Kansas to award master’s degree to student who died in class

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - The University of Kansas plans to award a posthumous master’s degree to a 30-year-old student who died in class.

Mahmoud Samak, a graduate student from Cairo, will receive the award from the university’s Religious Studies Department.

Campus police Deputy Chief James Anguiano said Samak died in a class on Monday after he suffered a cardiac arrest. Anguiano said police found no evidence of foul play.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports the Religious Studies Department will hold a memorial for Samak Monday afternoon at the Memorial Union.

Samak was in the second year of his graduate program. He was studying the comparative social and religious analysis of contemporary Judaism and Islam.

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Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com