Tuesday, February 15, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
City to resubmit new bus request
By John Audlehelm
Kansan staff writer
writer@kansan.com
The City of Lawrence must resubmit a request for proposals if it wants federal money for its new bus system. And this time, it will have to tell bus manufacturers what it considers the most important factors in its decision.
Federal Transit Administration officials met Wednesday with Mike Wilden, city manager. They met to clarify why the administration recognized Chance Coach Inc.'s protest of Lawrence's decision to purchase buses from Blue Bird Corp. of Macon, Ga. Chance, a Wichita manufacturer, had made a bid to supply Lawrence's buses.
Chance first protested to the city, which stood by its original decision, and then to the FTA, which decided against the city.
Wildgen said FTA officials had problems with the city's original request for proposals.
He said the request contained a number of evaluation criteria, such as the price, cost of operation, delivery time and how long the buses would last.
"You have to tell everybody, 'How important is that?' Wildgen said.
He said Friday that city officials would submit the modified request for proposals to the FTA in less than 10 days.
Cindy Terwilliger, deputy regional administrator for the FTA in Kansas City, Mo., said the
problem was that the request did not prioritize the criteria.
"They had evaluation criteria," she said. "But the description was not adequate."
Terwilliger said the meeting involved going through the technical aspects of the proposal.
"The meeting went very smoothly," she said. "All the parties worked very well together."
Wildgen said if the FTA signed off on the corrections, the city would submit the new request to possible bidders and redo the selection process.
Fred Gilliam, executive vice president of Chance, said he was pleased the FTA had overturned the city's decision. He said he did not think his company had been treated unfairly, but that the
city's analysis of the proposals was handled wrong.
"They left it totally to the discretion of the interpreter, which in this case was a consultant." Gilliam said.
by not prioritizing the criteria, Gilliam said, the proposal was vague and confusing. This left too much room for interpretation by the city's consultant, KA Associates of Wichita, which he said misled city employees.
He said the issue of Lawrence picking an out-of-state manufacturer instead of an in-state one had been blown out of proportion.
Wildgen said the city would work with FTA because it was providing most of the money to purchase the buses.
Dana Bottenfield, Pittsburg junior, and Nick Pruitt, Overland Park sophomore, follow the signs of Sally Roberts, assistant professor of special education, during a sign language class Feb. 8 in Dole Human Development Center. Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN
A language full of busy hands, no voices
Bv Mike Hoffman
It's 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night, and about 75 students are crowded into a room in Dole Development Center learning a new language—a language without sound.
Welcome to the world of SPED 598: Sign Language, an introductory course taught by Sally Roberts, assistant professor of special education.
The University didn't offer a sign language course until the mid-80s. However, because the University doesn't offer any sign language courses that would show fourth-semester proficiency, the courses cannot fulfill foreign language requirements, said Pam Houston, director of undergraduate services for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. However, students can take introductory courses here and take upper-level classes elsewhere to meet the requirement, she said.
Roberts said many of her students were taking the class just to familiarize themselves with sign language. She also said she had a good combination of students from different schools in her class, ranging from the School of Social Welfare to the School of Pharmacy.
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"This is an introductory class giving an overview of the language, the sign system, what causes deafness and deaf culture," she said.
Although she teaches between 650 and 700 different signs, Roberts said she didn't expect anyone to be fluent by the end of the semester. There are three courses available at the University: Sign Language, the introductory course taught by Roberts, American Sign Language I and American Sign Language II.
Kirk Shalvey, Littleton, Colo., senior, is not a special education major but said he was taking the class because it was his last year at the
university and he wanted to take something fun. He said that the class members were studying signs that dealt with money.
"The professor makes it fun and interesting." he said.
Shalvey also said that he had studied French in the past and that he thought it was more difficult.
Angela Whistance, Lee's Summit, Mo., senior, said that she took the class because she wanted to be able to better relate to the hearing impaired
"I's a great class, because it's neat to learn a different language without speaking," she said.
Whistance said that her aunt worked at the Kansas School for the Deaf in Olathe and that it would be nice to converse with some of the students.
"It makes a real difference to be able to help a deaf person out in a place like the grocery store when they are having trouble with something," she said.
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