The Clinton Lake Museum, a museum commemorating area abolitionists and the Underground Railroad activities that took place throughout Wakarusa Valley, participated in Douglas County’s Juneteenth Celebration for the first time last Saturday.
The museum offered food, tours, and performances to visitors as a part of the Juneteenth celebration.
“I love it!” said Martha Parker, museum curator, about joining the Juneteenth celebration. “It’s so much a part of history. This was a part of the Underground Railroad!”
The museum opened in May 1983 and was named an Underground Railroad facility by the National Parks Service later on. The Wakarusa Valley was predominately settled by abolitionist from surrounding states and was a safe haven for slaves in search of freedom. During her research of the activities in the Wakarusa Valley, Parker has been able to document over 32 Underground Railroad sites throughout the valley.
Donna Bell, an organizer of the Juneteenth celebration, feels that the museum has a lot to offer to Juneteenth and those celebrating it.
“There is an incredible amount of history, especially as it relates to the Underground Railroad and of early abolitionists in this area. I think people are just now coming to the realization of how much history there really is,” said Bell.
Along with joining the Juneteenth celebration, the Clinton Lake Museum has a lot in store for the future. Because of limited space at the current museum, Parker is working on plans for a new museum at Clinton Lake. The museum would have space for more exhibits, an area for research, and a temperature-controlled vault for precious artifacts.
The new museum is expected to cost at least $500,000 and would be located next to the current building. Parker is currently planning fundraising events to help pay for the new museum.
Longer Underground Railroad tours will soon become a reality once the city passes a proposal to change Fire Station #4 into an Underground Railroad museum/interpretive center. The Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County and Friend’s of Grover barn plan to tell detailed stories and show more Underground Railroad sites to raise visitor’s awareness of the importance of the Underground Railroad.
Tours would leave from Grover barn and visit several Underground Railroad sites in Douglas County, other sites in Kansas, and venture out as far as Nebraska and Iowa. Long tours would enable more detail and allow the leaders to tell more stories.
“The longer tour gives a much more comprehensive view of what life was like during the territorial period and let’s people have a better idea of the vast network that the abolitionists and free-seekers were a part of”, said Judy Sweets, Underground Railroad tour guide and researcher.
The association plans to begin the tours at Grover barn in Lawrence and go to former historic stations. Douglas County alone has 30 documented sites; however, many of these sites are no longer standing so the association could offer several daylong tours that could cover about 10 sites a day. They plan to enhance the longer tour experience by providing: refreshments, lunch, music, re-enactors and on board videos.
Long tours could also go to Black Jack Battlefield and continue to Lane, Kansas, Pottawatomie Creek and Adair Cabin in Osawatomie, Kansas. The tour would next, cross over to Missouri to visit where slaves were rescued in Vernon and Bates counties said Sweets. There is also a possibility of touring Lecompton, Kansas, and Topeka’s historical sites.
Two to three day tours departing from Grover’s Barn would follow the former Lane Tail north through Nebraska and Iowa. These tours would visit towns where John Brown and others stopped with those they were leading on the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad tours are important to Lawrence and Douglas County because it helps keep Kansas’ history alive.
“Re-telling the stories and seeing the sites keeps the knowledge of what happened here before the public and helps educate our youth about our unique heritage,” said Sweets.
Before longer tours begin, several things have to happen. The city has to pass the proposal, the center has to open and begin operations and fundraising will have to take place.
The Juneteenth event June 17, celebrates when the last slaves were notified that the war was over and that they were free. The celebration offered three short Underground Railroad tours. The short tour had six sites and included two Underground Railroad sites, John Doy’s home place on the corner of Kasold and Peterson Road, and Grover’s Barn on Stone Barn Terrace. Visitors signed up for any of the three short tours offered on a sign up sheet at the Juneteenth celebration. The short tours allowed the public to ride a small bus around Lawrence to see historical sites in Lawrence. For many it was a first time on the tour.
“I drove past the barn growing up but had never been inside of it and enjoyed hearing about the history of the family that lived there and how they helped the slaves to travel on the Underground Railroad,” said Teresa Olds, Lawrence resident.
Researching for sites in Douglas County began about 10-years-ago said Tolly Wildcat, Underground Railroad tour guide and researcher. Wayne Wildcat was doing research for an Underground Railroad painting and met with Dr. Richard Sheridan. Dr. Sheridan had researched the Douglas County Underground Railroad for a book. Eventually Wayne and Tolly Wildcat, Judy Sweets and Martha Parker combined their research and worked together to find more sites. Some joined the Kansas Territorial Heritage Alliance, a grassroots organization of about 13 counties in Kansas.
“Kansas, I think has a lot to celebrate and I think we are hoping more African Americans and more whites here and every race knows what went on here to make sure Kansas and the nation was free,” said Tolly Wildcat.
Juneteenth celebration revisits the Underground Railroad
Although slavery and the Underground Railroad haven’t been around for more than 140 years, their history is still alive and changing in Lawrence.
“We’re still in the process of finding things.” Dr. Tolly Wildcat, researcher and former associate professor at KU, said. “History isn’t just something in the books.”
In the clip below, Wildcat discusses the importance of keeping history alive.
Just in the past 10 years, 35 sites have been added to Douglas County’s list of places that were a part of the Underground Railroad, Wildcat said.
An Underground Railroad tour of Lawrence was one of many activities offered during the Juneteenth celebration, the oldest known commencement of the end of slavery.
Wildcat and Judy Sweets, both members of the Underground Railroad Association, served as guides for underground railroad tours.
Buses departed from Burcham Park and stopped at the John Doy home site, the look out hill at Tomahawk and Weatherhill Circle, and Joe Grover’s barn.
Sweets, a photo archivist at the Dole Institute of Politics, clarified what the term Underground Railroad really means. Underground railroads are not usually underground and not a railroad, Sweets said. The phrase was used because people used railroad terminology, like conductor, passenger and station house. Sweets said the Underground Railroad was a network of people and places that helped slaves travel to freedom in the north.
Because slaves weren’t allowed to learn how to read words, they learned how to read the sky, Sweets said. Freedom seekers, a term some historians use instead of slaves, followed the North Star in hopes of making it to Canada, which outlawed slavery in 1835.
The first stop of the Underground Railroad tour was Dr. John Doy’s home site at Peterson Road and Kasold Drive.
Doy, an abolitionist and conductor for the Underground Railroad, owned the land from 1854 to 1860. He is most known for leading a group of 13 African-Americans from Lawrence en route to Canada. Doy and his group, however, never made it to Canada because they were captured 12 miles north of Lawrence.
The site is recognized on the National Park Services Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The current landowner of the Doy site agreed not to build near the site and will help preserve it, Wildcat said.
Another stop on the tour was Joe Grover’s barn, located at 2819 Stone Barn Terrace. Grover volunteered his home to shelter slaves on their journey to freedom. Although parts of the original barn remain in tact, the site is now home to Fire Station No. 4.
Sweets and Wildcat, along with her husband, recently formed a group called Friends of Grover’s Barn. The group is working to keep the barn as close to its past life as a stop for freedom seekers as possible.
The Grover House is one of only two standing structures in Lawrence connected to the Underground Railroad. Wildcat said the barn was important during its time because it was part of the network used to hide slaves.
“You can drive by history and look out the window and say 'something happened there,' but we want actual walls and rocks,” Wildcat said.
Wildcat said she hopes that by keeping the barn there, it can be used as a network again and people can reconnect to it through tours.
Wildcat and her husband work on research and saving sites. Much of the history from the Civil War is incomplete or unrecorded, she said.
Sweets said they’ve been able to dig up information about the abolitionists, but they’ve had a more difficult time researching the African-Americans they helped. Oftentimes, there are no names or records of the slaves, and some censuses only included their first names.
People tend to think of the Underground Railroad as the East, Wildcat said, but we’re putting Kansas on the map.
Sweets and Wildcat will continue to fight for the preservation of the Grover Barn and search for more history that hasn't been found yet.
“We’re always looking for new stories,” Wildcat said. “When you tell these stories, you get more stories back.”
The third-annual Juneteenth 3 on 3 basketball tournament kicked off on Friday with a variety of tournaments and contests.
As the tournament unraveled from 9 am to 8 pm at the Lawrence Community Building, the basketball court was filled with the sounds of sliding sneakers, and conversing basketball players.
The tournament encompassed divisons of first, second and third graders, all the way up to the adult division. There were a total of seven events, including a free throw contest and the crowd favorite slam-dunk contest.
The event, held at the Lawrence Community Building was directed by Gary Hall, and was held together by four volunteers that came in to referee the event, and maintain the competitions. It is just one part of a series of events, including a family festival, an oral history program, and a tour of the Underground Railroad.
As a chairperson of the Lawrence Juneteenth Committee, Donna Bell, along with her co-chair Jeannine Coulter, started the Lawrence Juneteenth festival about three years ago.
She has helped organize all of the events by coordinating the volunteers for the endeavor, including the regular committee of fifteen volunteers, and the extras that fill in for various events.
She said the tournament was enjoyable, because it let kids enjoy their freedom after learning of a time when African American people didn't have that liberty.
“It brings families and kids together, and the sportsmanship and cooperation out there really shows what Juneteenth is all about…We’ve started planning for next years events, and we’ll definitely be continuing the tournament because the kids loved it so much.”
Kevin Jackson, a seventeen year-old self described “basketball-fanatic,” depicted the event as a great way to let off steam, and challenge himself physically among his peers in the community.
“The 3 on 3 is exciting, ya’ know. It’s interesting to learn about slavery, and our past, but at the end of the day, it’s also fun to play some basketball.” Later that day, Jackson’s team went on to the semi-finals of the high school division’s 3 on 3 tournament.
While Juneteenth has grown in popularity, and has extended its run from five days last year to seven days this year…the festival remains a fairly cheap endeavor.
“It takes a lot of time, but we are very creative, and so it’s not a huge expensive kind of event, it just takes a lot of people working together to do it," Bell said with a beaming grin.
At the time of the basketball tournament, the organizers had only spent eight to nine thousand dollars.
They achieved the low cost with support from the City of Lawrence, the Boys and Girls club, KU, and various other organizations. Bell said, “at the heart of the celebration is a sense of family and volunteerism."
The Juneteenth festival is celebrated in over 200 communities across the U.S., and in Kansas, cities like Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita all take part in the festival.
The central idea of the celebration is to educate people on African-Amreican history, and the ending of slavery in the United States.
Specifically, Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when the last group of slaves in Galveston, Texas discovered they were free for the first time, two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation had been declared.
Bell said, “we learn more every year that we do it, and its good to get those dates out there as soon as you can, so we’ll be looking at getting things solidified for the 2007 celebration real soon here.”
Next year the festival will focus on military history, and the African American experience.
Juneteenth family festival brings crowd to Burcham Park
From her spot behind a large collection of brightly-colored church hats, Lisa Adame, Topeka shop-owner, listened to a child’s voice fill Burcham Park situated in Northeast Lawrence, at this year’s annual Juneteenth Festival Saturday.
The child, Shae Bedford, 12 from Olathe, along with her sister Tessa Curbow, 12, sang at the festival, a celebration of the final emancipation of the slaves which took place on June 19, 1865.
The modestly-sized third-annual family festival included arts and crafts, Caribbean food, health checks and various local business displays such as Adame’s.
“I just found [Juneteenth] researching the internet and the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. I called and got signed up!” Adame said.
Several Underground Railroad tours also ran throughout the festivities, bussing visitors to various locations in Lawrence.
Andrea Partee, a new resident of Lawrence and member of the NAACP signed her name with several others for the tour while saying she doubted there was another Juneteenth similar to Lawrence’s.
“I think this is pretty unique, what’s happening here today.” Partee said.
One of the emcees at the event, Fritz Esperance, also provided the food with his business, La Isla Catering, a catering service in Lawrence that specializes in Haitian-Creole cuisine.
“I love their food, and people seem to enjoy it, whoever we give it to, they really seem to like it a lot!” Amanda Harlan, a food-server at the event said.
According to Donna Bell, a Juneteenth committee member, the celebration is the oldest known emancipation celebration.
“It is time for our community to acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today,” Bell said.
Juneteenth celebrations were originally used for teaching newly freed slaves their voting rights and as “political rallies” and Lawrence’s is the oldest.
Today, however, the date is celebrated in over 200 communities nation-wide and takes many forms all which commemorate, most importantly, freedom, lest we forget.
Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County to meet with city commission for second time
The Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County plans to meet with city commissioners for a second time by fall. They will discuss their proposal to transform Fire Station no. 4, formerly Joel Grover’s barn and Underground Railroad station, into a museum.
This fall, firefighters will move to a new location on Wakarusa Drive to help with growth on the Westside, leaving the building vacant. Only the URADC proposed a bid for the station.
