Thursday, September 4, 1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 3
Butterflies to bombard Lawrence
Kansas is one stop on way to Mexico
Andrew Rohrback/KANSAN
By Mike Perryman Kansan staff writer
The largest monarch butterfly migration in 20 years is expected to invade the Kansas landscape sometime this month.
species that this month.
The butterflies passing through Kansas will exceed tens of millions in number. Orley Taylor, professor of biological sciences, along with several KU volunteers, hope to collect, identify and tag thousands of monarch specimens.
Favorable weather conditions in North America over the past two years have contributed to the large butterfly population. Taylor said.
"During the peak of the migration, Lawrence will have a concentration of thousands of monarchs over a few days." Taylor said.
archs can travel." Daniels said.
The program is an effort by the department of entomology, the University of Minnesota, Texas Monarch Watch and Olathe East High School to recruit volunteers to collect and tag monarch during yearly migrations.
Taylor is the University's expert on the monarch butterfly and is the director of a program called "Monarch Watch."
in Wamego, which is east of Manhattan. Wamego will probably attract most of the monarchs again this year even though the Baker-Haskell Wetlands have attracted a lot of butterflies in the past, Taylor said.
Jason Daniels, Colby junior, will help teach a workshop Sept. 21 and 28 on how to collect and tag monarchs. The workshop is called "Mark that Monarch."
The monarchs leave their homes in southern Canada and the northern United States every year to travel south for the winter. This year they should pass through Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota before stopping in Kansas for about 10 days, Taylor said.
"We should have close to 100,000 volunteers and members interacting and participating in the collection this year," he said.
Last year, most of the specimens in Kansas were collected
Orley Taylor, professor of biological sciences, examines a monarch butterfly Tuesday. The largest monarch butterfly migration in 20 years is expected to invade Kansas sometime this month. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
"Many people have already signed up to participate in the collection," Daniels said. "We are expecting a great turnout."
Volunteers will collect monarchs that have traveled far distances. The longest recorded monarch flight was in 1989 when a butterfly flew 2,880 miles from Ontario to Texas.
"It is amazing how far mon-
When they leave Kansas, they will fly to a 75-mile area on the Rio Grande River between Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Texas, cross the border into Mexico, and land for the winter somewhere near Mexico City. The monarchs will spend the winter in Mexico and then travel back to the United States and Canada to mate in the spring, Taylor said.
Sandra Perez, post-doctoral student in biology, studies how
monarchs use the sun as a compass for direction. She said she was pleased with the number of people who had signed up to participate.
"I think it is going to be a killer year," she said. "We have people who don't have any real background in butterflies participating."
New-member welcome
Brandon Lowe, freshman, Lenexa, shows his spirit while serenading the new members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Photo by Tara Bradley/KANSAN
Housing dining halls understaffed; only half of available spots filled
By Sarah McWilliams
smcwilliams@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Students keep piling into campus dining halls, and staff and student employees are trying to keep up.
"Right now we're squeaking by with our staff," said Mindy Pendreigh, manager of dining services at Gertrude Sellars Pearson-Corbin Hall.
Barbara Quintero, assistant director of the department of student housing, said that the three campus dining halls, including GSP-Corbin, Oliver and Ekdahl, would like to employ about 100 students, but right now employs about 50 students. The dining halls also employ more than 100 non-students as full-time staff.
GSP-Corbin dining services now employs 11 students, about three-fourths as many as
The hall has not seen an increase in its average of 890-980 diners per day, she said. But lunch hour, one of the busiest times of the day, is a problem because student employees often have classes.
Dundreigh would like to employ. she said.
At Oliver Hall, lunch is also the busiest meal and the hardest time to schedule student employees.
Diane Michel, manager of Oliver Hall dining services, said they employ 14 students right now but would like to employ as many as 20 to help with the average of 870 diners who come through each day.
The dining hall needs students for breakfast, lunch and dinner shifts, and those workers are hard to come by, Michel said.
