THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2008
NEWS
CAMPUS
3A
Information organization continues evolution
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
The phone rings. A female's voice answers.
"KU Info, how can I help you?"
The voice belongs to Cattlin Tew, a junior from Allen, Texas.
It's nearly 1:30 in the afternoon, and she is sitting behind the KU Info desk on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union.
A half-mile down Jayhawk boulevard, students sit outside on the stairs of Wescoe Beach, and a row of tables promote various student activities.
One of those tables belong to
one, a Student Senate coalition taking part in Student Senate elections this spring. As part of its campaign, Connect launched WiKUpedia, a Web site dedicated to disseminating KU information to a wide audience. Following the model of the Web site Wikipedia, the new site features user created content about the University.
Back at the Union, the phone rings again.
"KU Info, how can I help you?" Tew said.
puters. She saw the effect the Internet had on people's lives. Endless information, right at people's finger tips.
Tew has worked at KU Info since 2006. She works with a laptop computer next to the phone. Like most KU students, she grew up with comin a couple of keywords on Google, but KU Info was like the Internet on the phone"
"It it people at ease when they talk to a person." Tew said.
To some, getting information by phone maybe seem archaic, but nearly four decades after its founding, KU Info still has callers.
COUNTING THE TREES
How many trees are on campus?
Pat Kehde, director of KU Info from 1980 to 1990, said people always asked the same questions.
Kehde said KU Info had the answer on a Rolodex card. That's where KU Info kept all its answers.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY
Twenty years ago, KU info kept answers on Rolodex cards. Today, they use a laptop, but the Rolodexes are still available at the Spencer Research Library.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY
The Rolodexes were compiled from years of answering questions and curbing campus rumors. Still available at the Spencer Research Library, the old Rolodexes date back to the beginning of KU Info. The service, which began in the early '70s to aid in rumor control, soon evolved into something different - a 24-hour service that was dedicated to answering any question for students.
Kehde said a couple of questions were pretty standard.
But Khde said KU Info answered questions of a more serious nature too.
"The name of the seven dwarfs, and the meaning of life," Kehde said.
She said KU Info obtained a list of KU graduates after the last day of finals, and students on the bubble called in to see if they actually were graduating.
"Saturday night, before commencement, our phone was ringing off the hook," Kehde said.
According to a University press release from 1982, KU Info answered about 500 to 700 questions a day in the 1980s
"People would graduate and come back, and say, I don't remember much, but I remember 864-3506," Kehde said.
Brett Wadsworth is one of those alumna. Wadsworth, a 2003 KU graduate, said he called in one night and asked, "How many helium balloons would it take to lift up a 200 pound guy?"
"We had a pool going," Wadsworth said. "After about a minute, the guy on the phone came back with the answer."
Wadsworth said the Internet existed, but it still wasn't readily available to KU students when he was in school.
"We were still working off of 50%
dial-up." he said. "Now you can type
Former Lawrence mayor and current city commissioner Dennis 'Boog' Highberger worked at KU info from 1983 to 1986. Highberger remembers one day at KU Info more than others. He was sitting in front of the phone when he received the news that the Challenger space shuttle had exploded.
"People wanted to know what was going on," Highberger said. "The phone was ringing faster than you could answer it."
Highberger also worked night shifts. When KU Info was open 24 hours a day, the student workers could sleep, but they had to be next to the phone so they could wake up if it rang.
"Usually in the middle of the night, there would be an hour or maybe two when there wouldn't be calls." Highberger said. "Otherwise it was all night."
KU Info has already been affected by the Internet. The service lost its funding in 2002, and rumors surfaced that the service had died. KU Info reopened in the Union in 2006.
A NEW NICHE
The hours are scaled back to 9
a. m. to 9 p.m., and the calls are down from what they used to be — about 200 a day, according to Tew.
Tew said some of those calls are from alumna.
"They usually just want to say hi," Tew said. "They usually have some sort of story related to KU Info from when they were in school."
