Volume 124 Issue 136
kansan.com
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
CAMPUS
'Notes from No Man's Land' to be given to new KU students
ELISE REUTER ereuter@kansan.com
A book will be bringing new students together starting this fall.
In an attempt to replicate the sense of an academic community that many liberal arts colleges share, the University is creating a common book program to foster discussion among incoming University students.
At orientation, new students will be provided with a free copy of "Notes from No Man's Land" by Eula Biss. The book was chosen based on several criteria: intellectually stimulating, promotes conversation, available as an ebook and paperback, and lends itself to these events across several disciplines.
"The number one goal was to pick a book that is going to appeal to a wide variety of people, and that the students are going to read," said Kansas Athletics Learning Services Coordinator Howard Graham, who served on the selection committee. Graham said they also looked for content which you could begin reading at any part of the book. "You can start at the end, or the middle, or
the beginning. So it's very readable." he said.
The book is a collection of essays, contrasting living in Midwest, in the college town of Iowa City, which is comparable to Lawrence, with living in New York City and the West Coast. The book also brings up hard-hitting topics, including race and privileges.
"Eula Biss is young, and looks at things like many people at KU will be looking and thinking."
will be looking
said Steering
Committee
C o - chair
Mary emery
Graham, a professor of English.
"In college you come and face new challenges. This book is all about meeting and facing new
several different departments, read through the five books and decided on the most suitable book based on the criteria.
"We want to make them feel a part of something larger," She said about incoming students. "We have this identity with the Jayhawks, a huge athletic community, and we wanted to balance that with an academic and intellectual community."
As of now, several book-cen-
"The number one goal was to pick a book that is going to appeal to a wide variety of people."
HOWARD GRAHMAN
KU Athletics Learning Services Coordinator
challenges," The process of selecting a book was complex and democratic. Members of the University community suggested books to the Common Book Steering Committee, who then narrowed down the more than 140 suggestions to five books. The selection committee, a diverse group of students, faculty and staff from
tered events are planned, including discussion groups and bringing in Biss as a guest speaker. This program is directed at freshmen, but open to all students.
"I hope there are faculty, students and staff members who will read this book and then do something about it. We hope the common book programs will expand to a program of action," Howard said. "I really hope that there are some creative projects and ideas.
— Edited by Anna Allen
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES
ASHLEIGH LEF/KANSAN
Kenyon Farrow, a writer, speaker and activist against HIV/AIDS, prisons, and homophobia speaks to students Monday night at the Ecumenical Campus Ministries about the rhetoric of African American homosexuals that is used within the community. Farrow sooke as part of KU's Queers & Allies Gaypril.
ENVIRONMENT
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
Bill Bider, the director of the Kansas Bureau of Waste Management presents his idea for waste alternatives at the second annual KU Energy Conference Thursday afternoon in the Hancock room in the Oread Hotel. The conference ran from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. several different speakers and a panel discussion.
Hydraulic fracturing a hot topic at conference
RACHEL SALYER
rsalyer@kansan.com
Atthe Second Annual University of Kansas Energy Conference last Friday, 250 students and professionals weaved in and out of The Oread Hotel, discussing hydraulic fracturing.
Coined "fracking" hydraulic fracturing is a drilling process in which natural-gas is obtained from shale formations. To obtain the gas, a well is dug thousands of feet into the ground vertically and then turned horizontally. Water, sand and a variation of chemicals are pumped into the ground at a very high pressure, releasing the gas.
REGULATIONS
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water and Clean Air acts. As a result, fracking became more economical, with more companies doing it; this led to more questions about the process of fracking.
"A lot of the chemicals they use now, they weren't allowed to use under the old policy," Shannon O'Lear, a KU geography professor, said. O'Lear specializes in environmental policy.
The process is regulated on a state-by-state basis with guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is currently testing to see if the process is harmful.
According to a 2011 report by the US House of Representatives between 2005 and 2009, at least 29 known carcinogens were being used in the chemical mixture to fracture. The chemicals are "regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) for their risks
to human health, or listed as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act".
Under current regulations, the companies are not required to list the chemicals put into the water and sand mix, but are encouraged to do so in Kansas by the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association, which was discussed at the energy conference.
THE COMPANIES
"Because it is so controversial, the companies are asked to provide more transparency," Greg Loving, KU Energy Club president and conference organizer, said, "The hope is that by providing the knowledge, people will be able to make educated decisions about the fracturing process."
Minh Le, a senior from Vietnam, attended the conference and said he plans to be a fracking engineer. Because the chemicals used dissolve and break apart the shale to extract the gas. Le said those chemicals could give companies a competitive leg-up.
"People don't know a lot about the technical side of it," Le said. "I think companies should provide more education for people, but they paid a lot of money and did research to come up with the chemicals they use and it doesn't make proprietary sense to give that away."
WATER CONCERNS
Currently, the water is pumped below the groundwater in Kansas to prevent it from leaking.The well casings are also designed to prevent leaking.
O'Lear said even if the chemicals used in the process don't leak into the main water supply, the millions of gallons of water
pumped into the well are no longer usable.
"It's really a water depletion issue," O'Lear said. "If those dangerous chemicals aren't leaking into our general supply, there is still an issue because all the water used per frack, many times we can't use that again."
In Kansas, the contaminated water is pumped deeper underground than the original well, preventing it from leaking into the main water supply. Loving, KU Energy Club president, sa id he thinks one of the largest causes of public concern is lack of regulation and the number of companies participating.
"We do have industry leaders like Exxon, and they are cycling the water and chemicals so they're being reused," Loving said. "The biggest problem is the companies that don't have the technology or resources available to dispose of fracking fluid safely."
PROGRESS
Kansas' current attorney general determined that the Kansas Corporation Commission does not have the authority to regulate fracking. However, a bill in the Kansas Senate would allow the commission to regulate hydraulic fracturing. Loving believes it is the best way for energy and environmental advocates to get along.
"Some kind of neutral entity would definitely help," Loving said. "Energy is always going to be apart of our day-to-day life, and we have to figure out the best way to use it safely, no matter what kind of energy it is."
Edited by Gabrielle Schock
STUDENT SENATE
Meetings will vote on next year's chairs
Now that the student body elections are over, Student Senate will start to turnover and set up for next year.
Senate committee meetings will meet Wednesday night to vote on next year's committee chairs.
The current chairs are Josh Dean for
Joint Senate will be held on April 25. That will start with the outgoing Senate managing the meeting and close with the new Senate in session. The Senate will also confirm appointed Senate seats.
Index
CLASSIFIED 7
CROSSWORD 4
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
OPINION 5
SUPOKU 4
finance, Aaron Harris for rights, Devon Cantwell for multicultural and Whitelee Douthtt for University affairs. Gabe Bliss, the outgoing student body vice president, said Dean and Douthtt are coming back next semester. Douthtt will retain her school of journalism senator seat after she won in last week's elections.
Vikaas Shanker
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
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