WRITER: Chad Lawhorn

Leader still thinks Panasonic growth will come to Lawrence, but city could work on its image

As the old saying goes, money talks — and when the amount is $4 billion, entire communities will stop what they are doing to listen. Indeed, the 2022 announcement that Panasonic was going to build a $4 billion, 4,000-job battery plant for electric vehicles in nearby De Soto made Lawrence all ears. How many plant workers would choose to live in Lawrence? How many Panasonic suppliers would locate in the city? ...

KU gets surprise news on football stadium renovation; work on east side likely needs to begin sooner than thought

Future development around KU’s football stadium — currently undergoing a partial $450 million renovation to add a conference center and other amenities — has recently become more complicated. Soon, local governments may be asked to ease some of those complications by providing financial incentives to the project at 11th and Mississippi streets. “It is going to take the whole community to get this ...

Girod says KU doesn't yet have a plan on how it would pay student-athletes in new era of college athletics

The financial future of college athletics is beyond murky, University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod said as a legal settlement over how to pay student-athletes is at risk of collapsing. Ever since a federal judge two weeks ago expressed concerns about a proposed settlement in the House v. NCAA antitrust lawsuit, there have been worries throughout college athletics that the court may reject any attempts to ...

KU's to-do list: Right-size the Lawrence campus; new master plan says it may be 20% too large

During the next 10 years the University of Kansas may be able to get rid of 20% of all of its building space on the Lawrence campus, according to KU’s recently completed master plan. In fact, the plan says if KU wants to remain financially and environmentally healthy, it needs to seriously consider getting rid of about 1 million square feet of building space on the Lawrence campus. “Our analysis ...

KU's $10M request for architecture school expansion wins preliminary approval

The University of Kansas’ hope of winning $10 million in state funding to help spur an expansion of its architecture and design school has cleared one hurdle. The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday unanimously agreed to recommend the request to the Kansas Legislature when it convenes in January. As the Journal-World reported, KU hopes to undertake a $120 million expansion of Marvin Hall, which houses the ...

KU students protest merger of diversity, gender offices on the Lawrence campus; fears grow that it is a step toward cutting them

When it comes to issues of gender, sexuality, diversity and other such topics, there’s a new debate at the University of Kansas: Is there an evolution or an elimination underway? KU administrators last week announced a reorganization that will bring many individual KU offices related to gender, sexuality, diversity and equality under one organizational umbrella and into shared space in the Kansas Union. ...