Wednesday, May 2, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Foreign student hopes to create change abroad
Pelle Danabo, a Fulbright scholar from the southwest Ethiopian city of Arba Minoh, hopes to share his experience and knowledge with students and professors in his home country. Photo by Katie Moore/KANSAN
By Erin Adamson
writer@kansan.com
Konsan staff writer
Pelle Danabo was amazed when he walked into the spacious Budig Hall computer lab for the first time and saw students typing on the hundreds of computers that filled the room.
At the university in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, Danabo always wrote his papers out by hand, just like the other students and professors.
Danabo is a Fulbright scholar from the southwest Ethiopian city of Arba Minoh who hopes to open a world of opportunities in information technology to students and professors at Addis Ababa University, where he will return to teach and study in August.
Danabo is pursuing a master's degree in philosophy at the University and is one of four international students in the nation to receive the Kenneth Holland Award in support of innovative projects that Fulbright scholars undertake in their home countries.
He won the award for his proposal to establish a cyber cave in Addis Ababa, where he said professors and students wrote papers by hand, and only a select few who had studied outside Ethiopia had a personal computer in their homes. The award provides $2,500 in grants for Fulbright Fellows in their last year of U.S. study.
Ann Cudd, professor of philosophy and Danabo's master thesis adviser, said that in his four semesters at the University, Danabo had become proficient with computers.
"When he came here he didn't have much facility with computers," Cudd said. "I asked him if it would help him to have a computer in his room; he said 'yes.'"
Danabo was grateful for the help he received.
"My professors were so kind that they were letting me write papers by hand," Danabo said. "My department gave me a new computer."
Danabo said his interest in information technology was embedded in his studies in philosophy and his experience living in the United States.
"My interest in philosophy is development." Danabo said.
"Whenever I think of development what comes to mind is, 'Do we have access to information?' We are poor people, so when I see these things I ask why."
Setting up shop at the cyber cafe in Addis Adaba will present challenges, Danabo said, because of a lack of infrastructure and money, but he said he hoped to overcome those obstacles.
He said he hoped Addis Ababa University would provide a building. Donated computers, including his personal computer, will provide low-cost access to word processing and the Internet for many at
"Not for students alone," Danabo said. "For most of my professors it would be the first time."
his university who have never used computers.
Studying at the University has opened new vistas in communication for Danabo, and he doesn't take for granted the technology that most countries in the world cannot hope to afford.
"We are fighting for our bread every day," Danabo said. "Technology is a very secondary thing."
- Edited by Melinda Weaver
By Cassio Furtado
writer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Motion filed to dismiss trial
Scholarship halls still battling bank
The controversy between residents of Watkins and Miller scholarship balls and Bank of America is up for a ruling once again.
Jack Murphy, Douglas County district court judge, heard both parties Monday in answer to a motion from Bank of America to dismiss a petition from Watkins and Miller.
In the petition, hall residents charged the bank and the University of Kansas with negligence and fraud.
David Brown, the residents' attorney, said the bank's action was standard.
By filing a motion to dismiss, the bank was saying the two halls had no basis for their accusations and the court should not hear the case.
"I was not surprised that they filed
Judge Murphy gave the bank 10 days tofile additional papers to make its case. A ruling on the motion to dismiss is expected after that deadline.
Watkins and Miller residents filed the original petition against Bank of America on March 6. The petition included counts requesting more than $75,000 for negligence and fraud.
it." Brown said.
been handled according to Mrs. Watkins' wishes," she said. "We say this because we've experienced no problems during the six decades the bank has administered the trust and because regulatory agencies — including the Kansas Board of Regents, the state attorney general's office and the U.S. Comptroller of the currency — have reviewed matters
The petition stated that Bank of America failed to administer the trust solely in the interest of benefiting the halls as set forth by the Elizabeth M. Watkins Scholarship Fund.
"We are confident that the trust has been handled according to Mrs. Watkins' wishes." Lynn Bretz interim director of University Relations
and found that the trust is managed properly." The fund, which began with $250,000 in 1939, has grown to about $3 million. Residents and alumnae of the two
Lynn Bretz, interim director of University Relations, said in a statement released Monday that the University was following the hearings closely and looked forward to Murphy's ruling.
halls have questioned the management of the fund since 1984, requesting a more active voice on how to invest and manage the trust.
