THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
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NEWS 3A
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Osher Institute expands noncredit courses to Hutchinson
BY HALEY JONES hjones@kansan.com
A class with no homework, tests or grades may sound too good to be true - but it's not for people enrolled in the KU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. This semester, the Institute is expanding its noncredit course offerings to Hutchinson Community College.
The Institute offers classes
to people who want to learn about unique topics outside of a normal college classroom.
The Institute partnered with the College to offer its three week long learning programs. Although Institute courses began Monday in Lawrence, the Hutchinson programs are scheduled to start next month at the College.
David Wilson, director of the Institute, said although only two classes would be
available in Hutchinson at first, the University was planning to add more classes in the future. The courses, which are geared toward adults ages 50 and older, are offered at several locations in Douglas County, Johnson County and Clay County, Mo.
"The courses are really about expanding your mind and reaching out for different and foreign ideas." Wilson said.
Jeff Adams, Hutchinson's associate director of continuing education, said although anyone could enroll in the classes, the structure was ideal for adults older than 50. The two-hour long courses meet for three weeks on Thursday afternoons.
Courses cover topics such as the arts, theology, history and culture. The Institute has offered courses on airplane building, American
Sign Language, the murals of Topeka, metalsmithing and the works of Ernest Hemingway.
Muff Kelly, a 62-year-old from Lawrence, said she and her husband had been taking classes at the Institute since 2006.
"As a student, it's been nice not having homework and just being able to learn for the joy of it," Kelly said. "All the instructors have been fabulous."
Wilson said the average
age of students enrolled in the Institute was 70 years old. He said that more than 600 members were enrolled in the Institute and that he expected about 200 people to enroll in the new program in Hutchinson.
Membership and enrollment in the Institute is $35 for one class, $50 for two classes and $75 for three classes.
Student Senate Notebook
- Edited by Jennifer Torline
Student Senate meets every Wednesday in the Kansas Union. All legislation heard at Senate must first pass through two committees, which were held last Wednesday.
Transportation board looks at new bus route
Derek Meier, Independence Kan, sophomore, and transportation coordinator, said the transportation board was exploring new bus routes to handle the increased number of people who rode the bus. He said bus ridership continued to increase dramatically because the buses were free. He said between 12,500 and 16,000 passengers rode the buses each day and that more people rode the bus when the weather was cool.
According to Kansan archives,
an average of 6,000 people rode
the bus each day last year.
Senate creates possible plan for aquatic center
Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior and student body president, updated the Senate on plans for a University aquatic center, which was one of the
platforms of former coalition United Students during the spring Student Senate elections. McGonigle said he and Michael Gillaspie, Ashland senior and student body vice president, would meet with focus groups of students next month to determine if students wanted a new aquatic center and how much they would be willing to pay for it. McGonigle said if
students wanted to continue with plans for the center, he and Gillaspie would work to establish a funding plan with University administration and other interested parties. He said that if planning moved forward smoothly, students could see the center on the ballot during this spring's elections.
INTERNATIONAL Ten die in U.S. Embassy car bomb gate explosion
SAN'A, Yemen — A car bomb targeting the U.S. Embassy hit the front gate of the compound in Yemen's capital Wednesday, a U.S. spokesman said. A senior
Haley Jones
Yemeni security official said six Yemeni guards and four civilians were killed.
The Yemeni guards were assigned to sentry duty outside the embassy by the Interior Ministry. The civilians were three Yemenis and one Indian national, the Yemeni security official said.
The official spoke on condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Another Yemeni security official said the embassy was hit by
two car bombs and that heavy gunfire lasting around 10 minutes followed the blasts.
Ryan Gilha, the embassy spokesman, told The Associated Press by telephone that there was a second explosion that followed the initial one, but did not know what caused it.
Several nearby homes were badly damaged by the blasts, he said, but had no information on whether the heavily guarded embassy sustained damage too.
A medical official, meanwhile,
said at least seven Yemeni nationals were wounded and taken to the city's Republican hospital. They are residents of a housing compound near the embassy and included children, he said.
