Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Wednesdav. June 26, 1991
3
Destruction of Watson lawn the prelude to healthy grass
T. J. Reyes, of the facilities operations landscape department, tills the lawn in front of Wentzle and Reyes said the lawn needed to be tilled Monday because it contained more than 60 percent weeds.
By Cathy Garrard
Kansan staff writer
Plotting, poisoning, then death. It all adds up to first-degree murder in front of Watson Library.
Compared with recent campus destruction, the death of the lawn in front of Watson appears trivial. However, the gutting of Hochberg was an accident. The demise of Watson's lawn was intentional.
David Leach, grounds-maintenance worker for facilities operations, said crews chemically treated the eastern section of lawn in front of Watson to kill the weed overgrowth.
"We kill the grass on purpose to get to the weeds," Leach said. "When the decision is made to renovate an area, the best way to fix it is to kill everything and start all over again."
Landscape maintenance is repairing the lawn because of compacted soil and weed problems, Leach said. Both problems occurred in that area because of heavy foot and bicycle traffic.
"The area is a popular spot for throwing a Frisbee or a football," Leach said. "All of the traffic contributes to weed infestation."
Jim Mathes, assistant director of landscape maintenance, said other animals also contributed to raid weed growth by spreading seeds.
The east lawn was treated more than two weeks ago and died three or four days later. Mathes said. Her death, the lawn turned two-thirds darker, the lighter color was dead grass, and the darker color was dead weeds.
Workers tilled the ground Monday and planted two different types of grass seeds to cover the area. One grass is temporary, and the other will be permanent.
Mathes said nurse grass, an annual grass, initially grew more rapidly, providing a ground cover while the permanent grass took
"We'll have grass cover about a week after we till the ground," she said. "We won't have a cover until next spring when we can re-seed again."
root. Nurse grass dies at the end of the growing season.
Mathes said the maintenance department frequently renovated
"We haven't done this area in over 14 years," Mathes said. "You can't do it on a set schedule. It depends on the use an area gets."
grass patches. The western part of Watson's lawn was re-seeded last summer.
Mathes said the cost to restore the area was minimal.
Budget requires service to be cut
Photo services still will be available
By Kelley Frieze
Kansan staff writer
The School of Fine Arts will discontinue Photographic Services Monday because of budget constraints.
Gordon Holland, supervisor of Photographic Services, said the school no longer could afford to have students with disabilities has been available for 55 years.
Many people have contacted the school and the service about the closing, but Holland said one other person's service still was available on campus.
Departments that use the service are concerned about the increased cost and inconvenience of services. The department also helps to KU faculty, staff and students.
Doug Koech, photography coordinator at University Relations, said off-campus services could charge two or three more than Photographic Services.
University Relations spends more than $2,000 a year at Photographic Services, mostly for reprints of negatives and colorized slide processing.
Koch said the discontinuation of Photographic Services meant he might have to go to Kansas City for work because as long as to have his work processed.
Peter Thompson, dean of fine arts,
said Photographic Services cost
twice as much to run as it made in
revenues.
"I can't subsidize the salaries of these service people even for a year to see if it could run on its own," he said.
Thompson said he could not afford to keep the service open to find out whether it could support itself.
Koch said he thought Photographic
Services should find a way to charge two different rates: one for art and design students and faculty, and one for others at the University.
would be willing to absorb outside costs simply to have the service.
Situated in the basement of the Art and Design building, Photographic Services performs a variety of services including on-location photography, mug shots for passports and resumes, and prints of maps from the Special Collections Library.
Some of the services still will be available to fine arts and art and design faculty, staff and students. Special Collections, the Kansas Collection and University Archives in Kansas will be provided some services because their collections require special handling.
Holland said valuable books in the collections might be damaged if taken to an off-campus service.
Two campus alternatives to Photographic Services are available. One is the lightstand for making prints and slides at the Art and Architecture Library in Spencer Museum of Art. The Center for Research Inc. in Nichols Hall also provides many photography services.
Vera Sehon, supervisor of the center, said the center offered services similar to Photographic Services like taking portrait or mugshot photography slides slide duplicates and processing color prints and slides as quickly.
The University requires that prices at the center be competitive with prices in the commercial sector.
"We're not supposed to undercut the off-campus services," she said.
'Rhino Man' stops in Lawrence during trek across America
By Jeff Kobs
Special to the Kansan
Twenty-five years ago, between 70,000 and 100,000 African black rhinoceros lived in Africa, but today that number has dropped to 3,600, said Michael Werikhe, a native of Kenya.
Werikie, 34, nicknamed "The Rhino Man," was in Lawrence on Thursday as part of his six-month, 1,500-mile walk across North Dakota to raise awareness and money for rhinoceros-protection projects in Africa.
"The rhino has been slaughtered to the point of extinction," he said. There is a big demand in Southeast Africa, the Middle East for the rhino horn.
Werikie's walk is being sponsored by the Discovery Channel and the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums. His walk covers roads that connect zoos and aquariums. He returns to Kenya on Oct. 7.
Werkle began his presentation to the Audubon Society with a ceremonial walk around South Park. About 25 people followed him.
City Commissioner Shurley Smith-Smith worked Werekik with a key to the city Thursday morning. In the afternoon he spoke to children at several park day camps in Lawrence and concluded his visit by talking to about 60 people at the annual Jayhawk Audubon Society picnic.
and the Middle East
Werikhe explained that the demand for rhinoceros horns was dangerously high in Southeast Asia
"The cultures and traditions of these countries believe the rho horn has a magical power that cures things like high blood pressure, he said. "The truth is, though, that it doesn't have any medical properties whatsoever, but is really only a fiber substance about like a fingernail."
Trying to change a culture's beliefs is difficult, he said.
"You have to realize these people didn't just start believing this yesterday but that it's rooted in their culture and culture and has been for human beings," it takes much understanding of their culture to get them to change."
Werikhe began walking to spread awareness of the plight of the rhino in 1985 when he walked across Africa. He walked across Western Europe
Werkhe said he was not able to just stand by while the rhino was being wiped out. He decided to make saving the rhino his mission in life.
"This is my small contribution to say thanks to Mother Nature for what she has given us," he said. "I want our generation to be remembered as one that at least tried to make a difference."
He stressed in his presentation that one individual could make a difference.
Werikhe said he was spreading awareness about the rhino in other countries because it was a global problem that needed global attention.
"Remember that nature belongs to
all of the world." he said.
Because the disappearance of the rhino is not an evolutionary or climate one but caused by society's greed for profit, there is hope and optimism, he said.
"But we are too far away from our objective to say all is well," he said. "Mother Nature has the power to make miserables. We are just the custodians."
Werikhe sees the rhino as vital in Africa because of its heritage and economy.
"It symbolizes conservation," he said. "In Africa we see the rhin the same as you see the bald eagle here."
If the rhino goes, it will be another disturbance in the ecosystem, he said. Soon this will cause other species to disappear.
Joyce Wolf, local Audubon conservation chairperson, said she enjoyed hearing Werikhe speak.
"We were so delighted to have him speak to us," she said. "His message and example goes right along with our own individual can make a difference."
The society gave Werikhe $150 toward the fight to preserve the rhino.
"He works a double shift at a car factory in Kenya just so he can take six months off to walk and spread his hands among the phirons, she said. "He also has a family with two little children that he has to leave behind."
Lisa Blair, local coordinator of Welfare, said she was strongly committed to the cause.
Michael Werikhe, "The Rhino Man" of Kenya, far right, leads members of the Jayhawk Audubon Society and others through South Park as he discusses the fate of the rhinoceros.