2A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2005
What do you THINK?
BY MEGAN PENROD
editor@kansan.com
KANSAN CORRESPONDENT
What is your favorite beer pong moment?
Shannon Dalton, Dallas junior
"One time we made our own beer pong table out of wood and we had a big party where everybody was coming over to play, and so it was three against three. I got really close to the table and, like, threw it, and I fell in and, like, completely broke the entire table. Everybody was making fun of me. Our team won, but I was so embarrassed. I remember that, but I was wasted."
"We were playing beer pong and we threw the table to the side and it turned into this huge, whole wrestling match. We were playing and they just decided to wrestle."
♦ Kyle Gwaltney, Lawrence freshman
"Actually, one time a friend and I drained a 24-pack of Natty Light in not very long. When that was done we knew it was time to settle down for the night. I don't really remember who won. After that I just went and watched some TV."
Lance Hill, Hutchinson senior.
"We covered every window in the house with trash bags and moved his ping pong table out into the garage. His parents are Catholic so he wasn't supposed to be doing this. He got a little wasted doing this, and he actually hit the speed dial on his parents, and they listened to the conversation for probably half an hour and everything he was saying. They let it go that night but called him at 7:30 because they knew he'd be hung-over. They made him get up and work for about eight hours and grounded him for two months."
"I'm sure my favorite memory was when I heard about some kids making a beer pong table out of their dorm room closet door."
Ben Grams, Upland, Neb., freshman.
Officials on alert for bird flu
HEALTH
BY TRAVIS ROINETT
trobinett@kansan.com
KANSAAN STAFE WRITER
COUNTRIES AFFECTED
Cases of bird flu are popping up half a world away, but health officials in Kansas are preparing for a possible outbreak here.
Patricia Denning, chief of staff at Watkins, said the University and Watkins have participated in the Emergency Preparedness Community Task Force for the last four years. The task force was organized to anticipate a disaster and how the Douglas County community would manage it.
The post-9/11 anthrax scare sparked its creation, she said. Denning said the task force doesn't focus on anything particular but addresses various threats, such as natural disasters, bioterrorism and disease. It includes personnel from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical, the Lawrence Police Department, Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Watkins Memorial Health Center.
Birds have been infected in Cambodia, China, Indonesia Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Romania Russia, Siberia, South Korea, Thailand, Tibet, Turkey and Vietnam. In early 2004, more than 100 million birds died from the avian flu or were killed in an attempt to control it.
The threat of the virus infecting humans has increased with several cases reported since 1997.
The drill is an example of steps being taken locally to prepare for a pandemic.
Myra Strother, staff physician at Watkins Memorial Health Center, met with KU personnel yesterday to propose a practice drill in case of an avian flu pandemic.
Humans have been infected in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. No documentation of human to human spread of the virus exists. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Denning said she had also been receiving e-mails once or twice a week from Travax, a travel care program that is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Avian flu has been a topic in those e-mails for about a year and a half, she said.
Susan Gronbeck-Tedesco, director of the Office of Study Abroad, said she was monitoring the CDC Web site and newspapers in an attempt to keep track of information about avian flu. She said that when the virus was transferred from bird to human, the human was often in direct contact with many birds.
"That's pretty unlikely for a study abroad student," she said.
She said the Office of Study Abroad was going to distribute a fact sheet about avian influenza in orientation packets for the students traveling to countries directly affected by the virus. The CDC has not placed any travel bans on those countries.
Denning said a recombination event, or a reassortment of genes, between avian and human influenza had always been perceived as the most difficult
step toward a pandemic
According to an e-mail Denning received, recent studies of the 1918 influenza pandemic showed that a recombination event was not necessary. The 1918 strain appears to have been an avian virus that had about 10 small, spontaneous mutations. New data show that some of the mutations in the 1918 virus are already in H5N1, which is the avian flu virus that is currently circulating.
Denning said drug companies were working on a vaccine to prevent an avian flu pandemic. She said a lot of design, production and testing of the vaccine had to occur and that it would take many months or years to complete.
— Edited by Tricia Masenthin
"The mutation is hard to anticipate, so it's hard to make a vaccine at this time," she said. "This is speculation, but a vaccine designed for production might have an abbreviated testing period to get it to the market as soon as possible. That's based upon similar circumstances with drugs for HIV."
A beautiful ending
JAime Oppenheimer/THE WICHITA EAGLE
The sun sets in a field near Douglas on Monday. The windmill is near the site of the site of Family's farm, where the television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is building a house for the family of seven whose home was lost in an explosion caused by a propane leak in August.
ADMINISTRATION
Search committee prepares to publicize provost job opening
BY GABY SOUZA
gsouza@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Advertising is the next step in the search process for the new associate vice provost.
The search committee responsible for hiring the associate vice provost plans to post announcements of the open position in professional publications and on list servers in various university administration publications.
The committee also wants to put advertisements in African-American and Hispanic academic journals.
The search committee revised the job description for the position Tuesday during its first meeting.
The description now needs to
be finalized by Marlesa Roney, vice provo of student success. Electronic paperwork needs to be filed and then the job will be posted online.
The associate vice provost position was formerly known as the dean of students. Richard Johnson held the position until he was fired from the University of Kansas in April.
Roney said that she hoped
the new associate vice provost would be someone who was happy at his current position but was looking for the opportunity for professional advancement.
This person will probably not be someone who is currently looking for a job and will probably hear about the job through a referral from a colleague.
"We are selling people on KU while they are selling us on their
qualifications," Roney said.
The search committee will begin reviewing applications after the job description is posted. It will then begin refining the list of candidates by reviewing applications and conducting phone interviews, Roney said.
The committee will bring selected candidates to campus in February to interview them further. Ann Brill, chairwoman of
the committee and dean of the School of Journalism, said she hopes the committee will make an offer for the position at the end of April.
The committee is made up of 16 members of University faculty, staff and students. Brill said the committee was a good mix of people with diverse opinions.
- Edited by Erin Wisdom
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