“I’d like to tell you there are ghosts,” said Jim Sloan, station captain, referring to the reason for the move. “It’s part of the city’s overall plan for adding stations [to keep response times down].”
If the city passes the proposal, the URADC hopes to turn the building into an interactive museum where visitors could tour the barn and access historical archives and exhibits.
“We’re trying to get as much input as to how many ways it could be used,” said Judy Sweets, photo archivist at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics and vice president of URADC.
After URADC’s first proposal in February, the city instructed the association to do a market analysis to gauge the number of people who would visit the museum. Because the city refused to fund the museum, the URADC must prove that it can operate without financial support from the city.
In addition to asking residents’ opinions, the URADC brought in Underground Railroad experts and historians to look at the barn and give opinions on possible museum design. An architect visited to find ways to save operating costs and make the building energy efficient.
The URADC has discussed diverse options for the museum. They hope provide interactive exhibits based on first person information from those who rode and served on the Underground Railroad. Ideally, a computer station would link visitors to the National Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“There are so many possibilities,” Sweets said.
To help gain initial income for the museum, the URADC hopes to rent out the building for fundraisers, family reunions and other gatherings.
Eventyall URADC hopes to work with the Lawrence School District to incorporate information about the Underground Railroad’s presence in Kansas. They would design tours specifically for elementary and middle school-aged students to visit the museum as a learning component to classroom curriculum.
Because the fire station has sleeping dorms, the URADC also discussed holding seminars and weeklong institutes where teachers or professors could stay and learn about Kansas history.
“[The fire station] is a great place for this because it has a kitchen,” Sweets said.
During the civil war, Joel Grover and his family sheltered runaway or rescued slaves in their stone barn, built in 1858, as they traveled north to freedom. The barn is one of only two standing structures used during the Underground Railroad. The association has researched at the Kansas State Historical Society, looking over documents and photographs. Association members have also interviewed descendants of families.
A proposal for an Underground Railroad Museum met a request for additional market research by the Lawrence City Commission. The proposal, which was put forth by the Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County, asked that the Grover barn be turned into a museum and site for education about Lawrence’s role in the Underground Railroad.
The Lawrence City Commission addressed the original proposal on Mar. 9 2006. The city’s request for additional market research requires an additional meeting between the Lawrence City Commission and the Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County. While no official date has been set Judy Sweets, vice president and co-founder of the Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County, is hoping for a meeting in late August or early September.
The request for additional research delays the Underground Railroad Association’s plans outlined in their original proposal. According to their original proposal, phase one, which includes fundraising, volunteer training and weekend tours, would begin in September.
“We didn’t realize when we wrote this proposal that we would be delayed in having to get together this market analysis. That probably has delayed us a little bit,” Sweets said.
During their analysis of the tourism market The Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County spoke with the State of Kansas Travel and Tourism in Topeka, researched other tourist locations online and spoke with a number of experts on heritage tourism.
Recently featured as a part of the Lawrence Juneteenth celebration, the Grover barn was built in 1857 and 1858 by Joel Grover. Soon after it’s completion it became a major site for Underground Railroad activity in Kansas and was a frequent stop for John Brown.
In 1963 Bernard “Poco” Frasier, noted sculptor from the University of Kansas, purchased the barn from the Grover family. Eventually the barn was purchased by the City of Lawrence in 1981 and converted into a fire station in 1983.
While the building does not qualify as a national or state historical register because of structural changes that took place during its conversion into a fire station, it does qualify for the city’s historical register.
“With the Lawrence Register, there are nine criteria and you just have to meet one of those to become a landmark,” said Lynne Braddock-Zolner, Historic Resources Administrator for the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Office.
Grover barn met three of these criteria at the time of its consideration for Lawrence Register of Historic Places on Feb. 14, 2006. It was approved.
While the Lawrence Register of Historic Places lacks the tax breaks and other incentives of the State or National Registers it does protect a property from development that could affect the physical appearance, historic relevance or value of the property.
Sweets also plans to get the Grover barn on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, a division of the National Park Service.
In addition to tours, other plans for the barn include using it as a site for fundraising, family reunions and allowing a professor to live on site and provide visitors with historical information.
“I think that we’re just very fortunate to have this structure,” Sweets said.
For kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, Independence Day isn’t the only summertime holiday worthy of celebration.
Juneteenth is the club’s theme for the first two weeks of its summer program. As part of Juneteenth week in Kansas the club, 1520 Haskell Ave., held its second annual Juneteenth essay and poster contest to honor June 19, the day the last slave was set free. A day more than two years after the emancipation proclamation.
Children ranging from kindergarten through high school participated in the contest, although most of the participants were of elementary school age.
In addition to the contest children learned about Juneteenth’s history, watched a play about Harriet Tubman, and listened to various speakers on the importance of the holiday.
According to Boys and Girls club program manager Roger Ross, children were to write and draw about anything Juneteenth and what it meant to them. All the kids drew murals together, but the essays were an individual effort. Murals depicted images of the underground railroad and slaves celebrating their freedom.
“I drew the underground railroad and a bunch of trees,” said 10-year-old Heaven Lokay of Topeka. Lokay said she didn’t know about Juneteenth before coming to the Boys and Girls club, although she did know about slavery.
Bringing this holiday to the public was a major goal for Juneteenth organizer and co-chair of the Juneteenth Planning Committee Janine Colter. It was her idea to organize the Juneteenth celebration in Lawrence. She said that the Boys and Girls club play a special role in the celebration. “I’m very fond of the Boys and Girls club. My children were Boys and Girls club children. I think that they have a very diverse group of kids that go over there to their facility and we’re able to reach a broad amount of kids with different backgrounds and different circumstances,” Colter said.
Colter, who owns Hidden Jewel Hair Salon and Spa, 13th Street and Haskell Avenue, said she spoke for several years about how the African American community needed to have more diversity in Lawrence. She saw Juneteenth as an opportunity to display that diversity.
Parts of the underground railroad traveled through Lawrence and nearby towns back before slavery was outlawed. The week celebration included a tour of local spots that were part of the underground railroad. Colter hopes this would get Lawrence residents’ interest.
Colter’s quest for diversity is better understood by looking at the people of Lawrence. In a census released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000 Lawrence’s African American population was only 5.1 percent. This fell below the 5.7 percent in the state of Kansas.
Big changes sometimes start out small and the children at the Boys and Girls Club may be a big part of a growing change to recognize Lawrence’s diversity. Contest winners for the essay and poster contest were announced on Wednesday at a club meeting.
Colter said she wants to continue with the celebration and with the club’s involvement. This year the celebration was from June 17-24. More information on the celebration in Lawrence is available at www.lawrenceksjuneteenth.com. The three winners of the essay contest went to the Dole Institute of Politics Thursday night where they read their essays aloud during an oral history presentation about Juneteenth.
Panel members discuss their concerns about education at an oral history presentation during the Juneteenth festival.
The focus of the Juneteenth discussion last Thursday turned quickly from African-American history to the problems children face in education today.
The oral history presentation, located in the Dole Institute of Politics, began with a brief conversation about social conditions following the civil rights movement, and then gave attention to the decline of students’ participation in their education.
“The compassion to learn is diminishing,” said Cathy White, Lawrence resident and teacher. White said students are caring less about education because of the fear that future employment may not reflect their accomplishments in higher education.
Panel and audience members murmured in agreement as White spoke about today’s students and what parents and teachers can do to improve their attitudes toward learning. Annette Dabney, speech pathologist for Lawrence schools, expanded White’s discussion through highlighting the duties that parents must adopt to help their children through the school systems.
“Within our own homes, [we must] educate and encourage our children, to help them set goals for themselves, and to make sure that they know education is first and foremost,” said Dabney.
Concerned audience members raised questions to the panel about how they could help their children. As parents themselves, the panel members expressed their own difficulties with motivating their students. The key, said White, is to be creative and “just do it”, no matter what.
One problem the panel addressed is the increasing distraction caused by entertainment such as video games, television and music. In this technological society, teachers are now troubled by the struggle to keep students’ attention on studies while entertainment is handy. The “be up-front and entertain me” attitude of children, as expressed by Dabney, is a grave concern for teachers, who are limited by their subject matter. Learning can be fun, but entertaining cannot take precedence over education.
As entertainment advances, it will be a growing obstacle for interesting children in school studies. The panel members stressed the importance of discipline and educational expectations for our youth during the years to come. Steve Nilhas, principal of Lawrence High School, summed up his feelings of working together to better education for young people: “Through our teaching staff, our administrative staff, we reflect the diversity of our student body. We can’t take people for granted; we have to build partnerships within the community. We have to make every effort.”
Last Friday children and adults put on their tennis shoes, filled their water bottles, and gathered at the Lawrence Community Building, 115 W. 11th St., for the three on three basketball tournament as part of the Juneteenth weeklong celebrations. The action-packed day featured 7 different divisions of play, ranging from 1st grade to a 40 and over “Old Timers” group. Following a variety of events held prior in the week, the tournament was focused on fun.
“We always wanted a series of events to appeal to a variety of people so more and more could get involved,” said Donna Bell, a member of the Juneteenth planning committee. “We have a festival with the music, the oral history, and now sports—just a little something for everyone.”
Juneteenth, in its third year in Lawrence, celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. On June 19, 1865, the last of the slaves in America heard the news of their freedom in Texas. Today, over 200 communities nationwide commemorate African American freedom with their own Juneteenth celebrations.
Gary Hall, tournament coordinator, arrived early to help organize and set up brackets for the tournament.
“I just thought it was about time to come out here and help,” he said. “It is just a little time to help out for a big reason.”
Hall and several other volunteers coached and refereed the children’s games. Before play started, the staff explained the rules, placing the most emphasis on the “zero tolerance” policy. Cursing, fighting, and physical violence would result in disqualification and removal from the premises.
They also took the time to remind the children of why they were there in the first place.
“I think it’s important in our society that kids really get a sense of history. We want to make sure the kids get the idea behind this,” Bell said.
Vince Downing was a court monitor for the grade school divisions. He maintained fair play and encouraged good sportsmanship among the children.
“The kids are excited to play. They want to win,” he said.
Saturday concluded the Juneteenth celebration with a cookout and a museum tour at Clinton Lake, featuring an Underground Railroad exhibit.
Bell encouraged the children to tell their families to attend.
“These events are for everyone,” Bell said. “People really appreciate more where they’re at now and can formulate ideas on where they’re going. We want to focus on developing a sense of where they come from. That’s the importance of Juneteenth.”
Lawrence’s Underground Railroad was booming in the 1850s and some residents hope to bring that history back to life.
Two groups, the Underground Railroad Association of Douglas County and the Friends of Grover Barn, have plans to turn two sites into museums commemorating the rich history of the Underground Railroad in Lawrence.
The first site is the former residence of John Doy, an abolitionist leader who moved to Kansas to make sure that Kansas entered the United States as a free state. Doy lived here with his wife and five children and used his own house as a hiding place for runaway slaves. The house is gone today but excavations have turned up a foundation and the remnants of stone walls.
Grover Barn, the second site, is currently used by the Lawrence Fire Department. The barn is still standing today, but was modified when a modern fire station was built onto one side of the stone structure. The barn served as a hiding place for slaves before they went on to the next station on the Underground Railroad.
Judy Sweets and Tolly Wildcat run the organizations and hosted tours of Lawrence’s Underground Railroad on June 17 during Lawrence’s Juneteenth festival. The festival celebrates the day that the last slaves got word of the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years after it was enacted.
Juneteenth was a week of activities that celebrated freedom and reminded participants of the suffering and loss that was endured in order for there to be a reason for such festivity.
Each year, the celebration is given a theme and this year’s was education. All of the events of the week were meant to promote the culture and history of African Americans in the Lawrence community and in the rest of the country. Activities ranged from a community picnic to a basketball tournament to an essay and mural contest for the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence.
“Lawrence has a rich history. We were very much involved in the Underground Railroad and we need to remember that,” said Janet Murphy, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence. “It’s important that Lawrence celebrates that and be able to carry that on for other generations in the future.”
Juneteenth is actually June 19th. This is the day in 1865 when the last slaves were made aware of their freedom, a little over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Because it was a border state, Kansas was instrumental in the Underground Railroad and helping slaves escape to the northern states. It would eventually be admitted to the United States as a free state, which did not support slavery.
Lawrence in particular has a long history of celebrating Juneteenth and the ideas of independence, freedom and hope that are often associated with it. According to Janine Colter, co-chairwoman of the Juneteenth Committee, this year’s celebration is the biggest and best in its three-year history in Lawrence.
“This year was a little different for us and it has been more successful,” Colter said.
