University Daily Kansan / Thursday, January 17, 1991
Campus/Area
3
City fixes temporary water problem
By Joe Gose
Kansan staff writer
KU students who left town for winter break helped create a problem for the city of Lawrence and made them experience the brunt of it themselves.
But the problem of foul-smelling and tasting water could not be entirely attributed to the departing team, but to the officer, director of Lawrence utilities.
"It was a combination of things," he said. "Ice cover on Clinton Lake, organisms in the lake, organic mater such as leaves rotting in the lake, a release of water which resuspended sediment and the drop in consumption, and the leaves are all reasons for the problem
"What we needed were additional people to keep the water flowing. It's an aesthetic problem, not a health hazard."
Pat McCool, district engineer for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said that the water did not pose a health problem.
shown contamination," McCool said. "If a health hazard is found, we require the city to notify the public immediately."
"They send samples to us regularly for tests, and no tests have
Although there was no health hazard, some residents were not taking any chances.
"We got some new customers out of it," said Andy Cowan, branch manager of Hinkley and Schmitt Bottled Water Co., which sells cases and five-gallon bottles of water for domestic use. "Since I've had the route in Lawrence, it's always been a poor water town. But my secretary
did get more calls than usual last month."
The problem affected the southern and western parts of the city, which are served mostly by Clinton Lake, Coffey said. Residents served by the Kansas River did not experience the problem.
"It's strange," he said. "I noticed a problem with my water, but my neighbor behind me did not notice anything wrong with his. This isn't the first time it's happened, and it won't be the last."
Coffey said that the complaints began the day before Christmas. The Lawrence water treatment utility administration immediately started to treat the water with potassium manganate, an oxidizing agent.
"There are still pockets of the water coming through the system, so it could still linger for a while," Cowen said.
And although Lawrence has almost solved its problem, communities west of Clinton are just encountering it, McCool said.
Skid control
To assure firm footing for campus walkers, Bob Abbott, facilities operations employee, mixes fertilizer with sand to spread on slippery sidewalks. The fertilizer, urea, is used instead of salt to melt ice and snow because salt corrodes the concrete.
Finney names appointee for Board of Regents job
By Eric Nelson
Kansan staff writer
Joan McDowell, president of Independence Community College, was appointed yesterday to the board of Regents by Gov Joan Finney
McDowell, 47, has worked in several jobs at the two-year college, including vice president for three years. McDowell, who became president in 1803, also has been an adjunct professor at Stetson State University since 1765.
McDowell, who lives in Cherryvale, succeeds Linwood Sexton of Sedgwick, whose term expired Dec. 31. The terms of Norman Jeter of Hays and Richard Senecal of Atchison also expired then.
She has a doctorate in education from Kansas State University and earned degrees in education and psychology from Pittsburgh State.
The Regents are comprised of nine members serving staggered terms. Officials from the governor's office must be appointed to the board was expected soon
McDowell has served on the State Board of Examiners in Optometry since 1982, the Arts Council from 1981-86, the Kansas Economic Development Council from 1983-86, and the Employment Training Course from 1979-83.
Finney said her choice was made in the interest of excellence in Regents schools.
"With the appointment of Dr. McDowell, I am investing the best of our human capital resources to assure our state university system is
McDowell, whose appointment to the Regents still must be confirmed by the Senate, said she would support the position on the Margin of Excellence.
the most competitive in the nation," she said.
She was named the outstanding young alumna of Pittsburg State in 1983 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1988.
Federal grant to benefit math, science teachers
Bv Eric Nelson
Kansan staff writer
was important
A National Science Foundation grant of $1.1 million will help finance the University of Kansas 'Math and Engineering' for Reservation Schools project.
Jim Middleton, Lawrence senior, said many American Indians had been victims of cultural genocide. Middleton, a member of Native American Student Organization and the Creek tribe, said that because some Americans stripped of their culture, a resurgence of cultural awareness
The grant will finance the next three summers of the MASTER II project, which helps teachers of American Indians provide better math and science training while remaining sensitive to American Indian beliefs and values.
"There has been great progress in the past 20 years," he said, referring to the American Indian movement of the late '60s and early '70s to restore cultural pride and tradition.
