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The University Daily Kansan
Cloudy with highs in the 60s, lows near 50 and a chance for thunderstorms
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Sports: The men's basketball team dominated Nebraska in the second half in a 83-58 win.
SEE PAGE 12A
Inside: Chris Moore, assistant professor of music, was among the winners at the Grammys last night.
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 110 NO. 103
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2000
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Above: Construction on the new parking garage next to the Kansas Union is almost finished. The $7.5 million project is expected to be completed late next week. Lot 53 along Mississippi Street will reopen Wednesday. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
Right. The new parking garage is being placed together like a Lincoln Log set. The slabs that make up the floor are 12 feet by 60 feet and weigh 42,000 lbs. Wilson Concrete in Omaha, Neb., is shipping the slabs to Lawrence. Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
Garage pieces fall into place
By Mindie Miller
writer@kansan.com
Konsan staff writer
To the casual observer, it may seem as if the new parking garage next to the Kansas Union has gone together as easily as a child's Lincoln Log set.
Workers have trucked in the garage piece by piece and stacked the pieces to form the five-level, brick and concrete parking structure. The stacking process began near Christmas and is expected to be completed late next week.
But John Carriveau, project superintendent, said the construction process was more complicated than piecing together children's toys. And the pieces are a lot heavier.
"Each floor piece is 12-feet by 60-feet long and weighs 42,000 pounds," he said.
That's the weight of three African elephants and about one-and-a-half times the length of a KU on Wheels bus.
These heavy floor pieces — called double T's — are welded together and supported by an intricate system of posts and beams, said Roger Harmon, construction manager at Design and Construction Management.
At all hours of the day and night, flatbed semi-trucks roll off the Kansas Turnpike carrying the precast concrete pieces that make up the garage. Wilson Concrete, a company based in Omaha, Neb., is pouring all of the concrete slabs for the project, Harmon said. The floor pieces are trucked in from the company's satellite plant in Kansas City, Kan. and the brick wall pieces come from Omaha.
Flatbed trailers holding the concrete pieces line Mississippi Street. Lot 53, the street's angle parking between 11th Street and the Spencer Museum of Art, will reopen Wednesday. The lot has been used as a temporary holding area for the concrete pieces until truck drivers can haul them up next to the garage, where they are removed and
Students lobby source of state aid
See CONSTRUCTING on page 2A
Bv Katrina Hull
By Katrina Hull writer@kansan.com
Ben Walker, Student Legislature Awareness Board legislative director, right, meets with State Rep. Barbara Ballard (D-Lawrence), who is also assistant vice chancellor for student affairs. About 25 KU students lobbied at the state capital yesterday to request more financial aid money from the Legislature. Photo Jamaie Roper/KANSAN
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — If student lobbyists get their choice, state financial aid won't come from university operating budgets.
Students from Regents universities, including about 25 University of Kansas students, asked legislators yesterday for more state financial aid to come from the state's general fund. The effort was a part of State Education Day, when students travel to Topeka to lobby the Legislature on behalf of the Regents universities.
"One of the most important things is coming up here and making our issues known," said Ben Walker, legislative director for the Student Legislative Awareness Board. "It's going better than expected. Everyone has been receptive so far."
If more money can't come directly from the state's general fund, the universities are divided about using operating dollars for student financial aid.
"At K-State, enrollment is up," said Travis Lenker, chairman of government relations at Kansas State University. "We can't advocate for anything that cuts our base."
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Last week, the House Education
and Legislative Budget Committee recommended removing $1 million from university operating budgets for student salaries and financial aid — but the recommendation did not specify that the money would stay in the Regents system.
Students and legislators are working together to draft an amendment that would keep the $1 million at the state universities.
Without an amendment, Molly Bircher, Fort Hays State University director of legislative affairs, said her university would not support using operating dollars for financial aid.
Lenker said that even with the amendment, he did not think Kansas State would support the proposal.
Walker said that the University of Kansas supported more financial aid dollars with or without a amendment.
But students lobbyists from all the universities are keeping their fingers crossed that more financial aid dollars may come from the state.
State Rep. Eber Phelps, D-Hays, told students not to give up hope that financial aid dollars might surface vet this session.
"I've kind of learned since I've been in the Legislature that it's not over until it's over," Phelps said. "There is a lot of session left, and things can change."
Students also lobbied for the state to match the library fee and for increased faculty salaries.
Katie Holman, Prairie Village sophomore and Nunemaker senator, spoke with State Rep. George Dean, D-Wichita, who asked her to be involved in the legislative process.
"He asked about faculty salaries and if 8 percent was enough to keep professors at KU," Holman said. "And I said it was a good start."
