CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, April 1, 1996
3A
Social welfare student assists elderly in meeting daily needs
Courses / Notes Nell Cochershers, Lawrence resident, receives assistance from Kristie Kerrick, Lansing senior. Kerrick is a case manager for Project Lively, a service which provides home care and assistance to the elderly.
By David Teska
Kansan staff writer
Kristie made a new friend the first day she met Nell, she said.
"You never know what you're going to find when you enter a client's home," said Kristie Kerrick, Lansing senior and student case manager for Nell Christophersen.
To help Christopherse, who is 85 and legally blind, live independently, Kerrick visits her once a week at her home in Vermont Towers, 1101 Vermont St.
Working for Project Lively, a case management service for the elderly that is provided by the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, Kerrick helps Christophersen access local services such as Audio Reader and Meals on Wheels.
"We know what's in the community and match resources with clients," Kerrick said. "We're basically resource brokers."
Since moving to Lawrence last month, Christophersen said she had grown to value the help and friendship provided by Kerrick.
"It's you younger people that give us the inspiration to keep trying," Christophersen said.
Kerrick said she first had learned about the project while volunteering with Douglas County Social Services.
Kerrick said she had to perform 480 hours of practicum experience during her senior year in addition to taking nine credit hours each semester as part of her bachelor's degree in social welfare.
Kerrick's field instructor, Laura Hevel, is a case manager with the project.
She said that in matching clients with student case managers, the group looked for what the client needs were and what abilities the student had.
With her dog, AJS, sitting on her lap, Christophersen said she moved from Wichita last month so she could be closer to her son, who lives in Oskaloosa and works in
Topeka. In Wichita, she said, she had to rely on friends to help her.
"You can't imagine how many friends I had," she said.
Although she had planned on a career in geriatric care after graduation in May, Kerrick said she decided to change careers. Instead of social welfare, she will work in trade association management. Much of her decision was made last year after her boyfriend died in a car accident.
"We had made a lot of plans," she said.
She said that because she had experienced so many emotions in the past year, she no longer wanted a career in geriatric care.
After graduation, Kerrick said she and Christophersen will continue to meet as friends.
"Older people have so much to teach us," she said. "If you're willing to learn, there's a lot to gain."
Motels report no room at inn for graduation
Ellsworth Hall has space for out-of-towners
By Heather Kirkwood Kansan staff writer
Graduating seniors may have trouble finding a place in Lawrence for out-of-town family to stay if they are just now making arrangements for graduation weekend.
Mike Martin, general manager of the Bismark Inn, 1130 N. Third St., said he knew how hard it could be for the families of graduates to find a place to stay.
"I've had people come in here from as far away as Emporia to pick up the rest of the family," Martin said. "People get spread all over the place."
The Bismark Im has been booked for graduation weekend for almost a year, Martin said, and some of the reservations were made as much as five years in advance.
"I have people on the rolling graduation plan," Martin said. "If their kid doesn't graduate, they just roll the reservation over to the next year."
Linda Maas, manager of the Westminster Inn, 2525 W. Sixth St., said she started taking reservations for this year's graduation the day after graduation last year.
"I already have a waiting list for 1997," she said. "We are receiving as many as 25 phone calls a day from people about graduation."
Brad Hart, Garden City senior,
said his family didn't start looking
for a place to stay soon enough.
Three months ago his parents
started trying to make reservations
for graduation weekend but were
only able to get on a waiting list.
"Finally they found a room in Topeka," Hart said.
A new Comfort Inn and Hampton Inn are being built in Lawrence, but neither will be open before commencement.
While it may be hard to find a room in Lawrence hotels and motels, the department of student housing still has rooms available in Ellsworth Hall for the families of graduates.
Before spring break, seniors were mailed information about graduation, including a reservation form from the housing office.
"We have only gotten a few back so far," said Brian Proctor, student assistant at the housing office. "We get the bulk of our reservations in mid-April."
The rooms in Ellsworth will be available May 17 through May 19. Double occupancy rooms will be $16 a person, and single occupancy will be $23.50. The rates include breakfast at Ekdahl Dining Commons.
New Regents unanimously confirmed by Senate
By John Collar
Kansan staff writer
The two newest members of the Board of Regents said that they were ready to begin work on the major issues facing higher education in Kansas.
Sylvia Robinson and Murray Lull, who the Kansas Senate unanimously confirmed as Regents on Thursday, said they wanted to look out for the interests of students.
