MONDAY, JANUARY 27. 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Museum celebrates 25th anniversary
Scott Reynolds/Kansan
Fritz Esperance and Kate Edmiston of KU Catering prepare to serve cake at the Spencer Museum of Art for its 25th anniversary party Saturday.
Spencer Art Museum hosts reception to celebrate past
By Lauren Bristow
Ibristow@kansan.com
Kansan Staff writer
About 100 people filled the 11 galleries at the Spencer Museum of Art on Saturday and sang "Happy Birthday" to celebrate its 25 years at the University of Kansas.
During a public reception, museum members, staff, KU students and other visitors recalled the museum's past.
Built in 1977 with a $4.6 million grant from Helen Foresman Spencer, the museum opened Jan. 17, 1978. Its collection
included more than 7,000 works of art that were donated in 1917.
"They say on opening day that Mrs. Spencer greeted guests saying, 'Welcome to the Spencer Museum of Art. Everything you like is my doing. Everything you don't like is the staff,'" said Andrea Norris, museum director.
After remembering the past, Norris, who has been the director since 1988, turned to the future.
"I've been asked what we hope for in the next 25 years," Norris said. "We'd like to expand the building. There is an enormous deficiency in the amount of display space."
KU First is raising funds to double the museum's capacity. The museum collection now
includes nearly 22,000 pieces. Because of space, about 17,000 works are on display in its seven permanent galleries.
"It was interesting to hear that the Spencer is one of the most elaborate university art museums throughout the country," said Jill Tichenor, Lawrence senior.
The reception featured music from The CottonWood Winds, who played at the museum's opening, and Lash Canino, a Lawrence band.
Special guests included the consul general and senior consul of Japan.
The Japanese Consul sponsored the exhibition, Hidden Japan, at the museum.
—Edited by Anne Mantey
Barrier to quiet GSP air conditioner
By Erin Ohm
eohm@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Residents of Oread neighborhood can enjoy the outdoors this summer without the disturbance caused by the air conditioner at GSP Hall.
After about a two-year wait, University of Kansas officials will install a noise barrier to block the high-pitched whine of the "chiller" that cools the residence hall. The noise barrier will cost about $40,000 and will be paid for by the Department of Student Housing. Construction should begin in mid-February or early March, said Jim Modig, director of Design and Construction Management.
"The neighborhood was very patient as we moved through this process, and that's one thing that
is appreciated from our side," Modig said. "We all wished it would have happened a little quicker, but I think we're headed toward an end result everyone can be happy with."
The air conditioner was a new model installed two years ago for its efficiency, environmental friendliness and low maintenance.
Neighbors discovered that, for all its enhanced performance, the new unit was not perfect. Oread Neighborhood Association President Candie Davis, whose house is directly across the street from the unit at 10th and Louisiana streets, said she remembered the first day the air conditioner was turned on. Davis said she thought the sound was the early storm warning system that sounds on Mondays at noon during the spring.
Davis said she started making calls a couple weeks after the unit was first turned on. She said she could hear the noise from her bedroom, and it prevented her from entertaining outdoors.
"I thought, 'When is it going to go off?'" Davis said. "But it never did."
"I really hope KU is making an effort to be a better neighbor with the surrounding neighborhoods and is willing to be more sensitive to the needs of neighbors, because we really need to have a good working relationship," Davis said.
Design and Construction Management was responsible for finding a solution to the problem.
Modig said he contacted the department of architectural engineering at the University because no one in his office specialized in this area. The problem became a
project for two architectural engineering classes.
The students took sound readings for loudness and pitch and found the pitch was as much a problem as the noise level.
"It's a sound no one really likes, whether it's soft or loud," he said.
Modig compared the pitch problem to the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
The noise barrier will be a three-sided concrete wall with a perforated metal panel on the inside to allow for reduction in both pitch and loudness.
Students simulated the effects of the noise barrier and found that this construction would reduce the noise to be similar to normal, everyday sounds of a city.
—Edited by Anne Mantey
Local humanist group meets national leader
By Cal Creek
ccreek@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Saturday afternoon, eight atheist students met at Free State Brewery, 636 Massachusetts St., to have lunch with a predominant speaker in the humanist movement, which questions the existence of God.
Students from the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics and Jo Ann Mooney, president of Heartland Humanists, an adult group from Kansas City, Mo., had lunch with Ed Buckner, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism. Buckner's group is based in Amherst, N.Y.
Stephanie Kirmer, Topeka freshman and Soma president, organized the lunch with Buckner. She said she thought it was important for local free-thought organizations to realize that there was a national free-thought movement.
"This lunch is an opportunity for a more informal dialogue between him and the atheist and agnostic students here at KU," Kirmer said.
Buckner was in the area to speak at Kansas State University on Friday night and at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Kansas City, Mo. He gave a public address Saturday and spoke to the Heartland Humanists last night.
A former professor of educational research and statistics. Buckner travels the country speaking on topics like "This is a Free Country, Not a Christian Nation," "The Rights and Reputations of Nonathists" and "What Do Secular Humanists Believe?"
Raised as a Catholic, Kirmer converted to atheism four years ago. Atheism, a division of humanism, denies the existence of God.
She said humanists were not dedicated to serving a higher being; they focused on humans.
"A person does not believe in a supernatural explanation of the earth, but they still have a moral obligation to other human beings," Kirmer said.
At the lunch, students discussed several topics with Buckner such as local freethought groups increasing activity in the community, current events and the humanist movement as a whole. Buckner emphasized the importance of raising awareness about atheism.
The students appreciated the support that experts provided, said Alana McAllister, Soma member and Andover senior.
"They're better at explaining the tenets of what we think and why we think it than a student," she said.
McAllister said atheism carried a stigma that wasn't true.
"A lot of times people think atheism equates with Satanism," McAllister said. "They think because you don't have religion, you don't have morals."
- Edited by Lindsay Hanson
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