Sunday, November 8, 2015

KBI building opens its doors

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation officially opened its new forensic lab on the Southeast side of Washburn’s campus Monday, Nov. 2.

The new, three-story building is 100,000 square feet and houses state-of-the-art crime labs, which previously were located in the basement of the former Crane Junior High School at 1620 S.W. Tyler St. The project cost $55 million to complete, and was funded by the Topeka Public Building Commission. The project is a result of a partnership between the university, KBI and the City of Topeka.

The building houses reserved areas for KBI research in biology, DNA, toxicology, chemistry, firearm/tool mark, latent prints, trace evidence and digital forensics. More importantly for future and current Washburn students, the building is home to an expanded forensics program. KBI forensic laboratories are located on the south side, while classrooms for students are on the north side.

Since the plans to build the lab, WU has added courses in digital forensics, forensic anthropology and forensic investigation. One hundred students have already signed up for classes in the new programs for Spring 2016.

A few spaces will be shared between Washburn students and KBI, including a crime reconstruction space and a 100-seat auditorium. Washburn faculty and staff are excited about the opportunity to have KBI scientists as guest lecturers and experts in classes to teach students real life applications. Faculty and KBI hope to retain and inspire graduating students to work for KBI in the same building after graduation.

Only a few university campuses across the nation have working forensic labs on their campuses. It is also the only one with shared space between the students and KBI scientists.

The opening and dedication included Governor Sam Brownback, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, KBI Director Kirk Thompson, Topeka Mayor Larry Wolgast and President Jerry Farley.


The building welcomed guests for a public open house Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. People who did not attend the open house will not have the opportunity to view the KBI side of building at a later date.

13 comments:

  1. Very well written, Kara! Your AP style looks great. The only suggestion I would maybe make is to say "real-life applications.."

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  2. Great story and excellent usage of AP style. The only suggestion I would make, would be to put a comma after "More importantly," in the third paragraph. It shines through in all of your articles that you properly use AP style and are grammatically correct. So, good job!

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  3. This topic of the KBI grand opening is very relevant to Washburn students because of the new opportunities this building will provide to those interested in those designated fields. I really enjoyed reading your article because of the strong flow and worthy detail that you included. If your focus is truly about the grand opening ceremony for the building you might, however, want to move a few paragraphs closer to the top that relate to the ceremony. Good job!

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  4. The only thing I would maybe fix would be to change "The opening and dedication included Governor Sam Brownback, Attorney General Derek Schmidt..." to "Attendees of the opening and dedication included Governor Sam Brownback, Attorney General Derek Schmidt..." That is just a personal choice I would make, but otherwise, you had great AP style and it was very well-written.

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  5. Great job Kara! I found it interesting you discussed where the KBI lab used to be housed, I did not know that.

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  6. Good article and very informative.

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  7. Good article. I loved this building. It was so cool.

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  8. Great article Kara!! Good use of AP and the format is great.

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  9. Very informational and interesting. Nice flow as well.

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  10. "People who did not attend the open house will not have the opportunity to view the KBI side of building at a later date" --- I would replace people with those.

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  11. I think you could have added the date at the bottom along with "Friday and Saturday". I like the facts that you put at the beginning of the article! Great job!

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  12. Good article. Very interesting facts in here that I did not know about.

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  13. Nice article! Very informative and descriptive.

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