Thursday, November 30, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
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Section A · Page 3
Revival of Burge goal for director
By Cássio Furtado
Special to the Kansar
When the University of Kansas built the Burge Union in 1979, it didn't expect that 21 years later, it would be practically empty.
David Mucci, director of the Kansas and Burge unions, wants to revive the Burge, making it a more attractive destination for students.
The first step, he said, would be to have a convenience store in the east side of the bookstore. He said the convenience store would be open until at least midnight.
"We are trying to figure out how to attract attention to that building." Mucci said, adding that the idea for the convenience store was tentative and that no time-frame had been established.
When the idea for the Burge was developed in the 1970s, it was intended to be a satellite union located near the residence halls. Its location was supposed to provide students who lived on Daisy Hill, as well as students and faculty in nearby academic buildings, with various services that could otherwise be found only in the Kansas Union.
The Burge now houses a dining facility that offers deli-style food, a salad bar and fast food. It also has a bookstore, the Union Technology Center, the Union Duplicating Center, the University Placement Office and Legal Services for Students.
But Mucci said it still was difficult to draw students to the Burge.
Marcela Vilich-Garza Monterey, Mexico, graduate student, said she had been there only twice.
"I don't even know what they have there," she said. "I know that they don't have a bank or a post office."
Many of the students who live on Daisy Hill don't go to the Burge because many of its services are provided by some residence halls. Other students such as Luis Parreira, Sao Paulo, Brazil, sophomore, to choose to go to the Kansas Union when they are on campus during the day.
"I don't use the Burge because there is nothing interesting over there," he said. "The Kansas Union is closer to my classes, and there are more things to do there."
Even though the Burge might not play as big a role as many expected at the time it was designed, it still serves the KU community. Students and faculty who have classes in Green, Learned and Summerfield halls prefer to go to the Burge rather than walk up Mount Oread to go to the Kansas Union.
Other students go to the Burge for services such as the University Placement Office or Legal Services for Students.
Some people are happy with the Burge just the way it is. Jo Hardesty, director and managing attorney of Legal Services for Students, said the office's clients preferred going to a place such as the Burge because confidentiality played a significant role in legal services.
"I imagine going to a place like the Kansas Union for legal advice," Hardesty said. "You don't want your friends and classmates to know that you are getting legal advice."
Edited by Warisa Chulindra
Rescue workers load James Reed of Topeka into a helicopter after the car he was in crashed during a car chase. Reed was treated for a broken leg at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. The car was driven by Issac Smith, also of Topeka, who received a bullet wound and head injuries. Photo by Matt Daugherty/KANSAN
Police say chase involved drug deal
Police are investigating an accident involving a car chase on Oct. 26 as an attempted second degree murder and a completed aggravated robbery, Lawrence police said.
Det. M.T. Brown said police now had more details about the events of that night. They now believe that the altercation that started at the southwest corner of Sixth Street and Kasold Drive began because of a drug deal gone bad.
Brown said one of the men got into the suspects' car to
make the purchase. When the man gave the driver and the passenger the money, the men in the car pushed him out of the car and drove off.
Isaac Smith, the 27-year-old who was shot later in the altercation, began pursuing the men in the car, Brown said.
Police believe shots were fired into Smith's car at two different locations during the incident, which moved south on Kasold and then west on Clinton Parkway. One of the bullets wounded Smith.
The altercation ended when Smith crossed the center median on Clinton Parkway, hit a woman's car, and his car came to rest against a telephone pole, Brown said. The woman was not injured.
Brown said Smith's bullet wound was not the main injury that required him to be transported to a Kansas City hospital. Smith received multiple head injuries in the accident and was in a coma in a Kansas City hospital until recently.
Smith's passenger, James
Reed, was treated at Lawrence Memorial Hospital for a broken leg. Brown said.
Both suspects are males from Topeka, Brown said. Police traced the suspects' car to Topeka and have contacted one of the suspects but have not made any arrests.
Brown described the suspect the police had not contacted as an African-American male in his early to mid-20s, 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-3 and about 200 pounds.
Lauren Brandenburg
Education board plans for revised standards
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Jason Krall
Some Kansas Board of Education members are planning their next move toward revamped science standards that include evolution theory after the Nov. 7 election left the board with a slight majority in favor of new standards.
tavor of new standards. Republican newcomers Sue Gamble of the Kansas City area, District 2, and Carol Rupe of Wichita, District 8, will replace Linda Holloway and Mary Douglass Brown, who supported the new standards and were defeated in the August Republican primaries.
