December 2008 Archives

    The Jewish Vocational Service helped form a coalition last May with the National Council on Interpreting Health Care to lobby for a required certification standard of all interpreters in health care nationwide, said Cathy Anderson, manager of Language and Cultural Services for the Jewish Vocational Service.  In Kansas, no law demands any specific certification for language interpreters in health care, Anderson said.     "There's a strong need for trained, qualified interpreters within the state," Anderson said. "Many hospitals and clinics all over the country are struggling with a way to hire and evaluate interpreters."   
    Anderson said that now only a few states require any official certification from language interpreters in health care.  In as soon as one year, the coalition to emplace a national standard could achieve its goal, Anderson said. The coalition has expanded since May to include 18 interpreting agencies across the country, Anderson said.    Anderson said upon presentation, most Kansas hospitals honor the certification of completion for the Bridging the Gap program like a state-demanded certification.  Bridging the Gap, a 40-hour training course taught specifically on health care language interpretation, is the curriculum the Jewish Vocational Service offers in Kansas, Anderson said.     
    "Most clinics recognize Bridging the Gap as the interpretation education," Anderson said. "It's the most well-known community interpreting training in the country."
    The Jewish Vocational Service received its license to teach the Bridging the Gap program from the Cross-Cultural Health Care Program in Seattle and is the only provider of the program in Kansas.  Although the Kansas Government does not require language interpreters in health care in Kansas to have passed Bridging the Gap, two of its agencies - the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services - pay the Jewish Vocational Service to teach the program across Kansas for free, said Cyndi Treaster, director of the Foundation of Refugee and Immigrant Health Section of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.  Anderson said these agencies provide the program largely because of the great number of people in Kansas who cannot speak English.

 
Video: See how the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department has turned to the KU Spanish Department as a source of interpreters.

"There's an increased interest in interpreting in response to the need and increase in population," Anderson said.
    Treaster said the Census estimates since 2000 have not shown as much growth in the Spanish-speaking population statewide this year, but that number of Spanish-speakers has increased in certain areas of Kansas.   The entire immigrant population in Kansas is coming from a wider variety of countries this year, Treaster said.
    "I don't think we're looking at a growth, but a more diversified group of immigrants which means you're dealing with more languages.  There was a real big growth from 1990 to 2000, but the 2007 estimates predict with the economic downturn, the growth has slowed and we've had a reduction," Treaster said.
    Anderson said the between-Census estimates are probably low because many illegal Spanish-speaking immigrants in Kansas feel scared to respond with the forms they receive in the mail.  Anderson said they fear the government will deport them if they fill them out truthfully.
    "I always look at it with a half-closed eye," Anderson said of the Census.  "In social services, we usually rely on data from the school systems, because people who are Hispanic aren't going to be answering the census form.  There's not real data."   
    Anderson said the Kansas Government agencies that pay for Bridging the Gap have the Jewish Vocational Service offer the program in Lawrence every year.  Anderson said the Spanish-speaking population in need of more interpreters is particularly great in Douglas county and Western Kansas.    
    "We want to get as many interpreters trained as possible to support the need," Treaster said.
    The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department has gone from spending a total of $40 in 2000 for language interpreting services to spending $11,554 on the same services in 2007, said Lisa Horn, communications coordinator for the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.  Horn said that the health department spends the majority of that increase on Spanish interpreters.
    "We have had quite an influx of Spanish-speaking people in this community," Horn said.  "It's really gone up in the past eight years.  It is something we're seeing more and more of really as each year goes on."
    In the past five months alone from July 1 to November 30, 203 appointments required the use of an interpreter, Horn said.  Horn said more than half of those appointments were for Spanish-speaking services, but that the number was much less than the year before.  Horn said hiring nurses who speak fluent Spanish has helped reduce the health department's cost of interpreters because it no longer has to call in contract interpreters every time a patient does not speak English.  
    "If someone calls the health department and they don't speak English, if it's a Spanish-speaking person, we can typically transfer the call to one of those nurses or to our clinic assistant who speaks Spanish, as well," Horn said.
    Horn said the health department also has saved money this year by lining all its patients who need interpreting directly after one another and calling the day before to confirm their time.  Horn said these small steps minimize having to pay interpreters when clients fail to show up at their appointments.  
    The health department may have seen a decrease in the cost of Spanish interpreters this year, but Horn said the health department still sees just as many patients in need of Spanish interpreters. The Health Department advertised with the University of Kansas Spanish this past fall to recruit more in-person interpreters, Horn said.
    "I have a lot of students who do health care interpretation," said Jill Kuhnheim, chair and professor of the KU Department of Spanish and Portuguese for 2008-2009.
    Kuhnheim said the KU Spanish Department used to have more active involvement with providing interpreters for Lawrence health care when the department offered an upper-level Spanish service learning class. The course encouraged students to volunteer with the Lawrence organizations like the health department, Kuhnheim said.  Kuhnheim said the Spanish Department discontinued the class when Danny Anderson, its professor, became the KU vice provost for academic affairs.  Johnson County Community College now teaches the closest college class to KU with vocabulary specific to medicine, Kuhnheim said.
    "We've actually been trying to work on a Spanish medicinal class.  I think it would be a great thing for them to be able to do," Kuhnheim said of her Spanish students at KU.      
    Even after taking a class of that type, those students still would not qualify to interpret at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.  Lawrence Memorial Hospital and the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department have different policies on hiring language interpreters for non-English speaking patients.  The health department has one of its three Spanish-speaking nurses or its Spanish-speaking clinic assistant sit down with potential Spanish interpreters to evaluate their Spanish, Horn said.  For other languages, the health department hires interpreters on a trial basis and evaluates the level of understanding when they are with the patients, Horn said.  
    Horn said the Health Department does not require interpreters to have any specific certification or to pass any exam before they begin.  She said the Health Department mostly wants its non-English speaking patients to have an in-person interpreter whenever possible.
    "It's a lot easier to understand and read people and read their facial expressions.  There's a lot more sensory information with in-person interpretation," Horn said.  "You might not see a client's look of concern on their face if you're talking to them on the phone.  Mannerisms are totally lost."

(Figures for graph [left] provided by Lisa Horn, communications coordinator for the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.)

Lawrence Memorial Hospital prefers to use a phone service that it purchases from Translation Perfect in Kansas City when it needs language translation for non-English speakers, said Janice Early-Weas, director of community relations for the hospital.  Early-Weas said Translation Perfect provides Lawrence Memorial Hospital with 24-hour phone access to certified interpreters in every language.  LMH nurses and doctors can put the interpreters on speaker-phone when they work with non-English speaking patients, Early-Weas said.   
    "That's primarily how it works in the Emergency Department," Early-Weas said.  "For those instances when it's planned ahead for births or extended stays and we know they're coming, we have medical certified translator here in person."
    Early-Weas said the hospital also contracts out all of its in-person interpreters.  Though no state or national law requires any specific certification for health care interpreters, Early-Weas said the Lawrence Memorial Hospital does.  Early-Weas said when an in-person certified interpreters are not available, family members sometimes try to help out but that the hospital does not allow it.
    "We don't really use volunteers because they have to be medically certified," Early-Weas said.  "That's our practice at LMH."
    Joan Harvey, R.N., B.S.N. and the director of the LMH Emergency Department, said she would like it if the hospital could use more in-person interpreters, but that it would be impossible to always provide enough certified in-person interpreters for every open wing of the department.
    "It's always better to have someone in person," Harvey said.
    Harvey said the high level of certification the hospital requires from all its interpreters is more important in hospital care than in preventative health care like health departments provide.  In hospitals, because doctors do surgery, mistakes in language interpretation could cost patients their lives, Harvey said.
    If the 18-agency coalition pushing for a federal certification standard for all health care interpreters succeeds in a year as Anderson hopes, the practice at LMH may become a nationwide law.  The law would leave Douglas-County Health Department interpreters no choice but the Bridging the Gap program if they want to continue working there.
    The Jewish Vocational Service will offer its yearly session of Bridging the Gap in Lawrence once this year at Lawrence Memorial Hospital the work-week of Jan. 26 to Jan. 30, Anderson said.  Anderson said the program will run every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The class is free, but it has a limited enrollment, Anderson said.  Those interested in taking it need to reserve their seats early by telephone with the Jewish Vocational Service and online with Kansas Train, Anderson said.
    "It's a good idea to get them in the month of December because they tend to fill up pretty fast," Anderson said.
    Anderson said after the Lawrence class, the next Bridging the Gap classes in Kansas will not be until February in Wichita and May in Great Bend.
    "Not many places do it like we do it," Anderson said.  "We're kind of grass-roots.  We go to the communities.  They become the center place rather than having to go to Kansas City or somewhere else."      
    If the Federal Government approves a national certification standard for language interpretation in health care, the Kansas Government agencies funding the Bridging the Gap program would have a much larger enrollment to support.  Kansas may find the phone will also become the future for language interpretation in the health care outside its hospitals.

