WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER23,2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
First reunion to teach debate team
By Vonna Keoanyvong
keoanyvong@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
More than a hundred former University of Kansas debaters will come back to the University for their first debate reunion this weekend.
Returning alumni include debaters from as early as the 1940s,as well as national debate champions and participants from recent years.
Robert Rowland, department chair of communication studies, helped organize the event. Rowland, who was on the debate team from 1973 to 1977, said the purpose of the reunion was to allow alumni to reconnect with the debate program.
Reunion events will include a tour of campus, social events and a forum to discuss what it was like debating in the 1940's and '50s. A debate will be held on whether the '60s and '70s were better than the '80s and '90s.
Rowland said the University had one of the top debate programs in the country. The debate team, which began in 1893, has won the National Debate Tournament four times.
Debate coach Scott Harris said KU ranks second among other universities in the number of teams it has sent to the national tournament.
of the program.
Harris said the reunion would help freshmen learn about the tradition and history
"I think it's generally important in any activity to learn about the success of the people who preceeded you," Harris said. "Our current generation needs to learn about that."
Lindy Simonsen, Omaha, Neb. freshman and president of the debate team, said she planned to attend the event because it would give her an opportunity to meet former debaters.
"I want to talk to them about their experiences," Simonsen said. "I think they would have really good ideas. Since we're all freshmen, it'll let us know what we should expect in the future."
- Edited by Erin Ohm
Students prepare for ECM trip
By Nathan Dayani
ndayani@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Coffee, pancakes and an appreciation of the natural world are a few reasons why students may be inspired to go on the Baker-Haskell Wetlands trip this weekend.
The Ecumenical Christian Ministries will host Saturday's trip to the wetlands. The trip is held every fall and spring semester, and it is the fourth year for the trip.
The Rev. Thad Holcombe of ECM said the trip would be open to the public and would be an opportunity for students to gain a unique perspective about the land.
"We're going to try to look at it
through the eyes of the people who have actually studied it, which means looking at it in a new way," he said. "So we're not just tourists, but we can actually have a relationship with the land."
Holcombe said three graduate students at the University of Kansas would facilitate the trip and help examine a wide array of issues pertinent to the land.
One of the facilitators will be Jennifer Pramuk, KU Ph.D. candidate in herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians.
Pramuk said the trip to the wetlands could interest students' aesthetic and ecological interests.
"It gives them a good place to unwind, meditate and relax," she said.
Pramuk said the wetlands were
not only a key migratory site for birds, but a host to diverse species of mammals and reptiles, including the small-mouth salamander.
"It's the only place you can find them in large numbers in lawrence," she said.
Holcombe said the trip's facilitators would also examine the wetlands' environmental history.
"Historically, there weren't any trees at the turn of the century," he said.
Holcombe said students interested in the field trip should meet at ECM at 6:30 a.m. Saturday. He said the trip would end at about 9 a.m. and the discussion would conclude at about 11 a.m. For more information, call Holcombe at 843-4933.
Edited by Jessica Hood
'Hawks didn'tfly the coop alumni keep campus safe
Lindsey Gold/Kansan
By Michelle Burhnn
mburhenn@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Maj. Chris Keary of KU Public Safety and police officer Brandon S. Burkhart both attended KU. A 1983 KU graduate, Keary has spent 20 years full time on the force. A police officer since Dec. 2001, Burkhart spent four years in the Marine Corps plus six or seven months in the Marine Corps police force.
Officer Brandon Burkhart and Maj. Chris Keary first came to the University of Kansas years ago and hauled their books up the hill to class.
But now both are commissioned as police officers to serve and protect the institution where they both earned degrees.
The KU Public Safety Office doesn't make it a regular practice to hire former students, Lt. Schuyler Bailey of the KU Public Safety Office said, but the experience could be helpful.
"If they've been students here they know the area and the geography," he said. "A person who comes in from the outside first has to deal with where everything is."
"Dispatching can be very stressful, but it's done in a room, sometimes by yourself," Keary said. "I felt the urge to become a police officer and deal with the calls I got directly."
He said he would have never foreseen his work as a police offi-
Keary graduated from KU in 1983 with a degree in computer science. He picked up a job as a dispatcher at the KU Public Safety Office while a student in 1981.
"After graduation I experimented in computer science, but there wasn't anything locally," he said. "The interest wasn't really there, so I decided to stick with the department and see where it would go."
Keary became a commissioned officer in 1987 after working as a dispatcher.
"If they've been students here they know the area and the geography. A person who comes in from the outside first has to deal with where everything is."
Lt. Schuyler Bailey KU Public Safety Office
ser when he arrived at the University. Keary has now worked at the KU Public Safety Office for more than 20 years and is the department's assistant director.
Burkhart didn't attend the University with law enforcement in mind either.
He attended the University
from 1989 to 1991 and then again from 1997 to 2001. He received bachelor degrees in history and political science, serving in the Marine Corps, including six months as a military police officer, between his tenures at the University.
His desire to work with people and to pay off his student loans led him to become a police officer. He began working at the KU Public Safety Office in December 2001.
Although he said he didn't plan to leave law enforcement soon, he does aspire to return to school as a student.
"After graduation, it was my intent to go to law school although I recognize that I can go anytime," he said. "I don't need to be young to do that. I just need a whole lot more money."
—Edited by Sarah Hill