4A NEWS
》 HOUSING
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2007
Rush to lease intensifies
Students begin early search for houses in 'student ghetto'
BY COURTNEY CONDRON
ccondron@kansan.com
Whitney Cherpitel, Overland Park junior, realized the competitiveness of leasing houses on Tennessee Street when she looked at a house for the second time, and found another group already touring it.
Cherpitel called the landlord immediately after the tour was over, and leased the eight-person house for next school year before
the other group could.
"it's kind of a race to find the nicer houses," Cherpitel said. "We basically gave ourselves a week to find a house."
Students looking for houses in the "student ghetto"
"Someone starts the stampede and once it starts it's like a gold rush."
around Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio streets for the 2008 school year have been signing leases earlier than usual.
Serena Hearn, a landlord who rents out several different sized houses, said that this was the earliest she had ever seen students start looking. Hearn has been renting houses for eight years, and said that people started looking a month earlier every year. She has already rented out a third of her houses.
"Someone starts the stampede and once it starts, it's like a gold rush," Hearn said. "Now I'm worried, because I don't know how big this stampede is."
because usually she used August and September to focus on maintenance of her houses.
Hearn said she thought that it was mainly groups from sororities and fraternities wanting to live out-of-house who were looking so early. She said it had been difficult,
Joe Shull, Lenexa junior, said he and a group friends picked out a house they wanted at the end of last year, and spoke to the landlord in early August. Shull said the landlord told them he would lease to them, however, when he received a better offer from a group of women, he rented the house to them instead.
"I think our number one obstacle was that we were a bunch of guys," Shull said. "We spoke to another landlord who said he wouldn't rent out to guys at all."
SERENA HEARN
Landlord
Shull said he thought the pressure to find a house intensi-
ing to people in other fraternities who had already signed a lease.
Rick Krupper, who leased around eight houses in the "student ghetto", said last year he was showing houses at the end of October and signing them in November.
"I thought that was early, and then this year I was showing houses in the first part of September," Krupper said. "I can't believe it."
Krupper said that the students who were looking earlier wanted the nicer houses, with landlords that take care of them.
Nicole Westerdeck, a leasing agent for Hawks Pointe Apartments, said people were looking at apartments earlier than usual as well. She said Hawks Pointe already had people looking at apartments for next year, but
that most students wouldn't fill out applications until November or December.
"The Lawrence market is always competitive," Westerdeck said. "Location is always a prime factor, especially in students."
Hearn said signing leases early was now putting pressure on students to decide whether they wanted to live in the house they were currently in for another year. She said her deadline for groups to decide whether they wanted to stay used to be December, but now she had to move it to Oct. 15.
"I don't want to throw people out of their house who want to stav." Hearn said.
One method tenants use to help lease houses is to pass them down to friends or members of their fraternity or sorority.
Abby Miller, Bloomington, Minn., senior, who has a house on Ohio, said she would like to pass her house down to other girls in her sorority, but that the landlord would make the final decision.
"We've already had people asking about it, but we haven't decided what we're going to do," Miller said.
Emily Enright, Manhattan junior, was able to lease a nineperson house that a group of girls from her sorority currently lived in.
"We knew we wanted it, so we got on it really early." Enright said.
Krupper said that he thought signing houses this early has a risk, because students could decide not to come back or to change schools.
"That's a long time to make an advanced commitment for a student I think." Krupper said. "But they're willing to do it."
— Edited by Ashlee Kieler
would not relinquish their 27-24 lead over the final 6 1/2 minutes of the game, thanks to interceptions by Talib and junior cornerback Kendrick Harper.
Kansas displayed some of the attributes it had obviously lacked in the past several years. The Jayhawks showed enough fight to overcome a slow start, enough heart to
Kansas State to just seven points in the fourth quarter, providing all the cushion Reesing and the Jayhawk offense would need. With 7:32 remaining in the game, Reesing completed two quick passes to push the Jayhawks to the Wildcat 30-yard line before firing a touchdown pass over the middle to junior wide receiver Dexton Fields. The Jayhawks
overcome a bevy of screaming fans and enough will to tame a Top-25 opponent.
"This was a hard fought game," Mangino said. "I'm especially proud of our players, who overcame some adversity. They never gave up and kept making plays on offense and defense."
FOOTBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Edited by Meghan Murphy
Officer kills six in Wisconsin
CRIME
the nouse where a shooting rampage took place is seen Sunday in Crandon, Wis. An off-duty sheriff's deputy went on a shooting rampage early in southern Wisconsin, killing six people and injuring a seventh before authorities fatally shot him, officials said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Off-duty sheriff's deputy goes on Sunday morning spree
BY ROBERT IMRIE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CRANDON, Wis. — An off-duty sherriff's deputy went on a shooting rampage early Sunday at a home where seven young people had gathered for pizza and movies, killing six and critically injuring the other before authorities fatally shot him, officials said.
The gunman, Tyler Peterson, was 20 years old and worked full-time as a Forest County deputy sheriff and part-time as a Crandon police officer, said Police Chief John Dennee.
Three of the victims were students at the small town's high school, and three were recent graduates, a school official said. The gunman may have graduated from the same high school.
The survivor was hospitalized in nearby Marshfield, Dennee said. A Crandon police officer who fired back was treated for minor injuries and released.
Gary Bradley, mayor of the city of about 2,000, said earlier Sunday that a sniper killed the suspect, but Van Cleve would not confirm that officers shot the suspect.
The circumstances of the shooting were hazy Sunday and it wasn't immediately clear what the gunman's motive was, but the mother of a 14-year-old victim said the suspect may have been a jealous boyfriend. The shooting occurred in a white, two-story duplex about a block from downtown Crandon.
"It was a pizza and movie party," Denneau said.
Three of the victims were Crandon High School students, said schools Superintendent Richard Peters, and the other three had graduated within the past three years.
"There is probably nobody in
Peters did not know whether Peterson had also graduated from the 300-student high school. But Crandon resident Karly Johnson, 16, said that she knew the gunman and that he had helped her in a tech
Crandon who is not affected by this," Peters said, adding that students would be especially affected. "They are going to wake up in shock and disbelief and a lot of pain."
"He graduated with my brother," she said. "He was nice. He was an average guy. Normal. You wouldn't think he could do that."
education class.
One of the dead was 14-year-old Lindsey Stahl, said her mother, lenny Stahl. 39.
"I'm waiting for somebody to wake me up right now. This is a bad, bad dream," the weeping mother said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Neighbors hug near where a law enforcement employee went on a shooting rampage Sunday. The victims were all students or recent graduates of Crandon High School.
FREE MOVIE NIGHT OCTOBER 17,2007!
7pm Woodruff Auditorium
Get your geek on! Bring your information security questions, enter a prize drawing and stay for a free showing of Sneakers sponsored by the IT Security Office.
www.beseKUre.ku.edu
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