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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
MONDAY
NOVEMBER 5,2001
ISSUE 49 VOLUME 112
Students can check online for available class spots
Site launched today will show which classes have space open for enrollment
By Paul Smith Kansan staff write
A new Web site launched today can tell students whether that class or any other at the University of Kansas will be closed before they enroll.
The site — www.opensections.ku.edu — has closed class information for every available course on both the undergraduate and graduate level. Closed class information is updated every 30 minutes during the week and until noon on Saturdays.
Cindy Derritt, associate registrar for enrollment management, said the Web site effort started to increase student access to information.
"Students just log in to the site," Derritt said. "There's no password necessary as there's no confidential information on the site."
Richard Hermesch, applications program manager for computing services, said that the Web site transferred information from the enrollment center systems into an HTML-accessible format.
into an HTMID access control Derritt said that previous systems for checking class availability were accessible only from computers on campus and that the new service was the first to allow students to check on the Internet for open seats.
The Web site launch is being introduced as freshmen and sophomore students near enrollment and classes start to close in the final weeks.
Derritt said that delays develop at the enrollment center when students select closed classes and have no alternates selected.
The Web site should help alleviate delays, she said.
Hermesch studied at KU in the mid 1970s, and said that the Web site was just another step in the enrollment center's development.
"We were using cards back then," he said. "The Web site is not interactive, but I think it would be helpful for students to have that information."
have that information Michael Foster, Dallas junior, showed up for enrollment on Friday afternoon only to find the marketing course he wanted to take was closed.
He had no alternative class selected, he said, because he had figured marketing would be open.
Foster said he would have accessed the registrar office's Web site to check out his classes had he known it was available.
"It would have saved me some time," Foster said.
Foster said:
The University will send a mass e-mail today informing students that the Web site is now operational.
Contact Smith at 864-4810
COACH ALLEN FIRED
Kansas football coach Terry Allen receives the support of his wife Lynn as he announces his firing as Kansas' football coach. Allen announced his dismissal at a press conference yesterday afternoon. Defensive coordinator Tom Hayes was named interim head coach.
Hayes named interim coach
By Jeff Denton Kansan sportswriter
With three games left to play in the season, Kansas football coach Terry Allen was fired yesterday after spending more than four years as the University's 34th coach.
Defensive coordinator Tom Hayes will assume coaching duties on an interim basis for Kansas' final three games, said Al Bohl, athletics director.
"Terry did everything that he could to possibly try to get our football program moving," Bohl said. "Today the focus is moving on."
Allen was hired as Kansas' coach Dec. 28, 1996. He never won more than five games in a season at Kansas and composed a career mark of 20-33.
Allen said he was given three alternatives concerning his job status by Richard Konzem, associate athletics director, on the night of Oct. 27, hours after Allen's team suffered a 40-6 defeat to intrastate-rival Kansas State. But his options hinged on how Kansas performed against No. 2 Nebraska this past Saturday — Nebraska beat Kansas 51-7.
The first opportunity was for Allen to win the team's four remaining games and earn a bowl bid. The second was to resign at yesterday's press conference. The third was for Allen to be dismissed and for a new interim coach to be introduced.
Allen met with Bohl last Tuesday to discuss his immediate future.
informed Dr. Bohl that as far as resigning, I would not do that." Allen said. "We in the sports world preach to our players always to play hard and never quit. So I didn't think that it would be appropriate for me to quit in that particular situation."
"It was at that particular time that I
Bohl then told Allen that Hayes would be named interim coach.
"Terry Allen has been unbelievably great to me and my family." Hayes said. "I told him last night that good things happen to good people. He is a good man, and something good will happen to him."
Bohl said he would allow Hayes to have complete control of the next three games, but that the search for a permanent head coach would begin immediately.
