Thursday
May 8, 2003
Vol. 113. Issue No. 151
Today's weather
81°
Tonight: 56°
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Tell us your news
Contact Kristi Henderson, Jenna Goepfert or Justin Henning at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
Lawrence residents construct the ultimate hang out spot Jayplay
Jayplay
Hanging
Sorority house rejected
City commission vetoes Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house plans
By Nikki Overfelt
noverfelt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Plans for a new Alpha Gamma Delta house are on hold.
Commissioners rejected the proposal
for the new sorority house at the Lawrence City Commission meeting Tuesday night after a little more than a month of debate.
The new house would be built northwest of the main campus at 1520 Sigma Nu Place.
Residents on nearby Avalon Road don't think the sorority's plans are appropriate for their neighborhood, said Rick Stein, resident of the neighborhood.
"We are concerned that the scale of
what they want to do here is not compatible with our single-family houses," he said.
They are concerned with the traffic and parking issues that would occur with the house, he said.
Decrease in property value of their houses is also of importance, Stein said.
"It's a very direct economic issue," he said.
Commissioner Sue Hack, along with Mayor David Dunfield, were the only two commissioners to vote in favor of
Alpha Gamma Delta's plans.
Commission members Dennis "Boog" Highberger, Mike Rundle and David Schaumer voted against the plans.
The planned house would be in residential and dormitory zoning. Hack said, and no significant traffic problems occurred in traffic studies at the site.
Members of Alpha Gamma Delta declined to comment.
KU Info adds new service, makes move to Anschutz
By Lauren Airey lairey@ku.edu Kansan staff writer
KU Info will make the move to the third floor of Anschutz Library from its home in the Kansas Union at the end of May.
In addition to continuing their phone system, the information center will also set up a walk-in service in the library.
"We are revamping the way we answer questions," said Matt Kirkland, St. Louis senior. "With the move and being part of the library system, we have different responsibilities and different resources."
Although KU Info's question line is usually open while summer classes are in session, the information center will be closed while the staff prepares for its new location. Through May 19, KU Info will operate during the week from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and from noon to 11 p.m. on the weekends.
The information service will reopen Aug. 17 with new hours:
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monday through Thursday,
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
"Our new hours are much less, but the bulk of calls are between 2 and 5 p.m. so we'll bulk up at that time."
"With the move and being part of the library system, we have different responsibilities and different resources."
Matt Kirkland
St. Louis senior
said Susan Elkins, program director. "All our staff is returning so they already know how to run KU Info. It's just a matter of where to look for the information."
"Since both the library and KU Info handle reference type questions, it was a good match," Elkins said. "We were hoping Anschutz would be central enough that people will just drop by."
Because KU Info is moving to a public location, it will have to change the way it stores information. The most commonly used information is posted on the walls of the KU Info office. The staff will use the summer to decide on a new organization process, Elkins said.
Elkins said the University planned to educate incoming freshman about the new walk-up service during summer orientation.
The information service will be a part of the University library system and not part of the new Office for Student Success, Kirkland said. KU Info used to be funded under the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. Elkins said the administrative move was for reasons of both the budget and consolidating services.
SEE KU INFO ON PAGE 9A
Numchucks in nature
Scott Hannah, Liberty, Mo., junior, practices Ryute Karate beneath the shade of the trees outside Allen Fieldhouse. Hannah was practicing yesterday afternoon for an upcoming tournament that features nuncha chucku, a type of numchucks. "I like to practice here because it is quieter, and no one really bothers me," Hannah said about his practice location.
Brandon Baker/Kansan
Alternative online class no longer transferable
By Nathan Stock
editor@kansan.com
special to the Kansan
University of Kansas student Paige Gugat used to walk to all her classes before this semester. Taking classes online, however, has saved the wear and tear on her shoes.
This semester Gugat takes two classes online, Western Civilization I and II, from Barton County Community College in Great Bend.
"I decided to take these classes online because I heard the ones offered at KU are really hard," she said.
Gugat isn't alone. A recent trend is University students taking these classes online. The Barton Online course began to transfer for University Western Civilization classes two years ago.
Last year about 500 University undergraduate students enrolled in the course online, said Wynn Butler, director of Barton Online.
However, the Humanities and Western Civilization program may discontinue the acceptance of these transfers from Barton.
Recent review of the Barton course prompted the University's Humanities and Western Civilization department to declare the Barton courses nontransferable because of significant differences between the Barton courses and the University versions. This rejection won't take effect until after the summer semester is over.
The department gave Barton until the week of May 11 to make changes acceptable to the program. Antha Cotten-Spreckelmeyer, assistant director of the Humanities and Western Civilization program, said if such changes were made, the courses would continue to transfer.
"Unless they change significantly, it will not transfer," Spreckelmeyer said. "It would have to match our course almost entirely."
In 2000, a similar issue came up with Neosho County Community College. Its World Civilization courses transferred to the University, but after review, the program declared the two classes too different to be equivalents.
"It was under consideration they would be dropped," Spreckelmeyer said. "But they made the necessary revisions, and it still continues to transfer."
Neosho's courses are now a virtual match to Western Civilization at the University. Spreckelmeyer said.
Right now, Butler said, the Barton courses transfer to every university in the state except the Universirt of Kansas. He said changing his course entirely just to accommodate the University could lead these other schools to drop their transfer acceptance.
"It's never going to match KU's," he said. "I'd like to see it transfer because if a student here wants to transfer to KU, it should transfer as well."
SEE TRANSFER ON PAGE 8A
Campus tour planned for Stop Day
By Amy Potter
apotter@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
This Stop Day, University of Kansas students and faculty have the opportunity to take a campus tour - only this tour guide won't be walking backward.
Ted Johnson, professor emeritus, is offering a campus tour unlike any other.
Johnson will lead what he calls
Socratic discussions, dialogue meant to pull ideas out of participants, at nine campus locations. The tour starts at the Natural History Museum at 9 a.m. and ends at the Weaver Court adjacent to the Museum of Anthropology at 5 p.m. Lunch will be held at 1 p.m. in the Murphy Hall courtyard. Participants can come and go throughout the day.
"It's a pleasant stroll on campus where you get to see its beauty," Johnson said.
"Many go from classroom to classroom and don't see how the buildings interrelate."
The tour discusses topics such as why Watson Library is built to represent both a church and a manor house and why some buildings have balconies without doors.
"We get people to see that up close. We look at the details people to tend not to notice." Johnson said.
Gabe Krieshok, Lawrence sophomore
went on the tour last year. Whenever he walks past the Chi Omega fountain he remembers the discussions about the mythological engravings from the tour.
"There is a whole bunch of things on campus, like the fountain, that have symbolic meanings that people don't notice," Krieshok said.
SEE TOUR ON PAGE 9A