WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2007 | NEWS | WWW.KANSAN.COM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 11
练
CAMPUS
Mix up causes interruption in bus service
Two students stranded as Lawrence Bus Company drivers fail to show up for work
By Susan Schwarz
sschwarz@kansan.com
KU on Wheels' recent decision to switch bus driver providers caused a lapse in operation on June 18.
May Davis, transportation coordinator for KU on Wheels, said Lawrence Bus Company workers did not show up in the morning, leaving the buses without drivers.
Davis said the company would not tell her why the drivers didn't show up.
She said the situation could be connected to the switch from Lawrence Bus Company to MV Transportation.
Davis said that KU on Wheels would be switching to a new company, MV Transportation, to supply the drivers for the University bus system. The switch will happen on June 29 for SafeRide and July 1 for KU on Wheels.
Students were left without KU on Wheels service on June 18 after drivers from the Lawrence Bus Company failed to show up for work. The company declined to comment on the situation.
The Lawrence Bus Company would not comment on whether the switch of companies was the reason their drivers did not show up.
She added that KU on Wheels switched companies because MV
Transportation "had a more cost effective proposal with new ideas involving new technology"
Davis said she spoke with the Lawrence Bus Company and does not expect to have this problem in the future.
Two students waited for nearly 30 minutes for the bus from Park and Ride. Ashley Coleman, Kansas City senior, and Steven Witherspoon, Wichita senior, said they noticed there were no cars around.
Coleman and Witherspoon decided to drive to class to avoid being late. Coleman made it to class in time, but Witherspoon said did not.
Jon Goerina/KANSAN
Coleman said she picked up two friends waiting at the bus stop by Jayhawker Towers on her way to park behind Frasier Hall. "They would probably still be sitting their today if I hadn't picked them up," she said.
Coleman said she looks for cars in the parking lot to make sure the buses will be running that day. Coleman said she wished she had received an e-mail alerting her to the situation.
- Edited by Joe Caponio
》 SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
Students take digital ideas to New York competition
By Joe Caponio jcaponio@kansan.com
Five University of Kansas journalism students are working on creating new ideas that could shape the ways of digital media in the near future.
The five students; graduate students Chris Raine, Nate Martin and Courtney Farr, and seniors Brian Lewis-Jones and Sam Knowlton, are part of the Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge.
In the challenge, students from various universities work together to create and develop ideas that would help improve the global community through digital media.
Raine and Farr are former University Daily Kansan staff members, and Lewis-Jones is a current staff member.
The students will each receive two credit hours of coursework for participating in the challenge.
Each member of the team was asked to come up with 10 ideas for digital media, and then narrow them down
to one idea to present to bring during a meeting at Ithaca College in New York in early August. Some of the original ideas on the list included everything from a Web site that would allow people to get medical advice from doctors without having to schedule an appointment to a database that would track the luxurious items purchased by elected public officials.
On Tuesday, the team met to narrow down their list of ideas. One of the ideas that was discussed in detail was a "local wiki," a site similar to wikipedia.com where the residents of a community could post anything from news stories to restaurant reviews to crime statistics.
The site could be incorporated with a Google map, making it easy for users to find information about buildings or businesses in a particular area.
"I think it can develop into a site where people share personal stories, sort of a virtual block party," Raine, Lawrence graduate student, said.
The team is still in the process of
deciding on their final idea.
Knowlton said that he initially became interested in participating in the challenge because he felt it had great potential.
There are six other universities participating in the challenge. They are Kansas State, Michigan State, NevadaLas Vegas, Western Kentucky, Ithaca College and St. Michael's College
Patrick Lafferty, multimedia newsroom coordinator at the William Allen White School of Journalism, is the coordinator for the school's project.
"It will be valuable for the team members to think outside of their comfort zones while developing the idea," Lafferty said.
"It looked like it could be a different, new and interesting experience," Knowlton said.
6. 5.2.19 (a) Find the value of $y$ in the equation $y = \frac{1}{3}x^2 + 4x - 8$.
At the meeting in Ithaca, the KU team and students from the other participating universities will incorporate their ideas into one proposal that they will present to an online board association in Toronto in October.