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/ NEWS / FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
WEATHER
Crew averts winter woes
BY NICOLAS ROESLER
A trampled snow mound rests between Allen Fieldhouse and the Burge Union parking garage. Large snow piles can suffocate the grass beneath them and cause snow mold to grow and kill grass root structures.
Karsten Lunde/KANSAN
nroesler@kansan.com
University of Kansas grounds crews are hacking away at a mounting problem on campus lawns this winter after multiple heavy snow storms.
Snow plows piled heaps of snow on KU parking lots, sidewalks and grassy lawns in December in order to make the roads on campus driveable. Crews are now cutting into these heaps with shovels and dispersing them across the lawns.
"We're making room in case another snow storm hits, as well as protecting the grass from snow mold," said Ben Lowe, a 22-year-old from Lawrence working for the facilities operations department.
Snow mold is a type of bacteria that grows when a lack of oxygen suffocates the grass while the snow weighs down on it, which causes concerns for those in charge of landscaping. In severe cases, the mold can completely kill the blades of grass and their root structure.
Mike Lang, the director of landscaping, said these mounds of snow present a multitude of problems. The snow kills patches of grass across campus and presents problems for pedestrians and his grounds crew.
"Snow piled next to sidewalks can melt across the walkways during the day, then freeze over night." Lang said.
This ice creates a hazard for students walking to classes and can also damage the sidewalks if the water gets into cracks and freezes, he said.
Lang has worked as director of landscaping for nine years and said this winter was one of the worst he's seen in terms of snow fall.
Lang said he knew that more
snow was bound to come this winter and that he would need to make sure room was available to plow it off the streets.
Some of the bigger snow mounds on campus are impossible to spread out because they are located in parking lots. Lang said parking on campus is too important to sacrifice any spaces by spreading snow across them. He said if another big storm hits.
parking lots will be the most affected because there will not be much room to clear that snow.
The snowfall has created more labor for Lang's crew, including Lowe, who was one of about seven workers clearing piles.
"You definitely feel it in your back at the end of the day," Lowe said.
Edited by Kelly Gibson
Group to request domestic partner employee benefits
UNIVERSITY SENATE
BY ERIN BROWN
ebrown@kansan.com
A task force seeking to extend employee benefits to domestic partners at the University of Kansas will present research findings and make a recommendation to the executive council of the University Senate March 2.
Currently the University does not offer many benefits to employees with domestic partners because it uses the state definition to define a partner as a man or woman in marriage.
include domestic partners."
The task force is primarily looking to extend health benefits to domestic partners of University employees, but also hopes to address the way the University defines what qualifies as sick leave or medical leave of absence, said Natalie Parker, co-chair of the task force for domestic partner benefits.
"That is something that the University can do," she said. "Rewording the way they phrase things to extend the definition to
According to the Human Rights Campaign database, 309 colleges and universities nationwide already provide health care benefits to same-sex domestic partners. The
task force does not have an estimate of the cost to extend benefits but is looking at the possibility of using private funds, Parker said.
with domestic partners.
Paul Farran, a representative on the
"It's only fair, especially if we want to recruit a diverse pool of teachers," she said. "If they can't get benefits for their partners, they are not going to want to come here."
"KU must live up to its own nondiscrimination policy."
PAUL FARRAN Task force representative
In addition to remaining competitive by recruiting top faculty and staff, Farran said extending benefits promotes equality.
"KU must live up to its own nondiscrimination policy.
Sara Thompson, a senior from Salina and president of KU Queers and Allies, said she supported extending benefits to employees
executive council and a staff representative on the task force, said he was confident the recommendation would have support. The report will discuss both short-term and long-term solutions to extending benefits for domestic partners.
which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," he said.
After presenting its report and recommendation to the Executive Council of University Senate,the task force will present to the full University Senate on March 11.
Edited by Kelly Gibson
NATIONAL
Clinton'in good spirits'after scare
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton had two stents inserted Thursday to prop open a clogged heart artery after being hospitalized with chest pains, an adviser said.
Clinton, 63, "is in good spirits and will continue to focus on the work of his foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts," said adviser Douglas Band.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left Washington and headed to New York to be with her husband, who underwent the procedure at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Stents are tiny mesh scaffolds used to keep an artery open after it is unclogged in an angioplasty procedure. Doctors thread a tube through a blood vessel in the groin to a blocked artery, inflate a balloon to flatten the clog, and slide the stent into place.
UN special envoy for Haiti and former president Bill Clinton waves to reporters after his arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Feb. 5. Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital Thursday and received two stents to open a cloned heart artery.
That is a different treatment from what Clinton had in 2004, when clogged arteries first landed him in the hospital. He underwent quadruple bypass surgery because of four blocked arteries, some of which had squeezed almost completely shut.
Angioplasty, which usually includes placing stents, is one of the most common medical procedures done worldwide. More than half a million stents are placed each year in the United States.
With bypass or angioplasty, patients often need another procedure years down the road because arteries often reclog.
"It's not unexpected" for Clinton to need another procedure now, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, cardiologist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and president of the
American Heart Association
The sections of arteries and veins used to create detours around the original blockages tend to develop clogs five to 10 years after a bypass, he explained. New blockages also can develop in new areas.
"This kind of disease is progressive. It isn't a one-time event, so it really points out the need for constant surveillance" and treating risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, he said.
Doctors will have to watch Clinton closely for signs of excessive bleeding from the spot in the leg where doctors inserted a catheter, said Dr. Spencer King, a cardiologist at St. Joseph's Heart and Vascular Institute in Atlanta and past president of the American College of Cardiology.
Complications are rare. The death rate from non-emergency angioplasty is well under 1 percent. King said.
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