CHILLY
Tomorrow's weather
Kansan
Mostly sunny and cool with a high of 47 and a low of 28
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Sports: The Kansas track team makes a twilight trip today at the Emporia Invitational. SEE PAGE 7A
THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2000
Inside: The Israeli government has agreed to give land in the West Bank to Palesinians.
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 110 NO. 118
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Mindy Berns / KANSAN
Requests realized in new bus route
By Erinn R. Barcomb
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Students living at Jefferson Commons next fall will be able to ride the bus to campus, but students living at Boardwalk Apartments may need find an alternate source of transportation.
Since the student population is shifting south, the transportation board decided last week to eliminate the West Sixth Street route that served Boardwalk Apartments, 524 Frontier Road, and add a route to Iowa and 31st streets that will serve Jefferson Commons, 2511 W. 31st St.
"Over the last year we've had a lot of requests that they would like to see a bus stop," said Holly Krebs, transportation coordinator.
Krebs said that the board considered adding south Iowa Street last year, but there were not enough financial resources.
"By getting rid of Sixth Street we had some extra buses we could use," Krebs said.
Most apartments on the eliminated route will be served by other routes. Moreover, Krebs said, Highpointe, 2001 W. Sixth St., and Sunrise Village, 660 Gateway Court, will get more frequent service because of the
But Donna Watson, resident manager at Boardwalk, said that she does not want to see the complex's two stops eliminated.
"In the last two weeks I've already had 16 college students come thinking I was on the bus route," Watson said. "I've already lost
most of those leases."
Watson said her advertisement contracts with publications like apartment guides lasted until 2011, which meant ads saying the complex has a bus stop were now inaccurate.
"My college population isn't that high, but when you're in a town like Lawrence, if you lose three leases, that's three leases you lose," she said. "The students that I do have here like the benefit of riding the bus."
Watson said her residents could pick up a bus on the Crestline route across the street, but she couldn't picture them crossing four lanes of traffic.
Students at Jefferson Commons will need only to walk to a covered bus shelter located at the front of the complex.
"We had a lot of things to offer but a bus route, and that made a big difference," said Kristin Harrelson, who works in resident relations for the complex. "People had contacted us in the past and said they were interested, but because we didn't have a bus route, they couldn't live here."
The bus route has helped the complex retain many current residents.
"I think it's nice we're not near the campus, but they want the convenience of getting to the campus without dealing with parking and traffic." she said.
Craig Phelan, Olathe junior, said when he moved into Jefferson Commons he thought the complex already had a route, but that it won't affect him now.
"I think I'd rather drive," Phelan said. "I can leave whenever I need to."
With spring break around the corner, only 71 students attend Professor Jeff Olafsen's Physics 111 class. Ninety-six students attend regularly. Photo by Melissa Thornton/KANSAN
Students say 'see ya' to classes
Spring break means shorter lines, no class
By Ryan Blethen
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Campus will be eerily quiet today and tomorrow.
Every year as spring break nears, students begin their exodus to warm, exotic destinations or to their hometowns before break officially begins. And every Thursday and Friday before spring break, class attendance declines, food lines at the Unions dwindle and available parking spots multiply.
Don Kearns, director of parking services, said that as of yesterday he had not noticed fewer cars in the University's parking lots, but he expected that to change soon.
"It will be thinned out Thursday and Friday," he said.
Mark Lohrenz, assistant manager of cash operations for food services at the Kansas Union, said he also expected business to slow today and tomorrow.
"As a rule, generally the Friday before spring break is significantly slower." he said.
Michael Saunder, San Antonio,
Texas, sophomore, said he would
probably skip his two Friday classes.
Saunder, who had a test yesterday,
said he thought professors should
make Friday classes before spring
break optional.
"In the college atmosphere, one day isn't real critical," he said.
Some professors have given up trying to make students stay around for Friday classes. Chris Crandall, associate professor of psychology, said he had given his students the option of attending his General Psychology class.
"We have a quiz on the Wednesday before spring break," he said. "On the Friday, we have a topic of class choice. Routinely what they vote for is the day off."
Even though he gives his students the option, he said he did not approve of them skipping.
"You get a pretty good show-up on quiz days," Crandall said. "On that Fridav you get a pretty poor showing."
Douglas Denney, professor of psychology, said he planned on teaching his Statistics in Psychological Research class as usual tomorrow, and he said he expected his students to attend.
"I never anticipate people to never show up." he said.
Denney chooses not to schedule tests around the break, though.
"I probably wouldn't have a test on the Friday before spring break or the Monday after," he said. "I'm mindful of when that make the syllabus."
But some professors choose to schedule tests before the break.
