CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, January 13, 1994
3
Finney appoints four to Board of Regents
Senate to hold confirmation hearings soon
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Sen. Dave Kerr said yesterday that he hopes to move quickly to hold confirmation hearings for Gov. Joan Finney's four new appointees to the state Board of Regents.
The governor named Catherine D. Conger, an Iola elementary school principal; Karen Krepps of Leawood, an official of Sprint; Phillis Nolan of Louisburg, an official with
Hallmark Cards, and Tom E. Hammond, a Wichita attomey.
They replaced three regents whose terms expired on Dec. 31, Shirley Palmer of Fort Scott, Don Slawson of Wichita and Rick Harman of Prairie Village. They also filled a vacancy left by the Senate's rejection last year of the appointment of Maxine Porter of Topeka and Reading.
All four are subject to Senate confirmation.
Conger's term will expire Dec. 31, 1996, while the other three new Regents' appointments have terms expiring Dec. 31, 1997.
"We've asked for the paperwork on these nominees as soon as the governor's office can get it to us," Kerr said. "I hope to have hearings as quickly as possible, possibly as early as next week."
"The only comments I've heard on a couple of them was favorable," he said. "Beyond that, they're a mystery."
Kerr said none of the four appointees was familiar to him.
Hiebert is a Lawrence cardiologist who appointed to the Regents last summer by Finney. Kerr's committee held a confirmation hearing for Hiebert on Monday, and endorsed his confirmation.
"We're hopeful the governor has selected people like Dr. Hiebert," he said. "He appears to be an excellent appointment. I expect him to be confirmed unanimously, or nearly unanimously."
The Senate is expected to vote on Hiebert's confirmation early next week.
The Senate rejected three of Finney's
appointees to the Regents during the 1993 session: Porter, Ruth Schrum of Manhattan and former state Sen. Jack Steineger of Kansas City, Kan.
Conger is district test coordinator for Iola Unified School District No. 257 as well as being a principal. She is a lecturer at Pittsburg State University and formerly was an instructor at Allen County Community College. She holds a bachelor's degree from Pittsburg State, a master's degree from Emporia State University and earned a doctorate from Kansas State University.
Krepps has been vice president of human resources development for Sprint since 1990 and has worked for that company since 1983. She formerly worked for Michigan Bell Telephone Co. and AT&T of New Jersey. She holds bachelor, master and doctoral degrees from
Wayne State University in Detroit.
Hammond has practiced law in Wichita since 1980, specializing in labor, litigation, workers' compensation and personal injury law. He represents more than 15 labor unions, including those in the aircraft industry. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas and a law degree from Washburn University.
Nolan has been a member of senior management at Hallmark the past 10 years and has worked for the company since 1966. She began her career as a mathematics teacher in Denver, and has been an adjunct professor at Emporia State. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska and a master's degree from Rockhurst College in Kansas City.
'Nintendinitis' may take the 'joy' out of joystick
By Ashley Schultz Kansan staff writer
Nintendo can do more than just strain video players' nerves.
It can damage them.
Students who overdo it in front of the video screen may put pressure on their eyes or — even worse — on their median nerve, causing carpal tunnel syndrome.
Jason Preu, Olathe freshman, said that sometimes he played Super Nintendo between five and seven hours a day.
"My hands have tingled, but they haven't ever gone numb," Preu said.
The syndrome results from pressure the tendons put on the median nerve, said Bruce Toby, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Kansas Medical Center. As it passes through the wrist, the median nerve goes through a canal that has nine tendons in it. Inflammation of these tendons as a result of tendinitis can cause this pressure.
Toby said repetitive hand and wrist motions, such as rapidly hitting a button on a controller with the thumb, might cause "Nintendinitis."
"If the tendons which surround the nerve swell up, then there's not enough room in the canal for the nerve," Toby said. "The nerve gets squeezed, and when it gets squeezed it doesn't function very well."
The syndrome's initial symptoms are tingling, decreased sensation in the fingertips, discomfort at the wrist and pain causing difficulty sleeping, told Toby. Eventually, patients may have trouble holding on to
objects because of a lack of sensation in the hand.
