UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, April 3. 1997
7A
Fraternities hope donations cover remodeling expenses
By Harumi Kogarimal
Kansan staff writer
Several KU fraternity houses will be receiving facelifts soon.
Joey Bloom / KANSAN
The future site of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, undergoes construction at 1100 Indiana St. The renovation of the house, formerly the ACACIA house, will be completed this summer. Chapter members plan to move out of their current house at 1232 Ohio St. and into the new one.
The renovation of Phi Kappa Tau will be completed by summer, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon will start rebuilding its house this spring. Kappa Sigma will also begin a major renovation this May, and Sigma Chi is in the process of raising money for renovations.
Courtney Sloan, chairman of the Phi Kappa Tau house corporation, said the house's renovation would be completed by August I. The chapter members will move from the current address, 1232 Ohio St., to a new house at 1100 Indiana St.
"The present house we are in isn't large enough." Sloan said. "We needed another house to increase membership. We hope to get 55 to 60 members."
John Esau, senior consultant of Pennington & Company, 2721 West 6th St., a fraternity fund-raising consulting company, said his company helped raise capital for the renovation of Delta Upsilon's house and Alpha Tau Omega's house in recent years. Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Chi are campaigning to raise renovation money with the help of the business.
Motives for renovations vary, but lack of space and outdated designs and facilities are major reasons.
Esau said most of the fraternity houses were built between 1900 and 1950. The houses do not always meet the current fire code, he said.
Ash Taha, president of Kappa Sigma and Watchung, NJ, sophomore, said that a new house attracted new members.
"Having a nice house is important to be competitive in a rush," Taha said. "All the houses look similar. A new house can entice people to the house."
Funds for renovations usually come from chapter alumni. Esau said he solicited alumni members to finance about 90 percent of remodeling expenses. Active chapter members usually relocate in residence halls or apartments during renovations.
Esau said new houses tended to have computer rooms and larger bedrooms.
Rent may be higher in some new houses, but tenants generally do not mind paying more for larger and safer houses, Esau said.
"They are willing to pay more to have private space," Esau said. "Parents are also pleased with the houses, because they meet a new fire code."
Esau said it usually cost between $500,000 and $3 million to renovate greek houses. Chapters normally
can raise around $500,000 to $2.5 million by campaigning, but houses often carry mortgages.
Taha said he appreciated the fund-raising efforts of alumni.
"It's a great donation from alumni," Taha said. "They have raised $2.3 million for the house."
Watkins doctors hesitant to prescribe drugs for cosmetic purposes only
Lifestyle changes can result in lost pounds
By Emily Vrabac
Kansan staff writer
"Tis almost the season for shorts and swimsuits. For many students, that means displaying unwanted body fat they've been hoarding all winter.
Exercise and diet are not always appealing options for weight loss, so many students turn to doctors and diet clinics to provide them with new types of weight-loss drugs.
However, these drugs do not work on their own. Patients must do their part to change their diet and exercise patterns.
These drugs, nicknamed Fen- Phen and Redux, have been touted as miracle drugs promising major weight loss.
"It's no silver bullet," said Ann Chapman, dietitian at Watkins Memorial Health Center. "They still need to do nutritional counseling and exercise counseling. They still have to learn major lifestyle kinds of changes."
Randall Rock, chief of staff at Watkins, said the research on the drugs was not long-term.
"Early studies have shown promise in the ability to lose weight," Rock said. "However, sustained weight loss seems to be dependent on continued medication use."
Fen-Phen is a combination of two drugs, fenfluramine and phentermine. Redux, a newer medication, is a drug called dexfenfluramine. Each drug is an appetite suppressant, but the exact mechanisms of the drugs have not been established, said Cathy Thrasher, a pharmacist at Watkins.
Rock said the doctors at Watkins had been studying Fen-Phen and Redux, their effectiveness and their risks. The doctors have decided not to prescribe the drugs to patients at the University at this time. He said the most worsome risk was pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure.
"The potential harm is that pulmonary hypertension may lead to death," Rock said. "The risk is infrequent and for the morbidity obese the risk to health of being grossly overweight may pose a
Weight loss drugs
- Fen-Pen, or fenfluramine and phentermine
Redux, or dexfenfluramine
The drugs work as appetite suppressants, but must be used in conjunction with exercise and diet changes.
Risks include pulmonary hyper tension, which is potentially fatal'.
The drugs and therapy can
cost about $100 per month.
■ Fen-Phen and Redux are not
Fen-Phen and Redux are not prescribed by Watkins physicians
For more information about the drugs, contact Watkins at 864-9500.
greater health-risk to life."
Rock said there was another disadvantage to taking the drugs. "One of the side effects of using Fen-Phen and Redux is the expense," he said. "Medical monitoring, lab work and the medication itself may require an investment of $100 a month."
Chapman, Rock and Thrasher each said they had received
Thrasher said the pharmacy at Watkins stocked the drugs for students who had prescriptions from doctors outside of Watkins.
inquiries from students about the drugs.
Rock said that some students who went to Watkins were taking the medicines. He said some students even went outside the state to obtain the medicine because Kansas law only allowed patients to take the drug for three months.
Chapman said the medication was most useful for people who were extremely overweight.
"I think that it can be an adjunct to therapy in appropriate patients," she said. "That's a very small percentage of the population in the United States."
