Monday, September 20. 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Prairie Park shows off new center to impressed Lawrence residents
Children release Monarch butterflies at the grand opening of the Pratice Park Nature Center. Butterflies were substituted for balloons because the rubber is bad for the environment. Photo by Aaron Lindberg / KANSAN
By Derek Prater
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
There were no lions or tigers or bears, but there were plenty of other animals for Lawrence residents to get in touch with at the debut of the Prairie Park Nature Center on Saturday.
Freed DeVictor, director of Parks and Recreation, said this was a special project that would educate both youth and adults about Kansas natural resources and the local environment.
Kids, still dressed in their Saturday soccer uniforms, oiled snakes and rummaged through animal pelts while Lawrence city officials and other adults toured the new $850,000 facility.
The nature center, 2730 Harper St. is located in 71-acre Prairie Park, which features a virgin prairie, seven-acre Mary's Lake, a wooded environment and a neighborhood park.
Mayor Erv Hodges said that he was impressed with the 5,500 square-foot facility and that it would be busy serving the total community.
"You know that old saying, 'Build it right, and they will come,'" he said. "Well, I think we built it right."
Marty Birrell, the Nature Interpretive Supervisor, said that the heart had come a long way in a short time but that it still needed work.
"There's a great deal more that we want to accomplish," Birrell said.
Birrell said the nature center staff was still developing instructive programs for kids and interpretive material and data to be displayed with the exhibits.
"My favorite part of the whole nature center is really what we're going to be doing with kids." she said.
Malory Hughes-Pfeifer, 9, was among a group of children who released monarch butterflies as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She said she enjoyed the nature center.
"I think it's really nice and cool because of all the animals," she said.
The nature center features a variety of exhibits designed to educate and entertain people of all ages
about the geographic features around Lawrence.
There are aquariums, reptile displays, woodland, wetland and grassland displays and a hands-on children area where kids can play with animal pelts, bones, snake skins and a European hedgehog.
Lisa Patterson, recreation marketing supervisor, said there were 20 programs planned for the fall.
In addition to the nature center debut, an art dedication was held for a sculpture that was built in accord with the facility.
"Occurrence" is an 18-by-8-foot double-sided copper and bronze relief by artist Jon Havener, professor of design at the University of Kansas.
Havener said he tried to capture the motion and energy that emanates from the virgin
prairie, which has been unblemished by human development. He described the sculpture, which pays homage to the grasslands in Prairie Park, as having a natural architecture.
The $30,000 sculpture was funded by the Percent for Art Program, which dedicates up to 2 percent of capital improvements to public art, said Brigid Murphy, chairwoman of the Prairie Park Art Committee.
The nature center is the 10th Parks and Recreation project to be funded by a 1994 sales tax approved by Douglas County voters, DeVictor said.
Hodges thanked voters for their foresight in passing the sales tax, and DeVictor called it an investment in the future of the city.
—Edited by Brad Hallier
Search committee hopes to find dean by the end of June
By Nathan Willis
writer @kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
With the goal of installing a new business school dean by June 30, a search committee met for the first time Friday and began working on the process of recruiting candidates.
This is the third dean search to begin this semester, with searches for fine arts and law deans already underway. Unlike those searches, which resulted from failed searches last spring, this search was triggered by the announcement at the beginning of the semester that current dean Tom Sarowski would retire in June.
Ron Ash, search committee member and professor of human resources in the business school, said Provost David Shulenburger warned the committee that competition with other schools for dean candidates could be fierce.
"He said there are a number of dean jobs open," Ash said. "It will be competitive."
Still, he said he thought the committee was confident that it could find a viable candidate and escape the shadow of the law and fine arts searches, which are both in their second attempts.
"We won't settle for poor candidates," Ash said. "But I'm pretty hopeful at this point that we'll be able to find someone."
Annie McShane, Fairway graduate student in business and search committee member, said she also was confident the committee would find good candidates — largely because it was
getting an early start.
"I think the best thing you can do in a case like this is prepare and plan well," she said. "I feel that the committee is very knowledgeable. Hopefully, we'll have a very cool pool of candidates."
At Friday's meeting, the 13-member committee fine-tuned a description of the position given to them by Shulenburger, said Charles Krider, committee chairman.
"We're looking at how to identify appropriate candidates," he said.
The committee will meet again tomorrow to decide where they want to advertise the position probably in such journals as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Krider said.
From there, the committee hopes applications will start rolling in, Ash said. The committee plans to begin reviewing applications Nov. 15 and probably will invite a select group of candidates to visit campus during the spring semester, he said.
The entire process is something that students in the business school need to pay attention to, McShane said.
"For the business school's undergraduate and graduate students, having a good dean is essential because a good dean knows business and the business community," she said. "Students really need to care because the dean has a huge impact on the success of students in the business school and the success of students in the business community."
-Edited by Jennifer Roush
Continued from page 1A
many Jews have taken steps to make amends for any wrongs they may have committed against other people.