One of the ways in which this year’s activities was different was the emphasis on education. According to Colter, children were an especially big part of the success. Much of the week was geared toward making kids aware of the history of Juneteenth.
At the Boys and Girls Club, two weeks are dedicated to different events that teach the children about the various aspects of slavery and the effects it has on contemporary society. They are visited by a woman pretending to be Harriet Tubman, learn about the Underground Railroad and perform plays that encourage family and community values. They also worked together to create large murals that depicted what Juneteenth meant to each of them.
In addition, the members of the Boys and Girls Club were given the opportunity to write an essay that explained why it was important to remember Juneteenth and what the holiday meant to them. The winning essay was read at the oral history at the Dole Institute of Politics on June 22nd.
“I wrote my essay about freedom,” said Ashaunda Trotter, 12, member of the Boys and Girls Club. “Juneteenth is about slavery and freedom and why it’s important to the black community. It is important to me because I am black and I believe in it.”
Teachers, students and district officials discussed the lack of faculty diversity in Lawrence public schools last week during the Oral History program of the Juneteenth celebration.
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery by emphasizing the progress minority education has made in the United States. But, though the progress is evident, Lawrence public schools still have a long way to go.
“Our children need to have role models that look like them” Craig Butler, chairperson of the Lawrence Equity Council said. “If you look at the teacher population at our schools, there are not really role models for minority children.”
The lack of minority role models could affect children’s learning. 25 percent of African Americans and 13 percent of Hispanics scored ‘unsatisfactory’ in the Reading Assessment of 2005 while only 9 percent of whites had the same result.
Jaime McGovern, a graduate from Lawrence Free State High School, understands the importance of diversity in school faculty not only to minority students but to all students in general.
“Sometimes minority students can relate better to people of their own race or culture,” McGovern said. “But just having people from all walks of life can really increase the educational experience; you get different perspectives culturally especially when it comes to politics and history.”
According to the Kansas State Department of Education’s Report Card of the 2004- 2005 school year, 26 percent of students in the Lawrence school district are a minority. This number keeps increasing while the number of minority representatives in the district remains the same.
In efforts to embrace the diversity of Lawrence, the school district created the Equity Council about three years ago. The council is in charged of making sure that equality exists in the Lawrence schools.
However, recruiting minority teachers has become a big challenge for the Lawrence school district thanks to the poor teacher salary it offers.
“In the state of Kansas we still don’t know where we stand financially and school districts can’t move forward until they know what the state is going to be providing them as far as money,” Cathy White, teacher at a Lawrence public school, said.
According to Butler, Lawrence is one of the lowest paid school districts. Eudora and DeSoto pay teachers more even though their cost of living is lower.
“It’s hard for [teachers] to come here and prosper,” Butler said. “Therefore, what we have to do is approach the community so they help us subsidize the teachers.”
The Equity Council has already thought of creative ways to attract new teachers to the district such as facilitating down payments to buy houses. During the Oral History program ideas like supporting students who show interest in becoming a teacher from an early age came up but none of the ideas have been finalized.
The children at the Boys & Girls Club in Lawrence learned the meaning of freedom while expressing their feelings in a mural that they designed for the Juneteenth celebration. For the past three years the Boys & Girls Club has joined with the Lawrence community to celebrate Juneteenth. Juneteenth is the celebration of the day when the last slave was freed in America, June 19, 1865. This year the main focus of Juneteenth was education.
“Young kids today are loosing their identity. Kids need to understand the struggles people went through and where they came from,” Janine Colter, co-chair of Juneteenth, said.
For two-weeks, Boys & Girls Clubs in Lawrence had speakers explain the history of Juneteenth, Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad and put on other events to help educate the children on the meaning of Juneteenth. Throughout the week the children were asked to gather information about what they had learned and combine it with their own interpretation of Juneteenth. This information was later displayed on murals and posters that were drawn by the children. The artwork was judged in a contest by Juneteenth organizers.
“I drew cotton fields to symbolize what southerners had slaves doing. I also drew Jayhawkers freeing the slaves. To me, Juneteenth symbolizes freedom to do what you want to do,” Kharon Brown, 11, said.
Over 125 children ages kindergarten to high school participated in the construction of the murals and posters. Local organizers provided the materials and judges for the contest.
“The children had great interpretations of what Juneteenth meant to them. The murals were very colorful and well-designed,” Janet Murphy, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs in Lawrence, said.
The children were instructed to use their imaginations when designing the murals for the celebration. Kharon said he made the cotton gold and the slave houses red, white and blue. Other children expressed their feelings with words and scenes. The words included love and freedom.
“I drew a slave that was deciding to escape on a long journey. At the end, the slave finally got to freedom,” Zoe Krygiel, 10, said.
The mural also had images of joining hands which expressed people uniting together as one group.
“Juneteenth is not just a celebration of the freeing of slaves, it is also about love and coming together and accepting everyone for who they are. It is not just an event that should be celebrated for two weeks, it should be an every day event,” Roger Ross, program manager at the Boys & Girls Club, said.
Kansas resident panel discusses education. Where we where, where we're going.
When Leonard Clark was a kindergartner at the now non-existent McAllister Elementary, he watched the flags atop Strong Hall snap back and forth in the breeze. And he set his sights there.
Sitting on a long table draped with a blue cloth, looking into a microphone, Clark and eight other panelists discussed their experiences with race tensions in the educational system.
“I don’t know why I was telling (my friends),” Clark said. “But, I remember telling them, I’m going to KU.”
Clark went on to say KU was miles away from where he was. His family didn’t have the money and he hadn’t taken the proper initiative when he was younger.
Clark eventually went to Wichita State University where he now works.
Other panelists included Ramona Brice, one of University of Kansas Medical Center’s first African American nursing students; Max Rife, a former administrator at USD 497 at the time the school district was desegregated; Annette Dabney, USD 497 special education: speech and language pathologist; Catherine White, sixth grade teacher at Prairie Park; Charles Parks, the first African American administrator at USD 497; Steve Nilhas, Lawrence High School principal; and Craig Butler, chairman USD 497 Equity Council, a group dedicated to fair hiring practices within the school district.
The group met June 22 as part of the Juneteenth Celebration to discuss the changes in education over the past several decades. According to the official Web site, the Juneteenth Celebration has taken place for the last three years in Lawrence as a remembrance of slaves in Galveston, Texas finally receiving notification of their freedom, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Charles E. Branson, Douglas County district attorney, moderated the two panels; opening the discussion with a reading directly from June 19, 1865 proclamation declaring all slaves free.
“The people are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free,” Branson said, reading from Order #3. “This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor.
“These tempered words started what history tells us is only the beginning of the struggle to freedom.”
Brice, Clark and Rife were featured on the first panel, focusing on the way things were during the tumultuous time of desegregation in Lawrence and across the country in the late1960s.
“We bused ourselves to North Lawrence,” Brice said. “We attended Lincoln, a segregated school.”
They didn’t have a music program, she said. They did have movies, though. They had plays and they even had new books.
“We were a segregated school,” Brice said. “It wasn’t that bad. Some people felt we didn’t get as much as we should have. But, I didn’t feel any deficiencies in the program that we had.”
Rife recalled the simmering violence that was hidden behind each and every confrontation within his student body during these times.
“It was a matter of survival,” Rife said.
About 70 students arrived in the main office of Lawrence High School one afternoon in 1969, he said. With the principal out of town in Chicago, it was up to Rife and two other assistant principals to diffuse the situation.
The students presented a list of demands and retired to Liberty Park. The demands included including better courses, courses more relative to African Americans, more African American leaders and African American cheerleaders.
Over the course of the next few years, Rife said, classes began to change and although tensions still remained, the pressure began to slowly relieve itself. Textbooks began to change their language, refraining from printing “negros and poor folks.” Fights began to die off bit by bit.
“What did we accomplish,” Rife asked. “The kids wanted respect and recognition.
“It was a tough time, but the system survived it. We’re much better for it.”
The second panel followed up with a discussion of issues concerning today’s students, including a lack of communication between the teachers and the students. Butler focused on the problems minority students seem to have been having within the education system.
“Do you realize that 67 percent of the American Indians that are sophomores in high school cannot pass sophomore math, in the states of Kansas,” Butler asked. “Fifty-five percent of the African American students cannot pass sophomore math. Hispanics, I think it’s another 67 percent.”
According to Butler, the parents have to make an effort to push their children to success. The teachers alone cannot be expected to motivate the kids to a higher education. The solution wasn’t as simple as it sounded though.
Several parents within the audience expressed concern that teachers had made themselves too hard to reach. With the advent of e-mail and voicemail, several parents said, teachers seemed to avoid contact.
Children used artwork to illustrate understanding of Juneteenth
Lawrence children created posters, murals and wrote essays to demonstrate their understanding and appreciation of the African American culture. From June 17 through June 24, the Lawrence community celebrated the end of slavery through festivities known as Juneteenth.
To appeal to children, the Boys and Girls Club, 1520 Haskell Ave., incorporated a contest where children's posters, murals and essays were compared. Roger Ross, Boys and Girls Club program manager, said children turned in at least 125-130 murals to be judged. The ages of the kids ranged from the kindergarten level all the way up to high school, Ross said. "There was a good turn out this year," Ross said, "And the topics [of the essays and posters] were great."
Throughout the week, children learned a variety of historical facts that centered around the importance of freedom to African American culture in general. Children also learned about Harriet Tubman and her involvement with the Underground Railroad. In fact, the Juneteenth celebration invited the community to attend an Underground Railroad tour. Lawrence children also participated in a 3-on-3-basketball tournament.
"Lawrence has a rich history in African American culture," Janet Murphy, executive director of Boys and Girls Club, said, "Being a free state, we were very much involved in the Underground Railroad."
Towards the end of the week, children took what they learned throughout the week and translated it into artwork that incorporated what Juneteenth represented. Judges selected three winners from three different Boys and Girls Club sites throughout Kansas. The judges consisted of different teachers throughout the Lawrence community.
Matt Dominguez, 10, Lawrence contest participant, said, "I drew a man escaping to freedom. Juneteenth is important so people are able to hang out with different races." Children used their creative talents to illustrate their understanding of what Juneteenth meant.
Murphy said the essay winners had the option of reading their piece to the public at the Dole Center. There was no formal announcement of the winners, but those chosen had the opportunity to put their creations on display, Murphy said.
Juneteenth reigns as the oldest celebration of the end of slavery. "Juneteenth is about love and coming together and accepting everyone for who they are as a person," Ross said. Juneteenth also brings families closer together through the interactive activities offered, Ross said.
Juneteenth gave the Lawrence community an opportunity to come together and learn more about the importance of accepting other cultures. And Juneteenth will be sure to be celebrated again next year.
The Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence was host to an artistic contest for children who mixed learning with laughter at the annual Juneteenth Celebration last week.
Last Tuesday, Lawrence children painted representative murals, to be hung at different sites in the community, of what they had learned about the fundamentals of African-American history. The activities were a part of the week-long celebration known as Juneteenth, which celebrates the termination of slavery.
“Our mural shows freedom, and what it means to us,” said Malcolm Small, Juneteenth contest participant. “It was fun to make because we got to draw, color and have fun.”
Most of the children who participated in the mural paintings were members of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, which helped sponsor the event. Janet Murphy, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club, said that the children painted the murals after they learned about slavery, and understood what African-American’s went through.
“Before they painted the murals, the children went on the radio to talk about what they had learned about slavery,” said Murphy. “Listening to that brought me to tears. It made me realize that they really got it. All of our planning and teaching made sense.”
The Boys and Girls Club partnered with area school districts to jump-start Juneteenth. Many other area Lawrence area patrons contributed to the celebration, said Murphy.
“There are lots of wonderful people who came together in the community and helped out,” said Murphy. Other contributors include: Afrodisiac Productions, Douglas County Bank, Hidden Jewel Salon and Day Spa, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence-Douglas County NAACP, and the University of Kansas Multi-Cultural affairs office.
Along with the mural contest, the children participated in an essay contest, an Underground Railroad tour of Lawrence, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, city proclamation at City Hall, and a family festival at the park which included food, live music, games, and crafts.
Roger Ross, Program Director of the Boys and Girls Club, oversaw the children’s creative process, and was responsible for making sure the essays and murals were finished and ready for judgment. “This event had a huge impact on the kids. We had a one day celebration of freedom, but actually Juneteenth is an everyday event,” said Ross. “The contest shows respect for our history.”
Each mural was compiled by a group of children on a large sheet of paper and then placed at a designated site in Lawrence. “It was great for the children because they were pretty much going to summer school and not even knowing it,” said Murphy.
Bria Cruse, 11, of the Boys and Girls Club, talks about her experience during Juneteenth.
