Stepping up to the challenge.
Kansas will face the fifth ranked Sooners this weekend after a canceled midweek game.
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
progress
John Gronbeck- Tedesco has directed 45 plays. His latest production, 'Guys and Dolls' opens tonight at Crafton Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.
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softball
After a series of wins on the road, the Kansas softball team returns home to face No.3 Oklahoma at 1 p.m. Saturday. 1B
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© 2007The University Daily Kansan
From books to burritos
Off-campus bookstore will offer better prices
BY MATT ERICKSON
The new off-campus bookstore opening for the spring textbook buyback season will look markedly different from Lawrence's existing bookstores - it will sell nothing but textbooks.
Beat The Bookstore, at 12th and Indiana streets, next to Yello Sub, opens next week. It won't offer iPods, KU basketball T-shirts, or even pens and paper. And it will use a business model different from most college bookstores that its owners say will translate to lower prices and higher buyback offers.
The Lawrence franchise will be
"The business concept is buy books for more and sell them for less," said Dan Keating, the store's co-owner. "And we cater more to students."
More than 90 percent of the textbooks the store offers are used books. Comparatively, KU Bookstores, used inventory is 38 percent, which is still higher than the industry average.
"We offer the student the real
the 25th Beat The Bookstore location to open across the country. Each store uses the network of stores to its advantage.
David Monk, co-founder of Beat The Bookstore, said that bypassing wholesalers allowed Beat The Bookstore franchises to keep prices lower than other college bookstores, which must factor wholesaler mark-ups into their prices.
SEE BOOKSTORE ON PAGE 4A
Beat The Bookstore can mostly bypass the wholesalers that many college bookstores use to obtain used books, instead shipping used books between the company's different franchises around the country.
The wholesalers used by textbook stores such as KU Bookstores buy used books from bookstores and sell them to other stores at marked-up prices.
"The network of stores allows us to have our own virtual wholesale network." Keating said.
Restaurant delivers made-to-order burritos
BY MATT ERICKSON
Two simple words signal a new Lawrence food possibility that only existed in students' imaginations until last week: burrito delivery.
Big 12 Burtro, 620 W 12th St., behind The Crossing. is testing mostly uncharted Lawrence waters as it offers its main menu item, build-your own burritos, by delivery.
Ju st i n
Emmons, Big
12 Burrito general manager,
straight home."
The restaurant's burritos cost $4.99 each and use a build-your own format, allowing customers to choose from different tortillas and meats, as well as salsas and other toppings.
Big 12 Burrito will deliver until midnight through the rest of the
"Now people don't have to drive to Burrito King from the bars. They can go straight home."
"Now people don't have to drive to Burrito King from the bars," Emmons said. "They can go
said delivery burritos would tap into a market created by students desiring Mexican meat wraps without leaving their homes.
JUSTIN EMMONS Big 12 Burrito owner
"Our primary target is the college students." Emmons said.
spring semester and the summer, but Emmons said he planned to stretch deliveries to 3 a.m. in the fall.
This will not be the first time a Lawrence burrito restaurant has tried offering delivery. Burrito King, 900 Illinois St., tried offering delivery service several years
SEE BURRITOS ON PAGE 4A
ENGINEERING
KU plays host to conference
Brian Hamilton, Olathe junior, stretches across the simulated river between the base ends of the bridge constructed by KU engineering students Thursday afternoon.
Anna Faltermeier/KANSAN
BY DANAE DESHAZER
Forty-two brightly hand-painted red and blue pieces of steel lay ready for construction for the University of Kansas steel bridge. The project was for the American Society of Civil Engineers Mid-Continent Regional Conference on Thursday afternoon in Lawrence. The conference started Thursday and lasts until Saturday, with all Saturday events at Lone Star Lake.
Team co-captain Justin Clay, Kansas City, Kan., senior, said he was nervous and worried about their assembly, as he watched the team before them finish up.
"Ive seen how good the other bridges look and how fast they were assembled," Clay said.
Eleven university teams registered to participate in the Steel Bridge Competition, which is only one of the 10 categories of the Mid-Continent Conference. The Mid-Continent Conference was held in Lawrence this year, the first time in about 10 years.
For the Steel Bridge Competition, each team is allowed one hour to assemble their designed steel bridge over a "river." However, after 30 minutes they are penalized. The
SEE BRIDGE ON PAGE 4A
》 HIRING POLICY
GTAs ask for vote back
BY NATHAN GILL
The organizations sent The University Daily Kansan a copy of the letter by e-mail.
Eight graduate student organizations at the University of Kansas sent a letter to Provost Richard Lariviere on Wednesday, expressing discontent about the loss of voting privileges on committees that hire new faculty to the University.
The organizations' letter asked Lariviere to reinstate the graduate voting practice.
Lynn Bretz, University spokeswoman, said that before Fall 2006, some academic schools and departments let graduate students vote, along with faculty, to recommend prospective faculty to academic administrators. She said that early last fall, Lariviere, who was concerned that the University's academic departments did not have a unified hiring system, met with University officials and decided that graduate students should not vote to recommend new faculty.
Erin Questad, Lansdale, Penn., graduate student and president of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Organization, signed the letter. She said that graduate students offered a valuable perspective to the hiring process. Some graduate students seemed disenfranchised and less involved since losing the vote, she said.
Lariviere was unavailable for comment, but Bretz said his decision
"It is something that is really important to graduate students," Questad said. "We serve the University in so many different ways, and we don't always get respected like wed like to be"
SEE GTA ON PAGE 4A
>> NBA DRAFT
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Brandon Rush to make decision over weekend
Sophomore guard Brandon Rush is expected to announce whether he will return to Kansas for his junior season by Sunday.
The deadline for Rush to declare for the NBA Draft is midnight Sunday. Even if Rush declares for the draft, he could withdraw his name by June 18 and return to Kansas, as long as he doesn't hire an agent. Rush has previously said he would enter his name if he was guaranteed to be selected among the top 20 picks. See kansan. com throughout the weekend for updates on this story.
- Kansan staff reports