Friday
February 21, 2003
Vol. 113. Issue No. 102
Today's weather
59°
Tonight: 30°
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN No. 6 Jayhawks travel to Oklahoma for showdown with No. 5 Sooners p. 1B
Tell us your news
Contact Kristi Henderson, Jenna goepfert or Justin Henning at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
Services to honor developer, KU alumnus
By Megan Hickerson
hmckerson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Lawrence community will remember Robert "Bob" Billings for playing alongside Wilt Chamberlain on the University of Kansas basketball team and for his efforts to develop West Lawrence.
Billings, 65, died in his home on Feb. 13. Memorial services for Billings will be at 4 p.m. today at the Lied Center.
Billings
Billings, a 1959 graduate of the University, was elected student body president in 1958. He was a guard on the KU basketball team and played on the 1957 team that was the runner up in the NCAA tournament
Billings was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society and was president of Alba Tau Omega fraternity.
In 1959, he received the Forrest C. Allen award, given to the KU senior athlete with the highest academic standing. Mark Allen of Mission Hills, Kan., grandson of Phog Allen and friend of Billings, said nobody had ever loved the University as much as Billings did.
Allen said although his grandfather never coached Billings, he always spoke fondly of him.
Richard Billings, Robert's brother, remembers that final game at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Mo. Kansas lost to North Carolina 53-54.
"I remember the enthusiasm he had as
SEE BILLINGS ON PAGE 8A
Students to enroll online
Technology finally ready for campus-wide use
By Jessica Hood
jhood@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Enrollment at the University of Kansas has finally reached the 21st century. It's now online.
Students will receive the first of several e-mails today from the Office of the University Registrar about online enrollment. The e-mail will provide students with a timeline for online enrollment for the Fall 2003 semester. Students will be able to enroll online at the Lawrence, Edwards, University of Kansas Medical Center and University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita campuses
"Students at all four campus will use
the same system to enroll," said Allison Lopez, assistant to the vice provost for information services.
Lopez said in the past, students who took classes at both the Lawrence and Edwards campuses had to enroll in person at both locations. Online enrollment eliminates that need.
The online enrollment system has been a work in progress, said Lopez. The University purchased the PeopleSoft software
in 1997, which included the online enrollment software. The online timetable for Fall 2003 will be available March 10.
Students will also get the new version of the enrollment appointment, Lopez said. Now students will receive a time for them to login and enroll instead of an appointment to enroll in Strong Hall.
Students will then use the Kyou stu
Class alfresco
ENROLLMENT ON PAGE 8A
David Lara, French and Italian lecturer, leads students in his Elementary Italian II class in an exercise to practice their vocabulary. Many professors opted to conduct their classes outside yesterday because the temperature reached the upper 50s, making it a pleasant day to be outside.
Jegen McDermott/Kansan
Credit options Students opt to take classes elsewhere
By Kevin Wiggs
kwiggs@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
University of Kansas students may fear taking one class or another at some point in their college career. Some struggle through the class, some find a way around taking it, but others prefer to avoid the class at the University of Kansas and take an equivalent class at a nearby community college.
Local junior colleges are filled with KU students getting the same credit at a smaller college. One out of every 10 students at Johnson County Community College is a KU student, said Dennis Day, dean of student services at Johnson County, Barton County Community College sent 215 transcripts to various departments at the University from July 2001 to June 2002, said Dick Wade, dean of enrollment management at Barton County.
Megan Hill, interim director of transfer student recruitment, said it was important for students to first confirm that the credits would transfer before they took the class.
"Most students don't do research," she said. "They just take chances and just sign up without being sure."
Amber Kuhnert, Bendena senior, took her third and fourth Spanish classes at JCCC. She said she liked the summer class she took there so much she decided to finish her Spanish requirements there.
"It was easier because they explained it differently than KU does," she said. "The teachers were more personal and paid more attention to detail. They took time to teach to everybody."
"Having more involvement creates a fluid conversational environment," she said. "But KU can be very demanding. Being so large, I think they are looking more for statistical results than giving the best educational experience."
Katie Ellena, Lawrence senior, is enrolled in her second semester of Western Civilization at Barton County Community College. She decided to take the online course after hearing it had less reading assignments than the course offered at the University.
Kuhnert said the University's large size made it difficult for professors to give personal attention to every student.
"I'm not big on reading a lot," she
SEE CREDIT ON PAGE 8A
Courtnev Kuhlen/Kansan
Groups choose hall design
By JJ Hensley
jhensley@kansan.com
kansan staff writer
A coalition of neighborhood and University of Kansas representatives decided Wednesday afternoon on a design for a new scholarship hall.
The campus building committee and the community advisory board chose the twin, three-story design of the hall instead of a two-story, three-building setup that was more spread out.
The principal design firm, Treanor Architects, presented the two designs which were among the original six designs.
Maggie Hansen, Sand Springs, Okla., senior, said the groups made suggestions to the original designs and the firm combined the points the groups liked and disliked.
"We chose the design we did because we felt it would be a smaller footprint on the neighborhood, and it would be less visible from the street," she said.
Both groups—the campus advisory committee made up of students, faculty and staff, and the community advisory board made up of Lawrence residents had significant input on the hall's design said Jeff Weinberg, assistant to the chancellor.
Although the chosen design might have seemed like a better fit from the outside, it was the interior of the hall that won the most points with students on the committee.
Jason Holborow, Chesterfield, Mo., sophomore, said he liked the variety of the room setup. "The laundry room and living room were on the first floor in
Joe Stramberg, of Traenor Architects, gestures to some modifications of one of the proposed models for the new scholarship hall in the 1300 block of Ohio Street. A committee picked its favorite of two plans, which had been narrowed from six proposals, in a meeting on Wednesday.
this plan, so it gave it more of the feeling of a house, which goes along with fitting it in with the neighborhood," he said.
The Oread Neighborhood Association was concerned about how the scholarship hall would fit in with its surroundings.
The group vehemently opposed the University's purchasing and tearing down of three houses in the 1300 block of Ohio Street to create space for the hall.
SCHOLARSHIP HALL
CONSTRUCTION
What happened: The campus building committee and the community advisory board chose a design for the women's scholarship hall that will open in Fall 2005.
What's next: The design was sent back to the architects who will provide more detailed plans at the next meeting in May.
The association claimed that the University was crossing an "implied boundary" that runs through the alley between Ohio and Louisiana streets.
By Wednesday afternoon, much of that opposition had turned into cooperation with the University, a step almost unheard of in the past, said Weinberg, who serves as the chancellor's liaison on both committees.
"There is a new relationship now and this is a new era in terms of interaction between the University and the neighborhoods," Weinberg said. "The priority was to see a design that fit and was compatible with the neighborhood. That was the desire of the University and the community representatives, and it was an imperative set forth by the scholarship hall donors."
The approved design now goes back to Treanor Architects, who should have a more definitive set of plans for the advisory committee to review in early May. Weinberg said the name of the scholarship hall's donor would be announced at that time.
Edited by Christy Dendurent