MANUAL
CAUGHT ON TAPE
DUCT TAPE WORKS AS A USEFUL TOOL AND A CREATIVE CRAFT IN COLLEGE HANDS
Growing up, Mike Sapenoff's dad harped on the many uses of duct tape. Whether in the house, in the backyard or on the car, duct tape could fix any crack, leak or snap.
BRENNA LONG
Though Sapenoff's relationship with duct tape started 21 years ago, the history of duct tape dates back to World War II. The handy fix-all tool was first used to keep water out of ammunition shells. After 50 years, duct tape has transformed from the drab original olive green to silver to match ductwork and a rainbow of colors for crafts. The versatile tool has stretched to KU students who use duct tape for handy fixes and crafty projects.
"I basically used duct tape straight from the womb," says Sapenoff, Overland Park senior. Raised to think duct tape fixes all, Sapenoff's first inclination every time he hears a snap is to put the broken object back together with duct tape.
Photo by | Chris Bromon
Mr. Fix-it: Tyler Case has made more than 30 duct tape wallets. He uses the traditional gray color, as well as the collegiate Jayhawk patterns.
No one knows how to use duct tape for handy and creative ways better than The Duct Tape Guys: Jim Berg and Tim Nyberg. With seven books written about the sticky tape, the two men understand its creative powers. "It's good to use because it comes with no instructions," Nyberg says.
On the handy side of duct tape, Nick Benson, Orlando, Fla., sophomore, has rolls of duct tape in his apartment and in his truck in case he needs it. When he came to college, Benson started pulling out the duct tape because it was a cheap fix to life's sticky situations.
When the bumper fell off of his black Toyota Matrix, Benson grabbed a black roll of duct tape to match and taped the bumper back to the body of the car. A pipe started leaking in his apartment, and he wrapped silver tape around until no water escaped. His cats scratched at the bottom of the door, so he put rolled up pieces sticky side out to keep them away from the door. Every situation was fixed by having a roll of duct tape at hand. "It's a cheap fix for anything," Benson says.
Robert Cuthbertson, category manager at Duck Brand, a company that makes duct tape and other adhesive materials, knows how versatile the company's product, Duck Brand duct tape, can be. The company also caters to the creative side, as well. "We want people to know it's a legitimate repair tool, but that it is a craft medium, too," Cuthbertson says.
Since the late 1990s, the creative side of duct tape has grown with the Internet. Duck Brand's web site has Ducktivities and other duct tape ideas like making duct tape flowers and ties.
And in 2001, Duck Brand started a prom contest where students could submit duct tape fashion to win scholarships. "Seeing the creative reach makes you want to take a moment and appreciate it," Cuthbertson says.
The different designs and colors of duct tape have amped up the creative possibilities. The colors started 20 years ago, and in the last two years, designs such as tie-dye and camouflage have appeared. The colored duct tape costs $3.37 for 20 yards, making it double the price of regular duct tape.
Making use of the colored tape, former KU student Jarred Smith used blue and red duct tape for school pride. In high school, he dressed up as duct tape man with a self-made duct tape cape. He made the cape by taking long strips of duct tape and stretching them across his kitchen table. Then he took more strips and put
the sticky sides together to make one big cape. His first year at KU in 2008, he turned the 3 by 4 foot cape into a KU banner he waved around at the Missouri football game.
More recent than the colors and designs is colligate duct tape — yes, Jayhawk duct tape exists.
Spending an extra $4 to $5 to have KU duct tape, Tyler Case, Olathe freshman, made the Jayhawk duct tape the center stripe of his current wallet. He started making duct tape wallets in seventh grade, after his brother bought one. "That wallet was crap, so I decided to make my own," he says. Without any instruction, Case stuck his own wallet together out of plain, gray duct tape.
He made the wallet by sticking together strips of tape, sticky side together. He cut the sides down to wallet size, and folded it in half. This gave him the pocket that holds cash.
<< THE DUCT TAPE GUYS
GUIDE TO COLLEGE >>
Now at college, his duct tape wallet-making hasn't stopped. With four rolls of duct tape sitting above his desk (blue, black, white and KU themed), Case says that wallets are the only use he has for duct tape. While his family makes fun of him for his creative skills, the 30 to 40 wallets he has made have made him an expert at his craft. Jp
The Duct Tape Guys, the duo of Jim Berg and Tim Nyberg, know endless ways to use duct tape and have filled seven books with their knowledge. Here are a few ways Nyberg says students can use duct tape to survive college.
