friday, april 30, 2004
the university daily kansan
news
3A
Geology professor changes students' lives, majors
Don Steeples, vice provost and professor of Earthquakes and Natural Disasters, lectured to his class on April 22 about floods before showing a film clip. Steeples' class, with 600 students enrolled, is in 120 Budig Hall.
By Samia Khan
skhan@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
On the first day of class, Don Steeples tells his students that they are taking a class that will change their lives if they take it seriously.
The professor of Earthquakes and Natural Disasters said there would be a disaster sometime in the future that his students would be better prepared for and understand more, which was important for safety and public policy.
Steeples said approximately 1 percent of the students in the class came to him and said they changed their major to geology or meteorology because of his lectures.
ology because of his life. "Those are the days I live for," he said.
Because of those days and his love for teaching the class, he continues even with the many other responsibilities he has. In addition to preparing lectures for 700 students, he is working on research and serving as vice provost for scholarly support. His busy schedule, which forces him to capitalize, on the pre-dawn hours, does not limit his involvement.
He is the first person to walk
"You can get an amazing amount of work done between the hours of 5 and 8 a.m." ,he said.
through the halls of Strong Hall every morning. He is in his office before 5 a.m., and is usually the last to leave in the afternoon, 12 hours later, at 5 p.m.
Steeples 'od hours do not interfere at home. He has two older sons who have moved away and a wife of 37 years. He said his wife was usually up at the same time in the morning. Neither uses an alarm clock.
Steeples has been doing research at the University of Kansas for 29 years and has taught classes for 18 years. He has taught Earthquakes and Natural Disasters for 14 of those years. In the 1980s, it was called Earthquakes and Man, and peaked at an enrollment of a couple hundred.
Steeples said he enjoyed teaching big classes more than small classes.
"I'm more reluctant to make a fool out of myself in front of hundreds than a small class," he said.
Preparing for a huge lecture class is also easier for him. Steeples said he had trouble getting motivated emotionally to teach a group
of 20 students. He said there was more pressure to be prepared for a class of 600 to 700 students.
Steeples said most students were naturally curious about disasters, but his class was not an easy grade inflation course. He said the grade point average for the course hovers near 2.4.
Paul Vincent took Steeples class when he was an undergraduate math major in 2000. Now, the Topeka native is a first-year graduate student studying geophysics and researching under Steeples. Vincent said the title of the class sounded interesting, so he took it for the same reasons as most other people he knew. After the course, he saw interesting new ways to apply his major, and began doing undergraduate research with Steeples.
As a vice provost for the past year and a half, Steeples is responsible for a long list of duties. He allocates office and research space on campus, organizes the refurbishing and reconfiguring of classrooms. He is in charge of the Budig lecture staff and deans of five schools report to him. That's only half the list.
He is also in charge of more
than $2.2 million in active research grants. Along with a group of graduate students and George Tsollias, assistant geology professor, Steeples conducts near-surface underground imaging research. He has done research in environmental geophysics across the nation and in more than 12 foreign countries.
One of the main reasons Tsoflias said he chose to look into the University's geology department was because of Steeples' worldwide reputation. Tsoflias said he was amazed that Steeples had accomplished so much but managed to continue to stay productive and available to students.
Vincent said no matter how busy Steeplees was, he would always find time. He said he spent hours in the field with the students, researching their ideas even if he thought it would be an utter failure.
thought it might be
By the end of the day, Steeples still has a pile of papers on his office desk. If he's facing a time crunch, he said his solution was simply waking up earlier, perhaps at 3 a.m.
waking up upon her bed. "I'm convinced he does not sleep," Tsoflias said.
New regulations require warning on porn e-mails
Edited by Nikki Nugent
By Steve Vockrodt
svockrodt@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
New regulations will give-mail users a warning when a message containing pornography arrives.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, CAN SPAM for short, was signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 16, 2003. As a result of the bill, unsolicited e-mails containing any pornographic content will be forced to contain a warning in its subject line.
The rule, created by the Federal Trade Commission, will be enacted
on May 19, meaning marketers of pornographic promotions have less than a month to clean up their e-mails. The subject line of any e-mail must contain the warning, "SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT." Also, the e-mails cannot contain offensive images or words in the immediately viewable portion of the e-mail. The regulations are part of what the FTC calls "the electronic equivalent of a brown paper wrapper."
Jon Kraden, staff attorney for the FTC, said Congress found the material being sent was offensive and objectionable.
and objection An FTC study said 17 percent of pornographic e-mails subjected
recipients to pornographic images.
ents to portographer James Kraden also said solicitors who violated the FTC's stipulations could face criminal charges or civil lawsuits. Criminal charges would bring a fine, imprisonment, or both to offending solicitors. The FTC has not determined the extent of the penalties.
An FTC press release said 89 such complaints, mostly from individual consumers, were made to the FTC since Feb. 17. So far the adult industry has taken no legal action against the FTC.
regatta action against "We did not hear one comment from the adult industry," Kraden said, adding that it was possible
that the industry would wait until after May 19 when the regulations actually applied.
actually applied. Kraden said he thought the FTC would likely withstand protests concerning First Amendment violations.
military violation. "It comes down to the fact that it is a notification request." Kraden said. "You let people know it's coming, and you don't bombard people with pictures or words."
people who work in The University of Kansas is ahead of the FTC in dealing with the spam problem. Jerree Catlin, assistant director of information services, said the University had implemented a system by which
incoming e-mails are sent through software designed to scan e-mails. The software detects components of spam in the e-mail, and, if it is determined to be high enough, a spam warning appears in the subject line, though no content is blocked.
Catlin said the KU faculty's response has been positive.
Doug Croy, Overland Park junior, said he didn't get pornographic e-mails all that much and was used to them. He said he doubted the efficiency of the FTC regulations.
clever or cool?
"I guess for me, most things that come through that say spam,
I just delete anyway." Croy said.
"So for me, it wouldn't make much difference."
much difference Josh McNeil, Brownsville, Texas, freshman, said the e-mails didn't bother him, but saw how the regulations could help people.
"It doesn't bother me because I choose not to look at it," McNeil said. "I would have to agree with it in the case of a young child getting those e-mails."
Kraden said consumers receiving offensive e-mails can forward their complaints to the FTC through the complaint form on its Web site, www.ftc.gov.
- Edited by Henry C. Jackson