WEDNESDAY,OCT.17,2001
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
City Commission OKs intersection rezoning for Home Depot
By Courtney Craigmile Kansan staff writer
Lawrence moved one step closer to welcoming a Home Depot store after 3-2 votes at last night's City Commission meeting. The votes approved the rezoning of 23.97 acres on the northeast corner of 31st and Iowa streets from a single-family residence district to a planned commercial district.
district to a planner commercial area. This means the area now known as Gaslight Village, a mobile home park, can become a Home Depot store. The Commission also voted to approve a preliminary development plan for Home Depot that outlines how Home Depot can use the property, and what improvements need to be made to the streets to accommodate traffic from the new store.
Jim Henry was one of the three commissioners voting for the plan and rezoning
sources voting to be the right plan for the entire community because it is going to improve a bad intersection in this city," he said.
Because the development plan was approved, First National Development, the company representing Home Depot, is required to improve the intersection at 31st and Iowa streets, possibly adding two left-hand turn lanes to ease the flow of traffic turning from 31st Street south to Iowa Street.
Commissioner Sue Hack also voted with
the majority. She said she did so because Home Depot came back with a revised plan that reduced the size of the store.
that reduced the size of that reduced the size of the store. She said she was eager to see a home improvement store in Lawrence because so many residents traveled out of town to buy home repair items. She did not, however, welcome an overwhelmingly large store.
store. Mayor Mike Rundle and Commissioner David Dunfield voted against both issues, citing the amount of money the city would have to spend on the project and the number of instances in which Horizon 2020, the city's planning code, was violated.
With the approval of the plan, the city will have to pay about $1 million in taxpayer's money to help with the addition of lanes and stop lights.
Dunfield said he was most concerned that allowing Home Depot to build without following planning code would invite other businesses to do the same, causing the area around 31st and Iowa streets to become as congested as 23rd Street.
Rundle agreed.
"If anything should have taught us a lesson, it's 23rd Street and the bad planning decisions that lead to the development of 23rd Street," he said.
Contact Craigmile at 864-4810
Art: Department looking for full-time faculty
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the education they receive
the education that it "I think that it was a good opportunity for these two groups to have direct dialogue." Dooley said.
He said that the task of recruiting fulltime faculty members was the most important thing, and that the program was still one of the best in the nation.
Lois Greene, chairwoman of design, said she realized the problems that occurred with overlapping classes were tough on the students.
tough on the students.
"They were horrible," Greene said. "It was scramble time and we did the best we could. It's the thing that causes me to hold my head. Education looks bleak."
She said that she would continue to work to re-establish a larger full-time faculty base.
utty base:
"The dean's office has done everything they can to support us," Greene said. "We will try to work our way through it."
will try to work our way through Montgomery said she was optimistic of what could be done to improve the school.
what could she said $17,000 was raised at a recent concert to help allocate money for improvements.
improvements:
"I said in the beginning that it is my job to do fund-raising," Montgomery said. "It doesn't look bleak to me."
Contact Daley at 864-4810
Rudolph Vrba, an escapee of Auschwitz, shares the story of his experiences in the death camp. About 300 people attended his speech, "War, Morality and Deception: An Auschwitz Perspective," last night at the Spencer Museum Auditorium.
Auschwitz escapee describes Holocaust details, strategies
By Eve Lamborn Kansan staff writer
Auschwitz escapee Rudolph Vrba used his experiences in the Nazi concentration camp to argue that the Holocaust was a systematic plan executed with specific, strategic goals.
chambers. He described mountains of personal belongings left behind, sorted by thousand-man teams of prisoners. The process was so thorough that even clothing deemed unusable was turned into paper. Workers wrenched gold teeth from the mouths of dead prisoners and searched body cavities for more hidden wealth.
Vrba, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, gave a lecture last night before a crowd of 300 at the Spencer Museum Auditorium titled, "War, Morality, and Deception: An Auschwitz Perspective."
