Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, September 12, 1989
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Faculty remains 82% male
By Stacy Smith
Kansan staff writer
Although 14 female professors were added to the teaching staff this fall, male professors still constitute 82 percent of the tenure-track faculty at the University of Kansas, according to the office of academic affairs.
Kevin Masten/KANSAN
A faculty/staff demographic report compiled by the office listed a total of 846 male and 183 female assistant, associate and full professors at the University this semester. The gap between male and female full professors was even larger, with men outnumbering women 11 to 1.
"Part of the reason is the differential proportion of men and women who have attended graduate schools and earned Ph.D.s," said Dawn Shulenburger, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. "That number has moved closer to 50-50 now. I think you'll see these patterns change as more women graduate."
Shulenburger said location was one key factor that inhibited the number of female professors. He said the lack of opportunities for two-career couples to find jobs in Lawrence reduced the chances of hiring many women.
"We'll always be a little bit disadvantaged over large communities that can provide two jobs," he said. "It's a reality when you're recruiting."
Shulenburger said that the office required that the University include a large pool of women as potential candidates for new positions and that there was full opportunity for women to be hired.
"It will probably not even be 20 years before we reach population proportion." Shulenburger said.
Helen Alexander, assistant professor of botany, systematics and ecology, said she thought the inequality was a historical problem that had built up over time. However, she said she believed the
situation would improve in the future.
"I think there an active effort to recruit women, but it's not a simple solution to just hire women every time," Alexander said. "I don't know why we are going to increase because of the emphasis on women and careers."
Elizabeth Banks, associate professor of classics, said that location and hiring restrictions were to blame for keeping the number of female professors low at KU and that affirmative action was one
alternative for improving the problem.
"When you have people of equal capabilities that fit your bill," Banks said, "and you have a department with 10 men and one woman, then I think the affirmative officer offends and the University area are all the things bring a woman if all qualifications are equal.
"I want my women students to have role models. If there's not enough women faculty members, they won't have that."
Lawrence campus adds 55 new teachers
By Kate Lee
Kansan staff writer
There are quite a few new faces, at the University of Kansas, and not all of them belong to students.
According to figures released by the office of academic affairs, there are 55 new assistant, associate and faculty researchers on the Lawrence campus.
The 55 have replaced 44 who retired, resigned or died since last year.
Glenn E. Prescott, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is new to KU. He said he came to Lawrence because he thought he had a common research interest with people in
the School of Engineering. Prescott's area of research is telecommunications and sciences.
Prescott said that after having served in the Air Force for 25 years, moving to Lawrence from Dayton, Ohio, was natural.
"I've been stationed in large cities, on mountaintops and in places far, far, far smaller than Lawrence," he said.
Dave Shulenberger, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the Board of Regents Margin of Excellence plan had allowed the University to offer higher faculty salaries.
"This has reduced faculty turnover and increased the University's ability to hire new faculty," he
said.
The Margin of Excellence is the Board of Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 95 percent of its institutions and to bring faculty chairs to 100 percent of their peers.
Shulenberger said there was no formula for deciding how many faculty would be hired in any one year.
"We have a fixed budget and within that budget we have the freedom to make decisions," he said.
The decision to hire faculty is made by the individual deans of the colleges, Shulenberger said.
Liamne Fridriksson, assistant professor of journalism, said a combination of factors brought her off from the University of Texas.
When a professor leaves, the decision is made to either eliminate the position or to hire a replacement. he said.
"The location, the pay, the course load, which courses I could teach, whether or not there was room to develop my own course work and the ability to work within my own speciality, were all factors in the decision." Fridriksson said.
She was impressed with the people, the campus and the library during her first visit to Lawrence, she said.
Johnson County leads in growth predictions
The Associated Press
Johnson County will become the largest county in the state, surpassing Sedgwick County, by about the year 2000, say researchers at the University of Kansas.
The summer issue of the Kansas Business Review reports that both counties will increase in population during the next decade, but Johnson County will grow at a much faster rate.
The report predicts Johnson County, which includes Overland Park, Prairie Village and Lenexa, will have a population of 433,580, an increase from 345,700 in 1988, by the year 2000. Sedgwick County, where most of the population is centered in Wichita, will have a population of 425,778, increasing 402,100 from last year.
"This is a very large county, and less than 50 percent of its area has been urbanized," said Dennis McKeen, director of the Johnson Soo College Research Institute "So there's lots of room for growth."
The report was prepared by Anthony Redwood, professor of business, and Helga Upmeier, a research associate at the Institute for Public Policy and Business Research.
Upneier said the projections were based on birth, death and migration data.
"This is based on historical data. Given the assumption that the trends will continue . . . this is what the population of Kansas will look like," she said.
The report said Wyandonne County has been losing population since the 1960s but is expected to increase slightly — from 172,335 in 1980 to 176,227 by the year 2000.
The state will continue to grow, by slightly more than 10 percent from 1980-2000, the report predicted. Population in most agriculturally oriented counties or those dependent on oil and gas is expected to decline, with the exception of Finney County in southwestern Kansas.
