Entertainment
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Our guide to summer fun includes area entertainment options.
See Page 1B
Summer Camps
Almost 600 high students are visiting campus this week for Sunflower Girls' State.
Wednesday
June 9,1999
Section:
A
Vol. 109 • No.149
Weekly Edition
SEE PAGE 3A
Campus Expert
A KU professor is looking for the answer to a dvastaing mite that is killing bees.
SEE PAGE 5A
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Norman Beryman, Belton, MO, freshman, moves his boxes into a room in Templin Hall. Residence halls opened for summer school students and campers on Sunday afternoon. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Summer classes calm many freshmen fears
(USPS 650-640)
Kansan staff writer
Jessica Davis
Calls to formerly-valid 864 numbers will be forwarded to a recording that explains the change.
Edited by Anjum Aziz
On June 6, Templin Hall became home to 270 students who will be taking classes and conducting undergraduate research this summer.
Most summer residents of Templin, 1515 Engel Road, are participants in various conferences held by the University of Kansas. Conferences include the Kansas Orientation Program for Engineers, International College English and REU, an undergraduate research group studying chemistry, biochemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry.
Sixty Templin residents are Freshman Summer Institute students. The program provides incoming freshmen an opportunity to adjust to campus without the burden of a full load.
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
People using campus phones will still be able to dial other campus phones using the last five digits of the number.
"The Freshman Summer Institute gives students a chance to find out how the halls work and at the same time learn what college is like," said Laura Bennett, assistant complex director at Templin. "Living here for the summer will definitely make the transition from home to college easier."
For many incoming freshmen, the advantages of living in Templin and attending classes at KU this summer far
outweigh the disadvantages of giving up their last summer at home.
"I wanted to get more acquainted with campus and I didn't want to feel apprehensive when I got there," said Jordan Stewart, Topeka freshman. "I felt this was a good opportunity to learn more about college life and activities and also to get to know people."
For most Freshman Summer Institute students this summer is their first time away from home.
"It is kind of scary to be out on my own," Stewart said. "My life really is in my own hands now."
Abdullah Al-Zahrani, Saudi Arabia freshman, is living in Templin for the summer and will also live in Templin in the fall. Not only is this his first time away from home, but it is also his first time in the United States.
Al-Zahrani, who received a computer science scholarship from the University, said he chose to attend KU without ever visiting the campus. He said he had been impressed by the pictures that he saw of the campus on the Internet.
"I came here to take classes for the summer so that I would have an advantage over other incoming freshmen," he said. "I wanted to get a head start."
Campus phone system adds new 312 prefix
oy Matthew Friedrichs
Kansan editor
Students moving into Templin Hall for the Freshmen Summer Institute were among the first on campus to receive the new numbers.
The University of Kansas has added 5,000 new phone numbers to the campus phone system. Phone numbers 312-0000 through 312-4999 will supplement the 10,000 current phone numbers that begin with the 864 prefix.
"We had to come up with a way that made sense," she said.
Elizabeth Pesek-Shields, equipment planning technician II, said Networking and Telecommunications Services would change the numbers to 312 for other on-campus living areas this summer.
The logical approach includes changing the phone numbers for residential students — who change location frequently — while freeing more 864 numbers for academic and administrative offices.
Anna Hines, assistant director of network services at NTS, said officials at the University were aware that the 864 numbers would eventually run out when they acquired them in 1986.
When the University began to approach the maximum number of 864 numbers, the decision was made to purchase the 312 numbers from Southwestern Bell.
Facsimile machines and the phase out of "key-system" technology — multiple phones that ring successively as more than one call came into the same number — were among the increased demands that necessitated additional phone numbers Hines said.
Lawrence considers bus system
Public clamours for new buses
By Phil Cauthon Kansan staff writer
Lawrence city commissioners will hold the annual budget study session this morning which, for the first time in 28 years, will include discussion of funding for a proposed fixed-route public transportation system.
Commissioners will review City Manager Mike Wilden's suggestions for raising the projected $1 million in local revenue needed for a new bus system. The money will likely come from a combination of increased property taxes, sales taxes and money reallocated from elsewhere in the budget. Wilden said.
Commissioners decided last week to begin work on a start-up bus sys
tem which would likely run at least 12 hours every day on four to six routes, said Mavor Erv Hodges.
A key question is what role the University's bus system, KU on Wheels, will play in the city's plans. Wildgen stressed that any system implemented by the city would be strictly compatible with KU on Wheels, meaning the two systems would remain separate but possibly connected by certain transfer points.
An early report by The Lawrence Journal-World that the commission's goal to merge the two systems alarmed KU on Wheels coordinator Holly Krebs, Krebs, Oskaloas senior, said she hope the city would cooperate with KU on Wheels to create a coordinated system where students and the general public could use both city and KU buses.
"The reason this is important is so that students still have control over KU on Wheels. We want to be able to
continue our services if for some reason the city decides to back out of public transportation. "Krebs said."
