MONDAY,AUGUST 18,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Graffiti and holes cover the walls of Lindley Hall Annex. The summer vandalism was reported to police who took no action because the building is slated for demolition.
Annex to be demolished
By Zack Hemenway
zhemenway@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
In 1947, familiar historical buildings didn't dominate the University of Kansas campus as they do today. Instead, many classes were held in rectangular, wooden one-story structures donated by the military after World War II.
Almost fifty years later, the Lindley Hall Annex, used exclusively for introductory architecture classes, is the last of these structures still standing.
"They called them 'temporary,' Warren Corman, university architect, said. "But 'temporary' meant 'permanent until we tear it down.'"
A decision made last Thursday by the Kansas Legislature's Joint Committee for Building Construction will make this school year the last one for the decrepit building.
The 10,000-square-foot annex has rotting windows, astestos-rediding siding and a
crumbling concrete foundation. The roof requires patching often and still leaks regularly.
The inside of the building has its problems as well, according to Matt Pauly, Denton sophomore, who took classes in the annex last year.
"The lighting isn't very good, and everything's old and falling apart," Pauly said. "I have some good memories there, but I'm not too sad to see it go."
Corman said the plan, which was approved by the Lawrence Historical Society, would cost approximately $100,000. Asbestos removal accounts for almost one-third of the cost.
The University's Environment, Health and Safety Department will supervise the asbestos removal. Corman said the Chancellor's Office has already begun to locate funds for the project.
recommendation to the Board of Regents in September. The Regents, in turn, will report to the legislature during budget allocations for the 2003-2004 year.
Legislative red tape and regulations make tearing down the annex a lengthy process. The Joint Committee will make its
Corman doesn't expect any delays, describing the entire process as a "formality." He expects the last "temporary" building on campus to be destroyed sometime next summer.
John Gaunt, dean of architecture, said the school would be moving classes and equipment to Snow Hall for the spring semester. The new architecture classrooms will fill space in Snow Hall vacated by the computer science department.
ence department. Two introductory classes will be taught at the annex this fall, but "Architectural Graphics I" and "Architectural Design I" students will likely be the last of the many budding architects who have sat in classrooms 101 A through F.
Edited by Jonathan Reeder
Campus burglaries decrease
By Joe Hartigan jhartigan@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Report shows increase in forcible sex offenses last year
Kerri Davis didn't worry about having things stolen from her dorm room on the seventh floor of McCollum last year.
She felt safe enough to keep her door unlocked most of the time.
time.
"We didn't lock our door, but we never had any problems," Davis said.
Davis and her roommate wouldn't even lock the door when they slept most of the time.
"We would climb up on our loft and forget," Davis said. "When we'd remember,we'd be too lazy to get down and lock it."
While this kind of activity put Davis at risk, she never had any problems. The good news for students like Davis is that burglaries in University of Kansas residence halls were down from last year. However, the same report said forcible sex offenses were up.
The Clery Report — an annual
report detailing statistics about campus crime - indicates that 36 burglaries were committed in KU residence halls in 2002, down from 43 the previous year — a 16 percent drop.
percent drop
"We hope it's because students are using common sense," Lieutenant Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said.
Public Safety Office However, the report also shows that forcible sex offenses in residence halls rose from one offense in 2002 to three offenses in 2002.
"They have to realize that crime does happen," Bailey said. "The University is not an island. They have a responsibility along with us to protect themselves."
Bailey urged students to protect themselves by locking doors at all times including while they sleep or study, to not leave property unattended, to not leave valuables in plain sight inside vehicles, and to remove stereo face plates from vehicles when not in use.
Bailey also recommended that
"We didn't lock our door, but we never had any problems"
Kerri Davis
Omaha, Neb., sophomore
students report anything suspicious or out-of-place to the KU Public Safety Office or the Lawrence Police Department.
"Don't forget that you are in a new place — a strange place." Bailey said. "While we want you to have a great college experience, we want you to be safe."
The Clery Report is filed annually and details campus crime over the previous three years as part of the Clery Act of 1998. The act requires colleges and universities receiving federal financial aid to report crime statistics on college campuses to members of the campus community and to provide safety information.
Haworth Hall left in the dark
Edited by Erin Riffey
Generators used to restore power after three-hour outage
By Amber Byarlay
abyarlay@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Thirty years worth of research can easily be lost in six hours. Just ask the researchers of Haworth Hall.
On July 17 Haworth Hall lost power for three hours, leaving nearly all of its laboratories without power. Only four of the 40 labs in Haworth have access to backup power.
The outage sent researchers scurrying to locate enough generators to provide the necessary power for 20 freezers that need to maintain a temperature of negative 80 degrees Celsius The freezers contain temperature-sensitive research specimens that, in some cases, took as long as 50 years to collect. Kandi White, business manager for biological sciences, said the July outage was the longest the building had experienced.
The biological sciences division rented gas generators to provide power to the freezers. The generators created new problems because the freezers were incompatible with the generators. Researchers had to jury-rig the generators to plug freezers into them.
Gasoline fumes from the generators created a health hazard. The heat from the generators caused problems for experiments being done at room temperature.
Erik Lindquist, assistant professor, may have lost work because of the power outage, but he couldn't be sure.
"If we did lose things it would have been disastrous," he said. The damage would be worse if the outage occurred on a weekend or at night when no one could take action,he said.
Facilities Operations Director Doug Riat said the outage occurred when the breaker on the electrical circuit to Haworth tripped because it received an incorrect code from the electric system. The biological science department is working with construction management to get back-up power supplies to all of Haworth.
— Edited by Jonathan Reeder