On the Hill
Monday, August 18, 2003
The University Daily Kansan
JAYHAWK101
The Jayhawk has lived in Kansas since before the University's time and isn't leaving soon.
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MONEY
BRITNEY-FREE
The DJs at KJHK are always masters of their musical domain, 90.7 FM.
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Dining halls allow more flexibility in meal plans
By Lindsay Killiper and Alea Smith
editor@kansan.com
Special to the Kansan
In the past, students living in residence halls were required to purchase a meal plan. With only three choices and limited time and availability, it was an inconvenience to many students.
The plan allows students to use their a la carte dining dollars at the KU Housing Dining Halls, The Market in the Kansas Union, the Burge Union and Wescoe Terrace.
fence to many studios. "I never had enough time to come back to E's for lunch and then at night I'd work," said Jennifer Boyce, Dodge City senior. "It made it kind of ridiculous to have to have the meal plan, even the lowest one, if I was never around to use it."
This year will be different — students will have a better choice.
The program, called KU Cuisine Meal Plans, allows students to use a debit account at 17 eateries throughout campus
The Department of Student Housing Dining Services has developed a program to give on-campus students a better opportunity to get their money's worth out of the meal plans.
Students participating in the KU Cuisine plan put money into an account and use their KUIDs as debit cards when purchasing food at any of the participating locations. With the plans, students receive 5 per "It made it kind of ridiculous to have to have the meal plan, even the lowest one, if I was never around to use it." Jennifer Boyce Dodge City senior
Section C
- Edited by Kevin Wiggs
The program also offers a bonus for signing up early for the Crimson 500 bonus plan.
cent off purchases.
Students who choose the Crimson plan deposit $500 in the account and receive a 10 percent bonus of $50, for those who sign up before Sept. 1.
Other available options include the Blue 250 and Crimson 100. Each number stands for the dollar amount of the plan.
Jason Arnett, KU Market unit manager, said he was pleased with the meal plans, and excited about new or unaware students taking advantage of the markets on campus.
campus. "We think the meal plans have dramatically increased student usage of food services." Arnett said.
Before this year, students living in residence halls only had the choice between the meal plans offered for the dining halls.
Students can sign up for the meal plans online at kucuisine.com, as well as at the dining facilities.
Students can use these plans, which range in price from $2,324 to $1,574 per year, at any of the dining halls around campus.
Each plan comes with a certain number of meals per week.
Meals not eaten by the end of each week expire, leaving students, and their parents, paying for food that's not consumed.
"I spent so much money on that meal plan, just to go out and spend more on food since I couldn't use it," Boyce said. "It was such a waste."
The KU Cuisine plan aims to make such waste a thing of the past.
After the original amount is used, students can add more to their accounts with a $20 minimum. The account balance is displayed after each transaction so students always know what is in their account.
SCOOTERS
By Richard Gintowt rgintowt@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Club will educate motorists
A scooter club is forming at the University of Kansas, and its founders have big goals for their tiny vehicles
First on the Scooterhawks' agenda is trying to convince city leaders to allow people to park their scooters on city sidewalks.
Luke Middleton, club sponsor and staff member at the Policy Research Institute, said he avoided downtown
because he feared the $30 ticket that came with parking on a sidewalk
"If you took up a whole spot with a scooter you'd be tarred and feathered," he said. "Someone would pull in and crunch it."
Middleton formed the club in July with Falestine Afani Ruzik, Minneapolis senior. He said the club would have meetings to discuss scooter parking, safety and maintenance issues.
Ruzik said she was inspired to start the club after vandals hot-wired, joy-rode and trashed her scooter, a 2003 Yamaha
Zuma, that cost more than $2,000
"I'm very paranoid," Ruzik said. "I thought it was impossible to steal a scooter because to hot-wire it you literally have to take it apart — which is what they did."
Ruzik will teach club members about scooter safety and theft prevention. The club will also have maintenance sessions and fun rides.
