Volume 125 Issue 28
Wednesday. October 10, 2012
kansan.com
ENGINEERING EQUALITY
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN
GIRLS ALLOWED
Reba Leggitt works on her senior electrical engineering project on Tuesday afternoon. Leggitt is the president of the Society of Women Engineers
The School of Engineering aims to increase the number of women in the field
NIKKI WENTLING
nwentling@kansan.com
The School of Engineering has a plan for growth, and it is not leaving women out of the equation.
Female students, who make up about 20 percent of the school, are "underrepresented," as stated by Florence Boldridge, director of Diversity and Women's Engineering Programs.
"What I found many years ago when going into this line of work was that young ladies thought, 'Well, I'm just not good enough, I'm not smart enough," Boldridge said. "But females bring a totally different perspective to the field of engineering."
To increase the female population in the school, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) holds a weekend camp for high school sophomores, juniors and seniors in the fall and spring semesters. About 30 to 40 girls attend each camp, some attendees coming from out-of-state. The girls take a tour of campus and the school, explore the different areas of study within the school and work on small projects.
The next camp is scheduled for Nov. 17 to 18, and Boldridge said she is expecting more attendees
Although the school is succeeding in improving enrollment, Boldridge said that the number of in-
"The population of women engineers in the school is really small. This is a way to connect with other women who are bucking tradition and going into a field that is typically male-centric," Liggett said.
"There's a huge need for engineering graduates, and we're trying to fill that need," Sorem said. "Enrollment will continue to grow because the large freshman class will matriculate through."
Liggett is now the president of SWE; she interacts with middle
than ever before, as about 50 girls have already signed up. Boldridge credits this to the school's recruitment officials sending out more invitations — about 4,000 — in an overall effort to attract more students to the University.
When looking at coming back to the University, Liggett researched the Society of Women Engineers. She learned that the group helps instill interest for engineering in high school and middle school, and she joined on that premise.
"I figured I couldn't do that for the rest of my life." Liggett said. "Growing up, my dad worked at a utility company, and he was influential in me becoming an electrical engineer. It's something I know. The math and science come easy to me."
Associate Dean Robert Sorem said recruitment has been a major focus for the School of Engineering for the past five or six years, and the K-12 programs are just a part of this.
In 2011, Gov. Sam Brownback signed the University Engineering Initiative Act, which set aside funding for three Kansas schools, including the University, with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of engineering graduates.
school and high school girls at camps throughout the year. Last year, she was a resident assistant for a weekend camp. She took the attendees around the school and led a group participating in a computer science-based activity. At the school's welcome back barquee this semester, Liggett was able to see some of those girls again.
This year, the School of Engineering enrolled about 530 freshmen, a 22 percent increase.
Edited by Sarah McCabe
If the school maintains this number, Sorem said, that would be enough to meet the goal.
Although women continue to be underrepresented in the school, and there has not been much evidence of short-term results, Boldridge acknowledged that there has been growth in the long-term. Last week, Boldridge began her 29th year as director of Diversity and Women's Engineering Programs. When she began working for the University, the school of engineering was about 10 percent female, she said. Since then, that percentage has doubled.
coming female students remained stagnant.
Reba Liggett, a senior from Mankato, Kan., said she is only one of three female students in the senior class in the department of electrical engineering.
"The trend lately has been that yes, ladies are smart enough, they are good enough. They can be equal to those men." Boldridge said. "It's improved."
Liggett received an English degree from the University in 2008. After graduating, she worked for a newspaper and lived with her parents.
KANSAN
KU Athletics gives writer stern warning
LIKE RANKER
Iranker@kansan.com
The Kansas football program had a special message this week for sportswriters from the student paper. Watch your step.
Members of KU Athletics singled out a University Daily Kansan sports writer Tuesday to warn him of lingering illwill among members of the football program.
They disagree about the intent of the conversation.
Katy Lonergan, director of football communications, said she was looking out for the writer and reminded him that he had the same access of any reporter. Sports writer Blake Schuster, a junior from Chicago, said the conversation was meant to interfere with his work.
