CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, April 23, 1996
3A
Minority Affairs celebrates 25th
By Susanna Lööf
Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas needs more minority representation to become a great university.
That message was delivered by Chancellor Robert Hemenway during last night's celebration of the Office of Minority Affairs 25th Anniversary.
Hemenway said he was proud of the accomplishments of the office, but that the University still had a long way to go.
"It will not be a great university until there are more students who look different than me and more faculty that look different than me and more administrators that look different than me," he said. "We are not where we want to be or where we should be or where we can be."
John Spearman, Jr., who attended the University from 1968 to 1970, also spoke at the celebration, which was held at the Alderson Auditorium in Kansas Union.
Spearman, the regional director for the Institute for Trauma and Emergency Medicine at the State University of New York, was one of the students who founded the Black Student Union, the organization that demanded the foundation of the Office of Minority Affairs.
He said he came to the University with dreams of becoming a scientist or a lawyer, but soon found himself being called a revolutionary instead.
It wasn't easy to give up the dreams and to fight, he said.
"But you live your life, and you have to stand up for something, and you don't always get to choose when to stand up," he said.
Spearman emphasized that the fight was worthwhile despite the threats and sacrifices.
Being a fighter involved getting threats, Spearman said. He has saved one of the offensive letters addressed to "KU Black Boy" for his sons so that they can understand why he fought.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, said some people believed that offices such as the Office of Minority Affairs no longer were needed.
"To them, I say 'Hogwash!,'" he said. "Their importance is greater today than ever before."
At the celebration, members from the African-American choir Inspirational Gospel Voices sang, members from the Panamanian Student Organization danced, members from the Native American Student Association danced, and members from the Asian American Student Union had a fashion show.
Luby Montano-Laurel / KANSAN
Children from the KU Hilppot Child Development Center play during their free time. The Center is sponsoring the national Week of the Young Child.
Center raises profile
Hilltop also serves faculty and students
By Teresa Veazey
Kansan staff writer
Wescoe Beach will play host today to children's art, music and games. As part of the annual Week of the Young Child, Hilltop Child Development Center is sponsoring children's activities, and KU students are invited to participate.
"We find out there are a lot of students who don't even know we're here," said Pat Pisani, program director for Hilltop. "This year, we decided to use this week to increase the University's awareness of Hilltop's role."
Sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, this week has been designed to increase the University community's awareness that Hilltop has meant more than just child care for about 100 families.
As a nationally accredited program, the center is committed to providing high quality care for children of students, faculty and staff, Pisani said.
In addition to care and education, the center has student employment opportunities, practicum training for various classes and a research site for both students and faculty, Pisani said. By being part of this week's activities, students would see how much the center benefits the University, not just its families.
Martha Langley, financial administrator for Hilltop, said a site had been chosen for a new center in an open area along Irving Hill Road behind Stouffer Place.
A banner on Wescoe Beach will display 240 pairs of colored hands, equal to the number of children who are on Hilltop's waiting list.
In 1994 Student Senate approved a $2 increase in student fees per semester to help finance the new center.
"Since students are being asked to support this project, we want them to have an opportunity to know about the program," Pisani said.
Activist promotes preservation
Wilderness areas focus of speech
By Scott MacWilliams Kansan staff writer
Environmental activist Dave Foreman spoke last night to about 800 people and asked them to make their feelings known and to act on their beliefs.
Foreman, chairman of the Wildlands Project, discussed the history of the U.S. environmental movement at the Kansas Union Ballroom. He said the actions of the Republican majority elected in 1994 could dismantle 125 years of conservation legislation in the United States.
Tyler Wirken / KANSAN
"What we have now are strip-mall anarchists trying to play the French Revolution in America," Foreman said. "Write Bob Dole and point out to him that a real conservative wants to save the wilderness areas as our greatest national asset."
Foreman said that the field of conservation biology has recently emerged in response to the increasing rate of wildlife extinction.
"I thought what he said was touching," said Lindsay Laricks, Overland Park freshman. "His slides really helped make the corridors between wilderness areas understandable."
However, Aaron Marvin, Atchison freshman, said, "I respect the man and thought he was interesting, but I don't agree with some of what he said."
Foreman described studies that illustrated that vast wilderness areas needed to be interconnected to maintain species life for the large predators.
Foreman said that the state of Florida has already appropriated $3.2 billion to buy land to link wilderness areas to preserve both the Florida panther and the Everglades.
