CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday.May1,1996
3A
Sports medicine doctor goes for the gold
Magee chosen as Olympic physician
By Teresa Veazey Kansan staff writer
He hasn't started counting down the days quite yet, but Lawrence Magee knows he'll soon be leaving for the Olympic trials in Atlanta.
However, he won't be competing as an athlete — he'll be working as a physician.
Magee, coordinator of sports medicine at Watkins Memorial Health Center, will spend much of his summer taking care of athletes and their
injuries as the U.S. Olympic team physician responsible for track and field and judo. The games begin on July 19, but Magee said he had many things to do before then.
One of those things is the track and field trials that begin on June 14. Magee said that he would be burning up all of his vacation time but that he was willing to make the sacrifice.
"You don't go for the media attention," he said. "The best experience will be to work with high-level athletes and be around trainers and other sports medicine physicians."
"You can never know until you get
Magee, who found out about the appointment in September, said the application process was lengthy.
chosen," he said. "Usually, you're put on a waiting list for two to five years."
In 1987, Magee submitted an application to the Olympics' sports medicine committee.
He began working with the University of Kansas' athletic teams in 1988 and was chosen to help at the Olympics' training center in Colorado Springs, Colo., two years later.
Magee's first U.S. Olympic Festival was in 1991, when he was a physician for the basketball and track and field teams. He was head physician for the same teams last summer at the World University Games in Japan.
Magee said working with Olympic
athletes would be challenging, but no different from students and University athletes that he had worked with in the past.
Charles Yockey, Watkins' chief of staff, said that being a team physician at the Olympics was a very high honor for physicians.
"The injuries are the same. The bodies are the same," he said. "The location, equipment and people you have to work with are different."
"It's almost like competing in the Olympics — to get there takes a long process," Yockey said.
Yockey said Magee's appointment showed the health center had one of the elite sports medicine physicians in the country.
Tvler Wirken / KANSAN
Lawrence Magee, coordinator of sports medicine at Watkins Memorial Health Center, has been chosen as a physician for the Olympic Trials in Atlanta. Magee will spend his summer as the U.S. Olympic team physician responsible for the track and field and iouda teams.
Students test bike design at contest
Engineering project places 11th in race
ter senior; and Mike Stittsworth, Lawrence senior (not pictured), designed and built their own bike. Their project placed 11th in a competition last weekend in Reno, Nev.
By David Teska Kansan staff writer
For five KU mechanical engineering students, last weekend was a test of their design skills and physical stamina.
The students competed in a bike race in Reno, Nev., Saturday and Sunday and finished 11th out of 36 teams. The students designed and built their bike as part of a senior design class project.
Team members were Ada Laudie, Lawrence senior; Richard Tidd, Yates Center senior; Kerri Graunke, Prairie Village senior; Brian Nab, Overland Park senior; and Mike Stittsworth, Lawrence senior.
The bike was made of carbon fiber with aluminum inserts and was surrounded by an aerodynamically shaped shell also made from carbon fiber. Laudie said the materials made the bike lighter and stronger.
"The size-to-weight ratio is 10 times that of steel," he said. "We've got about 80 square feet in the shell, and it weighs only nine pounds."
The two-day event consisted of two races, a 400-meter sprint and a 65-kilometer relay, Tidd said. The sprint had women's and men's races.
"You have 300 meters to accelerate, and they time you for 200 meters," Tidd said.
Graunrake raced in the women's sprint and placed sixth. She said her finish spot in the sprint determined the team's place in the relay.
"The only requirement is that I go first
and ride 8 kilometers." she said.
Laudie said they didn't have time for a timed run before shipping the bike to Reno, so they had to test the bike inside Learned Hall and at the Lied Center parking lot.
Instead of reaching the projected speed of 56 mph, Laudie said the team's top speed was 37 mph. Wind forced them to remove the shell because it was
knocking bikes over.
"A lot of the bikes flipped and crashed," he said.
In addition to the racing events, Laudie said each bike was judged on design, safety, data analysis of the design and physical tests of the bike.
