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Monday, October 30, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
KU environmentalist shares global concerns
By Chrls Evans
Kansan staff writer
Brian Schwegmann's fingers danced spasmodically around the mouse of his Macintosh computer. The word "Sustainability" arched across the computer screen.
"Hah!" he said, pointing to the screen and jumping to his feet. "It's spelled wrong there." He sat back down. "I guess I'm working again."
For Schwegmann, Salina senior, to say "again" is redundant. His high-energy, often frenized activity rarely stops, and his efforts to preserve the environment have gained him national recognition.
His friends label him a disorganized organizer who gets things done.
In his room, Schwegmann pushed newspaper clippings across his cluttered desk. He tapped at the keyboard and made changes in the year's first issue of "Sustainability," the newsletter of Environ, a KU environmental-awareness group.
"Sustainability is a relatively new word," he said. "People love to play with the definition. Basically, if we can carry on an activity for thousands of years without harming us, the environment, then it's sustainable.
Brian Schwegmann, Salina senior, prepares to eat peanut butter, bread and milk for breakfast.
"If we wait till then . . . " Schwegmann paused and shook his head. "... well, that's really scary. By that time, it's going to be too late."
we need to look for sustainable alternatives. Right now, things just aren't that bad. But if they don't do anything now, we're going to have to do something in the future.
Schwegmann's efforts for sustainability recently landed his name in the city edition of the New York Times. He was interviewed as one of the students who helped remove plastic foam products from KU cafeterias.
services, led the committee that banned the foam products.
"Brian served as a conscience for all of us on the committee." Williams said. "He was very logical. There was a lot of emotion and dedication in his approach. He was very well-informed."
Schwengmann said he became more informed each day he worked on the plastic foam issue, searching for information.
Wes Williams, dean of educational
"We realized that we had to know more about it than, 'Wow, Styrofaem is such a blatant drag,'" he said, rolling his eyes. "We just found a lot of things out and we rocked people out."
Schwegmann plans to continue to "rock people out." This fall, he is temporarily setting aside his duties as the editor of "Sustainability" to become what he calls the "Grand Poobah of Disorientation."
The magazine "Disorientation" was started by KU law student Dennis "Boog" Highberger, one of Schwegmann's roommates. Schwegmann said the annual publication was designed to help students recover from their University orientation and enable them to function at the University of Kansas.
'coming to KU from Salina, I didn't know except what I saw in 'Animal House' — which I thought was great.' Schwegmann said. 'I thought it'd be great to stand around in a sheet all day and sing 'Louie Louie.'
"Disorientation" is for people like himself, he said, who entered college having no idea what to expect.
sewmegwam rushed his freshman year, but he did not find the commune-type lifestyle he had expected in a fraternity. Instead, he said, he was confronted with a competitive atmosphere and students who did not share his ideals.
"I've had, since I was a sophomore in high school, ideas in my head of a dawning ecological awareness," he said. "When I got around to the environment, I realized that that link was there. The environment depends on us as well as we depend on it."
Schwegmann said his "big thing" was ecology, sustainability and an automatic questioning of authority.
"In second grade, my teacher told me that the sun revolved around the Earth," he said. "I said this is bull. This is wrong." At that point, I was taken to the principal. He knew I was right, but I still got in trouble.
"At that point, I realized that authority had no more knowledge than I did."
That incident, coupled with a resentment for having to ask his first grade teacher for permission to sharpen his own pencil, started Schwegmann out on a life that some would term "alternative."
This lifestyle led Schwegmann away from KU's greek system and, by way of "Disorientation," into a house at "1000 Small Pharmablisters."
ters.
"I don't know what that means," Schwegmann said. "That's just what on the mailbox."
Schwegmann's ideas of "Animal House" living seem reflected by his living room's decor.
The head of an unidentifiable yellow animal, adorned with a marching band hat, sunglasses, a through-the头 arrow and various other accessories, protrudes through the wall above the fireplace. Musical instruments lie scattered about the room. A bench seat — much like one might find in a university amphitheater — rests against one wall.
A mural-size, scrolled list of ideas for "Disorientation" lays tossed on an old, semi-plush chair.
Schwegmann's roommate High-
berger said he hoped the "Grand Poobah of Disorientation" would have time to work on the magazine.
"He's got plenty of irons in the fire," he said. "He works too hard. I think he's got letist disease."
But Highberger said that those qualities were part of what he liked about Schwegmann when they first met, working on an earlier issue of "Disorientation."
"I was impressed by his energy and enthusiasm," he said. "He was interested in making the world a
better place. He was interested in saving the planet.
"I didn't know he was going to develop into such an organizer."
An organizer is what Schwegmann has become. An idealist is what he claims to be.
"From a real idealistic level, I'd like to go out and just say, 'Things are real screwed up right now,' and people would act," he said.
Schwegmann is in the business of spreading that information. If the information gets out, he said, people
can control their lives rather than letting well-organized, well-financed, centralized corporations make the decisions.
"Grassroots organization is good," he said. "It's very good. A lot of times it boils down to 'There's more of us than there are of you.' We're doing it out of our heart, not out of our pocketbook."
The populace cannot stand idle, Schwegmann said. They need to get up the energy. They need to make things happen.
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