JAYHAWKS TO BATTLE BEARS
The Kansas baseball team takes on Missouri State tonight at Hoglund Ballpark. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2007
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 151
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
1B
PAGE 1A
memorial
KU Hillel and Chabad honor a Virginia Tech professor and Holocaust survivor killed in the campus shooting earlier this
12A month.
A wallaby escaped from its cage during a flight to a kanagroo ranch in South Dakota. 12A
opinion
Check out The Kansan's latest opinion cartoon
natural disaster
Mother Nature reared her ugly head as she blasted Kansas with heavy storms and severe flooding.
6A
weather
TODAY
79 56
79 58
Isolated T-Storm
84 57 Isolated T-Storms
index
Classifieds...3B
Crossword...10A
Horoscopes...10A
Opinion...11A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...10A
All contents, unless stated otherwise
© 2007 The University Daily Kansan
》 NAISMITH HALL
Former employees allege misconduct
Change in management prompts concern about complex supervision
BY KATY BLAIR
Students at Naismith Hall say they've found themselves in an uncomfortable situation.
Since the former management company, AIMCO, was bought out by Campus Advantage Inc., a student housing management company, former student resident advisers — or SRAs — say Naismith has become a place of distress for residents and student resident advisers. Several
former SRAs and directors attribute the problem to the new lease specialist, Ryan Shreeve.
Shreeve declined to comment on the issues addressed in the story.
"It it went completely awry when Ryan took over," said Lauren Merget, Overland Park senior and former resident director.
Merget is one of the many residential employees who resigned her position at Naismith because of alleged issues with Shreeve's management style.
Merget said she noticed a difference immediately when the new company took over Naismith
"One of the vice presidents of the company came in, and he was so positive and had so many good things to say," Merget said. "But the message and vision he was presenting to us wasn't being
Stephen Eidelman, Brooklyn, N.Y., junior, said the trouble started when Shreeve began to assume the duties
"Anyone who opposed him got fired. He said the entire RA staff was replaceable."
implementing when he left.
Fourth floor resident adviser,
STEPHEN EIDELMAN
Former Naismith resident adviser
of the regional property manager who is currently on maternity leave.
"Anyone who opposed him got fired." Eidelman said. "He said the entire RA staff was replaceable."
between the residents and advisers. He explained that Shreve favored some people more than others and allowed them to behave in ways that were detrimental to an educational atmosphere.
Eidelman said he quit
because there were too many double standards which were causing rifts
One alleged problem was Shreeve's re-institution of the "red cup rule," which allowed underaged students to drink alcohol in and around the hall, as long as it was in a red cup. This directly violates the leasing contract, which states under section 9-D. "Resident Parties shall not engage in unlawful, improper, unreasonable or prohibited behavior, all of which shall be a breach
SEE NAISMITH ON PAGE 3A
AD ASTRA
Co-op house creates opportunities
Residents set rent review possible new roommates
BY KYLE CARTER
Steam rises from a pot of boiling water in the kitchen of the Ad Astra house as a large bowl of pasta boils on the stove next to another pot filled with oatmeal. Sara Anderson, a 2006 University of Kansas graduate with short brown hair and freckles, giggles as she dances a few feet away with her hands in the air alongside another giddy brunette, Lawrence junior Bonnie Robinson, who is about a head shorter with longer hair. Loud electronic music blares from a small, black box box.
In the next room over, a few other roommates watch a movie and another is buried in a book. They seem completely unaffected by the dance party in the kitchen and one pops her head in for a second to check her oatmeal.
Nine people live at the Ad Astra house, a co-op at 1033 Kentucky Street where the tenants serve as their own landlords, including regulating their rent and reviewing applications from potential roommates. The University of Kansas Student Housing Association, which has no affiliation with the University, bought the house for $1 from the Kansas University Endowment Association when it was scheduled for demolition in 2005 to make room for a new scholarship hall.
SEE AD ASTRA ON PAGE 4A
Shoes of the nine residents who live in the Ad Astra house, 1033 Kentucky St., lie in the home's entryway Tuesday evening. The house, which has existed as the "Ad Astra house" for about two years, is a co-op where the tenants serve as their own landlords.
Anna Faltermeier/KANSAN
Site adds information for students
》 KU BOOKSTORE
Students can now find more information on the KU Bookstores Web site about textbook requirements, but local private bookstores worry they will now have difficulties finding out which textbooks they need.
BY MATT ERICKSON
KUBookstore.com now allows anyone to look up the ISBN barcode needed to find the correct edition of each textbook required for summer
and fall classes. Previously, students had to call or go into the bookstores to get the ISBN.
Norris said the new service would let students find out which books they need, allowing them to look online or through textbook exchanges.
"Students have the right to this information," said Tim Norris, KU Bookstores director. "Why not make it easily available?"
He said it would also allow
private bookstores to find which books they needed to stock. Up to now, KU Bookstores gave the private stores this information through paper printouts of the textbook requisitions that faculty provided. They are stopping this practice and asking the stores to look online.
Bill Madi, textbook director for Jayhawk Bookstore, 1420 Crescent Road, said the online listings only provided the "bare bones" of textbook information.
The listings provide the title, author and ISBN of each book. Madl that said the paper printouts that private bookstores received in the past also contained other pieces of information, such as estimated enrollment numbers and messages from course instructors about multiple editions that could be used.
SEE BOOKSTORE ON PAGE 3A
>> BOARDWALK FIRE
Rose trial enters seventh day with firey past
BY ERICK R. SCHMIDT
Robert Kidder was Rose's house parent at The Villages, a group housing unit for troubled children, between 2001 and 2005. Kidder said he was aware that Rose was a troubled youth, but that nothing in his past warned him from bringing Rose into the home.
Jason Allen Rose's history with fire and mental capacity were at the center of questioning as the Boardwalk Trial entered its seventh day on Tuesday.
Kimberley Smith, a Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services worker from Rose's hometown of El Dorado, told the jury of Rose's upbringing in as many as 10 different residences. Smith said that between the time Rose was first put into group housing in 1989 and the time he left his final group house in 2005, he was in trouble several times as a child for playing with lighters, matches and smoking cigarettes. Smith said that none of those instances involved Rose starting any fires.
Defense attorney Ron Evans focused his questioning on a series of alleged incidents of Rose playing with matches or lighters and his client's learning impairments.
Rose is accused of starting the October 2005 Boardwalk Apartments fire, which killed residents Jose Gonzalez, Helen "Volanda" Riddle and KU student Nicole Bingham. Rose is charged with aggravated arson, three counts of murder and seven counts of aggravated battery. The case originally went to trial in February but was declared a mistrial because of a late-surfacing witness.
"There was nothing indicating Jason was a firestarter," Kidder said. "We saw that Jason was pretty much a child who had been taken out of his home and probably had a lower emotional age and a lower IQ and nowhere left to go."
Kidder described Rose as having traits of a 3-year-old at times and at others, a mentality of a 10-year old. He said Rose's occasional temper tantrums were like that of a child.
SEE TRIAL ON PAGE 3A