6A NEWS THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2007 LAWRENCE Night promotes downtown City celebration coincides with Family Weekend BY MATT LINDBERG mlindberg@kansan.com On Saturday the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, with the help of the city of Lawrence, will encourage students, residents and out-of-town guests to visit downtown with a lot of entertainment and good food, by hosting "Get Downtown Lawrence Live 2007." The event, which was planned to coincide with the University's Family Weekend, will include various activities, food and drinks for those who attend. Becca Booth, Lawrence Chamber of Commerce employee, said the event theme is "TGIF." Get Downtown will start off by giving the people a chance to relax. Crown Distributing, who also is sponsoring the event, is providing Coors Light and Boulevard beers for $3. "To go along with the motto, we want to start off the festivities by letting people come down, drink a beer and relax," Booth said. "From there, a lot will be going on that people should be excited about." Friday night's activities include a performance from the KU band and Spirit Squad, local bands Sellout! and The Twang Daddies, as well as a special $5 barbecue dinner provided by Buffalo Bob's Smokehouse from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Rusty Matcher, the manager of Buffalo Bob's Smokehouse at 719 Massachusetts St., said Get Downtown was always an event they looked forward to. "It's a good way for us to increase our sales by helping out, so it's beneficial for us to be apart of it," Matcher said. Booth said the goal of the event was to get the KU and Lawrence community together alongside visitors to enjoy the downtown area. Nate Miller, a Wichita junior who attended Get Downtown last year, said he thought it was a good idea to promote the downtown area. "Downtown Lawrence is really beautiful and so unique compared to a lot of places." Miller said. "This is a great chance for everyone to come event info Take your weekend to Massachusetts Street and enjoy Get Downtown Lawrence Live 2007: Where: Eight Street between Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets When: 4 to 10 tonight What's going on: See live performances from the KU Band and Spirit Squad and local bands Sellout! and The Twang Daddies. Get a $5 barbecue dinner provided by Buffalo Bob's Smokehouse. down, hear good music and have good fun. And there's good beer and food." Get Downtown will take place from 4 to 10 tonight on Eighth Street between Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets. - Edited by Amelia Freidline OIL PRICES OIL PRICES Oil closes at record $80 after Hurricane Humberto NEW YORK — Oil prices finished above $80 a barrel for the first time Thursday and gasoline prices rose as refiners reported production problems after Hurricane Humberto hit Texas. Oil first traded over $80 a barrel on Wednesday after the Energy Department reported declines in inventories and a drop in refinery activity, but ended the day below that psychologically important mark. On Thursday, Humberto added to the supply concerns by cutting power to several refineries in the Port Arthur, Texas, area. Another tropical system gaining strength in the Atlantic also supported prices. Light, sweet crate for October delivery finished at a record $80.09, above the previous record close of $79.91 set a day earlier. Despite the gains, oil is still well below inflation-adjusted highs hit in 1980. Depending on the adjustment, a $38 barrel of oil in 1980 would be worth $96 to $101 or more today. The October oil contract also set an intraday record of $80.20 a barrel on Thursday, 2 cents above the previous trading high set Wednesday. Humberto lost strength Thursday and was downgraded to a tropical storm. Traders appear more concerned about the Atlantic storm, which the National Hurricane Center is calling Tropical Depression Eight. While the storm's course remains unclear, energy investors get worried any time a tropical storm or hurricane threatens key oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. Associated Press Christina Barritt, assistant to the dean in the School of Education, said the tournament came together 14 years ago to reward students who the school thought earned a scholarship. Barritt said former KU football star "We dedicated a major event to celebrate the school and raise money to support the multicultural scholarship." Golfers tee up for a good cause this morning when the School of Education sponsors the 14th annual Gale Sayers Golf Tournament. The tournament benefits the School of Education's Multicultural Scholars Program. MIKE NEAL Assistant Dean, School of Education Gale Sayers helped put the tournament together. Alvamar Golf Course, 1809 Crossgate Drive. "Gale Sayers has played a very influential role at the School of Education," Barritt said. "He helped us get the tournament started by endorsing it. He cares a lot about education." Mike Neal, assistant dean in the School of Education, said the event was more than a game of golf. to come together, collaborate and build relationships," Neal said. "We dedicated a major event to celebrate the school and raise money to support the multicultural scholarships." Neal said it was important for the school of education to raise "This is a social event for students and faculty money for the multicultural scholars program so the school could continue to offer scholarships to incoming students. The tournament is a four-man scramble consisting of 26 teams and 100 golfers total. To enter the tournament, golfers pay $100 to play individually