THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012
PAGE 7A
SUSTAINABILITY
Students, staff work to restore campus trees
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
Mount Oread workers prepare to replant trees along Jayhawk Boulevard between Lippincott Hall and Bailey Hall. March 29 is the anniversary of the first Arbor Day celebration, which KU students celebrated in 1878 by planting more 300 hackberry, evergreen, elm and honey locust saplings.
KELSEY CIPOLLA
kcipolla@kansan.com
The 10 small plants planted between Bailey Hall and Lippincott Hall yesterday don't dramatically change the appearance of campus. They do mark the inaugural efforts of a new group that hopes to bring about big change in the future.
The rosebud trees were planted by students, faculty and staff as the inaugural effort of the University's recently formed Campus Tree Advisory Board.
Jeff Severin, director of the Center for Sustainability, said he was approached around the same time last fall by two different student groups, the Environmental Law Society and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, interested in working to restore campus trees.
Victor Zaharopoulos, a freshman from Lenexa, and a member of ATO, said that he got interested in campus trees after hearing about the tree canopy that once stood above Ivahawk Boulevard.
"I want KU's campus to be as beautiful as it was and more,"
Zaharopoulos said.
The students partnered with Severin and Facilities and Operations to form the advisory board. When it came time to choose a first project, students were discouraged to find restoring the canopy wasn't a possibility this year because maintenance on the street needs to be done before new trees can be planted.
Instead, they decided on the more manageable task of planting 10 trees. While the small act might not seem likely to make a drastic impact, the tree planting attracted interest from students and faculty and informed people of some of the issues facing campus trees.
"We really need to be thinking about how we maintain the historic landscape of our campus, and being prepared for whatever tree disease or insect infestation that causes the next round of trees to be lost." Severin said.
Tree disease recently killed many campus pine and elm trees. Trees are also lost every year to new construction projects.
in another way; it helped the University meet one of the requirements to become a Tree Campus USA. It also brought students together.
The event benefited campus
"The sense of community, everybody getting behind making our campus more beautiful is just as important to me as the event itself," said Isabel Segarra, a second year law student from Austin, Tex., and an officer for the Environmental Law Society.
Next year she hopes students take the lead in organizing the event and come up with new ideas about how to reinvigorate the campus landscape. Future goals include replacing aging trees in MarvinGrove, planting new trees in other locations across campus and eventually revisiting their first goal.
"By senior year, I hope to have the huge event where we restore the tree canopy on Jayhawk Boulevard," Zaharpoulos said. "I'm definitely cautiously optimistic about it."
Mac Austin and his wife Debbie Austin live in Topeka, Kansas, and Bob and his wife live in Tucson, Arizona, but they all enjoy the annual Final Four adventure together.
— Edited by Amanda Gage
BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 1A
As a Final Four veteran, Bob said that New Orleans and San Antonio are the two best cities to host a Final Four, and even then, New Orleans can boast some lively features that San Antonio can't.
ed that New Orleans is hosting this year's event.
"Food and booze and partying and basketball," he said.
Aside from the festive atmosphere, Bob Austin said that another advantage of this year's Final Four is that the venue is centrally located within New Orleans, so people can walk everywhere they need to go, instead of renting a car.
The one Final Four that the group missed took place in Detroit. In its place, the group went to the Masters Golf Tournament, in Augusta, Georgia.
New Orleans is a hard vacation to beat, and Debbie Austin has already said she is not looking forward to attending next year's Final Four tournament.
"Next year it's in Atlanta," she said. "So I don't know."
Even so, the experienced group is enjoying their time in downtown New Orleans, and the fact that Kansas is part of the Final Four this year is just an added bonus.
"We don't wail and scream that we're going to win." Bob said. "I just hope that we have a really good game, and I think we can win if we do."
