VOL.101.NO.58
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OPEKA KS 66112
THE UNIVERSITY DAII KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13,1991
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Improving campus safety comes at a cost
By Blaine Kimrey Kansan staff writer
KU students have been screaming for more campus lighting for years. Now they have the chance to put their money where their mouths are, said Alan Lowden, student body vice president.
Lowden is co-author of a bill that would create a $2 campus-lighting fee effective Fall 1992. The bill would last five years.
The bill, also sponsored by off-campus senator Kristin Lange, would create a campus-lighting advisory board composed of students, faculty and administrators.
"The purpose of the bill is to expedite the lighting improvements on campus because they are going so slowly." Lowden said. "It's been an issue for several years, and nothing much has been done."
Tonight, the campus-lighting bill will go before the Student Senate Finance Committee, which will meet
at 6:30 at the Big Eight Room in the K a n s a s Union.
AlanLowden
extra $2 a semester," Lowden said.
He said that if the bill were passed by a simple majority of the Student Rights and Finance committees, it would go to Senate on Nov. 20.
If Senate and the chancellor approve the bill, it would allow campus lighting to be installed twice as fast as it would be otherwise.
The new fee would generate at least an extra $100,000 a year in funds for campus lighting. Lowden said.
In a letter to Lowden, Alan Wiechert, University director for facilities planning, said facilities planning would commit at least $100,000 a year to campus lighting to match the student fees raised.
"We have something in writing from
Kristin Lange
facilities planning that commits them to the program," Lowden said.
The lighting projects would be completed in the fiscal years in which the funds were raised, the letter states.
That means that at least $200,000 in lighting improvements would be madeeachyearfor fiveyearsif the bill were passed and approved by the chancellor.
After five years, the $2 fee would be absorbed into the student-activity fee, unless Senate decided otherwise.
Lowden said he did not think there
would be any other fee increases this year
David Amble, vice chairwoman for student affairs, said he was confident that noother University unit would ask for a fee increase.
Ambler said he regretted that students would be asked to pay for what was a state responsibility.
However, he considers the bill the only way the University can make significant lighting improvements in a reasonable time period, he said.
"There's a little of the attitude, if it's not broken, don't fix it," Aambler said. "Campus lighting falls further and further down the priority list."
In its annual meetings, facilities planning makes priority lists four or five times as long as what its approximately $2.5 million a-year budget can afford. Ambler said.
He said the budget often was consumed by emergency repairs.
"I like the bill because it holds our feet to the fire in making a University commitment."
Proposed fee increase
These are the non-academic fees in each semester for the fiscal years from 1986 to 1993. A $2 increase is proposed to generate revenue to improve lighting on campus. The fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
Source: David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs Joseph Lies, Michael GierlKANSAN
Jennifer How/KANSAN
Sew far, sew good
In preparation for her role as Irina in University Theatre's presentation of "The Blonde," Nicole Day, Lenexa senior, tries on one of her costumes while Kristine Lambert, Topeka senior, assists Mike Reese, Omaha, Neb., graduate student, in making adjustments. The presentation, which will be a combination of film and stage performance, will begin the first weekend in February.
Surveys show drop in smoking rates
Kansan staff writer
By Kerrie Gottschalk
Kansan staff writer
Fewer people are lighting up and puffing on cigarettes, according to national statistics.
Federal surveys released last week by the Center for Disease Control found that the smoking rate had dropped from 30 percent in 1985 to 28 percent in 1988. That marked the lowest ever recorded in the United States.
Linda Boyd, a representative from the American Cancer Society, said that although 2 percent was not a big drop, it should not be negated.
In the 20-24 age group, 28.1 percent of
the women and 31 percent of the men smoke. Rowld said.
Julie Huntsinger, health educator at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that her office did not have statistics about the smoking rate at KU but that she believed it would be similar to the national figures.
Wendy Thomsen, 26, Lawrence senior, said she started smoking when she was 14, quit for three years when she was 19 and started again four years ago when she moved in with roommates who were chain smokers.
The American Cancer Society reports that most people become confirmed smokers by the age of 20.
I am in school," Thomsen said.
"It is too stressful to try to quit while
Huntsinger said she recentlyattended a workshop that instructed people how to help others quit smoking.
Although Thomsen had never attended a stop-smoking seminar, many other people have.
"When people are nagged, it makes them mad, and then they want to do it all the more," Huntingster said.
"When smokers decide to quit, they must decide upon their own technique," Huntsiinger said.
Smokers trying to quit usually want information on how to quit. the emotional and physiological effects of nicotine, and how to remain a non-smoker. shesaid.
She said that if smokers wanted to quit, they needed strong support from friends and family.
Smokers have a variety of quitting options, but they need to find what works best for them. Hunsinger said.
Some opt for smoking cessation programs like the one offered at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Others devise their own methods.
Danielle Green, Evergreen, Colo,
sophomore, said she started smoking
when she was 16 and quit when she was
18.
When she smoked again last summer, it made her sick, she said. So she quit turkey.