While other students and faculty may be going to class or grading homework, a group of researchers from the University of Kansas are busy trying to discover the secrets of the universe.

Lead by Alice Bean, professor of physics, and Michael Murray, associate professor, a team of undergraduate and graduate students are working on the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, the world's largest particle accelerator, situated on the border between France and Switzerland.

"We're looking at the fundamental nature of existence: how things work, why we're here. And this is going to be the tool," Bean said.

Not only did the team assist in the operation of the collider, they helped to build it.
Particle accelerators collide two beams of protons, basic building blocks of the atom, in an attempt to discover the basic physics behind those collisions. The KU group is split between the experimental particle physics side, headed by Bean, and the nuclear physics group, lead by Murray. Both helped in the construction of the CMS, or Compact Muon Solenoid, one of the six detectors at the LHC.

The detector is an immense, barrel-shaped piece of equipment consisting of several different "trackers" built of silicon, all ringed by an enormous magnet roughly 20 feet wide. Collisions of protons take place inside the detector, where the silicon trackers determine where the particles go after they collide.

"Basically, it's giant pieces of silicon put underground to try to detect new particles, or try to understand particles and how they behave," said Chris Martin, Manhattan junior. Martin is currently in Switzerland working on the project.

Martin is just one of a number of KU students and researchers who have worked with CMS and the Large Hadron Collider.

Since 2001, 10 undergraduate students, two graduate students, and six post-doctoral researchers from the University have assisted in the construction and operation of the silicon tracking system for CMS. While much of the work was done in KU labs writing software for CMS, a grant, called the National Science Foundation's Program in International Research and Education, allowed students like Martin to travel to Switzerland and work with the project directly.

While both groups from the University use the same equipment, they're each looking to answer very different questions about how the universe's fundamental laws operate.

Murray's nuclear physics group is using the detector to examine the mechanics of the collisions of particles, both to assess how well the collider is working and to try to recreate conditions very similar to those thought present at the beginning of the universe.

"We want to know the geometry of the collision, whether it's head-on, or these are glancing collisions," Murray said. "We're trying to turn back the clock on the universe, so we collide the biggest particles we can find in an attempt to create lots of little Big Bangs."

Bean's experimental particle physics group is searching for the particles that may make up the majority of matter in the universe.

The particles we know about already are less than 5 percent of the makeup of the universe. The other 95 percent may be theoretical particles like dark matter, called heavy stable charged particles. Bean's group works with the CMS detector searching for these particles. Their existence may be crucial in supporting a theory called supersymmetry, which states that for every particle we know of, there exists a supersymmetric partner, a double of that particle.

"We've reached a point where we're going to see stuff we've predicted for half a century, or we won't see it at all, which means we've been totally wrong," said Jennifer Sibille. "I think it's a really exciting time." Sibille, Lafayette, La., graduate student, worked with both the nuclear and particle physics groups.

Aside from new knowledge about how the world works, the project may have more immediate implications.

The technology developed for use in things like the LHC and the CMS detector will spill over into the private sector and lead to faster Internet and more efficient data processing systems.

"We're gaining knowledge about electronic systems and conductors, so we can use that to improve things like cell phones and PDA's," Martin said.

For teachers like Bean, the gains from this project are somewhat less tangible.
"Most exciting things for me is that we're training students...to be the innovators of the next generation," Bean said.

Sibille is one of those students trained by this undertaking. She spent one summer working with the nuclear team and spent this past summer installing and testing sensors for the CMS detector.

"I think it's very exciting, partly just because it's one of those places in the world where you know the best people in the field are eating lunch at a table across the room," Sibille said.

"It's like having a member of the paparazzi follow you around on your wedding day--it's a lot of fun," said Amelia McCormick, a September bride who used a candid wedding photographer. McCormick said that when she was searching for a wedding photographer, she wanted someone who was willing to be there to capture all the moments--especially the ones that are not normally documented.
    "I don't want to forget anything," McCormick said.
    Tara Mitchell, Wichita graduate student and recently engaged, said that she is considering a photographer that has an attractive portfolio of both the candid and the posed shots.
    "I just think that if people only take the traditional pictures they are truly missing the actual feelings of the wedding," Mitchell said.
    Mitchell said that she wants the photographer to be there as her and her bridesmaids are getting ready and during all the "in-between" moments, so she can look back and see the excitement of the day.
This has become a trend all over the country as wedding photojournalism has developed over the past decade. The objective is to get photos of what actually happens during the wedding, not just poses that the photographer stages.

Photographers in the Lawrence area have adjusted to the requests for candid wedding shots. Local photographer and Overland Park junior, Cate Crandell said that because of this trend, younger photographers are hired for weddings because they are more updated on the styles of today's bride.
The term "candid" implies that the subject is unaware of the camera. This gives it more of a photojournalistic approach. Matt Needham, a photographer in Lawrence, said people want to see photos that tell the story of the day rather than people just standing at the altar.  He gets the most comments on the candid photos.
"I think that's because the expressions on the peoples' faces are real and full of emotion," Needham said.
Needham also said that most brides lately want to keep the posed photo sessions short, but still take them for mom. Out of the 450 to 500 photos he ends up delivering to the bride, usually fewer than 50 of them are posed.
Bridal magazine ads are full of candid shots, which could be a reason for this trend. Jason Dailey, photographer, said that people see the pictures in the ads and it gives them the idea of what makes a "good" photograph.  Dailey also said that the only reason traditional style photos have been requested is for the grandparents.
Not every photographer is experiencing a great difference in the business. Stu Nowlin, a Lawrence photographer, said that the majority of his customers still want the formal pictures with the family. He said that if the couple requests only candid shots, he asks them to think of their families and what the family would like.
"People want the people that are important to them in the pictures with them," Nowlin said. "But with digital you can give them everything. Digital is the real answer here."

There are some challenges to capturing candid photos that satisfy the customer. Crandell said that it is hard to make sure you take pictures of everyone the couple wanted.
"That's part of the reason we still take the posed pictures." Crandell said.
She said the candid shots are a lot more fun for the photographer as well as the couple, and that their expressions are better than the posed pictures.
    While the wedding party still poses for a few pictures to satisfy family members, capturing candid photos of the entire wedding day is a trend that couples all over the country are using to remember the best moments of their lives. McCormick said she prefers the candid shots because anyone can take a posed shot and they do not capture anything that wouldn't otherwise be remembered.
    "They are just static--they're expected," McCormick said.

