CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 23, 1992
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Budig reports increase in grants to KU
By KC Trauer
Kansan staff write
Research grant awards to the University of Kansas increased 10.5 percent to a record level of $77 million last year, Chancellor Gene Budig announced yesterday.
Grants to the Lawrence campus totaled $43 million, and the University of Kansas Medical Center grant awards reached $34 million for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30. Overall, research awards increased $7.3 million from fiscal year 1991
The Med Center, which has doubled its grant money during the past five years, received 20 percent more in grant money than in 1991.
This, without question, will be one
of the more significant percentage increases in research funds among American colleges and universities," Budig said. "It reflects well on the commitment and capabilities of our faculty."
Ed Meyen, executive vice chancellor, said external financing for research was essential to attracting and retaining quality faculty and graduate students, which improves the academic environment of each school.
"You will definitely find a pattern between strong programs with strong students and faculty and the school's ability to compete for research funds," Meyen said.
maceutical chemical program, were campus leaders in attaining grants.
Grants finance a wide variety of research, said Kevin Reed, assistant director of research support and grant administration.
He said one of the leading research programs benefiting from the flood of grant money was four professors' effort to find a synthetic substitute for Taxol, a drug being developed to battle several forms of cancer.
Taxol is derived from yew trees, but because the process of extracting Taxol destroys the trees, the professors are trying to find a synthetic substitute with the same healing qualities. Reed said.
A U.S. congressional committee recently criticized universities for
putting too much emphasis on research.
Universities focus on research and the costs associated with research divertteachers' attention from undergraduate education, said the report released last week from the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families.
Meyen said he thought that KU's research efforts did not overshadow its academic mission but that the University is aggressive in earning research grants.
"If we didn't draw that kind of research money, we're be a very different university in terms of the faculty we attain and the students who come here," he said. "I think it enriches the academic environment."
Increasing research funds
FY 1988 FY 1989 FY 1990 FY 1991 FY 1992
Panelists stress need for unity in multiculturalism
Mary Myers, Pittsburg graduate student, speaks about discrimination among minority groups.
Kin Chin / KANSAN
By Mark Martin Kansan staffwriter
Kristin Lange is tired of hearing about the "other."
"For so long in this country, whenever there has been talk about multiculturalism, it's always about the other," said Lange, who was one of 10 panelists participating in last night's discussion titled "Multiculturalism: Where is the Common Ground?"
"People who have different ethnicities or sexual orientations, they're always the other, as compared to the white European heterosexual culture," she said. "We have to realize that there is no other, we are all equal parts in the whole."
Lange represented Women's Student Union. The KU Coalition of the Lawrence Alliance sponsored the two-hour program, which addressed issues of multiculturalism ranging from education to politics. An audience of about 60 people asked questions and shared comments.
Ann Weick, dean of social welfare
and head of the Lawrence Alliance opened the forum.
"Municulturalism is a concept that is talked about a great deal in our society, but it may represent a reality we still have to get to," she said. "We are a multicultural society, but we may have different ideas about what that means. The question is where are the threads that might bind us into the 21st century?"
Maggie Childs, associate professor of East Asian Languages and Culture and head of Gay and Lesbian Academic and Staff Advocates, said no one culture could be considered better than others.
"All cultures cannot be absorbed into one," she said. "All these cultures together compose this country."
Several panelists stressed that learning about other people and cultures was what multiculturalism should be about.
"The concept of familiarity is important," said Marcel Brou, a member of the International Student Council. "It is being able to accept differences."
and accepting people for what they are."
The discussion often turned political.
"What it comes down to is this country is still run by white, men," said James Baucom, president of the Black Student Union. "We still haven't gotten to these people who often control our lives."
David Skeeter, president of the Native American Students Association, said political and social systems in the United States were discriminatory
"In the past, the political systems of the United States have intended to kill me as an individual and as a race," he said. "Currently, that's not the case. But the damage that's been done continues on."
