4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
ENGINEERING
Students rebuild Katrina home
Group will also travel to Latin America
BY MICHELLE SPREHE
msprehe@kansan.com
msprehe@kansan.com
Seven student members of Engineers Without Borders went south for spring break — but not to relax on a tropical beach. Instead, they spent the week in New Orleans applying their knowledge from engineering classes to real life by rebuilding a house that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Imila Saadi, Topeka senior and outreach coordinator for EWB, said she heard about the trip from a professional engineering group in Kansas City and helped organize it for the students.
"We thought it be a great way to get our members involved and get hands on experience, especially with the construction aspect," Saadi said.
Contributed photc
Students spent the week removing nails from boards to be reused in houses and installing insulation in a 1,500 square-foot house.
After a long day of volunteer work, Connor Donevan Dexter, Mich., senior, boards up the last window on a house in New Orleans to prevent break-ins while the house is vacant. Donevan went to New Orleans during spring break with six other members of Engineers Without Borders to help reconstruct the area.
James Lillif, Topeka freshman,
joined PWB in January and went
on the trip to gain experience using
different tools and to help a community in need.
"It was wonderful to learn how to work with your hands and apply stuff that we'd learned in class," Hiff said. "A lot of the stuff that was talked about in my intro to engineering class really came to life
when I went down there."
Jodi Gentry, Topeka graduate student and president of EWB, helped start the KU chapter of the group two years ago and said she hoped it would give engineering students a way to socialize and spark the interest of a diverse group of people.
"A group like EWB helps to attract women and minorities to engineering who normally wouldn't be attracted to such a hard science." Gentry said.
The organization is open to all majors and has more than 100 members.
"We really try to get lots of people from all over campus involved," Gentry said. "Our goal is to have one third of our membership be non-engineering maids."
Since the group started, members have worked on Habitat for Humanity projects in Lawrence and volunteered to help with reconstruction in Greensburg after a tornado damaged the town.
EWB has planned two more trips this summer to Bolivia and Guatemala where students will work on projects such as reinstalling water systems and building latrines.
Iliff plans to go on the trip to Guatemala to help educate schools about clean water.
can participate in any type of community service, not only at home but abroad," liff said. "I can hardly
"I think it's wonderful that KU
pass up any experience they give me."
Edited by Heather Melanson
INTERNATIONAL
Clinton: U.S., Mexico have 'co-responsibility' to up security
MATTHEW LEE Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that America's "insatiable" demand for illegal drugs and its inability to stop weapons from being smuggled into Mexico are fueling an alarming spike in violence along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Clinton said that the United States shared responsibility with Mexico for dealing with the violence and that the Obama administration would work with Mexican authorities to improve security on both sides of the border.
President Barack Obama himself said Tuesday that he wanted the U.S. to do more to prevent guns and cash from illicit drug sales from flowing across the border into Mexico. But Clinton's remarks appeared more forceful in recognizing the U.S. share of the blame. In the past, particularly under the Bush administration, Mexican
officials have complained that Washington never acknowledged the extent that the U.S. demand for drugs and weapons smuggling fuels the violence.
"I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility." Clinton told reporters accompanying her to
Criminals are outgunning law enforcement officials, she said, referring to guns and military-style equipment like night vision goggles and body armor that the cartels are smuggling into Mexico from the United States.
"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," she said. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians."
"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade."
"Clearly, what we have been
HILLARY CLINTON Secretary of state
doinghas not worked and it is unfair for our incapacity ... to be creating a situation where people are holding the Mexican government and people responsible," she said. "That's not right."
ment as loudly and as often as needed during her two-day visit to Mexico City and the northern city of Monterrey during which she will brief Mexican officials on U.S. plans for the border and counternarcotics aid to Mexico.
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanke puts on headphones Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. Topolanke has told the European Parliament that the collapse of his government will not affect his running of the EU presidency.
Czech PM calls U.S. stimulus 'road to hell' Major EU leaders ignore negative remarks
AOIFE WHITE Associated Press
BRUSSELS — The head of the European Union slammed President Barack Obama's plan to spend nearly $2 trillion to push the U.S. economy out of recession as "the road to hell" that EU governments must avoid.
The blunt comments by Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to the European Parliament on Wednesday highlighted simmering European differences with Washington ahead of a key summit next week on fixing the world economy.
It was the strongest pushback yet from a European leader as the 27-nation bloc bristles from U.S. criticism that it is not spending enough to stimulate demand.
Shocked by the outburst, other European politicians went into damage control mode, with some reproaching the Czech leader for his language and others reaffirming their good diplomatic ties with the United States. The leaders of EU's major nations — France, Britain and Germany, among others — largely ignored Topolanek and his remarks.
Obama pays his first official visit to Europe next week, aiming to thrash out reforms to the global financial system with the group of 20 nations and call on NATO allies to commit more troops to the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Europeans leaders hope the new U.S. administration will agree with them on tightening oversight over the global financial system which they see as crucial to fixing the economic.
Instead, the United States is focusing its efforts on economic
stimulus and plans to spend heavily to try and lift itself out of recession with a $787 billion plan of tax rebates, health and welfare benefits, as well as extra energy and infrastructure spending.
To encourage banks to lend again, the U.S. government will also pump $1 trillion into the financial system by buying up treasury bonds and mortgage securities in an effort to clear some of the "toxic assets" — devalued and untradeable assets — from banks' balance sheets.
Obama insisted Tuesday that his massive budget proposal will put the ailing U.S. economy back on its feet. "This budget is inseparable from this recovery," he said, "because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity."
But Topolanek took aim at Washington's deficit spending.
"All of these steps, these combinations and permanency is the road to hell." Topolanek said. "We need to read the history books and the lessons of history and the biggest success of the (EU) is the refusal to go this way."
"Americans will need liquidity to finance all their measures and they will balance this with the sale of their bonds but this will determine the liquidity of the global financial market," Topolanek said.
Topolanek spoke the day after he was ousted by his own parliament.
The Czech Republic currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency but its leadership is in question, with Topolanek hanging on to a caretaker government at home after losing a "no confidence" Tuesday.