When Chris Clemmons practices Brazilian jujitsu, he might look lazy. With his back to the mat, his opponent's legs trapping his hips, Clemmons waits for a mistake. He sees his opportunity when his opponent moves one hand from Clemmons' chest to the ground to steady himself. In seconds he's performed an omaplata, using his elbow to hook his opponent's arm and force his upper-body to the mat. Now, Clemmons could roll forward and dislocate his opponent's shoulder. His opponent, whose arm is trapped behind him and around Clemmons' waist, taps out instead. At 175 pounds, Clemmons outweighs his opponent by 25 pounds. But he knows that unlike other martial arts, such as karate or judo, size and strength do not determine the winner.

"Jujitsu is an equalizer," Clemmons said. "Generally a smaller guy can win or come close in a fight."



Clemmons, Lansing junior, is the instructor and founder of KU's new Jujitsu Club. He's a black-belt in Japanese jujitsu, from which Brazilian jujitsu spawned. Approved in November, Jujitsu Club is the fifth martial arts sports club at the Student Recreation Fitness Center. It's one of the first local signs of increased jujitsu interest nationally.

A decade ago, the United States Ju-Jitsu Federation had members only in a few coastal states. Ernest G. McPeek, membership director of the USJJF, said it now has members in every state. He's watched membership increase over the last ten years and estimated that there are 5,000 to 10,000 practitioners in the U.S. today. Anime and televised mixed martial arts competitions fueled U.S. interest in jujitsu according to Derek Kerr, vice president of the National Collegiate Judo Association, based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

But when Clemmons moved to Lawrence from Manhattan, Kan., he found few opportunities to practice. Ki-June Park, grand master at Lawrence Tae-Kwon-Do School on 18th and Vermont streets, teaches hap-ki-do, or Korean jujitsu. Other martial arts schools in Lawrence use elements of jujitsu in their martial arts, but don't teach it exclusively.

"If anything would prohibit the spread of jujitsu it would be lack of instructors," McPeek said.

Jujitsu originated hundreds of years ago, likely in Japan, as a form of warfare. It is comprised of mainly groundwork, emphasizing the use of locks and holds to force an opponent into submission. Today, the concept of jujitsu is nearly inseparable from the Gracie family. Around 1930, Helio Gracie adapted Japanese jujitsu to better serve his smaller build, and so developed Brazilian jujitsu. In the early 1990s, Royce Gracie garnered attention in the U.S. by using it to defeat a string of larger opponents in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

"Royce Gracie went on that show and just about dismantled everybody that he came up on," Kerr said. "And everybody said, 'Hey I want to do that'."

The UFC is a mixed martial arts competition and one of the highest-grossing pay-per-view sports today. Jujitsu is just one martial art that the ultimate fighter uses, but Kerr thinks that the UFC's violence has kept jujitsu from evolving into the sanctioned sport that Judo has become. 


"All these people are coming in and changing the art. It's a professional fight," Kerr said. "In some sense you see aspects of savagery."

Others see the UFC as a misrepresentation of the martial art. McPeek said that jujitsu is about self-defense. In competition, a competitor wants to break his opponent's defense. A touch on the cheek demonstrates that as much as a punch in the face.

"Martial arts is not about violence. It never has been," McPeek said. "The UFC is about violence and that's the main difference."

Back at the gym, Clemmons is bringing two members at a time to the mat to spar, or practice fight, for the group. He considers size when making the match. With more experience, size will become less of a factor. For most of his members now, their experience comes from mixed martial arts on TV, high school wrestling or the past month's practices. For this match, Clemmons decides to go in himself against a new guy, freshman Dustin Befort.

What the members do know, they shout from the sidelines in support of the underdog.

"Don't let him sit so high on you!"

"Buck him down!"

"Roll him to your left!"

"Lock his leg, roll left!"

Clemmons said he has about 16 members in the club so far. Among his group today, a 120-pound sophomore with a background in martial arts, a 200-pound junior who comes for the cardio and 190-pound freshman whose interest was piqued by a TV show, though not the UFC. For him it was Fight Quest on the Discovery Channel.

"It looked fun and I have a lot of fun doing it," Rick Holladay, freshman, said.

Of course, not everyone's happy about the way jujitsu has risen in popularity. Park, who remembers when his was the only martial arts school in Lawrence in 1977, is saddened by the direction he sees hap-ki-do and other martial arts going. The Eastern philosophy of internal power, which for him is as important as the physical power, is often lost on American-born instructors.

"They don't know what they teach, that's the problem," he said. "It's at best martial sport, martial play."

It is play for Clemmons, at least in part. He disliked karate as a kid because he preferred a sport where you could roll around, like wrestling, which he took up in high school. He said that's one reason he enjoys jujitsu.

As for the Jujitsu Club, Clemmons enjoys himself when the atmosphere is laid-back, serious, and ego-free. Though he's a fan of the UFC, he's not a fan of violence at practice.

"If you go too far, you break an arm. If you go too long, you pass out," Clemmons said. "I'm not breeding fighters here."

Student Union Activities have found success in its version of the fashion design competition Project Runway at the University of Kansas. In its third year, more than 30 contestants entered in the preliminary competition. Only five teams made it to the final competition where their work was showcased in front of more than 600 people.
But even now, a month after the competition has been over, some of the contestants who spent hours on their creations are upset.
Many of the participants are concerned because the preliminary competition, which took place at the end of September, was judged by SUA's cultural arts committee; none of whom had taken any design classes.
"I definitely saw really good things that didn't make the finals," said Bonnie Croisant, Humboldt senior and winner of this year's competition. "I think it would have been a much more interesting show if there had been better competition."

Croisant won with her designs to the three final challenges: a music inspired piece, a University of Kansas inspired piece, and an Asian inspired piece.
Beatrice Bonanno, Brooklyn, NY senior, entered the preliminary competition but did not make it to the finals. She believes that because the people judging the preliminary competition did not have a background in design that they hadn't thought through the first challenge, making a design out of a paper bag.
"I know how fabric works. The quality of a paper bag doesn't reflect any skill," Bonanno said. "The nature of paper is very different from the nature of fabric. You work with it in a different way and they didn't realize that."
Croisant believes if SUA had assembled a panel of design students as the preliminary round judges that they would have been more qualified.
"If some of the people that didn't make it had made it, the show would have much better represented the potential at KU," Croisant said.
While the design students involved are taking the competition seriously, Grace Sha, Wichita junior, and chair of SUA's cultural arts committee, said the event was more of a fun event for them.
"It's getting bigger and there's been talk about making it more serious," she said. "We do it for the entertainment side of things. We like to have all walks of life and the KU community involved."
Josiah Earle, Topeka senior, was a finalist with his partner Lauren Fallis, and he felt that the biggest problem was lack of communication and miscommunication. He said the closer the competition got, the more confusing it became. Even on the day of the competition, the stylists were telling them to have the models at the salon, and SUA was telling them to have the models at the Union.
"I just tried to remember it was student run and that they aren't professionals yet," he said.
Croisant recalls the competition being unorganized. She received confusing e-mails with instructions and then she would get a second e-mail that said to disregard the other information. The competitors also got the schedule for the show two days before.
Sha admits there were organization issues, but most were out of her control. The problems included more press than anticipated as well as more people attending than were expected, and more than the Kansas Union Ballroom could hold.
"We didn't quite get a full dress rehearsal so we had some kinks, but that's not really something we could control because the Union is used by everyone," Sha said. "Everyone who talked to me afterward really enjoyed it though."
Sha was not aware that some of the competitors were upset with the judging. While the decision of who judges next year will belong to someone else she said she would be interested to hear from students with recommendations.

