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Kansan staff
NEWS MANAGEMENT
Editor-in-chief Vicky Diaz-Camacho
Managing editor Kate Miller
Brand & creativity manager Hallie Wilson
Digital operations editor Anissa Fritz
Print production manager
Candice Tarver
Business manager Gage Brock
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT
Sales manager Katie Bell
news
SECTION EDITORS
News editor Kelly Cordingley
Associate news editor Cassidy Ritter
Sports editor Scott Chasen
Arts & culture editor Ryan Wright
Associate sports editor Shane Jackson
Associate arts & culture editor Christian Hardy
Opinion editor
Maddy Mikinski
Visuals editor & design chief
Roxy Townsend
Chief photographer Caroline Fiss
Investigations editor Miranda Davis
ADVISER
Sales and marketing adviser Jon Schitt
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 50 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at the Kansan business office, 2015 A1 Dale Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS.,
The University Daily Kansan (ISSN
0746.4967) is published on
Monday and Thursday during
the academic year except fall break, spring break and exams. It is published weekly during the summer session excluding holidays. Annual subscriptions by mail are $250 plus tax. Send address changes to The University Daily Kansan, 2051 A Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sumner Avenue Amityville
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TOWN HALL FROM
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Last semester, following the University-wide Nov. 11 Town Hall Meeting on race, respect and responsibility many schools and departments across campus held forums on diversity and inclusion to address unique needs within their own classrooms.
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much research and preparation as possible.
Brill said after the meeting in November, many journalism students felt content having conversations in their classrooms or with professors or advisors. Now that students are ready to join the wider conversation, Brill said she thinks the main focus will be on recruitment of diverse
Caroline Fiss/KANSAN This year's environmental studies capstone class will implement what a 2014 class planned in order to restore Prairie Acre, located north of Sunnyside Avenue and directly south of Blake Hall.
"It's hard to place a quantitative result on what we're hoping to do." Birzer said. "I think there's a good chance that we'll be able to be successful and have a good run, and I think [...] all three of our teams have the chance to be really successful if we put in some work over the next few weeks."
"I think the biggest issue right now is recruiting more students of color," Brill said. "What I hear students say in the journalism school is they feel very welcome, they feel very safe, they feel very appreciated, but they really wish they did not feel quite so alone."
Brill said the committee has already held several focus groups and will continue looking at mechanisms to improve inclusion at the school. The next chance for students to meet and talk with the dean about diversity will be during "Donuts With the Dean" April 6 in the Clarkson Gallery.
KANSAN.COM/NEWS | THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016
It is not uncommon for student debaters to spend 20 to 40 hours per week preparing arguments, researching, strategizing and scouting competitors' arguments. It's also common for students to miss class due to out-of-state tournaments. Birzer said he often misses three full days of class when the debate team goes on a trip. Harris said it's worth it.
- Edited by Madi Schulz
students.
DEBATE FROM
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The University has won the tournament five times, most recently in 2009. Harris and his team don't have specific expectations for the upcoming tournament. After losing in the first of the elimination rounds last year, Harris said he hopes they'll at least make it that far again.
skills and learning about how it is that political arguments work, about how it is that the political system works."
In the weeks leading up to its departure for New York, Birzer said the team is "buckling down" to get in as
"Then it's do your best and let the chips fall where they may," Harris said.
"Policy debate itself is an incredible rich, rewarding experience," Birzer said. "It teaches not only communication skills but is very heavily invested in research
Edited by Madi Schulz
Prairie Acre restoration led by professor environmental studies capstone course
▶ NASHIA BAKER
@Nashia_Baker
When Prairie Acre, north of Sunnyside Avenue and directly south of Blake Hall, was created on the University campus in the early 1930s, about 100 indigenous plants thrived there, Kelly Kindscher, environmental studies professor, said.
Throughout the years, a lack of maintenance has depleted the only native land on the Lawrence campus to about 30 indigenous plants.
