4 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2006
'Ugliest building'on KU campus to get makeover
$3.5 million renovation to add extra space for spanish, history departments
BY FRED A. DAVIS III
fdavis@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Call it a pseudo extreme makeover Wescoe Hall Edition.
The flagship building for the Humanities department and oft-referred "ugliest building" on campus is getting a $3.5 million addition to its south side to increase office space to its already cramped quarters.
Funding for the project comes from a combination of money set aside specifically for building renovations and money accrued from unused campus program savings, it will be the first substantial addition to Wesco in the building's 33-year history.
"After years of squeezing and squeezing this will give people more breathing room," said Paul D'Anieri, associate dean of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The addition will bring 20,000 sq. ft. to the patio area above the Underground.
The reality of adding the extra space to Wescoe evolved after school officials realized it would cost about $75,000 to seal that area, thus it was decided to move forward and try to convert the area into much-needed office space.
"We were hiring people and literally had nowhere to put them," D'Anieri said about the space crunch.
Don Steeples, vice provost for scholarly support, who also oversees the office of space management, said that the deciding factor to transform the space was the ability to construct two floors out of the porch area.
The Spanish & Portuguese and History departments will inhabit the 70 to 80 new offices created by the addition. Construction is expected to begin on the project June 19, and is expected to be finish by March of 2007.
is expected to be in their schools Steeples said he expects the departments to move into their new spaces during spring break of 2007 and be fully functioning when school reconvenes after the break.
school recoveries after the break Steeples said that the "Wesco Infill" as the project is referred, will bring a slightly different look compared to the rest of the building, most notably the windows.
building, most likely "We're trying to get away from the prison window look," Steeples said, referring to Wescoe's slim-shaped windows that appear eerily similar to prison windows.
FOOTBALL
early similar to press "Ten years from now, someone looking at the southwest corner of the Wescoe will probably be able to say, 'Yeah, that's probably an infill,'" Steeples said.
Big 12 not adding additional conference game for 2006
By JACK WEINSTEIN
jweinstein@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The Big 12 conference will not add a ninth conference football game to its schedule, as proposed at the Big 12 coaches and athletic director's spring meeting on May 23, in Colorado Springs. If it had, the conference would have eliminated one non-conference game to make up for the additional conference game beginning in 2008.
According to an e-mail from Big 12 Conference Associate Commissioner Bob Burda, the prospect of adding another conference game to the schedule is officially off the table. The Big 12 football coaches and athletics directors decided not to bring it to a vote when they convened at the spring meeting.
"The Conference will move forward with future schedules consisting of eight games through 2011, or possibly 2015," Burda wrote.
Originally, it was thought that the Big 12 Conference presidents would vote on whether to add the extra conference game when they met yesterday and Monday in Kansas City, Mo.
Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony didn't think the idea to add a conference
game to the schedule was a popular one at the meeting in Colorado Springs.
the meeting in Colorado
"There was very little support for the proposal amongst members of the conference," Marchionty said by phone from Corvallis, Ore., where he was attending the first round of the NCAA Baseball Tournament "The University of Kansas is not in favor of it."
Marchiony said that it's already tough enough to create an even schedule each year without having to add another conference game to the mix. The way the schedule is set up now allows the University flexibility to schedule whomever it wants.
He said that the issue had been raised to ease scheduling difficulties in the non conference, not for the TV revenue generated by having an extra conference game on the schedule.
Dr. Don Green, professor of Chemical Engineering at KU, attended the meetings yesterday and Monday in Kansas City, Mo., as the faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and the Big 12 Conference. Chancellor Hemenway is on vacation and will be out of his office until June 13.
The meeting will determine the locations of championships sites for basketball and football for the 2007 and 2008 seasons as well as cover any recommendations discussed in the coaches and athletics director's meeting that took place in May.