The University Daily Kansan
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Today: Partly cloudy with a high of 33 and a low of 24.
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Fridav. February 2, 2001
Sports: Kansas senior Luke Axtell meets his former school tomorrow when the Jayhawks take on the Texas Longhorns.
SEE PAGE 6A
Inside: Donated cell phones benefit victims of domestic violence.
For comments, contact Lori O'Toole or Mindie Miller at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
SEE PAGE 2A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Talbots opening rouses concern
By Erin Adamson
By Erin Adamson
writer @kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Last Friday, Talbots clothing store became the newest business to open in downtown Lawrence, but some business owners worry that chain stores could change the local flavor of downtown.
The Lawrence location joins other nearby stores in Topeka, Overland Park and the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.
As part of the trend of new development downtown, Talbots occupies a recently completed building at the corner of Seventh and Vermont streets. Other chain stores in that area that have opened recently include The Gap, Abercrombie and Fitch, Eddie Bauer
and American Eagle Outfitters.
Terri Faunce, co-owner of The Casbah, 803 Massachusetts St., said that the rejuvenation of downtown was good, but that there should be limits on how many national chains could set up shop.
"I don't want it to get where our downtown looks like every other downtown," Faunce said.
But Faunce said new development set a challenge for independent business owners.
JoAnn Seitz, assistant manager at Talbots,
said that customers thought the store had a place downtown.
"A lot have said Lawrence has needed this kind of store." Seitz said.
She said the store had a large petite section, which was unique to Lawrence.
Future development in the 900 block of New Hampshire will bring more new businesses to the downtown. Private developers will build three buildings designed as commercial spaces.
Dave Corliss, assistant city manager, said that the city did not know what businesses would occupy the new commercial spaces in the 900 block of New Hammish Street.
Faunce said she worried that the national chains would drive rent up.
Bill Sepic, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, said that the Chamber was not involved in recruiting retail and food stores that would be downtown, but that the Chamber supported all businesses.
"I hope it isn't going to raise the rent so high to where independently-owned businesses can't afford it." Faunce said.
"It is not for us to determine a homegrown store is better than a national chain store," Sepic said.
Sepic said that the Chamber would have been supportive of the development in the 600 block of Massachusetts, but that it didn't actively recruit businesses to fill the new buildings.
Edited by Doug Pacey
Water, water everywhere...
Waters flood the sidewalk near the bus stop in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall. The water gushed onto Jayhawk Boulevard yesterday afternoon as water management employees flushed the fire hydrants. The routine check by the city ensured that the hydrants were working. Photo by Selena Inhare/KANSAN
KU graduate makes it big on The Mole
By Sarah Smarsh
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A University of Kansas alumna has made her way to prime time. Kathryn Price, a 1994 graduate, is a player on The Mole, ABC's new reality-based television series.
Price, 28, is one of 10 players sent to a secret location for three weeks. The players compete in mental and physical tests to win up to $1 million. However, one player — the "mole" — secretly tries to sabotage the "contestants. Each week, the player who knows the least about the "mole" is eliminated.
Megan Mitchelson, a KU graduate living in Leawood, was Price's friend and fellow Kappa Alpha Theta sorority member. She thought Price, one of the remaining six players, would survive one way or another.
"Everything she has ever tried, she has accomplished," Mitchelson said. "If she doesn't win, then she's the 'mole.' "
Mitchelson thought Price owed her success thus far on the show to being very intelligent, perceptive and possessing a "nearly photographic memory."
Leah Davis, Kansas city resident and member of Price's sorority pledge class in 1991, agreed that Price had the tools to remain a key player on the show.
"She was a real go-getter — very intelligent," Davis said. "I kind of think she's the 'mole.' She's smart enough to pull it off."
Mitchelson said Price, who received highest distinction honors when receiving a degree in political science, had backed out of a teaching position at the University of Chicago to take her chances on The Mole.
"She was very into Survivor and reality-based TV shows," Mitchelson said.
When Price saw an audition notice in a Chicago newspaper, she decided to become more than a spectator. Mitchelson said.
"It's kind of out of character for her to do something like this," Mitchelson said. "Most of the things she does are more academic."
The Mole airs at 7 d.m. on Tuesdays.
Price isn't the only KU alumna featured on reality TV, Megan Denton, a 1997 graduate, has been seen as a temptress on FOX's Temptation Island, which airs at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays.
— Edited by Leinis Schultes
Town celebrates its historic roots
Angela Bates-Thompkins, historian and descendant of the original settlers of Nicodemus, speaks about preserving the small Kansas town established for African Americans in 1877. Bates-Thompkins spoke to a crowd of about 70 people in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union yesterday afternoon. The event was one of several that will be held in February in observance of Black History Month. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
By Donny Phillips
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
Nicodemus was a part of the Old West that students did not read about in their history books.
