The heat is on
SUNSHINE
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday October 1, 1987 Vol. 98, No. 29
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
(USPS 650-640)
Students study bees' mating ways
Chip Taylor, professor of entomology, holds a male bee. called a drone, that was tagged for observation by members of his Biology 745 class. The tagged drones, which have numbers glued onto their thoraxes, live in bee
Dave Niebergaal/KANSAN
colonies on West Campus. Taylor keeps a bee colony in his office in Haworth Hall. The colony is encased in Plexiglas, and the bees come and go through a tunnel in a window.
By NOEL GERDES
Staff writer
Bees may not be man's best friend, but nine students in Biology 745 found out that their bees and humans did have at least one thing in common - traffic jams.
As part of a class experiment last month, the nine students had to watch male bees, called drones, enter and exit their hives through special bee runways with Plexiglas tops.
"When we first started the project it would take a drone five minutes to get to the end of the runway," said Doug Yanega, Floral Park, New York graduate student. "They'd take their time, and you'd get a traffic jam in the runway."
Chip Taylor, professor of entomology and instructor of the course, said the purpose of the experiment was to discover new information about the mating characteristics of honeybee drones.
Taylor said the drones lived only to mate with a queen bee. The drones do not have stingers and have an average lifespan of 20 to 25 days. They don't become sexually active until they are about eight days old, and they die after they mate, he said.
The project was designed to answer questions such as how long and how often drones fly, whether the wind affects their direction and whether blond bees, called cordovans, behave differently than normal black-and-yellow bees. One characteristic that sets cordovans apart from other drones is that they do have stingers.
Taylor said the class worked with two special colonies on West Campus, one with mostly cordovans and one with mostly black-and-yellow bees. On Aug. 31, the students began tagging one-day old drones by gluing tiny plastic numbers onto their thoraxes, the section of a bee's body that connects the head and abdomen.
The students spent three days observing the two colonies, keeping track of when the tagged drones left the colony and when they returned. Taylor said the students recorded about 6,000 entrance and exit flights.
Yanega said that each day the drones would start off slowly. Activity would build to a frenzy, peaking about 3 p.m.
"If we hadn't had a tape recorder, we'd have been in real trouble, because when things got busy, we'd have two people shouting numbers simultaneously," Yanenga said.
Yanega said most of the bees were not threatened by the students. The cordworms were the ones that and they did sting a few students.
Next, the students spent six afternoons trapping drones using cone-shaped devices laced with queen bee odors. Bees mate in mid-air, Taylor said, so the traps were supported by large helium balloons or a special type of kite at
least 30 feet above the ground.
Every three minutes, students lowered the traps to release the bees and record tag numbers. Taylor said about six traps were up at a time. The class had 10 trapping locations, including a trap above the field to the southeast of Watkins Hospital, five traps on West Campus and even a trap behind Wal-Mart, 2727 Iowa St.
Taylor said the group had the most problems with unreliable weather forecasts. Ideal conditions for trapping the drones are sunny days with temperatures in the lower 80s and wind at about 10 mph, he said.
"The weatherman would say,
"It's going to be a bad day," and I'd say,
'No, we can't trap today,' "he said.
"Then the sun would come
all of the drones would go crazy and we'd have to rush out with the trans."
Taylor said Sept. 25 was the last day the class had trapped bees.
Tracey Anderson, Cedar Falls, Iowa, graduate student, said she lost one trap in a wrestling match with gusty winds.
"It was really windy, and the line on my balloon snapped, and I lost the trap, bees and all," she said.
The class has enough data to analyze for the rest of the semester, he said, but it was apparent from just the six days the class
trapped that the drones always fly in the same general direction, regardless of wind conditions.
Yanega said, "It's a pretty satisfying feeling to make a scientific discovery. It makes you feel like you are accomplishing something."
JRP gets more room for parking
Staff writer
By JORN E. KAALSTAD Staff writer
The KU Parking Board last night voted to allow students with dorm parking permits to park in additional spaces behind Joseph R. Pearson Hall.
Before the action, JRP residents presented a petition with 277 signatures asking the board to let them park in yellow-zoned spaces, which take up a third of lot 50 behind their hall.
The parking board didn't act on the petition but did authorize parking services to change 13 to 20 yellow spaces in the lot to dorm parking spots.
Last year, people with either yellow permits or dorm permits could park anywhere in the lot. This year, parking services changed the lot to half yellow-zoned only and half dorm parking only.
Heitmeyer said an oversee of permits and a large number of visitors accounted for the parking shortage. Parking services had sold 210 permits to JRP residents as of Sept. 17. The part of the lot reserved for dorm parked having 197 stalls before last night's action.
Jason Krakow, student body president and a member of the parking board, said he could see the justification for overselling campus permits but not for dorm permits because students needed a sufficient number of spaces where they lived.
Last spring, Student Senate successfully requested that the parking board change dorm permits from being restricted to one hall to being valid at all campus residence halls, Kearsor, director of parking services.
Kearns suggested that Krakow ask the Senate to reconsider the change because it might be causing problems at some halls.
In other business, Jim Modig, associate director of facilities planning, informed the board about the progress of a planned parking garage.
The parking garage could be in the parking lot north of Allen Field House or the green area between the tree and the computer center, he said.
Modig said the Keane and Bradley Design Group of Topeka and Walker and Associates Consultants of Denver had received architecture contracts for the garage from the University.
The department of facilities planning still is negotiating the value of the contracts with the companies, he said. Construction bidding for the planned garage may begin early next summer.
