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Wednesday Aug. 23, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Campus clinic offers various health services
by Gary Patton Kansan staff writer
Violin players, unlike some other musicians, can play their instruments while suffering from split lips, broken noses and toothaches.
But they cannot play with a pain in the neck.
Vaccinations are among the services offered at Watkins Memorial Health Center.
Four physical therapy visits in three days to Watkins Memorial Health Center fixed violinist Glen Goering's cramped neck.
"Now I can almost move my neck in every direction," said Goering, 17, a Derry High School senior attending KU's Western Band Camp in June. "This is the first day of full movement since it cramped on me in the middle of practice a few days ago.
"Whatever they did to me really worked. They had my neck hooked up to a bunch of pulsing electrodes, he said."
Goering's electrical stimulation treatment is just one of many medical services offered by Watkins. The purpose of the center is to provide quality health care at minimum cost and with minimum loss of class time.
Other services, which include diet and psychiatric counseling, immunizations, allergy injections, gyneco-
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We want to be here when the students are. Our records showed that only an average of two students per night were being treated between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Now we're expanding our services with a doctor at the hospital. We will also convert the night staff to the daytime staff for more daytime support.'
KANSAN file photo
James Strobi director, student health services
logical services and general medicine, are paid for by student health fees. Students are assessed an additional fee for return visits to the physical therapy, nutrition and mental health clinics.
The student fee, which is collected as part of tuition, is $69.50, an increase from last year's fee of $68. It is the highest of the Lawrence campus privilege fees.
semester is the hours of operation.
Another change from the spring
Watkins, located behind Robinson Center, in open for full services from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. Its urgent care clinic, now staffed with an attending physician to treat injuries and emergency health problems, is open during regular weekday hours, until 11 on weeknights and 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Last spring semester, the urgent care clinic was open for treatment 24 hours a day, but with only an on-call physician.
James Strobl, director of student
"We want to be here when the students are," Strobl said in a June 29 interview. "Our records showed that only an average of two students per night were being treated between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Now we're expanding our services with a doctor at the hospital. We will also convert the night staff to the daytime staff for more dawntime support."
Kevin Lake, Leavenworth junior,
who suffers from sickle cell anemia,
said he wasn't satisfied with the
limited hours. He had a pain attack 3 a.m. June 26 and had to go to Lawrence Memorial Hospital for emergency treatment because Watkins was closed.
"The hours are kind of a downfall for those of us who need 24-hour service," said Lake, who had been treated by Watkins' on-call doctors during several prior nighttime pain attacks. "It is supposed to be our facility, and now I'm paying twice because of the changed hours."
For the second consecutive summer semester, the urgent care clinic closed at 11 p.m. Watkins' new fall
semester hours took effect Aug. 21.
Anyone at the University, including visitors, can get emergency treatment at the urgent care clinic. But Strobi emphasized that regular daytime health care was primarily for the students because "students are the ones paying the bills."
Sutton said that students could expect to pay less than market prices for many of Watkins' pharmaceuticals, including birth control supplies. He said that their condom packages, available in over-the-counter, 50-cent three-packs, was the "best bargain in town."
Professors sense new 'indifference' to learning
by Dick Lipsey
By Dick Lipsey Kansan staff writer
Today's KU students have a different attitude towards learning than their parents did.
Dennis Quinn, professor of English, said students today have a certain indifference to learning.
He said the problem was rooted in attitudes formed before students arrived at college.
"But when students came here 20 or 30 years ago, they were capable of
"I don't think there is much interest in the high schools in education," he said. "That was true 50 years ago, and it is still true."
being turned towards education," he said. "They were susceptible to catching an enthusiasm for learning for its own sake."
Quinn, who has taught at KU since 1956, said students were responding to their parents' views of success.
"Parents are often hell-bent for their children to be successful," he said. "Grades are everything, so student initiative is stifled by the parents. That's always been true to some extent, but it's gotten worse. Students used to memorize poetry, and their parents were thrilled by it. I don't think they are any longer."
has not helped the situation because it has been striving to meet the apparent wishes of today's parents and students.
don't think they are any danger Quinn said he thinks the University
"The University says 'we have to meet demand,' and the demand is preparation for a career. The liberal arts are not a preparation for a career, but for life."
He also said undergraduates today were not as well prepared as in the past.
"It is hard for students to read Plato's Republic," he said. "Now I have to explain things that I took for granted in the past. It's very laborious to teach the classics now. The
average students feel they can't handle it. Twenty years ago that wasn't the case."
George Byers, a retired emeritus professor of entomology, also said the quality of students is not what it used to be.
"We had a higher percentage of really outstanding graduate students 30 years ago than now," he said. "Of course, some of the students of 30 years ago have become famous, so I am judging after the fact, and who knows how these students will turn out?
"But years ago we had more students with National Science Founda
tell fellowships or other outside support." Byers said. "The degree of outside support is a fair indicator of quality."
Byers said despite the lack of outside support, science students were better prepared academically now than in the past.
"Feedback to the high schools has allowed them to prepare students for college," he said. "They've had to. There is so much more to know now than there was 30 years ago.
"I imagine students are less prepared in the humanities now than in the sciences, relatively speaking," he said. "They were ill-prepared in
both thirty years ago, but now they are a little better in science." Byers said he noted two major changes during his years at KU.
"There is much less formality now," he said. "Things have loosed up. When I was a graduate student I wouldn't think of calling a professor by his first name. But all my students call me by my first name, and that suits me fine.
"Another change is the number of students and buildings on the campus," he said. "That would really amaze someone who had been away for 30 years."