Kansan Summer Weekly
Wednesday, July 29, 1987
3
Local Briefs
KU Med Center student gets research award
A student at the University of Kansas Medical Center will receive a March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation research training fellowship.
Michael T. McMaster, Stockton,
Calif., graduate student, is one of
12 recipients in the nation of the
two-year, $24,000 award. He is
working on a doctoral in special
studies through the physiology
department.
"It will give me the opportunity to focus my dissertation work into such pathological conditions as birth defects," McMaster said.
Michael J. Soares, assistant professor of physiology and McMaster's faculty adviser, said the fellows were part of an effort by the March of Dimes foundation to identify outstanding biomedical science scholars involved in birth defects research.
This is the first year the fellowships have been offered.
Social welfare dean takes job in Hawaii
Patricia Ewalt, who has been KU's dean of social welfare since 1982, has resigned so she could accept a position as dean of the Hawaii School of Social Work at the University of Hawai, Honolulu.
She will begin her new job Sept 1.
Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs, has appointed Ann T. Weick, associate professor of social welfare, to serve as acting dean of social welfare while a national search is conducted for a permanent successor.
Weick joined the KU social welfare department in 1976. She is chairman of the school's doctoral program and teaches classes in social policy, social work theory and professional socialization
This year she received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the KU social welfare alumni society.
Ewalt earned her doctorate in social welfare in 1978 from Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.
Band will play for River City Reunion
The rock band Husker Du will play in the finale performance of the weeklong River City Reunion on Sept. 13 at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St.
The River City Reunion will consist of poetry readings, music and film showings Sept. 7 to 13 both on the KU campus and at Liberty Hall.
All tickets will go on sale Friday. Aug. 7, said Bill Rich, an organizer of the event.
"Prices haven't been announced yet, but they will be announced sometime before the tickets get printed on the seventh," he said.
Campus and Area
The Oread Book Shop in the Kansas Union will sponsor five book signing sessions at noon each day from Sept. 8 to 12. Authors William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Andrei Crescu and John Giorno will be taking part. The dates of their signings will be announced later.
Correction
Due to a reporter's error, the name of a speaker at the July 21 Lawrence City Commission meeting was misidentified in the July 22 Kansan. The name of the speaker is Patti Jenkins.
Syndrome victims suffer fatigue, frustration
Patton, a Lawrence resident, was 40 years old, married, with a 10-year-old son. She made $18,000 a year as an administrative assistant and corporate secretary at a bank in Lawrence. Then an illness changed her whole life.
Five years ago, Sharon Patton seemed to have control of her life.
By STORMY WYLIE
Sharon Patton
Staff writer
"I feel like I've had the flu for five years," Patton said last week. "There have been times that I didn't care whether I lived or died."
Patton saw several doctors before her condition was diagnosed in October as chronic Epstein-Barr virus (CEBV) syndrome, which can be described as an acute, incurable form of mononucleosis.
Because CEBV is a relatively new disease, first diagnosed in 1985, little is known about the incidence.
What is known is that people with CEBV are infected with the Epstein-Barr virus, which also causes infectious mononucleosis. But people with infectious mononucleosis recover; CEBV victims do not, said Nahib Abdou, an immunologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
"Classic mono lasts from one to three weeks, and then it goes away," Abdou said. "Patients with CEBV have it for years, maybe the rest of their life."
The symptoms, which almost always include extreme fatigue, ach
ing, depression, memory loss and inability to concentrate, may come and go in cycles, he said. Patients may have periods when they feel better and then suffer a relapse.
Patton said she didn't know what caused her symptoms, but she felt tired all the time and yet couldn't sleep. She became hostile and jealous. She even hallucinated.
At first, Patton said her doctor thought she was going through menopause and put her on estrogen. He also prescribed sleeping pills and tranquilizers, but her condition worsened.
Different doctors diagnosed her symptoms differently. One said she was fine, another said she had depression, and a third told her she had muscular rheumatism.
Patton said she said so bad that she eventually quit her job. She said she would get up, take her son to school and then go home and stay in bed all day. Her husband called her lazy and told her the illness was in her mind
Last October she went to see her parents' doctor in Lawrence, Matthew Stein, a doctor to whom many patients with CEBV symptoms are referred. Stein administered a blood test. He told her she had the CEBV syndrome.
