Thursday, April 13, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Parking officials seek remedy for rudeness
Student code doesn't restrict verbal abuse
By Sara Shepherd
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Receiving rude slurs is nothing new for the KU Parking Department. Officials say they would like to be able to impose a penalty for excessively rude behavior, but the logistics of implementing a new student code are iffy.
Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking, said some insulns are "really nasty — like 'bite me' kinds of comments."
Jane Tuttle, assistant dean of students, agreed.
"They have some really rude behavior and some rude, and crude, things
written on the checks," she said.
Hultine said she would like to see student codes that would penalize students for especially rude behavior, but that outlining specific consequences would be difficult — if not impossible. She said if anything were added to the student code, there would need to be clear penalties matched to each specific action.
The student code is up for review every two years. The next review is scheduled for September, Tuttle said.
"If we did anything at all, it would have to be something that's concrete," Hultine said.
Hultine said the rude behavior wasn't really the type of issue that the parking board or rules committee could make strict policy on.
Hultine said there were straightforward rules about things like forging or misusing permits, but there is nothing in the student code to specifically
Tuttle said it would be difficult to phrase a policy so that it wouldn't infringe on freedom of speech.
address rude behavior.
"We want a free exchange of ideas, but rudeness really has no place in the University." Tuttle said.
Hultine described the status quo for addressing student rudeness. She said information from any confrontations was documented and sent to James Kitchen, dean of students. Kitchen sent letters to the students, saying their behavior was inappropriate and asking them to refrain from being so rude.
Hultine said that while Kitchen couldn't really do anything, she was glad the issue was being brought to the students' attention.
"At least he's addressing those things," she said. "There's not really any penalty that goes along with it."
Hultine said she knew of a parking director at a Canadian university who
"I think he actually writes him a ticket. " Hultine said.
issued specific citations for "being-mean-to-the-parking-guy."
Hultine said she wasn't a fan of the "being-mean-to-the-parking-guy" ticket, but she would like to see any kind of penalty that could make people take more responsibility for their actions.
Hultine said malicious comments and threatening graffiti, such as the comments about killing parking people that were spray painted on Wescoe Hall earlier this semester, were not taken lightly by parking department employees.
"The day that we all found out about the graffiti, I really had some office employees here that were struggling with that." Hultine said.
However, Tuttle said she was unsure if a policy change would ever occur.
"There's nothing coming for the immediate future," she said.
South Iowa Street is one of several areas in Lawrence that has experienced an increase in commercial development during the past few years. Photo by Matt Daugherty/KANSAN
American Eagle center sparks urban sprawl concerns
Residents disagree on city's expansion
Population Rise In Lawrence
By John Audlehom
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Mindy Berns / KANSAN
Mindv Berns / KANSAN
Residential and commercial growth have long been issues in Lawrence, but with the city commission's recent approval of plans for a new American Eagle Outfitters Inc. distribution center, the issue has taken a new, industrial turn.
Kurt von Achen, president of Douglas County Development Inc., supported the new distribution center. He said that good government policy came from planning for growth instead of planning against it.
Von Achen said the sprawling commercial areas on south Iowa Street were an example of what happens when cities tried to plan against growth.
"Growth is going to happen," he said. Von Achen said that residential growth happened first as population increased. Then commerce grows to service the population, he said.
"You usually have to work a little bit to get industrial growth," von Achen said.
orchard
Although the $45 million distribution center is estimated to bring 300 new jobs, some citizens think local officials have worked a bit too hard to get it.
"I'm going to be living half a mile away from this thing." he said.
David Tavencik, associate professor of design, was against the distribution center. He said he had lived in Douglas County for 21 years and owned an
Vertacnikl said the AEO decision had been made too quickly.
"I think it lacks community involvement in a major way," he said. "There was no dialogue. None."
Vertacnik said that, as an outsider, it seemed like the city and county had an anterior motive. He said he thought the distribution center and the traffic it would generate could force the Kansas Department of Transportation to connect Kansas Highway 10 and Interstate 70 to alleviate traffic in Lawrence.
"There are people who are planning this that we don't see." he said.