The children of Lawrence’s Boys and Girls Club celebrated the meaning of Juneteenth in their own artistic ways.
Juneteenth is a week long celebration honoring cultural diversity and freedom of all slaves. The festivities of Juneteenth began Saturday, June 17 and continued through Saturday, June 24. The Lawrence Boys and Girls Club participated in the celebration with a poster and essay contest.
“The kids have learned a whole lot during the Juneteenth celebration week. Many kids came in knowing very little about the freedom of slaves and walked out with a greater understanding,” Roger Rass, program manager of the Boys and Girls Club said.
Tuesday morning, the children of the club drew what they thought was the meaning of Juneteenth on three large murals. This was no drawing contest, just an opportunity for the kids to express their feelings on freedom.
“On the big picture I drew a woman escaping to freedom. When she escaped, she started a home with her friend Samantha for other free slaves to go to,” Zoe Krygirl, 10, said. “It is important for us to know this history. It’s also important for us to know about the famous people that helped the slaves, like Harriet Tubman.”
“The picture I drew was of a man escaping and when he did, him and his son built a log cabin by a lake with fish,” Matt Dominquez, 10, said. “It’s important for me to learn about Juneteenth because it celebrates cultures and I’m part African-American, Hispanic and German. People should know how brave the freed slaves were too.”
The essays were another way for the kids to show off what they have learned about slavery and freedom. The staff members of the club doubled as judges for the writing contest. The staff has not yet announced the winners.
“It was nice to see the kids getting excited about the activities, even the essay contest. They don’t always take those type of activities seriously, but they were laughing and asking a ton of questions,” Boys and Girls Club staff member Jason Van Allen said.
Before the staff members had a chance to read the essays and pick the best ones, two lucky children of the club were randomly selected to read their essays on the radio.
“During Juneteenth I’m kind of in the background, but when I see the murals they drew and heard them read their essays on the radio, I knew the kids understood the point of the celebration,” executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, Janet Murphy said. “It really almost brought tears to my eyes.”
“Juneteenth had a huge impact on the kids. They actually realized that it is more than just a one day celebration, it is an everyday celebration,” Rass said.
Donna Bell, Juneteenth committee co-chair, talks about Juneteenth's importance for kids.
Lawrence continued its celebration of Juneteenth Friday with a basketball tournament aimed at bringing the community together.
The tournament, at the Lawrence Community Building, held seven contests throughout the day ranging from first graders to players over 40. Juneteenth, aimed largely at kids, looks to emphasize education, family and in the case of basketball, community.
“First of all it gives them something to do and second of all it gives them an idea of what the event is all about because a lot of the kids don’t know what Juneteenth means,” Vince Downing, Juneteenth volunteer, said.
On June 19, 1865, word of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the last slaves in Galveston, Texas. Now in its third year in Lawrence, the Juneteenth celebration commemorates that day with a week of events aimed at educating the public, and especially children, about slavery.
“It’s wonderful when you see their eyes open like oh I didn’t really think about what happened when a slave was caught trying to escape,” Donna Bell, Juneteenth committee co-chair, said.
In previous days organizers had the children write essays and work on murals and posters in order to educate them. After a week of educating the children about Juneteenth Bell said it was time for the kids to have fun.
“I think its going to be fun and it’s going to give us a work out,” William Thompson, a participant, said.
Tina Todd, a participant’s parent, said that the event is great for the kids because it’s about having fun and learning.
“It’s really great for the kids,” she said. “It promotes sportsmanship and they have good fun.”
According to the tournament rules, which are enforced by several adults, there is a zero tolerance policy when it comes to cursing, fighting, and physical violence.
Downing said that there is more to the tournament than just having fun. He hopes that new friends will be the best result.
“The kids meet new friends and have a good time,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about and that’s what
basketball should be about. Basketball brings people together so why not use basketball and Juneteenth.”
Que Edwards and Malik Thompson, participants, said they like having their friends as well as a lot of new people at the courts for the tournament.
“It’s fun because we get to play different people and have fun with our friends,” Edwards said.
“I think it’s good that we can play against our friends and other people.” Thompson.
The basketball tournament ran all day on Friday while leading up the final day of the celebration. Juneteenth wrapped up on Saturday with a tour of the Bloomington Museum and a cook out.
You are expected to attend lab on either June 27 or June 29 from 8-8:50 a.m. with 5-7 still images saved on a memory stick and your audio recording and recording device.
1. The audio slideshow must be posted to the class blog by the end of your lab with Staci.
All slideshows must be exported to a QuickTime .MOV file in order to post it to the web. (How to export video. Remember for the slideshow, the Custom size should be 480 x 360)
2. The purpose of this assignment is to show that you can put words together with pictures.
4. Include a caption, a couple of sentences that explain the who, what, when, where and how of the story. In the case of your slideshow assignment, your caption will provide a lead-in to your slideshow. An caption is not the same as the tease (excerpt) you wrote for your text story. For the slideshow, the caption should go under the embedded slideshow.
For example:
The New York Times Cage's Chord Change
Daniel J. Wakin reports from Germany on a very unusual event in the life of a John Cage organ piece.
A micro burst hit Lawrence and caused severve damage to many buildings including Malot Hall on the KU campus. Many architecture students' projects were ruined.
Road construction is becoming a hindrance for traffic flow in and around the campus area this summer. Construction sites are slowing, even re-routing vehicles; creating confusion for many who travel on campus during the week.
Who needs to exercise and train when you can play from your living room? I go a few rounds with Fight Night: Round 3, EA's premier boxing game for the Plastation 2.
People tend to think cold beers and fruity cocktails in the summer. But don't forget about one of life's finest luxuries, a flavorful red wine. A glass of red wine can accompany a variety of summer dishes, or simply stand alone and enhance a summer evening full of conversation.
In the busy world of college life students need snacks that are quick and easy to make. The peanut butter sandwich is a simple solution. It is a filling snack that's packed with protein.
Just because you don't have mom holding your hand and reminding you to look both ways doesn't mean you can neglect traffic safety. Here's an example of how to be a safe pedestrian.
Potter Lake is in full-bloom this summer. The attractive lake, located on the University of Kansas' Lawrence campus, is a popular hang-out spot for KU students.
Oz frequently escapes from his owner Katie and the first place he runs to is the pool. Escaping for a quick swim is a daily event for Oz, so Katie is always washing her dog in the tub.
Construction continues on Massachusetts Street between Ninth and Seventh Streets as the summer heat blooms into full maturity. The city is currently in the process of replacing older sections of water pipes.
Senior Alison Haag makes a peanut butter sandwich at her apartment before heading off to work. As an inexpensive and delicious source of protein, Skippy peanut butter is a staple of her college diet.
High school students in the Dole Center work on their first media project of the week during the Kansas Journalism Institute. The institute concludes Thursday morning with an awards ceremony in Lindley Hall.
Student Union Activities, a division of Memorial Unions, kicked off their summer program schedule this week.
Student Union Activities, or SUA is a student organization that plans programs for the whole KU community, everything from concerts to speeches, salsa competitions to movie nights.
On Monday, SUA sponsored free Cosmic Bowling in the Jaybowl, and offered students, “Free bowling, free nachos, and free pop!”
Bailey DeRues, SUA president and senior from Des Moines said the event would be held every Monday and Thursday throughout the course of the semester.
SUA is also sponsoring many other events this summer, including a Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament from 7-10 p.m., Tuesday, June 20 in the Hawks Nest.
According to SUA’s website, first prize gets $150 gift card, second gets $100 gift card and third gets $50 gift card, all to Target. The event also features free nachos and pop.
V for Vendetta will be featured as June’s Movie on the Hill, and it takes place at 9 p.m. Friday, June 23 on the hill adjacent to the stadium.
While the month of June is set, SUA’s summer coordinators Adam Argetsinger, senior from Wichita and previous Vice President of SUA and Shawn Bowers, junior, from Leawood are currently still working on the schedule for July.
The two will propose plans for programs at the first of two SUA meetings this summer on June 24.
In addition to summer proposals, the meeting will also serve for a chance to refine and update the fall schedule which has been mostly planned.
DeRues said among the events which can be expected for next year are Unionfest, Beach ‘n Boulevard, and another Movie on the Hill, all which she said are a part of Hawk Week, SUA’s group of activities that every fall open the new school year.
Amanda Hallier, the Films Coordinator for SUA for next fall already has many plans for her new committee. Hallier said the Fall Film Series will include the following movies, “The Da Vinci Code, X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and a special Family Weekend showing of Over the Hedge.”
In addition to the Feature Film Series, Hallier’s committee will also be sponsoring some special programs including a Cult Classic Movie Series, a presentation of Murderball with the documentary’s creator Mark Zupan and the traditional showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
To recap the 2005-2006 year, SUA recently set up a display in the Kansas Union Gallery on the main floor of the Union. The display which includes enlarged photos and posters from throughout the year is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday
DeRues also added that for those interested in joining SUA this summer or at the beginning of the Fall Semester, applications are available in the Union Programs Office on the main level of the Union.
The sounds of the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival boomed in the background as Perry Buck, 65, of Lawrence, watered plants in his back yard. Buck and his wife Wanda, live in a fifth wheel camper, which sat between the sundown and sun up stages at the festival. Without leaving their home, they could hear the sounds of Michael Franti and Spearhead, The Flaming Lips and Les Claypool, to name a few.
“We look forward to the festival, and like to listen to all of it,” Buck said.
The Bucks are titled as Clinton State Park caretakers and they perform minor park maintenance year-round consisting of mowing, painting, fixing plumbing and cleaning bathroom areas. They help not only with the festival, but other events that utilize the park such as an annual bike race and Heartland Coursing, an annual dog race.
“We get a lot of things done before hand that people don’t see,” Buck said. “The festival becomes a city in its own.”
Capacity for the park caps out each day 15,000. Although the festival hires multiple organization that provide portable toilets as well as other hospitality services for festival goers, caretakers like the Bucks come in handy to make sure the park is ready for a surge of people.
“He [Perry] does a lot of extra work for the park, he mows whole picnic areas, cleans bathrooms, does a little trash pickup and helps fix different things,” said Sherri Withers, Clinton State Park administrative assistant.
The festival provides a fence around the Bucks’ home and the staff checks up the couple periodically. They also come to them for help with mowing or other minor maintenance needs.
“They’ll fence us in and come over to ask ‘how’s ‘Paparusa,’” Buck said, referring to the nickname he has acquired.
For seven years, the couple has lived in the park as caretakers. Before they established their home, they enjoyed camping at the park.
“We would come out to camp and got acquainted with the park rangers, they asked if we would be interested in volunteering, we said sure,” Buck said.
There are a handful of other individuals and couples who act as caretakers for the park. The caretaker program is statewide and other state parks house people like the Bucks that volunteer for the park in exchange to live in the park free of charge. State Parks take applications year-round for those interested in becoming a caretaker. Most park offices are open everyday April through Sunday. The Clinton State Park office is open from 8:00 to 4:00 daily.
“As positions open up we take applications for people to become volunteers for park services,” Withers said.
Clinton State Park is four miles west of Lawrence in the Osage Questas woodlands. Open everyday from April until September, the park offers camping, boating, swimming and other fun outdoor activities.
Vending regulations create mixed feelings for vendors, consumers alike
Stricter enforcement of vending regulations at this year’s Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival created mixed feelings among vendors and consumers.
According to Madina Salaty, vending coordinator for the Wakarusa festival, police cracked down harder on illegal vending this year than in years past.
This year legal vendors inside the festival gates had to pay for space rental and a license to vend. Cost varied depending on amount of square feet used, but according to estimates from vendors inside the festival prices ranged anywhere from $400-1,000 just to set up shop.
“I didn’t do this job last year, but there’s probably about the same number of illegal vendors here this year,” Salaty said. “The difference is that police are cracking down harder this year.”
According to Lt. Doug Woods, of the Douglas County Sheriff’s office, illegal vendors caught this year were asked to buy a $150 red wristband in order to stay and vend. If they refused to do this they were evicted from the festival. Woods said he couldn’t give an exact number, but that “numerous people were evicted.”
Some of the most popular items sold were jewelry, clothing items, anything and everything tie dye, food, and items made from hemp.
A vendor makes a sale last Sunday inside the main gates of the Wakarusa Festival. This year police were especially on the look out for vendors selling without a license to vend.
Vendors, illegal and legal alike, were conflicted on the issue. Some legal vendors, like Melody Dawn of Asheville, N.C., said that illegal vending is what gave them their start in the business so they have no problem with it. Dawn’s business partner; however, feels differently. Ryan Everhart, of Salem, N.C., works with Dawn selling handmade clothing and embroidery at festivals around the country. Everhart said that she feels illegal vending can hurt other vendors. “Last year people would walk right up to our booth and sell stuff right in front of it,” said Everhart.
