6A NEWS
ACADEMICS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
Students earn perfect scores on ACT
BY BETH BEAVERS bbeavers@kansan.com
Cramped in a small room, being watched and timed, their futures on the line. An hour of math, a half hour of science and another half hour of reading. Forty-five minutes of English and a 30-minute writing test. It comes down to what is not exactly an ideal Saturday morning for most high school students. But five University of Kansas freshmen made the most of it and scored a perfect 36 on their ACT examinations.
According to the ACT,1.4 million students took the test in 2009, and the national average was 21.1. The average score for students admitted to the University in Fall 2008, the most recent year reported, was 24.8.
"I think that they're not a good tooledtool," said Bailey Reimer.
Shawnee freshman and one of the five who received a perfect score. "I'm good at deductive reasoning in the areas of math and reason, but other people are good at journalism or sports or art."
Four of the students admitted
— Reimer, Emily Parsons, Manhattan freshman, Nina Mathew, Pittsburg freshman, and Daniel Gritz, Prairie Village freshman — received the KU Perfect Achievement Scholarship for their perfect test scores.
Lee Furbeck, senior associate director of admissions and scholarships, said the scholarship included the cost of tuition for up to 30 hours per year, room and board in a traditional, unrenovated residence hall, and a small book stipend. The scholarship covers the students for four years. The value varies every year, but this year it equals about $15,600.
Mathew said the scholarship was a big factor in her decision to come to the University, but there were other factors that went into her decision as well.
"When I came for my senior visit, there was a really cool vibe," Mathew said. "The professors and the administrative officials were all really nice."
Parsons said all of the opportunities that went along with going to such big school influenced her decision to come to the University.
Furbeck said the KU Perfect Achievement Scholarship was only available to students who graduated from a Kansas high school.
Morgan Tichy, Ballwin, Mo., freshman, also earned a perfect score on the ACT, but because she was not a Kansas resident, she received a geographical scholarship for $10,000 a year for up to four years.
Tichy said she knew she wanted to go to pharmacy school, which was originally why she looked at the University. But she said when she visited the campus she fell in love with everything about it.
The perfect scorers aren't just extremely intelligent. They are hardworking students.Many are in honors courses.
Reimer spends time working at the Kansas Scholastic Press Association, is involved in Hashinger Hall student government and will be going on an alternative winter break to Chicago for Teach for America.
Tichy, who was an all-state softball player in high school, now plays for the University's club softball team, which requires her to balance two practices a week with her busy schedule.
- Edited by Sarah Kelly
STATE Law enforcement grant to fight against meth
STATE
TOPEKA — Kansas is receiving a $1 million grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to help fight production and distribution of methamphetamines.
Attorney General Steve Six announced the grant Tuesday.
He says part of the money will pay for two prosecutors, one each in southeast and southwest Kansas. The grant will also be used to help train law enforcement and prosecutors in building successful cases.
Slain police officer had no connection to killer
WICHITA — Authorities say the man who killed a Kansas sheriff's deputy had no known ties to him and waited to ambush any officer who responded to his bogus 911 theft call.
Sedgwick County Sheriff Robert Hinshaw released details
Tuesday in Monday's shooting death of 26-year-old Deputy Brian S. Etheridge at a southeast Wichita home.
Hinshaw identified the shooter as 27-year-old former prison inmate Richard L. Lyons. Lyons was killed in a shootout with officers several hours after Etheridge was wounded.
GOVERNMENT Pentagon gives Boeing unfair' advantage
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has given Boeing Co. an "unfair" advantage in the latest competition for a troubled $35 billion tanker contract, a Northrop Grumman Corp. executive said Tuesday.
The Pentagon shared Northrop's pricing data from its previous bid with Chicago-based Boeing, but did not reveal Boeing's cost estimates to Northrop.
Associated Press
FOOD
Dining Services doles out free samples of Better Bites
KU Dining Services will provide free samples of its Better Bites meal options Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the Kansas Union from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The tasting table will have free servings of three varieties of sandwiches and wraps. There will also be Better Bites punch cards and promotional items, said Ann Chapman, coordinator of Nutritional Services with the Wellness Resource Center.
"We know many students are interested in healthier food options on campus and will be excited about these sandwiches and wraps," she said.
Better Bites is a program initiated by a campus-wide task force known as H.O.M.E.B.A.S.E., or Healthy Options for Movement, Exercise, Body Acceptance, and Savvy Eating. The Better Bites program offers low-fat, healthier entrees and snacks within KU Dining Services. Each Better Bites entree contains less than 600 calories and less than 24 grams of fat. Each entree is marked with a Better Bites logo.
HISTORY
Aly Van Dyke
Archaeologists unearth ancient revolving restaurant
BY MARTA FALCONI Associated Press
Associated Press
Archaeologists unveiled Tuesday what they think are the remains of Nero's extravagant banquet hall, a circular space that rotated day and night to imitate the Earth's movement and impress his guests.
ROME — Not only was Nero a Roman emperor, it turns out he may also have been the father of the revolving restaurant.
The room, part of Nero's Golden Palace, a sprawling residence built in the first century A.D., is thought to have been built to entertain government officials and VIPs, said lead archaeologist Francoise Villedieu.
The emperor, known for his lavish and depraved lifestyle, ruled from 37 A.D. to 68 A.D.
She said the location of the discovery atop the Palatine Hill, the rotating structure and references to it in ancient biographies of Nero make the attribution to the emperor most likely.
The partially excavated site is part of the sumptuous residence, also known by its Latin name Domus Aurea, which rose over the ruins of a fire that destroyed much of Rome in A.D. 64.
"This cannot be compared to anything that we know of in ancient Roman architecture." Villedieu told reporters during a tour of the cordoned-off dig.
The dig so far has turned up the foundations of the room, the rotating mechanism underneath and part of an attached space believed to be the kitchens, she said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Superintendent Maria AntoniaTieta speaks to reporters in a recently unreached brick structure. It incorporated a 4-meter diameter pillar, seen at left, discovered during maintenance works on Tuesday in the Roman Forum on Tuesday.
Tanner Hotze ROCKED his Sunflower shirt this week and won a $50 Sunflower Broadband Gift Certificate!
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841-2100 sunflowerbroadband.com
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