4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2008
MONEY
(CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Left to right: Brian Lesage, Leawood freshman, Garrett Sprague, Overland Park freshman, Brad Rector, Pine Hurst freshman, Shabir Sultani, Leneca freshman, Anthony Brucato, Long Grove, Ill., freshman, and Ryan Siemers, Overland Park freshman, catch up during lunch at Mrs. E's dining hall. If the proposal that went before the Kansas Board of Regents this week passes, students living in residence halls next year would see a 5 percent increase in dining and housing rates.
Shaymarie Genosky/KANSAN
dorses? If there were better conditions, maybe people would want to live there longer."
The directors of KU Dining Services and student housing said their goal was to improve those conditions.
Nona Golledge, director of dining services, said the budgeting process had become more difficult during the past few years because of the shrinking economy. She said the fluctuating price of oil and food costs made budgeting a weekly necessity within the department.
"We are not immune to those high prices," Golledge said. "Our goal is to always improve, but we have to be accountable for our finances."
Golledge said her department wanted to keep food prices reasonable for students, but it also had to account for fluctuating food costs.
Along with food costs, dining services must also account for maintenance of its 20 facilities and utility fees, such as electricity and employee wages.
On the housing side, the proposal would allow for major renovations to continue in on-campus residence halls. Planned maintenance would also continue, such as the replacement of air-conditioning units in both Oliver Hall and one of the jawhower Towers.
"Good communication has been really important to us." Oh said. "Even if the costs increase, at least we have a say in what happens."
increase in housing costs. But, he said, open communication with the department of student housing had helped to change his mind, and he saw the increase as necessary.
Seyool Oh, Tinhae, South Korea, graduate student, who lives on campus at Stouffer Place, said he was originally opposed to the
Kimberley Self, Topeka freshman and Lindsay Marshall, Salina freshman gather their lunch at Mrs. E's dining hall.
Edited by Andy Greenhaw
proposed changes
Residence Halls (Traditional double room)
Current:
$3,386 annually
Proposed:
$3,554
Difference:
$168
Percent change:
+5.0
Meal Plans
Meal Plans
(Default plan: 390 meals per year and $280 in Cuisine Cash)
Current:
$3,088 annual
Proposed:
$3,248
Difference:
$160
Percent change:
+5.2
REVUE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
their groups. Kappa Sigma worked with Alpha Gamma Delta sorority on its production. The directors must attend weekly meetings beginning in September and turn in a portion of their show every week for five weeks.
The final turn-in is a notebook that outlines the script, set, costumes and characters for the show. After the notebooks were turned in on Nov. 7, the groups must participate in two interviews in which they perform a five-minute skit and answer questions about their show.
On top of planning the show, every group must complete enough community service hours equal to three hours per member before they turn in a notebook. The groups must complete an additional three hours per member to participate in an awards ceremony in the spring.
Rock Chalk Revue will take place March 5, 6 and 7 at the Lied Center.
Edited by Rachel Burchfield
Tours in North Korean city to end Dec. 1
BY JEAN H. LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KAESONG, North Korea — For
youths tours of this historic city
— famed for its Buddhist temples, royal tombs and ancient religions — have given South Koreans a glimpse of life in the hidden communist North.
A South Korean tourist pays a dollar for a coffee on a street during a tour to Kaesong, North Korea, on Saturday. State-run North Korean media said its military had informed the South it would follow through with a plan to restrict overland passage through their heavily armed border starting Dec. 1. The report says the border shutdown will mean a total suspension of tourism to the North Korean city of Kaesong.
But North Korea officials announced Monday that these visits were being suspended starting Dec. 1 because of tensions with Seoul — not that they were that truly welcoming anyway: On a weekend visit, cell phones, laptops and cameras with telephoto lenses were locked away even before the tour bus left South Korean territory.
"Don't bring back red items or any of that North Korean propaganda — I know foreigners love to buy propaganda," she said.
Travelers were warned not to speak to ordinary North Koreans, not to criticize the government or to ask about the health of Kim Jong Il. And no souvenirs depicting the Dear Leader, a South Korean guide warned.
The moment the bus passed from South to North on Saturday.
