Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Volek)

On a March day in 2004, Andrew Knopp went to the student recreation center planning to play basketball. Instead, the then-Student Body President sat on the sidelines for over an hour as he awaited his chance to get into a game.

Frustrated with the amount of people having to wait for their chance to play, Knopp told Recreation Services Director Mary Chappell that he was going over to the Athletic Department to try and negotiate a deal.

"I had no idea what he was going to try and negotiate," Chappell said. "But he went over there and somehow he got Athletics to trade 1,500 student seats way up at the top of Allen Fieldhouse for some seats that were closer to the court and for the trade, Athletic Director Lew Perkins agreed to pay the students 6.3 million dollars."

The deal Knopp negotiated was under heavy scrutiny in 2004 because the students lost almost 500 seats for home men’s basketball games. Knopp, however, had a plan that most people didn’t know about. He gave all 6.3 million dollars to Chappell and the recreation center to fund a new 50,000 square foot addition that is set to begin construction this March.

The new addition, which will be built completely free of charge to students because of the agreement with the Athletics Department, will be built in the grass area to the north of the current building. It will feature four basketball courts, two of which will be built on a synthetic surface so other sports such as roller hockey and indoor soccer can be played on them.

It will also feature two racquetball courts and over 2,000 feet of additional free-weight space. In addition, the running track will be extended and students will have the option of running the current path or a longer one that stretches around all eight courts and will measure exactly ¼ mile in length.

"By adding that much more, it’s going to be that much more exciting," Chappell said. "We want everyone to be able to feel like they can come in here and participate and have something that suits them that they can do, and we feel like we’re doing that."

In an event to add something fun and unique for the students, Chappell and her staff also plan to install “Full Swing Golf”, a 10 x 10 virtual golf game that will allow students to take full swings and play rounds of golf at courses such as Pebble Beach and St. Andrews.

Though Knopp is now graduated and moved on with his life, his problem of having to wait to play has not moved on. At 7 p.m. on Wednesday night, a count showed 31 players waiting on the sides of the courts to play in a game.

"It’s ridiculous," said KU student Chris Harbor. "We sit around for 30 minutes, get to play in one game for 10 minutes, and then have to sit around and wait again. Something needs to be done."

Something is being done, in the form of the new addition. With the four added courts, all 31 players would have been playing in games and nine spots would have been open for additional players.

"I had no idea," Harbor said, when informed that construction was about to begin on a new addition. "That’s great. It’s about time. Students will be really happy to hear about that because it’s always fun coming to the rec, but its not any fun sitting on the side watching other people play."

KU Athletic Department officials recently reached an agreement with the Kansas City Chiefs to move the 2007 and 2008 football games against Missouri to Arrowhead Stadium. With the move comes added concern, but not for the reasons recently discussed. KUJH's B.J. Rains tells us why.

It seems when KU officials agreed to move the football game against Missouri to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City for the next two years, they forgot to consider one thing -- the students.

Students from both Kansas and Missouri have voiced concern over the game’s relocation in recent days, particularly regarding the safety of fans and the possibility of young adults driving on the highways back to Lawrence or Columbia after they have had too much to drink at the game.

Unlike football games in either on-campus stadium, beer will be sold during the games at Arrowhead Stadium. That change could cause some students or fans to become intoxicated before getting behind the wheel to head home.

“There really wasn't a lot of discussion about it,” said Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony. “Always the thought of anybody, whether it be a student or an adult, drinking and driving is a real concern. We hope that doesn't happen."

Students such as KU junior Chris Harber usually tail-gate and partake in an alcoholic beverage or two before home football games. When students go in to watch the game, they sober up because alcohol is not served inside Memorial Stadium.

“Definetely, it could be a big problem,” Harber said. “I’ve seen people drunk in the first quarter, but by the end of the game, they are completely sober and able to drive home. If they keep selling beer during the game, those people would be even drunker.”

Add in the fact that students will have to drive on a highway at night for the 45-minute drive to Lawrence or the almost two-hour drive back to Columbia, and it becomes a potentially dangerous situation.

"Obviously, anytime anyone drinks and gets behind the wheel of a car its a concern,” said Lt. John Hotz of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. “During events like that, we have officers that will do saturation patrol and look for any signs of intoxicated drivers that might be out there on the roads, but we hope the students will use good judgement.”

The agreement states that KU and Missouri will each receive a minimum of $1 million per game from the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Chiefs will receive all revenue from ticket sales, parking and concessions. That means that KU officials have no say in attempting to limit beer sales during the game, and Arrowhead officials certainly won’t stop what will be their biggest money maker.

"I don't think it would be appropriate for us to stop the sales of beer entirely because someone might drink too much,” Marchiony said. “I think the more we can do before hand to educate and warn students then the better things will be. I think we will make an effort to do that, but we certainly can't legislate that for everybody because of something that some student might do."