Shakedown Street, as it is referred to by festival goers, is the major vending area outside the festival’s main gates. Located near the festival’s campgrounds, on what is actually Eighth Street and Wakarusa Way, it is a walk down the road from the festival’s main gate. According to Salaty this is where the majority of illegal vending took place in recent years, and where police cracked down the hardest this year. Salaty said that the police were doing their best to patrol this area, but there was still a lot of questionable activity there.
Woods said not only did vendors need a license to vend, but they were not allowed to sell any kind of drug paraphernalia. According to both Woods and several festival vendors the most common item banned were glass pipes associated with smoking marijuana. These colorful glass pipes could still be found in a few booths, but police told between fifteen to twenty others that they had to be put away.
The Wilson family, of Fayetteville, Ark., set up shop along Shakedown Street. They bought a red bracelet so that they were allowed to stay and legally vend at the festival, but were told that they could not sell their most popular item: glass pipes that Mr. Wilson blew himself. According to Mrs. Wilson, not being able to sell these pipes really hurt their business. “A friend of ours told us to come up here because it was such a great festival, but I don’t think we’ll be coming back,” said Mrs. Wilson. Wilson said that while she might not agree with smoking marijuana, it is something that is associated with this type of festival whether people like it or not. “It’s like a relationship; you have to accept all parts of it,” said Wilson.
Consumers were also split on the issue of illegal vending. Willie Johnson, of Billings, Mont., said that he wouldn’t buy knowingly from an illegal vendor. “I’m just trying to keep it real,” said Johnson. “I came for some good music.” Mary O’Brien, of Fayetteville, Ark., said that she wouldn’t mind buying from an illegal vendor. “It doesn’t really matter to me,” said O’Brien.
According to an article in last Tuesday’s Lawrence Journal-World the festival’s organizer Brett Mosiman said that Wakarusa was a success this year and he hopes they are invited back next year. Only time will tell whether or not problems with illegal vending will also be back next year. Dawn said that she doesn’t worry much about it. “People know my clothes and they come and find me.”
The color of something can tell you a lot about it. The color of a banana signals if it’s ripe or if it needs to be thrown out. The color of a piece of meat means the difference between a tender steak or a tough bite. But the color of toilet water isn’t typically cause for much consideration. If the water’s clear, it’s clean. If it’s not, it’s dirty. And a flush can quickly change that.
Sounds easy enough, right? Not quite.
Discolored water in Stauffer-Flint Hall is an exception. The toilet water in Stauffer-Flint, home to the School of Journalism, has turned the color of rust. George Cone, Assistant Director for Mechanical Systems for Facilities Operations, said a build up of calcium, magnesium and oxygen creates this rusty water.
“The color doesn’t hurt anybody,” Cone said. “It can happen at your own homes or apartments.”
Cone said he’s noticed rusty water since he started working at the University of Kansas in 1997. Most of the year, the toilets are used often enough and build up isn’t a problem. But during low usage times, like the summer, the water just sits there. Cindy Strecker, Energy Program Manager for Facilities Operations, said that Stauffer-Flint uses between 25,000 to 30,000 gallons of water a month during the winter, but that number drops to 13,000 to 15,000 gallons a month in the summer.
Carruth-O’Leary had a problem for a long time with rusty water, and the power plant, Strong Hall, Snow Hall and the Art and Design Building occasionally have discolored water as well, Cone said. KU’s water, which comes from Lawrence, is still clean even if it’s slightly discolored, Cone said. KU’s Environmental Protection Services tests the water to ensure it is clean and properly chlorinated.
To get rid of the rusty water, plumbers can flush out the system to force the water through the pipes during low-usage times. This process, which only lasts five to 10 minutes, involves sending water through the pipes to pull particles through and rid the system of the sediments that accumulated.
The rusty water can also be attributed in part to the piping, Cone said. Stauffer-Flint is still on the old plumbing line, which means the pipe lines are made out of cast iron. Cone said the line has been patched a few times and some sections are new, but as long as the pipes are putting out good water, the line won’t be replaced.
“Just because the water gets discolored, we won’t change a pipe,” Cone said.
Within the last six years, new piping has been installed in Danforth Chapel, the Kansas Union, Fraser Hall and Allen Fieldhouse. The difference in the new piping is that it has a concrete liner, Cone said.
Jackie Frye, 2006 graduate, noticed the change in water color the week before spring semester started. Frye had been in the building working on advertising for The University Daily Kansan.
“I thought it was nasty,” Frye said.
Although some students said they have noticed the different water color, Cone said his office has not received any complaints. Monica Biernat, professor of psychology, said the diffusion of responsibility theory explains this behavior. The theory says that people don’t feel individually responsible for problems. Someone assumes other people will notice it or have already done something about it, so there’s no need to take action, Biernat said.
Stauffer-Flint’s water system was last flushed out June 6 and will be cleared again as rusty water reappears or if production control receives any complaints, Cone said. On June 9, Cone said the water coming through was still clear.
It's not rare to drive around Lawrence and see two or more people throwing a frisbee back and forth. It is, however, an interesting sight when drivers see fourteen adults and teens running around an open field, throwing a disc like a hot potato. This game is just one of many that takes place during the Lawrence Ultimate Frisbee Summer League.
Although the sport of Ultimate Frisbee is not widely known by adults, the young game continues to grow in popularity across the United States as more teens discover the fun the game offers.
But how does the game work?
Sean Dubbs has played Ultimate for over 15 years. The 35-year-old descibes the sport "as a fast-paced game that combines elements of soccer, basketball, and football, where everyone is both a quarterback and a receiver."
A non-contact sport, Ultimate, as generally referred, involves two teams with seven players each. The field contains two end zones where points are scored. Players cannot run with the frisbee and a thrower only has ten seconds to throw it. The most unique aspect of Ultimate is something called "spirit of the game," which means games are self-refereed. Players make all their own calls.
"This is something that makes Ultimate so special," says Dubbs. "There's no other sport like it."
Tournaments are held at various sites all over the country, where men and women's college, university, and club teams come to compete.
Lawrence is no stranger to the game of Ultimate. The University of Kansas has endorsed and funded a men's club team for over 25 years. The women's team began in 1989. Both programs have displayed a high level of talents over the past five years, competing in the annual Nationals tournament.
The Summer League in Lawrence, in its 9th season, draws many former and current K.U. Ultimate Frisbee players. But it's not restricted to these athletes. The League attracts young adults and older adults from Lawrence, Topeka, and all over Kansas City.
The League us open to men and women, beginners and advanced players. Ernie Hughes, the league coordinator, welcomes and encourages players of all levels.
"Beginners can learn the fundamentals of the game and the advanced can keep in shape," Hughes says. "Play is relatively laidback. We want everything to be fair and fun for everyone."
Beginning in late May and ending in mid-August, the League contains 10 teams, each with twelve or more players, one of whom is team captain. Teams play at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday nights out at Clinton Lake or Broken Arrow Park (31st and Louisiana).
Frisbees fly far and wide around Kansas. Kansas City has its own summer league, which competes at a much higher level than the Lawrence league. Wichita and Manhattan have started their own leagues as well.
The game turns the heads of passerby's and spectators because of the high-paced action.
"People have been tossing discs around since the 1960's," Dubbs says. "It's no wonder people of all ages stop to watch what exactly is going on and want to jump on the Ultimate field and play."
Throughout the month of June, communities worldwide will sponsor events to celebrate the abolition of slavery in the United States.
The Juneteenth Celebration was created to honor the day the last American slaves heard about the Emancipation Proclamation and their freedom. It will feature festivities aimed at entertaining and instructing on the importance of freedom and historical events. The celebration is featured in over 200 communities across the United States, and in several other countries. Locally, committees are preparing for Lawrence’s 3rd annual Juneteenth celebration, beginning on the 17th.
“We want to teach the history of Juneteenth and why it is important,” said Janet Murphy, event contact for the Lawrence Boys and Girls Club. The Boys and Girls Club will host and participate in a poster contest on the 20th; one event among many the children will attend throughout the celebration.
Lawrence has planned to celebrate Juneteenth in a similar way as last year. With the exception of the dance for young people, there will be entertaining and educational events for families to attend over a week’s time. Main events for Lawrence include a tour of the Underground Railroad, family festival at Burcham Park, and a history seminar at the Dole Institute of Politics.
Over the years, the Juneteenth Celebration has prospered by offering events such as these, for participants to enjoy. The festival also has success overseas, where people teach the value of experiences throughout history. Countries such as Spain, England, Germany and Israel support local involvement in Juneteenth Celebrations.
Unique festivities personalize Juneteenth for every interested state, nation and country. In Japan, festival-goers enjoy dancing, poetry readings, guest speakers and history skits. Farther west, in Jerusalem, the citizens take time to reflect on and celebrate the concept of freedom and what it means to them.
Closer to home, Americans also find unique traditions in their Juneteenth festivals. In areas of California, African heritage is celebrated through demonstrations of African-style drumming and art/craft exhibits. Spectators also learn African customs during dance instruction. Other states, such as New York and Virginia, observe the culture through political guest-speakers, parades, sports tournaments, music and other live entertainment.
In Lawrence, many organizations are getting involved to help with the festival activities. The Boys and Girls Club supports Juneteenth to educate younger generations on African heritage and American history. A presentation on Harriet Tubman will be given to the children in the program, to prepare them for the poster contest in which they will participate.
The festival has become a universal means of celebrating freedom, understanding and connections with others. Many festivals nearby and far away focus on teaching young people these ideas. Lawrence will be providing activities such as a children’s craft tent, games and contests to interest and involve the children of the community.
“We feel it is important to give the children a better understanding of what [Juneteenth] means to our area of the country.”
Wakarusa festival barely affects downtown business
Last week the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival brought eager concertgoers from across the country to Lawrence. While businesses within the festival and the surrounding area enjoyed the benefits of increased store traffic, many businesses in downtown Lawrence were not as fortunate.
Some downtown businesses experienced a marginal increase in sales during the days leading up to the festival, followed by a decline in sales once the festival began.
“It’s such a random, random time because you have people coming in from out of town but you also have people that are normally downtown during the weekends at the festival,” said Jeremy Cain, Retail Assistant at Hobbs.
Like Hobbs, the downtown bar Harbour Lights also experienced a slight increase in business leading up to the festival, followed by a similar decline during the days of the show.
“If Wakarusa Fest hadn’t been happening and attendance and money flow at the bar would’ve been the same, I probably wouldn’t have distinguished that weekend from any other weekend,” said Cyrus Dayani, Doorman at Harbour Lights.
While some businesses expressed concern about the effect of the continued road construction along the northern end of Massachusetts Street, other business owners understood that their stores may not appeal to the festival crowd.
“I think for us specifically that festival has mutated to where it really presents a style of music that we don’t cater to specifically,” said John Harrison, Used Vinyl Buyer at Love Garden Sounds.
While other establishments echoed Harrison’s statement for Rick Marquez, Director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., the loss of business was a simple matter of location.
“The festival is relatively far from the downtown business district, so there were not many shoppers during the fest,” said Marquez. “Most businesses did not see any increase directly associated with the festival. There were one or two that were able to realize an increase due to their product lines, but some actually saw business decline during the weekend,” he added.
Judy Billings, Director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitor’s Bureau reinforced the matter of location by explaining that economic stimulus can be observed in businesses that are located closer to the festival.
“We know that they occupy hotel rooms, we know that they go to grocery stores, we know that they go to liquor stores,” Billings said.
Regardless of its effect, downtown storeowners consider the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival a good thing, bringing in new people and giving them the opportunity to experience Lawrence for the unique city that it is.
“It brings people to town and y’know hopefully it’s a recruiting trip for a lot of people who wanna go to school here, live here or whatever else,” said Steve Wilson, manager at Kief’s Downtown Music.
Technology in the classroom might not be helpful to all
Harvard Law School is considering taking a technological step back in time.
The faculty at Harvard is going to vote on a proposal that would ban laptops in the classroom and send students back to using pen and paper to take notes. Many professors are simply fed up with students wasting class time by surfing the Internet.
The University of Kansas currently has no such plans to limit or completely ban any type of technology in classrooms.
Instead, professors are given the choice to prohibit electronic devices as they see fit. Several professors, particularly those who teach classes of more than 200 students, have already banned or are planning to ban laptops in the wireless accessible classrooms.
“I’m going to teach J101 in the fall, and I am going to ban laptops this time around,” said Barbara Barnett, professor of journalism. “I have several colleagues who’ve told me they have not been very happy about students’ use of laptops, so I’m going to try to deal with this before it becomes a problem. I’m just going to remove the temptation.”
Many professors, however, do not think that laptop usage has become a real problem. Instead, most focus on the good that can come of using a laptop during lectures.