Candy Chen was in her first year of college in China when she received a phone call that changed her world: her parents were sending her to the U.S. to study.

"I felt like my dream came true," Chen, now in her first year at the University said. "My parents believed that an American education was better for me."

At KU, the number of Chinese international students has significantly increased, rising some 65 percent, from 260 to 428 in the last year, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning. Most international students at the University pay out of state tuition. KU is not the only university to see a boost in students from China. Other area universities, such as Kansas State University, have seen similar rises. The number of Chinese students at K-State has doubled.

Jim Lewis, director of international pre-admissions and recruiting for K-State, said the number of Chinese students coming to K-State for the fall 2009 semester will probably be larger than the number that came for the fall 2008 semester.

"In the case of China, many undergraduates are coming now because of the booming Chinese economy and a relaxation of American policy on granting student visas to students from China," said Chuck Seibel, the director of the Applied English Center, where foreign students take English as a Second Language classes.

"These are related: the U.S. hesitates to give visas to students from struggling economies because of a fear that they may plan on becoming economic refugees," he said.

Chen is an international student studying at the University of Kansas to attain a degree in psychology. Before she can pursue her degree, she must take classes through the Applied English Center to better her written and oral English.

"I have to improve," Chen said. "There are so many new words to learn."

This fall, 383 international students are enrolled in AEC classes as compared to its highest number, 401, in 1991. From 2007 to 2008 enrollment at the AEC increased by 19 percent.

"The primary goal is to teach English as a second language," Seibel said. "If they are not native English speakers, or their English is not good enough, they have to take AEC classes."

In the summer of 2007, Mark Algren, associate director of the AEC, and his recruiting team focused its efforts in China. With China's flourishing economy, more and more families are looking to send their children to the U.S. The two week trip was organized by KU and sent them to different cities in China such as: Beijing, Wuhan, Hong Kong and Macau. During that time they made connections with schools and recruiting agents and shared with them more about the U.S. educational system and information about KU.

"We established a personal relationship with students in China," Algren said. "Students make choices based on people they meet. We want to make a connection. We don't want to be just another page in a book with a pretty picture."

According to Open Doors, a comprehensive informational resource on international students in the U.S., the number of international students at colleges and universities in the U.S. increased to a record high seven percent in the 2007 and 2008 academic year. This exceeded the previous high of six percent reported in 2002 and 2003. Nationally, China increased its sending of students to American universities by 20 percent from 2006 to 2008.

Sandra Tompson Issa, a language specialist at the AEC, enjoys not only teaching language to international students, but also giving them insight into the American culture. She also sees a benefit for domestic students in having international students at KU.

A significant reason why international students are drawn to mid-western universities over the East Coast or West Coast is not based on location.

It's not the weather, that's for sure," Issa said. "I've heard students say they feel this is a safe part of the country- fairly quiet, low crime rate."

Another draw for foreign students is that KU does not require a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score for undergraduate admission.

"Students with good academic credentials but with English deficiencies can be admitted and then work on their English proficiency after getting here at the AEC," Seibel said.

KU has a variety of events, clubs and programs to help international students adjust to life in the U.S. Michael Ediger, associate director of advising and orientation for International Student and Scholar Services, said their office hosts a week-long "You at KU" orientation program each fall and spring semester. He said international student groups like the International Student Association, typically host some sort of welcome event for all international students. Nationality clubs like the Brazilian Student Association, KU Cultural India Club, Chinese Students and Scholars Friendship Association, and Hong Kong and Macau Students Association, typically organize activities to welcome students from their respective countries.

Issa believes that the economy will determine whether the number of Chinese international students will continue to increase in the future. She said she is optimistic that now that the door is open and Chinese students have started coming that they will continue to come.

Chen said she has not yet decided if she will return to China after graduating. For now, she is concentrating on her studies and liking the change of scenery in Kansas.

"I enjoy being at KU," Chen said. "It's a pretty university, especially in the spring."

     Dan Holmes stares at the chessboard.  The Olathe senior knows the move is there somewhere.  His eyes dart from square to square, searching for it.  He is ever mindful of the game clock, of time constantly dripping away.  Then, suddenly, he knocks over an opponent's piece with one of his own, retrieves it with his palm, and slams it down onto the nearby timer.

    "Chess is a social disease," Holmes would say later.

    In his third year as KU Chess Club's president, Holmes built the club up from a few to no members attending weekly meetings in 2006 to a more than 50 members with approximately eight people attending each week. To Holmes, chess is about passion.  He plays every day on the Internet and, in a throwback to yesteryear, he also takes part in correspondence games.  In the days before the telephone, chess players from different parts of the world would set up a board in their home and write to one another trading moves.  Games could take months or years to finish.  Now that players have access to e-mail, games finish up much faster.
Holmes is currently playing approximately 45 games by correspondence.  He'd start more, but the Web site he uses limits the number of games players can participate in at any given time.
     "I think people who come here tend to have addictive personalities," he said.
     But chess isn't just growing at KU.  Across the country more people are sitting down at boards.  Jerry Nash, Scholastic and FIDE director for the United States Chess Federation, said elementary school-aged children are flocking to the game at a steady rate.
     "We're seeing continued growth," he said.
     The UCSF is responsible for governing for every major chess tournament held in the United States, and serves as the US's envoy to the FIDE, the World Chess Federation.  The UCSF has over 80,000 registered members and over 20,000 registered groups across the country.  Nash is gearing up for the USCF's Super National Tournament, which will be held in April.  He is expecting about 5,000 youths, kindergartners through high school seniors, to participate.
     "The kids love the game," Nash said.  

     And though he said that interest in chess has steadily grown throughout the decades, he points to two central events that piqued the interest of the American public.  First came Bobby Fischer's defeat of Boris Spassky in 1972 to become the first American to win the World Chess Championship.  The second event, Nash said, was the release of "Searching for Bobby Fischer," a film based on the childhood of American chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin.  
"[The movie] helped to highlight and expose [the game] to a larger group," he said.
     After the inevitable fall in numbers in the wake of the Fischer world championship and the release of the film, however, American parents are again starting to encourage their children to take interest in the game.  Studies have shown, Camarda said, that playing chess enhances attention span, math aptitude, and critical thinking skills.  Camarda and Holmes even teach chess to kids as an after school program at Sunset Ridge Elementary.    
Now, the kids who saw "Searching for Bobby Fischer" in when it was released in 1993 are in college.  And Nash hopes an even greater number are playing chess.  The USCF has been working with at least a dozen schools to establish chess scholarships and start official university teams.  He cited Big 12 neighbors Texas Tech as an example of a club the UCSF helped to build.
     To Kyle Camarda, associate professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the KU Chess Club's faculty advisor, chess poses itself as an addicting intellectual exercise.
     "It's like a new puzzle every game," he said.  "The great thing is, once you've solved it or haven't solved it, you set up and go again."
     He said that this also contributed to players isolating themselves.
     "Chess players are not very good at social interaction," Camarda said.  "They live in their heads a little bit."
     After playing chess nearly all his life, Camarda has amassed some distinctive chess related experienced.  He's played against the speed-chess hustlers of New York City's Washington Square Park.  He's visited the sights of famous chess players of the French Quarter in New Orleans.  He's played overseas in Berlin.  With an overall rating of 1882, the USCF has ranked him 16th in the state of Kansas.
     Playing in tournaments throughout his youth and into college, Holmes achieved a rating of 1850.  To put that in perspective, according to the USCF, the 100th best player in the country has a rating of 2411.  The top player, Gata Kamsky of New York, is rated 2799.

