THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2014
PAGE 17A
CAMPUS
01
University to soon offer classes at military bases
BETH FENTRESS
@ElizaFentress
During a typical deployment, soldiers will often find themselves in an unfamiliar place with no knowledge of the local culture and only the faintest grasp of the language, if they are lucky. The University has partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense to change that.
In 2013, the Department of Defense allocated $775,000 to the University in order to establish a Language Training Center. The center provides beginner language courses for Marines at Fort Leonard Wood and language maintenance training for officers at Fort Leavenworth who already have a foreign language background.
The goal of the program is to help soldiers expand their cultural knowledge.
If the typical Lawrence resident revved up their vehicle and drove northeast for 50 minutes, they will run into the oldest active Army installation west of the Mississippi: Fort Leavenworth. If this person then drove four hours southeast, they would find themselves in the vicinity of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
"To get awareness and knowledge of a culture it takes years and years of training," said Mike Denning, director for the Office of Graduate Military Programs. "We are really providing them with the foundation for future education opportunities."
One year before the University received the Language Training Center grant, it received a similar grant from the Department of Defense. Project GO (Global Officer) is a grant that gives scholarships to Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) students for summer language training both domestically and abroad. Project GO helped provide the
"We became aware of the Language Training Center a year after [Project GO]," Denning said. "The reason we became aware was because of Project GO."
foundation for the Language Training Center.
The Language Training Center began offering classes last year. At Fort Leavenworth, KU professors drove to the garrison and delivered face-to-face instruction in Arabic, Spanish, French, German and Korean. Persian language training will be offered in the future.
We are going to have to turn students away at this point. We have had too many applicants."
RANDY MASTEN
Assistant director, Office of
Graduate Military Programs
Randy Masten is a coprincipal investigator of the grant and assistant director of the Office of Graduate Military Programs. Masten said the classes at Fort Leavenworth, which have six to 10 students, are very different from traditional KU classes.
"Most of the target audience is non-traditional students at Fort Leavenworth," Masten said. "They are senior captains or majors who have been in the military 10 years and probably have several combat tours under their belt."
Mike DeHaven, the Project Pedagogy Specialist at the University, helped design the courses and also taught German at both military units. He interacted with students at a very direct level in the classroom.
"They are motivated," DeHaven said. "You know, they are older, so they have some life experience. They
approach things a little differently from a traditional student."
Fort Leonard Wood is located roughly four hours away from the University. Professors could not make the drive every week, so Synchronous and Asynchronous Language Training was put in motion.
"For Fort Leonard Wood, because it is taught at a distance, we had to consider the fact that the students aren't in the classroom here," DeHaven said. "They are separated from the instructor. How do we do the same thing we would do in a classroom?"
Synchronous and Asynchronous Language Training (S.A.L.T.), is a mixture of classroom study and online learning. Students Skype with instructors once or twice a week. Assignments and readings are posted on Blackboard.
However, the Internet access offered at the military posts was limited because the installations had their own internal systems, leading to IT difficulties.
Through this hybrid method of learning, students at Fort Leonard Wood can choose from a variety of language offerings, including French, Chinese, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
Despite the technological problems, S.A.L.T. has expanded beyond Fort Leonard Wood. In October, the University will collaborate with the Air Force to provide classes at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., and Fort Nix, N.J. The Kansas National Guard has also expressed interest in language training.
Language classes at the bases have proved to be very popular.
"We are going to have to turn students away at this point," Masten said. "We have had too many applicants."
Edited by Kate Miller
STATE POLITICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jennifer Winn, left, a Wichita business owner challenging Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback in the Republican primary, speaks during a candidate forum in Junction City on July 16, 2014.
GOP intensifies efforts in Kansas gubernatorial race
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WICHITA — The Republican Governors Association is spending $600,000 on a television ad buy attacking Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's Democratic challenger, the group said Tuesday.
The conservative Republican governor is facing a tougher-than-expected race against Democrat Paul Davis for a second, four-year term amid questions about whether his aggressive income tax cuts are boosting economic growth as promised or wrecking the state's finances.
The debut of the ad came as the group announced that its chairman, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, will be in Kansas City, Kan., on Wednesday to attend a public event with Brownback, followed by two closed fundraisers for the governor in nearby Mission Hills.