The small Kansas town was established in 1877 specifically for former slaves who were struggling during the end of Reconstruction.
Historian Angela Bates-Thompkins, a descendent of the town's settlers, spoke yesterday at the Kansas Union about Nicodemus' heritage, its importance for today and its prospects for the future.
About 70 people attended the presentation, which was sponsored by the University of Kansas Libraries diversity committee in observance of Black History Month.
"We know about John Wayne," said Bates Thompkins, "but very seldom if ever did we see a Black face. There were Black cowboys, there were Black soldiers, there were Black pioneers, there were Black stagecoach drivers; we were a part of the West."
Bates-Thompkins has worked to preserve the town for future generations and was the primary force behind establishing the Nicodemus National Historic Site. The town receives federal funding because of its designation.
Bates-Thompkins said Nicodemus represented the African-American experience in the West.
At first, the settlers experienced more hardships than prosperity. In the first year of
Nicodemus was founded by land developers and promoters who used the lure of free land to entice former slaves from Kentucky to relocate and settle in the town.
"They had to have a strong, strong faith in God and determination," said Bates-Thompkins. "Those people were unique because they had an extreme desire for self-autonomy."
Nicodemus' existence, the townpeople lived in duduns and almost died of starvation.
It was the Osage Indians who came to their aid and gave them food.
But because the town could not convince Union Pacific to build a railroad through Nicodemus, the population declined.
"If it wasn't for the Native Americans, we wouldn't be here." Bates-Thomkins said.
Eventually, the town began to prosper, and in its heyday around the turn of the century. Nicodemus had a population of 600 people and boasted many amenities, including hotels, churches, newspapers and a school.
Today, only about 20 people live in the town.
system is promoting the town, and it could attract as many a 30,000 tourists a year, Bates-Thompkins said.
Despite the town's small size. the National Parks
Nicodemus has an annual "Emancipation Day" celebration every summer, a tradition that dates back to 1878. Many people who have moved away from the town return for the festival as a sort of homecoming.
She said she was also planning to write a book about the town's history — specifically from a descendant's perspective.
"That's the thread that keeps all the descendants together." Bates-Thompkins said.
C. J. Wilford, St. Louis junior, first heard about Nicodemus in a history class in high school and has been intrigued with the town. He said he would one day like to visit Nicodemus.
Bates-Thompkins encouraged everyone, not just African Americans, to make the journey.
"Come see what African Americans have done and are doing," she said.
— Edited by Doug Pacey
Mayan heiroglyphics focus of student club
1 chuwen 14 yax isn't the name of a comedy troupe, a novel or a new rock band.
It's the date Nov. 15, 2000, in the Mayan calendar and the name of a new student club devoted to learning about Mayan hieroglyphic writing.
By Sarah Warren
John Tomasic, president of 1 chuwen 14 yax and Kansas City, Kan., graduate student, explained the name.
Kansan staff writer
"We decided to give it that name because that's the date we were founded in the Mayan calendar," Tomasic said.
"Iad taught a class on Mayan hieroglyphs for the past two semesters, so some students in that class decided that they wanted to meet outside of class time, and so they formed the club," said Pye, the club's adviser and associate professor of linguistics.
The club, which had its second meeting Wednesday night, consists of about 10 students who wanted to extend their learning outside of Clifton Pye's Mesoamerican writing class.
"The writing system developed in the classic Mayan cities," Pye said. "If you know one of the living languages, then you can use a lot of the living language to decipher the hieroglyphs. You can actually see the way the
Pye said hieroglyphs were first used by the Mayan people of southern Mexico and Central America in 200 B.C. Today there are 26 different types of Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Mexico, he said.
Pye speaks a Mayan dialect called K'iche', which he picked up while doing research in Latin America. His students have learned another dialect called Kakchikel, which is taught at the University of Kansas.
Tomasic is quick to point out that one doesn't have to be an expert on Mayan hieroglyphs attend the meetings, the next of which is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, at Alcove C in the Kansas Union.
"It's really all levels of readers — there's beginners to intermediate," Tomasic said. "Anybody who doesn't know a thing can go to the meeting and learn."
hieroglyphs spell out the language."
"They're like the romance languages in that they all are very closely connected," Pye said of the Mayan languages. "Knowing any one of them is helpful with the hieroglyphs."
"We're hoping this spring to get a speaker from the State University of New York," Tomasic said. "And we're trying to organize trips to go to conferences where people who are interested meet with experts of Mayan writing and culture."
Tomasic said the club wouldn't just discuss Mayan hieroglyphs on their own.
Pye said club trips to Latin America were possible but still far in the future.
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"Several members of the club were in Guatemala over the summer learning Kakchikel, and in the course of that visit we saw some ruins at Tecpan, Guatemala," Pye said. "So trips are possible, but we're still basically organizing the club, so that's still a ways away."
— Edited by Leita Schultes
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