Tuesday, April 13, 1999 The University Daily Kansan Section A · Page 5 Group campaigns against rec center By Nadia Mustafa nmustafa@kansan.com Kansan staff writer Opposition to the proposal for a new $16 million campus recreation center is not restricted to politics within Student Senate. An unofficial group of about 10 students called Students Against the Recreation Center, some members of which remain anonymous, is waging a campaign using funds from their own pockets to persuade students to vote against the recreation center referendum during Senate elections tomorrow and Thursday. Brian Bartelt, Waukee, Iowa, freshman, revived SARC earlier this semester. The group originally was founded in 1996 by three students who opposed a previous proposal for a new campus recreation center that would have increased student fees by $90 per semester. That year, 70 percent of student voters rejected the proposal. During the past two weeks, SARC has been posting flyers and brochures around campus that boast headlines such as, "Is it fair to have to pay $100 a year for something you won't ever use?" and "Why are we trying to 'keep up with the joneses'?" "We think that the task force is hiding and manipulating data and not doing all the research they need to be doing," Bartelt said. "It's great that they're trying to accomplish something, but they're not doing it the right way and it makes me angry." On its Web site (www.angelfire.com/ks/sarc), SARC posted a list of the top 10 things it thought the recreation task force didn't want students know. The list reported that the new center would be smaller than Robinson Center and would not solve overcrowding problems because Robinson probably would not be available for student recreational use when the new center opened. Provost David Shulenburger confirmed last week that the University of Kansas would not decrease existing recreation facilities. In addition, Yoder said that the new center would be open 18 hours a day and that alleged decreased accessibility to Robinson probably would be inevitable because of the expansion of academic activity courses. SARC claimed that the new center would include junior high size basketball courts and unnecessary offices for recreation services. Yoder said that the courts would be full size and that offices were a necessary accompaniment to a new center. Also, SARC said that building a new center south of Watkins Memorial Health Center would be stealing potential space for a new academic building, Yoder SARC cited the fact that only freshmen would still be students at the University when the new recreation center opened in Summer 2002. replied that the chancellor and University architect approved the proposed location and said that an academic building could not be built there because it was not within 10 minutes of walking distance from other campus buildings. "They're using false and misleading statements in order to convince the student body that there is not a problem and this proposal is an inadequate solution," he said. "They're doing a grave disservice to the student body because now students will be going to the polls without being able to vote on the issue fairly." SARC referred to task force survey data that revealed 53 percent of students surveyed were satisfied with the convenience of hours at Robinson, 78.4 percent were satisfied with the quality of services and activities and 72.4 percent were satisfied with the condition of buildings. Yoder said that SARC was misleading students. If the referendum passes, Bartelt said, the students will have spoken. He said that SARC probably would pursue discussion with the chancellor to dissuade him from approving the proposal. - Edited by Tgra Hinkhouse Volunteers help with taxes Students aid students as deadline looms By Jamie Knodel jknodek@kansan.com Kansas staff writer If life's only certainties are death and taxes, at least one of them is quickly approaching KU students. Gimberly McKamie, Kansas City, Kan., law student, helps Max Winber, Denver senior, with his taxes. Law students were helping University students with their taxes yesterday at Green Hall. Photo by Kate Levenson/KANSAN Thursday is the last day to file tax claims without late penalties, and KU students who have not yet figured their claims are still in luck. Braxton Copley, staff attorney for KU Legal Services for Students, said that although his office was booked through the deadline, students had three options to avoid penalties. He suggested that students pick up an extension request form and submit it on or before the April 15 deadline. Copley said that the final option for students who had not yet prepared their taxes was to get a return, complete it to the best of their knowledge and pay any taxes that were required. After sending in their return, those students should make an appointment to review "If an extension is filed before the date, a penalty for filing late can be avoided." he said. Copley also suggested using other on-campus tax services. There are several other sites run by KU Volunteer Income Tax Assistance that will help students prepare their taxes before the deadline. Maurer said that as the deadline has grown closer, the number of students applying for assistance with their taxes has also grown. These sites are being run by business and law students that have completed a course in preparing federal income taxes, said Jack Mauer, site coordinator. Copley said that if there were any corrections