"We don't take any race for granted," RGA spokesman Jon Thompson said in an email. "Paul Davis has
tried to mask himself as a moderate, when that couldn't be further from the truth. He is a tax-and-spend liberal who has consistently supported Barack Obama's failed agenda. Kansas voters have a right to know who Paul Davis really is," he said of the ad.
Davis' campaign said Tuesday that he is focused on his own record of bringing people together to support schools, create jobs and find common sense solutions, noting more than 100 current and former Republican elected officials have endorsed Davis over the incumbent governor.
"Kansans are deeply concerned with Sam Brownback's 'experiment' and the damage it is doing to our schools, communities and economy," Davis campaign spokesman Chris Pumpelly said in an email. "The Republican Governors Association clearly recognizes how out of step and unpopular Sam Brownback's priorities are."
The 30-second spot accuses
Davis, the Kansas House minority leader, of spending his 12 years in office "voting against Kansas taxpayers." The ads contend Davis voted to raise sales taxes and opposed property tax relief while voting to tax construction equipment and farm trucks.
But the Davis campaign countered that the "record is clear" that Davis worked for Kansas families by voting to eliminate property tax on business machinery and equipment, to cut the corporate income tax and to get rid of the sales tax or groceries and food. Davis voted against Brownback's increase to the sales tax in 2013, and has supported proposals to provide real property tax relief as part of his school funding plans in 2012 and 2014, Pumpell said.
Brownback campaign spokesman John Milburn declined comment on the RGA's new ad, but expressed appreciation for Christies visit to Kansas in support of Brownback's campaign.
PHILANTHROPY
Students donate nearly $500,000 in items to community
news@kansan.com
DAVID HURTADO
Working with the Center for Community Outreach (CCO), over 3,500 KU students donated their time and nearly $500,000 in items to the Lawrence community during the 2013-14 school year.
Established in 1990, the CCO is a student-run organization that encourages KU students to reach out and make a difference in their community.
Mia Gonzalez, director of development and marketing at the Lawrence Community Shelter, said the drive allows the shelter to help additional
Agencies who benefited from these donations include the Ballard Community Center, Lawrence Community Shelter, The Willow Domestic Violence Center and Lawrence Public Schools.
people while focusing more on providing public services, like finding employment and health services.
"Particularly last year, we were distributed Tupperware, baby products, baby blankets, bags and things like that for over $200,000 dollars worth," Gonzalez said. "The donations really help our guests focus on the day-to-day job of recovery from drugs and alcohol or abuse if they can have simple things like a blanket."
Gonzalez said guests at the shelter are most in need of items such as socks, shampoo and clothing for children.
Micah Melia, executive director of CCO, said the drive began when the organization applied through the Today Show Charitable Foundation for products to distribute in the Lawrence community. She said the program started by receiving a small number
of donations from the foundation to give out, but has greatly expanded since.
Melia said generally 3,000 to 4,000 volunteers will come out and help with the drive. She said the CCO's goals for this school year includes increased awareness of the programs they provide and additional
"It's definitely grown and it's been very cool for us to have another way to maintain contact with local agencies — even if we're not necessarily providing regular volunteering through one of our programs," Melia said. "I think it's really another way to make an impact we don't generally have the capacity to do ourselves but can through the program."
Super Service Saturday is the CCO's kickoff event, intended to give KU students the opportunity to get involved with the Lawrence Community through volunteer work. Into the Streets Week is an annual weeklong event which highlights volunteer opportunities across the Lawrence community. Lifeline seeks to assist students in the community with their educational needs through one-on-one interactions like mentoring, tutoring and other activities.
During the drive, members of the CCO executive staff coordinate the delivery of donations received with over 30 area agencies.
Emily Ferbezar, former KU student, said she first took interest in what the CCO was doing through word of mouth and simply being on campus.
students volunteers. Other programs the CCO sponsors include Super Service Saturdays, Into the Streets Week and Lifeline.
Ferbezar said she has always
"Along with Rachel Paxton and MacKenzie Oatman, I helped to make this past spring's Into the Streets Week (ITSW) happen," Ferbezar said. "It was amazing to see all of our hard work come together in the end. We spent just under a year brainstorming and planning, which then led to the execution of so many wonderful events. Being an ITSW program coordinator was so meaningful because I was able to do the things I love to make students on campus aware of different ways to be involved in the community."
loved volunteering and performing service work for the community, so she decided to get involved. At the end of her junior year, she applied to be a program coordinator.
Edited by Kate Miller
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