Jayhawks nab first Big 12 win The women's basketball team won its first conference game Tuesday by defeating Colorado 70-68 in overtime. 1B
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 91
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
PAGE 1A
kulture
Students pass down tradition of camping for basketball seats at Allen Fieldhouse by sharing rituals and necessities.
8A football
Lawrence Free State seniors Brian Murphy and Ryan Murphy plan to sign today as part of Kansas' 2007 recruiting class.
student senate
Another Student Senate coalition prepares for spring elections, focusing on tuition and textbook costs.
3A
men's basketball
Coach Bob Huggins brings a glipse of glory to the K-State basketball team with a winning mentality and his aggressive court tactics.
34 19
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index
Classifieds ... 5A
Crossword ... 6A
Horoscopes ... 6A
Opinion ... 7A
Sports ... 1B
Sudoku ... 6A
All contents, unless stated otherwise.
© 2007 The University Daily Kansan
GAS LEAK
Sunnyside buildings evacuated
BY NATE MCGINNIS
A suspected natural gas leak Tuesday forced the evacuation of the Dole Human Development Center, Haworth Hall, Hall Center for the Humanities, and Robinson Center.
them to the incident at 12:26 p.m.
Mark Bradford, chief of Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical said hand-pulled alarms alerted
tation systems into the buildings" Bradford said.
All four buildings were evacuated and inspected by firefighters. Crews used natural-gas detectors and their noses to make sure the buildings were clear of any gas.
Sarah Miller, Gilrow, Calif., junior, was prepared to take a "Introduction to Biostatistics" test Tuesday in Haworth when the alarms went off and forced the evacuation of the building.
"It smelled a little" she said. "But not too bad."
Garrett Call, Hillsboro graduate student, was working on his thesis when the alarms went off. He said he wasn't disturbed by the incident because the weather was nice.
Bradford said a gas line purged near 27th and Iowa streets was the suspected source of the problem.
Miller wasn't upset about the incident, and her test was postponed until Thursday.
Miller said she didn't smell any gas until she exited the building through a foyer on the east side of
"It was in the atmosphere and probably sucked through the ven
Haworth.
"It was a good excuse to get outside."
Photo by Jon Goering/KANSAN
GARRETT CALL Hillsboro graduate student
Photo by Joe Goering/KANSAN Students and faculty were evacuated from Dole Human Development Center, Haworth Hall, Hall Center for the Humanities, and Robinson Center Tuesday afternoon because of a suspected gas leak. The buildings were inspected and cleared, and students were allowed to re-enter shortly after 1 p.m.
After the buildings were inspected and cleared, people were allowed to re-enter around 1.08 p.m.
"It's a good excuse to get outside," he said.
Kansan senior staff writer Nate McGinnis can be contacted at nmcginnis@kansan.com.
Edited by James Pinick
DEVELOPMENT
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
*A watercolor rendering shows what Vermont Street might look like if developers followed Placeholders recommendation of creating more densely packed retail locations with residential properties on the higher floors in downtown Lawrence.*
A new look for Lawrence
Walking distance key in firm's vision for future city growth
BY MATT ERICKSON
Get out of your car, and lace up your walking shoes. This is what PlaceMakers, a national consulting firm hired by the city, would like Lawrence residents to do in the future.
Bill Dennis, director of design for PlaceMakers, said PlaceMakers wanted to make Lawrence into a "city of neighborhoods." These neighborhoods would contain housing, offices and commercial businesses, all within about a quarter-mile radius — or within walking distance.
After a weeklong planning workshop, PlaceMakers presented its recommendations for growth and development in Lawrence at the city commission meeting Tuesday night.
Susan Henderson,
PlaceMakers workshop leader,
said the team recommended
revamping some shopping areas,
like those at 23rd and Louisiana
streets and 25th and Iowa
streets.
Some neighborhoods would cater to students with lower-priced housing options, along with restaurants and bars that might attract a college-aged crowd.
"You want to develop places
the safe residential buildings — including apartments, town homes and other student-friendly housing options — could mix with the retail businesses in these areas, which would create places close to campus where students could walk to restaurants, bars and other destinations.
all over your city where once you arrive by car, you can walk 5 minutes and do all different kinds of things," Dennis said.
Dennis said the PlaceMakers team recommended dividing Massachusetts Street into sections that would appeal to different groups of people — including one section he called a "college street" where students
She said residential buildings
"That brings more cool places to live, where you can walk for pizza or walk to the pub." Henderson said.
could head to go to the restaurants, bars and entertainment venues that would appeal to them.
Dennis recommended filling in gaps on Vermont and New Hampshire streets to make them resemble Massachusetts Street, with closely built retail shops with residential or office areas above them. He said this could allow small business owners to live in the same property where they run a retail business, which would create more opportunities for locally-owned businesses.
However, Dennis said the PlaceMakers plan would also provide places for large chains such as McDonald's.
"You can still have every use you have in today's society, but we're concerned with the form of it and what it looks like," Dennis said.
Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@kansan.com.
Edited by Ryan Schneider
KANSAS LEGISLATURE
BY JOE HUNT
Bill could force landlords to warn about renewals
Students who don't read rental contracts may be in luck.
The Student Legislative Awareness Board introduced a bill to the Kansas Legislature in January that would require landlords to warn tenants a month in advance of an automatic lease renewal. A lease could not be automatically renewed until there are less than two months left on the current lease.
Landlords have been able to get away with making the deadlines so early because there have been no laws that set a time line for automatic lease renewals.
Currently, a lease is automatically renewed however tar in advance a landlord specified in the original lease agreement.
Ian Staples, legislative director of Student Senate, said that the bill would lessen confusion and make landlords more responsible.
"This is clarification and it makes actual damages for landlords that do things in bad faith," Staples said.
Tae Chung, legal intern at Legal
Services for Students, said that lease renewals were one of the biggest legal problems students faced.
"Half the people that come in here don't even know what an automatic renewal clause is," Chung said. "Usually they have to torfeit the deposit to reshape the situation."
The bill would also create two other laws to protect tenants. One would require landlords to provide a detailed list showing what was deducted from a tenant's security deposit. The other would prohibit landlords from holding tenants responsible for damages if the landlord failed to go through the inventory process correctly by going over the list with the tenant and having both parties sign the inventory.
Chung said he had seen contracts that require the tenant to terminate the lease up to four months before it runs out.
Kansan staff writer Joe Hunt can be contacted at jhunt@kansan. com.
Edited by Joe Caponio
>> ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
One-year-old hall upholds traditions
Some initially questioned the decision to change the face of Allen Fieldhouse.
BY KYLE CARTER
The Booth Family Hall of Athletics welcomed more than 27,000 visitors in the first year since its addition to the front of Allen Fieldhouse, curator Candace Dunback said.
The Hall is home to thousands of memorabilia items documenting the history of sports at the University of Kansas and also features reader rails describing the history in text.
"I was a little uneasy at first," said William Nether, a Wichita graduate student who was camping out for
tickets to the game against Kansas State on Wednesday. "I thought it was a shame to mess with such a historical building."
Nether said he checked out the Hall soon after its completion to see how it turned out.
"I'm okay with it now," he said. "There's some interesting factoids in there."
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Dunback said about half of the items on display were being loaned to the Hall and the other half were donated permanently. She said the largest number of donations came from family members of former athletes.
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SEE BOOTH ON PAGE 3A
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