or $360 per team of four. In addition to the round of golf, players will be invited to a free lunch and silent auction, which takes place at 1 p.m. today at "We are really putting our money where our mouth is by having this event. We want to attract students to KU and we will get that support," he said. Neal also said all money earned would go directly back to students, as all the proceeds pay for the multicultural scholarships. The Gale Sayers Golf Tournament has taken place at Alvamar Country Club every year since it started. David Dunn, Alvamar golf shop manager, said the tournament was an event to look forward to each year. BY MATT LINDBERG mlindberg@kansan.com "We are a staple in this event each year because we really like to be associated with anything KU and especially the School of Education," Dunn said. The tournament starts at 7 this morning, and golfing will last until 3 p.m. The lunch and silent auction are scheduled to start at 1 p.m., shortly after the tournament ends. Edited by Jeff Briscoe CAMPUS Weekend offers events for families Golf tournament benefits scholarships for minorities BY COURTNEY CONDRON SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ccondron@kansan.com University of Kansas Family Weekend begins today and continues all weekend with activities each day. Events start today with the Gale Sayers golf tournament put on by the School of Education. The tournament coincides with Family Weekend for the first time this year. Other events include several open houses for different schools, a tailgate before the football game and a concert by the students in the School of Fine Arts. "Students and families can pick and choose from what they're interested in, and what's nice about it is that it's so casual," said Margey Frederick, director of special events and visitor services for the Office of University Communications. "They will still Chancellor also will be present during Family Weekend, speaking at the parent reception at 4 p.m. on Saturday. "We usually particularly have a lot of families of the new freshmen," Fredrick said. "It's a great Fitness Center parking lot, and a shuttle will be running back and forth to campus. "Students and families can pick and choose from what they're interested in, and what's nice about it is that it's so casual." MARGEY FREDERICK Director of Special Events and Visitor Services, Office of University Communications time for them to come visit the campus, especially if they're from out of state and didn't get to see their children over Labor Day" Free parking for parents will be available at the Student Recreation "We're all proud of our campus and University," Frederick said. "This is a warm, casual way to show off the campus and also educate younger siblings about KU so they too may want to attend." For more For more information. students and families can go to www.parentweekend.ku.edu or call the KU Parent Assistance Line at 864-5872. SPACEFLIGHT Edited by Rachael Gray Calling all private space pilots Google puts $30M behind moon landing contest BY ALICIA CHANG ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES — Google Inc. is bankrolling a $30 million spaceflight contest for private companies to safely land a robotic rover on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth, the Internet search leader said Thursday. The grand prize could be worth as much as $25 million. have time to go downtown and look around and do other things." Chancellor, Robert Hemenway If the competition produces a winner, it would prove a major boon to the emerging private space-flight industry and mark the first time that a nongovernment entity has flown a lunar space probe. Google partnered with the X Prize Foundation for the moon challenge, which is open to companies around the world. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit prize institute is best known for hosting the Ansari X Prize contest that led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. Government lunar missions can cost upward of hundreds of millions of dollars, but the X Prize Foundation and Google hope the private sector can do it for considerably less. Japan's space agency, JAXA. plans to launch its long-delayed orbiter SELENE from a remote Pacific Island on Friday. NASA next year will rocket a lunar orbiter and impactor, the first of several lunar robotic projects before astronauts are sent to the moon next decade. The competition comes at a time of revived interest in lunar exploration among foreign governments since the Cold War space race. Governments including the United States and those in Europe and Asia are gearing up to return to the moon. The rules call for a spacecraft to trek at least 1,312 feet across the lunar surface and return a package of data including self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real time videos. Participants are also responsible for securing a launch vehicle for the probe, either by building it themselves or contracting with an existing rocket company. The race to the moon won't be easy or cheap. Teams have to raise money to build a roaming spacecraft that will be tough enough to survive a landing and have the smarts to complete a set of tasks. Each rover must also be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras to document the journey. Whoever accomplishes the feat by the end of 2012 will receive $20 million. If there is no winner, the purse will drop to $15 million until the end of 2014 when the contest expires. There is also a $5 million second-place prize and $5 million in bonus money to teams that go beyond the minimum requirements. ---