University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, January 29, 1992
CAMPUS/AREA
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Emergency phones installed
By Michelle Betts Kansan staff writer
Students in need of emergency assistance are only one button away from KU police.
Thirteen highly visible, yellow emergency phones, which were placed in buildings across campus last week, have a button that directly rings the police dispatcher.
Unlike the blue emergency phones on campus streets, the yellow phones are inside buildings and do not have hand-held receivers.
People can push a single button, and the telephone will sound several digital tones, like a touch-tone telephone being dialed. A police dispatcher will answer and cannot be disconnected for three minutes. After that, the telephone will reset if not in use.
Lt. John Mullens, KU police representative, said the feature would be helpful because an attacker could not communication with a dispatcher.
Wescoe, Fraser, Strong, Learned, Haworth and Malott halls, and the Kansas Union have the new emergency phones. Mullens said police chose the locations because students might study or work late in the buildings and not have access to telephones for emergencies.
"Someone can hang up a blue phone,but this will be live for three minutes," Mullens said.
Calls to 911 are free on public pay telephones, but students with classes on the third or fourth floors of campus buildings may not be able to reach quickly a telephone on a lower floor.
ine telephone speakers emit loud tones when activated with the button, and the noise might discourage pranksters, he said.
The KU budget allocated $20,000 for the telephones three years ago, and extra money will remain, Mullens said. More telephones could be installed if enough money remains.
Bob Porter, associate director of facilities operations, said wedge-shaped signs that could be seen from three directions would mark the telephones. The signs have not been installed.
He said the telephones were handicapped-accessible and would be equipped with operating instructions in Braille.
Jeff Meesey, Daily Kansan
Golf course plans on hold
Oxbow Bronze Art Casting Drought owner Mike Elwell and employee Keith Hansen create pieces of a bronze bust of former President Dwight Eisenhower. The bust is for the Statehouse in Topeka.
By Andy Taylor
Kansan staff writer
City commissioner Bob Schumm said that Jeff Gazaway, president of Twin Oaks Golf Complex, Inc., should give the commission more substantial facts about his proposal to build an 18-hole golf course before the city proceeded to build its own public golf course.
The development of a public golf course east of Lawrence fell into the rough at the Lawrence City Commission meeting last night.
Gazaway's Twin Oaks Golf Complex is located three miles east of Lawrence on Kansas Highway 10.
Molten bronze
"We had a substantial amount of interest raised by a number of citizens that wanted us to look at it," he said. "They are interested in a course of affordable play with a moderate amount of challenge."
Schumm said a feasibility study conducted four years ago had shown a huge demand for a city-owned golf course.
"The position is that only a municipal golf course will offer those because when developing a golf course, the city uses their tools at its disposal," he said.
Schumm also said a local group, the Lawrence Municipal Golf Commission, had been a strong advocate of the city's plan.
The city has planned for more than four years to build a municipal golf course south of the Clinton Lake dam. The city's plan was put on hold in October after a vote by the public a private businessperson should build a public golf course instead of the city.
But all commissioners are not convinced that Gazaway's proposal is the right one.
"I haven't seen enough to date that makes me believe that his is a viable project," Schumm said. "And until I see the information requested, then I'm not a believer in his project."
Schumm said Gazaway should show land use permits, a certified letter from an investor, contracts from building firms and a timetable of construction dates at the commission's
meeting June 9.
Gazaway updates the commission every three to four months on the status of Twin Oaks and says he is prepared to start work on the course.
"I could probably go out and build the course tomorrow," Gaway said. "I just need to get a land use permit, my investors and I can start building."
He said he questioned Schumm's requests.
"A letter from an investor is unfair"
"Giving advice." "My word should be
good enough
Gazaway, who said he and a private engineering firm in Kansas City, Kan., had conducted extensive research for the Twin Oaks development, showed the commission a survey map of Twin Oaks that included a drive ring that is already operating and a miniature golf course.
One member of the golf commission, David Berkowitz, said after the meeting the commission needed to make a firm decision.
Regents and legislators argue about qualified admissions
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — What began as an informative meeting turned into a debate on qualified admissions yesterday at the Statehouse.
Jack Sampson, who heads the Board of Regents, presented an overview of the Regents mission statement to the House Appropriations Committee.
But questions and comments centered on qualified admissions for about 30 minutes of
the two-hour meeting. Qualified admissions are mentioned once in the the mission statement.
While telling legislators about the Regents goal of increased retention, Sampson said the state's open admissions policy made it difficult to keep students in school.
Debate erupted.
Regent Rick Harman said qualified admissions would pressure elementary and secondary school educators to prepare students for college.
"Too many students go to universities and are not ready to be there," Harman said. "Qualified admissions would serve as a wake-up call to people from pre-school to high school. The goal is to make sure students are prepared."
He said students and the state wasted money by trying to educate students who were not well-educated.
{"text": "“Twenty-six percent of university students in Kansas drop out of school after their freshman year,” Harman said. “That accounts for $304,000失去. The schools could have spent"}
those funds to improve programs."
If students entered universities better prepared, the number of remedial classes could be decreased, he said.
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said remedial courses accounted for about $500,000 of the Regents $1-billion budget.
"That money represents a very small amount of the Regents overall budget," Solbach said. "I think it is money well spent, because college graduates don't end up on welfare or in prison. We can spend that money
now, or we may have to pay it later."
Solbach said that many legislators thought qualified admissions was an effort to close doors.
"fleet that by continually pressing the Legislature for qualified admissions, you may alienate a critical base of support for higher education financing," he said. "Many people in this Legislature intellectually understand your argument. But many see it as restricting access."