Student Senate has offered to pay for public construction using the money from the campus safety reserve. The Student Senate’s Campus Safety Advisory Board recently proposed construction of a crosswalk in front of Naismith Hall to the Lawrence City Commission. The commission has not yet placed the proposal in its agenda. Once it reaches the agenda, approval of the crosswalk could come as early as next month.

“I would expect that the city would approve it particularly because KU is willing to pay for it. That’s a big point in KU’s favor,” Public Works Traffic Engineer David Woosley said.

The crosswalk would bisect the median on Naismith Drive between 18th and 19th streets, providing a safer route for pedestrians through the traffic of Naismith Drive. The traffic is a particular concern for residents of Naismith and Oliver halls. Many residents of these halls cross Naismith Drive by jaywalking across the median to the bus stop because it is the shortest and most convenient route. Very few students walk south to the 19th Street stoplight or north to the crosswalk at 18th Street where there are designated crosswalks.

Former Naismith Hall resident Meghan Proehl, San Diego sophomore, knows this problem all too well. Last year, Proehl was hit by a car and knocked to the ground, hitting her head. A member of KU’s diving team, Proehl suffered aggravations to an existing back injury.

“I had to deal with lawyers, insurance companies, physical therapy, and animosity from the girl who hit me because she was charged with a hit-and-run,” Proehl said.

Proehl isn’t the only one who worried about traffic every day. Allison Ho, Topeka sophomore, who lived in Naismith last year, said she agreed that a crosswalk was necessary.

“Sometimes the bus would protect you from oncoming traffic, but you have no idea who is barreling down on the other side,” Ho said.

Funding for the construction of the crosswalk has been an issue from the start. Jim Modig, University of Kansas director of design and construction management, said he thought that the initial approval of the request by the Traffic Safety Commission was largely due to the fact that the Senate offered to pay for it. He said that under city rules and regulations, the commission would not normally approve a crosswalk at a mid-portion of the block, which explained the difficulty in securing funding.

“If it is approved it will go onto a long, backlogged list of needed improvements. Once it goes onto that list, we could end up waiting several years before we would ever get considered for funding,” Modig said.

Although the Senate is willing to fund the project, Ho doesn’t think that students ought to pay for improvements to city streets.

“It’s like mowing your own lawn and the park,” Ho said. “It sucks that we have to do it but if the city isn’t willing to then we need to step in and take care of it.”

If the commission approves the proposal, Modig said he had hoped to utilize the University’s facilities operations to keep costs low, but they were already overcommitted to construction on academic facilities.

The city’s street division is equally as busy. Tim Cast, field supervisor for the city’s street division, said he had an endless amount of work to do and that the city would have to move the crosswalk forward on the agenda to get it built in a reasonable amount of time. If the University has to hire a private contractor, construction costs would dip deep into the pockets of Senate’s fee reserve.

“[The city] would charge approximately $3,000 for a project of this magnitude, but a private contractor could charge upwards of $6,000,” Cast said.

Ho said she thought pedestrian safety on a college campus should be placed as top priority because students were walking to class.

Proehl agrees.

“When I was hit, the police officer let me know it was not uncommon for students to get hit on campus. If Lawrence wants to keep its citizen base, which includes students at KU, it needs to consider our safety,” Proehl said.

— Edited by Patrick De Oliveira