Thursday inside
Check out Jayplay
Learn about places to volunteer in Lawrence. Visit some local coffee
shops. Find tips on how to take your first exams.
Moving in with your boy- or girlfriend? You may want to think again.JAYPLAY
Senators invite speakers
Student Senators approved funding for guest speakers and club activities at the weekly Senate meeting last night. PAGE 3A
On the trail of snails
Snails have been a part of Kansas life since the state was an ocean, and they're still
a part of campus life at KU. PAGE3A
Serving battle
The Kansas State volleyball team served its way to victory yesterday. PAGE 9A
Recruits visit Kansas
A. J. Price and Alexander "Sasha" Kaun, top high school basketball recruits, are
looking at the University of Kansas. PAGE9A
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index
Briefs 2A
Opinion 4A
Sports 1B
Sports briefs 2B
Horoscopes 10A
Comic 10A
KANSAN
Vol.114 Issue No.21
Thursday, September 18, 2003
The Student Newspaper of the University of Kansas
Campus cats to lose home
By Robert Perkins
rperkins@kansan.com
kansan staff writer
With the demolition of most of the old Powerhouse, some of Lawrence's furrier residents will find themselves without a home.
The stray cats that live around the abandoned building behind Facilities Operations will soon have to relocate or face capture by the Humane Society, Monte Rogers, a plumber for Facilities Operations, said.
Though Rogers doesn't actually own the cats, he has been taking care of them for 10 years. He's named most of them — Tiger, Gray, Silver, Boots, Fluff, among others — built a lean-to to give them shade and put cat food out for them.
"just whatever's on sale," he said.
typical pet homes. But with the part of the Powerhouse — the University's oldest standing building — scheduled to be demolished to pave way for the new Hall Center for the Humanities, Rogers wonders what will happen to his furry neighbors.
Just whatever's left The cats Rogers takes care of are feral cats: animals too poorly socialized to be handled and that cannot be placed into
"If I had a great big farm out in the country, I could take them out there and let them go," Rogers said.
let them go. Rogers said. The cats that used to live in the area, hunting mice and other small wildlife, will have to find a new place to stay and hide from the pound. The Humane Society has already captured several of them and taken them away, Rogers said.
Midge Grinstead, director of the Humane Society of Lawrence, said that while she didn't know about any trappings by the Humane Society at the University, feral cats had been a problem in the area.
A cat on Tuesday stood near the lean-to constructed by power plant workers. More than five cats are scheduled to lose their home when the warehouse behind the plant is demolished to make way for the new Hall center.
SEE CATS ON PAGE 7A
A little time for self reflection
Macklen Mayse, Lenexa sophomore, did touch-up work on a oil painting self portrait in the Art and Design Building late yesterday. Students who are enrolled in painting courses are required to produce at least one self portrait during the semester.
City prepares for 150th
By Amanda Kim Stairrettt
astairrettt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The City of Lawrence is 149 years old today, and members of the Lawrence Sesquicentennial Commission are counting down the days until the big 1-5-0.
ing down the days that Plans for next year's birthday celebration have been in the works for three years now, and with only a year left, final schedules are falling into place.
On Oct. 12 this year, the commission is throwing a celebration at Clinton Lake. It's the site of the future Sesquicentennial
Plaza, now an undeveloped site below the north side of the dam overlooking the Wakarusa Valley. By the 2004 anniversary, it will provide a place to view the city and learn about Lawrence's history. This echoes the city's celebration of its 100th birthday in 1954, when Centennial Park was constructed west of Iowa Street. The location was chosen because it was out of the city limits at the time.
the city limits at the time Also marking Lawrence's 150th birthday is the construction of an online documentary of Kansas history, made possible by collaboration between Spencer Research Library's Kansas Collection
"We need to think hard where we came from, and think harder about where we are going."
Bill Crowe
Spencer librarian and member of the celebration planning commission
and the Kansas State Historical Society.
SEE LAWRENCE ON PAGE 7A
Column: Institute director sought for Lincoln museum
Richard Norton Smith, director of the Dole Institute of Politics, may be named the new head of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.
and Museum in Sp according to a col-
according to a column in the Chicago Sun-
Times yesterday.
Smith, a nationally renowned scholar and historian, served as the director of four other presidential libraries before coming to the
Smith
University of Kansas and is the only person to manage four presidential libraries.
Sun-Times columnist Stave Neal reported that Smith was Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's first choice to run the Lincoln museum. Neal wrote that the governor hoped to "announce Smith's appointment within two weeks."
Neal also wrote that Gov. Blagojevich had already contacted Smith and asked him for recommendations for the library's board and for his advice "on the future of the library and museum." Blagojevich is not quoted in Neal's column, however.
Todd Cohen, assistant director of University Relations, said the University could not comment on whether Smith would stay in his current position as director.
current position as director Smith, 50, came to Kansas in December 2001. He is a frequent commentator on the PBS program News Hour with Jim Lehner and has collaborated on eight books. He has directed the presidential libraries and museums of Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Smith was not available for com
Meditation class offers stress relief
By Meghan Brune mbrune@kansan.com kansan staff writer
Outside, the sound of crickets, passing cars and the voices of students threaten to invade the quiet calm inside Danforth Chapel.
Joe Alford, chaplain at the Canterbury House, 1116 Louisiana St., began a weekly guided meditation class last night at Danforth Chapel, located near Fraser Hall. The class will continue for the rest of the semester at 8 p.m. on Wednesday nights.
But the two people within seem not to notice as they search for silence around a single candle.
Meditation is a Buddhist and Hindu exercise by which a person quiets the mind. Chimes, breathing and readings all serve to clear the mind of daily concerns
tion, Alford said. Catholics rub rosary beads while saying prayers. Buddhist monks sit in silence. And Tizay, a religious order in southern France, chant and sing while kneeling for hours.
Every culture has a form of medita-
sing while knowing Regardless of the different methods, the purpose is the same: to break down the ego and allow room for God.
"You lose yourself so that God can come in," Alford said.
Joe Alford, Centerbury House chapain, and Montserrat Mitchell, Tallahassee, Fla., graduate student, participated in a guided meditation exercise in Danforth Chapel yesterday. The meditation is geared towards busy and stressed students who have forgotten "the importance of breath," Alford said.
Alford dimmed the lights of the chapel before uttering a stream of thoughts meant to clear the mind and deepen concentration.
centration He read a passage from the Bible to give participants a word or image to focus on.
"But what does,the lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and walk humbly with your God," Alford recited.
Alford said he also planned to use readings from other religious traditions.
He said he started an "Introduction to Meditation" class when he arrived at the Canterbury House in 1992. Two students and six faculty members attended the sessions. Alford stopped leading the sessions when they didn't attract more students.
"I wanted to do something just for the
SEE MEDITATION ON PAGE 7A
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