TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 3A
Kevin Liu, travel adviser at STA, a travel agency on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union, outlines a spring break trip itinerary for Kelly Mipanyarack, Kansas City, Kan., senior. Liu said packages for spring break were still available.
Travel options available
By Nicole Roché
nroche@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Last-minute travel options are still available for those with dreams of sun-streaked beaches.
Kevin Liu, travel adviser for STA Travel in the Kansas Union, said packages were still available for students with bags packed and nowhere to go.
Liu said students wanting last-minute packages should expect to pay at least $70 more than they would have in November. The extra cost was usually due to late fees, processing charges and overnight delivery for tickets, Liu said.
Destinations that are still available include Las Vegas, Orlando and Miami. A Monday through Thursday package for a Miami trip purchased this week would cost $800 or more for airfare and three nights' accommodation, Liu said.
Ginger Boring, travel consultant for Adventure Travel, 544 Columbia Drive, said students could still purchase a Jamaica package. She said Student Travel Services, the company she books trips with, wasn't charging extra for the last-minute purchase.
People can make reservations until Saturday, which is the day before the Jamaica flight leaves. Boring said. Two-person packages are available from $804 for hotel and air to $1,384 for the all-inclusive package, which also provides meals and drinks.
Kyle De Haven, St. Louis senior, thought he had his spring break travel plans in order. De Haven and eight of his friends decided six months ago to go skiing in Vancouver.
The group had everything ready, including hotel reservations, but they put off one enu
cial detail — how they were going to get there.
"We're under 25, so only one place would let us rent a van," De Haven said.
By the time De Haven and his friends contacted the rental company two weeks ago, all the vans were already reserved.
Nicole Dreesen, branch manager at STA, said the best advice she could give students was to book by late fall or people end up with fewer options.
De Haven said he and three of his friends have settled on a road trip to Chicago instead. They have a parent's mini van and a friend's apartment to stay in.
"It won't be as fun as hanging out in Vancouver," De Haven said. "But we have a free place to stay and it's not Lawrence."
— Edited by Erin Chapman
Author discusses famed works of distant relative Jane Austen
By Eddie Yang
eyang@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
His book may have been dull, but that was fine with him, said Richard Jenkyns.
"Dullness is the essence of the book. The book is full of dull," said Jenkyns, the great-great-great great nephew of 19th century author Jane Austen.
Jenkyns spoke yesterday in the Kansas Union, giving a sneak preview of his new book, A Park with a View; Jane Austen's Mansfield. Approximately 110 people were on hand to hear Jenkyns talk at 4 p.m.yesterday at the Centennial Room of the Kansas Union.
Jenkyns said he wrote the book because he found himself disagreeing with works written about Austen.
"I wanted to get something off my chest," he said.
Jenkyns said the recent adaptations of Austen's novels into movies also factored in writing the book.
"I think the movie Clueless; although it was a modern story, captured the true spirit of Jane Austen, than any other adaptation that has all the costumes," he said.
After the lecture, Jenkyns talked with the audience over punch and chocolate cake.
Jenkyns recited passages from Mansfield Park and offered interpretations of characters, plot developments and style.
"Mansfield Park included the only person in six novels that had a psychological disturbed character," Jenkyns said. "It is Austen's problem novel."
Jenkyns is a visiting professor at Boston University this year. He has written The Victorians and Ancient Greece, Three Classical Poets: Sappho, Catullus and
"I think the movie 'Clueless,' although it was a modern story, captured the true spirit of Jane Austen, more than any other adaptation that has all the costumes."
Richard Jenkyns Author and great-great-great-great nephew of Jane Austen
Juvenal and Classical Epic: Homer and Virgil.
Marjorie Swann, associate professor of English, said they were fortunate to have Jenkyns come speak.
"He is very knowledgeable about classical literature and how English literature responds to the classics," Swann said.
Stolen motors hinder crew teams
Edited by Jason Elliott
By Erin Ohm
The Kansas rowing team and KU crew club may have a harder time practicing because of missing horsepower.
Five outboard motors, which were valued at $9,940 and were taken from the teams' coaching boats, were stolen sometime between Feb. 3 and Thursday from an area in Burcham Park, 200 Indiana St.
Two of the motors that were stolen belonged to the University of Kansas Athletics Corporation, and three more were owned by KU crew.
Lawrence police Sgt. Mike Pattrick said someone forced entry
into the area in Burcham Park, which was surrounded by a locked chain-link fence. Patrick said police had no suspects at this time.
The KU crew club is a sports club organized by KU Recreation Services, and the Kansas rowing team is under the direction of KUAC.
Jeremy Struemph, president of KU crew and St. Mary's senior, said the club crew team did not have any extra equipment it could use for the coaching boats. Struemph said he planned to order new motors today and the team should have replacements after spring break.
"We'll get back on the water just a couple days late," he said.
Rob Catloth, Kansas rowing
coach, said the theft would not affect practice for the rowing teams because he had spare motors he could use until the others were replaced. Catloth said coaches used the boats to be on the water with team members for instruction and safety.
Catloth said the theft seemed to be fairly professional because the motors were cut directly from the boats.
"They had to work for a couple hours to get them off, I would guess," he said.
Catloth said he wouldn't be able to do much else to protect equipment from theft in the future.
"Locks keep the honest people out," he said.
Edited by Jason Elliott