Thursday, March 18, 2010 n serving the community sinc e 1908 n Join the conversation at ColumbiaMissourian.

com n 50 cents

Shifts anticipated “A person commits the crime of sexual assault if he

in education act By KOURTNEY GEERS
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
Education leaders in Colum-
yearly progress reports based
has sexual intercourse with another person knowing
that he does so without that person’s consent.”
— Missouri Revised Statutes, section 566.040
on standardized test scores,
with the end goal being that

a
bia have a “wait and see” atti- 100 percent of students will
tude about proposed changes achieve grade-level proficien-
to the current No Child Left
Behind Act.
cy by 2014.
Obama said the reautho- No sexual assault
After eight years
in action, the act is
facing changes that
rization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education at MU has been

question
Act, of which No Child Left
“... We aren’t
waiting for the law
would reward high-
achieving schools
and toughen con-
Behind is the current incar-
nation, would recognize the
need for federal government
prosecuted in at
of the land ... to
force us to make
sequences for low-
achieving schools.
to play a leading role in the
encouragement of reform and least five years.
On Monday, Con- standards, but changes will
That’s not unusual
of
gress received primarily stem from states,
improvements.” President Barack school districts and schools.
Sally Beth Lyon Obama’s plan to “I think in Columbia, we are
for universities

consent
Columbia Public Schools chief implement sweep- always striving to improve
academic officer ing changes to the

country’s education
policy, removing
some mandates of No Child
Left Behind and adding more.
Congress must pass the plan
for any changes to be put into
place.
The current No Child
Left Behind Act evaluates a
school’s success by adequate
nationwide.
our schools, and we aren’t
waiting for the law of the
land — in this case No Child
Left Behind — to force us
to make improvements,” said
Sally Beth Lyon, Columbia
Public Schools chief academ-
ic officer.
Obama’s proposed “Blue-
print” includes the following
Please see school, page 8a

Celebrate Sunshine Law, By ROSEANN MORING

view government records

I
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com

t’s October 2008, and a woman reports

By Patrick SweeT
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
March 14 to 21 has been
declared by the American
Society of News Editors as
“Sunshine Week,” a time to
shine the spotlight on the
rights of the people to open
government and freedom of
information.
Every day this week, and
once a week after,
the Missourian will
show me the highlight another
The real property database
gives you a history of land
ownership along with cur-
rent property assessments.
The personal property data-
base tells you what someone
owns, such as the 2007 Har-
ley Davidson FLTR Road
Glide motorcycle Gary Pinkel
declared in 2009.
Where you get the
records:
The information is avail-
to MU police that she’s been raped.
At first, the man she accuses says the
sexual encounter was consensual. After
several hours of questioning, he shifts his
story nearer to that of the woman, accord-
ing to the police report. OK, he admits: The
woman didn’t want to have sex.
But when police ask whether he considered
what he did to be rape, the 19-year-old seems
surprised at the word — even though he acknowl-
edges feeling that he did something wrong,
according to the police report.

records government record.

You can learn a lot
about your com-
munity, state and
country. Open records help
people keep government in
check and help them better
understand how government
affects their lives.
The records:
Boone County Assessor’s
Personal and Real Property
Database
Why you’d want them:
To see what property an
individual or business owns.
able on the Boone County
Assessor’s Web site at show-
No charges were ever filed against the suspect.
That is the norm in cases of sexual assault that
occur at MU, according to statistics from MU
meboone.com/assessor. Real
police and Boone County prosecutor’s office.
property and personal prop-
It’s also the norm around the country, accord-
erty are listed in separate
ing to a recent 12-month Center for Public
categories on the left side of Integrity investigation. The center found a host
the page. of institutional barriers for people who report
How much it will cost: sexual assault on campuses. It said that official
The information is free, but campus assault statistics often don’t jibe with
the number of assaults reported to campus orga-
you have to register with the
nizations, such as victims advocacy groups.
assessor’s office. The form
asks for a “purpose” to view Please see assault, page 6a
the records, but under the
Missouri Sunshine Law you
are not required to have a
reason to view open records.