+ Cover textbooks and notebooks to make them more durable.
+ Tape lofts together in dorm rooms.
+ Wrap around your waist as a girdle to avoid the freshman fifteen.
+ Prevent binge drinking by covering root beer bottles with homemade ale labels made of duct tape. "The worst that happens is you might get a sugar buzz."
+ Make pom-poms to root on the KU sports teams.
+ Make clothes. They stand up well to any thing, including vomit. Then just hose yourself off.
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The activity was part of a program that the on-campus group GROW started this year. Erica Bennett, a junior from Emporia and co-coordinator of GROW, said the club is an initiative to promote healthy habits.
To better promote this initiative, the group designed a year-long program with monthly themes to teach third- and fourth-graders at the school how to become healthier, both mentally and physically. This month's theme is teamwork. The children played games where they
SEE GROUP ON PAGE 24
Monica Powers, left, and Erica Bennett, are co-coordinators of GROW, an on-campus group that promotes healthy habits for children.
Audit finds School of Business to be mostly consistent in course fee usage
ADMINISTRATION
BY GARTH SEARS
gsears@kansan.com
The report addresses concerns from several MBA students who lodged complaints with the Kansas Board of Regents this summer. The findings are from an audit by BKD LLC, the same accounting firm that investigated the Athletics Department ticket scandal.
Of the $30 million the School of Business has raised since 2004 from course fees, a third-party accounting firm reported that the school spent 99.8 percent appropriately.
The report "confirms that we have used those funds for the benefit of our students and the advancement of the programs in our school," said William Fuerst, dean of the School of Business.
Some of the MBA students also called for Fuerst to be fired. He announced Sept. 22 that he would step down after the academic year, but a school spokesperson told The University Daily Kansan that his
resignation wasn't related to those demands.
BKD LLC's audit found that 0.2 percent, or about $60,000, of the $30 million in spending was inconsistent with the original fee proposal. BKD reported that almost $28,000 in payroll to some professors over the summer of 2005 was inconsistent with the fee proposal. The audit also found that the school used more than $24,000 of course fees inappropriately to pay for fees related to accreditation and membership in the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
The school instituted the course fees in 2004, and the tuition proposal for it specified where the money could be used.
The proposal established a student advisory committee, responsible for overseeing how the course fees were spent. But the committee was disbanded by 2006, perhaps the students' biggest complaint.
banding the committee "an oversight," and said that keeping the committee might have prevented conflict.
"Could we have avoided the controversy by having a mechanism in place?" Vitter said. "I think the answer is yes."
The committee was re-established Oct.21 and agreed to meet again to discuss the findings of this review.
Provost Jeffrey Vitter called dis
Course fees, also called differential tuition rates, represent about 40 percent of the school's budget. On top of normal tuition, business students paid an extra $102 per credit hour in course fees this semester, and master's business students paid an extra $187 per hour.
BKD's report, released Thursday,
includes an appendix accounting for
just under $30 million, listed
by year and broken down into 17
categories of spending.
"If this doesn't answer the issues of critics, then that's their issue," Vitter said. "I don't think anything
In a response letter at the end of the report, Fuerst said the school will review what BKD identified as inappropriate spending with the student advisory committee.
will ever answer their issue."
Vitter said the committee will receive reports on expenditures and planned expenditures in the future.
Although BKD found that the school spent nearly all of the fee money appropriately, the report also said the fee proposal was vague in places and that "there could be differences of opinion" about whether an expenditure conflicted with the fee proposal.
The provost's office contracted BKD to perform the audit, which cost an estimated $50,000 and was overseen by a committee of students, faculty and staff. The provost's office paid for the audit with private donations.
Edited by Alex Tretbar
Kansas receives higher grade in sustainability, but isn't perfect
Columnist Kate Larrabee explains how the University scored a higher grade this year, but still needs more student involvement and leadership in sustainability. Kansas received a 'B', just behind Texas and Colorado.
Resurrected club lets the paint fly in growing sport
CLUBS | 6A
The University's new paintball club is starting practices for competitive and recreational players alike. The members hope to compete against other schools later in the year as well.
Classifieds...2B
Crossword...4A
Cryptoquips...4A
Opinion...5A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...4A
INDEX
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TODAY
59 39
Rain/Thunder
SATURDAY
49 28
Partly Cloudy
SUNDAY
58 32
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