Hodges indicated that the ideal system would cover parts of the city not accessible by KU buses, such as south Iowa Street and maintain longer hours.
In April, a student referendum showed that 90 percent of voters would encourage city and state cooperation with KU on Wheels to create a city-wide bus system.
Recently elected Commissioners Dave Dunfield, Jim Henry and Mike Rundle all ran on platforms advocating public transit. Hodges said that, before their election, the commission didn't have enough supporters to pass motions seeking discussion of a new bus system.
"To me, it's always been a question of equity," said Rundle. "I feel like we spend millions of dollars on roads, so we should spend some of those transportation dollars to give access to
those who can't drive or don't have a car."
Commissioner Marty Kennedy said
that a few people have expressed concern with raising taxes, but most of the community has been quiet on the issue.
"I think deo-
"I think people understand that this is a service the community needs," Kennedy said.
Although recent steps represent the commission's most decisive decision on public transit in many years, there has been no formal vote on the issue. If the bus system is eventually approved, the earliest it could be up and running would be early 2000, Hodges said.
Edited by Mike Miller
Walk down hill ends dream
Kwok -Chien Chan is looking to the future after graduating from KU with an degree in electrical engineering. Rather than return home to Malaysia, Chan was trying to find a job in the United States. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
Malaysian student reflects on accomplishment
By Katie Burford Kansan campus editor
Earning the privilege to march down the Hill was a difficult feat for any graduate, but for the more than 300 international students graduating in 1999, there were additional hurdles, which ran the gamut from bureaucratic to cultural.
For Kwok-Chien Chan, a 23-year-old electrical engineering graduate from Malaysia, the most difficult thing wasn't communicating in English — it was the first language he learned and his parents' only common language — but rather adjusting to the climate. He hasn't forgotten his first Kansas winter and the bitterly cold wind he experienced walking across campus to class — quite a contrast to the tropical temperatures of his native land.
Chan transferred to the University of Kansas two and a half years ago from INTI College in Malaysia, which has a credit transfer program with around 250 American colleges. He chose the University because the price was affordable and he wanted to attend a large university.
"I wanted the exposure," he said. "I didn't want to go to a strictly engineering school because I wanted to interact with students in other majors."
Although Chan accomplished that goal, it wasn't easy.
"Americans value privacy more," he said. "It was hard to make friends because sometimes I felt like people would rather be alone."
Chan found it easier to make friends after he moved from McCollum residence hall into the smaller Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall.
But other interpersonal challenges remain — he still finds interactions with
the opposite sex perplexing.
"In Malaysia I had a lot more friends that were girls." he said.
He said that in America he gets the feeling that girls think he has an ulterior motive when he is only trying to be friendly.
Academically, Chan found that there was a big difference in the way that classes were taught here.
"Here students are encouraged to learn on their own. There, there are study guides, workshops and past exam questions available," he said. "Here it is more about reading the textbook and extracting information. There they memorize formulas, here we learn concepts."
Chan's parents, his mother especially wanted to come to see him graduate. But Chan is modest about his accomplishment, and he discouraged them from making the trip on his account.
"It's no big deal." he said.
Chan is trying to get a work permit to stay in the United States. Lynne Nahill, assistant director for International Student Services, said that the ISS office helped students who wanted to stay for work by helping them complete the necessary paperwork. Nonetheless, she said that the majority of international students returned home after graduation.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway spoke at a recognition ceremony for International Students on May 21. He said that he had great confidence in the future achievements of the 1999 international graduates. "I am proud that KU will be represented
"I am proud that KU will be represented around the world." he said.
Despite the challenges and adjustments, Chan said his relationship with the University had been a mutually beneficial one.
Edited by Anjum Aziz
Graduates walk the Hill with wit and flair
By Katie Burford
Kansan campus editor
Graduates chose many different ways to express themselves as they walked down the Hulon May 23.
Two male students toted Jedi light sabers; two female students donned bejeweled paper crowns; a male student wrote "Will work for food" on his mortar board; a female student wore Jayhawk stickers all over her gown; another female student had a Barbie doll attached to her cap; and a male student wore a sombrero under his.
The mood was light-hearted and celebratory as graduates paraded down the Hill into Memorial Stadium for the University of Kansas' last commencement ceremony
this millennium. The graduates experienced their 15 minutes of rock-star celebrity as friends and family lined the ropes, screamed their names and snapped pictures while students filed into the stadium to "Pomp and Circumstance."
For some the march was closure enough, so they veered off before entering the stadium, skipping out on the ceremony.
During the commencement, student leadership awards, citations for distinguished service and awards for excellence in teaching were presented.
Chancellor Robert Hemen-
way also gave a farewell
address. He said that the walk
down the Hill was a metaphor.
See GRADS on page 8A
Graduates sing the Alma Mater one last time during the last commencement of the century. About 4,000 students graduated on May 23 at Memorial Stadium. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
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