Missouri student Scott Hicks usually tail-gates before going to Mizzou home football games, but he won’t even go to the game at Arrowhead Stadium next season.

“It’s not worth it,” Hicks said. “Why would I want to drive almost two hours just to get drunk and then be stranded in Kansas City? I’ll admit that my friends and I probably drink too much, but we’re responsible enough to know that we are better off just staying here and watching it on TV to avoid doing something stupid.”

Hotz, a football fan who used to be stationed in Kansas City before moving to Columbia, hopes that students can enjoy the rivalry game but do so in a responsible manner.

"The important thing is, anytime your going someplace and you plan on drinking, make your decision before you start drinking about how you’re going to get home,” Hotz said. “You don't want to wait until after you've had several drinks to make a decision about how you're getting home."

According to a new study done by Watkins Health Center, don’t expect to see many smokers working out at the Rec. KUJH’s B.J. Rains tells us why.

By B.J. Rains

The deadly shootings at Virginia Tech have prompted many schools, including the University of Kansas, to look at how they would alert students, faculty and staff if a similar event occurred on their campus.

Officials at KU, however, had to do more than look at the school's procedures when a bomb threat was received by a school employee Friday morning. The e-mail threat said four pipe bombs had been placed on or around the campus. After authorities were notified, an e-mail was sent to all students and staff alerting them of the situation.

The only problem was that not all students got the e-mail when it was sent. Junior Chris Harber knew nothing about the threat until a friend called and told him that the school had sent out an e-mail. When he checked his e-mail at about 4 p.m., he had no messages from the school in his in-box. Police Chief Ralph Oliver sent the e-mail at 3:08 p.m., but Harber did not receive it until 4:53 p.m., or more than 90 minutes after it was sent.

“There was a bomb threat on campus and I knew nothing about it,” Harber said. “Luckily it was just a threat and nothing happened because if it had been something more serious, I would have had no idea what was going on.”

KU has stepped up its search for better notification warning systems, and the e-mail delay is just another reason why. Several ideas are being discussed and a few have already been approved, school officials said.

“We have an extensive emergency plan for all types of emergencies, both natural disasters, pandemics, accidents and human behavior,” said Senior Vice Provost Kathleen A. McClusky-Fawcett. “We are currently in the process of updating this plan, but not in response to the Virginia Tech tragedy. We have been working on it for several months.”

KU has contracted through the Union for a service that will begin this fall and will use text messaging to help deliver urgent notices. All students and staff will be asked to provide updated cell phone numbers to the University, who will in turn be able to send out one massive text message to alert them of a dangerous situation on campus. The warning system will be free to students, except for the normal charge that applies from their cell phone carrier when they receive a text message.

The University is also gathering costs on two other communication systems. The first, a reverse 911 system, will allow the school to call each student's dorm room or faculty member's office phone and relay a taped message to the listener. McClusky-Fawcett said that the downside of this plan is that the majority of students live off campus and it's unknown whether they could receive the call as well.

The second system, a more likely scenerio, would wire all 40 campus buildings that have fire alarm speaker systems to the KU police central dispatch headquarters.

“It will enable the police to provide specific instructions to the occupants of any and all of the connected buildings,” said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Richard Lariviere.

Some schools, such as Arizona State, have implemented a siren system that will be used much like tornado sirens. Instead of having one siren, the schools will have three or four sirens that will each mean something different. Students will be educated on the system when they first arrive on campus each year.

KU officials have discussed the siren system but to this point said they do not find it a viable option.

“We judge sirens to be ineffective for those purposes,” Lariviere said.

Schools have gone to the siren system because it was the quickest and easiest to set up, but KU officials believe the text messaging or phone call systems would better alert the students.

“We talked about it,” McClusky-Fawcett said. “But we believe there are other, more effective methods of communication that we can put in place.”

If something similar to the Virginia Tech tragedy were to happen at KU before these systems were implemented, most students have no idea what would happen.

“My friends and I were talking about that when we were watching it all on TV,” said sophomore Molly Brammer. “I honestly have no idea what we would do, or what the school would do. My friend was saying that if she had class at JRP, and a shooting was going on at Frasier, she wouldn’t have any idea that something was wrong. We were all thinking about it and she’s right. We’d be in trouble if something happened.”

Though KU officials claim they were working to update the systems well before the shootings at Virginia Tech, the importance of getting these plans approved and in place has increased. Some say that the majority of the shootings at VT could have been avoided had the school done a better job in alerting the students, something KU hopes won’t happen in the future.

“It’s easy to second guess what they did, but it’s not fair to do so,” McClusky-Fawcett said. “We can’t guarantee that everyone is 100 percent safe from every potential disaster, but I believe with the systems in place and those that will soon be in place, we will be able to handle emergency situations if they arise.”