Patton and seven or eight other Lawrence residents now go to a CEBV support group, which meets the second Thursday of each month. The group's next meeting will be 7
p. m. Aug. 13 in the Gallery Room of the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.
Abou said that until recently, many doctors had not recognized CEBV as a disease.
For the past year, Abdu has seen from two to three new patients a week at the Med Center who complain of CEBV symptoms. Unfortunately, "we can only give them a label for their disease," he said.
"As long as we don't know what causes the syndrome and why it affects certain individuals and not others, and as long as there's no specific diagnostic test, doctors will be hesitant to make this diagnosis," he said.
"For many patients, that's rewarding. They have been very frustrated for two to three years, almost disabled and terribly fatigued.
"Many have been to four or five doctors, and no one can tell them what is wrong with them, or they tell them it is in their heads.
"It is a relief when the disease has been pinpointed."
Abdu said he thought the root of the problem lay in the victim's immune system.
Abdou and other doctors at medical centers in Memphis and Alabama have been experimenting with treating CEBV patients with immune serum globulins, or healthy antibodies, from a normal person's immune system.
About a year ago, Abdu selected 17 CEBV patients to be injected with the antibodies. They were chosen because Abdu was able to track the disease as it progressed, and because the patients' insurance would pay for the injections.
The patients were injected intravenously with the healthy antibodies every three weeks for six months. The results will be made public sometime in September, he said.
"So far, we have seen a mixture, but the majority did benefit," Abdou said. "The benefits have been varied, from complete recovery to partial recovery."
Although Patton has not received the injections, she is optimistic that she will be cured one day.
Just knowing the name of what she is afflicted with helps her attitude, she said.
She still "sleepes an incredible amount" and is tired much of the time, she said.
"Five years ago, I felt like I was in a coma," she said. "Now I feel like something is waking up in my brain. I try not to think about what might happen to me. I just try to be happy."
Her marriage has survived, and she was able to work part time last year as a clerk in the district court office, she said.
Sorority rush to be held this fall
By KRISTEN HAYS
Staff writer
This fall, for the first time since the early 1950s, KU women interested in going through formal sorority rush won't have to wait until the spring semester.
Shannon Parker, Panhellenic vice president of membership, said that a two-thirds majority of University of Kansas sorority chapters voted in October 1985 to start formal rush in August rather than in January.
"Logically, it's easier to have rush in the fall. We can plan during the summer when there are no finals." Parker said. "It cuts down on the stereotypes and rumors encountered during the first semester.
"We also don't have to provide housing accommodations to rushes, since all the (residence) halls will be open (for rushes only) Aug. 15."
During the spring rush, which in past years was before classes in January, only two residence halls, Gertrude Sellands Pearson Hall and Oliver Hall, stayed open. The halls were open only to residents who lived
there, and all other rushees stayed at the Holiday Inn Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said that the residence halls would be open to all students starting Monday, Aug. 17. Allowing rushes to move in earlier will complicate training programs for hall staff members, who will move into the halls Aug. 10 and 11, he said.
"But it's a new thing. We'll see how it works out this year, and iron out what snags we see before we do it again next year," he said.
Julie Schmidt, rush chairman for Chi Omega sorority, 1345 West Campus Rd., said she favored fall rush.
"This way, the girls won't have preconceptions of sororities, and we'll give them a lot to do for the first semester so they're not in limbo," she said.
As of Saturday's deadline for registration, and the Panhellenic office had received 1,010 completed registration forms. Last spring, 1,143 women registered for rush, and 828 went through the first day.
The registration procedure for rush has changed slightly to accommodate the new schedule.
"When we did it in the spring, the women would fill out their registration cards in the Centennial Room in the Union. Now, we mail out about 2.500 rush information booklets to rushees that have the cards on the back, which they fill out and mail in."
"We received printout requests for rush information from women through the University, had the rush books available at summer orientation, and had ads in the Kansan last spring."
Parker said rushees still would have to maintain specified grade point averages, which vary among the chapters. "Each chapter has a cumulative GPA requirement between 2.0 and 3.0," she said.
Since 1928, the National Panhellenic Conference has recommended that the University hold a fall rush, Parker said.
Formal sorority rush is scheduled for Aug. 15-22.