Public hearing is set for planned trafficway
Fred Rodriguez, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, said people needed to know each other as individuals, not as groups.
"The bottom line is we need to learn how to live together, not how to be alike," he said.
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Kansan staff writer
By Kristy Dorsey
Routing of the South Lawrence Trafficway, a 14.1-mile stretch of road designed to alleviate congestion in the city, will be open for discussion tonight at a public meeting with Kansas Department of Transportation and Douglas County officials.
The meeting, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., will be held in Building 21 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 19th and Harper streets. The meeting is a public hearing concerning the final routing of the trafficway.
Representatives from the Douglas County Commission, the Kansas Department of Transportation and the Lawrence City Commission will address citizens' concerns about the impact of the trafficway on the city. There will be a question-and answer session at the end of the meeting with Mark Buhler, head of the Board of County Commissioners.
The traffway will begin at a new 1-70 Tumpike interchange northwest of town and will run south past Clinton Parkway, where it will ever east and run roughly parallel with 23rd Street before intersecting Kansas Highway 10 outside of town.
Rod Bremby, assistant city manager, said the trafficway was designed to relieve heavy levels of traffic along Sixth and 23rd streets.
"What this will do is take a lot of traffic off 23rd
from people on their way to Clinton Park," he said. "It will also alleviate problems along Sixth Street."
Bremby said the trafficway would be financed by federal, state, county and Kansas Transit Authority funds. The cost is about $61.5 million. City officials will know sometime today whether federal financing was approved for the Eastern Parkway, Bremby said. This parkway, a separate project, will link the South Lawrence Trafficway with Sixth Street, completing the Lawrence Circumferential Roadway.
Bremby said approval of funds must come from the Joint House-Senate Conference Committee on Transportation. The city is hoping to get $8.5 million of the project's total $14.7 million price tag from the committee.
Funding for the Eastern Parkway is crucial for the overall project, Bremby said.
"It's going to be difficult if we don't get the money tomorrow," he said last night. "The South Lawrence Trafficway would still be functional without the Eastern Parkway, but the loop wouldn't be complete."
In addition to the trafficway and parkway construction, the city hopes to expand Sixth Street
Bremby said he hoped the entire building project would be finished by 1995, although beginning dates for construction have not yet been set. The total price of the roadway is set at $82.7 million.
By Kristi Fogler
Career fair offers job information
By Kristi Fogler
Kansan staff writer
Nearly 900 students attended yesterday's Business Career Fair to gather information about career opportunities.
Representatives from 83 companies handed out information and talked with students at the Holiday Inn Holidome. 200 McDonald Dr.
Bryan Beeson, Naperville, Ill. senior, he came to the fair to pick up information about several companies.
"I'm looking for a career in anything," Beeson said. "I'm just trying to keep my options open."
Beeson said he was most interested in the FBI information table.
"A lot of people are here with their three-piece suit, briefcases and resumes," Beeson said. "For the people who take it really seriously, it's a good opportunity."
Beeson, dressed in shorts and a polo shirt, said he was going home to change into his business clothes and would return to the fair.
Shelly Adams, Derby senior,
said the fair fulfilled her expectations but would not come back to it again. She did not know what type of career she wanted and did not believe the fair had helped her.
Adams said she wished more nonprofit companies had been at the fair.
Marc Turman, supervisor of the Beech Aircraft Corp. said his company had support for potential employees.
"We're hoping to identify potential finance, accounting and economics majors that will hopefully graduate in May," Turman said.
Of the $0 to 100 resumes he expected to receive at the fair, Turman said three to four would lead to employment opportunities.
"We want to develop a permanent, lasting relationship with the University." Turman said.
Fred Maddus, placement director for the School of Business, said the fair was successful, and reported no major problems.
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Jeff Wicina, right, lenexa graduate student, talks with Aaron Walker of Merck Human Health Division at KU's career fair.