UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 9, 1997
3
Alternatives to dissection considered for biology
Ethics policy would let students choose
By Tamara Millor
Kansan staff writer
KU student senators are researching a policy that may allow students to avoid dissection in some biology classes.
If the policy is implemented, refusal to dissect a frog or a worm in low-level biology classes would not threaten a student's grade.
"I don't think a freshman in Biology 104 or 105 should be required to participate in dissection," said Mike Walden, Leawood senior and Senate vice president.
Walden ran for Senate as part of the Unite coalition, along with Scott Sullivan, Leawood senior and Senate president. Part of the coalition's platform was the ethical-choice policy.
Sullivan said that before he began his campaign, students told him they wanted to learn from dissection without violating their own ethics. Their reasons ranged from religious dilemmas to animal rights.
Dean Stetier, director of undergraduate biology studies, said the department's policy tried to accommodate students who had problems with dissection. However, the accommodations are at the discretion of the instructor and depend on the reasons for a student's refusal.
Students who refuse to dissect because of religious or ethical
everything,you have to make life choices based on
the path you take."
Scott Sullivan Leawood senior and Senate President
beliefs often are given alternative exercises. Students who are uncomfortable with dissection are given the opportunity to watch for the first time, but then are usually willing to participate in a dissection, Stetler said.
Walden said a task force would be created in the fall to research the possibility of an ethical-choice policy at the University. The panel would include members from Environs, animal-rights groups and supportive faculty members.
He said he was researching other universities with similar policies.
"We didn't just come up with this on our own," he said.
Stetler said he was apprehensive about a new policy.
"I don't want to sacrifice curriculum for a policy," he said. "I think it's important that we will try to accommodate, but we can't state
that we will accommodate."
that we will accommodate." Sullivan said he had contacted environmental groups and animal-rights groups for his research. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent the senate a sample ethical-choice policy that would offer students an alternative to participating in dissection. One alternative would be a computerized vivisection process that would allow students to do a virtual dissection on a computer. This is the most expensive alternative because it would require the University to purchase the computer program, Sullivan said.
Other alternatives include allowing students to view microscopic slides of a dissection or to watch a dissection in class without participating. These alternatives would be cheapest. Sullivan said.
He said that because an ethicalchoice policy would change University codes, it would be a University governance issue, not a student issue. The policy would have to be approved by the University Council before it could be implemented.
Senate members and University officials agree that only the general biology classes should be considered for an ethical- choice policy.
Anyone in advanced classes involving dissection will be expected to dissect. Sullivan said that biology majors and pre-med students would not be able to avoid dissection.
"As in everything, you have to make life choices based on the path you take," Sullivan said.
New bookstore will get old look
Dana Brooks
Kansan staff writer
The fight between Lawrence preservationists and developers bringing in the new Borders Bookstore has left the east side of the 700 block of New Hampshire Street with just a few walls standing.
Almost everything in the block has been leveled in preparation for the new store. But the Lawrence Preservation Alliance fought to save the old livery stable on the corner of Seventh and New Hampshire. Although the alliance wanted to save the entire building, two walls are all that remain after a compromise with the city.
"This is Disneyland preservation," said K.T. Walsh, vice president of the alliance and head of the East Lawrence Historical Project. "We're just preserving the facade of history. If you pluck the building out of its original setting, you're losing the context of downtown."
Wint Winter, Lawrence attorney and representative of Winter Inc., said it was an acceptable compromise to preserve the facade of the building.
The building is in a solid historical area, Walsh said. To destroy it would cut all ties the area has to downtown Lawrence.
"Borders Bookstore will bring in the best of the new and keep the best of the old," Winter said.
Jeff White, a project manager at Rau Construction of Overland Park, said the remaining walls would be part of the exterior of the new bookstore.
Rau Construction is the general contractor for the Borders project. The company is restoring the exterior of the walls right now, White said. The north and west walls must be preserved because they are historical, Winter said. The compromise is partly the result of an ordinance making it illegal to tear down or construct within 500 feet of a building that is under a state and local historical register.
The proximity of The Eldridge Hotel, 701 Massachusetts St., makes the location subject to the ordinance.
The building has existed since the late 1800's, Walsh said. Originally, it housed a livery stable where horses were boarded and horse equipment was sold.
He said the building also served as a parking garage for the Eldridge Hotel, allowing people to leave their carriages there and be transported to the hotel.
"It's a unique building," said Carol Francis, president of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance. "Borders discarded that. I believe the word 'progress' is sometimes a misnomer."
Local preservationists said the 500-foot rule was not the only reason that the two walls should be preserved.
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