Allan Hayton, Arctic Village, Alaska, senior and member of the Gwich'in tribe, said American Indian reverence for nature was important to understand in the teachings of science and math.
"Generally, Native American perspectives aren't appreciated because they are not based on findings." Hayton said. "Native American perspectives come from a different tradition."
He said these beliefs often are based on direct experiences with nature and not laboratory research.
Deadline for commission seats nears
Kansan staff report
With three days left before deadline, five people have filed applications for a spot on the Commission election ballot.
Those who already have applied are Toni Dudley, 3033 Campfire Drive; Fred Markham, 2222 Yale Road; John Nalbandian, 2545 Montana St.; Bob Schule, 1507 Stratford Road; and David Penny, 643 Tennessee St.
To become candidates, applicants must file at the city clerk's office. Sixth and Massachusetts streets. Candidates must be U.S. citizens and registered to vote in Lawrence.
Bus service will replace wrong color bus passes
By Katie Chipman
Kansan staff writer
Those who bought this semester's bus pass may have noticed a change in its appearance. The passes are clear instead of solid. Because the passes can be difficult to see, KU on Wheels has decided to issue protective pink stickers to be applied over each pass.
All students who purchased bus passes this semester will need to exchange them, KU on Wheels officials said.
"We got the passes a week before we were supposed to sell them, and they were supposed to be a reflective interviewer. But they were white." she said.
Mary Ellen Henderson, coordinator of on Kwels, said the company that manufactures the passes produced the wrong color passes.
Henderson said she discovered that the passes were clear when the paper covering them was peeled off. She said the bus drivers had complained that the passes, so pink stickers were applied to make the passes more visible.
Bil Dutton, a bus driver for KU on Wheels, said, "With the clear decal, the printing on the sticker is like everything." It just blends in with everything."
The bus passes that were sold on the first day have the clear stickers applied to the front of the KUIDs, but Henderson said that all students with bus passes would need to exchange them.
David Hardy, assistant director of accounts and student organizations and activities, said students would have a simple time to exchange the passes.
"We hope that exchange up in 10 days," he said. "By sometime late next week, at the earliest, we hope to have the new stickers."
Students should not try to remove the stickers from their KUIDs because the stickers are designed to be removed by the disks and they are tampered with, Hardy said.
"It will do people no good to try to forge these because we have receipts and records for every bus pass sold, and we will look at these when people come in to exchange their passes," he said.
Hardy said that he was upset that the passes had caused an inconvenience to students, but that students face no problem with the exchange.
GLSOK request leads to full-time faculty position
By Sarah Davis
A request submitted last October by Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas has led to the creation of a faculty position to benefit the gay and lesbian community.
Kansan staff writer
On Dec. 24, Tom Emerson, third-year law student, accepted the position of graduate assistant for gay and lesbian concerns. He said the position was created in response to student requests for a full-time staff person to address gay and lesbian issues on campus.
"The feeling among the gay and lesbian community was the issues present for them were of such magnitude and were so pervasive that it did require at least one full-time individual without any other directing them from that job." Emerson said.
He said that acting executive vice chancellor Del Shankel allocated enough money for a half-time graduate assistantship, which will run through June 30, but that the students wanted the position to be full-time.
"This is very much a trial period now for the position itself," Emerson said.
His position, which he described as a direct link between the gay and lesbian community and the KU administration, was adopted from a list of suggestions from GLSOK.
Emerson said there were three areas he would concentrate on: acting as a liaison for the gay and lesbian community, developing appropriate programs for gay and lesbian students and serving as a staff person for the newly formed Gay and
Lesbian Concerns Study Committee.
Another area of concern he and the committee are looking into involves people's attitudes.
"We're looking at things like trying to impact the climate of the campus for gay and lesbian individuals," he said. "We're looking more at educating the rest of the campus."
Karen Cook, director of GLSOK, agreed.
"What I would hope to see is an acceptance of gay, lesbian and bisexual people
throughout the campus community," she said.
Emerson also looks at other university's reports on gay and lesbian issues.
"I'm doing that in order to provide some guidance for this University," he said. "It will give us some starting points for things that might be done here. What I'm most interested in now is what is being implemented other places because they are valuable tools to help guide us into looking at our own problems."
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