MONDAY,FEB.11,2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
GRADUATES
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The KU Alumni Association keeps tabs on its graduates, but records are self-reported and could be misleading. Alumni living out-of-state might have returned to their home states after obtaining their degrees in Kansas. Tracking recent graduates is also tough because they could be traveling, pursuing graduate degrees or continuing to use their permanent Kansas addresses.
Brain drain is not unique to Kansas, and many university officials say it is common for young people to want to leave their home states and explore. Better job opportunities, diversity and living in an area that offers a lot to do are some of the reasons Kansas natives are lured out of state, often to metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Dallas and Denver.
Bill Wilhelm, retired dean of the school of engineering at Wichita State University, said most graduates move in search of greater opportunity.
"By and large, the graduates go where the jobs are, where they perceive they will get the best start and where they'll get the experience." Wilhelm said.
Barbara Schowen, director of the KU Honors Program agreed.
"People go where the jobs are," she said. "A lot of KU alumni are in New York or D.C. People are going to be drained away to big government, big financial areas."
Big Apple opportunities
Tyson, a KU social welfare graduate, thought she would be able to help more people in New York City, where poverty, drugs and crime are more abundant than in Kansas.
Since moving to New York, Tyson has worked as a paralegal
"People go where the jobs are.A lot of KU alumni are in New York or D.C. People are going to be drained away to big government,big financial areas."
Barbara Schowen director of the KU Honors Program
for the Federal Defender Division of the Legal Aid Society. If she were working in Kansas, she would probably earn about $19,000, she said. In New York, she makes about $29,000, but cost of living is much higher, and money is often tight. A studio apartment, she says, is half the size of one in Kansas and costs $750 a month. She commutes 45 minutes from her apartment in Queens to her office in Manhattan.
Adjusting to the Big Apple took time, with all the noise, relying on public transportation and getting used to some grouchier people, she said. But the diversity of people and activities compensate.
"At any given day there's a million different things to do, and a lot of them are free." Tyson said.
Despite the high cost of living and drawbacks of big city life, Tyson likes New York City and has no intention to return to Kansas.
Back to their roots
But for some, the move is temporary.
University administrators and members of the business community say there is a trend of people moving away, but eventually returning to Kansas to be near family and to raise their own. About 25 years ago, Jim and Karen Gilpin made that very
The Gilpins are Kansas natives. Jim hails from Iola and Karen is from Oakley. They met at the University of Kansas where Jim graduated in 1972 with a business administration degree. Karen graduated the following year with a nursing degree.
Before Jim left for the military, he and his father discussed the possibility of Jim taking over the family business, Iola Bank and Trust. His father had to figure out whether anyone in the family wanted to run the bank or if he should try to sell it. Jim told his dad that he would be back.
decision.
Jim and Karen married in 1974, and they both attended the University of Boston where they earned their master's degrees. In 1976, they decided to return to Iola.
"It was an opportunity to return to my hometown and be involved in the family business," Jim said. "When I made the decision to come back, the economy looked pretty good."
The Gilpins also thought Iola was an ideal place to raise a family. Jim's mom, Helen, lives a few blocks away, and his brother also lives in town.
The Gilpins have a three-story house on Iola's Madison Avenue, which they have called home for 24 years.
The Gilpins share pride in their state and their alma mater. A KU bird feeder and a four-foot wooden sunflower sit outside.
On the kitchen table sits a vase of sunflowers. In the living room is a framed pigskin from a KU football game.
After all, this is a family of four generations of Jayhawks.
"When you live somewhere else, what you wanted to escape doesn't look so bad," Jim said. "It's one of life's paradoxes. You want that predictability and stability. The opportunities in a small town are pretty tough to beat."
to his hometown. Several people from his high school class later chose to return to Iola. Some commute within a 50-mile radius. Karen used to work at the hospital down the street from their house but now teaches at Neoho County Community College in Chanute and Ottawa. She is president of the State Board of Nursing.
Iim was not alone in returning
"For many it's coming back to family and friends," Jim said. "I know that's a problem in Kansas where there's no mountains, beaches or oceans."
The Gilpins have a daughter, Sarah, 13, and two sons. Stephen, 25, is a graphics artist in Tulsa, where he lives with his wife, Christa, and two children. Geoffrey is a KU senior.
Some KU graduates never leave their home state.
Home sweet home
Martha Peterson and Robert Burtch had planned to leave Kansas, but by the time they were ready, their daughters Erin and Sarah had already started school. They did not want to uproot their children to a big city.
The couple met while working at The El Dorado Times, their first jobs after college. She was a reporter, and he was a photographer. They had graduated from rival colleges — Peterson with honors from Kansas State and Burtch from the University of Kansas.
The couple ended up in Topeka after Peterson took a Supreme Court clerkship while attending law school at the University of Kansas. Peterson took a job with a law firm in Topeka after she graduated.
Peterson said few young graduates who took jobs with law firms in Topeka rarely stayed long, and often took jobs that offered more money in Kansas City or Dallas.
beneficial. "The kids got a good public education here," Peterson said. "I'm not sure you can say that about other states."
Erin, 22, graduated with an anthropology degree from Reed College in Portland, Ore., last May. Sarah, 24, went to school at Randolph Macon in Lynchburg, Va., but transferred to KU and graduated with an English degree. She is now studying interior design at Kansas State. Both plan to live outside of Kansas.
But the couple thinks raising their children in Kansas has been
The couple hopes to leave Kansas when they retire. Peterson longs for Oregon and the ocean, and Burtt wants to move to New Mexico.
