VT
4 16 07
4.16.07
We offer our sympathy to the Virginia Tech community
TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2007
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL. 117 ISSUE 135
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 1A
ALUMNUS
Ford CEO gives advice
BY JOE HUNT
Alan Mulally said working together was something he loved, although he didn't invent the idea.
"That would be like AI Gore saying he invented the Internet," Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Company and KU alumnus, said.
Working together was a key focus during Mulally's speech Monday night at the Lied Center.
In his time as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Ford, Mullaly stressed putting people first and including everyone in projects. Communication was key in this process.
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it occurs," Mutally said. "The fact that you say something and expect them to know what it means; that's arrogant."
Mulally said coworkers should share a unified plan that was understood by all. When problems arose, Mulally said he wanted to be around people who found a way to make things work. He said he saw that kind of people at the University.
"There is not an institution in the world that has more motivated, more skilled and neater students than the University of Kansas," Mully said.
Mulally grew up in Lawrence workingseveral jobs,startingwith a paper route. He then moved to a bag boy position at Dillons grocery store before he was inspired by President Kennedy via television to become an astronaut. He switched from liberal arts classes to aeronautical and astronautical engineering at the University.
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it occurs."
ALAN MULALLY President and CEO, Ford Motor Company
"They didn't tell me to be an astronaut,
you had to be perfect," Mulally said.
He was removed from the space training program because he was slightly color blind.
Upon graduation a KU professor who had just left a position at Boeing recommended that Mulally try to get work there. Mulally was hired and drove his Volkswagen Beetle across the country to Seattle.
Much of Mulally's speech was a question and answer session because he said he was a "customer-oriented person."
Mulally said a big issue with the automobile industry was the state of the environment. He proposed a few alternative methods of fuel for the future. One was using ethanol to power
SEE MULALLY ON PAGE 4A
Littleton, Colo.; Austin, Texas; Blacksburg, Va.; Paradise, Penn.; Paducah, Ky At least 33 dead at Virginia Tech in worst school shooting in U.S. history - Tech president says university is 'shocked.'
'Monumental'massacre
Alan Kim/THE ROANOKE TIMES
An injured occupant is carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Monday. A gunman opened fire in a dorm and in classrooms on the campus, killing at least 30 people.
Man kills 32 in shooting spree
BY SUE LINDSEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
BLACKSBURG, Va. — A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.
The bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy, perhaps forever.
Investigators gave no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."
But he was also faced with difficult questions about the university's handling of the emergency and whether it did enough to warn students and
virginia tecb
Location: Blacksburg, Va.
Year founded: 1872
Total Enrollment: 26,370
Campus Size: 2,600 acres
Mascot: HokieBird
Source: Virginia Tech Web site
Wielding two handguns and carrying multiple clips of ammunition, the killer opened fire about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of West Amber Johnston, a high-rise coed dormitory, then stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building a half-mile away on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus. Some of the doors at Norris Hall were found chained from the inside, apparently by the gunman.
protect them after the first burst of gunfire. Some students bitterly complained they got no warning from the university until an e-mail that arrived more than two hours after the first shots rang out.
SEE VIRGINIA TECH ON PAGE 5A
Matt Gentry/THE ROANOKE TIMES
Blacksburg police officers run from Norris Hall on the Virginia Tech campus Monday. A gunman opened fire in a dorm and then, two hours later, in classrooms across campus.
Tragedy hits close to home for KU student
BY ERICK R. SCHMIDT
Just hours after Monday's deadly shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech, Matt Drake's phone was flooded with calls from family members.
undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech last May. "Everyone I know is OK to this point."
"Everyone wanted to know if I had heard," said Drake, a Woodbridge, Va., graduate student who earned his
Drake said he arrived to work on campus at 7:30 Monday morning and began receiving calls about an hour later.
SEE STUDENTS ON PAGE 5A
Virginia Tech students watch from the doorway of McBryde Hall on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. as police infiltrate the area where a shooting took place
Matt Gentry/THE ROANOKE TIMES
Judge delays Wal-Mart, city trial
New commission has until Sept. 10 to discuss plan
BY MATT ERICKSON
》 BUSINESS
A lawsuit challenging the city's denial of a building permit for the Wal-Mart was scheduled to go to court Monday, but a Douglas County district judge last week
A new city commission means a new round of discussion on the potential construction of a second Lawrence Wal-Mart store at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive.
delayed the trial until Sept. 10 at the request of the city, Wal-Mart and the site's developers.
"We got a new commission, two new commissioners."
The city requested the delay so the new city commission could discuss the Wal-Mart issue for the first time at its May 1 meeting.
SUE HACK
Lawrence mayor
"We've got a new commission, two new commissioners," said mayor Sue Hack. "This was an opportunity to bring them up to speed."
New commissioners Mike Dever and Rob Chestnut replaced Mike Rundle and David Schauner, two of the commissioners who voted against the most recent Wal-Mart building proposal in a 3-2 decision. The only remaining commissioner who rejected that plan is Dennis "Boog" Highberger. Hack and commissioner Mike Amyx voted for the plan.
Highberger said he opposed the delay of the trial because the former commission had already made a decision about the Wal-Mart issue.
Hack said the previous commission rejected the last Walmart proposal because of concerns with the increase of traffic in the area and the increase in retail businesses citywide.
"My feeling was that those issues had been addressed in a compromise plan," Hack said.
Angie Stoner, Wal-Mart spokesperson, said Wal-Mart would begin new discussions with the city at the May 1 meeting "to possibly start discussing future plans for the project."
Hack said the May 1 discussion would not involve any specific development plans, but instead would serve as an opportunity for the new commissioners to participate in their first discussion of the issue. She said members of all parties involved, including neighbors of the property and other members of the public, were invited to make comments.
The lawsuit between Wal-Mart and the city dates back to 2003. The building site's developers first proposed a Wal-Mart store in 2002.
Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@kansan.com.
Edited by Darla Slipke
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violations
Delta Force and United Students drop the violation complaints they filed last week
3A
ESPN
KU signs a new 10-year contract with ESPN Regional and Host Communications.
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1B
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