With Gamble and Rupe, the board's stance on evolution switches to 6-4 in favor of evolution standards. Five seats, which were not at stake in the election, are filled by three board members who favor the current standards and two who support changing them.
Incumbents Bill Wagnon, a Topeka Democrat from District 4, and Bruce Wyatt, a Salina Republican from District 6, successfully
defended their seats and have promised that the new board's first action will be to change the standards to include evolution.
"The issue of revising the science standards will be an agenda item for that first
board meeting in January," Wyatt said. "The voters of Kansas have sent a message that they want that revision made."
But the message was clearer in some districts than others in the Nov. 7 election.
But the apparent division between District 10 and the rest of the state could be a result of how campaigns treated the issue during the election.
After Holloway and Gamble were defeated in the primaries, the only contested seat being defended by a candidate who supported the current standards was that of incumbent Republican Steve Abrams.
Gamble said candidates such as Abrams who supported the
Abrams defeated Democrat Wayne Holt with 56 percent of the vote in District 10, which covers the south-central portion of the state including Sumner and Cowley counties.
The evolution debate
current standards drew religion into their campaigns to create support for the standards even though teaching religion in public school wasn't really an issue.
understood very well," Gamble said. "In my race, I was very careful not to involve religion in my campaign, and I focused on high-quality science education instead."
"I think in some districts, the issue was not
The board approved the new standards last August, removing the theory of macroevolution from statewide assessment tests and left the choice on whether to teach it with local school boards.
Macroevolution is the belief that man is descended from earlier species. Microevolution remains included in the new standards.
Some supporters of the standards have advocated including creationist theory, which says man was created by God much as described in the Bible. Others support teaching intelligent design, the theory that some being, though not necessarily God, created life on Earth.
The new board will not simply amend the current standards to include evolution, Gamble said. Curriculumwriting committees are already receiving more support from companies that provide assessment tests and experts on national science standards since the election.
Revisions to be made in January will bring standards in Kansas higher than national standards, she said.
"This will probably be a set of standards that will have other states looking to us for leadership." Gamble said.
Edited by Warisa Chulindra
Canoe Club gets $5,105 from Senate
By Kusten Phelps writer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
The Concrete Canoe Club hopes that about $5,000 of Student Senate funding approved last night will help keep its boat afloat this spring.
Josh Burdette. engineering sena-
At its last meeting of the semester, Senate approved a bill allocating $5,105 for materials to the club, which designs, builds and races a concrete canoe in a regional competition each spring.
Josh Burdette tor and co-sponsor of the bill, said the group needed the money because material costs had risen and money from
other sources had decreased.
"Over time, the funding hasn't always been there, which meant we haven't built the greatest canoes," Burdette said. "We want to build a quality product, and these are materials that we can't go to Wal-Mart and buy."
Hugo Vera, graduate senator, said he didn't think the group had explored all of its possibilities.
"My belief is that when it comes to fund-raising, you have to be incredibly proactive," Vera said. "I believe this organization has not done this."
The group has secured $2,500 from the School of Engineering and the civil engineering department. It also has received about $800 from private corporations, said Renee Scholz, Atchison senior and the club's president.
Lisa Braun, Finance Committee chairwoman, proposed an amendment that would have given the group $1,320, including standard allocations for postage, advertising and office supplies, as well as $1,000 for materials. That amendment failed.
"We're really running out of money, and a lot of us in finance are freaking out," Braun said. "I think we really need to start scrutinizing things."
Going into last night's meeting, Senate had about $37,000 in the account it uses to grant money to student organizations. Last year at this time, it had about $41,000.
Ben Walker, student body president, said Senate didn't fund a lot of worthwhile things because it had finite resources.
"If we have money that's just siting there, I think we can make our standards more lax," he said. "But I don't think this group goes outside of what standards we have."
— Edited by Kimberly Thompson
IN OTHER BUSINESS
Senate approved five replacement senators. Aravind Muthukrishnan, Manhattan senior, and Lisa Seltman, Wichita senior, will fill College of Liberal Arts and Sciences seats; Cindy Bracker, Lawrence senior, will fill a Fine Arts seat; Jayme Aschmeyer, Wiggins, Colo., freshman, was appointed as a Nunemaker senator representing freshmen and sophomores; and Vanessa Sincock, Lawrence senior, was appointed as a residential senator. Two graduate senate seats remain open
Senate elected Katie Holman, journalism senator, as a representative to the University Council.
- Senate passed bills to forgive a loan Senate granted to KU on Wheels in 1996, to allocate $5,230 to the Black Student Union and to grant block funding status to 15 organizations.