Foreman said he hoped to see the large wilderness areas and national forests in the northern Rockies connected.
He said that each fall the bison in Yellowstone National Park attempt to migrate north and are killed by ranchers to protect their cattle herds from disease.
Kelly Kindscher, Lawrence resident, who works for the Kansas Biological Survey and is on the board of the Kansas Land Trust, is a friend of Foreman and introduced him to the audience.
"These activists have brought to the forefront issues like the rainforests, water pollution, and the oldgrowth forests," Kirdscher said.
Dave Foreman, co-founder of Earthfirst, speaks at the Kansas Union Bailroom last night as a part of Earth Week. Earth Week events continue through Sunday.
"Something magnificent is happening when we can bring wolves back to Yellowstone," Foreman said. "But can we find the generosity of spirit, the greatness of heart, to tolerate bison on the Great Plains? Can we find humility instead of arrogance?"
Kindscher said that most polls show strong support nationwide for environmental issues, but not in Washington, D.C.
Foreman said that despite the mood in Washington he saw signs of great hope.
Water debate brewing
Chemical levels are questioned
By Sarah Morrison Kansan staff writer
With the spring planting season underway on farms in Kansas, concerns about fertilizer and herbicide runoff into the water supply is on the rise.
But whether the chemicals pose a serious threat to the safety of Lawrence drinking water depends on who is asked.
Shari Stamer, water quality manager for the City of Lawrence, said the water supply is tested at various stages and times throughout the year for herbicides like atrazine, a widely used chemical that may cause cancer.
The Department of Utilities tests source water and finished water quarterly from the Clinton Reservoir Treatment Plant and Kaw Water Treatment Plant.
The Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminate level of atrazine in drinking water is three parts per billion.
Water woes
Last summer, the Environmental Work Group, based in Washington, D.C., tested water from nine taps in Lawrence. One hundred percent of the time atrazine was detected, and 22 percent of the time the levels were above the three parts per billion EPA standard, Craven said.
But Bill Craven, legislative coordinator of the Kansas Sierra Club and Kansas Natural Resources, said tests done by environmental groups have shown a much higher level of atrazine in the Lawrence water supply.
Chemicals washed Into Kansas rivers by rainfall are the main source of drinking water contamination.
The first test of 1966 was done March 25, Stamer said. The water from the Kansas River registered atrazine levels at 0.5 parts per billion and no atrazine was detected in the Clinton Lake reservoir.
Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
Stamer refutes the claims.
"We have had a lot of media blitzes where some environmental group tests the water and says it's unsafe, but we have not had any problems. Our levels are well below the maximum contaminate levels." Stamer said.
Even if the atrazine level rises above the EPA standard on days when runoff from crops is high, Stamer said the public would not be at a health risk.
"It is possible that throughout the year if you went out and tested the water on a certain day it might be high, but that would not put us out of compliance and it wouldn't hurt anybody health wise, either," Stamer said. "You would have to drink high levels of atrazine for over 70 years before it would cause any kind of cancer. You would have to drink a lot of atrazine."
Craven said even if the levels were below the three parts per billion standard, that didn't mean there are no health risks.
"The standard itself may not be as low as it needs to be to protect the public," Craven said. "In the European union, the standard is only one part per billion."
Earth Week'96
Today
Lance Burr, attorney general of the Kickapoo nation, will lecture at 7 p.m. at the southwest lobby in the Burge Union
Tomorrow
lobby in the Burge Union
Kansas and Burge Union open house for earth awareness, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Live music, a recycled art contest and free flowers.
■ Bill Craven, Sierra Club lobbyist, will speak at 7 p.m. at the Big Eight Room in the Kansas Union
Conversations on Ozone Depletion, 1 to 3 p.m. at the Frontier Room in the Burge Union.
Saturday
Earth Day celebration at 2 p.m in South Park
Baker Wetlands Field Day, 2 to 4 p.m., 35th and Haskell streets, east rates
streets.east gates
Federal and local governments don't take into account what a combined effect of low levels of atrazine and other pollutants routinely screened for, such as nitrates and pesticides, could have on the safety of the drinking water, Craven said.
Despite the concerns voiced by environmentalists, Stamer said the city was steadfast in its efforts to monitor and filter the drinking water in Lawrence.
The public would be immediately notified if the atrazine levels were to rise above the EPA's standard, she said.
"I know there are people out there who think the city is hiding something, but we are not," Stamer said. "We can't play hide and seek. It's my job to keep and eye on it. The water is safe to drink."