CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, April 30.1996
3A
Fire ruins apartment triplex
Gina Thornburg / KANSAN
Gina Thomburg / KANSAN Lawrence firefighters remove a ladder from a charred apartment in the 2000 block of Riverridge Road. Firefighters arrived on the scene after a neighbor awoke and saw her window blinds melting in the room next to the burning apartment. The cause of the fire was unknown.
No one injured cause unknown
By Amy McVey Kansan staff writer
Five feet from the charcoaled remains of their neighbor's apartment, Calvin and Shannon Hatch waited outside the triplex to see the smoke and water damage to their own apartment caused by a fire yesterday evening.
Calvin Hatch, a KU graduate, was asleep in his bedroom while the fire next door melted the windows and doors of two adjoining apartments and an apartment in a neighboring triplex.
"I heard a neighbor running out saying, 'get out — fire,'" he said. "By the time I got out the fire was already bellowing out the windows. It was incredible — it happened so fast."
The fire started in the left side of a triplex in the 2000 block of Riverridge Road about 4:30 p.m. yesterday, Lawrence Fire Department Battalion Chief Jerry Karr said. Firefighters had contained the fire by 5:30 p.m. and were investigating the cause last night.
Karr said that when he arrived, flames had melted through the windows and doors of the apartment where the fire originated and were burning the sides of neighboring apartments.
"There was heavy fire towards the front," Karr said. "Then it vented out the left."
Nobody was hurt in the fire. As of 10 p.m. last night, the residents in the apartment where the fire originated could not be located.
Shannon Hatch said that she and Calvin were the only members of the damaged complex who had renter's insurance.
Magnet could make working in space easier
KU professor hopes device could someday help NASA
By Bradley J. Brooks Kansan correspondent
A KU professor is developing a device that could allow space stations of the 21st century to be built without the aid of an astronaut's hand, enabling human life to be kept out of leopardy.
Bezaleel Benjamin, professor of architectural engineering, has worked for three years designing an electromagnetic structural joint that would hold together space stations and other space-bound structures.
The construction involves using a light-sensing robot to do the work.
"If it is possible to use robots, space stations could be erected safely, with astronauts never having to leave the craft," Benjamin said.
Benjamin enlisted the help of Wes Ellison, an electronics technician at the Center for Research, in the development of this light-guided robot.
"In space, a light source will be placed on one end of a structure," Ellison said. "It will shoot a beam of light through a cone. As the light spreads, it is dimmer around the edges and more bright in the center. This guides the robot to the structure."
The robot distinguishes this specific light source from other light sources, like the sun, in a surprisingly simple manner.
"The light flashes on and off 40,000 times per second," Ellison said. "The robot is programmed to only pick this pattern up."
Ellison said the light the robot receives is infrared, which is also produced by stars. But a star's light would never flash on and off in this particular pattern.
"That would be completely unnatural," he said. "Basically, the light source controls the robot like your remote control controls your TV."
Matt Flicker / KANSAN
Once the robot picks up this light signal, it moves itself and the piece of the structure it is moving toward the light.
When the two magnets — the one on the light source and the one on the structural piece the robot is carrying — come within about two inches of each other, they snap together.
The snapping frees the robot from the piece it was guiding, and allows it to move away and begin building the rest of the structure.
This is where Benjamin's electromagnet becomes vital.
Benjamin has built a nine foot arch-like structure at his lab in Lindley Annex. It is held together solely by his prototype electromagnets. The prototypes are powered by a single D-cell battery and can withstand 200 pounds of pressure. The
Bazaleel Benjamin, professor of architectural engineering, has spent three years designing an electromagnetic structural joint for use in space. Benjamin's prototype, which is powered by a D-cell battery, can support 200 pounds of pressure.
So far, the applications of Benjamin's ideas have made a good impression on other scientists.
electromagnets would run on solar energy in space and could withstand more pressure.
"Being able to conveniently attach and detach things in space is of great technical importance," said Thomas Armstrong, professor of physics and astronomy. "It is an entirely worthy goal."
Students feel transcript fee too expensive
Registrar says $5 fee necessary
By Spencer Duncan Special to the Kansan
Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
"We try to make this a self supporting operation that does not have to rely on state funds," Morrell said. "There are a good number of variables that go into the transcript process that we have to pay for."
Jessica Mellard feels like she's been mugged by the University of Kansas.
Whenever Mellard, Meade junior, applies for a job or scholarship, she is required to attach an official transcript to her application. This means that she must make regular visits to the University Registrar's office — the only place students can receive official transcripts.
When Frati wanted a single copy of his transcript to send with a summer school application, he was shocked when the clerk asked him for $5.
But the transcripts are not free. Mellard must pay $5 before she can get her official scholastic record. That is more than any other school in the Big Eight.
That answer does not satisfy Chris Frati, Los Angeles sophomore.
"I don't understand why it costs $5 to get a copy of my transcript," Mellard said. "It cannot cost them that much to make a copy of it. They are robbing me."
"It is appalling that the school would charge poor, starving students that much for a piece of paper," Frati said. "That is a lot of money."
Mellard is not alone in her anger. Students regularly question why a paper printout costs so much, registr clerks said.
Richard Morrell, University Registrar, has an answer.
The registrar's office has two options for a student with a transcript request. A student can receive a copy in person or the registrars office will mail transcripts.
But someone has to pay for the transcript process, Morrell said.
The registrar's office receives close to 55,000 transcript requests each year. It takes people, time and supplies to process those requests, Morrell said.
Each individual copy is $5,
whether mailed or just handed to
the student. The fee is necessary
according to Morrell.
"We have to pay for stamps, envelopes, a high quality paper, ink for the printer and people to do the work," Morrell said. "We cannot rely on University or state money to help us run this. All the money we get goes back into the operation."
Mellard does not buy this either
"It doesn't all add up to $5," Mellard said. "I can understand charging something for mailing it out, and even that is only 32 cents. But it cannot cost $5 for a piece of paper."
Other schools seem to agree with Mellard's sentiment. Kansas has the highest transcript fee of any Big Eight school.
Colorado and Oklahoma provide transcripts for free. Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Iowa State charge students $3. Missouri charges students $4.
The only school comparable to Kansas is Nebraska, which charges $5 for the first copy but only $1 for each additional copy. Kansas charges $5 for every copy.
Morrrell recognizes that his office has the highest fee, but believes that it is justified.
"We use the $5 for simplicity's sake," Morrell said. "With the one fee we can help to predict how much we will make every year."
Morrell's justification does not seem credible to all students.
“It's ridiculous,” Andi Prommitz, St. Louis freshman, said. “I think it's absurd that students have to pay so much for something that they earn. It's the students' grades.”
There are several reasons that transcripts cannot be bought just once and photocopied.
Each transcript is printed on a high quality paper and the envelopes are stamped with an official registrar's seal. These make the transcripts official and let other universities and employers know that the transcript has not been tampered with.
The transcripts also change at least every semester as students schedules change.
Frati believes this is why the transcript fee is so high.
"People have to have it, and the University knows they can get the money from you," Frati said. "You have no choice."
"I will keep going back to them because I need to send my transcript places," Mellard said. "It's just too bad that I am going to have to keep giving the University more and more of my money."
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