26
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2009
LAWRENCE
Chase for cable customers speeding up in Lawrence
BY KRISTEN LISZEWSKI
kliszewski@kansan.com
Students will soon have another option for digital cable service besides Sunflower Broadband.
AT&T U-Verse television service is becoming more widely available for Lawrence residents. The U-Verse bundle is a service that combines high-speed Internet, wireless networking, TV packages from more than 300 channels, DVR and high definition TV.
Marisa Giller of AT&T corporate communications said that the company's installation rates varied week to week based on customer demand, complexity of the installation, number of TVs on each install and whether the individual is an existing or new customer.
She said they did not announce future AT&T U-Verse plans until available to a new area, but were continuously evaluating the community needs and were committed to investing in Lawrence and the
state as a whole.
Rod Kutemeier, general manager of Sunflower Broadband said he did not know why AT&T waited so long to deploy U-Verse service in Lawrence, but said it could be because Sunflower customers were happy with their cable and Internet service as it was now.
"Our low pricing and good service has always been why people choose us over the competition" Kutemeier said. "We don't do contracts so you're not locked into anything, unlike other services.
He said Sunflower was welcoming the new competition.
"We're a local company that has the same channels AT&T offers," Kutmeier said. "We dropped our rates and are more affordable, so now AT&T is responding by launching another TV service in our area."
Sunflower is preparing to launch a new Internet product that will be available only to students for the month of August and then available to the general public in September.
The new product is called Palladium and is designed for the optimization of video downloads from Web sites such as Hulu, Netflix and other video streaming sites.
Kutemeier said Palladium was created because of customer concerns about bandwith overage charges.
AT&T U-Verse allows customers to build their own bundle, meaning for $49 per month they can upgrade their home phone plan with high-speed Internet, wireless and DirectTV.
He said it would not have overage fees and would cost $49.95 per month.
To learn more about the AT&T U-Verse package visit www.att.com. For more information about Sunflower's new Palladium service visit Sunflowerbroadband.com.
— Edited by Justin Hilley
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CAMPUS
Students play DDR volleyball for credit in unusual courses
BY KRISTEN LISZEWSKI kliszewski@kansan.com
It's a tall order to expect students to read the entire 416-page undergraduate catalog, but students can find some unique classes the University offers.
Take, for example, the astronomy course "The Quest for Extraterrestrial Life" and the activities course, Dance, Dance, Revolution."
The University offers a broad spectrum of specialized courses that can fulfill humanities, science, even foreign language requirements for graduation.
Heidi Hartle, Overland Park senior, said she found a class called "Unveiling the Veil" through one of her African-American studies courses. The class is solely dedicated to the meaning of the veil in society. In the course description, it is described as a class that examines "the ways in which the veil has become a symbol of privacy, cultural identity, religious assertion, resistance and liberation, besides being a symbol of constraint, oppression, backwardness, and sexual mystery."
"It sounds like a really interesting concept to understand the different veils in different cultures, behind it and above it," Hartle said.
Hartle said she enrolled in the class not only because it was unique, but because it fulfilled one of the class requirements for her African-American Studies minor.
Although some specialized courses require prerequisites, they are typically common prerequisites that most students must attain their freshman and sophomore years. To enroll in "Legend and Fantasy," a 300-level English course, the only prerequisite is an introductory English class. This class is might be for students interested in medieval Europe, as it examines the Arthurian legends and folklore and how they have been reinterpreted in today's society.
Another class that fulfills a humanities credit and has no prerequisite requirements is the history class "Conspiracies and Paranoia in American History." If a student needs a humanities credit, then this 300-level course covers everything from the Salem witch trials to UFOs.
to Kennedy's assassination.
Roberta Freund-Schwartz, associate professor of historical musicology, teaches "The History of Rock and Roll." She said that although the class was a music course, she almost never saw music majors enroll it, but rather a variety of majors and randomly enough, a large group of graduate architecture students.
"It's a really fun class to teach," Freund-Schwartz said. "It's taking the same concept of listening to your classical masterworks pieces, but just using a different repertoire."
Freund-Schwartz said the class went through a quick survey of the earliest music that came into the U.S. such as African-American and classical music, and how these genres impacted American popular music. The course tracks ragtime blues and jazz through the 1950s to where they combined into rock and roll.
The University offers classes far different from music history, too. "Sand Volleyball," typically offered for only half a semester when the weather is nice outside, not only allows time for exercise, but fulfills a credit at the same time.
Blaine Gambrel, 2009 graduate, said he took Sand Volleyball in the Spring because he needed one credit to graduate and wanted it to be something fun and different.
Another not-so-average class offered this semester is "History of the Samurai." This class covers the history of the samurai and their dominance in Japanese society for almost half of Japan's recorded history.
"I never played volleyball before and this class not only made me better at it, but it was nice knowing I was getting credit for something so fun," Gambrel said.
Jon Thomas, Plainfield, Ill., senior,
said he heard about the class from a
friend.
"My friend told me it was the most interesting class he's taken at KU so far," Thomas said. "So I thought 'Why not?' It sounds cool and fulfills a credit I need."
As many students have found, sometimes it pays off to skim through the undergraduate catalog.
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Edited by Adam Schoof