that needed to be made to the student's return, an amendment would be sent to correct the problems. Maurer said that most students didn't have a difficult tax return, enabling the form preparation to take between 30 and 45 minutes. their return with Legal Services. Jon White, Lawrence graduate student, visited one of the sites yesterday because it was free and the location was accessible. Organizers said that students have been taking advantage of the free services. Copley said that Legal Services had helped an average of 60 students a week with tax preparation. Edited by Liz Wristen KU VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE Todav ■ SRS 1901 Delaware St., 10. a.m. - 1 p.m. Green Hall, Room 106, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Burge Union, Daisy Hill Room, noon - 2 p.m. Penn House, 1035 Pennsylvania St., 9 a.m. - noon Thursday SRS 1901 Delaware St., 12:30- 3:30 p.m. ■ Salvation Army, 924 New Hampshire St, St. 1; 3-30 p.m. KU professor discovers addition to Biblical Gospel Resident Services, 1600 Haskell Ave. Apt. 169, 1pm - 3 p.m. Bv Nathan Willis Special to the Kansan Mirecki, associate professor of religious studies, is a navrologist Not many people can say they've discovered an additional Christian gospel. Paul Mrecki can. a person who studies ancient texts. He said his most famous discovery is a small portion of an additional retelling of Jesus Christ's time on Earth. It was originally written about 175 A.D. Mirecki published the results of his work with the ancient text last month in a book, "The Gospel of the Savior." He discovered the text in 1991. "The gospel was in a West Berlin museum with handwritten notes that talked about the unknown teachings of Jesus," Mirecki said. "That caught my attention." Getting an unknown manuscript in a German museum published as an analysis of a new gospel required years of scientific rigor. "It is meticulous work and involves the keeping of copious notes on many observations of tiny details," said Jason BeDuhn, a professor of religious studies at Northern Arizona University, who often collaborates on projects with Mireckl. "It is as scientific as any procedure in chemistry or physics." Mirecki said that although many people consider religious studies and science to be at opposite ends of a spectrum, that is untrue. Papyrology is a particularly vivid example, he said. Ancient documents usually come in many pieces, Mirecki said, and rigorous scientific procedures have to be used to clean them and put them back together. The documents, which are about 1,500 years old, are very brittle. "They're kind of like potato chips," he said. Mirecki found 33 fragments, representing 25 percent of pages 97 to 114 of the gospel. He said he believed the rest had been destroyed, which was why determining who wrote the gospel was impossible. Mirecki said he used small brushes on the scraps until all of them were clean. The cleaning process has to remain dry to protect the documents, he said. After that, the scraps were put in a humidor, a machine that slowly restored moisture to the paper. After Mirecki removed each scrap from the machine, he laid them between sheets of blotter paper and placed small weights on top. "It's like if you have a sound bite of a rap song, you know it's not from the 1950's." Paul Mirecki associate professor of religious studies When the scraps had dried for about an hour, Mirecki began putting them together with acid-free tape. He said the process was similar to putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Once taped, the scraps were put into a dry press and allowed to finish drying into flat sheets that are easy to work with. Mirecki said. If the document was previously undiscovered, such as Mirecki's gospel, the composition of the paper is analyzed and dated. Mirecki said some papyrologists used carbon-14 dating. He said he preferred to use other dating methods because carbon-14 dating required him to destroy part of the document. The document can be dated by the writing materials and writing style used, as well as the style of language used. Writing style changed dramatically throughout time, Mirecki said. "It's like if you have a sound bite of a rap song, you know it's not from the 1950s," he said. Finally, Mirecki translated documents out of their ancient Coptic or Greek language and into English. The lost gospel was written in Coptic, which is an ancient Egyptian language that uses the Greek alphabet instead of hieroglyphics, he said. Mirecki uses his experience studying texts as a tool in his classes — Understanding the Bible, Studies in Coptic Language, Directed Studies in Religion and Jewish History and Literature in the Greek and Roman Periods. Tyler Gillett, Albuquerque, N.M., graduate student, said Mirecki's personal experience investigating ancient documents were vivid examples in the classes he teaches. "He described to us how one restores a text," Gillett said. "He'll bring in personal examples." Gillett said Mirecki's classes had caused him to consider papyrology as a career. "A lot of texts are sitting in boxes and haven't been looked at," he said. "There's a wealth of information out there." The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts Department of Music and Dance SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR STUDENTSIII $12 public, $8 students and senior citizens, VISA and MasterCard are accepted for phone order. 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