University Daily Kansan / Thursday, April 21, 1988
Campus/Area
Swindlers fool KU students with shady sales
By Ric Brack
Kansan staff writer
It sure sounded like a good deal.
Jordan Aron and a friend had a chance to buy a pair of speakers for which some well-known Kansas City bars had paid as much as $1,500. And for only $250 a pair.
Aron, Wilmette, Ill., junior, and his friend each bought a pair of speakers from the two men who were driving around Lawrence last week with a van loaded with speakers.
The men said they were delivering speakers to some Kansas City bars. They had receipts to prove the bars had purchased the speakers and that showed how much those bars had paid for them.
But the Kansas City bars said they hadn't purchased any speakers. In fact, they said they had never even heard of the speakers or the company. On top of that, the speakers were of poor quality. Aron said.
The deliverymen told Aron it would be like Christmas if
they sold some extra speakers that had been accidentally loaded on their van that day.
loaded on their van that day.
And they were willing to deal.
After he had purchased his speakers, Aron said he took them home and looked at them.
they were just stuccoed, took good on the outside and in the brochure that the men had shown. Aron said, but a close inspection showed they had low-quality components, and some components were missing.
"These guys are good salesmen." Aron said. "They got me and they almost got my neighbor."
Aron said he saw the men making a sale Monday to some neighbors at the apartment complex where he lives, and he called the police. The police found that the men didn't have a permit to sell in Lawrence. They were issued a warning and told to get a permit.
About two hours later, another officer caught the men still without a permit, still selling. That officer issued
them tickets and notices to appear in municipal court for selling without a permit.
According to Lt. De'el Cobb of the Lawrence Police Department, the men showed a business card and said they were working for a Lenexa company called Atlantic Sound.
The van that they were driving was also registered to that company.
Aron said he and his friends had seen and followed another van that was filled with speakers and had a license plate number that was one digit different from the other van. Lawrence police said that van was also registered to Atlantic Sound.
A man who answered the phone at Atlantic Sound yesterday and would identify himself only as Steve, said that the company was a wholesaler that provided merchandise to independent contractors. The man refused to say whether Atlantic Sound also provided vans to sell that merchandise...
Detective Don Krone of the Lenexa Police Department said he had not heard of Atlantic Sound, but that he had been told to do so.
He said the technique of making people think they were buying stolen goods was a common ploy.
Krone said the company could face criminal charges if he were found to have used the techniques of sale if it into the device itself, by description.
According to Neil Worman, chief of staff at the Kansas Attorney General's office, the method of selling used by Atlantic Sound was probably against a civil code, and may be against a criminal code.
"To indicate that these were part of a load that was destined for a commercial facility when that company has not heard of them would be a violation of the consumer code." Woerman said.
Woerman said that people who are victims of such sales techniques should file a complaint either with local law enforcement or with the Attorney General's office.
Cookout
*trairie Village seniors Dina Zuannich and Nobby Baker listen to cookout at Adams Alumni Center. The event was sponsored by the ticket numbers being called during the raffle held at the KU seniors alumni Center and the Student Alumni Association.
Location and scenery make Lawrence a new filmmakers' paradise
Bv Christine Martin
Kansan staff writer
Kansas may not have mountains and may not have oceans, but it has everything else.
That's what Jerry Jones, film coordiator for the Kansas Film Commission in Topeka, says has been attracting filmmakers to Kansas recently, especially to Lawrence.
Jones said that more than $500,000 was spent on shooting movies in Kansas in fiscal year 1984. He estimated that the million was spent in fiscal year 1987.
Jones said movie production in California had dropped 50 percent since 1980 because of rising production costs.
Shooting in Kansas is much less expensive than shooting in California because Kansas is a right-to-work state. The Army Corps of Engineers crews are unionized, Jones said.
Filmmakers are especially attracted to Lawrence because of the city's location. Jones said it's relatively close to Kansas City International Airport and to downtown Kansas City, Mo.
Housing is much cheaper in Kansas than in Los Angeles because moviemaking here is a novelty to watch. It doesn't charge as much as Californiaans.
Lawrence's location serves an aesthetic purpose as well as a practical
one.
"You're in a position to get a variety of looks," Jones said. "On the east, you have wooded, rolling hills. On the west, there are the Flint Hills, wide-open prairie and no trees, which can be stark picturesque. There's a world of difference in the kind of looks you can get."
More movies have been filmed in Lawrence than in any other city in Kansas, Jones said. Since 1970, moviemakers have filmed six movies in Lawrence. Emporia takes second in Kansas, with five movies filmed there.
