CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, August 23, 1995
3A
KU relationship survives long distance
Diana Prentice Carlin says she will remain at KU, fly to Washington
By Novelda Sommers
Kansan staff writer
Diana Prentice Carlin has been racking up the frequent flier miles.
Carlin, professor of communication studies, is married to John Carlin, former Kansas governor and recently appointed head of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The two see each other almost every weekend.
And despite the rumors that have been
"There's no place like Kansas for clean air and blue sky," she said.
circulating, she and her husband like Kansas just fine and plan to keep their Topeka home, Diana Carlin said.
Speculation about whether Diana Carlin would stay at her position at KU began when news about her husband's controversial nomination to head the National Archives broke last spring, she said.
Around the same time, she accepted a visiting professorship at the University of Maryland for Spring 1996.
"I would have taken it whether John would have taken the appointment or not," Diana Carlin said.
Being married to the National Archivist has its perks, she said. Already, Diana Carlin has gone to a dinner given by former President Lyndon Johnson and
attended a speech President Clinton gave at the Archives.
Diana Carlin said she was issued a volunteer's pass to the National Archives so she would not have to be searched every time she entered the building to see her husband. Since she had a pass, she decided she would volunteer.
"I'm going to take advantage of this for all of my courses," she said.
One of the exhibits she worked with was about women in politics. Diana Carlin said she made faciesimiles of original documents to use in a class on women in politics, which she teaches at KU.
The Archives house the nation's most important historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Critics said John Carlin, who has an
undergraduate degree in dairy science, was hardly the person for the job. His nomination was opposed by the National Historical Society and the Society of American Archivists. Some said Clinton merely was rewarding John Carlin for working on his 1992 presidential campaign.
Diana Carlin said the allegations were hurful, and the press overlooked her husband's many supporters — and his qualifications.
"He was approved by a unanimous vote in both the House and the Senate," she said. "He had bipartisan support. He crosses party lines to do what needs to be done."
John Carlin has a staff who decides which documents are kept and which are thrown away.
"We're talking about millions and millions of documents. No one person could do that," she said. "What they needed was a manager."
Diana Carlin said her husband's duties included budgeting, setting regulations and making staffing decisions.
After completing her visiting professorship in Maryland, Diana Carlin will return to KU to teach. She also will continue to accrue frequent flyer miles. Her husband's appointment has no set term, and he cannot be removed without good reason, she said.
But there's no chance of the Carlins leaving Kansas for good.
Aircraft design brings Kansas rivals together
"We're Kansans," she said. "Washington's great for a lot of things, but it's not the Midwest."
By Craig Lang Kansan staff writer
Most people think of the University of Kansas and Kansas State University as rivals. However, KU's department of aerospace engineering decided that the key to winning a national competition was working alongside student and faculty members from Kansas State and Wichita State University.
Last month, a team of 40 students and 17 faculty members from all three universities was awarded first place in a national competition for the team's design of a family of commercial aircraft. The team started in the fall of 1994 and completed the project, which included a 600-page report, in May.
The team was developed in April 1994 after faculty members from all three universities met with a NASA administrator about the competition. Contest guidelines were released that fall, and the three universities decided to combine their efforts.
"It was clear to me that none of the three schools could have done as good of a job by themselves, so working together was a definite positive," said David Downing, chairman of KU's aerospace engineering department.
The contest, sponsored by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration, required entrants to design a two-, four- or six-passenger aircraft. Downing said the Kansas entry was unique because the team decided to design a family of aircraft with all three sizes.
Downing said another unique aspect of the design was that they were targeted at a completely new market of consumers.
Downing said that by designing a family of aircraft, manufacturers could use the same assembly line for making all three sizes. This would make it more inexpensive for manufacturers to build the planes.
"The users we were looking at were business people who are interested primarily in a transportation tool, as opposed to being aviation enthusiasts," he said.
Sang Moon, Seoul, South Korea, graduate student, said the plane the team designed featured an advanced cockpit with a user-friendly control panel. "You won't need a pilot's license to fly this plane, just two or three hours of training," he said.
Downing said that by working with other universities, the team had access to expertise it would not necessarily have had at KU.
Mike Zyskowski, Hutchinson graduate student, said much of the success of the project should be credited to Jan Roskam, professor of aerospace engineering and project adviser.
"In a project like this, you have to have a decision maker," Zyskowski said. "Everyone respected him and was willing to accept what he said."
In spite of being from rival universities, Downing said the three schools working together proved that Kansas had outstanding aircraft design expertise. "We've shown by working together, we are nationally competitive," he said.
The second-largest honeybee colony in Kansas and one of three on the KU campus is attached to Lippincott Hall.
Brenden Sager / KANSAN
Honeybees dying at KU, around the world
Entomology professor says the buzz of bees soon could be history
Kansan staff writer
Campus is abuzz this week with new students starting a new semester, but in a few years it won't be abuzz with any honeybees.
"All the wild (honeybee) colonies are dying out," said Orley Taylor, professor of entomology and University of Kansas's official bee keeper. "KU's bees are my bees."
Taylor is not only referring to the downfall of honeybees on campus, in Lawrence or even in Kansas. In two to three years, all the wild colonies of honeybees in the nation will be gone, Taylor said. They already have disappeared in Europe
and other places around the world.
"The vast majority of people will never notice this event ever occurred," he said.
The mite spread across the U.S. from Florida where there are virtually no wild honeybees anymore, Taylor said. The mite then spread up the east coast and across the nation through bee trading.
"That's certainly the way it's going to be here," he said. "In quite a few areas (the varroa mite) has totally eliminated wild bees."
Honeybees are being ravaged by the varroa mite — a mite that can lay waste to an entire colony in a matter of months. Taylor said it was introduced in the United States around 1986 from Europe. Ninety-nine percent of Europe's wild honeybees are gone, he said.
"For the very first time, people are starting to notice wild bees
The effects of losing the honeybee in Kansas won't be as bad as they will be for other states because Kansas' agriculture isn't based on flowering plants, Taylor said.
don't exist any more," Taylor said.
Apistan, a toxin which can kill a honeybee, is being used to kill the mite. Plastic strips with low-level doses of Apistan on them are put in the colonies, and they seem to be effective for controlling the mite, Taylor said.
However, farmers do have a weapon for controlling the mite.
For awhile, KU students who wonder if the garbage cans in front of Wescoe Beach will be populated by fall's usual bombardment of bees can relax, Taylor said. There should be wild honeybees on campus this year because campus boasts some of the largest colonies of wild honeybees in the state, he said.
"It's surprising we have three colonies up on the hill," Taylor said.
The second-largest bee colony that Taylor has seen in Kansas is attached to the west side of the columns in front of Lippincott Hall. Other formidable colonies can be found behind Stauffer-Flint Hall and on the Continuing Education building.
Ed Bishop, retired binding supervisor for KU's Printing Services and 16-year beekeeper, takes bees out of other people's yards and puts them in his own yard.
"It's my service to the community," he said.
Bishop said he has noticed that the wild honeybees were disappearing during the past five years, and nobody seems to notice or care.
"I think it's the same old story — it won't happen to me," Bishop said.