CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 17, 1996
3A
Edmée Rodriguez/KANSAN
Children from the Level 1 swimming class walk across the wading pool at the Lawrence Aquatic Center on Monday, imitating their favorite animals. The center, 741 Kentucky St., opened Monday for swimming lessons, and it will open for the general public on Saturday.
Swimming pool opens with 'wave'reviews
Amid backhoes and construction workers, Lawrence children took their first dip in the newly remodeled city pool, 741 Kentucky St., during swimming lessons on Monday.
By Andrea Albright
Kansan staff writer
Parents, children and staff members got a chance to survey the renovations, which include a double water slide, a new pool with six 25-yard lap lanes, an enlarged deck area and a diving well with three diving boards. The city pool has been renamed the Lawrence Aquatic Center and features a zero-depth entry pool, which allows swimmers to walk into the pool on a gradual incline like a beach.
Late opening may discourage season passes
Kathy Fode, Lawrence recreation superintendent, helped staff members guide parents and children through remaining construction areas as they filed in for lessons.
Fode said she was pleased with the new facility.
"The only complaint I've heard is that the water's too cold," she said.
A grand opening celebration will begin at 1:15 p.m. Saturday with Mayor John Nalbandian and former mayor Bob Moody participating in the ceremony. The $2.88-million center was originally scheduled to open May 15, but unusually cold and wet weather caused construction to be delayed by two months.
Some Lawrence residents said the new center was worth the wait, but the shortened season may discourage them from purchasing memberships.
Sally Smith, Lawrence resident, just moved back to the area with her family and has two sons enrolled in swimming lessons.
"With the short season,I'm not sure we'd get much use out of the passes," she said.
Although center employees were excited about the new complex,
some were not as enthusiastic about the two-month delay.
Cheryl Evers, swimming instructor and KU graduate, said she scheduled her vacation to end before May 15, the original opening day. When she returned, additional delays left her unemployed for part of the summer.
"I couldn't get another job because I would have had to quit in two weeks anyway," she said. "Now I'm broke. I'm surprised they didn't lose a lot of employees."
As parents and babyssitters waited for children to finish lessons, they marveled at the bright white decks and clear blue water.
Aidan Loveland, Lawrence High School student and summer nanny, brought four-year old Henry Chapman to the 11:30 a.m. Level I swimming class. She was impressed by the size of the new complex.
Art professor recovering after falling off roof
"The old pool was too small and crowded," Loveland said. "It wasn't much fun."
Henry was glad his class stayed in the wetting pools.
Kansan staff report
A University of Kansas professor's condition was upgraded from serious to fair on Monday.
"I didn't go in the big square one,
just the little round one," he said.
Michael Ott, professor of painting, was putting trim on
the rior of his house July 7 when he fell off the roof and suffered head and neck injuries. He was flown to
Michael Ott
the University of Kansas Medical Center and underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain.
Ott's son, John, said his father's condition had changed several times throughout the week.
"This has been a tremendous blow," Wright said. "Nobody wants to see anybody suffer from a long-term disability."
"It's really hard to say what his condition is," John Ott said. "It's all really just up in the air at this point."
Bob Wright, professor of painting, said he thought Ott's physical fitness would be an advantage to his recovery.
Ott has been an instructor at the University since 1969 and was teaching a life drawing class this summer."
University hires environmental specialist
By Dave Breltenstein Kansan staff writer
The department of environmental health and safety has hired an environmental specialist to coordinate a campus recycling program.
Victoria Silva recently was hired to begin campus-wide recycling at the University of Kansas. Her duties will include performing environmental impact assessments and assisting in conservation and pollution prevention. She will start on July 22.
"My goal is for KU to develop and implement some strong waste reduction programs and a good
recycling program," Silva said. "We want to make recycling campuswide. It wasn't before," she said.
Silva had worked for the K an s a s Department of Health and Environment
Victoria Silva
in the Bureau of Waste Management since 1994. She graduated from the University of Colorado with bachelor's degrees in geology, geography
and environmental studies.