Now, an Environmental Studies capstone course is trying to revitalize Prairie Acre.
Attempts to restore Prairie Acre dates back 15 to 20 years ago, primarily through Kindscher and management techniques, such as removing trees that shaded the area. Kindscher's Environmental Studies capstone class will implement what his 2014 class planned to restore Prairie Acre.
"I teach the environmental studies capstone class, and I'm always looking for projects for that class," Kindscher said. "Over the years they've done a variety of projects and plans. So for that class in 2014, we had a group focus on the Prairie Acre, and I worked with them and the students generated this plan, which is what we are planning to implement this year."
The plan includes informing the community of the history, assessing the land, explaining the steps for healthy longterm maintenance of the area, determining species to include in the restoration and explaining the valuable uses of the area, according to the Environmental Studies Course Restoration Plan. Even with the unpredictable seasonal weather, the prairie can be maintained because of the dormancy of plants in the winter, and the increase in management techniques allows for the acre to flourish,
said Laurel Sears, Prairie Acre Restoration Project coordinator and GTA in the environmental studies capstone course.
"If you look at other native prairies around here, there are things that limit the floristic qualities," Sears said. "One of those is mowing it and another is grazing. Sometimes grazing is helpful to prairies, but we don't intend to bring bison and cows out there. So that is not one that we are going to use, but having too many fires or not enough fires limits the floristic qualities. So having burns every other year, every few years will allow it to remain clear."
Sears also said fires clear the underbrush, allowing for many species to thrive. The capstone class, which includes 32 students, and the addition of volunteers helps to speed the process in order
It's one of the quiet places on campus that there aren't many of, that aren't improved or paved or designed."
"One of my main roles is to communicate with volunteers so they can be engaged and involved and to make a space for them because there's volunteers of all capabilities and backgrounds," Sears said. "It's about providing jobs for them - [providing] ways to help other people and the whole broad vision of prairie acre manifest."
to manage the plot of land properly.
Laurel Sears
Prairie Acre Restoration
Project coordinator
The volunteers, which vary from 10 to 40 event participants, help plant and find the native species
"So far we've had a lot of interest from students, faculty, staff and really a lot of community members," said Jeffrey Severin, director of the Center for Sustainability. "There's been a lot of work done with preparing and sorting seeds. We had a really successful volunteer day to get those seeds started down at the greenhouse. There's definitely a lot of energy around the actual planting that it going to take place this spring."
"What's really important is that this is morphing into an outdoor learning classroom." Sears said. "This is a site for learning for KU students, and it's a site for teaching for professors. It works well, it serves a lot of missions, and it's a really nice place to be. It's one of the quiet places on campus that there aren't many of, that aren't improved or paved or designed."
to restore the acre, Kindscher said.
Financial aid for the project comes largely from donations and fundraising through the University and outside sources, totaling $15,900. Donors
include Historic Mount Oread Friends and anonymous donations, Sears and Severin said. With the help of funding, the continuation of the project can serve several purposes, aside from sustainability of the land.
"I think it is really important because it connects a wide group of people through the KU community," Sears said. "It connects them to Kansas heritage. It really reflects the place where we live and landscape where we live and allows people from different corners of the world to come and understand where they live right now."
In addition to the opportunity to have a piece of native land on campus, there is a chance to connect with history as well.
The current plan for
the restoration of Prairie Acre includes an approximate three-year timespan for the land to begin to restore to its full health, Kindscher said.
"It's a piece of present moment; it's one of very few virgin prairies in the whole county," Sears said. "This is a diminishing landscape because of development, and I think the fact that we have captured this and are preserving it allows people to see the beauty, the delicacy, the intricate balance that happens in native landscapes and to also understand that it is a sustainable landscape."
- Edited by Samantha Harms
APRIL 6
MUTEMATH
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10 YEAR J DILLA TRIBUTE
FEATURING:
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DJ PROOFS
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CAROLINE GLASER
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SPIRITUAL REZ
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