"We are confident that the trust has
Legislators debate new budget plans
— Edited by Leita Schultes
By Cassio Furtado
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Legislators moved slowly yesterday toward agreeing on a plan to resolve the state's budget problems and a confrontation with Gov. Bill Graves about spending cuts.
Two key issues emerged from yesterday's meetings: How to spend the state's share of money from the national settlement of lawsuits against tobacco companies and whether to increase tax on gasoline and diesel fuel by one cent a gallon earlier than planned.
Graves proposed moving up the motor fuels tax increase to July 1 of this year in order to raise $18.4 million for the fiscal 2002 budget. The tax was orignially scheduled to begin in 2003.
Some legislators, particularly House negotiators, have said Graves needs to be more flexible.
Graves also didn't back away from his objective to avoid cuts in state programs. He has threatened to veto any plan that cuts too deeply.
David Shulenburger
"The governor and the Legislature have to deal with the question of the appropriate source of funds."
Provost
Rep. Kenny Wilk, the House's lead negotiator, said he expected a budget agreement to be "equally ugly to all parties."
"My guess is that when we get to that point, we'll all swallow hard and go home," said Wilk, R-Lansing.
The Legislature rejected a proposal by Graves last week that would raise the state sales tax from 4.9 percent to 5.1 percent, adding $10.8 million to the state's higher education budget.
Graves' plan comes after the House Appropriations Committee cut $1 million from the University's budget.
The Legislature's plan would
give higher education $16.6 million next year — $4.2 million less than was appropriated in this year's budget.
After Graves' original budget recommendations in January, KU administrators announced in February that all schools, departments, academic units and administrative offices would have their budgets cut by .57 percent in fiscal year 2001, putting a halt to faculty and staff hiring.
For fiscal year 2002, the cut would be 0.98 percent, which would amount to almost $2 million.
Provost David Shulenburger said last week he wasn't concerned about how the state would generate revenue. Shulenburger said the University's concern was the need for resources to carry out its own services.
"The governor and the Legislature have to deal with the question of the appropriate source of funds," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
Edited by Jay Pilgreen
Environmental group's safety clinic will test cars for emission levels
By Andrew Davies
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff write
to the public.
A branch of the KU environmental studies program will break new ground today and tomorrow by holding a vehicle safety inspection and emission testing clinic at the parking lot next to Memorial Stadium, 11th and Illinois streets.
The Regional and International Center for the Environment — RICE — will hold the clinic from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It is free and open
The clinic is the first of its kind at any college campus in the United States, said Peter Sam, adjunct instructor in the environmental studies program and organizer of the event.
greenhouse gases to 1990 levels.
Sam said he organized the clinic after learning that President George W. Bush's administration would not agree to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that would address the greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion and reduce pollutants and
The clinic is designed to inform the public about pollutants and to find out how much people on campus contribute to global warming, he said.
"We want to educate the students, faculty and anybody who has a car about pollutants," he said.
Drivers who want to participate can wait in their cars, while workers place a five-gas analyzer on the exhaust pipe. The analyzer records levels of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous
oxide and particulate matter, and the testing should take about 10 minutes for each car. Sam said.
After testing the levels, Sam said workers would tell the owner of the car what they could do to lower the level of pollutants.
Sam said the department also wanted to sample campus buses to determine their pollutant levels, but only buses that use gas could be checked. Buses that run on diesel could not be checked because the department doesn't have the instruments needed to check levels.
But Holly Krebs, Lawrence senior and transportation coordinator of KU on Wheels, said she hadn't been contacted about checking the buses at the clinic.
Michelle Myer, an engineer for the Kansas City, Mo., health department air quality program, said she and two other health department colleagues would administer the tests tomorrow.
In addition to the testing of pollutants from an individual's car, Myer said a test would, be performed to see if the gas cap had a
good seal. She said evaporated gas from poor sealing tanks could cost the car's owner up to $30 a year in lost gas.
Information would be available to explain what each of the levels mean and explain the effect of cars, even locally, on the environment.
"I think it's a good way to let people know driving around town really does have an effect on the environment," she said.
Edited by Jay Pilgreen
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