"I ended up going into environmental work because I couldn't find a job as a field geologist," she said. Silva said she was excited about the new recycling program and that she already had ideas for it.
"We want to make the program as accessible to everyone as possible. We want it to be truly campus-wide, including students, faculty and staff," she said. "I'll have some input in educating the public about kicking off the program next semester."
Mike Russell, director of environment, health and safety, said that Silva would need to make initial assessments and that the recycling
program would not begin immediately.
"She will first have to assess where we're at, what we have to do and how we can do it," Russell said. "She will have to get a feel of where we're at now before she can formulate a plan for the future."
Russell said Silva was the most qualified candidate and was exactly what the department was looking for.
"Of all the candidates, she had the most full-time experience in the area we were looking for," he said. "She also had many skills she learned while working for the state over the last few years."
"She's done planning and program development and has made connections with the state, which could help get us grant money or additional funding," he said.
Silva will be the contact for all recycling efforts, and she will make all decisions about the program. But Russell said hiring Silva would not ameliorate the recycling situation right away.
"Just having this person around isn't going to solve anything," he said. "We're going to have to decide what we need to focus on and what our options are. Hiring a recycling coordinator is the starting point in getting the program going."
Few females pursuing careers in field of engineering
Enrollment figures at University of Kansas reflect national trend
By Pete Brumbaugh Kansan staff writer
The first day of class during Leslie Cherven's freshman year she walked into her chemical engineering classroom and looked around.
No females.
"Great," she thought. "Is this what I want to do with the rest of my life?"
For most female engineering students, being alone in a classroom full of men is a common experience. It isn't limited to the University of Kansas; the trend is nationwide.
A recent study conducted by USA Today showed a low level of interest
in high-tech fields among college females, revealing that women received only one-seventh of the total computer science and engineering degrees awarded.
Spring enrollment figures for 1996 at the University reflected this national trend. Men outnumbered women in engineering-related fields 1,103 to 223—a 5-to-1 ratio.
Florence Boldridge, director of minority programs for the school of engineering, said, "If you're interested in math or science in high school and you're a girl, then you are often steered toward a career in education or nursing. Too few women are advised to pursue a degree in computers or engineering."
Cherven, a Wichita senior majoring in civil engineering, came to the University in 1992 with a vague idea that she wanted to do something in
"There were no women in my first engineering class," Cherven said. "I felt real uncomfortable at first, like I was a minority. The guys weren't looking at me as a sex object but because I was different."
engineering. She was interested in math and science in high school, and her parents proposed that she pursue an engineering degree.
"If he would've said that to me as a freshman, I would've been devastated." she said. "But I took it as a challenge. I set out to prove him wrong."
Still, being a woman in a male profession hasn't always been easy for Cherven. She said a professor once told her to go home and bake brownies if she couldn't cut it in his class
Her gender isolation was so apparent that she became known as the one girl in that class, Cherven said. While she had doubts about her field, she admitted the experience would not be much different for a male nursing student.
She finished with B in his course.
She mushed with B in his course. Cherven has an internship this summer with the Kansas Department of Transportation, working out of its Garnett office.
"It wasn't what I initially went after in terms of an internship," she said. "But I'm learning a lot about highway construction. It's actually quite interesting."
She works at two sites near Ottawa, where she inspects concrete mixtures and machinery. While the internship is interesting, the gender slurs on the work site are not, she said.
"The guys stare at you or want to know if you're single," Cherven said. "They even had a running bet on who I would go out with or go to bed on. One thing I'm for sure: I'm going
to make it easier on myself by not getting a job like this, working for the state."
At the University, Cherven is helping other fe. ale students by coordinating three programs. One helps recruit female high school students, another helps retain female engineering students and a third helps place seniors through an event called an Evening with Industry, a career fair party at Adams Alumni Center.
She said she was more interested in consulting and the design side of civil engineering than working alongside the construction crews.
"The only advice I would give another woman in this field is finish what you start," Cherven said. "We can help each other along the way by sharing our experiences and avoiding the pitfalls of others."