6A
Thursday, November 21,1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Award recalls love affair and literature
Hall Center seeks honor nominations for Kansas authors
By Eric Weslander
Kansan staff writer
An academic and romantic flame continues to burn throughout the years with each competition for the Byron Caldwell Smith Award.
The Hall Center for the Humanities recently announced that it is accepting nominations for the 1997 Smith Award, a $2,000 prize given every two years to an author who lives or works in Kansas.
The award was established in 1938 at the bequest of Kate Stephens, the first female
KU professor and a former student of Smith, a professor of classics. Stephens acquired the love of Greek language and literature from Smith, and also fell in love with him.
"Byron Caldwell Smith and she were this great love affair," said Judith Galas, a Lawrence resident who wrote an article about Stephens for the Kansas Alumni magazine. "She carried a torch for him all of her life. It is a really touching kind of old-fashioned love story."
Smith died of tuberculosis in 1877 at the age of 29, and Stephens' life was changed forever. Galas said.
"She lost the one great love of her life," she said. "I saw her as kind of a sad person living the rest of her life in New York City, pining for the young man that she lost."
Stephens died in 1938, left $30,000 to the University of Kansas and specified that an award was to be given in her beloved's
"I saw her as kind of a sad person living the rest of her life in New York City, pining for the young man that she lost."
name. The amount has grown to $96,000.
Entries for the 1997 competition must have been published for the first time in 1995 or 1996 and must be original works.
Judith Galas
Lawrence resident
Recent winners from the University include Norman Saul, professor of history, Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, professor of religious studies, and David Katzman, professor of history and American studies.
Many KU professors win the award,but
anyone who lived or worked in Kansas at the time of publishing is eligible.
"The entries come from everywhere across the state — they're not just faculty books," said Janet Crow, executive director of the Hall Center for the Humanities.
Nominations are due March 1 at the Hall Center for the Humanities. A committee of three faculty members will choose a winner, who will be announced in August.
KU students fight illiteracy
By Cameron Heeg Kansan staff writer
An estimated 25 million adults in the United States can't read the warning labels of bottles containing poisons, the headlines of a newspaper or a note sent home by their children's teacher, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Statistics like these motivated the Center for Community Outreach and Students Tutoring for Literacy to declare November as Literacy Awareness Month.
"There is a problem with literacy among children and adults all over the United States and Lawrence is no exception," said Jamie Najim, president of Students Tutoring for Literacy.
The program allows KU students to personally fight illiteracy in the community, Najim said.
Students Tutoring for Literacy volunteers work at one of 12 sites, including local schools and learning centers.
The 8-year-old tutoring program works in three areas of literacy: adult literacy, children literacy and literacy among people who speak English as a second language.
Najim got involved in the literacy program because of her experiences at home.
"I have a 6-year-old sister with a slight learning disability, and I have seen all the people that help her become better with school and learning all around," Najim said. "I just want to give back to the community and help children who need the help that my sister has received."
The 90-member tutoring program at the University of Kansas works closely with the Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education to establish projects in the Lawrence community. The coalition is a national support organization that helps college groups battle illiteracy.
Some of the coalition programs include poetry and story readings, teaching wives of visiting professors basic English and cultural skills and going out to local schools to combat the ills of illiteracy.
"It is important to remain committed to literacy and education in general at the sites around Lawrence," said Amy Heath, Ozawkie, junior. "To be a constant in the life of a child who always has people floating in and out of their life is one of the best things you can do for yourself and that child."
Cost, quality factors in paper choice
By Dave Breitenstein Kansan staff writer
It's not good to be a virgin anymore. That is, if you're a piece of paper.
KU Environs is trying to persuade the University to convert to using recycled office paper instead of new paper, but the group is experiencing some difficulties in changing the University's buying policies.
"Some of the recycled paper is more expensive than the virgin paper," said Victoria Silva, KU environmental specialist. "If the bottom line for a department is their budget, then they will probably buy the cheaper paper. They have an option to purchase recycled paper or not, so most will choose the cheaper paper."
Besides higher prices, Silva also has heard complaints about the quality of recycled paper. She said people mentioned that print on recycled paper looked different, the texture felt strange and the paper sometimes jammed copying machines. But Silva disagreed.
Silva said the few negative aspects of using recycled paper were minute when compared to future results on the environment. Buying one ton of recycled paper instead of virgin paper can save 17 trees and 6,000 gallons of water, she said. Paper products use 30 percent of the world's trees, which is expected to jump to 50 percent by the year 2000.
Michelle Kohns, Olathe sophomore and the KU Environs member in charge of examining departments' paper purchasing policies, said most departments bought virgin paper
"I believe the quality of recycled paper is just as good as new paper," she said. "We have 100 percent recycled paper here that is great."
because of state contract restrictions. Departments must purchase what supply is in stock from KU printing services.