Upmeier said the study predicted that the rural decline in Kansas would level off by the year 2020.
Paper begins to replace plastic foam on campus
"The out-migration in western Kansas will somehow stabilize," she said. "I don't think it will continue at the same rate."
By Chris Evans Kansan staff writer
The cycle of phasing out nonrecyclable food and drink containers at the University of Kansas has begun.
University concessions recently replaced 20-ounce foam cups at Wescow Terrace with cups made of paper. Terry Cavanaugh, assistant manager of concessions, said members of his department would soon replace 16-ounce foam cups, possibly by the end of the week.
He said the switch was part of the University's new policy to reduce use of the foam, commonly called Styrofoam. The policy, approved Aug. 25 by the merchandising policies and practices committee of the KU Memorial Corp., states that food services should attempt to reduce the use of non-recyclable and non-reusable products.
Cavanaugh said the terrace now had paper plates. He said concessions eventually would not supply
any foam products. Each type would be replaced as current stock ran out.
"We have our supplier still looking for the cheapest paper products with the highest quality," he said. "Depending upon when we run out, we might then consider a possible price increase."
Each paper cup costs $1\frac{1}{2}$ cents, he
and each foam cup costs $3\frac{1}{2}$ cents.
A phase of foam products also is taking place at the Kansas and Burge unions. Bob Richeson, manager of Union food service, said that a price increase was not a foregone conclusion.
The Union's current foam salad plate will be replaced by a clear, hard-plastic container, Richeson said. But no substitute had been found for the foam container used for hamburgers.
Most containers do not keep hamburgers as warm as foam packages, Richeson said. However, he was not sure whether he would continue to use foam hamburger boxes.
WestCampus
Iowa St
West Campus houses quiet researchers
nansan stan writer
By Travis Butler
This article is the first part of an occasional series. West Campus is lost country for most KU students.
It is rarely mentioned and even more rarely visited. Yet it's as much a part of the University as the main campus, said Robert Bearse, associate professor of research, graduate studies and public service.
"The only reason it's called West Campus is there's a major road there," he said.
Iowa Street runs between West Campus and the Daisy Hill residence halls.
West Campus is a major research area for the campus, Bearse said.
"We have a number of research missions on campus," he said. "Because campus is crowded, those activities that do not have a strong teaching component can be put over there, where it won't be in a high-density area."
Barbara Armbrister, associate director of the Center for Research Inc., said, "It's a nice place to work. It's easy to get to. It facilitates what we're after, which is to get to work and do research."
Several University research groups have their offices on West Campus. The Space Technology
"There isn't a strong relationship directly with private industry," Bearse said. "The Merck lab grew out of some University work that Dr. (Takeru) Higuchi did. He started a company called Alza, which became InterEx, and was later bought by Merck."
The Higuchi Bioscience Center occupies McColum Labs, the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Labs, and the Smissman Research Labs. The Merck, Sharp, and Dohme Research Labs add a private-industry presence to West Campus, on land leased to them by the Kansas University Endowment Association.
The herbarium, located at Bridwell Lab, houses a large collection of Great Plaus flora, he said.
"They can answer questions about the botany of the area." Bearsaid.
Center, established in concert with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is located at Nichols Hall. The Kansas Geological Survey occupies Moore, Hambleton and Parker Halls, and the Kansas Biological Survey occupies the Foley Geohydrology Center.
Roundup out the survey of West Campus are the Kurata Thermodynamics Lab, associated with the department of chemical and petroleum engineering, and Youngberg Hall, home of the Endowment Association.
"Many commute between the two campuses," he said. "I don't think anyone's done a true census."
West Campus has a fairly long history. The land was acquired by the association in a series of purchases from 1942 to 1984, according to University Archives. The first building there was the Center for Research in Engineering Sciences, now Youngberg Hall. It was built in 1958.
Bearse predicts that West Campus' role will expand.
More than 400 people work on West Campus, Bearse said.
"I see it continuing to grow, continuing to become a more regular part of campus," he said. "Very soon now, there will be enough activity over there that transportation between the two campuses will become easier. It's not going to be more than five years before it's going to be more a regular part of campus life."
"Generally, the (West Campus) buildings that belong to the University were donated by the Endowment Association," he said. "The others are leased from the association."
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Featuring Grad-Board '89
While the association is not a research organization, it does have an important connection with the West Campus labs.
- Tuesday, Sept. 12 - Jayhawk Room, Kansas Union -
KU graduates currently working in the advertising field share their experiences in interviewing, internships careers and more!
BRIDGESTONE Mountain Bike Sale Save $30.00 to $100.00!
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RICK'S BIKE SHOP 916 Mass., Lawrence, KS (913)841-6642
The University of Kansas
Business Career Fair
- Investigate internship possibilities
- Talk with company representatives
- Explore opportunities
- Explore opportunities
ALL STUDENTS INTERESTED IN BUSINESS OR ADVERTISING CAREERS ARE INVITED
Thursday, Sept. 21, 1989 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Allen Field House