“I think having students use wireless Internet connections with laptops can be a very active way to learn in class,” said Dan Bernstein, professor of psychology. “Lecturing too much is dull and deadening. Using laptops to find and then share and discuss information, ideas or demonstrations can be hugely beneficial.”
Students, too, seem to agree that laptops help them take notes, especially in large lecture classes.
“I use my computer to download the professor’s PowerPoint slides or lecture notes … and then I type my own notes right the page,” said Carrington Dean, Wichita junior. “I don’t usually use the Internet during class.”
Yet, there are real issues when it comes to electronics and classrooms.
The largest problem when it comes to technology in the classroom seems to be with cellular phone usage.
“There is always a phone going off in my classes,” said Gretchen Wieland, Sterling, Ill., junior. “It’s really distracting and a much bigger problem than kids using their laptops to watch sports.”
Even though most professors ask students to turn off their phones during class, they still seem to be a disruptive problem.
Professors seem to think that this is an even bigger problem than that of laptops.
Harvard Law School is considering taking a technological step back in time.
The faculty at Harvard is going to vote on a proposal that would ban laptops in the classroom and send students back to using pen and paper to take notes. Many professors are simply fed up with students wasting class time by surfing the Internet.
“When you add to that the fact that many students have trouble resisting the temptation to check their e-mail or cruise the Internet, laptops become intolerable,” Harvard law professor Bruce Hay told the Boston Herald.
The University of Kansas currently has no such plans to limit or completely ban any type of technology in classrooms.
Instead, professors are given the choice to prohibit electronic devices as they see fit. Several professors, particularly those who teach classes of more than 200 students, have already banned or are planning to ban laptops in the wireless accessible classrooms.
“I’m going to teach J101 in the fall, and I am going to ban laptops this time around,” said Barbara Barnett, professor of journalism. “I have several colleagues who’ve told me they have not been very happy about students’ use of laptops, so I’m going to try to deal with this before it becomes a problem. I’m just going to remove the temptation.”
Many professors, however, do not think that laptop usage has become a real problem. Instead, most focus on the good that can come of using a laptop during lectures.
“I think having students use wireless Internet connections with laptops can be a very active way to learn in class,” said Dan Bernstein, professor of psychology. “Lecturing too much is dull and deadening. Using laptops to find and then share and discuss information, ideas or demonstrations can be hugely beneficial.”
Students, too, seem to agree that laptops help them take notes, especially in large lecture classes.
“I use my computer to download the professor’s PowerPoint slides or lecture notes … and then I type my own notes right the page,” said Carrington Dean, Wichita junior. “I don’t usually use the Internet during class.”
The largest problem when it comes to technology in the classroom seems to be with cellular phone usage.
“There is always a phone going off in my classes.” said Gretchen Wieland, Sterling, Ill., junior. “It’s really distracting and a much bigger problem than kids using their laptops to watch sports.”
Professors seem to think that this is an even bigger problem than that of laptops.
Even though most ask students to turn off their phones during class, they still seem to be a disruptive problem.
“I think because cell phones are so much a part of students’ lives, they often don’t realize how distracting they are to the people around them or to the people who teach the classes,” said Barnett. “I have heard a rumor that some company is developing a technology that will interfere with cell phones, so that you couldn’t make or receive a call in a classroom. I hope it gets here sooner rather than later.”
Sheila Wilkins, the manager of the Fields Art Gallery at 712 Mass. has had construction around her shop since the 23rd of May. “It’s very quiet. I think the only customers we have are determined to come down. If they don’t have to, they’ll go somewhere else.”
Sheila has seen businesses on the east side of 7th, 8th and 9th streets close earlier and earlier as construction on the downtown water pipes continues. “Last weekend was the quietest I’ve ever seen around here…There has been several days without any sales recently.” What’s more is that the city has offered no compensation directly to the businesses for this loss in profit since the construction.
Ever since the Massachusetts Sanitary Sewer Improvement Project began construction this summer, businesses in downtown Lawrence have taken a great hit in their profit. The one-way traffic, and the lack of parking have been cited as the main reasons why business is down.
While no money is being offered directly to the businesses, on June 6, the city commission approved expenditures to support advertising and marketing for downtown retailers. Lisa Patterson, the City of Lawrence’s communications manager said this was done in response to any negative impression of the inconvenience of shopping downtown. “For every dollar that a business spends on a commercial, we will reimburse them, and will spend a maximum of 20,4000 dollars for such advertising campaigns.”
Dan Patti, the manager of Buffalo Bob’s Smokehouse At 719 Mass., has experienced first-hand how the downtown construction can effect business. He said restaurants are especially affected by the construction, because they only have a 2-4 percent margin of profit. “These restraints could really hurt, and if it goes on long enough... It’s not out of the question that some businesses could have to close down.” The Smokehouse has witnessed the dip in business. “Saturday’s profits have been down to half as much as we used to make, (before construction). For instance, normally we brought in $6000 profit on Saturdays, our busiest day. Last Saturday we brought in $2500.”
Although the shops have been seriously affected, owners were afforded early warnings in order to prepare for the construction surrounding the sewer improvement project. Patterson said, “Businesses have been aware for quite a while.” The city started talking with businesses in 2004 about the construction. In 2005 businesses got together to plan for the construction in the 600 block. After that, the water company started talking with merchants about construction in the 700 and 800 blocks early this year. “The merchants helped to give direction on how to do the construction, (what side of the street, etc.) and contractors have worked with them. They’ve been involved in a lot of the decisions that have been made.”. In addition, Patti (of Buffalo Bob’s Steakhouse) explained that many local businesses have come together to give the construction workers incentive to finish quickly. “Many businesses have united to pool money together and to give to the water company if they get the job done early.”
In 1994, network television was just beginning to explore the World Wide Web, (Bates, 1996), the approach was to tie-in with existing programming for promotional purposes, and give users an opportunity to add value to their viewing experience. Over time, the networks encouraged their affiliates to “follow their move to the web,” (Bates, 1996).
At the National Association of Broadcasters conference in 1995, the NAB emphasized the importance of stations’ getting their viewers in the habit of “logging on and off” (Bates, 1996). By the end of November 1995, more than 220 local television news stations had websites (Bates, 1996). These early adopters of the World Wide Web demonstrated an array of content and uses, but most were unsophisticated, and viewed the website as a promotional mouthpiece and not a primary channel for news, information or entertainment (Bates, 1996). Today, there are more than 1,000 local television news websites. But how far have they come since 1995?
Subhead
The growing industry perception is that television websites are the “underdogs of local online news” (Palser, 2002). Many local television news websites follow a standard template – harsh reds and blues, flashing ads and scrolling headlines – that can only be described as ugly.
Using video is usually a great way to tell a story and provide information using multimedia without taking up tons of page space. You will learn how to use Final Cut Express during your lab orientation with Terry Bryant on June 15. If you need a review of video production see the Video How To's on Input/Output.
You are expected to attend lab on either June 20 or June 22 from 8-8:50 a.m. with a QuickTime video ready to post to the web.
1. Video must be posted to the class blog by the end of your lab with Staci.
All video must be exported to a QuickTime .MOV file in order to post it to the web. (How to export video
2. The purpose of this assignment is to show that you’ve studied and understand proper sequencing.
4. Include an intro, a couple of sentences that introduce the story. In the case of your b-roll assignment, your intro will provide a lead-in to your video. An intro is not technically the same as the tease (excerpt) you wrote for your text story.
For example: Students and people in the Lawrence community are logging on to their computers all around town thanks to wireless internet hotspots in coffee shops and other public areas.
Volunteer programs that remain open in Lawrence have begun to see a decreasing number in volunteers now that students have headed home for summer.
The Center of Community Outreach , an on campus organization, provides service programming and connects volunteers to community service agencies, but does not operate during the summer said Dena Neuenschwander, CCO communications director. The CCO operates 15 service agencies during the fall and spring.
“However, they don’t operate, because so many of our coordinators and volunteers go home for the summer,” said Neunschwander.
Programs, such as, Jubilee Café remain open during the summer because it is also run by the community. For the past ten years, Jubilee Café has seen a noticeable difference in the number of volunteers during the summer said Darlene Mortell, Jubilee volunteer.
The Café serves a healthy breakfast for in-need citizens of Lawrence according to the Jubilee Café website: http://www.ku.edu/~jubilee/index.htm. Volunteers cook, serve, set-up: silverware, sugar, salt, ketchup, hot sauce, set out napkins, get chairs out and help with clean up. Jubilee cooks made-to-order eggs, pancakes, toast, bacon, grits, hash browns, sausage, and biscuits, and serves their guests restaurant style. However, summer brings changes to Jubilee’s regular routine. Instead of serving restaurant style, they serve cafeteria style.
“We don’t serve everything, it’s usually just scrambled eggs on those days,” said Mortell.
Besides volunteers, Jubilee sees about 20 less guests during the summer and guests who attend handle the change fine. Some guests seem to like it better and some don’t said Mortell.
Indicated on the Jubilee Café website, Jubilee Café operates every Tuesday and Friday, year-round, from 6:00 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church located at 946 Vermont.
Like Jubilee, the Senior Meals Department of Douglas County Senior Services is another organization that has also noticed a decreasing number of volunteers in the summer.
“We went to having most of our routes filled,” said Kim Wittman, senior meals manager, “students leaving left open six routes.”
Volunteers for the Senior Meals Department assist in packaging meals, which are delivered to homes by volunteer drivers. There are also volunteers that help in the kitchen or serve at meal sights. In Lawrence, there are 45 routes a week and 10 or more volunteers that help in the kitchen. Some volunteers drive more than one route or repeat volunteers that help in the kitchen said Wittman.
The Senior Meals Department recruits volunteers through Roger Hill Volunteer Center, churches, word of mouth and some KU classes require volunteer hours. Late fall is another time the organization sees a decrease in volunteers. Some of the drivers are retired so they head to Florida Wittman said.
The Senior Meals Department serves Monday through Friday. Drivers pick up for delivery at the center between 11 a.m. and 11:15 a.m., and it takes less than an hour to finish the route.
Both organizations are always looking for volunteers.
The controversy surrounding the new Park & Ride lot , opening this fall near the Lied Center, has caused an uproar amongst incoming freshmen.
The new 1,482-space parking lot is set to open for business in late July according to Donna Hultine, Parking Department Director. It is the only option for freshmen who aren't going to live on-campus, while those who do can purchase whichever pass they choose, allowing them to park and drive anywhere on the University.
"Hopefully this will ensure that the lot and shuttle will be successful," said Hultine. "We hope to sell 1,800 Park & Ride permits by fall."
As stated on the KU website, there are approximately 4000-5000 freshmen students that attend KU at any given semester. Starting this fall, those not living in dorms must purchase a Park & Ride permit if they wish to get to classes on-campus. The most purchased on-campus permit costs $140, whereas the new Park & Ride permit will cost $205.
"It is not fair for us, and is too expensive," Christopher Reynolds, incoming freshman, said. "I should be able to buy a permit and park wherever I want. If everyone else can, why can't we?"
Hultine said the new facility will contain guaranteed parking, 50 parking meters, 24 handicapped spaces, and is going to start services on August 14. There will be five new busses added to the existing number that will be on a six-minute rotation, and will arrive on campus in about eight to 10 minutes.
"I rode the busses all of freshman year, and they were constantly late, out of order, or packed full," Katy Dahlmann, Belleville, Ill. Junior, said. "They would always make me late to my classes. They are more of a hassle than a convenience, and most of the time I got fed up and just walked anyway."
The construction site at the new Park & Ride lot is currently in the process of pouring cement, and laying out the ground work to ensure its completion before fall classes begin.
"Construction includes a built in bus hub and completion of the Becker drive loop," Hultine said. "We're also signalizing the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Crestline to facilitate access to this lot. You will only be able to get into and out of the lot from that intersection, there will be gates from the lot to the circle drive for emergency vehicles, busses, etc."
The Parking Department is also going through changes. Hultine said that they have officially switched their name to KU Parking & Transit , rather than the KU Parking Department; and a new assistant has been hired to oversee the new Park & Ride program. Along with that, the department is in the process of a joint transit study with the city of Lawrence, and is attempting to get new busses through the merger.
"We do get complaints every year about the cost of the permits and having to pay for parking at all," Hultine said. " I think it comes with the territory. Parking is completely self-supporting - we don't get state money, student fee money or tuition dollars. Paying for parking is a necessity."
Fans watching college football games this fall will notice a similarity to the NFL. Coaches can now initiate instant replays to be reviewed by officials during games.
The NCAA approved a proposal that will allow for one challenge opportunity per game for each team. Scott Martin, Topeka junior, is greeting the new rule with enthusiasm because of what he called closer scrutiny for officials.
