THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 109
ARTS
Ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrates lobby renovation
After four months of construction, the new Kemper Foyer is ready for the public
BY WESTON PLETCHER wpletcher@kansan.com
Chris Neal/KANSAN
The renovations for the lobby expansion at the Lied Center have been completed and will be open to the public following the ribbon-cutting ceremony held today.
The new lobby expansion was funded by the William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank, trustee. The William T. Kemper Foundation made a $300,000 donation. The lobby expansion was completed two months ago in January and took four months to complete.
Tim Van Leer, executive director of the Lied Center, said the expansion will provide ample space for audiences when they come to the Lied Center.
"Besides being a more 'people-friendly' space when we have events in the facility, it will give us another space for small meetings, receptions and catered functions," Van Leer said.
The addition, which added 1,800 square feet to the front of the Lied Center, doubled the existing size of the lobby.
The lobby expansion isn't the only renovation taking place at the Lied Center.
"We are also constructing a new, multi-purpose Pavilion to be used for small performances, catered functions, education activities, meetings and rehearsal by visiting artists," Van Leer said.
The pavilion will be a place for visiting and local artists to engage with the community. The Lied Center offers specialties in education and engagement programs such as pre- and post-performance discussions, demonstrations, lectures, workshops, master classes and more. It will create more possibilities and special occasions for the Friends of the Lied to celebrate the arts.
"The new Pavilion is made possible by a gift from the Lied Foundation Trust. Construction began in September 2010 and we anticipate completion of the Pavilion this summer." Van Leer said.
The public is invited to the ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the new Kemper Foyer.
- Edited by Danielle Packer
AT A GLANCE
A before and after look at the Lied Center expansion
BEFORE
Originally constructed in 1993, the Lied Center of Kansas is a performing arts venue that hosts a wide variety of productions, including Rock Chalk Revue. The Lied Center is dedicated to the parents of 1923 graduate Emrist F. Lied
AFTER
The current expansion project is to be completed during the spring semester. The project includes an expansion of the Lied Center's lobby, the creation of new office space and the construction of an education pavilion.
size
Currently, the Lied Center can occupy 2,020 people in the auditorium. This creates problems during high-occupancy events such as Convocation.
The current expansion will create an additional 1,800 feet of space. The new 60-foot by 40 foot practice stage mirrors the current Lied Center stage.
money
The Lied Foundation donated $10 million to the University in order to fund the construction of the Lied Center.
Funding for the expansion was made possible by a $2.5 million donation to the Univiesby the Lied Foundation and a $300,000 donation from the Kemper Foundation
function
According to the Lied Center's mission statement, the purpose of this organization is to promote the arts and education through performance.
The expansion will provide additional practice space for state productions as well as displays providing information on the history of Ernest F. Lied and the Lied Foundation Trust.
trivia
The $10 million Lied Foundation Trust donation to initially construct the Lied Center was the largest donation to KU ever at the time
The Lied Center expansion was originally proposed in 2005, but the project was scrapped due to a lack of funding.
CHALLENGE | 3A
Take Charge! Challenge
KU residence halls are participating in the Take Charge Challenge, a competition to conserve energy and go greener
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QUICK CASH?
The Kansas women's basketball team hopes to bounce back from its two recent losses while the focus shifts from the starting lineup to the bench.
42
The ins and outs of giving plasma
BY ADAM STRUNK astrunk@kansan.com
Dustin Holbrook watched the needle in his arm feed the machine. The machine whirred and beeped as it filled a plastic bottle with a yellowish-white liquid. The liquid, called blood plasma, consisted of the proteins, platelets, water and antibodies found in Holbrook's blood.
The donation room, filled with rows of donors hooked to up to identical machines, smelled of rubbing alcohol and iodine. Holbrook's legs, each strapped with a five-pound ankle weight, lay crossed on the pleather medical couch.
He squeezed what resembled a detached rubber crutch handle. It made his blood flow faster into the machine. The quicker he could fill the plastic bottle the quicker he could get paid.
Like hundreds of other KU students each year, Holbrook, a sophomore from Kansas City, Mo., donated plasma as a source of income. Because payment is based on weight, Holbrook wore ankle weights to increase his take.
"I was doing it because I had no money and didn't want to get a job," he said. "I was just doing school stuff and didn't want to spread myself out more."
While plasma donation might be a well-known source of income among the student population, knowledge of the process and the risks sometimes involved can be based more on hear-say than fact.
"I mean, I have heard horror stories, and I have had people tell me they have never had any problems," said former plasma donor Kristen Walker, a junior from Spring Hill.
WHO PROFITS FROM PLASMA DONATION?
Blood plasma donation is a multi-billion dollar industry in the U.S. According to its finance report, CSL Behring, the company that oversees the Lawrence CSL Plasma Donation Center, recorded $3.5 billion in sales of plasma-derived products for the 2009 fiscal year.
CSL Behring processes plasma to take out specific proteins and antibodies needed to fight disease.
"Well, it's extremely important for people with rare diseases such as hemophilia, immune deficiencies, inherited respiratory disease and a number of other serious rare diseases," said Christopher Florentz, manager of cooperate communications. "We take the plasma collected by our CSL plasma collection centers and we put it through a process called fractionation where basically we separated out the proteins in the plasma and we use those proteins to make biotherapies that are used to treat various diseases."
To create plasma products the company needs raw plasma. This is where the donation centers and students like Holbrook Walker come in.
Holbrook did not want to have to get a job and balance schoolwork.
"I told everyone I was doing it for a good cause but really I wanted money for back to school clothes," Walker said. "My paycheck I got all went to my rent and needed some extra money to do that."
1 basically got paid to sit there and study," he said
Donor compensation differs by weight class. The more a donor weighs the more plasma the center can take and the more money the donor can make.
Touscanly got paid to sit there and study, he said. During the semester, Holbrook sometimes made biweekly trips to the CSL plasma donation center, earning about $400 from more than 20 trips.
"If you weigh under 150 it not even worth it," Holbrook said. "It's like making minimum wage."
With his ankle weights, Holbrook tipped the scales at just over 150 pounds.
Florentz said that on average, a CSL plasma donation center pay $2 million per year to donors and that in total, donors made 18.5 million plasma donations in the U.S. in 2008.
"We refer to it as donating because we compensate for their time as opposed to their plasma," Florentz said.
QA IS IT HEALTHY TO DONATE PLASMA?
Watkins Memorial Health Center Chief of Staff Patricia Denning provides a medical opinion on the risk of plasma donation.
Kansan: Is donating plasma a good idea or not from the donor's perspective?
Denning: From the donor perspective it could cut either way. For people who are young and healthy it doesn't impact their overall health in the long-term. However in the short term it can impact even healthy young people. When you donate plasma they are taking off specialized proteins called antibodies. They are our first line of defense against infection. And personally in the height of flu season I would not recommend anyone donate plasma because we all need to keep our antibodies at a nice healthy level.
UDK: Have you seen students come in with problems or injuries cause by plasma donation?
Denning: I do on occasion see people who come in who are sick who have influenza or respiratory infections who have donated plasma. And I'm like, quit doing that until flu seasons over!
UDK: Some people bruise at the location where the needle is used for plasma donation. Is this serious?
Denning: It's not uncommon to get a little hematoma here or there. It's uncomfortable and does look very ugly and scary but those generally go away.
Edited by Tali David
The amount of money a donor receives for a plasma donation varies with weight, visit number and the amount of donations the donor has made in a week. This graph shows what donors will make during each visit to the CSL Plasma Donation Center assuming they give plasma twice a week.
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