South Korean tourists broke out in applause. At immigration, North Korea's de facto theme song for reconciliation — "Nice to Meet You" — played over and over on a loudspeaker as travelers endured yet another security check.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
able a decade ago.
As the bus ambled into Kaesong with two new North Korean guides aboard, soldiers stood guard at intervals along the route, a lone figure in a brown field or on an empty dirt road, red flag at the ready to wave at an errant tourist snapping a photo from the bus window with a small camera.
If the flag had been raised, the entire convoy would have stopped and the illicit photo ordered deleted from the camera.
And for many, it was their first meeting with North Koreans. The guide, a Kaesong native, was witty and warm as he told tourists about the history of the capital known as Songdo, "the City of Pine Trees," at one point serenading them with Korea's most famous folk song, "Arirang" and teasing them with jokes — a scene perhaps unthink-
He also displayed a keen interest in President-elect Barack Obama, inquiring about the Democrat's stance on U.S.-North Korea relations.
For many on board, it was their first trip to reclusive North Korea, a country that is run with absolute authority by the autocratic Kim.
"I see no reason why the two countries should be so far apart if the U.S. policy changes," he said. "It would be better if the two countries were friendly in the future."
Though restrictive, the tours have been immensely popular among South Koreans since they began a year ago, with more than 110,000 tourists piling onto buses for the daylong visit to a city just 40 miles from Seoul but inaccessible for nearly 60 years.
North Korea's announcement Monday that the tours will be suspended has heightened fears that 10 years of progress in improving ties between the wartime rivals may be in danger of unraveling.
Another joint project, tours to Diamond Mountain on North Korea's east coast, have been suspended since July following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist. And the communist country, in detailing plans to restrict cross-border traffic next week amid deteriorating ties with Seoul's
conservative government, said it would also suspend inter-Korean rail lines.
Kaesong, Korea's cultural and religious centerpiece before power shifted to Seoul in the 14th century, has a rich heritage and military history. During the three-year Korean War, control of Kaesong — located in the heart of the peninsula — was traded back and forth as the front shifted. When fighting stopped in 1953, Kaesong fell just north of the border.
so many decades earlier.
Nearly 2 million tourists flocked to Diamond Mountain before the July shooting by a North Korean soldier brought the tours to a halt amid a stalemate over the investigation.
In December 2007, Hyundai Asan unveiled the Kaeong tour to see the famed Bakeeon waterfall, a Buddhist temple dating back to the 11th century, and a stone bridge where a bloody murder led to the fall of Korvo Dynasty in 1392.
His firm struck an agreement to start tours to Diamond Mountain, a resort just north of the border that later grew to include a golf course, spa, hotels and a theater featuring North Korean acrobats.
Among those born in the north who longed to return home was the late founder of the conglomerate Hyundai Asan Corp. In 1998, Chung Ju-yung ceremoniously crossed the border with hundreds of cattle — repayment, he said, for stealing money from selling the family cow to pay his way to Seoul
The tour focuses on the heritage of a city with deep Buddhist roots and a royal history, as well as a sophisticated metropolis that produced brassware and porcelain and was famous for wine and ginseng.
Tourists were allowed no interaction with locals, apart from those working at tourist sites, and guides kept an eagle eye on any visitors who strayed from the group or tried to photograph the city center.
all ages on bicycles and on foot, many with packages tucked into baskets, and scarves around their necks to ward off an early chill. Children scampered along a tree-lined canal, some swinging their mothers' hands, others linked arm in arm with friends as they waved at sightsure.
Downtown Kaesong — visible from the bus window — was abuzz Saturday with people of
A billboard in a central plaza depicted Kim Jong Il and his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. Down the street, a massive statue of the elder Kim looked down on Kaesong from atop a hill, but the tour bus sped past.
Pharmacies, salons, motels and shops were housed in concrete buildings with faded, peeling paint. Cables hung limply on telephone poles but there were no phones in sight, and unlike Seoul, where even some 5-year-olds have their own cell phones, there was never the sound of a phone ringing.
A fish market appeared closed and a noodle restaurant was boarded up. There was no running water in the toilets or sinks, even at tourist spots.
"Kaesong seems like it is a nice place to live, but the living situation seems like it's more difficult than when I was young," said Oh Tae-jin, 49, a South Korean on the tour with his family.