Larry Kipp, assistant adjunct professor of entomology, said he was opposed to the distribution center because it would cover up good agricultural land. He said the land could be used for vineyards instead of the traditional wheat and soy.
By covering up farmland, Kipp said, the city closed off such options.
"Lawrence could be known as the garden spot of the greater Kansas City area," he said. "Nobody's taking the time to look at that."
Von Achen said that concerns about farmland were more important than industrial growth but that somebody needed to quantify how much farmland was needed.
"Right now we don't need all the farmland we've got," he said. "If we the people need farmland to grow food, then maybe we the people should buy it."
As for Lawrence's residential sprawl, both Kipp and von Achen said Lawrence could and would do better.
Kipp said the problem was caused by single-use zoning laws, which force an
area to be either residential, commercial or industrial and encourage residential neighborhoods to sprawl out unnecessarily.
Before the '40s and '50s, he said, Lawrence had mixed-use zoning. An example is downtown, Kipp said, with retail on the ground floors of buildings and apartments on the upper floors.
Bryan Dyer, long-range planner for the city and county, said the city's zoning laws were under review — with the goal of making neighborhoods more compact and increasing the use of natural elements, such as trees.
Developers might not like that, he said, but the measures would save them money in the long run.
"Some of them may have to be re-educated in how they draw up subdivisions," Dyer said.
Budget cuts leave facilities operations with job vacancies
By Erin McDaniel Special to the Kansan
This year's slim state budget continues to trouble Facilities Operations personnel, but department officials say they are finding ways to adapt.
Bence Williams, associate director of Facilities Operations, said that hiring new workers and filling existing vacancies were the main problems, which he attributed to the 90-day hiring freeze ordered by Gov. Bill Graves in October and the low wages the Kansas Legislature had set for classified positions.
More than 90 percent of Facilities Operations positions are classified, Williams said. That means the Legislature determines the type of work and the pay wage for each position. The University decides which positions will be classified. For example, secretaries, groundskeepers and custodians are classified staff. Kansas University employs about 1,600 classified workers.
Because of state budget cuts, classified wages are not often competitive with private, city or county jobs, Williams said. For example, refrigeration/air conditioning technicians at Facilities Operations start at $10.81 an hour. The same position at Huxtable & Associates Inc., 815 E. 12th St., starts at about $20 an hour.
Williams said that these low wages had made it hard to hire people, especially highly skilled workers.
"We have a lot of vacancies right now," Williams said. "The most highly skilled and technically knowledgeable people usually gravitate toward where the money is."
Williams said that so far, lack of manpower had not been a huge problem for Facilities Operations, but that eventually it could become one. He emphasized the hard work of the current Facilities Operations employees as the reason for their continued success.
"I think we provide a good service to the University," he said. "The people we have now are great workers. It's just attracting new people that's the problem."
Jim Choate, associate director of housekeeping, whose department has the most vacancies, said his workers had to compensate for the empty positions.
"We have to do a little more and work a little harder than we have in the past, but that's the way it is nowadays rather than the exception," he said. Choate said new equipment and technology had helped tremendously in compensating for fewer workers. For instance, workers now use riding scrubbers to clean hallways in Strong and Learned halls.
"Now they can get done in three hours when it used to take five or six hours." Chote said. "And they're not as tired because they haven't been pushing a scrubber around all day."
Chote said the vacancies had not yet caused a problem because of his dedicated staff.
"We struggle at times like everybody else, but we have a good core of people here who have really met the challenge," he said.
Mike Auchard, general maintenance technician in the Department of Student Housing and vice president of Classified Senate, said the Senate often tracked state legislation and testified before committees on bills that would affect classified workers.
"We are never really sure how much effect we're making, but the more we go up there and get to know people, the more they will listen," Auchard said.
Auchard said this year the Classified Senate's focus had been a House bill that would establish a new retirement plan but that it had also spent time pushing for classified wage increases. So far, he said, it had not made much headway.
"It's pretty obvious to everyone that we have not been very successful," he said. "It's a grim year, with not much money to work with. It's a pretty discouraging situation, and I don't expect to be too successful."
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Board Of Class Officers
Wednesday, April 26, 2000 Thursday, April 27, 2000 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Applications can be picked up at the Organizations and Leadership Center on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union.
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