Lawrence residents speak out on proposed southwest bypass
Staff writer
By KRISTEN HAYS
Controversy about Lawrence's proposed southwest trafficway project arose in a lively public hearing at last night's Lawrence City Commission meeting, attended by about 75 Lawrence residents.
Because of time limits, only 23 of those residents spoke either for or against the bypass.
The proposed bypass would connect Kansas Highway 10 to the Kansas Turnpike west of Lawrence, passing through traffic on 23rd Street.
Don Johnston, 1540 Alvamar Dr. said he favored the bypass, because Lawrence drivers had an aversion to driving on 23rd Street.
"People drive on these streets that were never meant for heavy travel."
and I don't know a neighbor in town who wouldn't want to solve the bad traffic problem," he said.
Carol Estes, Route 4, Lawrence, said she opposed the bypass because it would go through the Baker Wetlands, a habitat for the endangered northern crabfish frog.
In April's city elections, the fictitious Agnes T. Frog, a northern crawfish frog and write-in candidate, ran against County Commissioner Nancy Hiebert in opposition to the bypass. Hiebert won with 4,868 votes, but Agnes generated 1,850 votes.
"From an environmental perspective, it's difficult to imagine how we could choose a worse route," she said.
industrial traffic already had a bypass route with Interstate 70.
George Schmitendorf, 1211 Kentucky St., said a southern bypass was unnecessary because local and
Les Blevins, 2513 Louisiana St., said he was "concerned and amazed" because Lawrence residents didn't get to vote for or against the bypass in April's elections. He presented a photograph of several residents who attended a meeting of the county commission in December 1985 who would vote against the bypass if given a chance.
"Be responsive to the people's will.
The people want a vote. He said."
But Andy Galyardt. 325 Hornestead Dr, supported the southern bypass and jokingly asked all those present at last night's meeting to stand if they supported the bypass. A majority did stand, and Galyardt said, "Here's my picture."
Foreign students look for better education, opportunities in U.S.
By CARLA PATINO
Staff writer
Freedom Education American Success.
These are some of the reasons why foreign students come to the United States and why some want to stay.
Carmen Ramos, Caracas, Venezuela, graduate student, said she came to the United States to receive a better education and to learn to speak English.
Although she thinks that this country's society is more open and offers more choices than hers, she said, she would like to go back to Venezuela.
"In the United States, a foreigner remains a foreigner no matter what," she said. "A foreigner is professionally relegated to a secondary position. I think I can produce much more if I go back to my country."
Takesh Shimamura, Shimnooseki Japan, is a student at the Applied English Center, trying to improve his English to the point where he can enroll at the University.
Shimamura said he came to the United States because he wanted more independence and because Japan had few economic sources for anthropology students.
"I like this country. Here people can think and behave freely," he said.
Shimamura said he would like to stay.
Tun Abduljamal, Ipoh, Malaysia, senior, said he, too, would prefer to stay and work in the United States
"My personal ambition is to stay here," he said. "There are good job opportunities, and I like the way of life here."
Abduljamal said he came to KU through a scholarship program sponsored by the Malaysian government, and if he were to return home, it would be because of his moral obligations to the government for its help.
James Stinson, assistant director of admissions, recently said that although some foreign students could
get work permits, by filing an application with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, most had student visas that allowed them to work only on campus. Before working, foreign students also must have attended one semester at the University and obtained approval from the foreign student services office before.
Patricia Willer, assistant director of foreign student services, said that usually the opportunities were slim for a foreign student to get a permit for off-campus work.
"At the office, we try to help people with their applications," she said. But if students don't stand good chances of receiving work permits, Willier tries to dissuade them from spending the $15 that is required as an application fee, she said.
To get the work permit, Willer said, a foreign student has to prove that he needs a better job to continue school.
She said that some reasons, such as unexpected financial needs or scholarship cuts, could be valid explanations.
Willer said that contrary to popular belief, the majority of foreign students at KU, as well as in the rest of the nation, returned to their countries.
"Some foreign students stay to work for practical training, which is one year. But after that, they still return home," she said.
Usually more graduate students prefer to stay after graduation because they think their professional goals would be easier to attain in the United States, she said.
I-Kuang Chou, Taiwan graduate student in aerospace engineering, said he wanted to return to his country after finishing his studies because, "I have my family and friends in Taiwan, and I think that what I study here will be useful for my country."
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