"I have this motto: If you want to be treated like a car, you have to act like one." Ruzik said. "No darting around buses and pulling dangerous moves
just because you're little."
Middleton is also planning a scooter rally in October.
"I thought it'd be neat for the city of Lawrence to see a hundred scooters drive down Massachusetts Street," he said. "Then they'd know we were here."
The Scooterhawks will have their first meeting at 6 p.m. on Aug.26 in the International Room of the Kansas Union.
Brad Ekstrom, Palatine, Ill., senior, parks his bike in front of Budig Hall and uses a U-lock to secure the bike while on his way to his morning class. Ekstrom rode about eight minutes to Budig and had never thought his bike would be unsafe. He said people on campus were friendly and he'd never seen anyone trying to steal a bike.
TRANSPORTATION
Bicyclists roll over laws
Riders responsible for obeying rules on campus
By Brandon Baker
baker@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
At the entrances to campus, cars without passes must turn around and find alternate routes during closed campus hours.
Bike riders can zoom past without a word. However,riders will follow the same rules as cars while on campus
Chris Keary, assistant director of the KU Public Safety Office, said riders were responsible for obeying all rules applicable to cars. Keary said the most common violation was failure to stop
at a stop sign. Campus police can issue a ticket to a rider for not stopping at a posted intersection. The ticket is the same for not stopping at a stop sign while driving a car—$92 per violation.
"Whenever someone runs a stop sign and it has caused an accident, when a car and a bike is involved, the biker is the loser," Keary said.
Jill Kuhnheim, Spanish professor, said she did rolling stops at stop signs on her bike, and doubted she would get caught. Other than rolling stops, Kuhnheim said she obeyed all other traffic laws.
Steven Phipps, Galena senior, said he always ran the stop sign at the intersection of West Campus Road and Memorial Drive. He had even ran the sign behind a campus police car, but didn't know he could get a ticket for it.
"Now you've got me kind of worried." Phipps said. "I don't think I'm going to go through stop signs anymore."
Carlos Von Montfort, graduate teaching assistant from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said he was aware of the threat of a ticket and always stopped at the signs. Von Montfort said he rode his bike to school because he didn't like cars, but understood that bikers on campus got away under the lax rules. He said he thought bikers would follow the rules more if they had more information.
Von Montfort and Kuhnheim said they felt safe leaving their bikes locked up on campus. Both riders use U-locks.
Von Montfort said he thought no one would steal his bike on campus, not just because of the lock but because people on campus have respect for each other's property.
respector even better Keary said bike theft has declined but it was still important that students lock their bikes with U-locks because they are more secure than chain locks.
Edited by Kevin Wiggs
STUDENT SERVICES
Students foam over washer machine changes
By Donovan Atkinson and Kadi Kerr editor@kansan.com Special to the Kansan
Jennifer Overstreet never thought she would receive 10 e-mails a day about laundry. As All Scholarship Hall Council president, Overstreet fields concerns from scholarship hall residents angry about the new washing machines.
acornes. "People are mad," the Maize senior
said. "It's easy to latch on to an issue and really focus on that."
Through word of mouth, scholarship hall residents discovered that their days of free laundry services were at an end.
The Department of Student Housing signed a new three-year contract to install coin-operated, industrial washers and dryers in the 10 scholarship halls at the University of Kansas. The contract also includes replacing
machines in the residence halls. Prices for the residence halls will remain at 75 cents per load, but scholarship hall residents will have to pay an expected 25 cents per load.
cents per hour.
At the end of the spring semester, the department's contract with Jetz Service Co., Inc. expired. The department submitted a request for proposals to area laundry companies then signed with Coinmach, based out of Kansas City, Mo. It is a $30,000 investment for
Coinmach to install machines in the scholarship halls.
"The contract came up for rebidding, as it does every five years or so," said Ken Stoner, director of student housing. "We wanted to negotiate to also incorporate the system in the scholarship halls."
The department reached the decision from a viewpoint on service
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