ODD NEWS Debate coach offended
PITTSBURGH — A University of Pittsburgh debate coach is limiting her contact with the team and issued an apology for cursing at a Kansas coach who dropped his pants while arguing with her at a national championship tournament, an encounter that was recorded and posted on YouTube.
Sextuplet mom missing
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman who faked the birth of sextuplets to get financial support from her community is missing after walking away from a community release center on Friday. Officials said Sarah Everson, 47, of Grain Valley, was seven months into her four-year sentence for felony stealing by deceit when she left the Kansas City Community Release Center and never returned.
AFGHANISTAN
Gates apologizes for airstrikes, says U.S. will improve accuracy
BY ROBERT BURNS Associated Press
"As I told them, I offer all Afghans my sincere condolences and personal regrets for the recent loss of innocent life as a result of coalition airstrikes," Gates said after meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "While no military has ever done more to prevent civilian casualties, it is clear that we have to work even harder."
KABUL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered the people of Afghanistan his "personal regrets." Wednesday for U.S. air-strikes that have killed civilians and said he would try to improve the accuracy of air warfare, the imperfect fallback for U.S. commanders who say they don't have enough ground forces for the deepening Afghanistan war.
Gates' unusual apology followed a frank assessment from the top military commander in Afghanistan; There aren't enough U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan, so the military is relying more heavily on air power. Air power runs a greater risk of civilian deaths in a country where insurgents do not wear uniforms and they intentionally mix with the general population.
Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, had said earlier that the chronic shortage of U.S. troops
in Afghanistan is forcing commanders to rely more on air combat. U.S. airstrikes that kill civilians have angered and embarrassed the U.S.-backed Afghan government, and Karzai has been bitterly critical of such attacks.
Gates agreed to an Afghan proposal to establish a permanent U.S.-Afghan group to investigate all incidents involving civilian casualties. That would be a shift from the current practice of U.S., Afghan and international probes proceeding separately.
He then made a brief tour of the flightline where an array of jets were parked under a bright sun.
And the defense secretary said he favored "a bit of a change of approach" in how U.S. military authorities react when allegations arise over unintended damage from U.S. air attacks.
Standing beside a workhorse in the fleet of planes used in so-called
"I think the key for us is, in those rare occasions when we do make a mistake, when there is an error, to apologize quickly, to compensate the victims quickly and then carry out the investigation," Gates told reporters later at Bagram airfield north of Kabul, where he received a briefing from an Air Force general on the rules and restrictions U.S. pilots must follow when providing aerial support to U.S. and allied troops engaged in ground fighting.
close-air support missions — an Air Force A-10 Warthog whose painted nose art featured the gaping jaws of a shark — Gates said Karzai had assured him that the Afghan people "are still very friendly toward the United States."
Taken together, the Pentagon chief's pronouncements during his first visit to Afghanistan since December reflected concern in the Bush administration that recurring allegations that U.S. bombs deliberately target civilians — accusations denied by the U.S. — are seriously undermining a central U.S. goal: to persuade ordinary Afghans that the U.S. military is here to protect them and that the enemy U.S. forces are fighting also their enemy. This "hearts and minds" battle is central to the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy.
This is a problem facing not only the Bush administration but the next U.S. president as well.
There are about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon is sending another Army brigade, numbering about 3,700 soldiers, in January. They will join a fight against a determined insurgency opposed both to Karzai's government and to the presence of foreign troops.
A roadside blast Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan killed four U.S. coalition soldiers and an Afghan.
U. S. military deaths in Afghanistan in 2008 already have
found that up to 90 civilians were killed, including women and children. U.S. investigators first said the civilian toll did not exceed seven, but McKiernan later announced a higher-level U.S. investigation to look into new evidence.
Of the numerous recent cases of Afghan civilians getting killed in U.S. airstrikes, perhaps the most damaging is the widely publicized attacks of Aug. 22 on a village compound in western Afghanistan. Afghan and U.N. investigators
surpassed the record 111 deaths the U.S. suffered here last year. The number of attacks on U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan has risen by around 30 percent this year compared with 2007. U.S. military officials say.