“I think that it will help keep the officials honest,” Martin said. “It is also another way of getting the calls right.”
Ty Halpin, NCAA associate director for playing rules administration, said the primary reason behind the change is for parity among the leagues.
“Everyone wanted the rules committee to have one standerd system for all NCAA play,” Halpin said.
Jim Marchiony, KU associate athletics director, said that the new rule should not be seen as another test for officials.
“I don’t think that replay will have an effect on officials making better calls,” Marchiony said.
The new rule says teams may challenge one play per game, as long as they still have a timeout to give. Teams will either retain or lose a timeout depending on the outcome of the challenge. No matter the result of the challenge coaches will not be able to dispute another play. Martin says that the rule may not go far enough.
“Two missed calls isn’t unheard of in college football,” Martin said. “They should probably be more like the NFL and have a couple of coach’s challenges.”
The NFL currently has two coaches’ challenges per game, and allows them to retain challenges if they are successful, which allows coaches more freedom in calling for a review. According to the Big XII, 96 plays were reviewed last year by officials with 33 calls being changed. The numbers cannot include the amount of plays coaches would have challenged. Marchiony said the new rule should be more of a comfort than anything else.
“It should make the coaches feel better since they have the opportunity to request a review,” Marchiony said.
Officials did not review several plays in past years, including one in this past year’s Fort Worth Bowl. Judging by fan reaction, a play many considered a fumble by Houston, was not reviewed by officials, allowing Houston to retain possession. The new rule now offers coaches the capability to dispute calls with an opportunity to change the outcome. Despite the lack of challenges, Marchiony is quick to point out that it doesn’t change the rules already in place.
“Plays were always being reviewed so this shouldn’t make much difference,” Marchiony said.
Halpin added that even with the new challenge, the college game still differs from the NFL.
“The bottom line is that NCAA replay is different from NFL replay in that the official in the booth may stop the game and review a play at any time,” Halpin said.
Halpin admitted the NCAA system is not without flaws, but that the new rule will add another layer of a safety net to the process. The coaches' challenge will be in effect for KU’s first game of the fall against Northwestern State.
The popularity of Wakarusa music festival has increased from national to international recognition this year and security will follow the expansion.
Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival is a four day event, June 8 through 11, featuring over 80 bands this year. People from all 50 states and five different foreign countries will be attending. With the increase in popularity, the Lawrence Police Department has enlarged the security.
“This year we will have more deputies at Wakarusa. Starting Thursday we will have six deputies and then at night we will have 13. The number of deputies at Wakarusa will increase as the event goes on, but the greatest number of officers will be on Saturday,” Lieutenant Doug Woods of the Lawrence Police Department said.
According to Woods drug use was not a major issue last year at the festival, but it was not uncommon. This year the Kansas Highway Patrol set up check points on Highway 10 to search for drugs.
“Actually I think it’s ridiculous that they’re doing this. They’re basically assuming that all of us that go to Wakarusa use drugs,” Brian Brost, 20, of Minneapolis said.
In an article written by Eric Weslander for the ljworld.com, Highway Patrol Lt. Kirk Simone said they are making drug seizures and checking vehicles coming into Lawrence from Highway 10.
“If I was an outsider coming into Lawrence for Wakarusa, I would be pretty heated if was stopped and checked for drugs. We come to Wakarusa to smoke [marijuana] and enjoy the shows, everyone knows this,” said Pat Boyle, 21, of Salina. “I would not be a happy camper if my weed was confiscated before I could even enjoy it at Wakarusa.”
“Check points are not necessary; they just end up being a hassle for everyone. If there is a problem with drugs, then it should be dealt with in a different place other than in the middle of a busy highway,” Brost said.
Highway check points and doubling the number of deputies at Wakarusa are two ways security will increase from last year’s festival.
“This is only my second year being in charge of patrolling at Wakarusa, but last year we did not have enough deputies at the festival,” Woods said. “Actually, more arrests were made for violence than for drug use last year because we did not have enough man power. So, we had to focus more on fights and violence.”
This year the Lawrence Police Department plans on taking a more reactive approach toward violence and drug use. The coordinators of Wakarusa have also taken an approach to the issue of drug use at the festival
“We sent out information with all of our online tickets sales that included things like rules, regulations and what not to bring. Our policy, which is stated in the program, is that no drugs are allowed,” Heather Lofflin, media coordinator for Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival said. “After all, if you’ve paid for four days of amazing music and entertainment, why on earth would you want to spoil that experience?”
The gateway construction, located at the north entrance to campus, blocks half of the road from 13th street to the east door of the student union. The obstruction allows only south traffic flow through. KU on Wheels has created a new temporary bus stop on the west side of the student union for buses traveling north.
Jessica Mortinger, Transportation Coordinator of KU on Wheels, sees the effects these changes have on students.
“Having only one lane of [Jayhawk Boulevard] open makes students adjust and change their patterns to get around campus,” Mortinger said.
To make the route changes as effective as possible, different university and City of Lawrence departments work together.
Design and Construction Management, the department in charged of KU construction, gives KU on Wheels different route alternatives while construction takes effect. KU on Wheels then meets with the Lawrence Bus Company to determine the best routing option.
The interests of students are represented throughout the entire routing process through KU on Wheels.
“[It] is student-run so all decisions have to be approved by the Transportation Board [which is] composed of students,” Mortinger said. “Students choose policies and procedures that will be most effective for their peers.”
KU on Wheels decided which routes would function during the summer.
So, in addition to bus route changes due to construction, students also deal with a reduced number of bus routes. While there are nine different routes during the regular school year, only four remain active during summer sessions.
For students, fewer routes mean longer waits at bus stops.
Karyn Raidl, Topeka freshman, lives in Park 25 apartment complex where the bus only passes once every hour. After her class, she waits 40 minutes for a bus to take her back home. But Raidl thinks the wait is worth it.
“It is a matter of paying for parking and still having to walk versus getting dropped off in front of the class,” Raidl said.
Similar to Raidl, many students prefer to take the bus instead of buying parking passes because of economic reasons. A parking permit for the 2005-2006 school year cost $140 while students pays $30 for a summer bus pass.
This fall, The Market in the Kansas Union will unveil new options for eating on campus.
“It will be an enhanced eating experience: more relaxed, more creative, more interesting,” said David Mucci, director of KU’s Memorial Unions.
The plans
The new food court will include three new restaurant options. Quesarito is a Chipotle-style eatery featuring burritos and quesadillas. Boulevard Grill will replace Burger King with made-to-order hamburgers and chicken sandwiches. Chefs at Fresco! will use "display cooking," preparing fresh pastas while customers watch, to attract patrons.
Some options, such as Pizza Hut, the Southern Tsunami sushi bar and Brella’s sandwich shop, are currently open during construction and will stay open in the fall. An expanded salad bar, including panini-style sandwiches, is an important part of the renovations. The new salad bar will include more fresh produce from local organic farmers.
To make room for the additions, the booths that were previously located at the exit of the food court have been taken out. The larger food court will help reduce the lines at lunch and give people more choices.
Freshens Smoothie Company and The Pulse coffee bar will move to the fourth floor of the Union across from the Commerce Bank.
“We’re working on revamping the operation with automated, new technology that is quieter and faster,” Mucci said. “Now we have a space this is more convenient to people taking the bus or just grabbing a cup of coffee in the morning.”
The coffee bar on the fourth floor will feature espresso drinks, smoothies, muffins, pastries and grab-and-go sandwiches and salads. There are even plans to replace the furniture in the lobby of the Union to give it a coffeehouse atmosphere. Tables and chairs will be put on the patio outside the Union to give the patio that same atmosphere.
The coffee bar and the Jay-bowl will be open in the evening to gives students another option for dinner The Jay-bowl on the first floor of the Union will also have pizzas, nachos and hot dogs.
Construction on the project began two weeks ago and is scheduled to be completed Aug. 4.
“After that we’ll have to clean up, get everyone trained and work out the kinks. It’ll be rushed but we want to be open for the start of the fall semester,” Mucci said.
“It’s big news,” said Grant Turner, cashier at The Market. “There’ll be more business and a more friendly atmosphere.”
With the merger of campus and residential dining and the opening of The Underground last fall, Mucci said KU’s dining services have seen a lot of growth.
“We’ve proven that we can accommodate that number of people so now we’re looking to give people more options on campus,” Mucci said.
Students in the journalism school’s capstone classes in strategic communications did surveys, focus groups and research in the industry to develop a plan for the food court.
“They know the market. It’s like having clients working as researchers to help us figure out what we need to do,” Mucci said.
Roxy Taylor, Lawrence resident and cashier at the Market, said the food court has changed a lot in the 14 years she has worked there.
“This is going to be a much better improvement than the last time,” Taylor said. “It’s going to serve the customer better.”
Hashinger hall, what students want in a living space
The comfortable and versatile furniture that will be in the newly renovated Hashinger Hall exemplifies what students are looking for in a living space. Lorraine Malone, interior designer of Hashinger Hall, began working for the University of Kansas last August. Her first project was to redesign Hashingher Hall. Malone said that her goal was to design the building based on what students prefer in a living space.
“I walked around campus and worked with former Hashinger residents and asked students what type of furniture they wanted to see in the redesigned Hashinger Hall. Most students wanted anything that would create a comfortable, social environment,” Malone said.
According to Malone and students, versatility is important when choosing the right type of furniture for a dorm, apartment or house. Students like to be able to move furniture and change the style in order to suit their personality. For this reason, each of the dorm rooms in Hashinger Hall will have steel textured beds that can be lofted or free standing. Also, there will be soft fabric couches and ottomans on each of the floors in order to create a comfortable social environment. Malone said the furniture came from a variety of places. For example, Vanguard, Thomasville and Commercial Concepts were just some of the companies used.
“The people that live in Hashinger are what give the residence hall its uniqueness. Creating more social environments will make the new dorm feel just like the old one,” Jay McMillan, Olathe senior, said.
As for the interior walls, there was no art bought for the building. Malone said that the walls are being left open for students to display their work. Each dorm room is lined with long tack board so that students can also show-of their work inside their room. The dining area will be equipped with a rotating art exhibit that has special lighting to better exhibit student’s art.
“As an art student, I take pride in the work that I do and to be able to display it would be great. I just wish that all this would have been done when I lived in the dorms,” Elizabeth Greco, St. Louis senior, said.
However, some of the interior walls within the dorm rooms will be painted with a variety of colors according to the office of KU Housing and Maintenance. Colors can have a strong effect in setting the mood of a room. Currently the final color choices for the rooms are unknown.
“When choosing a dorm freshman year I looked for a space that reminded me of home. An area that I could comfortably live in and personalize to my taste,” Greco said.
Hashinger Hall is set to reopen at the end of the summer. The residence hall was designed based on what the students wanted to have in a living space.
“When Hashinger opens it should be really cool and fun, and I am looking forward to it,” said Malone.
The Lawrence Transit System set new ridership records on Thursday, June 8, National Dump the Pump Day. However, even after the record high day for the “T”, Lawrence residents remain skeptical about public transportation and continue to drive.
Cliff Galante, public transit administrator, said the use of public transportation in Lawrence increased 14.8% since last year with an average daily ridership of 1,368. On Dump the Pump day, a day recognized across the country to promote the use of public transportation, Lawrence set a daily high of 2,038 riders.
“With rising fuel costs, I’m glad that many residents took the opportunity to ride the “T” yesterday and learn about their transit system. The record level turn-out is a clear indication that many residents recognize the benefits of public transportation, one being it is more affordable than driving,” said Galante in a press release late last week.
Although the use of public transportation has increased over the past year, many Lawrence residents express disdain when asked about using public transportation.
“I will continue driving my car unless gas prices become way too high…The bus takes too long to get anywhere and I wouldn’t know what route to take or where to get off. Traffic in Lawrence isn’t bad enough not to drive yet,” said Becca Griffits, a resident of Lawrence.
Griffits outlook on the transit system seemed to be shared by many residents who lined up at the QuikTrip on 23rd Street, while the bus stop across the street remained empty. As much as the community has hoped the transit system would work out, most of the population has yet to experience the “T”.
Statistics show that although the transit is increasing its ridership, there is still a long way to go before even a fourth of the community uses the transit on a daily basis. Lawrence as approximately 90,000 residents according to the City of Lawrence and on average only 1,368 use the transit in a day. In Chicago, there are an average 1.5 million rides taken on the public transit daily. The population of Chicago is a little less than 3 million, so more than half the population is using public transportation on any given day. Chicago has the second largest public transit system according to the Chicago Transit Authority.
Lawrence will most likely never run a transit system or have the ridership of a large metropolitan area. The Lawrence area is not large enough and traffic is not severe enough for the majority to abandon the use of vehicles.