Parkade Center parties as it renovates

Bagpipes mark the mall’s second St. Patrick’s Day festivities
By ELISA ESSNER
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
There was hardly a soul
in sight in the atrium of the
Parkade Center on Wednesday
just a few minutes before a St.
Patrick’s Day event was sched-
uled to begin. Then a construc-
tion worker walked down the
hall, followed by two women
in kilts.
Music playing over the mall’s
sound system competed with
the whining of power tools.
A few green balloons floated
toward the atrium’s ceiling.
A small crowd began to
gather at one end of the atri-
um — almost by accident, it
seemed. They were mostly mall
AUGUST KRYGER/Missourian tenants, but a few other specta-
Heather Foote, right, and Bill McKenzie tune their bagpipes before performing at the tors made their way in from
Parkade Center on Wednesday in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. outside. Parkade’s Managing
Director Ben Gakinya worked
the crowd, promising that the
main event would begin soon
— though the squeak and moan
of bagpipes being tuned close
by made that clear.
Finally, five pipers from the
Boone County Fire Protection
District Pipe and Drum band
appeared in their black, blue
and green plaid, sporting belt
buckles and kilt pins with their
individual family crests. They
played for about a half hour to
polite applause.
It’s the second year Parkade
Center has hosted bagpipers for
St. Patrick’s Day. But it’s just
one of the many events Gakinya
has brought to the center as he
pours his energy into revitaliz-
ing Columbia’s oldest mall.
“It used to be such a draw,”
said Gakinya, who has run the
place since 2008. “You talk to
someone from Hallsville, and
they have memories. They get
starry-eyed thinking about
what Parkade used to be.”
The large mixed-use building
was once an area attraction but
fell into decline in the 1970s
because of absentee owner-
ship and the rise of Columbia
Mall. In the late 1970s, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
moved in and is now the facil-
ity’s largest tenant.
That will change when Mober-
ly Area Community College
opens its consolidated Colum-
bia campus for its 2,000 area
students in the fall. The renova-
tion taking place to accommo-
date the college accounts for
Please see parkade, page 6a

Budget Cuts Opinion Index

OURDECISION2010 Missourians have submitted many David Webber offers five ways to Abby 7A
ideas to the state Senate about revamp the overstretched public Calendar 2A

Meet the candidates

ways to save money in a year when defender system. The Missouri Bar Classified 5B
finances are tight. Two suggestions: Association, the Missouri Supreme Comics 7A
legalize marijuana and stop issuing Court and the state Senate say the
Sid Sullivan, who at one point in his life was Life Stories 4A
driver’s licenses. Page 8A system isn’t up to the standards
three years short of becom- Lottery 2A
required by the Bar’s code of ethics.
Page 5A Nation 3A
ing a Jesuit priest, says his
Opinion 5A
political motivations are
Sports 1B
all about solving problems.
Basketball Today’s Sudoku 6B
He brings a wide range of
Missouri and Clemson have similar weather World 3A
experiences to his cam- styles, which should make the NCAA Today: Areas of fog before 9 a.m.
Otherwise sunny with a west wind. Our 102nd year/#133
paign for mayor: teacher, tournament game interesting for
3 sections
players. And find out what about Temp: 64°
community organizer,
corrections analyst and
Clemson’s style makes guard Kim Tonight: Mostly Start the CoMo-tion 40 pages

English enthusiastic about playing clear.