Vrba arrived at Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of 18 and spent 21 months and 7 days as a prisoner. He detailed the system whereby Jews arrived by train and were separated into those who were put to work and those who were put to death in gas chambers.
"I could observe the ongoing Holocaust from a very good seat, though not a very comfortable seat," he said.
"It was the almost perfect organization of the murder and robbery of 6 million people," he said.
Vrba called the Holocaust an instrument of war and said the murder of 6 million Jews was accompanied by the robbery of their wealth. This wealth was redistributed and used to win the goodwill of citizens in occupied Europe and bolster the buying abilities of Nazi Germany.
"The cruelty of the Germans was perpetuated in a rational, purposeful way, otherwise it couldn't continue as smoothly as it did for a number of years." Vrba said. "From my own experience, I would like to attest to their exceptional rationality."
He called the Holocaust "a complex sociological process," and "a very rational instrument of war." Vrba said he personally witnessed the asphyxiation of 1.75 million Jews in the gas chambers of Auschwitz before his escape with another prisoner, Alfred Wetzler.
He declined to give the details of his escape, which he said were too complicated to explain briefly. He said he explained his escape in his book, I Cannot Forgive.
Frank Baron, professor of Germanic languages and literature, said Vrba escaped with unique knowledge of the concentration camp. He and Wetzler wrote a 40-page report the same month they escaped, exposing the secretive and deceptive operations of the Nazis. Baron said this report was sent by Allied forces to Hungary, where many people awaited deportation.
"It had an impact on how Holocaust history proceeded," Baron said. "Many thousands of people were saved by this knowledge."
edge.
Lori Root, Topeka freshman, said she went to hear Vrba speak out of curiosity.
"Hearing about the Holocaust from a personal perspective is a special experience," she said.
Contact Lamborn at 864-4810
Visas: Foreign students say keeping tabs is fair
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System, which was approved by Congress in 1996, but has not yet been implemented.
been impatient Abdulah Alqahtani, Abha Saudi Arabia, freshman, said because the University already had his class schedule, he did not consider it problematic if the INS was given the same information.
Tae Hahn, Lawrence senior and naturalized citizen originally from Seoul, Korea, said fingerprinting those with student visas was necessary. Hahn first came to the United States on a student visa. About five years ago, he immigrated with his family.
"Imigration here is not that easy," Hahn said. "But the procedure is all based on paperwork. Once they get in, it's hard to track them down."
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., introduced legislation on Oct. 2 to create a committee that would coordinate and prioritize programs concerned with defense and terrorism.
Sarah Ross, press secretary for Roberts, said the coordinating committee was necessary because more than five other committees within the Senate deal with public health and
safety issues.
safety issues Ross said if the committee was enacted, student visas and other immigration concerns would be among many of the issues discussed.
Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., introduced on Oct.4 the Visa Integrity and Security Act, which would require schools to report foreign students who do not attend classes within 30 days of the
semester's start. That information would then be reported to the FBI.
There are 1,677 international students enrolled at KU this fall, while the most recent INS information reported that 5,162 persons with student visas were admitted into Kansas in 1998.
Contact Smith at 864-4810
Socrates Probably Never Dreamed of an Endowed Professorship.
And he never wore a plastic headband. But being named to a KU endowed or distinguished professorship would have made even Socrates want to dance a jig in his chiton.
Beyond the honor of the title comes some serious cash from KU Endowment.
Beyond the honor of the title comes some serious cash from KU E When donors set up professorships, they work with KU to assure that the recipient will bring world-class credentials to the University. In that respect, the professors help attract other outstanding scholars and students, continually building KU's quality across the curriculum.
INVEST IN EXCELLENCE
The $14 million a year for endowed chairs and professorships comes with another $6 million for faculty travel, conferences, awards and lectureships. That's an extra $20 million just this year for KU faculty.
KU's campaign, KU First, intends to raise $500 million by 2004.
Because a Top 25 university can never have too many accomplished scholars.
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