8A / NEWS / FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
City approves expansion project for public library
$18 million project to be completed in about 20 months
BY LAURA NIGHTENGALE
Inightengale@kansan.com
City commissioners granted permission to finalize the contract for the Lawrence Public Library expansion Tuesday evening. The project will cost $18 million and include construction of a new parking garage, expansion of the library area by 20,000 square feet and the addition of 100 public access computers.
Voters approved the expansion last November with the success of the highly publicized "Vote Yes for the Library" campaign. Since then, city officials and contract company Gould Evans have negotiated price and construction details.
Original estimates gauged the project at approximately $19 million, but the company and city officials managed to settle on a lower price and expand the project to include features like an additional parking ramp and bus stop facilities within the garage.
stop facilities within the campus. With additional study space and the added convenience of parking at a bus stop, the public library might become an alternative to sometimes-crowded campus libraries.
pus libraries Bretta Mick, a junior from Plainville, said she would prefer a public facility with open space and study utilities to campus libraries because of overcrowding.
because or over all now because
"I don't go as much now because
there are never any empty computers
or open tables," Mick said.
The library currently has 60 computers for public access, but according to library representative Bruce Flanders, the facility should have at least 150 to effectively serve a population the size
of Lawrence and university students.
dents. The project will be completed in phases, allowing the library to remain open during the 20-month construction period.
limited in the vicinity. "Parking is going to be miserable," Flanders said. "There will be virtually no parking right around the library."
limited in the vicinity.
parking structure in about a year, Flanders said, followed by expansion projects and finally renovations of current facilities, including computer updates. The entire project will likely be completed in late 2013.
See more photos at kansan.com/photos
The Lawrence Public Library expansion project is expected to be finished by 2013. The project will cost about $18 million.
Ashleigh Lee/KANSAN
Speakers at the Human Rights Symposium Thursday in Green Hall and the Burge Union addressed essential yet little-known rights. Joseph Mastrosimoine, Kansas human rights commission director, spoke about the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which prevents employers from discriminating against someone based on genetic data.
Symposium tackles misunderstanding, prejudice
HUMAN RIGHTS
BY MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
Walk down a busy street in Sanaa, Yemen, hand a Christian bible to a man and unfold a foreign world to him.
The man's government has banned all non-Muslim works. He doesn't even know how to read.
"It's an oppressive, anti-intellectual reality," said Raj Bhala, professor of Islamic law.
Bhala, who said that Islamic law is not to blame and rather it is misunderstood, was one of eight speakers at the third annual Human Rights Symposium yesterday at Green Hall and the
Burge Union.
Burgess Cronk
"I think part of it is our fault.
We don't always give the right picture," said Zainab Radhi, a student of jurisdictional studies in comparative Islamic economics from Baghdad.
Baghdad.
"Also, we're a bit lazy," she said.
"Not many Muslim students come here or go to Europe to do studies and publish articles about Islam."
Thesymposiumwaspresentedby the University's International Law Society, the Islamic Law Students Association, the Public Interest Law Society and the Center for Global and International Studies. It offered perspectives regarding several rights that offer essential
protection but are often unfamiliar to those in need.
Leilani Leighton, president of the University's International Law Society, said she was in favor of "anything that highlights some of the injustices that are going on everywhere."
"To be a law student, on the cusp of graduation, with the private economy working as bad as it is, public interest law is a busy, hot topic right now," she said.
Other speakers included NBC reporter Elizabeth Alex, immigration activists Angela Ferguson and Erin Flemming, and Kansas human rights commission director Joseph Mastrosimone.
Mastrosimone spoke of the recently introduced Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or GINA.
The act prevents employers from not hiring someone based on genetic data that could indicate a future disease. Before GINA, there was no protection for predisposition of diseases.
four or diseases
"If you're going out into the workforce, employers are starting to collect information that is genetically based," he said. "It's always good to know your rights."
Edited by Samantha Collins
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