DON’T BE A SCROOGE Relive the magic of Charles Dickens with a pair of classic holiday tales. INSIDE TODAY
JOURNAL-WORLD L A W R E NC E
®
75 CENTS
LJWorld.com
45%3$!9 s $%#%-"%2 s
Critics bash college social media policy ———
Regents chairman counters that new language protects First Amendment and academic freedoms By Ben Unglesbee bunglesbee@ljworld.com
Scrambling as faculty leave for the holidays, some at Kansas public universities have taken action protesting the so-
cial media policy passed by the Kansas Board of Regents last week. The Regents approved the policy last Wednesday partly as a response to the anti-NRA tweet by Kansas University jour-
nalism professor David Guth. It allows university heads to fire faculty and staff who post messages on social media that conflict with the institution’s best interests and efficient operations.
Philip Nel, a Kansas State distinguished professor of English, helped write a letter addressed to the regents calling for the immediate repeal of the policy. “By revoking the faculty and staff’s right to freedom of speech, the new social media policy is an affront to academic freedom and academic excellence,” it stated.
O Universities charged
with enforcing the new restrictions. Page 3A The letter was signed by more than 40 distinguished K-State professors. In an interview Nel said every faculty member who responded had signed the letter, and even more faculty members, who had been traveling or on vacation,
had responded later wanting their names put on the letter. “Every faculty member with which I’ve spoken has expressed the same outrage I have,” Nel said. Along with concerns about academic freedom, the letter noted concerns that the social media policy could undermine Please see POLICY, page 2A
A Christmas wish comes true
Journal-World File Photo
ACTOR JAKE LEET played Donkey in Theatre Lawrence’s “Shrek” before a heart attack almost took his life during a performance Saturday night.
Good Samaritans step in to save ‘Shrek’ actor’s life By Sara Shepherd sshepherd@ljworld.com
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
DOUG HOLIDAY, OWNER OF BIGGS BBQ, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the end of the summer. After months of treatment, he’s cancer free. In the photo at left, Doug’s sons — Jacob, 16, Seth, 19, and Ben, 13 — shaved their heads to match their dad in August.
Cancer defeated, hunger next By Elliot Hughes ehughes@ljworld.com
You could forgive Doug Holiday, the amiable owner of Bigg’s Barbecue on Iowa Street, if he took this year off from his annual charitable efforts — smoking 50 turkeys for a free Christmas Day dinner at First United Methodist Church that feeds a thousand mouths. The second half of 2013 brought a bout with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which Holiday won, but 600 hours of chemotherapy still weigh on him considerably. His wife, Shawn, says that during his treatment the goal was to at least make it to the holidays. Now that he has — not a trace of the cancer remains, Doug says — it’s a matter of
getting the family’s life back to where it was. That means they’ll pick up their tradition of smoking those turkeys, as they’ve done for nearly a decade. “There was never a thought in my mind or his mind that he would ever not participate in the community dinner,” Shawn says of the one organized by the Community Christmas Dinner Committee. Doug, 51, was diagnosed in July. He quickly began an aggressive treatment for an aggressive illness. One of every three weeks was spent at Lawrence Memorial Hospital receiving 96 consecutive hours of chemotherapy, he said. More than a month after his last session, last weak Doug learned he was cancer free. The treatment, nevertheless, left him racked. He used to work 70 hours a week, but in the weeks afterward, he says, he was re-
duced to 10 hours or less. Now, his hair starting to come back in, Doug says he has about 60 percent of his energy back, more than enough to help ready those turkeys with Shawn and their three sons, Seth, Jacob and Ben. It’s a lot of work, but Doug and Shawn both speak about the food preparation like any other leisurely holiday tradition: with laughter and reminiscing. Doug says it requires about 12 hours of work apiece, starting Christmas Eve and running through a morning that begins before dawn. A year off could have been a blessing, but for Doug, Christmas is the essential time of year to give back. “It is a Lawrence tradition,” he says. “And even more this year — it’s even more important to me, just because I got cured ... and everybody seems to care.”
When 20-year-old Jake Leet collapsed on stage Saturday night, audience members may have thought it was scripted — after all he was playing Donkey, the most physically animated character in Theatre Lawrence’s “Shrek.” But castmates quickly realized something was wrong. Jake was not breathing and had no pulse. Jake’s mother, We were Teri Leet, of Lawrence, calls what all hopeful, happened next and in the following days praying that a “Christmas mira- he would regain cle.” Thanks to the consciousness.” right people being in the right place at the right time, she said, — Teri Leet, Jake’s mother Jake is on his way to full recovery after cardiac arrest caused by a previously undiagnosed heart defect. “Typically this kind of thing does not end well,” Teri said. “All the stars were aligned.” Jake, a Lawrence High School grad who’s been acting in local productions since childhood, was in his second performance of the day on the final weekend of “Shrek,” running since Dec. 6. His physical portrayal of Donkey — “He hurls himself around the stage with total abandon,” the Journal-World reviewer wrote of his show-stealing performance — happens within a hot, furry, padded suit. As Jake stood to sing a solo after a particularly strenuous scene in the first act, he lost his breath and keeled over backwards, his
“
Please see ACTOR, page 2A
Welcome home for the holidays By Ben Unglesbee bunglesbee@ljworld.com
When Army Pfc. Tysen Fishback arrived at his Lawrence apartment Sunday evening, it “felt like a strange house to me,” he said. For the past seven months he has lived in Fort Benning,
Ga., and Fort Bragg, N.C., as he has gone through basic training and exhaustive physical preparation for special forces selection, seeing his wife and two children only when they came to visit. On Monday, after waking up in his apartment, now decked out for Christmas
with a tree and gingerbread houses, for the first time since May, he has almost been able to forget he’s in the Army. His 6-year-old son Leo was so excited to see his dad back in their home that Please see HOME, page 2A
TYSEN FISHBACK, who is serving in the Army and is currently stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C., poses Monday with his family, from left, wife Patty, daughter Dahlia, 2, and son Leo, 6, after coming home to Lawrence.
INSIDE
Christmas Eve Classified Comics Deaths Events listings
High: 30
5B-10B 9A 2A 10A, 2B
Health Horoscope Movies Opinion
5A-6A Puzzles 9B Sports 4A Television 8A
Low: 21
Today’s forecast, page 10A
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
Join us at Facebook.com/LJWorld and Twitter.com/LJWorld
Electronic cigarettes 9B 1B-4B 2B, 9B
The devices that dish out nicotine vapor are touted as an alternative to traditional cigarettes. But are they any safer? They’re produced with little government oversight. Page 5A
Vol.155/No.358 20 pages