For Holman, yesterday was her first time to lobby, and she said she enjoyed the experience.
"I'm looking forward to the next lobby day," she said.
Transportation board to consider bus route changes
By Erinn R. Barcomb
Kansan staff writer
The Transportation Board, which governs KU on Wheels, will meet from 5 to 7 tonight to discuss proposed changes to bus routes, including eliminating the West Sixth Street route and the Boardwalk Apartments bus stop at 524 Frontier Road.
Students commuting by bus to campus from the Boardwalk Apartments might have to find another way to make it to class.
"The reason is because of the ridership numbers," said Scott Kaiser, KU on Wheels Transportation Board chairman. "I think in the past some of the things that have changed have been the addition of other apartments like Highpointe and Jefferson Commons that have taken away their number of student tenants."
Kaiser said studies showed the route served between three and five students per day, which was not cost efficient.
"We could probably afford to buy them a car to drive to campus," Kaiser said jokingly.
Watson said there were two bus stops at Boardwalk but that buses ran only once every hour, forcing some tenants to walk less than a mile to the stop at Dillons, 4701 W. Sixth Street, and take a different bus.
"For four years, it's the same thing," Watson said. "Every year I go to the meeting, and the bus keeps on running. This time of year, I need to know what they're going to do because it affects my leasing."
Donna Watson, resident manager for Boardwalk Apartments, said she that had between 30 and 50 student tenants and that the number had dropped in the last four years.
Kaiser said that although the meeting was for fact finding, the 12 students who were the voting members of the board could decide the future of the bus routes today. If there were disputes about numbers or changes, Kaiser said, the board would vote in two weeks.
Other proposed changes include:
- Changing the Second and Michigan streets route to include Highpolinte Apartments.
Changing the Sixth Street and Crestline Drive route to include Sunrise Village Apartments and using Fireside Court as a turnaround location instead of Schwarz Road.
Changing the Sixth Street and Crestline Drive route to turn south on Rockledge Road from Iowa, heading east; eliminating the stop at Cadillac Ranch, 2515 W. Sixth St., and moving it to Rockledge Road between Sixth and Ninth streets; and following Rockledge Road to Ninth Street.
- Eliminating bus service on the summer route between Alabama and 27th Street and Ridge Court and 26th Street.
By Doug Pacey
KU students design plan to redevelop KC industrial area
By Doug Pacey
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Twelve University of Kansas architecture students have designed what they hope will be the new looks of the West Bottoms — an industrial area that straddles the Kansas/Missouri state line.
"We feel like the West Bottoms will take off," said Hugh Lester, Lawrence graduate student, yesterday as the class announced its proposal. "We're just showing a direction that it could go in. We just want to show a vision that could happen."
The project will seek to redevelop the largely industrial area in downtown Kansas City.
Lester is one of 12 students who worked on the project at the University's Kansas City Urban Design Studio as part of the ARCH 500 class taught by Glenn Leroy and Richard Wetzel.
"This is not something that is going to be given to a developer," said Wetzel, adjunct faculty member. "This proposal isn't intended to begin the next day."
The design studio has been open for 12 years, but this is the first year that undergraduates were invited to participate, Wetzel said.
Science City at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., was envisioned by the 1989 class — the only proposal that has been realized.
"This program works as a mid-way between college and a career for these students, almost like an internship." Wetzel said. "It also gives them a feeling of public service for the city."
The project gave him and the other students a connection to the city, Lester said.
Each member of the group has spent seven to 15 hours every
"I didn't know a thing about this area before I started the project," he said. "Now I know it like the back of my hand. It makes me feel like part of the community."
Wednesday this semester working on the project — accumulating to almost 3,000 hours of work.
Hugh Lester
"I didn't know a thing about this area before I started the project. Now I know it like the back of my hand. It makes me feel like part of the community."
Lawrence graduate student
Lester and his classmates said they hoped the city would go along with their vision to give them closer kinship with the area.
"That's the goal," said Anthony Hersey, Kansas City, Mo. senior.
The class solved the flooding problem by designing more open areas that would absorb the extra water.
Hersey said work already had begun on the wetlands portion of West Bottoms, a patch that causes problems — the area floods and cars have a hard time moving around.
The class also advocated building a retail and entertainment district around Kemper Arena in hopes that people would come to arena events earlier and stay later.
"Right now, people get to Kemper 30 minutes before the game starts and leave right after it is over." Wetzel said. "People should stay longer with what we've done."
Another idea the group had was a bi-state campus — an X-shaped building would straddle the state line, and institutions from both states would offer classes there.
"It's an interesting concept," Wetzel said. "It's a shared educational institution. Schools like KU, K-State and the University of Missouri-Kansas City could use it."
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