     Back at the meeting, the room has loosened up a bit.  A few games have already come and gone, so players are discussing various problems professional chess players run into.  The topic turns from the debate surrounding the proposed practice of drug testing in chess to issues of gambling.  Each asserts that he doesn't have a problem, but admits he has heard of professional players who get into debt playing poker.
     "You win money faster [than playing chess]," one notes.  
     "You can also lose money faster," another retorts.
     Finishing another game, Camarda interjects.  He says that many players, including the late Bobby Fischer, have issues that people must look past to appreciate them for who and what they really are: brilliant minds of the game.
     "You have to judge the moves," he says, "not the player."

Debra Baker knows the ins and outs of aquatic systems in this area of the country. Baker, assistant director for the Central Plains Center for BioAssessment, said the Center is currently working on in-depth projects that ultimately aim to uphold the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations on specific nutrients in water. She has worked for the center since 1999, and is often involved in complicated research. But for the last two weeks in January, Baker will take some of her very basic water knowledge and use it to educate the people of Pignon, Haiti, on the issue of clean water.

"I guess my experience with working on water quality issues here has given me the ability to talk to other people about this," Baker said.

In May, Baker met Kristie Mompermier, a missionary in Haiti who she will be working with on the water quality projects. Mompermier is a missionary through United Christians International, and is a registered nurse. She  has lived in Haiti since 1996.

The program the two will work on is called World Water Monitoring Day. It is an international education and outreach program that emphasizes public awareness about protecting water resources around the world. It encourages local citizens to get involved in the water monitoring process. Baker will help adult and children groups from Pignon test and manage the town's water supply.

The EPA provides the water monitoring kits that Baker will take with her to Haiti. These kits will allow non-scientists the opportunity to check out basic aspects of water quality, such as pH balance and dissolved oxygen levels, and potentially avoid future water-born diseases or community problems.

Mompremier has high hopes for this education program.

"In Haiti, people want to learn more," Mompremier said. "Education is valued very much. People love the opportunity to learn more and to imporove their lives.They just need to opportunity to come to a seminar like this."

While clean water is important to poorer communities of the world, Baker said she's not expecting anything to change drastically from this workshop.

"I'm not expecting for them to be able to improve what they're doing based on this, but just to be aware that there are methods for monitoring their water," Baker said. "And then if there are concerns in the future, they'll know how to handle it."

Back in the U.S., Baker is working on much more complicated issues, and monitoring different nutrients.

For the first time, Baker and others in her department are working on a new project with the Missouri River. Since the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972, the EPA has set limitations on mercury, lead and other dangerous toxins in bodies of water. In 1998, the EPA founded the Center for BioAssessment to help set nutrient limits of nitrogen and phosphorous in lakes and streams. But more recently, the EPA has set limits on levels of acceptable nitrogen and phosphorous in all major water bodies, including rivers and wetland areas. Nitrogen and phosphorous can spark odor and taste complaints in drinking water. The funding for this research on the Missouri River started this year, and Baker's work with the project began in August. This is the first time the Center for BioAssessment has worked on setting such limits for such a big water body that winds through multiple states.

Elizabeth Smith, Environmental Scientist for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, attended a water nutrient workshop in Denver at the and of November, where nutrients in the Missouri River were a big topic of conversation. Scientists of EPA Region 7, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, gathered in Denver to exchange information and ideas about nutrients. The Missouri River flows through or on the border of all states in Region 7, and agricultural practices from these states have an affect the River.

Jason Koontz, first semester graduate student in Environmental Science, is the database manager for water quality data, and works mostly with data accumulated from the Missouri River project. Koontz organizes and formats data submitted on nutrient levels that will eventually be used in setting regulations and limits on nutrients. Koontz said the data looks to life in the water to see the effects of nitrogen and phosphorous has there. Baker said these nutrients in the water can cause algae to gather on the water's surface, blocking sunlight from the water. Some algae can even release a toxin, endangering fish and plant life.

"We want to see if there's a biological response, to see if setting regulations is warranted," Koontz said.

Ed Carney, Environmental Scientist for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, is one of the people who will use the finalized data from these projects to come up with solid numeric limitations on nitrogen and phosphorous.

"The numbers we generate will in the best of all possible worlds mean safer lakes in this region and the best water quality that you could hope for," Carney said.

But not all water is created equal in the Missouri River. Different segments along the River will have different limitations for nutrients set depending on the water's potential use. For example, limitations on water used for a drinking water supply will be stricter than limitations on water that will go toward irrigating farmland.

Carney said that especially in this part of the country, rates of nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients could be high.

"We disproportionately deal with nutrients that come from agricultural practices," Carney said.  "That's the nature of this portion of the country."

The goal of setting new nutrient limitations on the Missouri River will affect other parts of the country. Koontz said that much of what this project is trying to prevent is negative
downstream affects in the rest of the country. The Missouri River empties into the Mississippi River north of St. Louis in Missouri, where it eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  Cleaner water in Kansas can help prevent oxygen depletion, fish kills and algae blooms in the Gulf. 

Source: images.encarta.msn.com

Koontz said he has thought about using his knowledge of water systems to help
other communities around the world, as Baker is doing.

"I've thought of using my knowledge to help third world communities build
water treatment facilities," Koontz said. "That's always a possibility."

When Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, director of the Chabad Jewish Center in Lawrence, first learned his fellow Rabbi, and childhood friend, Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife Rivkah were killed in the attacks in Mumbai, India he knew he had to do something in their memory. Before he had decided what he would do, he began receiving calls from people in the local Jewish community, who felt the same way.
    Tiechtel organized a memorial prayer service, which was held in the Relay Room at the Burge Union, Thursday, December 4th, for the victims of the Mumbai attacks. Almost 100 students, faculty and members of the Lawrence community gathered for the prayer service.
    Tiechtel knew Gavriel Holtzberg as a classmate, neighbor and friend growing up in Brooklyn.
    "We grew up together. He always inspired me with his passion to do good for others." Tiechtel said.
    Tiechtel remembered first hearing the Holtzbergs were in danger via e-mail from the Chabad movement. When the attacks in Mumbai began, the Chabad headquarters had tried to contact the Holtzbergs, receiving no answer until a terrorist picked up the phone and demanded to speak with the Indian government.
    In response to the deaths in Mumbai, the Jewish community in Lawrence gathered at the prayer service to remember the lives lost.
    "Tonight was the greatest response. Everyone gathered in unity for those killed, both Jews and non-Jews," Tiechtel said.
    Jay Lewis, Kansas Hillel executive director, also attended the prayer service Thursday. Lewis said the attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai was not just sad, but disappointing and scary.
    "Our history is filled with attacks. We are used to remembrance and memorial, but also moving on." Lewis said.
    Jeremy Adkison, Leavenworth freshman, chose to attend the prayer service after seeing Rabbi Tiechtel speak to his Living Religions of the West class. He said it was good for people to attend the prayer service.
    "It's good to be some place with other people, honoring someone. People shouldn't forget the dead." Adkison said.
    The day after the prayer service, the Chabad House held a Jewish Shabbat and candle-lighting ceremony. This is part of "Mitzvoh for Mumbai, A Global Campaign of Goodness and Kindness" the Lawrence Chabad House is participating in. The purpose of the campaign is for people to do good deeds and post them to the campaign's Web site in honor of the victims of Mumbai.
Along with the prayer service, the Lawrence Chabad Jewish Center contributes to the fund held for the Holtzberg's orphaned son, and the rebuilding of the Chabad House in Mumbai. Other Jewish Chabad couples have already volunteered to work at the Chabad House in Mumbai.
    "If this attack deters us we're giving into the terrorists," Tiechtel said.
    Charles Goldberg, Chicago senior, was also at the prayer service, and Shabbat. Goldberg said he felt the prayer service was very meaningful.
    "The point of the Chabad movement is to take the darkness of the world and make it light," Goldberg said, "Jews have seen the most tragedies. We take it, we internalize it and we grow."
    Rabbi Tiechtel hopes to do more in memory of the victims of the Mumbai attacks. He has discussed the possibility of increasing programs, and making some kind of permanent space dedicated to all the victims of the Mumbai attacks.