"Kansas," a movie filmed in Lawrence last fall starring Andrew McCarthy and Matt Dillon, will be released in July or August. The film commission is working to bring the world premiere to Kansas.
Other movies filmed in Lawrence are "The Day After" in 1982, "Nice Girls Don't Explode" in 1986, "Murder Ordaired," in which crews spent four days in Lawrence in 1987, "Linda Lovelace for President" in 1976 and "Prime Cut," starring Gene Hackman and Lee Marvin, in Gene
In Wichita, the filming of the movie "Twister," starring Crispin Glover and Harry Dean Stanton, began last week. Vestron, the film company that produced the movie "Dirty Dancing," will spend seven weeks filming there.
Program helps freshmen
By Elaine Woodford
Kansan staff writer
But Mike Blumenthal, assistant to the director of orientation services, and 12 student staff members will try to make the college transition easier for new students and their parents.
During the months of June and July, thousands of nervous freshmen will descend on the University of Kansas and learn the facts about timetables, tuition increases and closed classes.
The summer orientation program is designed to help freshmen learn more about KU and enroll in classes for the fall semester. Parents also are oriented. They can attend information sessions about academic, financial and residential programs and take a tour of the campus.
Blumenthal said that last year, more than 8,000 students and their parents or relatives attended orientation sessions.
This year, 18 one-day sessions will be offered. The sessions will begin Thursday, June 16, and end Monday, July 25. Blumenthal said the sessions
would be on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturrdays.
Orientation officials select students every year to help advise and guide the freshmen. This year, 12 students were chosen. The group learns from different living groups on campus and different geographical areas.
The student group leaders will attend informational sessions for two and a half weeks, beginning May 26 or May 31.
"This is the most comprehensive student training program at the University," Blumenthal said. "They'll learn everything about anything available at KU."
The students will visit every office on campus, from the chancellor's office to custodial services in the Kansas Union. Because the students will be advising freshmen about what classes to take, they also will visit the deans of each school and each department on campus.
Blumenthal said the students would be advising for every major in every school.
"You name it, they learn it," he said.
Lisa Karr, St. Louis junior, said that she had had a good orientation experience and that she thought the opportunity to learn more about KU.
"I'm expecting to learn a lot about the University, and I'd like to share that knowledge with incoming freshmen," she said.
Blumenthal said he thought the most vital part of the summer orientation program was the small group session. Student orientation leaders explain enrollment procedures, talk about different living groups on campus and answer the multitude of questions the freshmen may have.
Julia Ekland, Kansas City, Kan., freshman, said the student orientation leaders she met when she attended an orientation session all seemed to be having so much fun that she decided to apply for one of the positions this year.
"I can't think of another job that be as much fun," she said.
Fun is goal of student project
The students, who are in a senior-level mechanical engineering class, are designing mobility devices for children with physical impairments at the Capper Foundation at Topeka as their semester projects.
Terry Faddis, associate professor of mechanical engineering and instructor of the class, said that he chose the project because it would bring together everything the students and learned in their previous classes.
He said an employee of the Capper Foundation contacted him to see whether one of his classes could design a coffee cup. He dressed all in gold, nine design tageta
The devices would have to be different than wheelchairs because the majority of the children lack the upper strength to operate wheelchairs, tricycles and low wagons.
Hard work from University of Kansas engineering students might make play easier for mobility-impaired children.
By Julie Adam
Kansan staff writer
So the students did that. The students visited the children at the Capper Foundation to get a better understanding of what needs to meet the needs of the children.
"You have to get out and see the customers to be able to design something for them," Faddis said.
Faddis said, "I try to keep it as open-ended as I can so students really have a chance to express themselves," he said. "I think
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The project would simulate a real job situation in which the student working for a company would have to design and build devices according to customer specifications.
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Jeff Levin, Overland Park senior, who is in the same group as Brake, said. "You are always thinking whether you want to or not."
Jeff Brake, Overland Park senior, said that one of the problems his group and was trying to solve was that he came from different companies.
Faddis said that the problem the students faced would be to design projects that require minimal strength to propel and guide, are close to the floor, adapt to changes in terrain and allow the children to get in and out by themselves.
One group said their device, which they named the Kid Kart. was almost finished and only needed to be painted.
The students are divided into groups of four or five. Their projects are due Monday when the students will give demonstrations of how their individual devices work.
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One problem the students faced is that mobility devices on the market now cost from $1,300 to $6,000. But the students had a budget of only $200 to buy the materials needed for the project.
they've had more fun with this project than other ones."
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