2
University Daily Kansan
Second Section
Monday, Aug. 26, 1985
News Briefs
Students learn ropes
A seminar to help students learn the ropes of college life at the University is scheduled for 6:30 tonight in 300 Strong Hall.
Foreign speech aided
The seminar is designed to show new students how things work at the University. The seminar is being presented by the Student Assistance Center and is free.
The center is in 121 Strong. More information is available by calling the center at 864-4064.
A study skills workshop to help students who have difficulty learning foreign languages will begin at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in 300 Strong Hall.
The workshop is free and no registration is required. It is being presented by the Student Assistance Center, 121 Strong. For more information, call the center at 864-4064.
Scholarship created
James B. Gurley of Roanoke, Va., came up with an unusual and lasting gift for his mother's 85th birthday — he established an endowed scholarship fund with the Kansas University Endowment Association in his mother's honor.
Contributions of about $10,000 established the Maymie W. Gurley Scholarship Fund in July. Income from the fund will provide scholarships for KU students who have attended high schools in Mitchell County.
Maymie Gurley grew up on a farm outside Barnard and attended Sterling College in Sterling after graduating from high school.
She married Alexander H. Gurley and helped him run their farm near Barnard until his death in 1933. Maynie came to the University of Kansas at 55 and earned an elementary school teaching cer- tificate, then returned to Mitchell County, where she was an elementary school teacher for nearly 15 years before retiring in the late 1960s.
Maynie's KU ties are strong. Her husband earned a law degree in 1909, James Gurley earned bachelor's and law degrees in 1953 and 1954, daughter Margaret Gibson attended from 1942 to 1944 and several other family members have attended the University.
From staff and wire reports
Student discovers clues to mental illness's cause
By Jennifer Benjamin Of the Kansan staff
A KU student has discovered a chemical difference between the brain of a normal person and that of a schizophrenic person, and his research may assist people studying the causes of schizophrenia.
Mike Leeson, 19, Winchester junior, a pharmacy major, said last week that his discovery this summer would not stop research on the project.
"I would say this discovery is significant, because it's going to provide a little more understanding of schizophrenia." Leeson said. "But at this point, it's not clinically significant. It doesn't provide a basis for treating schizophrenia."
The project is under the supervision of Ralph Adams, University professor of chemistry, who conducts brain research in his three laboratories on campus. Much of that research uses on schizophrenia, Leeson said.
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that often causes people to hallucinate, hear voices and become confused. Schizophrenia also accompanies schizophrenia, he said.
Although it is a mental illness, Leeson said, it also can be a biological illness.
Leeson found that the distribution of ascorbate, also known as ascorbic acid or vitamin C before it enters the
By studying a top-to-bottom slice of a normal brain, Leeson said, he found that the concentration of the synaptic cleavage zone is high in the bottom section.
body, differs in the brains of norma- and schizophrenic people.
The concentration of ascorbate follows the pattern of increasing gradually from top to bottom throughout the brain, he said.
This in itself is significant, Leeson said, because it is the first gradient found for a chemical that extends throughout the whole brain.
But in the brain of a schizophrenic person, ascorbate usually doesn't follow this pattern or any other pattern, he said.
After studying eight normal brains and nine schizophrenic brains, Leeson has noted that in some areas of the schizophrenic brain, ascorbate concentrations were high and in other areas, called "ascorbate black holes," almost no ascorbate was found.
The ascorbate is highly concentrated in the top portion of some schizophrenic brains and decreases concentration in the bottom portion, he said.
"Occasionally, we've seen what we think to be a reversal of the pattern," he said.
In a normal brain, 125 to 180 micrograms of ascorbate per gram of brain tissue are found, Leeson said. But in schizophrenic brains, the
The reason for the differences in the concentration of ascorbate is more important, he said.
range is from 125 to 15 micrograms of ascorbate per gram of brain tissue
The differences may be caused by schizophrenia, he said, or may be a result of drugs that schizophrenic people take.
The only known function of ascorbate in the brain is to help in the conversion of dopamine to norepinephrine to maintain a balance of the two neurotransmitters in the brain, Leeson said.
Neurotransmitters help control movement of nerve impulses between some neurons, or nerve cells.
Leeson said his work had made him respect people who do research and had given him a feeling for the way advances in research were made.
He has worked from 16 to 20 hours a week on the project.
However, this experience hasn't changed his career goals. Leeson, a pre-med student, said he decided to major in pharmacy because becoming familiar with medicinal drugs would help him as a physician.
"I enjoyed the research, but dealing with people is too important to me to give up," he said. "I'm interested in cardiology right now."
Mike Leeson, Winchester junior, studies the causes of schizophrenia by examining human brain tissue. A bank brain in San Francisco supplies the tissue.
92 students rush into life of fraternities
By Theresa Scott Of the Kansan staff
In mid-August, 135 students rushed to Lawrence to make friends and influence people. On Tuesday, 92 of them ended up rushing into fraternity life.
After four days of slide shows, presentations and conversations, 92 KU men on Tuesday received invitations to pledge 16 fraternities, said Weber. Interfraternity Council vice president for membership, last week
Weber said that 135 students, most of them freshmen, had visited the 19 fraternities participating in fall formal rush, from Aug. 17 to 20. Although 23 fraternities are members of IFC and were able to participate, some chose not to rush this fall.
John VanBlairicum, Pratt freshman and new Tau Kappa Epsilon pledge, said that he enjoyed rush and that he decided which house to pledge by taking a close look at the membership of each house.
"It goes down to the guys," he said. "I like the men here because they're more like the guys I'm used to and more like the guys I've known in my life."
Keith Foster, Arkansas City
freshman and new Kappa Sigma
pledge, viewed rush differently.
"I think it was boring because you had to see a lot of houses that you didn't want to see," he said. "But I'm glad I went through because I met a lot of nice people."
Warren Burket, Salina freshman and new Acacia pledge, said that his strategy for choosing a house was to narrow his choices early by considering the men in the fraternity and then planning on the two houses he had picked.
"I had to think if I would like to spend four years with these guys," he said.
Most of the rush chairmen from the fraternities that participated said they were pleased with the results.
The Delta Tau Delta rush chairman, Scott Dalton, said he thought the effort put into fall formal rush was worth it.
"A lot of good out-of-state guys that don't make it up during high school crawl out of the woodwork," he said. "It's worth it just getting one or two."
"We directed all our efforts toward the two guys we wanted and let the rest go by the wayide."
He said the two men were chosen by the first impressions they made, especially dress and high school activities. A further consideration was whether the candidate could contribute to the house, Dalton said.
Brian Hamilton, Acacia rush chairman, said his house had pledged only three men, fewer than the five in seven they had planned to pledge.
Hamilton said that the Acacias were planning a residence hall rush, during which his house would pledge men from residence halls and apartments within the next two or three months to fill all the spaces in the house.