Friday, January 10, 1969
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
13
Students to work with urban projects
By FRED PARRIS Kansan Staff Writer
Beginning this spring semester, KU students interested in problems of urban development will have the opportunity to work in actual neighborhood planning projects.
A new course, sponsored by the department of architecture and urban design, will allow participants to plan urban renovation projects for low income residential districts. Neighborhoods in Topeka, Lawrence and Kansas City will be involved.
Any student who obtains the approval of his dean and of the dean of Architecture is eligible. The number of credit points given will depend on the time committed by each student.
The new course, says Charles H. Kahn, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Design, is part of the University Council for Urban Action program. The Council consists of students and faculty in various academic disciplines who plan and do urban-improvement field work.
"While it is difficult to say now what specific activities will be undertaken, the 'paint-up, patch-up, clean-up' campaign of East Lawrence is one prototype program," said Kahn.
This project is part of a
long-range co-ordinated housing program for Lawrence in which the Urban Council is co-operating with civic and religious groups.
The initial "paint-up" drive will be followed by a housing rehabilitation program. The final phase will be a housing construction project funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Each KU school and department participating in the Urban Action Council will handle those problems relating to its own area of experience, Kahn said. Business School personnel will help with financial problems, the School of Law with legal details, the sociology and psychology departments with human behavioral problems and so forth.
Another project in which students will work is the planning and interior renovation of the East Lawrence Community Center. Architectural designs are now being drawn and the actual work will begin in about a month.
Although the Center's plans are being drawn by the School of Architecture, funding for the construction work will come from private groups and individuals in the community.
While the KU Urban Action Council is presently doing much
of its work in Lawrence, it is also involved in urban action efforts in Kansas City and Topeka.
"We are presently operating a Community Consultation Center in Kansas City which will offer to inner city residents consultation abilities of the various disciplines on the campus." Kahn said.
All of the urban-renovation projects in which the Urban Action Council participates follow a set pattern. The Council donates the professional skills
needed while the people of the community, assisted by student and faculty volunteers, provide the time, direction and work.
Funding comes from various sources, including local contributions and federal grants.
Other projects envisioned for the Kansas City area include a housing program, extension courses for small contractor in estimating, bookkeeping, etc., and an urban college scholarship program for disadvantaged youth.
"Our intention is to bring into the educational and financial mainstream of society those groups in the population which have traditionally been excluded," Kahn said.
Recently, the Architectural School, in conjunction with the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the City of Kansas City received a two-year grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant is only one of six HUD gave this year for the city/university co-operative effort.
New race relations courses to be offered
Several new courses dealing with Black-White relations will be offered at KU this spring semester, announced William M. Balfour, dean of student affairs.
Courses offered this spring are: American Studies 10, Issues in American Culture dealing with the American Negro and Indian; American Studies 165, Minority Groups and Race Relations, and Anthropology 292, Seminar in Cultural Anthropology: Negro Personality.
History 80, American Negro History; History 296, Problems of American Negro, Junior-Senior research seminar in race relations in different
Kansas communities; Political Science 98, Senior seminar in the Negro in American Politics, and Political Science 154, Comparative Politics: Contemporary Political Issues, a seminar on racial decision-making in the United States, Great Britain and the West Indies, are also included.
The College 48, Topics and Problems on Black Consciousness, open only to Oliver and Centennial College students, Religion 71, Christian Ethics in Contemporary Society, a study of the contemporary "Black Revolution."
Religion 272, Seminar in Social Ethics, Sociology 165.
mimony Groups and Race Relations, and Speech and Drama 141, Human Relations in Group Interaction I.
Compensation
MANILA (UPI)—The Philippine Supreme Court has doubled to 12,000 pesos ($3,000) the award of compensatory damages for death caused by crime.
The court said in a ruling the raise was necessary because of the lower purchasing power of the Philippine peso after World War II.