Taylor Gill, Wichita senior, said she would like to leave early but could not because she had a test tomorrow. Still, she said she would prefer a test tomorrow rather than when she returned.
"The thing I think is worse is when they schedule a test right after spring break," she said.
Kelley Fried, Overland Park sophomore, said she had one class that had a midterm scheduled for the Tuesday after break but that the professor moved it to April 4 because so many people in the class complained.
"You just want to kind of get away from everything for a week," she said.
George Freitag,
Mercer Island,
Wash., sophomore,
tries to walk a straight line for KU Public Safety Office
Sgt. Troy Mailen while wearing goggles simulating the vision of someone with a blood alco
hol level of .08 percent. Brad Coombs, Eden Prairie, Minn., junior, (far right) is wearing goggles simulating the vision of someone with a blood alcohol level of .17 percent. Photo by Selena Jabara/ KANSAN
Safety promotion gets students blurry with beer goggle lesson
By Sara Shepherd
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
Things were a bit blurry for KU students yesterday at Wescoe beach. But it wasn't just because of the cloudy skies and pouring rain.
the cases. Passers-by had a chance to see the world as it would look after a few too many drinks by peering through the plastic lenses of fatal-vision goggles on part of a moving safe.
— or beer goggles — as part of a spring break safety promotion organized by the KU Public Safety
Office and Watkins Memorial Health Center.
One pair of goggles simulated the vision of someone with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent, which is the legal limit to drive, said Sgt. Troy Mailen of the KU Public Safety Office. The other pair represented the vision of a person who had a 17 percent blood alcohol level.
Once students had the goggles on, Mallen asked them to execute some of the same actions police requested during field sobriety tests on the street.
See GOGGLES on page 2A
Amtrak train derails south of Topeka
Twenty-nine injured in morning wreck
The Associated Press
CARBONDALE — One person was in critical condition yesterday after Amtrak's Southwest Chief passenger train derailed, injuring 29 passengers, authorities said.
Many of the 140 passengers and 15 crew members were taken to a local elementary school after 16 of the 27 train cars traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles derailed around 2:10 a.m.
The passengers were served breakfast by the school while they waited in the gymnasium for buses to take them to a hotel in Topeka.
Amtrak spokeswoman Debbie Hare said five passenger cars, including two sleepers, flipped on their sides and one car derailed but remained upright.
Ten mail and express cars also
derailed.
The cause of the derailment was being investigated, said Hare from Amtrak's Chicago office.
Kathy Lambert, 53, of Stroh, Ind. was in critical condition at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center, said hospital spokeswoman Cindy Greenwood.
Lambert, a school bus driver, was traveling with her husband to Albuquerque, N.M., where he planned to compete in a bowling tournament.
Other passengers were treated and released at Stormont and two other Toeeka hospitals for minor injuries.
Passengers expressed a mixture of
"I was scared, I was afraid we weren't going to make it. The window was broken and I could feel the gravel coming in."
Jerilyn Kemmerer
13-year-old Overland Park resident
fright and calm during the derailment that occurred alongside a cornfield southwest of Carbondale — 15 miles south of Topeka.
"I was scared," said Jerilyn Kemmerer, 13, of Overland Park. "I was afraid we weren't going to make it. The window was broken and I could feel the gravel coming in."
Clutching a pair of stuffed bears, she recalled being in a sleeper car when the accident happened. She was traveling with her brother and parents to Flagstaff, Ariz., to visit her grandmother.
Hare said the train came out of a gentle curve where the maximum authorized speed is 60 mph, and was on straight track when the derailment occurred. She said the maximum speed on the straight track is 79
"The people were calm because the situation stabilized very quickly," he said. "It just gently laid on its side. As soon as the cars were on the ground, I felt it was a case of getting everybody out."
Passenger Ed Sulik, 53, of Stratford, Conn., said he felt the sleeper car start to rumble and tip over. He was en route to Los Angeles for a nephew's wedding.
Mindy Berns / KANSAN
mph, but said she didn't know how fast the train was traveling.
At first light, work crews began clearing the tracks during sporadic rainfall but had no time estimate as to when they would finish.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigative team to the site. They were joined by investigators from Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which owns the tracks.
Rescue crews working in darkness had all passengers removed within four hours, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Helicopters from the patrol and Topeka Police flew overhead focusing search lights on the cars.
Richard Gray, 51, of Aurora, N.Y., said he and his mother, Dorothy Gray, 92, were both asleep when he was awakened by an unnatural sound.
"My first thought was, it happened, we derailed," said Gray, a librarian at Cornell University. "But nobody panicked. You keep your head together and try to get out."
1.
A year ago yesterday, an Amtrack train wrecked in Bourbonnais, ill,
killing 11 people and injuring more than 100 others.
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