Robinson, a resident of Kansas
City, Kan., has been director and program officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., for the past three years. She also has been a member of the Kansas City, Kan., school board since 1983 and has been a teacher and administrator and has published several articles.
During her tenure as a Regent, she plans to work on increasing technology opportunities for students and ensuring equity for all students, Robinson said.
She also said that teaching played a vital role in her life.
"Being a teacher was very important to me. One of the most rewarding things I've done is teach. Everything else is just icing on the cake," she said.
Stephen Jordan, executive director of the Regents, said that Robinson's experience would improve the Regents' communication with the secondary school system in Kansas.
"I think she will bring a very
important perspective to those discussions," Jordan said.
Lull, a resident of Smith Center in north-central Kansas, is a fourth-generation president of the Smith Center State Bank and Trust Co. He has a bachelor's degree from Wichita State University.
Lull said his highest priority would be students. He also wants to ensure that taxpayer money is well spent.
Lull said that his family has valued the opportunity to provide loans to
students and to follow the students through their academic careers.
"I think we were proud of the relationship we had with the kids," Luil said.
Stephen Jordan said that Lull's experience would be vital in designing performance measures to ensure the accountability of the Regents institutions.
Before they had been confirmed, Lull and Robinson already had shown a commitment to the board by spending a day in Topeka to start
the orientation process, Jordan said.
Last Monday, The Senate Education Committee heard testimony from the nominees before recommending to the full Senate that they be confirmed.
State Sen. Barbara Lawrence, R-Wichita, chairwoman of the committee, said she was impressed with the new Regents.
"I think they are well qualified," Lawrence said. "They will both be excellent Regents."
Attendees may leave banquet hungry, but that is the point
By Susanna Lödf
Kansan staff writer
It is a dinner party that most guests will leave hungry.
And that is not a mistake on the part of the hosts.
Tomorrow night's Hunger Banquet will illustrate the unequal distribution of food on earth, said Julie Harris, Mission Hills senior and chairwoman of the committee organizing the banquet.
"The Hunger Banquet is a dramatization of world hunger," Harris said. "It's a consciousness raiser."
Vouchers to the free event, which begins at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Kansas Union Ballroom, are available today at the SUA box once in the Kansas Union.
There are 250 vouchers available, and students randomly will be assigned a banquet identity when they enter the Ballroom. They will receive a brief profile of the identity, including information about what country he or she is from and how he or she lives. The profile also will tell the students where to sit.
A majority of the students will be seated on the floor, and they will get rice to eat. A fourth of the students will be seated on crates, and they will be served rice and beans. Only 15 percent will sit at a banquet table and feast on a meal of baked chicken and side dishes. The distribution represents how food is distributed in the world, Harris said.
The guests of Hunger Banquets cannot avoid seeing the hunger, said Harris, who attended a Hunger Banquet in Boston a couple of years ago.
"You often see a lot of discomfort in those people," she said. "It's easy to go through life and not see the hunger."
Although the people sitting at the table may be enjoying the tastiest food, they may not be happy with their situation, Harris said.
"Having a profile really makes you connect with an individual and a situation," she said. "It's not just statistics. It sticks with you."
Harris hopes the Hunger Banquet
will become an annual tradition at the University of Kansas. A Hunger Banquet was held off campus last year and was a fund-raiser for alternative spring breaks.
"We decided to move it to campus and make it free to attract more students," Harris said.
But using a campus building made the event more costly, because it forced the organizers, the Center for Community Outreach and Owl Society among other groups, to use the University's Food Services. If the event had been held off campus, donated food could have been used, Harris said.
However, Food Services offered the group a discounted price, and
the total cost of the event, including marketing costs, is $385.
That amount was covered by fundraisers and a $50 donation from the School of Social Welfare, Harris said.
The event will include a band and speeches about hunger-related issues.
Information about hunger-stricten areas and volunteering opportunities to combat hunger also will be available. The event is part of Hunger and Homelessness Action week, which begins today and ends Saturday.
Mary VanCleave, Overland Park sophomore, helped organize the event. She said it was important
because it could open people's eyes to the world's hunger problem.
"It doesn't seem to enter people's minds a lot of the time, especially on college campuses," she said.
Hunger Banquet
What: Hunger Banquet
What: Fünger Banquet
Where: 130 p.m. monoroo
Where: Buffalo
- Sponsors: Center for Community Outreach, Student Senate, SUA, School of Social Welfare, Food Services, KU Bahai Club, Owl Society
250 voucher's are available at the SUA box office for the free event.