Rock said he would not recommend it for people who just wanted to lose a few pounds.
"At this point, Watkins is not initiating Fen-Phen or Redux for those desiring to get into their summer wardrobe, so to speak," Rock said. "We're not comfortable that we have enough long-term answers about safety and effectiveness to recommend its use for concerns of a more cosmetic nature."
Community is nursing focus
By Liz Richards Special to the Kansan
When Karrie Book observed the Argentine Mustang Corral, a middle school-based health center in Wyandotte County, the first thing she noticed was that the nurse practitioner running the center did basically everything a doctor did in a hospital.
Book, Topeka junior, was able to observe and participate in community health care rather than just hospital care, thanks to the School of Nursing's new curriculum. Nursing students are working at the center, which primarily serves the Argentine Middle School, as a sort of an internship.
"We want to create a more community-based approach with our curriculum," said Helen Connors, associate dean of nursing.
The new curriculum, started last semester, requires students to take the course, Nursing 340, Foundations in Nursing and Health Promotions, which prepares them to take their nursing skills into the community.
"We want the students to have a view of nursing that is more than just in the hospital. We want them to see the more expanded role of a nurse, said JoAnn Lerman, clinical assistant professor of nursing and lead teacher of Foundations of Nursing and Health Promotions.
"We have been watching very closely the trends in health care," Lierman said. "We need to have nurses coming out of our program that can function in a home or seeing patients and dealing with their problems in the community."
Lierman said students enjoyed the new focus last semester. She said the community setting was less threatening than the austere setting of the hospital and that it caused the students less anxiety.
Mary Dougherty, Kansas City Kan., junior, said the community emphasis fostered communication skills.
The students have their clinicals — hands-on practice of theories that are normally learned in the classroom — in the community. They also are required to develop teaching projects which will be donated to local community agencies to help them promote health.
"Having clinicals out in the community gave me a new appreciation for all the agencies who focus on health promotion and what their career involves," said Liane Hower, Olathe junior.
Students completed 66 teaching projects last semester. The projects ranged from brochures promoting Halloween safety to construction of a food train.
But the changes don't end with the first course.
"We're teaching students about home care, the financial basis of health care, managed care, delegation versus supervising, a fully integrated health care system and what their responsibility is when they are working as team members," Connors said. "We want them to look at the population base they are caring for and think, 'what kind of nursing does my community need?'
May festival a tribute to KU faculty, staff
Kansan staff writer
By Mark McMaster Kansan staff writer
While students are cramming for finals on stop day, the University will be holding a party honoring its faculty and staff.
The goal of the May 6 celebration, called MayFest '97, is to show appreciation for the employees' contributions and promote cohesiveness among them.
Anna Ancil, chairwoman of the MayFest planning committee, said the event would help to better acquaint employees.
Virginia Postoak, a secretary in the political science department,
"I think it will help bring us together, so that we can see that all KU employees together make KU run," she said. "Not as faculty and classified or unclassified employees, but as colleagues."
MayFest'97
Where: Potter Lake
wnen: May 6, from 3 to 7 p.m.
Who's invited: KU employees and their guests
said that promoting unity among the University's employees was a good idea because often there was little association between different departments and levels within departments.
"It's always better if there's com- munication. I think it'd be a start," she said.
"It's kind of like a fair," Ancil said. "We'll have arts and crafts booths, and musicians from across campus performing."
The festivities will take place near Potter Lake, from 3 to 7 p.m. Ancla said she expected 2,500 to attend.
But now Jenny and real people
Separate category stirs ardent debate
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — On the 1970s TV sitcom The Jeffersons, crusty old George loved to disparage his mixed-race daughter-in-law, Jenny, by calling her names like "zebra" or "Miss Half & Half."
But some civil rights advocates worry that the new category would
like her may gain a new measure of recognition from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The bureau is considering counting people of mixed race as a separate category, an idea that is stirring an emotional debate.
Supporters say the move would help foster a sense of pride and self-affirmation among the swelling ranks of mixed-race Americans.
"I don't want to be invisible anymore," said Douglass, president of the Association of MultiEthnic Americans, a San Francisco-based advocacy group for multiethnic and
reduce the numbers of Blacks and Hispanics recorded in the census, and imperil minority voting districts and financing for minority aid programs.
multiracial people.
Ramona E. Douglass, a California activist who is of mixed parentage, said the issue was simple.
"The census form allows me to select 'other' as a choice, but I'm not an 'other,'" Douglass said. "I'm a multiracial person, and I should be represented."
A preliminary decision on whether the next census will include a new category for multiracial people is expected from the federal Office of Management and Budget in June or July.
Debate over the new category
underscores what some demographers have called a silent explosion in the number of mixed-race people in the United States.
Between 1960 and 1990, the number of interracial married couples grew from 150,000 to more than 1.1 million, according to census figures.
The number of children of interracial families leaped from 460,300 in 1970 to more than 1.9 million by 1990.
"America is changing in ways previously unimagined," said Rep. Thomas Sawyer, D-Ohio, who led a House subcommittee on census reform. "We could become perhaps the first transethnic and transcultural society."
For example, Sawyer said, 60 percent of Japanese people who marry in America wed someone of another race. Such trends should compel the government to make sure the census accurately reflects who we really are, he said.