THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2010
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 39
DEATHS
Two students die in head-on collision on K-32
BY ALLYSON SHAW
ashaw@kansan.com
Two KU students died in a car accident Sunday at 8:48 p.m.
Stephanie Marie Conn, a senior from Bonner Springs, and Daniel "Jake" Henry, a senior from Edwardsville, were the two students killed in that crash. Michaela Mortensen, a senior from Bonner Springs, said the two students had been dating since 2003. Mortensen said she had known the couple
Conn
Henry
since high school.
Two cars were headed east on K-32 in Leavenworth County when one car tried to pass another, said Nikki Miles of the Kansas
Highway Patrol office. The passing car crossed into the westbound lane and collided head-on with Conn and Henry's car. Matthew Nuzik, a 30-year-old from Basehor, was driving that car and also died in the crash.
Miles said the patrol currently believed neither drugs nor alcohol were involved in the accident. The vehicle Nuzik was passing sustained some minor damage, but no one in that car was hurt.
Chancellor Bernadette Gray
Little released a statement about the accident.
"The loss of two bright young people is always tragic," Gray-Little said. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of Stephanie Conn and Jake Henry. On behalf of the entire KU community, I send deepest condolences."
— Edited by Dana Meredith
Conn and Henry's families have not announced the locations and times of funeral services.
Graphic by Nick Gerik/KANSAN
PUSHING BUTTONS
Campus elevators in decline
Dalton Gomez/KANSAN
Cameron LaMontagne, a freshman from Chicago, presses a floor number on the elevators in Wescoe Hall. The elevators have been know to entrap professors and students.
Low budgets prevent repairs to KU elevators
BY ANN WILSON editor@kansan.com
Any time she entered the Wescoe Hall elevators last spring, Allison Dillmon would always make sure she had one of two things.
"I always made a friend ride with me or made sure I had my cell phone in case I did get stuck and needed to call for help," said Dillmon, a junior from Andover.
Dillmon, who was on crutches for an entire semester because of a broken ankle, worried about getting trapped inside one of the elevators.
At the beginning of the semester, signs in the Wescoe elevators warned students of the potential of getting stuck and provided a number for trapped riders to call. The elevators are still in need of major repair.
Steve Green, associate director of Facilities Operations Management Information, said the department started requesting funding for an elevator renovation project last fall. But, he said, the project was delayed because of a lack of funds in the budget.
The Wescoe elevator controls are more than 30 years old and will cost nearly $73,000 to renovate, he said. Facilities Operations spends $240,000 each year on elevator maintenance, plus an average of $21,000 per year on billable repairs from its operating budget, Green said.
The elevators in Wescoe Hall are one of the four jobs that were approved for total replacement by the University Design & Construction Management, which is primarily funded by the state of Kansas. Since 2008, DCM has supplied more than $1 million for elevator upgrades and modernizations. Various campus departments, including the Parking and Transit and Athletics departments, provide additional funding. Over the past three years, they have contributed more than $180,00 to elevator repairs.
Green said the elevator company, Dynatron Elevator Inc., is required to have a mechanic on campus 40 hours per week. If someone becomes trapped, Dynatron is on call regardless of time of day, weekend or holiday.
"We can have as many calls as three in one day or go an entire month without one. It's not a set
Even though the elevator restoration project is underway, it's still not clear when the project will be completed. Green said he hopes to have the Wescoe Hall elevators replaced by the end of the semester.
pattern," said Allen Williams, elevator constructor mechanic.
Now that Dillmon's off her crutches, she said she had changed
"I'm thankful I don't have to use crutches anymore, but glad to hear that there are plans to replace the elevators for those that do need to use them," she said.
her elevator habits. Now, she said she hikes the stairs in Wescoe to avoid using the elevators at all.
— Edited by Roshni Oommen
CAMPUS
Dyche Hall upgrades funded by two grants
BY KELLY STRODA kstroda@kansan.com
Two separate grants from the National Science Foundation and the University will help renovate Dyche Hall, home to the Kansas Biodiversity Institute.
Dyche Hall is 107 years old. It will look traditional on the outside, but be state-of-the-art on the inside, said Leonard Kristalka, director of the institute.
The National Science Foundation awarded the Biodiversity Institute a $1.5 million federal stimulus grant at the end of September.
The Biodiversity Institute consists of 120 scientists and graduate students who study species and ecosystems of the world.
After renovations, the institute will be able to clone the ancient DNA of plants, animals or insects to compare genetic changes from centuries ago, Krishtalka said.
The cloning lab is only part of the renovation and upgrades; some other laboratories will also be renovated. Together, the additions and renovations will allow the institute to train graduate students in more modern laboratories, Kristalka said.
"This is a terrific shot in the arm for helping us leapfrog from a 19th century facility to a 21st century facility," said Krishtalka.
Another addition to Dyche Hall will be a cryogenic or freezing lab capable of storing 320,000 tissue specimens. Right now, tissues are stored in ultracold freezers. But Krishtalka said these freezers could fail because of power outages or air compressor malfunctions. The cryogenic lab will be more efficient and reliable, he said.
Krishtalka said money for repairs and renovations is often the hardest to get. Funding agencies typically award grants for basic or applied research.
"They usually won't fund bricks and mortar," he said.
But the grant is for renovation and repair. It's from the Academic Research Infrastructure: Repair and Renovation section of the American Recovery and
DYCHE HALL
RENOVATION
PLANS
Updating the Genomics Complex used for sequencing genetic material, including ancient DNA cloning capabilities Building a cryogenic laboratory capable of preserving up to 320,000 specimens
Installing a new laboratory for analyzing biotic and morphological aspects of organisms
Installing a Geographic Information System lab than can help forecast the spread of diseases or how climate change affects endangered animals
Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Rafe Brown, assistant curator of amphibians and reptiles in the Biodiversity Institute, said he was looking forward to the new direction his research and his students' research could go. He said the new infrastructure would allow them to move quickly when trends in science change in the future.
Charles Linkem, a graduate student of herpetology from Truckee, Calif., agreed with Brown. He said he thought the lab improvements would allow students to stay on the cutting edge of molecular research.
The University is also providing $1.3 million as part of a separate project to upgrade the cyber infrastructure in Dyche Hall. A four-fold larger server room will be built. Kristalka said this would allow the institute to more efficiently offer biodiversity data to the world.
Planning for the renovations will begin in November. Construction is expected to be completed by 2013.
Edited by Roshni Oommen
INDEX
Classifieds...8A
Crossword...4A
Cryptoquips...4A
Opinion...5A
Sports...10A
Sudoku...4A
WEATHER
WEDNESDAY
72 41
Sunny
THURSDAY
74 43
Sunny
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2010 The University Daily Kansan
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