KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY JANUARY 25, 2010 / NEWS
5A
PROFESSOR (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
departments upon his return. Brooks said he was also considering expanding his teaching repertoire by teaching another class to make sense of what his work as an administrator.
Chris Brown, director of the environmental studies program, said when Brooks' experiences will provide students with hard-to-find insights when he returns to teaching.
"Immediately, it's going to hurt," Brown said, "because we're going to miss Karl and his teaching, research and service he's given. On the other hand, having one of our professors take leave to go to a place like that opens a whole new window of opportunity to our students."
Brooks, a self proclaimed late-life student, arrived at the University in 2000, when he took his first doctorate class on his 40th birthday. His involvement in academia has been vast, something that Brown said must have been appealing to Jackson and Obama.
Brooks received his undergraduate degree in history from Yale, his master's in international relations from the London School of Economics, and his law degree from Harvard.
He practiced law for 12 years in his hometown of Boise, Idaho, and also served for six years in the Idaho senate. Brown said Brooks' range of experiences made him a great choice for the job.
"Clearly the people that chose him valued not only his experiences with the state legislature in Idaho, but also the academic work he's done," Brown said. "They're buying the whole package. They must have valued his academic experiences with students, and working with the public — all the things a professor does I think looked good on his application."
Kimberly Hernandez, a senior from Hutchinson, said she has come to know Brooks well through her time in the environmental studies program. Brooks was her adviser through the program, and also was her mentor in the Dean's Scholars Program for two years. Hernandez said she often met with Brooks to discuss graduate school options and her future career plans.
But beyond help with school, Hernandez said the person behind all the experience was what made him great.
"He is one of the most supportive and encouraging people I know," Hernandez said. "No matter how terrible of a day or semester I was having, Karl has always found a way to brighten me up and rekindle my inspiration. He is a true mentor in every sense of the word."
One of the things Brooks said he was most looking forward to is helping the EPA become a more prominent force in the area.
Hernandez said she wasn't surprised when she heard about Brooks' new position with the EPA. She said his new position will serve as a platform for his dedication to helping others and improving society.
"It's a chance to improve visibility and effectiveness of the EPA here in this region," he said. "I'm looking forward to working with the staff to do what we're supposed to do, which is to leave the Earth a better place than we found it for future generations."
- Edited by Drew Anderson
POLITICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters of the civil unions bills celebrate by clapping and cheering, on Friday in Honolulu. The Hawaii Senate approved same-sex civil unions, potentially setting up the measure for final passage as soon as next week.
Civil unions move forward
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONOLULU — The Hawaii Senate approved same-sex civil unions Friday, potentially setting up the measure for final passage as soon as next week.
The Senate passed the bill on an 18-7 vote, moving it to the House and signaling that the Senate's Democratic majority has enough votes to override a possible veto from Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.
The House has yet to decide if it will vote on the bill. House leaders say they will take up the bill if they have a veto-proof two-thirds majority but may let it die if they have only a small majority.
Speaker of the House Calvin Say. "During an election year, this issue is so divisive that it may hurt many of our members."
"It's very close," said Democratic
Five other states — Colorado, Wisconsin, Maryland, Maine and New Jersey — allow civil unions. Five states — Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut — permit same-sex marriage.
The bill would grant gay and straight couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples.
"I'm very happy. It's not marriage, but it gives us an opportunity to be recognized as a couple," Carlos Quintana of Honolulu said.
by thousands of people supporting traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Protesters urged lawmakers to vote down civil unions and promised repercussions during this year's elections to those who didn't.
The vote follows a rally at the Capitol last weekend attended
Lingle has urged the Legislature to drop the issue but hasn't said whether she would sign the measure. The House passed last year's bill but fell one vote short of a two-thirds majority.
"The state Senate is clearly at odds with the people of Hawaii," said Republican Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, who is running for governor. "Like other movements across the country, voters will have the final say on election day."
INTERNATIONAL
Embalming is new hot job in Taiwan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Turns out that designing computer chips and marketing flat screen televisions are not the only desirable jobs in Taiwan, one of Asia's hightech hubs.
There's also embalming.
When a funeral home advertised 10 openings recently, some 2,000 people applied.
The main attraction: the money.
A licensed embalmer with a college degree earns up to
"In the past, if you told your parents you wanted to work in the funeral business, they would have passed out."
as teachers or engineers."
Funerals are lavish in Taiwan, often involving weeks of ceremonies and elaborate processions with brass bands, dancing girls and hired mourners, who are paid handsomely to weep their hearts out for someone else deceased relative. Embalming can include massaging the body with perfumed oils or a new hair style — anything from conservative to punk.
The industry has also run advertising campaigns in recent years to try to change the perception that the business of handling corpses is unpleasant.
FUNG CHIA-LI
Funeral home manager
"In the past, if you told your parents you wanted to work in the funeral business, they would have passed out," said Fung Chia-li, a manager at Chin Pae San Group, another Taiwanese funeral home. "Now it is considered a decent job, though probably not as respected
New Taiwan dollars 1.2 million ($37,500) a year at Lung Yen Life Service, the upscale funeral home that was seeking new workers. That's equal to the pay for a junior engineer in Taiwan and more than twice as much as a hairdresser. It's almost as much as the average pay for an embalmer in the U.S., where incomes are much higher.
Cremation has overtaken more expensive burials in recent years, but funeral homes have kept revenues
from falling by upgrading their services and building lavish structures to house the ceramic urns containing the ashes of the dead, Fung said.
The bodies are still embalmed for the funeral service before cremation.
"The funeral process is a unique part of Chinese culture, a form of filial piety extended to ancestor worship in the belief their spirits can protect offspring in generations to come," Fung said.
Lin Yun-chi, 32, a newly-recruited embaler to Lung Yen. believes she has what it takes to do her job well.
"It's not that I'm so much bolder than others," she said. "But I want to make the deceased look good on their final journeys."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Elijah Wisher is presented the U.S. flag during her father's burial. Ray Wisher, 61, had been a homeless man, and Marine veteran, who rescued five people from a burning building.
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fallen vet,hero identified
ARLINGTON, Va. — Ray Vivier had been an adventurer, a Marine veteran who explored the country from South Carolina to Alaska, the father of five children.
The 61-year-old also was a man starting to get his life back together after living for years in a shanty beneath a Cleveland bridge. He had struggled with alcoholism, but by November he had a welding
He rescued five people from that house when arsonists set it ablaze
job, friends and a place to stay at a boarding house.
but Vivier couldn't save himself. He and three others died, and two people have been charged in their deaths. Vivier's body, unclaimed and unidentified for weeks, seemed destined for an anonymous burial.
However, Jody Fesco — who met Vivier while volunteering at a soup kitchen and had even invited
him to her wedding — heard that Vivier may have died. Fesco and her husband contacted their friend Haraz Ghanbari, an Associated Press photographer, about the situation. Ghanbari took the lead to make sure Vivier wasn't forgotten, tracking down family members and arranging a proper funeral.
On Friday, Vivier's ashes were inurned at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
RI
EEN
Thurs. Jan. 28
w/0
Cory Morrow
Door open 8 p.m. All ages welcome.
Granada
Tickets available at 1020 Mass. www.thegranada.com