OPINION
TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
REPORT CARD
Pass:
The sun. The fire in the sky made a rare spring time cameo on Sunday, emerging from behind clouds and rain after days of stultifying weather. But is there a way we can get the gusting winds off of the set.
Kansas lawmakers. They symbolically lifted the dated prohibition law that prevented Sunday liquor sales. Now our right to purchase Bud Light every day of the week is totally secure. But if you think the legislators are finally catching up with the times, remember that they still banned gay marriage.
Fail:
♦ Laura Bush. The First Lady has been regaling no one in particular with her pseudo-witty one-liners. We weren't aware she was suddenly a comedian. Who gave her a microphone? Is this thing on?
Anti-smoking ban bumper stickers. Bumper art is about the worse form of interest articulation imaginable. Keep your ban out of my bar? How about you keep your smoke out of my lungs?
Free for All
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
Ground Control to Major Tom, your circuit's dead. Something's wrong.
Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me?
All sinkers and not one floater. I wonder what that means.
If Brad's not getting any, it must be off-season.
VRK 737, this is TDB 935, and I just wanted to say that you are cute.
To all the Kansas bars, we need to get FAC — Friday After Class — discount deals.
What good is mining for nose gold if I can't share it with the townpeople?
What's the frequecy, Kenneth?
I don't like cocaine, I just like the way it smells.
Whoever voted for Starbuks for best coffeehouse is a schmuck.
Why does JR Giddens look as if someone told him his puppy died on the cover of the Kansan this morning?
What's the matter with campus?
Ground control to Major Tom. Your circuit's dead, there something wrong. Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom?
Give the people what they want already I vote reinstatement of the hot dog cart.
I always find it a victory when I can successfully sneak to my car in the middle of the day without attracting the attention of the people waiting for a spot in the yellow parking lot.
PAGE 5A
▼ GUEST COMMENTARY
Hersey
What it really needs: A long and winding road
Campbell
The campus is kinked.
BY MARK HERSEY AND ROBB CAMPBELI
One century after our first campus plan, we really have no campus plan. And we need one
For 138 years, the University has grown along a line meandering to the southwest, riding the growth waves of Lawrence. Starting in 1866 where GSP-Corbin Hall is, the University essentially progressed down Jayhawk Boulevard, reaching the Chi Omega fountain by about World War II.
to foster community, attract researchers, retain students, impress visitors and help the environment. What we need, in our view, is one good road.
But after the war a funny thing happened. The University kept expanding to the southwest, but lost the backbone of Jayhawk Boulevard. As a result some important parts of the University — the schools of Fine Arts, Engineering and Law, and even Allen Fieldhouse — lie in an odd little limbo-land of bad traffic where the street grid intertwines.
Later, campus regained its spine and meandered on again, past the Burge Union and the residence hall and apartments on Irving Hill Road. After crossing Iowa Street it swung south of the Lied Center on Constant Avenue, past the Endowment Association and a host of research halls. It finally ends on a gravel road at the corner of Clinton Parkway, the University's apparent endpoint.
We are blessed with the result. But it has drawbacks,
starting with status. The University's heart is up on Jayhawk Boulevard, but that's a poor reason to treat the schools, gyms and residence halls down the hill as second-status stepchildren. In our heads we don't, but out in that landscape we certainly do.
And then there's "West Campus" (or "Campus West," which sounds like a bad clothing line). It's not the Main Campus, it's not quite off campus, it's just the West Campus.
and an old bridge.
Here's the crux: Our campus landscape undercuts our community. Although the word gets mouthed to death these days, we are indeed a scholarly community, not some corporate entity selling "educational solutions." But our
There are practical
To Chancellor Robert Hemenway's two rules for campus development respect learning and preserve beauty we should add a third: Foster community.
problems, too. Transit, by bus or car is not well served by this layout. Isn't it strange that driving from Jayhawk Boulevard to the "middle" campus essentially means leaving campus while rounding Lindley Hall? And we don't make the best impression on visitors.
In many cases, 15th Street and Hoch Auditoria Drive leads first-time visitors to say, literally and figuratively. "This can't be it
— this must be the wrong place." Unfortunately these false impressions are reinforced on subsequent visits, because the majority of people who visit our campus approach it on Iowa Street, where we offer them chain-link fences
our physical arrangements invite status divisions into our community; they gum up our practical functioning as a community, and they don't do all they could to foster the sense of belonging and affection that bring people
our physical
together. To Chancellor Robert Hemenway's two rules for campus development — respect learning and preserve beauty — we should add a third: Foster community.
So let's connect that line we grew on. (Our proposal is shown on the map below)
The bridge over Iowa Street, a central hillcrest with a Visitor Center and lots of parking, would make an excellent "front door." Turn off to the bridge would create the city's best transit hub. Where Irving Hill Road shoots through the residence halls we should add a fifth traffic booth; this most beautiful view of our campus should be the entryway for all recruits.
And Irving Hill Road, after rolling downhill, should angle north, pass over Naismith Drive, and follow Hoch Auditoria Drive to Jayhawk Boulevard. This overpass would let pedestrians out of their tunnels and traffic, and give the campus a single, simple "Blue Line" bus for people who are turned off by schedules, routes and tickets.
Separating a central campus drive would provide both space for the University community and access from the perimeter.
And not to step on toes, but we would suggest calling the whole thing Jayhawk Boulevard.
This would take time and some shuffling of equipment, gates, parking, and so forth. But surprisingly little change is needed.
The system works within the traffic booths now, and it would logically extend to the larger area as well.
A greater Jayhawk Boulevard would improve transit, recruitment, public relations, crosscampus synergies, the residential experience, and even postgame traffic.
It's a simple plan: One road through one campus, and one bus line up and down the road.
And every 10-minute ride will be like cruising through a century and a half of the University's history.
- Robb Campbell and Mark Horsey are Ph.D. candidates in history.
GO FIGURE
81. 9
Percent of new AIDS cases are males and 18.1 percent are females in the state of Kansas.
National percentage of new AIDS cases are males and 25.8 percent are females.
74. 2
25
Yesterday's morning temperature, which was a record low.
Average low for yesterday.
51
Source: Centers for Disease Control, weather.com.
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