pharmaceutical sales representative. the team. Page 1B Temp: 43° From the skating rink to the shoot-
Page 8A Page 2A ing range, Vox takes a look at a 10
Columbia playgrounds. 6 54051 90850 3
Page 8A — THURSDAY, March 18, 2010
Faith, civil rights impact Sullivan
Almost a Jesuit priest, now ‘standing up for the little guy’
By Chris Canipe
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
The girls all knew he want-
ed to be a priest.
“I think it was something
that was growing,” he says.
“It got to be a problem senior
year of high school. In terms
of getting dates, it was always
a problem.”
Sid Sullivan grew up in auto
plant country: Birmingham,
Mich., a suburb of Detroit.
His father was an engineer at
General Motors.
“I later found out it was
called heart attack row,” he
says. “My dad had his first
heart attack when I was about
8 years old. His fourth heart
attack killed him.”
Sullivan’s dad died when
Sid was in high school. He
was befriended by the local
parish priest and began to
seriously consider that life
for himself. After graduation,
he entered the Jesuit semi-
nary, the teaching branch of
the Catholic priesthood.
Sid Sullivan is one of six
people running for mayor on
the April 6 ballot. He brings
a range of experiences to
the campaign: teacher, com-
munity organizer, corrections
analyst and pharmaceutical
sales representative. But a
higher calling shaped all of
those experiences.
“There are parish priests,
and there are order priests,”
he says. “The Jesuits are a
teaching order. Jesuits take a
vow of poverty, chastity and
obedience.”
The Jesuit formation is a
long process, the first step
being a two-year period of
prayer, work and study called
novitiate training. Sullivan
spent his time as a novitiate
in Clarkston, Mich., at Colom-
biere College, a Jesuit institu-
tion affiliated with the Uni-
versity of Detroit.
Richard Rosenberg met
“If you played a
practical joke on
him, you ought
to be ready for a
nuclear response.”
Richard Rosenberg
Former classmate at Colombiere
College, a Jesuit institution
affiliated with the University of
Detroit
Sullivan at Colombiere when
Rosenberg was 17. Rosenberg
has had a long career with
the World Bank and special-
izes in a form of aid known as
microfinance.
“He was quiet, he was
funny, and he often had a glint
in his eye,” Rosenberg says
of Sullivan. “If you played
a practical joke on him, you
ought to be ready for a nucle-
ar response.”
Rosenberg says novitiate
training occurred in an iso-
lated community where each
person had specialties. Rosen-
berg and Sullivan were both
barbers.
“I did something to Sid; I
can’t remember what,” Rosen-
berg says, “and when I opened
my underwear drawer I found
a drawer full of hair from the
barber shop.”
Rosenberg was a year
behind Sullivan at Colom-
biere. They parted ways when
Sullivan moved to Chicago to
begin the education phase of
his training, earning bache-
lor’s degrees in philosophy
and mathematics from Loyola
University.
As part of his training, Sul-
livan worked with a parish
priest on Chicago’s West Side,
a neighborhood that had seen
a lot of its white population
flee to the suburbs.
“We went down every week-
end to try and meet people
and find out what the prob-
lems were and try to create
a community that would be
somewhat cohesive,” Sullivan
says. “We weren’t trying to
convert anybody.”
After graduation Sullivan
was assigned to a Jesuit high
school in Cuyahoga Falls,
near Akron, Ohio, to complete
the next phase of his Jesuit
formation. He taught math
and served as summer school
principal. He also became
involved in the civil rights
struggle exploding around
him.
Tense times
Sullivan was in Ohio from
1967 to 1969, a period when
Akron suffered severe racial
tensions. He became active in
an effort to repeal neighbor-
hood covenants that restrict-
ed African-Americans from
living in certain areas.
“The Civil Rights Act of
’64 was just four years ago,”
he says. “It was a tense time.
Just because the law passed
didn’t mean things changed
OURDECISION2010
automatically.”
In the summer of 1968,
Akron experienced six
straight days of riots. The
National Guard had to be
called in.
It was in that atmosphere of
unrest that Sullivan met the
woman who would become
his wife.
Joan Anderson was from
Akron and had been active
with the Coalition for Action
Now. It was a dangerous time
to be involved.
“One of our people got their
house shot up,” she says. “I
was given police protection. I