— Edited by Caroline Kraft
WIZARD ROCK, MAGIC MUSIC
MORGAN LAFORGE/KANSAN
marry and the Potters perform in front of an intimate crowd at Wonder Fair on Thursday evening, as part of a tour across the U.S. The band started a genre of music called "Wizard Rock," which is an entire genre of music based off the world of Harry Potter. Brothers from Massachusetts. Joe and Paul DeGeorge, were only 12 and 15 when they started the band. They take on the character Harry Potter during their shows. They hope their music will continue to be popular even without new books or movies.
ADMINISTRATION
Students invited to help hire new vice provost
Students have the opportunity to weigh in on the hiring of a Vice Provost of Student Affairs by attending
a public forum today with one of the candidates at 1:30 p.m. in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union.
George McCielan, the vice chancellor of student affairs at Indiana and Purdue universities, is the first candidate who will field questions from
Hellwig
community this afternoon.
The vice provost is considered an important advocate of students in administration, according to student body president Libby Johnson. The job description states the vice provost
must have "experience with leading students, faculty and staff in innovative program development," and should have experience teaching at the college level.
The public forum for Beth Hellwig, a vice chancellor at University of Wisconsin, will be held at 1:30 p.m. on April 2 in the Centennial Room in the Kansas Union. The University's interim vice provost of student affairs Tamara Durham, the third candidate, will answer questions at her public forum at 1:30 p.m. on April 6 in the Malott Room in the Union.
Along with talking to McClellan today, students also have the opportunity to ask the two other candidates questions on how they will represent students on the administrative level.
"I think it's exciting for the student body to partake and give input if they want to," Johnson said. "This person is the student voice in the room when students aren't in the room."
Vikaas Shanker
STATE GOVERNMENT
Rep. Bob Grant of Frontenac made a motion Thursday to pull a bill he and fellow Democratic Rep. Doug Gatewood of Columbus sponsored out of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee. A similar effort was defeated earlier in the week.
TOPEKA, Kan. — A southeastern Kansas Democrat is renewing his effort to bring a measure that would modify the state's gambling laws to the floor for a debate before the 2012 session ends.
Democrat pushes for change in casino laws
SAFETY FROM PAGE 1A
"This isn't about gambling. We already have gambling. This is about economic development." Grant said.
manager of the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Massachusetts Street, and the Oread Hotel, said the 155 rooms among both hotels are booked for Saturday night.
The measure would change the investment threshold for constructing a state-owned casino in either Cherokee or Crawford counties. Voters there have approved allowing for a casino but no developer has been willing to make the required $225 million initial investment.
"The people who want rooms just want to be on the streets when we win," Longhurst said. "They want to be a part of the local celebration here."
No glass, plastic bottles and cans are allowed on the streets. Although alcohol is not permissible on the streets by law, McKinley said the police would not focus on handing out alcohol citations Saturday night.
"Alcohol use will likely occur downtown, but our focus will be on personal safety and property safety," McKinley said. "As long as people aren't handling glassware or being destructive, their
Mark Romig, president of New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., said of the 38,000 hotel rooms in New Orleans, 97 percent of them are booked for Saturday night.
"We will have about as many people here as we do for Mardi Gras." Romig said. "New Orleans was really built for events like these, but safety is always a concern."
experience with police should be positive."
The bill would lower the investment to $100 million, similar to the amount set for developers of the Dodge City casino.
Romig suggests visitors stay on heavily traveled streets.
"We will have a very strong police presence," Romig said. "If you stick to heavily trafficked streets, there will be officer attendance everywhere."
As a part of the celebration, drinking is expected.
Tyler Rockers, a junior from Greeley, is going to the game with three of his friends and
hopes to pack Bourbon Street with crimson and blue.
Both New Orleans and Lawrence safety officials want party-goers to be aware of open container laws. In New Orleans, alcohol can be consumed on the streets in a plastic cup or a can, but no glass or plastic bottles are allowed. Romig said most establishments would provide plastic "go cups" for customers.
"We're all 21, so we definitely want to hit the town with other KU fans." Rockers said. "We will have to stick together, but I'm not worried about it because we don't plan on venturing out too far."
— Edited by Caroline Kraft
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