    The deodorant on the shelf in geologist Eugene Szymanski's office serves a purpose: insuring that his students can't tell if he's spent all day in a hot, dusty rock crushing room.

    Szymanski isn't bothered by the dust on his shirt or the mud on his boots. Research is the part of geology he likes, but the Ph.D student also recognizes that academic lab research isn't going to help him pay off his student loans quickly.
   
   He is one of an increasing number of geology students who are taking six figure incomes in the oil industry, waving the choice of research in their own lab to have financial security doing someone else's research.

    "It's difficult to look at it and say no right now," Szymanski said, "you can go and work for them for two years and bail yourself out of debt from the previous six."

    Historically, as the price of a barrel of oil goes up so does the demand for geologists in the oil and gas industry. The past two years have been no different.

The American Geological Institute released statistics this fall showing that the number of geologists in the industry - on a steady decline since the 1970s - is on its was back up. The demand for new geologists in the industry went above 40,000 in 2007 and is projected to rise to nearly 60,000 in 2029.

    Future mass retirements are also a factor. The number of geologists between the age of 51 and 55 is more than double the number of geologists between the ages of 31 and 35. With retirement just years away, their positions will need to be filled to maintain production.

    At the University of Kansas department of geology, oil company representatives make regular visits to recruit new employees. Students who had no intention of going into the industry are swayed by the promise of job security.

    Szymanski said that if it weren't for the interviews set up by the department he probably wouldn't have considered oil and gas a seriously as he did.

    "You start talking to people and you learn that they do some pretty cool geology," Szymanski said.

    Undergraduate interest in geology has also increased. Daniel Stockli, associate professor in geology, is the instructor for mineralogy, one of the first upper-level classes for geology students. Stockli's class grew 20 percent from 2005 to 2006, and another 20 percent in 2007.

    As numbers go up securing lab time becomes logistically challenging. Mineralogy, which used to have around 25 students in two lab sections, started the semester with 45 students and a third lab section. Stockli, who thinks his class should be a fun way to learn a challenging topic, said "it might be difficult to hang on to the family-style lab."

     Robert Goldstein, geology department chair, said the shortage of geologists in the industry workforce translates into an exciting time for the students and the department.

    "There's going to be great pay and exciting work that people will get to do," Goldstein said.

    Enrollment in geology programs isn't up across the country though. Geosciences programs that are specializing their programs in groundwater and geochemistry studies are lacking. Goldstein said it's important to maintain credible programs that relate to the extractive industries and environmental industries.

    "Students want to have successful careers long term," Goldstein said.

    Other petroleum-based universities are also experiencing high enrollment. Schools like Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have historically been training-grounds for the oil industry. They are all thriving.

    Christie Hawkins, the director of Institutional Research and Information Management at Oklahoma State, said their department has grown. In 2004 there were 61 undergraduate students in OSU geology program, now there are 99 students, a 62 percent increase. Graduate enrollment also increased 50 percent.

    Although Szymanski had no intention of going into the oil and gas industry, he warmed up to the idea while at KU. The opportunity to do real geology research and enjoy financial security made the oil and gas industry a favorable career.

    "As I get older I realize financial security is something that's very important," Szymanski said.


 

    
            Vince Lombardi once said, "Leaders aren't born they are made."

            The University of Kansas Student Involvement and Leadership Center (SILC) would have to agree. Since 1998 the SILC office has been alerting students of the program LeaderShape. It is an interactive leadership strengthening program that is meant to challenge students with exercises pertaining to ethical decision making, conflicts, and to learn more about the views of others and their own. 

This year LeaderShape saw increased interest in the program. More than 200 applicants applied but only 60 people received spots in the program.

Graduate intern Matt Robinson said 70 people per year participate on campus, including participants and staff. This is KU's 12 year participating. Over 650 student, alumni, faculty and staff have attended LeaderShape.

            Maggie Gremminger, Shawnee senior, is the on-site coordinator for the 2009 session of LeaderShape. Gremminger was a participant in the 2008 session. There are only two on-site coordinators.

            "I make sure things are running smoothly," Gremminger said. "When I saw it I knew I wanted to be a part of it."

            Gremminger's job consists of making sure all parts of the experience run smoothly from transportation to activities. Gremminger said the interviewing process was a bit nerve racking.

            "When I saw the position was open I just knew I wanted to be a part of it." she said.

            "We didn't change the marketing, besides word of mouth," Gremminger said.

            Gremminger said the program sent only one e-mail out to the general KU student body.   
            "It's great because it means people are being positively affected by their experience and telling others," Gremminger said.

            LeaderShape is a national institute that takes places over the entire country.           

            Rueben Perez, director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, has been a part of LeaderShape program since 1993. Perez said people often ask him how he could stay with the program for so long. 

            "I always feel a little bit guilty I feel like I gain more from the experience than I give," Perez said. "It's an opportunity for students to hold a mirror up to themselves and see what they're about and what they could be."

            Perez said the office has seen the emergence of new student groups from the program. He also said that students have gone on to become major leaders in campus group which he feels is the most rewarding.

            Ellen Jardon, Overland Park junior, is one of the participants for the 2009 session.

            Jardon was an orientation assistant for the University during the summer of 2008 where she said she first heard of the program through other assistants.

            "I feel I need to develop leadership skills," Jardon said. "Mainly because I feel I don't have a lot."

            When Jardon received a confirmation e-mail she realized how serious it was, Jardon said.

            "Some people say that this will change your life," Jardon said. "I'm not sure if I believe that but I definitely think you get back what you put in."

            Laura Durham, Kansas City, KS senior, is a first time participant as well. Durham heard about the program through friends.         

            "I want to learn how to work with a diverse group of people," Durham said.

            Durham is pursuing a leadership minor which is one reason she applied. Leadership minors receive credit hours for participating.

            "I think no matter what you do in life leaderships are necessary," said Durham. "It's useful whether or not it's for a job or even just in [personal] relationships."

            The 2009 the program is held at Tall Oaks Conference Center in Linwood, Kan. from January 8 to January 13.

LeaderShape 2008

Photos contributed by Kristen Watkins

After James Roberts graduated college, he faced a dilemma: where was he going to live?
    "It seemed like the options were that you could move back home, move in with a friend or with a girlfriend," Roberts said. But after weighing his options, he decided to go with a different approach, one he said he wished he'd thought of sooner: communal living.
    "I got to get out of college and meet a totally new group of friends," said Roberts, who lives at the Ad Astra Cooperative, 1033 Kentucky.
In an economy that seems to create nothing but problems for students with little money to spend on housing, communal living is an option that Roberts said he thinks makes the most sense. "It's an economic way to live, it's smart, and I got to tap into a social network I hadn't known before," Roberts said.
    The University of Kansas Student Housing Association, a student housing cooperative that is unaffiliated with KU housing, is the group that owns Ad Astra house. The cooperative manages two other houses: Sunflower House and Olive House. Residents in houses owned by the cooperative act as their own landlords. Rent at Ad Astra house is $315 a month. Sunflower house residents pay $250 a month, and Olive house residents pay $310 a month. That's five percent less than the average cost of an apartment in Lawrence, which is $583 per month, and almost six percent less than the cost of living on campus for an in-state student (just over $3,000 a semester).
Members of Ad Astra have weekly house meetings, group dinners once a month and share chores and other house duties. Members of the cooperative also try to focus on an environmentally conscious lifestyle. The walls are painted with all-natural milk paint, and members of the house keep a compost pile and a garden.
    Roberts said that although the cooperative's emphasis is sustainable living, the members of the house aren't heavy-handed about their mission.
    "In a house committed to sustainability, you'd think it'd be very crusade-like," Roberts said. "But to us it's more that this way of living makes sense, it's economical and adds a certain quality of life."
     Ezra Huscher, Salina senior, said he likes the freedom and encouraging atmosphere that living in a cooperative setting has given him.
    "There's nothing we can't do," Huscher said. "If someone wants to do something with the house, we can bring it up at a meeting, and if we like it, we'll do it.  As long as you can get everyone else to agree and help you out, you can do it. There's unlimited potential here."
    
