12A
Thursday, August 22,1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Star Trek
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the '60s," Gunn said. "I watched a few of them."
Gunn said he preferred Star Trek: The Next Generation to the original series because the stories have improved, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard's intellectuality provided more interest than Captain James T. Kirk's impulsiveness.
Many would find putting words into the mouths of mythical television characters an intimidating experience, but Gunn said he had no problem.
"The way they spoke was fairly obvious," he said. "One falls into their speech patterns without much difficulty."
Gunn said the most fun part about writing the novel was the opportunity to answer questions he'd always pondered about the television show.
"A thing that occurred to me was that they never seemed to have any problem coordinating their activities according to some timed schedule," Gunn said. "Since they're down on the planet and the ship is orbiting the planet overhead, there's no way, really, for either of them to know what time it is."
Gunn answered his own question by inventing "Federation Standard Time" for his novel.
Gunn, who has published 95 short stories and 19 novels and has edited numerous science fiction collections, finds it ironic that he faces his greatest success with a story that wasn't even his idea, full of characters that weren't his own.
"When I teach fiction-writing classes, I tell my students not to write in somebody else's universe, to do their own thing." Gunn said. "You can't really become an effective writer until you
On Star Trek's enduring success, Gunn said that science fiction would always have a niche in American culture.
start writing your own perceptions."
"Star Trek is peculiarly American. We have been future-oriented. We're less interested in how things used to be than we are interested in how they're going to be done. So science fiction acquired a particularly American characteristic.
"Star Trek, at its worst, is merely a soap opera in space." Gunn said. "At its best, when it really deals in ideas and change, is based on the belief that we will have solved most of our human problems."
Gunn has done much for science fiction enthusiasts at the University. Aaron Rosenberg, Lawrence graduate student, and a pupil of Gunn's for 10 years, said Gunn was one of the main reasons he stayed at the University.
"What a lot of students always liked about him was that he's not only a professor, he's a well-known writer," said Rosenberg, a science fiction enthusiast. "He really knows the people he's talking about: The writers, the editors and historians."
The Joy Machine hit bookstores Aug. 10. Lisa Eitner, a supervisor at Mt. Oread Bookshop in the Kansas Union, said her store had not received Gunn's book yet but still planned a September autograph signing party for Gunn.
Ordover expected Gunn's novel to sell well, saying the Star Trek novels were consistently best-sellers. Unfortunately for Gunn, the royalties go mostly to Paramount Pictures, which owns the work. But Gunn's not complaining.
"If my novel does as well as my editors say it will, it will still be the most lucrative work of my career," he said.
Brian Hott/KANSAN
James Gunn, a retired University of Kansas professor, shows off his new Star Trek book, which was released Aug. 10. Gunn will be signing his book in early September in the Kansas Union.
Plates
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expense
The University of Kansas has sought to implement the collegiate license plate program for over a decade under the direction of David Atkins, Rep., Leawood Kan. Initially, the program was not set up with the intent to charge an additional fee. Atkins thinks the fee and time delay is unacceptable.
"When the novelty wears off, people will realize that this program is ineffective." Atkins said.
must be purchased six months prior to issuance and the time delay to receive the finished product can stretch from six to 17 months, depending on where the consumers name falls within the alphabet. Williams and Atkins think because of the fee and time delay, the program will be perceived as a "rip off" by students and alumni in years to come.
Under Kansas law, a voucher
But other schools plan to go ahead with the program.
Larry Shell, Associate to the executive director at Oklahoma State University, said he was excited about the program.
"We are looking forward to getting initiated into this beneficial
program," he said.
Indiana University has had success with the collegiate program, which other schools are trying to replicate on their own license plates.
Atkins is not ready to give up on the collegiate license plate program, in fact, he will propose a new bill this fall with no extra fee or time delay. He said the collegiate plate program will be a good way to generate revenue for the University.
On-line
"Isee this as an entrepreneurial venture and Kansas should look for way to encourage this to happen, not discourage it from happening," Atkins said.
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$20 increase over last year's rate.
A second option is to pay $20 for use until the end of December or to pay $30 in January for use until the end of July. This option was introduced for people on campus for just one semester.
The basic fee allows students 50 hours of on-line time a month. Once this time is surpassed, a student is billed 50 cents for every additional hour.
There is a grace period in the billing. No bill will be issued to students for less than $10. This means that a student can stay on-line for 69 hours a month and not pay the extra fee. Once 70
hours of usage is reached, though, a $10 bill will be sent.
Also, the maximum monthly fee is $30. After this is reached, a student's service for that month will be cut off. Users will have no way of knowing how much time they have been on-line during the month because the University doesn't have software capabilities to for that. The University estimated the increase would affect only 6 percent of users.
Shulenburger said the fee increase would be used to buy 96 new modern ports, giving the University a total of 352. This would provide a port for every 20 users, as opposed to one for every 25 users last year, decreasing the chance of being denied access to the system.
The new equipment needed to add
Grey Montgomery, student body president, said that while the fee increase was needed and expected, the plan had a problem.
these modern ports will cost the University $150,000. Another $70,000 will be spent on additional staffing to answer user questions during extended evening and weekend hours.
"This is just a scenario where it is necessary to make the ends meet to allow for expansion," he said. "I am just concerned about the students affected by the monthly hour cap."
Faculty or staff who have an account will be renewed automatically and sent a bill.
All students' accounts need to be renewed on-line at
http://www.cc.ukans.edu/renew.html