had children, and it got really
hairy.”
One night the Jesuits called
a meeting at the Akron Urban
League to bring black and
white organizers together.
The blacks didn’t trust their
white counterparts.
“It became very incendi-
ary,” she says. “I was just
looking for the exit. I thought
there was going to be a riot.
Then Mr. Sullivan, young Mr.
Sullivan, calmed it down, and
we got down to business and
started talking.”
The two were friendly dur-
ing that time but didn’t date.
Sullivan eventually moved
to New York City to attend
the New School for Social
Research, where he earned a
master’s degree in sociology.
He also worked for U.S. Sen.
Jacob Javits, D-N.Y.
The job involved helping
people through a community
center in Hunts Point — a
neighborhood in the South
Bronx with a large Puerto
Rican population.
“A lot of poor people that
spoke Spanish but didn’t read
Spanish and didn’t speak
English were moving to New
York,” he says. “They were
just getting really gobbled
up.”
After graduating, Sullivan
found himself at a crossroads.
He was nearing the final
phase of the Jesuit formation
and would soon be a priest.
But it wasn’t to be. After com-
pleting 12 of 15 years of train-
ing, Sullivan left the order.
Putting down roots
“I think it got to me after
a while,” he says. “The one
thing that’s really denied to
you (as a priest) is the close
relationship with someone
else. It was something that
was bothering me for prob-
ably the last several years. I
School: Plan proposes changes
CONTINUED from page 1A
changes:
n Schools deemed “excel-
lent” or showing significant
progress would be rewarded
through increased aid dis-
persed through grants for
which the schools must com-
pete.
n All students should gradu-
ate from high school ready for
college and a career by 2020,
replacing the 2014 grade-level
proficiency goal.
n States would be required
to intervene in schools with
declined minor orders, which
is the first big step toward the
priesthood.”
Rosenberg, Sullivan’s class-
mate at Colombiere, didn’t
complete his Jesuit training
either. He knows of only a
handful of his classmates who
did.
“The degree of personal tur-
moil that went along with that
was high,” he says. “At the
same time, we got a superb
education.”
Sullivan’s next step was to
move back to Illinois where
he took a job with the state
Department of Corrections
in Springfield where he stud-
ied jails and worked to make
improvements to how they
were run.
“They were in very bad
shape back in the ’70s,” he
says.
He also got back in touch
with Joan. She joined him in
Illinois, and they married in
1975. “I established roots for
the first time,” he says.
That same year, the Sul-
livans moved to Oak Park, a
suburb of Chicago. Sullivan
worked for the Circuit Court
of Cook County for 12 years.
He later joined the private
sector in 1988 when he took
a job with Roche Diagnostic
Systems, a subsidiary of the
pharmaceutical giant Hoff-
mann-La Roche, earning a
master’s degree in business
administration along the way.
The first Sullivan to run
for office wasn’t Sid, but Joan
— twice. In 1994 she ran for
a county commission seat in
Cook County, Ill. She says she
finished second in the race
and came close to unseating
the incumbent. In 1996 she
ran for U.S. Congress in a
crowded field that included
Danny Davis, who won the
election and still represents
Illinois’ 7th District.
Sullivan traveled extensive-
ly while working for Roche.
Fulton was a regular destina-
tion, and the area attracted
him. When he retired in 2002,
they moved to nearby Colum-
bia.
“Columbia is a vibrant com-
munity,” he says. “It’s close
enough to Chicago that we
could get back. We kept our
theater tickets in Chicago,
and for a couple of years we
would commute back four
times a year.”
achievement problems: The
lowest-achieving 5 percent
of schools would be required
take aggressive action, includ-
ing replacing principals, clos-
ing or replacing staff. The
next-lowest 5 percent would
be placed on a warning list
and expected to take major
steps to improve. The 5 per-
cent of schools with the wid-
est achievement gaps would
be required to reduce dispari-
ties.
Dennis Van Roekel, presi-
dent of the National Educa-
Columbia Missourian
A hard time sitting still
Sullivan had retired from
business but quickly fell into
local politics. Joan Sullivan
says they began attending
city meetings shortly after
moving to Columbia.
“We have a passion for
standing up for the little guy,”