While residents at Ad Astra are committed to sustainable living, students living at Canterbury House, 1116 Louisiana, commit themselves to a different cause: campus ministry. In exchange for living in the house rent-free, residents devote 15 hours a week to on-campus ministry, in addition to shared house duties.
    Joel Layton, Lenexa sophomore, said he finds living in Canterbury, run by the Episcopal diocese of Kansas, a nice alternative to campus housing.
"It's not as loud, for one thing," Layton said. "And I identify more with people here than I would if I were just living with a random person. I like having my own space here."
    Susan Terry, campus missioner for the Episcopal diocese of Kansas, said she thinks a shared interest in ministry is a major attractive quality of the community.
    "There's the opportunity to get out there, overcome your fears and invite people into the community," Terry said. "It's also great to live in common with people who live and eat and study together."
    Canterbury house has been around since the 70s, but closed for renovations in 2004. The house re-opened in 2007, and currently has a waiting list of students wanting to live there. Terry said she hopes the waiting list is due to the success of the ministry program.
    "I hope this is a good program, and that it's a good place to come if you have questions and want to be in a community of faith," Terry said.
    Layton said that although he enjoys the communal living environment of Canterbury house, this lifestyle isn't for everyone.
    "It works for some people, but not for others," Layton said. "Lots of people work better when things are done for them, like cleaning and cooking. If that's the case, you'll probably want to live in the dorms. If you're not good with living on a schedule and you're more independent, this is a great option. It's good to know yourself going into it."
    Roberts said he thinks living with a group is a more beneficial option for anyone looking for a place to live.
    "When you're living with friends and you have problems, it's hard to voice those, because you know the other person and you don't want to hurt them," Roberts said. "Here, there's a forum in which to address those problems. For me, it's worked out a lot better."

On any given day, Josh Homan, Salina graduate student, could choose to rent a motorcycle and explore obscure Peruvian villages, ride a launch (a canoe with a motor) into the jungle to observe shaman, or stay in a local market and chat with townspeople. He takes notes, records interviews, takes genetic samples, and notes cultural variation all along the way.

Josh is a cultural anthropologist. He flew to the Loreto and San Martin regions of Peru three times this semester to observe, for his masters thesis, how new medicines transform the role of shamans west of the Amazon. He uses memetics to analyze this change.

"Memetics is analogous to genetics," he said. "Just like genes, memes are trying to replicate themselves and succeed. They have to evolve."

"Memes" are defined in cultural anthropology as any distinct, self-replicating unit of culture. Josh tries to discover why some memes survive while others, like traditional shamanism, die out. He thinks understanding memes can help preserve those that are disappearing, and prevent dangerous memes from spreading.

"Memes can definitely be dangerous," he said "Think about Nazi Germany. The ideas of nationalism and purification, that everyone shared--those were memes."

The term "meme" was coined by evolutionary biologist and science author Richard Dawkins, nicknamed "Darwin's Rottweiler," in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. An atheist and scientific rationalist, he used the idea to explain the existence of organized religion.

A meme can be any idea, attitude, opinion, phrase or habit that spreads from person to person through imitation. The "fittest" memes spread like viruses, hopping from community to community. With time, popular memes like the words "crunk," "smackdown," and "sudoku" make their way into accepted English. In 2007, these words were included in the 11th edition of Merriam Webster's New College Dictionary.

Western Civilization professor Dale Urie personally witnessed the evolutionary success of a meme right here in the University. "I remember when 'hugely' became a big word in academic writing," she said. "At first, I'd correct people on it."

"Now, I use it in lecture," she said.

Gilles Viennot, graduate student in language education, moved to the United States from Lilles, France three years ago, and has noticed why some memes do better than others. "In English, you're always looking for efficiency, for shorter phrases. The memes that are easier to say, people will say more often. Sometimes, they almost don't mean anything."

"I hear people say, 'It was nice', but I never know what they mean. And they say it all the time!" he said.

Academic inquiry into memetics began when University of Manchester scholars founded the Journal of Memetics, which released 17 issues between 1997 and 2005. The journal published two issues each year.

Over the years, though, memeticists became disillusioned with the field. "Meme," the central term, was too broadly defined, the comparison between genes and memes proved to be empty, and too few practical applications could be found. In his essay "Memetics: A Dangerous Idea," Luis Benítez-Bribiesca called the field "Nothing more than a pseudoscientific dogma... that poses a threat to the serious study of consciousness and cultural evolution."

In the final issue of the Journal of Memetics in 2005, Bruce Edmonds of Manchester Metropolitan University declared the demise of the field. "It has been a short-lived fad whose effect has been to obscure more than to enlighten. I am afraid that memetics, as an identifiable discipline, will not be missed."

Josh Homan recognizes the limitations of memetics as a science. "It's too simplistic, underdeveloped, and poorly understood," he said. "It lacks consistent terminology, and it lacks rigor."

He said although cultures around the world function according to memetic principles, the field has fallen into disrepute, and memetics serve moreso as a perspective through which he can approach his anthropology work.

Today, the word "meme" refers to online phenomena born in the dense jungle of online forums like YouTube and 4chan, each of which boasts hundreds of millions views each day. 4chan, with very few rules, is the source of such successful memes as Lolcatz, whose website icanhascheezburger.com sold for $2 million last year.

That competitive social web of ideas, images and conversation, the Internet, has appropriated the term.

A popular KU study abroad program in Italy, home to more than 150 Jayhawks each year, has moved from the University of Kansas to the University of Iowa.

The program was sponsored by the University for more than eight years, and offers classes in business, journalism, and communications in Paderno del Grappa.

The program's leader in Italy, a former KU professor of business, is a native Iowan with close ties to the university in Iowa City, Iowa. When the University of Kansas's contract with the Italian program expired this summer, the professor, Al Ringleb chose to move the program to Iowa.

"We fully expect that this transition will not have a negative impact on students attending from KU," Ringleb said in a telphone interview from Italy, where he is executive director of CIMBA, the Consortium Institute of Management and Business Analysis.

Tim Shaftel, professor of business and faculty advisor to the Office of Study Abroad, said that KU students will still be able to attend but students must now obtain credit from the University of Iowa.

Shaftel said he expected most classes would transfer. Several KU professors travel to Italy each semester to teach classes. KU professors and students have predominantly led the program in attendance, but that is expected to now shift to Iowa. Although the cost of the program increases each semester, the price is uniform for students from all universities.

"Iowa was interested in running it," Shaftel said. "KU was feeling that the administration of the program was more of a burden than it wanted to take on."

Iowa faculty, in the meantime, sees its take-over of the program as an opportunity.

"Like Kansas, we work hard to maintain a national reputation, and heading this international program really aids in that mission. It's great for our students, our reputation, and faculty development," said Gary Gaeth, a professor of marketing and faculty director of the program on the Iowa campus.

