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Volume 126 Issue 106
Monday, April 14, 2014
kansan.com
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Ellen Bertels, a University student from Overland Park, sweeps a Lawrence community member's yard on Saturday during the Big Event.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
ART
Naismith sculpture finds new home on campus
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Photo of Naismith without its bench-like granite base.
ASHLEY BOOKER
news@kansan.com
When Elden Tefft created his bronze sculpture of James Naismith five years ago, he thought the most natural place for it would be the University of Kansas. Now, after completing and placing two other versions — one in Canada and one in Massachusetts — his third replica of basketball's inventor will finally make it to campus.
"I've been waiting ever since the beginning," said Tefft, the 94-year-old sculptor. "This is where I thought it would land first. Finally, after all of these years I'm going to finish it."
The new sculpture will depict Naismith sitting down on a bench-like granite base with two peach baskets between his legs and on his right knee and a soccer ball, which he used in inventing the game. Tefft's idea was to provide room next to Naismith for people to sit next to him.
purchased for the University for $4.3 million by alumni David Booth in 2010.
Plans for the DeBruce Center are still in their final stages of approval. Construction is expected to begin after com-
The sculpture was purchased
"It seems like KU is a cradle to basketball for the United States, and with Booth buying the rules, we needed a place for it to be housed."
PAUL DEBRUCE KU Endowment donor
for $100,000 by KU Endowment for placement outside the soon-to-be built DeBruce Center, the building that will house and exhibit Naismith's original rules of basketball. The rules — a 13-item prescription on two pages — were
mencement, said Dale Seuferling, director of KU Endowment. Construction was initially expected to begin in late 2013, but was delayed because of design challenges in attaching the facility to Allen Fieldhouse, which was impossible during the basketball season. Seuferling said.
The $18 million Center, which will include a restaurant, will be located at the northeast corner of Allen Fieldhouse, on the east side of the parking garage. The 36,000 square foot center, and the statue are being funded by donors to KU Endowment. Paul and Katherine DeBruce made the lead gift for the new building. Paul DeBruce is a graduate of the University, and today is CEO and founder of DeBruce Grain, Inc.
"It itens like KU is a cradle to basketball for the United States," Paul DeBruce said. "And with Booth buying the rules, we needed a place for it to be housed."
The Naismith sculpture will be Tefft's third sculpture at the
University. The two others are the bronze Jayhawk in front of Strong Hall and Moses in front of Smith Hall.
Tefft says the Naismith sculpture for the University is part of what he calls an "international trimemorial." The other two have been placed in Almonte, Canada, Naismith's birthplace, and in Springfield, Mass., where he first invented basketball.
"The sculpture of James Naismith outside of the DeBruce Center will be a fitting landmark for the entrance to the building containing exhibits on the history of the game of basketball and the inventor of the game, Mr. Naismith," Seuferling said.
Edited by Chelsea Mies
CAMPUS
University launches new site to aid students with disabilities
news@kansan.com
MADDY MIKINSKI
Last week, the University launched a new website to aid students and faculty members in creating accessible content for students with disabilities. The website, content.accessibilityku.edu, is geared toward adapting multimedia content in different ways to help that content reach a variety of audiences.
"It started with a meeting with the people in the AAAC office expressing concern about the growing number of courses that are either online or partially online." Kit Cole, the project's coordinator, said. "We decided at that point that it would be a good idea to make a website as a resource."
Students with disabilities, for example those with difficulty hearing or seeing, may struggle to understand online and multimedia communication.
The website gives users step-by-step guides to create multimedia that is more easily accessible by students with disabilities. Processes for captioning YouTube videos, creating transcripts for audio, designing web pages and working with word documents are available.
Director of IT External Affairs Daniel Day believes this website will change the way students and faculty create content.
"It's much easier to start with accessibility in mind than try and add accessibility later;" he said.
The idea is that content creators will consult the website during the entire creation process.
"This website can, and should, be used by anyone in the University who creates content," Day said.
The website aims to benefit all students, not just those with disabilities.
"Research indicates that we can reduce barriers to learning for everyone by providing the same information through different modalities (for example, vision and hearing)," Jamie Simpson, director of Accessibility and ADA Education, said in an email. "Captions on a video add another layer of providing the same information through different learning modalities."
Accompanying a video with a transcript would help add greater clarity to the subject matter. The website's creators also hope that students can use the website after they leave the University.
"It would be great if students got on the site and learned as much as they could, because students eventually are going to leave and get a job somewhere where they're going to have to create content that's used by people with disabilities," Cole said. "The more you know, the better."
Day hopes that the School of Education students who aim to teach K-12 will benefit from the site.
"The more they know about accessibility and how to make content accessible and the
more they're familiar with what we have on the website, the easier it's going to be when they transfer to jobs in K-12," Day said.
KU IT isn't the only organization on campus that supports increased accessibility education. Other entities such as the Academic Achievement and Access Center, the Center for Online and Distance Learning, the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access and the Center for Teaching Excellence contributed to the formation of the website.
Edited by Krista Montgomery
Quick Hits
The new website aids in the creation of videos as well as PowerPoints and Word documents.
KU IT has been working on this project for more than nine months.
More than five campus organizations have collaborated on the website.
Kit Cole, the project's manager, can be reached for queries at kitole@ku.edu.
LOCAL
Replant Mt. Oread gains traction, support on campus
TOM DEHART news@kansan.com
University students and a faculty gathered on the lawns in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall and Watson Library at 11 a.m. Friday to participate in the planting of new trees as part of the Replant Mount Oread event.
Promoting sustainability can come in the simplest of forms. Sometimes a step toward a sustainable campus comes in the form of a tree — or nine of them.
"We were excited about the
turnout, not only with volunteers helping with the project, but with donors who are really funding all of this," said Jeff Severin, the director of the Center for Sustainability. "We set a goal of $5,000 for this particular project, and we've gone over that goal at this point."
The event was funded by a campaign with a fundraising goal of $5,000, but raised more than twice the amount of money at over $11,000. The extra funds obtained will most likely lead to more planting and sustainability initiatives, which, according to Severin,
will most likely take place in the Fall 2014 semester. Replant Mount Oread also functions as a supplement to the University's Master Plan to recreate a natural canopy created by trees along Jayhawk Boulevard, by planting in other areas on campus that are not near the road.
"It's an important element of that in enhancing our campus landscape," Severin said. "Kind of adding to [it] as we go along because a lot of the trees that have been here for a long time
SEE PLANT PAGE 2
Drew Carlberg, Mason Keller, Danny Dowling, and Colin Belmont finish up planting a tree Friday for Replant Mount Oread. The tree was one of nine Replant Mount Oread trees planted Friday, bringing the initiative's total number of trees planted over the past three years to 25.
TOM DEHART/KANSAI
CLASSIFIEDS 13
CROSSWORD 5
CRYPTOQUIPS 5
OPINION 4
SPORTS 14
-SUDOKU 5
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2014 The University Daily Kansan
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