"We're trying to find out what each department is doing and see who's doing good and who's doing bad," she said. "We're hoping the departments that are wavering on it will buy recycled paper instead."
Kohns said most departments were willing to try using recycled paper, and now some types of recycled paper were actually less expensive than new paper. A box containing 75,000 sheets of virgin Hammermill paper costs $750, while the same amount of recycled paper retails for only $510, she said.
"It's a whole lot cheaper to buy some recycled paper now because there's not a great demand for it," she said. "They're just trying to get rid of it now."
Student businesses more than a whim
By Megan Jordan Kansan staff writer
As some KU students have discovered, you don't have to be 40 to start a business. There are a number of young entrepreneurs on campus and most of them hope to further develop their businesses after graduation.
Josh Christie, Lenexa sophomore, and Ryan Hembree, Overland Park sophomore, began a graphic art partnership their senior year in high school by designing T-shirts for basketball fans. The business has grown to include freelance computer services in addition to clothing design.
Christie said the two had no problems finding a demand for their work at the University of Kansas.
"When we got up here we just made the transition to fraternities and sororities," he said.
KU Small Business Development Center, 734 Vermont St., is affiliated with the University but is located downtown to better serve the Lawrence community. The center
assists anyone wanting to open a business.
Malinda Bryan, acting director, said that students typically enter the business world with a service-oriented or computer-based enterprise.
The main problem that plagued students, she said, was a failure to look toward the future.
"They just throw open the doors and do not plan how they want the business to grow," Bryan said.
Unexpected expansion can lead to financing woes. Banks are often hesitant to loan money to students because many of them have poor or no credit history, she said.
"Depending on what you want to do, you can start on a shoestring," she said.
The Overland Park junior bakes, decorates and sells cakes for all occasions.
That is just what Rachel Bussell did.
It costs her $5 to make a cake and they sell for between $20 and $50. So after her first sale, Bussell was riding the profit wave.
"People kept asking me to do cakes and I got tired of doing it for free," she said of her decision to start a business.
Bryan said that when students were contemplating a business venture, they needed to check on city and state registration and tax laws.
Neither Kansas nor Lawrence requires most small business like Bussell's to obtain a business license.
Although there may not be any formal regulations for small businesses, Bryan said that if students hoped to expand after college, this may change and they should formulate a plan now to handle the growth.
Bussell said she hopes to use her cake-decorating experience to gain a position with a big-name catering company.
Christie and Hembree expect their graphic art and computer service to flourish after graduation.
"We're hoping as time goes on we'll have to hire more people," Christie said. "That'll be weird, but it will be neat to see it grow."
Hit the lights on your way out the door
University budgets finances to pay electricity on campus
By Dave Breitenstein
Kansan staff writer
Mom's not nagging you anymore about shutting off the lights when you leave the room. Or maybe she is.
Instead of your parents paying the utility bill, the University is. The state allocated $6,378,205 this fiscal year for utilities, of which $4,331,174 is set for electricity alone.
"Until this year, our utility budget has always been a line-item budget," said Lindy Eakin, associate provost. "Now there's a separate fund for our electric bill."
Eakin said the change had the potential to either benefit or hinder the University. If the utility bill is lower than planned, the leftover money would be redistributed within the University. But if the utility bill is greater than anticipated, the additional money must come from reserves or other funds.
"Each spring, we do a projection on where we think our electric costs will be," Eakin said. "The amount we have for this year's budget was last year's actual total."
This year's first quarter utility expenditures fell below last year's totals. Eakin said.
If Kansas has an extremely cold winter, Eakin said the electric bill would be higher, which means that costs would have to be cut in the spring.
"We'll have to closely monitor expenditures to help build up the utility reserve to cushion these fluctuations," he said. "We need to take better care of our campus as a whole."
Eakin said that since students were not placing Kansans in the recycling bins, the University must foot an extra bill. The University pays for facilities operations workers to throw them away. If students would always recycle, Eakin said, the
amount we have for this year's budget was last year's actual total."
Lindy Eakin associate provost
versity could save on disposal costs.
Education programs also can help students, faculty and staff conserve energy.
we've got a group of people at KU with knowledge about conservation," he said. "There's a lot of people who are looking at what some conservation methods are. We've been doing various conservation things for the past few years."
One of those people with conservation knowledge is Mike Richardson, director of facilities operations. He said he was responsible for maintaining the University's utility budget. Everyone can take part in helping keep the electric bill down. he said.
"Students can turn lights off when they leave a room or when they walk by an empty room," he said. "It's everyone's responsibility to help keep the electric bill down."
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