Despite the limited number of students, Michel and Pendreigh said they were pleased with the hard work their staffs had done so far.
University looks to up scholar enrollment
Continued from page 1A
Merit scholars annually by the year 2000.
1nis tail the University made a dramatic step towards achieving that goal, enrolling 31 more scholars than last fall's total of 59.
Loralee Stevens, admissions supervisor at Johnson County Community College, recruited National Merit scholars for the University for the past three years before taking the job at Johnson County.
She attributes the dramatic increase in scholars this fall to a number of factors including larger scholarships for National Merit students.
This fall, National Merit scholars got a $5,000 renewable scholarship. The awards were increased to $5,000 in fall 1996 from about $3,330 in fall 1995 and $1,200 in fall 1994.
Personal contact, information about the University personalized to the individual student and personalized campus visits also played a role, Stevens said.
Few dispute the prestige National Merit scholars bring the University.
Tom Mulinazzi, associate dean of the school of engineering, said that recruitment of National Merit scholars was a necessity.
However, Mulinazzi said, the emphasis on scholarships for National Merit scholars ignored some students who have strong academic backgrounds.
Last year the University had 38 more scholars than all the other Board of Regents universities combined.
"There's a whole bunch of good students that are not National Merit finalists," Mulinazzi said.
History museum forced to wait on completion of two exhibits
Construction delays hive, reptile installation
By Mike Perryman
Kansan staff writer
Two exhibits at the Natural History Museum expected to attract big crowds will not open for at least six more weeks because of construction and confusion.
The two exhibits, a new beehive and a new marine reptile, will not be completed until mid to late October, museum officials said. Construction within the museum is making it difficult to work on the exhibits, said Tom Swearingen, director of exhibits at the museum.
"It has been hectic and frustrating trying to work around all that is going in the museum," he said. "A lot of the bathrooms don't even work, and it's tough to find running water, let alone build an exhibit."
Bradley Kemp, museum marketing director, said another issue was the amount of people working on the exhibits.
"We have as minimal an exhibit staff as you can have right now and still have a museum," he said.
The marine reptile exhibit, which will be showcasing the largest mosasaur ever found, will be suspended from the ceiling on the museum's main floor right as you walk in.
Larry Martin, the museum's curator of paleontology, said that setting up the mosasaur exhibit was important.
"We are the world's capital when it comes to marine fossils, so of course the reptile exhibit is important," he said. "But it is not necessarily a priority. The bee exhibit is important too."
It was thought at first that the bee and reptile exhibits would be competing for the same space. However, they both work in the same space, Martin said.
The beehive will be sitting directly above the suspended reptile. Once the holes are drilled to suspend the mosasaur, the bee exhibit will be placed over the holes, concealing them.
Kemp said that if the bee exhibit was not sitting above the mosasaur, the bolts from the suspended reptile would probably be exposed in the middle of the floor.
"Although both exhibits are related in this way, the masosaur is slowing the bee exhibit in the sense that the holes for the reptile's suspension rods must be drilled before the bee exhibit goes up," he said.
Rob Schwarz, De Soto graduate student, is one of the main beehive-exhibit workers.
The new bee exhibit will be set up so that one could walk 360 degrees around it, whereas the old hive is set up flat against the wall, he said.
The new bee exhibit will feature a tree with a camera inside so the bees can be observed in the hive and a camera outside to watch bee activity from different angles. Schwarz said.
"It is a first-class exhibit," he said. "The new hive with its observation viewing cameras is unlike any other."
Swearingen did not know the exact date of opening for the new exhibits but looked forward to it.
"Both exhibits have been delayed, but once they are up and running, they will be a nice addition to the museum," he said.
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ANCHOR BASH '97
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Come celebrate a new school year and help raise money for Ald to the Blind. Come to Delta Gamma's Anchor Bash at Dos Hombres Thursday, September 4 9p.m.-2a.m
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