing between the two services, consider what James Gentry, a journalism professor from the University of Kansas, has to offer.

“The answer, like most in the strategic communications area, is it depends – on your strategy and your goals.”

By: Nicholas Renard

For Kansas college students, new legislation could mean packing heat as well as a lunch.

Despite previous failed attempts in recent years, the Kansas House is expected to deliberate on multiple bills this week that could allow concealed carry permit holders to bring firearms to college campuses and other state and municipal buildings.

But after a Democratic legislator from Colorado argued against concealed weapons at a debate Friday, stating that a female college student’s right to protect herself from rape should not extend to carrying firearms, concealed carry laws are drawing staunch criticism online.

State Rep. Joe Salazar’s claims that 911 call boxes and rape whistles are ample measures, as well as criticism from his opponents, lead to the Twitter hashtag #LiberalTips2AvoidRape, which began trending Monday.

The hashtag’s originator, whose Twitter moniker is @SooperMexican and has over 21 thousand followers, wrote on his page that he created the hashtag to mock the situation as well as Salazar.

“I’m mocking the Senator who thinks a whistle is just as good a deterrent against violent crime as a gun,” he wrote.

@SooperMexican, who is hardly shy about his conservatism, initially launched the hashtag by tweeting, “Yell “racist” at your rapist…that’s like the worst thing ever.”

He continued to post similar, strongly-worded tweets.

“Pray to Obama extra hard, and promise to have 3 abortions in his name,” he wrote.

The trending hashtag went on to draw similar tweets, most of which were politically charged and right of center.

But other Twitter users denounced the hashtag, citing its offensiveness, a sentiment echoed by Mother Jones, which called #LiberalTips2AvoidRape the “most horrible hashtag of the week thus far.”

Regardless of this residual cyber-squabble, the University of Kansas is siding with Salazar.

Zach George, the government relations director for KU Student Senate, said the University strongly opposes a concealed carry policy.

“This legislation will not keep our campus safe, but may cause more danger and more tragedies,” he said.

George added that even the possibility of a fellow student attending class with a concealed weapon could create a distracting environment.

“If someone says there is a wasp in a huge auditorium, even if you can’t see it, all attention is diverted to that wasp,” he said.

Some policymakers say the recent shift toward a more conservative Kansas legislature may boost the bill’s potential and popularity. And along with a record high for Kansas concealed carry permits in January, and Kansas Students for Concealed Carry adding a new Kansas State University chapter, change may be on the horizon.

In January, the state received 3,167 concealed carry applications, nearly double the previous record, according to the Attorney General’s office, bringing Kansas permits to 53,317, as of Feb. 1.

In Kansas, concealed carry holders must be 21, have no felonies and undergo a background check, followed by eight hours of weapons training.

“That training consists of ‘this is how your gun operates, and don’t shoot yourself’,” said KU Police Chief Ralph Oliver. “The assumption that that individual would act in the manner of a trained police officer to stop a [shooting] situation is naïve at best.”

Oliver said trained police officers in shooting situations will only tend to hit 17 percent of the shots fired at a target.

“If you’re an innocent bystander or someone trying to get away from the scene, the chances are you’re going to be in peril,” he said.