she says.
In 2005 it was people with
disabilities whose Medicare
benefits were cut by the Mis-
souri legislature. The follow-
ing year, Sid Sullivan tried to
unseat incumbent Ed Robb
for the 24th District seat, but
he lost to Jim Ritter in the
Democratic primary.
In 2006 he challenged
Karen Miller for Southern
District Boone County com-
missioner and lost in the pri-
mary with only 30 percent
of the votes. (There was no
Republican challenger, so the
primary decided the race).
Despite losing two previous
races, he says he has learned
a lot.
“You develop a constitu-
ency. In every case there was
a problem we were trying to
solve,” he says.
Part of Sullivan’s approach
to politics is to write. He is a
prolific contributor to local
opinion pages. “I do better
at writing than public speak-
ing,” he says. “I’m getting
better the more I write.”
City planning is a favorite
topic and one of the central
planks in his campaign for
mayor. He says Columbia has
made mistakes by allowing
too much development to take
place too quickly.
Sullivan says cities all over
the country have overdevel-
oped, leaving a glut of prop-
erty in the current reces-
sion. “To a certain extent
that’s what happened here on
the north side of Columbia
because of the rapid develop-
ment,” he says.
Sullivan’s campaign man-
ager is Arthur Nunn, a 20-
year-old with a surprising
political resume.
He helped manage the
MySpace page for John
Edwards’ campaign in 2004.
In 2008 he worked for Steve
Gaw’s campaign for Mis-
souri’s 9th District seat in
the U.S. House of Representa-
tives. He met Sullivan during
the campaign at a Muleskin-
ners forum.
“He has a very diverse
background,” Nunn says.
tion Association, responded to
the plan in a news release
expressing disappointment
in the administration’s first
attempt to change education
policy.
“We were expecting to see
a much broader effort to truly
transform public education
for kids,” he said. “Instead,
the accountability system of
this ‘blueprint’ still relies on
standardized tests to identify
winners and losers.”
Jack Jensen, Columbia
assistant superintendent for
SID SULLIVAN
2980 Maple Bluff Drive
PERSONAL
Age 67. He is married to Joan
Sullivan.
OCCUPATION
Retired. Worked for Roche Diag-
nostics for 12 years. He worked
in the Illinois Department of Cor-
rections and in the Cook County
clerk’s office, also in Illinois.
EDUCATION
He earned bachelor’s degrees
in philosophy and mathematics
from Loyola University, 1967;
master’s degree in sociology
from the New School for Social
Research, 1972; master’s
degree in business administra-
tion from DePaul University,
1988.
RELEVANT BACKGROUND
He was vice president of the
Downtown Optimist Club of
Columbia, 2006-07 and 2009-
present; president of Maple
Bluff Homeowners Association,
2006-08; former candidate for
Southern Boone County com-
missioner; former candidate for
24th District state representa-
tive.
ON THE WEB
Sullivan’s campaign Web site is
sidsullivan.com. He also has a
Facebook page, Sid Sullivan for
Mayor! (Columbia, Mo.), and a
Twitter account.
elementary education, said:
“For the federal government
to come in and say that they
know what is best for every
school, I see a problem with
that.”
Sanctions of the current
act include the federal gov-
ernment changing curricu-
lum, replacing staff or taking
over control of the schools not
meeting the yearly progress
goals.
“When it comes to the sanc-
tions part of No Child Left
Behind here in Columbia,
Missouri, I don’t think that
that has led to improvement,”
Jensen said. He also said that
he thinks improvements could
be made if the funding used
for sanctions could be used
to provide better educational
opportunities at low-perform-
ing schools.
“You can walk through
schools that are designated
‘failing’ and find good teach-
ers and incredible learning
taking place,” said Columbia
Missouri National Education
Association President Susan
McClintic. “I don’t think 100
percent of anything should be
expected, particularly from
children.”
Jensen, McClintic and Lyon
said they were all waiting to
see what changes the govern-
ment may end up implement-
ing.
McClintic said she looks
forward to the future meet-
ing of leaders of the National
Education Association and the
Obama administration.
“I have a wait-and-see atti-
tude on what will happen in
Washington,” Lyon said. “What
is proposed is sometimes dif-
ferent than the result once it’s
gone through the legislative
process.”