Laudie said funds for the $3,300 bike came primarily from the School of Engineering. Local bike shops and busi-
neses also contributed cash and parts, he said.
Tidd was the only team member not enrolled in the design class, but he plans to take it next year. Although the rest of his teammates completed the project for a grade, Tidd said he participated for other reasons.
"I'm just doing it for fun," he said. "It'll be good experience for next year."
Shelter a haven for women and children
Service needs students to volunteer their time
By Scott MacWilliams Kansan staff writer
Women's Transitional Care Services is looking for volunteers, and an abbreviated training session begins tomorrow.
"Normally, anyone can volunteer, but this will not be a regular training session," said Loretta Pyles, community facilitator for the shelter.
"Our normal training consists of 50 hours of training over five weeks and is
open to anyone," she said. "But this one is only for women who are being battered or were previously in a battering relationship."
Women's Transitional Care Services provides temporary shelter and assistance for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
Documentation such as police reports or restraining orders are not required to identify oneself as battered, she said.
Pyles said the definition of having been battered included emotional, economic and physical abuse.
Last year, the shelter took in 369 people, 201 of whom were children.
Pyles said the training sessions
included staff from Rape Victim Support Service, Headquarters, the Lawrence Police Department and the Douglas County Health Department. She said about 20 of the current volunteer group of about 40 people were KU students.
"We sign up for four-hour shifts," said Sonnja Blevins, Lawrence senior. "Normally, anyone can volunteer, and they're always looking for males to volunteer, too."
Blevins said she thought they could use another 40 to 50 volunteers, because some usually were weeded out during the training process.
Blevins said volunteers performed different tasks at the shelter.
"We tell them about community resources and explain the house rules," Blevins said. "Sometimes we go with them to hearings, for emotional support."
Volunteers also can take extra training to become child advocates. Child advocates work closely with children and help them overcome their fears.
Guests can stay up to 30 days if room is available. No one ever will be turned away, Pyles said, even if she had to stay on the couch for the night.
The informational session for those interested in the abbreviated volunteer training will be held from 6 to 9 tomorrow night at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.
Backpacks still stolen from Ekdahl
Upgraded security, cameras don't offer security guarantee
By Amy McVey Kansan staff writer
Lunch at Ekdahl Dining Commons cost one KU student $345 on Thursday and another student $170.
Both students went in, left their backpacks in the designated area and ate. When they returned, the backpacks were gone.
Dan Leong, St. Louis senior, had his backpack and books, valued at $170, stolen Thursday afternoon.
"I went in last Thursday during lunchtime, and I really didn't eat all that long," he said. "When I came back, it was gone."
Leong said he didn't think he ever would see his backpack again.
To increase the turnover of people eating at Ekdahl Dinning Commons, students are required to leave their backpacks in a room at the front of the commons, said Ken Stoner, director of student housing.
"The purpose of Mrs. E's is to eat," Stoner said. "You can't bring your boom box and backpack in and camp out. It just wasn't designed for that. There just isn't room."
An $8,000 camera system was installed to deter theft from the room when the commons opened two years ago.
But the watchful eye of the three cameras wasn't giving police the description they needed to catch backpack thieves. The department upgraded the system in December with another camera and a split-screen VCR.
With the help of the new cameras, Leong saw the last of his backpack on tape. Then he saw a man walk in, pick up his backpack and leave.
"He stole my bag, and加 an hour later he stole someone else's bag," Leong said. "For mine, he just came up and grabbed it. But for the other bags he went through them and picked one."
KU police Sgt. Chris Keary said that the cameras had been helpful in determining when and what had been stolen from the room but that they hadn't offered a very good description of the thieves.
"We can see the crime occurring," he said. "But other than clothing descriptions and basic physical descriptions, it's hard to tell who it is."
Stoner said he had been working with police to solve the theft problems in the commons before December and wasn't aware there still was a problem.
"I know we installed what was recommended," he said. "We may still need to make adjustments."
But other than advising students to leave their backpacks at home, Stoner hasn't found an immediate, safe solution.
"I'm open for suggestions." he said.
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