THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Low sales threaten yearbook
Jayhawker working to make students aware of publication
By Vonna Keomanyvong
vkeomanyvong@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Declining sales of the Jayhawker, the KU yearbook, have its editors worried that it might die out.
Lauren Airey, editor-in-chief of the yearbook, said the biggest problem was that few students knew about the yearbook.
"It's not like if we don't sell more yearbooks by October then we'll have to completely shut down," the Overland Park sophomore said. "But if we don't stop this pattern now then we're eventually going to get to the point
where there's no return."
The yearbook sells an average of about 2,200 copies.
But Airey said the number had declined within the last five years, with only about 13 percent of the students buying yearbooks.
Last year, more than 25,000 students were enrolled at the University but only 1,800 yearbooks were sold.
KU's yearbook sales are lower than those of Kansas State University but higher than those of the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Last year, 18 percent of K-State students purchased a yearbook, while only three percent of MU students purchased a yearbook.
Since few students know that the yearbook is available for purchase, few know that they have opportunities to work on it as well.
Sarah Lathrop, Phoenix, Ariz.
freshman, said that when she came to orientation earlier this year, someone told her that KU did not have a yearbook.
"I was really bummed because I was on the yearbook staff for two years in high school and I wanted to get involved," Lathrop said.
She eventually found out about the yearbook from a friend.
"I'm a yearbook nerd." Lathrop said. "I think that it's something that is important because it really preserves the memory of what happens not only on campus but of current events."
Diane Lazzarino, instructor in the School of Journalism, said the Jayhawker was the oldest continuously running yearbook west of the Mississippi River.
To get the word out about the yearbook, Airey said its staff planned to come out with a campaign ad in the Kansas. In October, it will put up a Web site where students and faculty can purchase yearbooks online. It will also put up flyers around campus and hand out information sheets and business cards to let people know about the yearbook and when pictures will be taken.
The staff planned to sell more than 3,000 yearbooks by December.
"People who are in the yearbook will buy the yearbook," Airey said. "We want more pictures of students on the spreads."
It also wanted to compete on a national level, Airey said.
"I feel that we're capable of winning awards," Airey said. "It kind of redeems what the staff does at the end of the year. Sort of like a stamp of approval."
Edited by Adam Pracht.
StEp helps first-year, transfer students
By Katie Nelson knelson@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Climbing up the hill at the University of Kansas is more than hiking up a sidewalk, and the stEp Program is here to help students on their trek.
StEp, which stands for Students Together Excelling in Education as Peers, is a Hawk Link mentoring and tutoring service that provides academic and activity guidance for first-year and transfer students.
The goal of the 8-year-old organization is to increase the retention and graduation of KU's minorities, but it's open to anyone.
More than 50 students are signed up to participate in stEp this fall, and Natalie Lucas, the program's coordinator, expects that number to rise.
Sixty-five students participated last year, and retention rate is 75 percent, according to stEp
data.
By Lindsay Hanson
ihanson@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
"When you first get to the University, you don't really have a contact with an organization — if you have questions, plus if you need help with your homework, we can do that. We're like a one-stop shop," said Belinda Hinojos, a graduate assistant who works with the program.
Topeka sophomore Krysdanell Cole used the stEp Program last year. She received guidance about her Spanish major and
studying abroad. This year Cole is switching roles working as one of six stEp Counselors.
Each Counselor is assigned no more than 10 mentees, Counselors help students with entry level classes in math. English, science, social sciences and Spanish. Students in eEp are expected to attend one tutoring session a week, in addition to individual meetings with their mentor.
K. Michael Welch, vice chancellor for research and president of the KU Research Institute, said he had accepted a job as president of the Finch University of Health Sciences/ The Chicago Medical School, which enrolls about 1,600 students.
Top KU researcher to step down after accepting job at Finch
One of the top research administrators at the University of Kansas Medical Center announced yesterday that he would step down from his position.
— Edited by Sarah Hill and Erin Ohm.
"We're confident we'll be able to appoint a successor who will have the vision to continue the research and technological transfer efforts that Dr. Welch has led," said Kevin Boatright, associate executive vice chancellor for University Relations.
According to a University Relations press release, Donald Hagen, executive vice chancellor for the University of Kansas Medical Center, said Welch had helped to keep the Med Center competitive by introducing new departments like the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, to be completed this spring, and the projected Biomedical Research Center.
"The work that Dr. Welch has done in his four years has helped us keep the momentum going of
"The work that Dr. Welch has done in his four years has helped us keep the momentum going of improving and enhancing the research that's been going at the KU Med Center."
Kevin Boatright Associate Executive Vice Chancellor for University Relations
improving and enhancing the research that's been going at the KU Med Center," Boatright said.
Welch took the position of senior associate dean of research and graduate studies in the School of Medicine in 1998.
Welch's current salary totals $265.674.
Finch University officials were unavailable at press time to give Welch's projected wage.
Boatright said Welch, who gained international fame for his research on brain function in cerebrovascular disease and the migraine, was taking a significant promotion by accepting the position at Finch.
"He had come to the point where he was looking for a new and larger challenge," Boatright said.
Edited by Christina Neff.
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