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VOLUME 118 ISSUE 43
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Firm suggests no Boulevard parking
BY ERIN SOMMER esommer@kansan.com
The Parking Commission received an independent report last week that suggested all gold permit parking spots be removed from Jayhawk Boulevard. The report may cause a discussion among the Parking Commission about potentially changing parking and traffic flow on the street.
The report came from Professional Engineering Consultants, which observed traffic patterns on campus last spring. Last week they presented a report to the Commission and recommended changes based off of the data. Professional Engineering Consultants is a consulting firm in Topeka that the Parking Department hired to look into the conditions of campus roads and monitor traffic and parking patterns last spring. The report contained recommendations of what adjustments could be made. Donna Hultine, director of the Parking Department, said the company was paid about $19,000 and frequently works for the University.
Hultine said that the firm was hired last year after Jason Boots, then student body president, asked the Parking Department to look into putting bike lanes on Jayhawk Boulevard. She said that Professional Engineering Consultants was hired to make general observations and suggestions about traffic, parking and possible bike lanes on the street. Hultine said that this year's Commission will now discuss the best way to use the information.
"I think that the Commission is going to start fresh and look at everything." Hutine said. "We will always need to have accessible parking."
Hultine said that even if gold parking spaces were removed from Jayhawk
Boulevard, spots would still be needed for service vehicles and handicapped parking.
The only vehicles allowed to pass through the control booths are service vehicles, emergency vehicles, buses and vehicles with a gold parking permit.
Mike Berry, director of the Topeka office of Professional Engineering Consultants, said that the changes proposed by the company were intended to reduce parking and traffic on Jayhawk Boulevard, including eliminating "gold zone" parking.
"The big problem is we have too many people who have authority to get past traffic booths and get up on main campus," Berry said.
Berry said that service vehicles would sometimes cut through campus for convenience when they are not doing something that requires driving across jayhawk Boulevard. He said that the University needs to more closely regulate these situations.
Berry said that having parking zones directly on Jayhawk Boulevard creates congestion because people look for parking spots but may not actually park there.
Emily Williams, Overland Park senior, student senator and member of the Parking Commission, said that the bike lanes, which were originally proposed by Boots to go down the center of Jayhawk Boulevard, could cause a safety issue.
"Part of my concern with the bike lanes is the location the bike lanes were proposed
— down the center of the lane," Williams said. "I would prefer to have bike lanes on the outside of the road."
Williams said that she saw the concern people had about keeping gold zone parking spaces on Jayhawk Boulevard, but she also wanted to protect student spots. She wanted
Hultine said that implementing the bike lanes may still be discussed by the Commission.
to ensure that taking away spots from gold ticket holders did not result in a loss of student parking spots.
Hultine said that the next step was to gather opinions from members of the Parking Commission. She also said that at the next meeting on Nov. 13, the Commission would discuss changing the requirements of owning a gold parking permit.
The purchase a gold parking permit, a staff member must be 62 years of age with service to the University and an office between the control booths on lajhwack Boulevard.
Hutline said that the Commission will discuss how to make this permit more difficult to obtain while still allowing every staff member who currently has one to keep it.
Edited by Rachael Gray
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JIU-JITSU
Instructors, fighters defend their martial art
Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructors said the martial art has gotten a bad reputation because of a recent crime.
Matthew Jaeger, a KU student charged with four felonies last week, is trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The main objective ofjiu-jitsu is taking a person down to the ground and forcing them to submit. People
use chokeholds and joint locks asjiu-jitsu techniques.Myles Baker, program director at Premier Martial Arts in Lawrence, said jiu-jitsu is usually taught for defense, not for aggression.
"It really upsets because that's not martial arts," he said of the allegations against Jaeger.
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
'The Rest of Her Life author to visit campus
Lawrence author and University alum Laura Moriarty will read from and sign copies of her second novel "The Rest of Her Life" tonight from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Oread Books in the Kansas Union. The event is free and open to the public.
BOOK SIGNING
The book is about a teenage girl who is in an automobile accident that kills a classmate. The tragedy adds strain
on an already difficult mother-daughter relationship as well as in the community.
"It's about guilt, but it's also about emotional blindness," Moriarty said.
Moriarty
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
Jessica Crabaugh/KANSAN
Laura Gilman, KU-Hillel, expresses her opinion on what's acceptable to say around campus. A lot of the discussion was on gender roles and sexuality and how it could be presented to KU students through different programming.
Group discusses gender issues
AWARENESS
Students representing various KU organizations discussed what role gender plays in their organization Tuesday. The Commission on the Status of Women hosted "Making A Difference" to exchange ideas of ways to raise awareness about gender issues on campus.
"Our main goal is to end gender discrimination through education," CSW president Liz Stuewe said.
Students discussed ways to bring more
awareness about gender issues to campus through their organizations. The group decided on a Women's History Month community service project focusing on derogatory language used against women. The event is celebrated in March.
Professor Joey Sprague said the groups' work was important because power rests in numbers, and small, committed groups of people like CSW could make a difference.
G
FULL STORY PAGE 10A
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