MONDAY,AUGUST 18.2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
New parking garage pleases neighbors
By Meghan Brune
mbrune@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Gleaming white concrete welcomes Sunday visitors and leads the Masses up the stone steps to the St. Lawrence Catholic Center.
The center, 1631 Crescent Road, has a new two-level parking facility. It was completed in June after three years of fundraising and construction.
The church now can provide enough parking for its churchgoers during the busy school year, the real test of the parking lot's success with the return of KU students.
During the church's heaviest rush, Ash Wednesday, the number of cars in the lot peaked at 169. Father Vince Krische said.
The two lots, one at street level and one below ground, contain 174 parking spots. The old lot only had room for 95 spots.
The lower level offered shade
and relief from the heat during summer services, and Krische said he has heard only good reviews from church-goers.
reviews for our book.
Linda Elwell, 1648 Crescent Road, neighbors St. Lawrence.
When the lot was under construction, she said a lot of people were walking in front of her house.
But Elwell said she had no problem with the church's new addition.
"We don't even know when church is anymore." Elwell said.
The parking garage is on the south side of the center, the opposite from the neighborhood.
"I can't see it, can't hear it and it keeps people from parking on our streets." Ewell said.
Elwell's home is one of the only houses surrounding the center that is not owned by St. Lawrence.
She said the construction was needed and had helped with the congestion.
Construction began June
2002 and ended this June. The process started much earlier, though, with a joint fundraiser in 2000 for endowment, an education center, a professorship and the parking garage.
The garage cost about $3 million to build, paid for with oledges from the community.
The last step of the project is to clear the temporary lot across the street at 1435 Engel Road. With permission from the city, the center created the lot for 55 cars with asphalt, orange fences and student traffic directors.
Amanda Williams, Dallas senior, said the new parking garage made a difference.
"It doesn't take as long to get in and out of Mass," she said.
Parking passes for about 100 spots in the lot during school hours are available to students registered at St. Lawrence.
The lot will be restricted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
- Edited by Cate Batchelder
Engineering classes to continue despite construction delay
By Maggie Newcomer
mnewcomer@kansan.com
Kansan Staff writer
When construction crews broke ground on the new engineering building in February 2002, the completion date was June 2003. June 2003 is over, but the building is unfinished, leaving staff and students to make do.
Originally the building was to be finished before fall classes started. Jill Hummels, public relations director for the School of Engineering, said a lack of available drywall crews to finish Sheetrock inside the building caused the delay.
cause us to cry.
"We'll just deal with it, get it right and move on from there," Hummels said.
Although unfinished, the building is functional, Stuart Bell, dean of engineering, said. Engineering faculty members moved into their offices last Monday and classes will begin in the building's 15 labs on schedule. The 230-seat Spahr multimedia classroom, the only classroom in the building, will be finished mid-fall.
classroom in the spring.
Classes will be held in the
Bell said in case of delays, no classes were assigned to the classroom and no one's schedule would be affected this fall. Several details remain unfinished as well.
Landscaping and indoor displays need to be installed and some last-minute repairs, such as paint touchups and window repairs, are needed.
A Jayhawk will grace the floor
concrete will be poured at the front entrance. The building, with construction equipment littering the ground, will be cleaned up by the first day of classes.
The building, dubbed Eaton Hall in June, was named after Robert Eaton, a 1963 KU graduate in mechanical engineering who donated $5 million to the $15 million building.
Edited by Erin Riffey
John Nowak/Kansan
Eaton Hall was scheduled to be finished by June,but crews are working on the finishing touches.
KU Info moves to Anschutz Library, launches new Web site
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
astairrett@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Students looking for answers can still call KU Info — they just better be on topic.
After fears of closing, KU Info officially re-opened on the third floor of Anschutz Library yesterday. They will still offer its phone service, but with some changes. Questions unrelated to the University of Kansas and the Lawrence area, such as "Why do guys shiver after they pee?" will no longer be answered by KU Info's operators. Instead callers will be referred to Internet search engines and other resources.
In addition, the 33-year-old program is updating its services, offering a walk-in desk and online reference page.
"I think people will appreciate the new service," Chris Martin, Prairie Village graduate assistant, said.
Martin said people would be disappointed that KU Info's legendary status as a go-to source for trivial information will diminish.
About 10 percent of KU Info's callers rely on the service for trivia-type questions, according to Martin's estimates.
J-Talk services have changed, too. The automated answering service serves KU Info after-hours. Previously, the line's message was too long, giving callers too much information. Now the line provides students with a touch-tone system offering information like campus building hours and academic information.
Reduced funding and resources are to blame for the information service's cut back in hours. KU Info's hours may change based on student reaction.
The schedule is based on call volume and Hawk Week activities. KU Info's hours are 10 a.m.to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Students spent 2002 wondering about the fate of KU Info.
Budget cuts meant the service would no longer be part of the Office of Student Success and University officials considered turning it exclusively into an online service.
But students rallied behind KU Info after University administration deemed it unnecessary. Anschutz Library jumped at the opportunity to house the service and the library now directly funds KU Info.
Because the library contained a reference desk, Martin said KU Info fit in well. Anschutz saw taking in KU info as an opportunity to bring in additional information sources, Martin said.
Martin said the new location would allow students to interact more openly with the information service.
Martin credits student response for saving KU Info. The service was created by students in 1970 to serve as a rumor control line.
Susan Elkins, program director, said KU Info served an important function on campus and it was proven by the numbers. When its budget was cut by 30 percent, calls reduced by 31 percent.
The line receives a flood of calls on snow days by students seeking a day off. On Jan. 19, a snow storm hit Lawrence and the line received 1,642 calls. Employees answered the phone all night.
In 2000, KU Info received a
total of 156,858 calls. Numbers dropped in 2001, with 147,408 calls. The drop continued in 2002 to 101,700 calls. Elkins said the decrease in call volume was because of KU Info's decreasing hours.
Elkins promised KU Info would remain a valuable resource, even if it may lose some of its status among students with odd questions.
"We will be just as fun as we always have." Elkins said.
KU Info can be reached at 864-3506 or www.kuinfo.lib.ku.edu.
Officials are planning an open house soon after school starts.
Edited by Shane Mettlen
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