Saturday, April 26, 2008

Jayhawker Towers renovation expedited

By Jonathan Kealing

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The first step in meeting Kansas University men's basketball coach Bill Self's request for better student-athlete housing will begin this summer with the renovation of Tower A at Jayhawker Towers.

The $8.1 million renovation will begin when the spring semester ends - at the request of the athletics department, rather than on its original timetable. The tower will re-open in August 2009, and work will start soon thereafter by the renovation of Tower B.

"(Athletics) is expediting plans we already had in place," said Diana Robertson, KU's director of student housing. "This was a renovation that was planned for next year, but now we're starting it this summer."

The $8.1 million will come from state-issued bonds and then be repaid by higher fees charged to students living in the renovated buildings. Robertson said no physical changes were planned to the buildings, but rather a host of aesthetic and infrastructure improvements to the 41-year-old buildings.

Among planned upgrades are dry wall on some surfaces that are currently brick, new appliances, new furniture, upgraded plumbing and data lines.

Of course, because the renovations are happening sooner than originally was planned, 180 students will find themselves living somewhere other than where they expected.

The university said it was in the beginning stages of notifying students that Tower A would be closed for the 2008-09 academic year and minimizing the disruption that would cause.

Those individuals, largely graduate students, will be accommodated in other towers.

"Every returning student who wanted to live with us in Jayhawker Towers will live with us in Jayhawker Towers," Robertson said.

Comments

Strikewso (anonymous) says...

That sucks. What a waste of money. They need to tear them down and start over. Those things are the projects.

April 26, 2008 at 2:17 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bobsarobot (anonymous) says...

good idea. why don't you draft the proposal which outlines how brick buildings can be torn down and completely rebuilt for around $8 million. then you can get started on turning some gallons of water into wine and we will all have one hell of a celebration.

April 26, 2008 at 4:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

carterpatterson (anonymous) says...

They need to call the Four Seasons or the Ritz Carlton to make sure that the new design meets their standards.

In all seriousness, since our athletes are unpaid and bring tens of millions to the University, we need to provide them with excellent housing. I have no doubts that Lew and staff are on top of this.

April 26, 2008 at 5:50 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

chicagoeddie (anonymous) says...

i wish a rich alumni would step up and drop some cash for some new jhawk towers and let them name it after them. if i had the cash i would do it. have you seen what we have to compete against with other schools and where atheletes live there? look below...

http://housing.unc.edu/index.php?opti...

http://www.reslife.uconn.edu/all_hous...

My sister went to UCONN and they live in basically housing apartments that look like the new apartments in lawrence. I dont understand how we continue to house in such poor conditions and how many recruits we could have sealed with better housing....

April 26, 2008 at 6:01 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Nutflush21 (anonymous) says...

Nothing we do will ever beat Memphis' on campus mansion that 11 basketball players lived in this year. It was equipped with flat screens and the works. I wish i could find the link to the article I read this in. I believe it was on an SI.com interview.

April 26, 2008 at 6:44 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

BoulderHawk (anonymous) says...

I love KU basketball, I bleed Crimson and Blue. But
if the Basketball Team is bringing big $'s for the University the least they could do is find a way to upgrade Jayhawk Towers with out raising the costs of the other residents there. It is not athlete only housing.

April 26, 2008 at 10:03 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayViking (anonymous) says...

This is sick.

I agree the towers are absolute crap. The first poster had it right on. They need to be just torn down.

But here's the sick part. We can find 8.1 million to upgrade the towers..

But the stouffer place residents have gone nearly a month now without internet and phone service. How's that possible? What does that say to those people?

Sorry, if you were more important, we'd not only fix your service faster, we'd maybe update the antiquated dumps you're living in.

April 26, 2008 at 12:13 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

brooksmd (anonymous) says...

I was appalled to find out the team lives in the towers. My son stayed in one about 6 or 7 years ago when he attended Roy's camp. It was a dump then. Couple of years ago he made a recruiting (football) visit to little Mississippi College and they had much better dorms. And it's a little D3 school. Yeah it's nice to have great weight and practice facilities, but money needs to be invested in ALL dorm facilities as well. I would be ashamed to take a recruit into the towers and say this is where you will live.

April 26, 2008 at 2:03 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

AdamG09 (anonymous) says...

Uh, yeah, the basketball players are more important to KU than schol-hall residents. And they should be. The ballers create an enormous amount of publicity and indirect financial benefits for KU. The scho-hallers, who also receive tuition breaks and subsidized housing, create neither.

If living in a schol-hall is such a burden, there are four newly renovated dorms on Daisy Hill.

If the schol-hallers can't move or wait their turn for renovations, they should focus on convincing some wealthy ex-schol-hall resident to donate a wad of cash to get it done.

April 27, 2008 at 3:52 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

smitty33 (anonymous) says...

I played football for KU in the early 90's and lived in the towers for a year... what a hole. i felt like it was a bricked prison. Tiny windows, loud dark halls. Tear them down!!! Our school made BANK this year. We are in a builidng war!!! Since we need no $ to pay athletes, no $ to ever build a new arena, and spend very little on refs, everything else should be the best in the country, period.

April 27, 2008 at 11:02 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

Every dorm should have jeffries tubes that funnel people from one building to the other all over campus. All money should be spent on transporter technology and things that generate food from inorganic matter.

Maybe a zip-line from the top of the hill to Memorial Stadium. That would really be keen.

April 28, 2008 at 10:46 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayViking (anonymous) says...

It's not the schol halls, Adam.

They are married, foreign, and graduate student housing. The married students have no choice. Many of them cannot reasonably afford other alternatives. It's a joke.

Make a 5 star hotel athletes dorm. Whatever. Just make all the housing on campus reasonable.

April 28, 2008 at 11:28 a.m. ( | suggest removal )