KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010 / NEWS
3A
ENVIRONMENT
Students key for sustainability plan
BY ALLYSON SHAW
ashaw@kansan.com
The University is going green and it wants students to help.
Graduate students in urban planning are working with the KU Center for Sustainability this week to host four brainstorming workshops for the Campus Sustainability Plan. The plan is the first of its kind at the University and aims to make campus more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.
"We hope that a plan with broad student input will have broad student implementation," said Jeff Severin, director for the center.
Phil Englehart, professor of urban planning, attended yesterday's workshop, along with 12 students. Englehart said he would like to see the notion of sustainability integrated into the whole university
curriculum.
"In my class, we certainly address it," he said. "But it needs to be a part of every class."
The issue of transportation kept emerging during yesterday's workshop.
"West Campus is so spread out, especially with all the space used up by parking lots," said Nate Vanderbroek, a graduate student from Denver. "But it can be scary to ride my bike on West Campus. The best option for many students is to drive."
Marci Francisco, Kansas state senator and Center for
One group of students suggested increasing the charges and fines for parking. They also thought adding a GPS system to the buses, so students knew exactly where they were at all times, would make the bus system more user friendly.
Sustainability analyst, said that a push for sustainability must also come from the faculty and staff. For instance, Francisco said, faculty should be more aware of how much paper they waste
During the workshop, Severin asked attendees what challenges were to increasing sustainability. Vanderbroek said that low finances were a hindrance, but Francisco disagreed.
"Revenue doesn't drive everything," Francisco said. "Bottled water is more expensive than gasoline, but we keep buying it. It must be bigger than that. We're just so used to some things."
Severin said the workshops were just the beginning of the process to create the sustainability plan. The next step is to send the ideas generated by students to 10 specialized working groups,
NEXT WORKSHOPS
Today:
- 12 to 1 p.m., Kansas Union, Kansas Room
- 4 to 5 p.m., Burge Union, Relays Room
Union, Kansas Room
Tomorrow:
- 12:30-1:30 p.m., Marvin Hall, Jury Room (216)
composed of graduate students, which will research the ideas and formulate the plan.
He said he hoped to have a draft of the plan by April 22 — Earth Day — and the draft done by June.
— Edited by Dana Meredith
NATIONAL
Lawyers request consistency in trials
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court should rely on the same evidence a trial judge considered when he overturned California's same-sex marriage ban and reject efforts by the ban's sponsors to supplement their case with "distortions and misstatements," lawyers for two same-sex couples say.
In a brief filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Monday, the attorneys for the
couples who successfully sued to strike down Proposition 8 countered arguments that Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco conducted a one-sided trial.
They say the evidence was overwhelmingly in their favor because lawyers for the voter-approved measure's sponsors decided to call only two witnesses compared with the plaintiffs' 17, and they failed to provide credible studies or convincing corboration for their claim that marriage should
be limited to a man and woman to promote responsible childbearing
Those proponents "now attempt to fill the evidentiary void they left in the district court with an avalanche of non-record citations, distortions and misstatements regarding the proceedings below, and baseless attacks on the good faith of the district court," the couples' lawyers said. "The tactic is unfortunate, unbecoming and unavailing."
Protect Marriage, the coalition of religious and conservative
groups that qualified Proposition 8 for the California ballot two years ago and triumphantly campaigned for its passage, has asked the 9th Circuit to overturn Walker's August ruling.
The group's lawyers argued in written arguments submitted last month that the judge had "quite willfully" disregarded a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court precedent and other relevant information when he decided the measure was an unconstitutional violation of gay Californians' civil rights.
PERKINS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Williams said she could not disclose when the complaints were filed but they were signed and notarized on Sept. 7. On that same day Perkins announced his retirement. Perkins' retirement came a year earlier than originally announced during a June press conference..
The University cleared Perkins of ethical violations in June after a week-long internal investigation. Perkins' attorney, Stephen McAllister, said he referred the evidence to the state ethics commission after the University completed it's review.
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little ordered Allen Humphrey.
program director of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity, and Mary Lee Hummert, vice provost for Faculty Development, to review allegations made by William Dent, a former Athletics employee.
Hummert told The Kansan in August that the internal investigation found no relationship between the loan of the equipment
Dent alleged that Medical Outfittersloaned Perkins equipment in exchange for favorable seating at athletics events. He also alleged that irregularities existed in Athletics' drug testing policy and in the eligibility certification of some student athletes.
and preferential seating for the nowbankrupt company'sco-owners. One of Medical Outfitters' co-owners, Marc Glass, told media this summer that Perkins was loaned $15,000 of exercise equipment to help him rehabilitate from surgery. Glass also said that Perkins was never expected to pay for the equipment, but Perkins wrote him a check this past April for $5,000.
The Chancellor's office was called for comment Tuesday afternoon. Jack Martin, deputy director of University Communications, said the University has said throughout this process that the ethics commission was the appropriate venue for the matter.
"They look at state's ethic laws and how those apply and universities' investigations look at a different set of issues," Martin said.
— Edited by Roshni Oommen
STUDY (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Gillath said the neuroscientific aspects of the research would allow him and his colleagues to look into specific areas of the brain that are active when a person performs a generous act. For example, the researchers would be able to tell whether behaving generously makes individuals feel happy, sad, exhilarated or simply relaxed.
Gillath said the first steps of the research have already been completed, and the researchers received some encouraging results.
El-Hodiri said that he is enthusiastic about the research, regardless of what specifics the team is able to learn.
Gillath said.
"If we can find, deep in the recesses of our brains, a way to re-humanize people, then maybe we are up to something." El-Hodiri said. "I enjoy the ride, anyway."
Ultimately, the researchers hope they would be able to use the findings to spur generosity.
"Especially during these hard economic times, being able to encourage generosity and to get people to think about others is something very important,"
- Edited by Emily McCoy
FILMS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
For Emily Hastings, a sophomore from Wichita, this is why a
"There is a lot that people don't realize about many of the Latin American countries," Stone said. "These films can open some peoples' eyes."
about the 1999 film. "For them, it was a wonderful surprise. But Cubans knew about this music forever, it was all they knew."
Sydney Stone, the Program Assistant for the Center of Latin American Studies, said that she chose the four documentaries to portray a diverse look at Latin American current events, culture, and history. She says they focus of immigration, music, South American history, and politics.
The first movie shown, "The Take," was about workers in South America taking over an idle factory to fight the globalization taking over their country. "Buena Vista Club" was a documentary that brought a group of legendary Cuban musicians together for to record a CD.
The next movie,"Letters from the Other Side", will be shown on October 26. It is a look at a compilation of stories from Mexican immigrants and the complicated issues that polarize the problem of immigration in the United States.
LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
film festival like this is so important for University students to see.
October 26th: Letters from the Other Side November 9th: South of the Border
4025 Wescoe Hall, 7 p.m.
"Because the world is becoming more of a global community," Hastings said, "it is good to understand where people come from."
The film festival will conclude with a film by Oliver Stone entitled "South of the Border" on November 9. Stone interviewed political leaders of many South American countries including President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Raul Castro of Cuba. The documentary looks at the media's misperception of South America and the social and political movements happening in those countries.
The events are free and each movie begins at 7 p.m.