Section A · Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, June 23,1999
No kisses, no princes: dead frogs live on
Hugo Alamillo, Mexico, senior holds a preserved frog, one of 280,000 preserved animals in the Natural History Museum Coll-
tion. Alamillo's main job is to prepare specimen for loan to other museums. Jamie Roper/KANSAN
By Ging Leo
Special to the Kansan
Barb Banbury rolls a metal box with wheels in front of her chair. She pries off the lid, and her office fills with the smell of preserving alcohol. She slips her hand into a pale, blue rubber glove and plunges it into the murky brown water. Submerged in the cold water lies her treasure—about 50 dead turtles.
In her first hunt, she pulls out an adult soft-shell turtle. Its neck stretches about six inches out of its shell, and its mouth hangs open. The turtle has been dead for about 30 years, yet is still perfectly preserved.
Banbury, Overland Park junior in biology, works in the University of Kansas Natural History Museum's herpetology department, home to over 280,000 preserved animals. Countless shelves of jarred and boxed animals fill the collection's four floors and are used for research by students and experts around the globe.
The animals come from 155 countries, 70 percent of which are from the New World Tropics.
John Simmons, the herpetology department's collection manager, said some of the animals were as old as 100 years and that many of the species were extinct.
"To replace the collection, if not impossible, would probably cost millions of dollars. I like to think of it as priceless," Simmons said.
One type of extinct frog in the University's collection was once so prevalent in the Andes mountains
that few saw the need to keep any preserved. Today, the frogs are hard to find in any collection. The University has two jars full.
An extinct toad in KU's collection comes from Africa, where natives licked the toads' moist skin to get a high.
Many of these animals are extinct, making Banbury's work even more important. Her job includes tagging animals and incorporating them into the collection, sending out loans of species, and tank diving — searching tanks of animals to make sure none are missing. The goal is to discover why these animals may have become extinct.
John Simmons
"My job is very precise
"To replace the collection, if not impossible, would probably cost millions of dollars. I like to think of it as priceless."
Kansas herpetology department collection manager
and gets extremely tedious at times," Banbury said. "But it's great because it incorporates many fields such as biology and genetics."
Banbury has help from Hugo Alamillo, Chihuahua, Mexico, senior in philosophy. The two work together, fishing through jars and tanks full of preserved animals. They had to adjust to working with dead animals every day.
"You learn to desensitize yourself," Banbury said.
The herpetology department is very careful when it comes to animal rights, Banbury said. Most of the animals are already dead when they are collected from the field. If one does have to be killed, though, it is euthanized quickly, inducing as little pain as possible.
The department takes great care to maintain the quality of the animals. The collection, which is kept at a constant 65 degrees Fahrenheit, is
state-of-the-art. It was finished in 1996 with the help of various grants and donations. The University is the first in the country to have such a facility.
When guests do come to visit, Simmons doesn't hesitate to show them the animals.
The facility's size allows many students to conduct research.
"Most people really don't get that excited about seeing a bunch of dead frogs, though." Simmons said.
"It's great to be able to hang out with people who have the same interest as you." Banbury said. "I can't find a herpetology person everywhere—we're one in a million."
—Edited by Derek Prater
Personal assessment may help graduates find the right jobs
By Ronnie Wachter
Kansan staff writer
This summer, recent University of Kansas graduates are stuffing the mail boxes of prospective employers with resumes and cover letters. Meanwhile, the class of 2000 waits in the wings with resumes in hand, to fill any positions that may be left.
Ann Rickman believes there is a better way. She would like to see the businesses come to the candidates.
Rickman is the vice-president of DiscoverME, an Internet-based job placement service, which matches prospective employees with businesses based on the candidate's personality type.
"We have a personality assessment on our Web site, which candidates fill out and submit to us," Rickman said. "We then provide that assessment to interested employers."
The group's Web site, which can be accessed at www.discoverme.com, was built by the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center, a University-based service.
Rickman said that DiscoverME based its personality assessment on the "Five Factor Model" of personality traits. She said the model — which assesses one's extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and emotional stability — was considered by most psychologists to be the key to understanding human personality.
"Nobody tries to rationalize what characteristics mean, we just present them to employers," Rickman said. "It's objective."
man said. It's objective. University students or graduates interested in using DiscoverME's service can fill out a basic identification form on the Web site, which begins the personality assessment. Candidates are given statements in the assessment and asked how strongly they agree or disagree with them.
"It's very non-threatening," Rickman said. "All of this takes about an hour."
Mark Dienes, 1999 University graduate, heard about DiscoverME and registered with the service. He said that DiscoverME's approach to the job market was interesting, but its Web site was not perfect.
"It takes a long time over the Internet, I'd much rather just talk to somebody, in person or over the phone," Dienes said. "It's nice that you get to put down skills and experience that don't relate just to your degree, though."
Based in Overland Park, Discover ME went online in January, after almost two years of research, development and working with University psychologists and ITTC technicians.
"They were great," Rickman said of ITTc's performance in building discoverme.com. "It's amazing because most groups were charging 20 times what ITTc asked, and it was the group that seemed to have the best grasp of how complex it really was."
Rickman said that DiscoverME was currently working with candidates in 37 countries and Fortune 1000 companies in several fields.
Edited by Anjum Aziz
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