For more coverage see pages 1B & 6B
"I welcome Tom to be candidate for that position," Bohl said. "But I think it is important to move as quickly as we can because it is imperative to really get our program to the point where we are a Top 25 program."
top 23 program
"And what a lot of you have already heard me say before, I really believe what our objective should be at Kansas is to try to play in that Big 12 Championship Game — because if you play in that game and you win it—you will be playing for the national championship."
Contact Denton at 864-4858
Theft at Nunemaker brings losses to $13,600
By Eve Lamborn
Kansan staff writer
After the second theft at Nunemaker Center in less than a month, more than $13,000 worth of vintage furniture is missing.
A chair, ottoman set, coffee table and leather sofa were taken between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. Wednesday of last week. The furniture was valued at $5,500.
employee discovered sixteen chairs and two small tables missing, valued at $8,100.
500. Earlier in October, a Nunemaker
$8,100.
Both sets of furniture came from name-brand designers and were purchased in New York City, said Donna McMechan, public service administrator for the University Honors Program. Irene Nunemaker chose all the furnishings in the building down to the smallest details, including the trash cans, when she donated the building to the University of Kansas in 1970.
The furniture had been in the building since that time.
"This furniture was a part of Nunemaker," McMechan said. "It's just really disgusting and sad."
Caitlin McDonald, who has two classes in Nunemaker, said the atmosphere in the building had definitely changed since the thefts occurred.
"The biggest difference is with the faculty and staff," the freshman said. "I could hear them talking about it. It was a topic of conversation everywhere."
She said the thefts had also affected her classmates.
Lt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said the building was locked at the time of the second theft. He said Nunemaker staff might have changed security measures since the thefts, but he could not comment on any specific changes. He would not comment on any possible suspects.
Contact Lamborn at 864-4810
Local activists protest treatment of animals at American Royal Rodeo
By Maggie Koerth Special to the Kansan
Every fall the rodeo season returns to Kansas.
George Schulz, Tula, Okla., junior spent last weekend protesting the American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City, Mo.
cent family fun. But some say rodeos are dangerous to animals.
Kansas. For those accustomed to the yearly events, a rodeo conjures images of innocent family fun.
Schulz, a member of the Lawrence chapter of Animal Outreach of Kansas, said rodeos were a form of animal abuse that was often ignored because rodeos were an embedded tradition. Schulz cited both brone riding and calf roping as examples of abuse.
Emmanuelle Ban, a Kansas City member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also protested the event.
"Rodeo is the most inhumane form of entertainment I have ever seen in my
life” she said. "I can't imagine the pain those animals must be going through."
Brandon Kent, Dodge City sophmore, has been a rodeo fan since he moved to Dodge City during the sixth grade. While he realizes spurs are used on the bulls and horses, he said he didn't think they were victims of animal abuse
He said many people probably were not used to watching rodeos and didn't understand the culture behind them.
"Professional rodeos are well watched. There is no way that they could
get away with cruelty without someone knowing," he said.
Ban said activist groups watched rodeos as well, and that routine abuse had been documented by groups such as Showing Animals Respect and Kindness.
Steve Hindi, founder and volunteer president of SHARK, has been to hundreds of rodeos and has taken photos and video of abuse behind the rodeo's most popular events.
most popular events.
According to Hindi's Web site.
www.sharkonline.com, calf roping, an event where cowboys try to lasco calves and tie them up in the shortest time possible, can break a calf's backs, necks and legs.
legs. "If this sort of thing was being done to kittens or puppies, you can bet something would be done about it," he said on the site.
the site. Hindi's site also pointed out abuse in bronc riding.
INSIDETODAY
COMING IN TOMORROW'S KANSAN
U.S. NEWS ...2A
NEWS FEATURE ...6A
WEATHER ...4B
CROSSWORD ...4B
SEE RODEOS ON PAGE 3A
PIRATE HOUSE: The legal issues at stake in the restrictions placed on the Lawrence landmark.
MULTICULTURAL CENTER: The student resource may get a new building.
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
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