“I do not believe that it (transportation) will ever occur since places like Chicago, New York and Boston have two very important factors that Lawrence does not: Tremendous roadway congestion problems and prohibitive parking costs,” said Galante. “In Lawrence although we think we have traffic issues, we do not have severe traffic problems as compared to those large metro areas. It really is comparing apples with oranges.”
The bottom-line is that the Lawrence Transit System, although still growing, will never benefit the community the way public transportation has in other communities. Our residents lack the need and desire to use public transportation on a daily basis.
KU study abroad program fails to inform students of intense leadership program
Students arrive in Paderno del Grappa, Italy for the study abroad program surprised at the unknown requirement to attend the intense program, Rapport Leadership Development Program. In the Fall 2005 semester, the CIMBA program introduced its students to the leadership program. Fresh off the plane, students were required to attend two and a half days of concentrated training.
At the start of Rapport, students sat in a classroom, jet-lagged and uncomfortable, and made speeches in front of their peers, shout on the top of their lungs, and play interactive games that stressed good leadership skills and helped students get better acquainted with one other. Hall Alexander, Ottawa senior, said, "I got to know people really well and it helped because I didn't know anybody there at first."
Students had to sign contracts in order to participate. "The contract said that we couldn't sue for emotional stress or humiliation that occurred as a result of the program," Alexander said. The activities pushed students out of their comfort zones. As a result, another student refused to sign the contract because of his lack of knowledge and required signature.
The program coordinators received many complaints because students felt misled. Julie Jolesch, West Des Moines, IA senior at Iowa State University, said, "I knew nothing about the program and when I tried to find out more on their website, I still didn't understand it."
Jolesch also said she did not like having to sign a contract for something she felt the coordinators failed to inform her about. "I thought the contract was pointless, they [program leaders]were being really mysterious about everything."
The lack of knowledge, at first, prevented Jolesch from maintaining an open mind about the benefits of Rapport. Jolesch said she felt like CIMBA leaders were trying to hide information from them.
However, Alexis McKinley, Italy programs director, said the students were informed at the first orientation at KU. "Students are more focused on learning about travel than about programs held on campus." In order to ensure future students are better informed, e-mails have been sent specifically about Rapport, and more parents have called in response to the program, McKinley said.
McKinley said the program made some changes to accommodate for the complaints the organization received. "We have revamped the program so that students will have the option to attend the Leadership program, students can sign up for the program either before or upon their arrival in Paderno," McKinley said. Only those students that decide to attend Rapport will do so. McKinley said they will have a number of back-up plans for students not wanting to participate in Rapport.
In the end, students eventually embraced Rapport and benefited from the activities they were asked to complete. Students would have accepted the program more readily had they been better informed, complaints could have been prevented. "At first I did not like Rapport because I knew nothing about it, and I complained a lot, but I look back and think 'it was really beneficial,'" Alexander said.
Currently, students are being accepted into the program for the Fall of 2006 semester. McKinley hopes future students are more aware of what the Rapport program offers and that the revamping of the program makes for more successful communication between coordinators and students.
Hillcrest Elementary began removal of asbestos surrounding the pipes in their maintenance tunnels on May 30. Mac-Bestos, Kansas City, Mo. based asbestos removal service, has been hired to remove the slowly degrading insulation. The USD 497 Board of Education approved the company’s $29,775 contract bid during the May 22 meeting.
Tammy Becker, Hillcrest principal , said after a week of preparations Mac-Bestos has begun work on removing the harmful substance from the maintenance tunnels underneath Hillcrest.
“The actual removal began this last Thursday,” Becker said. “It is estimated to take a couple of weeks.”
According to Becker, the project is estimated to be finished around June 23, barring any major setbacks. The BoE was informed of the need to remove the asbestos around January, but because of the risk involved in asbestos exposure no work could be done until school was released for the summer.
Summer school sessions will not be affected by the work, Becker said, as the summer session takes place in the latter half of the break. In order for the work to not affect the regular schedule, the project must be finished by July 1.
“The only thing affected has been teacher check-out,” Becker said.
Asbestos in depth
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, asbestos is a form of insulation that was used extensively during 1920s through the 1960s. It is a naturally occurring mixture of silicates, mined throughout the world including Australia and Russia.
The EPA website said asbestos has been linked to various forms of lung cancer, including mesothelioma: a unique form of lung cancer caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibers. The website said asbestos fibers only become dangerous when the material is disturbed or when it has degraded to a such a point that fibers are regularly released into the air.
The entirety of Hillcrest’s asbestos is located in the catacombs beneath the building. Because of this limited exposure, there has been no significant danger to students over the past several years. Becker said the district has known about the existence of the banned insulating material, but it hadn’t degraded to the point of significant danger until recently. She said those primarily affected by the removal were plumbers, maintenance personnel and electricians.
“The school staff and students are never down there,” Becker said. “All of the pipe system is down there. There must be some electrical as well, because electricians are down there as well.”
Aging buildings
The elementary school, along with several others across the district including Broken Arrow Elementary, is over 50 years old. Therefore, said Becker, many of the utilities are located underneath the building.
Although students were not directly exposed to the asbestos due to its contained radius during the regular school year, anyone in contact with the removal could be at risk.
“Because it’s not an open area, there wasn’t a danger,” Becker said. “However, because it is being removed from tunnels, we had to wait until school was out.”
The level of danger is directly related to where the asbestos is located in the building, she said. Some personnel are still allowed in the school during the work at Hillcrest. However, this isn’t always the case.
“Broken Arrow is also removing asbestos,” Becker said. “Their's is being removed from an open area, so no one is even allowed in the building until the procedure is completely finished.
“The company has gone to great lengths to assure everyone’s safety during the removal.”
Local video stores are trying to ensure renters continue to hit the stores instead of the mailbox.
Local video stores have battled the online, through-the-mail DVD rental service Netflix since it opened in 1999. Since then, they have come up with several approaches to compete. The “brick and mortar” stores have used strategies from ending late fees to prepaying for flicks and monthly membership fees. One store even considers relying on the mail itself.
According to Hoovers.com, a website that provides sales information for several companies and industries, the online movie-rental powerhouse more than tripled its net income from $6.5 million to $21.5 million between 2003 and 2004. They nearly doubled up the next year by bumping up to $42.2 million by the end of 2005, Video Business Magazine said that Ingram Entertainment Inc. cut 4 percent of their workforce in the middle of February. IEI is the nation’s largest distributor of DVD hardware and software, and supplies rental chains including Miracle Video, Family Video, Hastings and Blockbuster. VBM added that Movie Gallery will reduce salaried and administrative office staff by about 300 positions, 17 percent of the staff, by the end of 2006.
“It’s no secret that the business has been flat, and I think all the distributors have been affected by the weakness in the business,” IEI president David Ingram said.
To be a member of Netflix, you pay a monthly fee. You get online and create a list of the movies you want to see in the order you want to see them. They have about 60,000 to pick from. They will send you the DVD’s you want to see, starting from the top of your list (shipping is free). The more movies you want out at one time, the more you pay per month. Netflix says their most popular plan allows you to have out up to three DVD’s out at a time and you can rent an unlimited number per month for $17.99. Once you receive your movies, you keep them as long as you want and then send them back in the prepaid envelope they came with. After you watch something, send it back, and they receive it, they’ll send you the next title on your list.
In January of 2005, both Blockbusters in Lawrence, which are privately owned, started a “no late fee” membership along with the other corporately owned stores across the nation. The membership was free to all customers. They stopped offering it this March. The no late fee concept was good, said Andy Rumsey, store manager at Blockbuster on 23rd Street and Lenexa senior. But the stores didn’t have the inventory to keep up with the demand he said.
“If a popular movie came out, everyone would rent it the first weekend and it might be checked out for two weeks,” Rumsey said.
This chart compares Netflix with several local Lawrence video rental stores.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Craig Gerfen, owner of T & S Video Inc. in Tonganoxie, believed Blockbuster’s decision was poor.
“Anyone in industry knows no video store can get rid of late fees and be successful or profitable,” Gerfen said.
Blockbuster turned to its Movie Pass, which is similar to Netflix in that you pay a monthly fee and can have out one or two movies at a time (depending on which package you buy) and have them out as long as you want. Rumsey said that as soon as they went to that method, profits didn’t increase, but customer traffic did. Couch Potato Video in Desoto also has a monthly subscription account with their “platinum membership.”
Gerfen says that Netflix’s platform is actually good for the video rental business, online or not, because it keeps people renting and leaves the door open for the brick and mortar stores.
“Overall it strengthens the industry because people are still renting other than doing ‘on demand’ and people are still getting the discs and keeping out of whole computer downloading,” Gerfen said.
Family Video opened their first Lawrence location on 19th and Massachusetts Street earlier this year. Before opening, they conducted a study that measured the outlook of video stores in division-one college towns. Jeremy Underwood, one of the managers at Lawrence’s Family Video, said that the study found that expanding to Lawrence made sense. Their version of a monthly membership costs $9.99 and entitles the owner to pay half price for an unlimited amount of rentals for the month. Nick Haaland, who also manages Lawrence’s Family Video, questioned Netflix’s method of no return dates.
“(It) might be nice, but how many times are you actually going to watch it?”
Map of video rental store locations in Lawrence.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Pre-paying is another strategy local stores have used to stay in the game. Movie Gallery’s “value card” allows a customer to buy a $24 gift certificate for $19.99, or a $65 gift card for $49.99. Gerfen’s store also offers his rendition of pre-pay with the “gold card,” which is $30 for a yearly membership and adds seven free rentals to your account. It also allows customers to reserve movies among other perks.
Local video store managers say they have two advantages over Netflix: convenience and customer service.
“You actually have one-on-one help, and you don’t have to wait for the mail,” said Sherry Morris, manager at the Movie Gallery on 6th Street. She said that her store often receives new releases the weekend before they come out to rent. This allows employees to take them home and watch them and then give advice to any customer that has questions about a title.
Chris Jones, who manages Hastings in Lawrence, agreed convenience is important. He added that by actually going in a store, customers could not only get advice from employees but could buy concessions as well.
“We have people come in just to visit, socialize and spend time in the store,” he said.
Gerfen concurred.
“If you’re sitting on the couch with your wife and say “Honey, let’s go rent a movie,’ you can do that instead of waiting for the mail,” he said.
Gerfen hasn’t ruled out using the mail to his advantage. While still in its initial stages, he’s considered including prepaid envelopes with his rentals so after customers have checked out their selection in the store, they can return it by dropping it in the mail. The pre-printing stage has involved speaking with the postmaster and getting the artwork approved, but he is still looking at how cost-effective the program would be, considering replacement costs for films lost in the mail and membership fees.
Your first reporting assignment is to show us whether you know what news is and whether you can find news in its simplest form.
You are expected to attend lab on either June 13 or June 15 from 8-8:50 a.m. with a story ready to post to the web.
It should be campus/Lawrence news that you have made into a short story.
It doesn't have to be big news at all.
It should not be breaking news.
It should not be a feature.
It does have to be news for a local audience, like the readers of the University Daily Kansan.
It can't (that's can NOT) be something that has already been published.
It must have a news peg.
It ought to have a time element that will hold until the following week.
It must meet the commonly accepted definitions of what news is.
It must also have at least two, on-the-record, live sources.
Gather all the information you think you'll need to write a short story (about 500 words).
When you write your story, do NOT indent paragraphs and separate each paragraph with a double return.
Bring your finished story to the lab on either a memory stick or e-mail it to yourself so you can get to it for the lab sessions.
Write a headline of about five words for the assignment. You will learn how to post your story and the headline (MovableType calls it a “title”) during lab. (How to post your stories in Movable Type)
Also bring three URLs that will make logical links to embed in your story, probably from the online research you did for your story. (How to create perfect links)
You may want to use certain effects such as italics or bold on a word or words in your story. This will not be required, but feel free to play around with these effects if you'd like. (How to italicize and make bold)
After you have posted the story to MovableType, click the “preview” button, print a copy of the page and hand it in to Staci.
Procedures
You are now a professional reporter. Your stories this summer will be published on the journalism school Web site for all to see. That includes your sources.
Accuracy is paramount.
If your story contains factual errors, you’ll pay a high price. Your sources will be angry. Your readers will think you’re an idiot. Your instructor will hear about it. Your grade will be low. (A misspelled name, for example, lowers your grade by 10 points.)
So check and double-check everything. Don’t hesitate to call back a source if you’re not certain you’ve got it exactly right.
Tell your sources the story will appear on the Web site and that it may appear in The Kansan (published weekly during the summer).
A script to guide you in setting up interviews is on Blackboard under “Stuff You Should Know.”