Today, students can enroll, pay tuition, and buy books online. Even with the onslaught of Google,
Wikipedia and YouTube, Highberger still thinks that there is a need for KU Info.
"Even with the Internet, some information is hard to find," he said. Kehde agreed.
"I think some questions actually can't be answered on the Internet," Kehde said.
— Edited by Sam Lamb
Rain garden to be placed next to Recreation Center
Senate passed legislation to fund a rain garden next to the Student Recreation Fitness Center. The project will cost $15,000 and will be funded from the Student Senate reserve fund.
The Emerging Green Builders is the campus group starting the project. The group includes mainly students from the School of Architecture and the School Engineering.
Studie Red Corn, Shawne senior, helped plan the garden as an initiative to get more student integration with a sustainable project onto campus.
"We want to do it right and we want to do it big," Red Corn said.
The garden will be in the area next to the recreation center where construction equipment is now. It will be 5,480 square feet and filled with perennial plants native to Kansas, budgeted for $3 each. It will likely be watered regularly like a lawn for the first few years, but then be watered with run-off water.
Red Corn said the project was
dependent on the schedule of the expansion of the recreation center. Preparation work like bringing in heavy stones will be done by contractors, but students will do all of the planting. He said the ideal planting time was mid-September.
Transfer of funds to help KU on Wheels relieve debt
Senate approved the movement of $141,000 in funds from the bus acquisitions fee to the bus operations fee. This money will help KU on Wheels
pay off its $247,000 debt.
Students paid $36 each in fees to KU on Wheels this year. Twenty dollars of the $36 went into a bus acquisition fee used to purchase new buses. All the regular buses used with the new busing company were used, so KU on Wheels will buy new buses in small groups every few years.
Sixteen dollars go into the bus operations account, which handles the day-to-day operation.
The operations fund cannot be in debt at the end of the 2008 fiscal year, which ends on July 31. The acquisition
fund can be in the red because KU on Wheels borrowed money from the University to buy the used buses and is paying them back in installments.
The transfer of money will set bus acquisition back one year, but Danny Kaiser, assistant director of parking and transit, said the year will not make a noticeable difference in the busing system.
New student senators
occupy four vacant seats
tors to fill seats that were vacated at the end of the year. The new senators are:
Doug Brady, freshman/sophomore CLAS senator
Sara Vestal, freshman/sophomore CLAS senator
Senate approved four new sena
Leanna Hoover, junior/senior
CLAS senator
JJ Siler, off-campus senator
Two business senator positions
were not filled.
Brenna Hawley
funded by
SENATE
February 28, 2008
Start and End at Macell's,1031 New Hampshire. One mile Walk and 5K Walk/Run
Start and End at Maceli's, 1031 New Hampshire. One mile Walk and 5K Walk/Run. Registration 7-8am. Stretch and run with Red Dog, at 7:50am. Walk steps off at 8am. A full breakfast, sponsored by NetworQ, will be served for returning participants from 8:30-10am. Awards Ceremony 10am. Registration is online at www.douglascountyaidsproject.org
Saturday, April 12th
Looking to volunteer? Center for Community Outreach can help!
Center for Community Outreach challenge educating participants
We have 15 volunteer programs working throughout Lawrence and can connect you to many local programs.
Contact us!
Contact us:
405 Kansas Union (in the SILC office)
864-4073 • cco@ku.edu
www.ku.edu/~cco
National Society of Collegiate Scholars
Event: NSCS general meeting Date: Tuesday, March 4 Time: 8 pm Location: Pine Room in 6th floor of KS Union
Contact: Anna Kathagnarath annatkat@hotmail.com
...
KAPS Leap Years Eve Bash Fundraiser
Thursday, Feb.28, 2008 Silent Auction 6:00-8:00 pm AT 23rd St.Brewery
Lawrence's only live reggae band. Yuca Roots, will be playing following the auction. Come and support the next generation of urban planners!
Wishing spring was here? Come join CCO EARTH to discuss plans for the Campus Garden!
March 6,2008
4-5 PM
Kansas Union Governor's Room