Class officers' roles change over time
By BRAD ADDINGTON
Staff writer
With the election of freshman class officers that took place yesterday and Tuesday, many freshmen may be wondering exactly what class officers do. Upperclassmen may sometimes wonder the same thing.
"With the exception of the president of the senior class, the officers didn't do anything." Nichols said. "I know because I was one."
Rail Nichols remembers what chief officers did when he attended the University.
Nichols served as vice-president of his junior class from 1924 to 1925. He went on to become chancellor of the University from 1972 to 1973.
Part of the analysis said: "It is our feeling that if an individual student wishes to read about politics or to read aesthetic poetry, he can find an ample supply of it in the Oread Bookstore."
In 1976, BOO drafted a code to clarify its mission. BOCO "is to provide representation which will encourage identification with the class and with the University of Kansas through coordination and sponsorship of activities," the code states.
Some former KU students might have interpreted BOCO's purpose in only one way - lots of parties with
Happenin' candidates win freshman class elections
By VALOREE ARMSTRONG Staff writer
KU freshmen voted for the Happenin' coalition as their class officers in an election that ended yesterday.
More than 820 students voted,
200 more than last year. In each
position, the *Happenin'* coalition
candidates candidates come in second.
For president, Joel Joyce, Prairie Village, won with 431 votes. Mike Ensley, Overland Park, came in second with 140 votes.
For vice president, Tim Keel, Leaward, won with 425 votes. Mike Rozell, Overland Park, came in second with 151 votes.
For secretary, Julie Axland,
Overland Park, won with 421 votes.
Ann Nide, Omaha, Neb., came in second with 144 votes.
For treasurer. Meg Moulthrop.
Keel said a key to Happenin's success was going out and meeting students. He said the coalition went door to door to fraternities, sororites and GSP-Corbin Hall to talk to freshmen.
Houston, Texas, won with 385 votes. Brian Blankenship of Overland Park came in second with 163 votes.
lots of beer. The 1969-70 Jayhawker described that year's senior blast-off party; "One thousand members sloshed around in a sea of Bud."
Trisha Mathis, Junction City freshman, said Happenin' visited her house and was the most energetic coalition.
Several students who voted for Happenin' said they were impressed by the coalition's door-to-door efforts.
Other coalitions that ran were Concept, Cutting Edge and Headway. Two independent candidates also ran.
"We really went out and represented ourselves well." he said.
Cliff Stubbs, current senior class president, said, "There used to be
more party-throwing by BOCO before the drinking age changed."
Stubbs, who has been in BOCO for three years, said this year's senior officers hadn't thrown any parties yet.
"They will start happening around the end of the second semester, when the whole senior fury hits full swing," he said.
BCOO also is engaged in more traditional activities.
Its oldest tradition, started in 1873, is that of the senior class presenting a gift to the University. Gifts have included $4 to the student loan fund from the class of 1883, and $4,100 for the mosaic Jayhawk by the Robinson Gymnasium pool from the class of 1966.
the senior class officers also are in charge of the selection process in the annual presentation of the HOPE award. HOPE stands for Honor to an Outstanding Progressive Educator, and seniors have been presenting the award since 1959 to a member of the KU faculty.
BOCO also sponsors the Rock Chalk Revue. The KU YWCA and YMCA began sponsoring the annual show in 1950 to provide a creative outlet for KU students and to raise money for the Lawrence United Fund. BOCO began sponsoring a similar event called Encore in 1983, and the BOCO event took on the Rock Chalk Revue name in 1985.
Current BOCO officers hope the group's traditions will continue. One of the newest officers is Joel Joyce, Prairie Village freshman, who won yesterday's election for freshman class president. Joyce said recently that his coalition, Happenin,' would focus on involvement.
Jackson takes lead in KU Democrats poll
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was the victor in a straw poll conducted on campus yesterday and Tuesday by the KU Democrats.
By VIRGINIA McGRATH Staff writer
Jackson received about 25 percent of the 322 votes cast. Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who announced yesterday that his campaign manager gave damaging information to the press about former Joseph Bidens D.Del., came in second with about 24 percent of the vote.
Bruce Babbitt, Tom Bradley, Pat Schroeder, Sam Nunn, Joseph Biden and Edmund Muskie also received votes. The poll was conducted in front of Wescoe Beach and the Kansas Union.
Sens. Paul Simon, D-Dill., and Albore Gore, D-Denn., came in third and fourth respectively, with about 18 percent and 16 percent. Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., was fifth with about 14 percent, and seventh with sixth with about six percent. Cuomo has announced that he isn't running.
Milicent Williams, Olathe junior and president of the KU Democrats, said the turnout made the poll a success. She said Student Senate elections usually had about 900 voters but were publicized much more.
The results of the poll were announced at a meeting of the KU Democrats last night at the Kansas Union.
Allan Long, Douglas County coordinator for the Dukakis campaign, spoke at the meeting. He described yesterday as "another heavy day on the Democratic nomination front."
Long was referring to Dukakis' announcement yesterday that John Sasso, his campaign manager, had given information to the media that helped lead to the demise of Biden's candidacy.
tiden dropped out of the race after admitting that he had used others' phrases in some campaign speeches and plagiarized in law school.
Sasso resigned yesterday, along with Paul Tully, a former aide to Gary Hart who joined the Dukakis campaign after Hart left the race.
Long said that although the recent news would hurt the Dukakis campaign, Dukakis had done all he could to alleviate the situation. Dukakis accepted the fate of the two of them on Tuesday and publicly apologized about the incident.
"This is going to hurt," Long said. "Negative campaigning always rebounds. Although it was not instigated by Govenor Dukakis, the fact that one of his people did it reflects on him."