Magic's disclosure sparks high school condom debate
The Associated Press
Magic Johnson's pledge to warn kids about AIDS has drawn applause, and warniness among some people that condom distributions in high schools could stall the message of fighting the deadly disease with safe sexual prac-
In Boston, Mayor Raymond Flynn said that distributing condoms in public schools could lead to an increase in the spread of AIDS.
Chelsea School Superintendent Peter Greer said that although kids should use condoms, schools should not distribute them.
"Should you put a clean needle change in the fourth grade?" he said.
Cambridge, Falmouth and the island community of Martha's Vineyard have approved such condom policies in Massachusetts. But only a few large cities, including Chicago and San Francisco, have chosen to make condoms available in public schools or school-based clinics.
By June 1992, New York City hopes to have programs in place for 200,000 students.
But opposition in most towns that have debated the proposal has been strong. Last year, a school board in Easton, Md., narrowly rejected a plan for nurses to distribute condoms at two high schools. In Mill Valley, Calif., a lawsuit by opponents stalled distribution efforts.
"It's being done against many parents' wishes," said Wendy Flint, president of the American Parents Association schools for someone else's decision."
Johnson announced last week he was retiring from the National Basketball Association because he had the AIDS virus. In his first appearance, he told a talk show audience: "I came on to the floor and I said, Please put your thinking caps on and put your cap on down there," he said, gesturing below his belt.
But Johnson has not commented about condom distribution in schools.
Tom McNaught, representatives for the state AIDS Action Committee said, "That's like saying making that kind of allowable encourages alcoholism," said.
But AIDS activists say schools that make condoms available to their students also should give them a thorough sex education.
Although many city officials concede that some teen-agers are sexually active, they have balked at making condoms available to students. In Boston, Belfyn said that distributing condoms in public schools could increase the spread of AIDS.
Regardless of whether condoms are distributed at schools, Americans will be seeing condom ads on television. Fox Broadcasting Co. announced yesterday that it would become the nation's first broadcast network to accept condom commercials. But paid advertising will be accepted only if condoms are promoted solely as a method for preventing transmission of AIDS. References to contraception will not be allowed, Fox said.
"We're not advocating that you go around the classroom handwriting out condoms to each student and saying, 'We know how to prevent AIDS,' McNaught said.
A recent study by the federal Centers for Disease Control reported that 37 percent of all high school students in the nation said they have had sexual contact.
Pal Pulmer of the National Federation of State High School Associations said, "Kids are going to talk about more than just abstinence. Kids are going to be kids regardless of what adults are going to do."
KU researchers use NASA satellite data to create land-cover maps of Kansas
Palmer is director of an AIDS prevention program that uses laser video discs to encourage 13 to 15-year-olds from engaging in sexual intercourse.
Greer said studies showed no link between the availability of condoms and higher sexual activity among teens.
By William Ramsey
The same type of satellite information that the U.S. military used in the Persian Gulf war is now being used by KK researchers to map the state of Afghanistan.
Kansan staff writer
A NASA satellite provides researchers in the Space Technology Center on West Campus with the landscape information they need to produce a digital map that can be accessed by computer.
The satellite, Landsat 5, scans the land cover and provides data about vegetation, bodies of water, resident communities and urban areas, he said.
"Thisis quantum jump in technology," said Mark Jakubaskas, one of four research assistants working on the project.
"I instead of just looking at a paper map, you can combine information. It gives us so much more flexibility."
Jakubauskas said that the data
could be used to create maps that show how the area looked only days before, which is one reason the military used Landat satellite during the gulf war.
The land-cover map then will be part of a digital map of Kansas that also will detail soil and highway information, be said.
Computer land-cover maps of about 20 of the 105 counties in Kansas have been completed.
Last summer, the state Wildlife and Parks Department purchased the satellite information about the Kansas landscape from NASA for $86,000.
KU researchers are using the information for their project, which was financed by a $168,000 grant from the Kansas Water Office.
Jakubauskas said KU was creating a digital map of the state land cover for the water office.
orbit of the Earth.
When the satellite passes overhead, its scanner picks up light reflected from the ground below, he said.
The satellite information is analyzed by a computer program and is checked by a human analysis with state data from the remote sensing maps, Jakubauskai said.
Six different bands of light on the electromagnetic spectrum, both visible and infrared, are used by the scanner to record the landscape.
KU researchers will develop a landcover map that will fit together with other maps like a lavered cake.
Jabakuskaas said that human and computer analysis could determine whether the object was a stream, vegetation building by the type of light reflected.
These other computer maps, or layers, are being produced by other researchers, including researchers at UMass, who are creating a soil map, he said.
Just as several layers of a slice of cake can be examined simultaneously, an area of land can be analyzed at several different levels using the digital maps.
Jerry Whistler, project director, said the project began in December after the water office approved his idea to construct a land-cover layer for the map by using satellite data.
Whistler said the digital map could be used, for example, by state highwayplanners.
In planning a route, they would be able to use the computer to determine if any wetland areas were located within five miles of the proposed path, he said.
Jakubauskas also said the map could be used as a resource for researching anything concerning the land features in the state.
"It is unprecedented," he said. "We're generating a huge amount of information here."
Satellite maps the state
Source: KU Space Technology Center
Aimee Brainard, William Ramsey/KANSAN