4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2007
CAMPUS
Student senators, board members tour Sabatini Multicultural Center
Lisa Lipovac/KANSAN
Student Senate Assistant Treasurer Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., sophomore, right, points out the view from the new Satatini Multicultural Resource Center to Hannah Love, student body president and Dodge City senior, left. Construction on the building, next to the Kansas Union, is set to be complete in early-December with the dedication ceremony set for Jan. 28.
Construction to be completed in early December
BY ERIN SOMMER
esommer@kansan.com
Members of Student Senate and the Multicultural Education Fund Board got a peek at the new Sabatini Multicultural Resource Center yesterday.
Students and faculty members from both groups toured the third floor of the building with Santos Núñez, program director of multicultural affairs.
Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., sophomore and student body assistant treasurer, went on the tour and said that the building appeared to be "pretty much done," with most of the drywall and glass panes put in place.
Porte said that each semester students paid $3.50 in fees to pay for the construction of the MRC. The fee was introduced in the fall of 2005 and will continue through at least 2012. Other funding for the building came from private donations, mainly from the Sabatini family. Students also pay a $1.50 fee to finance the Multicultural Education Fund Board, which the MRC uses to finance multicultural groups and events.
"It looks good. It really looks like it's about to be finished," Porte said. "We're really proud of the building."
According to the University Web site, the center was established in 1991, in 2001 a new building was proposed and KU administration agreed in 2003 to begin the project. The Center is currently located on Summerfield Drive, and the new building is conjoined to the Kansas Union on Iayhawk Boulevard.
The Center was originally set to open earlier this fall, but because of construction setbacks its opening was pushed back to this winter.
Porte said that during the tour, Núnez said that the building would be fully complete on Dec. 10 and would formally open on Jan. 28. Porte said that the floor he toured featured a meeting room that could hold about 90 people, an Academic Resource Center with computers for student use, and offices.
Porte said Student Senate passed legislation earlier this year
would hang in the same hallway and depict the history of multicultural affairs at the University.
Hannah Love, Dodge City senior and student body president, also toured the building yesterday. She said that the building had interesting architectural aspects and that it showcased views of the campus
She also said that she was relieved the project was finally over.
through its windows.
"It's so nice to have the building built and know that kind of representation is on campus." Love said. "It's nice to see the rewards of it."
— Edited by Amelia Freidline
INVENTIONS
Contest encourages students to create Bubble Wrap tools
Innovative young minds make devices from packing material
BY CHRIS NEWMARKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRENTON, N.J. - It's the stuff that many people find addictively fun to pop after opening a fragile package.
But for a group of young inventors, Bubble Wrap is more than something to stomp on, it's a source of inspiration. On 11-year-old Kayla Weston, it's a building material for shock-absorbing flooring for dancers; 11-year-old Max Wallack used it to create wrist cushions for carpal tunnel syndrome sufferers.
"What's better than resting on air?" asked Wallack, of Natick, Mass.
Wallack is among 15 semifinalists competing in the second year of the Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors, sponsored by
Sealed Air Corp., the Elmwood Park, N.J.-based creator of the packaging material. More than 1,400 entries were received from students in 39 states.
Wallack said he spent months creating Bubble Wrap-filled socks with elastic and
fabric fastener to tie around the wrists of people with carpal tunnel syndrome. He asked his grandmother to try out his prototypes.
"What better way to celebrate a great invention than to try to encourage America's youth to take the product and try to reinvent something else out of the same product?" said Shellenberger, who manages the company division that includes Bubble Wrap.
Other semifinalists used Bubble Wrap to create a coin bank, a kite kit, a plant shelter, a teaching tool for blind people learning Braille, and wallpaper designed to engage and stimulate children with autism.
"I wanted to help her because she had all these cumbersome splints, things that didn't help at all."
The competition encourages the type of inventiveness demonstrated by Sealed Air's founders 47 years ago, when they realized a decorative wall covering they had designed actually made good cushioning for items being shipped, according to Rohn Shellenberger, a company manager.
MAX WALLACK Young inventor
"I wanted to help her because she had all these cumbersome splints, things that didn't help at all." Wallack said. "Before she had surgery, she was wearing it and it usually helped."
The contest, administered by the Akron, Ohio-based National Museum of Education, was promoted in schools across the country, and was limited to students in grades five through eight. Contest entries had to be original inventions that incorporated the use of clear Bubble Wrap brand cushioning. Company officials say it's possible some of the student inventions could be used to create new products.
Founded in 1960, Sealed Air sells a variety of packaging products around the world. The company had about $4.3 billion in revenue during its fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2006, with profits up 7.2 percent to about $274 million.
All 15 semifinalists will at least get a $500 U.S. savings bond, Sealed Air, along with the National Museum of Education, will announce three finalists in January, with a grand prize winner receiving a $10,000 U.S. savings bond at a Jan. 28 awards ceremony in New York City.
Weston, of Longwood, Fla., sand-wiched Bubble Wrap between two sheets of plywood, and nailed a frame around it to create a shock-resistant floor for dancing.
"Right now, my dance studio is a warehouse, so we just have wood, so when we're landing it's a very hard floor. So with the Bubble Wrap, it would be able to absorb all of the landings and it would give everyone a cushion," Weston said.
CAMPUS
Hair for the holidays
Students grow beards to honor Thanksgiving
BY MATT LINDBERG mlindberg@kansan.com
For guys, it's a way to honor those before us. For girls, it's annoying.
Thanksgiving Day Beards is a tradition that asks men to grow their beards starting Nov. 1 and not shave until the day after Thanksgiving. The tradition has a Facebook group called Thanksgiving Day Beards, which has 71 members.
Mark Barrash, a 2007 graduate from St. Louis, brought the tradition to the University. A friend from Loyola University Chicago told Barrash about the tradition. He said his friend explained to him the rules of the tradition, which said that participants were allowed to shave on Halloween at any time but had to put away their razors until after Thanksgiving Day.
"We of course found this to be hysterical," Barrath said. "He recommended we wait until after Thanksgiving dinner, as your beard serves as a useful means for catching food as you eat."
"Everyone asks us why we even do this. Our immediate response to such a question is, we do this to pay tribute to the forefathers of this fine country," Barrath said. "Look back in history. It's absolutely littered with full-grown, oftenimes impressive beards. So we do this as a reminder to give thanks to those men who worked so hard to
Barrath said the reason for carrying out such a tradition was simple.
Contributed by Rich Davis
make this country what it is today."
Davis said that although the tradition called for no shaving between Halloween and Thanksgiving, there were exceptions.
"I like paying tribute to the forefathers, and it's funny at the same time," Davis said.
make this county What it is About?
Rich Davis, St. Louis senior, said he joined the tradition a few years ago after Barrath told him about it.
"Obviously, if there is a legit excuse, like a job interview during that time, we allow people to shave," Davis said. "You can't just shave to shave, though."
Davis said the urge to shave was very tempting.
Barrath said the desire to shave
also came from how women reacted
"Aside from itch, during beard season there is a noticeable increase in the number of girls that don't talk to me." Barrath said. "It gets difficult at times, but that's when we encourage people to understand the difficulties endured by the forefathers of this country surely are far worse than an itchy neck or criticism from the female population."
"They absolutely hated it, for some of the obvious reasons," Davis said. "But it's about tradition."
Davis said the beards were issues when he and Barrath had girlfriends.
Edited by Rachel Bock
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