He said Lonergan told him it would be in his best interest not to ask questions.
Before the weekly football press conference, Lonergan invited Schuster to a meeting in her office with Mike Cummings, assistant director of communications for KU Athletics.
During the meeting, Lonergan warned Schuster about possible negative reactions to last Thursday's Kansan cover art and story.
She told him these negative attitudes could be directed toward him.
Schuster said he was surprised KU Athletics was still concerned about the cover art.
"I thought it was dead until this morning," he said.
Lonergan and Schuster could not say where the hostilities were expected to come from, but coach Weis was the only member of the football program to take questions during the press conference.
The possible change in attitude stems from cover art depicting a large Wildcat football player carrying a goal post with
a small Jayhawk clinging to it. On Thursday Weis tweeted about his displeasure with the art. Several national outlets covered the tweet, including USA Today.
"The way I perceived it was there would be a negative effect for me if asked any questions," Schuster said.
To his knowledge, reporters from other news outlets were not warned of potential hostilities.
He said he felt the meeting was meant to prevent something from happening in front of other press. Schuster said he interacted with football players and members of KU Athletics when he covered the game against Kansas State and felt no negativity.
Lonergan said she did not tell Schuster to refrain from asking questions.
"I just simply advised him that if he did ask questions, he should be prepared for any kind of tone in his answer," she said.
She said the goal of the meeting was to make Schuster not feel uncomfortable during the press conference.
She said she warned Schuster to "be prepared for a possible change in tone."
Lonergan compared her conversation with Schuster to situations in which she had questioned other sports reporters about the correctness of their quotes or their lack of sources in stories. She said she would have done the same with any reporter.
The Jayhawks are 1-4. The next game is at home Saturday against Oklahoma State.
Ian Cummings contributed to this story.
Edited by Sarah McCabe
ADMINISTRATION
RACHEL SALYER/KANSAN
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little discusses curriculum changes, crime, new hires and her experience with exams as an undergraduate Thursday in her office. It was the second of an ongoing discussion between the Chancellor and The University Daily Kansan.
Chancellor weighs in on campus safety
RACHEL SALYER rsalyer@kansan.com
CRIME
Two weeks ago, the University called attention to its annual crime report in an all-student email. The report is required by the federal Clery Act and must detail specific on-campus crime.
For Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, the numbers are important not only from the student aspect but as a campus resident.
The numbers, collected for the 2011 calendar year on the Lawrence campus, showed 660 crimes reported, down 4.6 percent from the 692 crimes reported in 2010.
"It's important to me because I do live on campus." Gray-Little
"It is important that all of us take reasonable precautions in what we do and where we go, but we need to be able to have access," Gray-Little said.
NEW HIRES
The report does more than list the numbers detailing campus and community safety resources. It also provides personal safety tips, such as walking in well-lit areas, not leaving spare keys hidden outside the home and using a cell phone judiciously so it's not a distraction.
said. "Because I come and go around campus, I see students out, especially in the evening, and they have a right to be there."
CORE CURRICULUM CHANGE
"If we look at the faculty and students number in quality, there's nothing that's more important than that to the University," Gray-Little said.
Gray-Little said the hires would not happen immediately but over time. She said that during the past few years, faculty numbers were decreasing. The investment in new hires comes from Kansas' legislature money and is also the result of internal efficiency, she said.
Last week, the University announced its plan to fill 64 new
faculty positions, returning the faculty size to about the number it was before hiring slowed in the last ten years.
As the University irons out its new KU Core curriculum changes
Gray-Little said the purpose of the change is to offer students more flexibility and give students with heavy course loads the opportunity to graduate in four years. She said it also reflects a general trend of universities across the country no longer requiring the course.
The curriculum changes will affect other general education courses. However, Gray-Little said, the University is still making those decisions.
for fall 2013, Western Civilization will no longer be a mandatory University-wide requirement but instead will be up to individual schools and departments.
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