Peterson joked that they would move, "as soon as we can figure out how to stop paying for our two children."
Keeping Kansans
Many companies and communities use the Internet to inform people of job openings to lure native Kansans back home.
The Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. in Topeka developed Home Again, a Web site that lists technology and engineering employment openings around the state. It also surveys companies and sends informational brochures to students at state college and universities. Mary Breakstone, KTEC director of administration, said three jobs had been filled through the Web site.
Tim Witsman, president of the Wichita Chamber of Commerce, said work force development
"It was an opportunity to return to my hometown and be involved in the family business"
Jim Gilpin University Graduate
was an important issue. He approached Wichita State University President Donald Beggs and proposed that the Chamber and University work together.
"I told Dr. Beggs, 'You have the students, and I have the jobs.'" he said.
The University has a job Web site, and the Chamber also has joined a national effort with its Wichita NationJob Network. Since 1995, about 25,000 Sedgwick County jobs from 390 companies have been posted on the Web site, and up to 1,000 jobs are listed daily. People also can learn about the area on the Web site.
Bill Lays, director of labor management information for the State of Kansas, said although graduates leave Kansas, the state probably receives its fair share of out-of-state graduates.
Work force development and recruitment is an issue the state is examining, he said. Computer technology, health care and math sciences are areas Lays thinks are most affected by brain drain.
States like Iowa are considering offering tax breaks to people who remain in the state after graduating. Lays said another possibility would be to offer a break on home mortgages.
Kansas has a lot to offer, even without additional financial breaks, he said.
"People raised or who have spent a majority of their lives in Kansas recognize the value of Midwest work ethic and are tired of congestion in larger cities," Lays said.
"There's tremendous potential that's not being marketed about the Midwest—low crime, quality of life issues. There's an opportunity to see that aspect of our state."
Contact Chulindra at editor@kansan.com. This story was edited by Jenna Goeffert.
NEWYEAR
NEW YEAR CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE
sickness
"It's the most important festival in China," she said. "People are supposed to gather in families."
Xiaolin Hu, board member of the Lawrence Chinese School, said that the New Year was the biggest holiday in China and had the equivalent amount of excitement as Christmas in the United States. The school teaches area youth Chinese culture and language on the weekends. Hu said that the festival was a good chance for the students to recite poems and learn Chinese songs.
People of other cultures participated in the event. Tony Daniels, assistant director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs was invited to speak on stage. Daniels decided he wanted to perform John Lennon's "Imagine," but he needed to recruit more singers. Olena Orzhekhouska-Yegrashkina, a Kiev, Ukraine, visiting scholar, was asked to sing with him.
"I just came here to see the Chinese New Year and now I'm going on stage," she said.
Student Senate also sponsored the event.
Contact Shaffer at lshaffer@kansan.com. This story was edited by Sarah Warren.
CLONING
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dent that H.R. 2736 and H.R. 2737, would pass this year.
"I expect both bills to pass the house overwhelmingly," she said. "I know there's lots of support on the Senate side, too."
Marshall said the majority of American scientists followed a voluntary moratorium on reproductive cloning because it had been unsuccessful in animals and because there wasn't a good ethical reason to clone.
But Marshall said that she and scientists around the country, including the National Academy of Sciences worried about bans related to embryonic stem cell research. She said it was too early to determine which methods were best and questioned the timing of Cook's legislation.
"Why legislate against it?" she said. "I'm more inclined to listen to the National Academy of Sciences report on reproductive biology than a legislator from Kansas. I'm not dissing the woman, but the experts have spoken."
But Cook said that adult stem cell research was protected under the new legislation. The representative said she was involved in the issue because of a history of Huntington's disease in
Stem cell research, also called "therapeutic cloning," involves cells taken from both adult and embryos used to create new tissue.
R-Shawnee
"Every dollar that goes toward embryonic research is money taken away from adult stem cell research." State Rep.Mary Pilcher Cook,
her family. Stem cell research has shown promise in finding treatments for the disease, she said.
"Every dollar that goes toward embryonic research is money taken away from adult stem cell research."
But Marshall said embryonic research showed the potential to be the most useful.
"As the cells get older...they aren't as flexible and don't have as many uses," she said.
According to Marshall, adult stem cells have not shown the same promise.
She said these embryos would come primarily from in vitro clinics, where the embryos were thrown away after a certain time if they were not used.
"Why not use what would be thrown away?" she said.
Cook said that if the bills didn't pass, she would take the issue to the to legislation on state funding for building research facilities.
Contact Hill at shil@kansan.com. This story was edited by Cassio Furtado.
"Some years you have exceptionally good recruiting years," Hemenway said. "Last year was one of them."
Although four other universities in the top 10 are from the Big 12 Conference, Chancellor Hemenway said he didn't see a trend of only Big 12 schools trying harder to attract National Merit scholars.
"Being in the top 10 in the nation brings publicity and prestige to KU," Cerveny said. "A diploma means more when you have that many National Merit Scholars at your school."
Alan Cerveny, director of admissions, said attracting a large number of National Merit Scholars was a positive for the University.
SCHOLARS
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Kathryn Jensen, Andover, Minn., freshman, and National Merit Scholar, said she had offers from other schools but wanted to come to the University.
National Merit Scholars at the University receive money towards tuition as well as other expenses.
"The scholarship pays for 15 credit hours a semester, students fees and a stipend for housing." Cerveny said.
Contact Gilligan at mgilligan@kansan.com . This story was edited by Sarah Warren.
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