The Kol Nidre service marks the beginning of Yom Kippur and is a solemn personal and introspective experience.
Jack Winerock, professor of music, and Dawn Mollenkopf, graduate student, led the service. They read scripture passages and traditional passages from a prayer book, alternating between Hebrew and English, and the congregation read several passages aloud together. Mollenkopf served as the cantor for the service, chanting scripture and traditional prayers.
Susan Shafer-Landar, executive director of KU Hillel, estimated thatthe University had 1,500 Jewish students and that the Lawrence community had between 250 and 300 Jewish residents.
"Kol Nide brings students and the community together," she said.
At the close of the service, speakers
including Teri Levi, president of Jewish Student Council and Wichita junior, and David Katzman, professor of American studies, addressed those gathered for the service.
Katzman encouraged the congregation to donate to charity, reminding them of the Jewish community's strong history of philanthropy. He said Jewish philanthropic groups helped people locally and internationally, and he talked about the help Jews from around the world have recently given to Jews in Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union and Kosovo. The Lawrence Jewish Community Center is accepting food donations today for area food pantries.
"You come from many different places, and each see the Jewish part of yourselves uniquely," she said.
Shafer-Landau invited students to participate in KU Hillel, and she encouraged students to build a Jewish community that reflected their needs and interests.
—Edited by Mike Loader
Israel grinds to a halt for high holy day
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM—Some Israelis escaped to the beach for the solemn holiday of Yom Kippur, but most prepared to repair to the trenches of their faith, fasting and praying on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
More than 80 percent of the Jewish residents of this otherwise overwhelmingly secular country revert to tradition on this holiest of Jewish days, attending synagogue and fasting throughout the 25-hour holy day. Yom Kippur starts at sundown Sunday this year and ends at sundown Monday.
Israelis scurried around Jerusalem on Sunday to finish last minute preparations before the country shut down.
Some spoke of the commandment to seek forgiveness for one's sins against God.
“It's a time to think of all the things you've done in the past year,” said Ari Lamet, a student at an Orthodox seminary. “I think about how I have gone away from God's path and how it is time to come back.”
The 10 days between Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippin are the "Days of Awe"
— are reserved for asking forgiveness from one's fellows for any harmful acts in the previous year. Many Jews call up esterganded friends and family in an effort to repair broken relationships.
In his Yom Kippur eve radio broadcast Chief
Rabbi Yisrael Lau urged Israelis to take that spirit one day further, and then throughout the year.
All around the world, Jews hook to synagogue, and Jews will fascin an effort to repeat for their sips.
In Israel, shops and markets shut down. There are no international flights and many of the borders to Israel are closed. There are no news broadcasts and all Israeli television stations go off the air.
Streets are bare, except for worshipers headed to and from synagogue to fulfill the special commandments of the day: Listening to the haunting melodies of the Kol Nidre service, in which Jews renounce the rash vows they had made through the year; the Al Het ritual, when Jews pound their chests in regret for their sins of omission.
Soldiers remain on alert. The army was sending cantors to lead services at army bases in the self-declared security zone Israel occupies in south Lebanon.
Among the only professionals on the job are paramedics; Israeli kids eye streets empty of traffic as cycling opportunities, and many are known to take a steep hill a little too fast. Each year, the first news broadcast after the holiday is over lists at least 20 bicycle-related injuries.
Most of the country's 20 percent Arab minority remain at home, watching TV broadcast from neighboring Arab lands. Israel shuts down crossings to Palestinian areas.
In his message, broadcast before Israel radio shut down, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recalled the shock the country suffered when Arab nations launched an attack on Yom Kippur in 1973 — a time Israelis were sure they would be left unmolested. Three thousand Israeli troops died in the subsequent war.
"We still hear the siren that tore through the dead silence of Yom Kippur 1973," he said. He swore that, even with the peace process revived, Israel would always bear in one hand the olive branch in the other, the sword.
Some secular Israelis see Yom Kippur as no different as any other day. People left packed video stores on Sunday morning, arms piled high with videos to last the 25-hour stretch.
Maya Mevuach, a Jerusalem resident, said she will be leaving town on Yom Kippur.
"I'm spending the day at the beach," she said. "I don't connect to Yom Kippur. I don't relate. I would rather forget about it."
Ben and Bethanie Mackler described the holiday as an opportunity to relieve themselves of sin.
"It is a day of introspection," Ben Mackler said. "Many people see it as a sad day but I see it as a happy one because by repenting your sins you can become closer to God. It is a serious day but happy because God makes it easier to repent."
Just off 23rd behind McDonalds - 749-Hawk Open at 4PM Daily,11AM Weekends
Join the Parade! (Includes floats, marching groups and banners)
Applications available at the SUA office, Level 4 Kansas Union
All applications must be turned in at the SUA office by 5 p.m. Sept. 21
Mandatory safety meeting 4 p.m. Sept.21 in Alderson Auditorium, Level 4 Kansas Union
Banner materials will be provided by SUA