The muscle at the base of the thumb may also lose muscle, causing a loss of strength. The nerve can sustain permanent damage if treatment is delayed. Surgery is necessary in more severe cases.
The median nerve controls the thumb, index and long fingers and half of the ring finger. It is also responsible for the group of muscles at the base of the thumb.
"If you lose your median nerve, you've lost a good portion of your total hand function," said Toby.
If people experience symptoms that bother them, they should seek help, Toby said. Treatment for mild cases involves a splint worn day and night and anti-inflammatory medications.
"I've played some of those games myself," said Reg Williams, chief resident of ophamology at the Med Center, whose children play Nintendo. "You've got to move your hand so fast, over time that could cause some problems."
Williams said that players should also be careful not to harm their eyes.
"People have a tendency to concentrate so hard they don't blink, and when you don't blink, your cornea can dry out," Williams said.
Williams said he was unaware of any conclusive evidence of long-term damage because of eye strain, but he advised that students remember to blink.
"Certainly contact lens wearers are especially susceptible because they've got a foreign body on the front of their eye and they need even more tears and more lubricant," said Williams.
William Alix / KANSAN
Playing video games for extended periods of time can lead to "Nintendinitis," or inflammation of tendons in the wrist, which can cause pain or loss of sensation.
Technology could link information sources
Kansan staff writer
By Roberta Johnson
All it could take to accomplish these things would be the flick of a button.
Within five years, KU students may not have to leave home to rent a movie or look at a library book.
The "information highway," as it is known, will make it so that "anybody, anywhere, can be connected with anybody else and any other source," said Bill Conboy, professor emeritus of communication studies.
Conboy, who taught a course on the future of communications for 25 years, said he thought the media would create services to help consumers sort out the impending glut of information.
"Agencies will be set up to help the consumer," he said. "They need help figuring out what's important. People already don't know what to believe."
A combined system of computer, telephone and cable services could link resources throughout the
world, Conboy said. Although this is technologically possible in the future, Conboy said, he doubted it would happen.
"Not every house will be able to pay for it, and not everybody wants everything," he said. "It's not worth it for an individual, family or home."
Although this link may not be popular within households, Conboy said the benefits to businesses and universities in research capabilities would be worth the high cost.
Bill Conboy
"Just in terms of service, we couldn't measure the amount of help," he said. "It will have a huge impact. It will even help the economy, at first."
Conboy suggested other possibilities, including an increase in specialization in employment, further expansion of virtual reality as a training device, increased use of fiber optics in medicine and a second computer revolution with CD-ROM.
Mohamed El-Hodiri, professor of economics,
agreed with Conboy.
Because of the high amount of information that could be available by a keystroke, consumers could feel overwhelmed, Conboy said.
"Most of us already experience overload," he said. "There is already too much to choose from."
Conboy said that the increasing amount of information available came with an increasing amount of risk.
"The biggest single problem is the size of human-made disasters," he said. "Some single, crazed individual could blow up half of New York City or put some chemical in the water system."
Futurists may be able to predict and ward off this type of potential disaster, Conboy said.
"If we can identify ahead of time where we seem to be heading, there is the opportunity to see whether we want to go there or not," he said. "The future is the only part of life we can change."
CAMPUS BRIEF
KU fraternity's celebration will focus on contributions of Martin Luther King Jr.
Kansanstaffreport
Alpha Phi Alpha will recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a candlelight vigil and a celebration tonight.
Dwayne T. James, St. Louis senior and member of the fraternity, said participants would light candles at 7 p.m. in front of Wescoe Hall. From there, they will form a procession to the Kansas Union. James said he honed to play a tane of King speaking during the procession.
A celebration featuring songs and speeches, including one by Sherwood Thompson, director of the Office of Minority Affairs, will follow the procession at 7:30 p.m. in Alderson Auditorium in the Union.
This is the first year the fraternity organized a celebration honoring King, who James said had been a member of the fraternity. He said he hoped both African-American and white students would attend the vigil and celebration.
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