Students work to revive KU Info

Help line changes anger some workers

When Jeremy Antley was 10 years old, he would call KU Info and ask the information service when the swimming pool opened or what time a new movie was showing.

In those days, KU Info was legendary, he said. It seemed omniscient and made one wonder, as in “The Wizard of Oz,” who was behind the curtain.

“It just seemed so gigantic and mythological. You were shocked when you saw the real place,” he said, describing the small office in the Kansas Union where workers were willing to field virtually any question tossed their way.

But the info line – 864-3506 – that Antley recalls from his childhood, the one he once worked at, is different today. It was once a 24-hour service with its own office. KU Info workers now answer questions in between fixing printers or helping students find books at Anschutz Library. And they no longer attempt to field all queries.

Two KU students want it to return to its original form.

Seniors Molly Tucker and Alisha Ashley are circulating petitions urging KU administration to “Save KU Info.”

KU Info has changed the way it operates, and Alisha Ashley, a KU senior from Halstead, and other student workers are circulating a petition to reverse the changes.

They have an ally in Susan Elkins, KU Info’s director for 15 years. She retired in January because of changes to the service. She said she could see that her principles were being compromised.

“In all reality there is no longer a KU Info,” said Ashley, a current KU Info employee who has worked for the service since October 2003. “They’re throwing the name around. … The phone number is not disconnected yet, but it might as well be.”

Still OK?

“Where is the evidence that that tradition is gone?” said Bill Myers, KU’s library development director. “Can you not call KU Info and get information about university life?”

Currently, there are 12 KU Info employees. They don’t have an office; they share a service desk at Anschutz Library.

Ashley, a KU Info employee, said she spends a lot of time working with the printers in the library and helping students locate books. When she has time, she said, she turns to the phone.

But KU Info continues to offer information online and over the phone, Myers said, adding that KU Info will expand its Web presence and that it also operates at booths during big events, such as Hawk Week.

But “there’s no doubt that (KU Info is) different and that it’s going to continue to evolve culturally,” Myers said.

Officials are searching for a new director for the service, Myers said.

About two years ago, the service’s budget was about $60,000. The current budget covers a program director, but that position is currently vacant. Employees’ salaries are absorbed by the library, Myers said. He said the university may boost funds for the service in the future.

There is a proposal for KU Info to be operated jointly by KU Libraries, the office of student success, and information services, but nothing has been finalized, Myers said.

History

KU Info started in 1970 for rumor control on campus during the Vietnam War. Its function evolved as the need to respond to rumors dwindled.

“It was always thought of as a place where we would give you the straight scoop, not the bureaucratic runaround,” said Pat Kehde, who was director from 1980 to 1990.

KU Info’s small office in the Kansas Union, which was equipped with a bed for staffers to rest, was a 24-hour operation until 1992.

Kehde said that when she was director there was no voicemail or automated answering machines.

“We thought it was important that a human being speak with you,” she said.

As it evolved, students used the service not only for academic questions, but fun queries.

Kehde said some would ask questions such as “What’s the meaning of life?” or “How many trees are on campus?”

“They started using it as a kind of sound board for arguments being had in a living room or bar,” Kehde said. “It diluted the energy and the focus of the information center.”

But students like Ashley and Tucker say those questions added to the tradition and were just one part of the service.

“For years and years and years people could call KU Info and know they could get an answer,” Ashley said. “Now people call KU, and they get rejected.”

The hours were scaled back over the years. A few years ago, what is now the department of student success cut KU Info from the budget, and the service was moved to the libraries.

Elkins said the service KU Info once provided required freedom of speech and a trust in students. The service’s structure and mission did not gel with that of the library, she said.

“We were very extroverted and service oriented,” she said. “The library was more introverted.”

Tucker and Ashley have gathered about 1,500 signatures and continue to circulate petitions.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Tucker said. “Not one thing they’re changing is for the better. They’re going to make it more expensive and less helpful.”