Gaeth said he still expected a high level of participation from KU students. 

Robert Lopez, outreach coordinator at the Office of Study Abroad, said that last spring, 56 KU students attended the program, while 21 attended this fall semester. He said 70 KU students are expected to attend this spring semester.

Ringleb said that although the switch to Iowa was a tough decision, it was necessary. He pointed to Iowa's progress in neuroscience, brain imaging, and leadership development as motivating reasons for the move. Ringleb has particular interest in those areas and uses them within CIMBA program.

"Iowa had the resource advantage of having the kind of on-site resources that could push our leadership development program forward," Ringleb said.

Ringleb said that growing up in Iowa did leave him a little biased in regards to the move, as did friendly relations with other University of Iowa leaders. He said that Sally Frost Mason, now the president of the University of Iowa, and the former dean of the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, also helped in his decision to take the program to Iowa.

Ringleb said he had always hoped to see more involvement from the University of Iowa, which was not a participating school in the program until it took over in August.

"If it hadn't been at Iowa, I probably wouldn't have been as interested," Ringleb said.

Although the University of Kansas no longer oversees the program, Ringleb said that he still would like it to play an important role.

"There was a strong sense of loss, even though it was a move forward," Ringleb said.

The university still maintains a program office on campus, although with a much smaller staff than it once had. Of the 33 universities that most often send faculty and students to the program, the University of Kansas and the University of Iowa are the only two with campus offices, highlighting their importance to the program.

"The KU student has really set an impressive standard. With a KU student, you're starting with a product that has a high sense of value and purpose, " Ringleb said.

Students now wishing to attend the program in Paderno can find more information at www.cimbaitaly.com or by visiting the Italy Program office in Summerfield Hall. Applications for the summer semester are due Feb. 1, 2008.

 

 

Students who like math, but prefer to major in something other than numbers, may be happy to know that a new minor involving statistics, methodology and data analysis can be pursued. Not only is the Social Behavioral Sciences and Methodology minor the only one of its kind in the US, it is also said to be a shoe in to graduate school.

Professor Todd Little proposed the SBSM minor four years ago, and the Committee on Undergraduate Studies and Advising approved the minor last May. Because this minor is so new, not many students know about the SBSM minor. About a dozen students are in the minor now, and six are finishing with it on their ARTS form this year.

After the approval, three students had already been taking the 18 required credits without knowing about the minor.            

Sandy Carpenter, a 2007 graduate, is one of three who have received the minor because she had already been taking the 18 required credits without knowing about the minor.

She said that when she applied to graduate schools, none of them turned her down because they were all intrigued and impressed with her work in methodology. She said she was able to prove that she could do quantitative and graduate-level work.

Carpenter, is graduating this December with a masters degree in Human Resources at the University of Illinois. She believes that the minor was a foot into the door to a graduate school and is a huge selling point for those wanting to a profitable job.

"My minor overshadowed my psychology degree," Carpenter said. "Companies always focused on my quantitative background and never asked me about psychology."

This year is the first year that students will be able to have the minor on their ARTS form.

"Students who take courses that count toward the SBSM minor are typically highly motivated and interested in pursuing graduate school, with the eventual goal of entering research or academia as a career," said Kris Preacher, professor in the Department of Psychology. "Having a good understanding of a wide variety of research methods and statistical analyses prepares students very well for a career that emphasizes research."

Professor Little believes the upper level classes undergraduates take to pursue the minor will provide students with the knowledge of how to demonstrate high-end research and how to measure and analyze information. With this education students have been able to do thesis research on their own.

"Before I graduated, I was doing graduate level work," Carpenter said. "I didn't have to ask someone to help me do my research."

Carpenter said she conducted her own surveys for her project and also analyzed her own data.

"It was my project," Carpenter said.

Little teaches Structural Equation Modeling and says that the popularity of the minor has grown by word of mouth.

"It's been great," Little said. "Our courses are filling up and 48 are registered in my class. It's unheard of."

Katie Harr, Wichita senior, has only one more class to take to complete the minor requirements. She decided to pursue the minor because she knew it would make her more marketable and it would make her psychology degree more flexible.

"I wanted to do it because I've always been good at math and science, but I didn't want to be a math major," Harr said. "I thought it was a good way to combine psychology with math."

Even Emily Rose Patrick, Lenexa senior, believes she has made the right choice of minor. She said she will use the minor to get into a graduate school, and she will use it when she conducts her own research for her thesis.

"If I didn't want to go to grad school I could easily get a job as an undergrad," Patrick said. 

Now that the freshly printed brochures have been circling the campus the past couple of weeks, the new SBSM minor is more than available to students who are interested in the study of methodology.

For more information visit http://www.psych.ku.edu/psych_programs/undergrad_social.shtml

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To be or not to be, that is the question required Shakespeare courses are facing from English departments at universities across the country.

If Audrey Seybert, Lawrence sophomore and electrical engineering major, had picked a different field in engineering she would have been surrounded by women.

At The University of Kansas the number of women in engineering has been increasing. In 2006, there were 279 women in the school, or 19 percent of all engineering majors. This semester there are 349 women in the school or 20 percent of the school's students. The number of women has especially increased in the fields of chemical, biomedical and civil engineering.

But sitting among 40 students in her Circuits I class in Learned Hall, Seybert is one of only three women.

"Wherever the women engineers are, they aren't studying electrical engineering," Seybert said.

The number of women majoring in electrical engineering at KU has never been high. In Fall 2006, 12 women were enrolled in electrical engineering compared to 116 men. That number has barely increased with 15 women this semester in a pool of 127.

Glenn Prescott, department chair of electrical engineering and computer science, said the problem might be because of the way women are socialized as young girls.

"Taking things apart and putting them back together tends to be a male thing," he said. "All those traditions tend to take generations to overcome."

Jessica Scott, Gladstone, Mo. junior and electrical engineering major, said part of the reason may be because typically women are just not as interested in the way electronics work.

"I wouldn't say it's the math or the physics because every engineering degree needs that, "she said.

Sarah Seguin, assistant professor of electrical engineering, said that the low number of women in electrical engineering might also be because of the depictions of engineers as "nerdy" and "unattractive" in popular culture.

"With this type of portrayal in the media, why would anyone want to be an engineer, let alone a woman?" she said.

Robert Sorem, associate dean of undergraduate programs in the School of Engineering, said the school was offering more programs to interest women such as Engineers without Borders, a hands-on study abroad program that goes to underdeveloped countries and does engineering projects such as improving sanitation systems, and KU's chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.

"We grew 50 percent in size this year and have been able to send 11 girls to the SWE regional and national conferences each year," said Callie Statz, St. Louis junior and president of the University's chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.

Statz said over the past two years she's noticed a high number of women in architectural and chemical engineering, but very few women in electrical engineering and computer science.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure of the reasoning behind it," she said. "I believe many girls coming out of high school are not aware of the many options engineering offers."

The number of women in electrical engineering nationally, seems to be decreasing.

According to the Web site of the IEEE, formerly known as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, female membership decreased from 34, 478 members in 2006 to 32,364 members in 2007.

"The low number of women in engineering has been a problem for a long time and there appears to be no easy solution," said Ken Vollmar, chair of the IEEE for Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Southern Illinois.

Prescott said enrollment for both men and women in electrical engineering was at a low point right now.

"We go through a cycle like all other professions," he said.

This semester 127 students enrolled in electrical engineering at KU compared to 141 students in the spring.

Although enrollment is down, employers still want electrical engineers.

"Electrical engineers are hot right now," Seybert said. "Everyone is looking to hire some."

Prescott said he wasn't aware of any of KU's electrical engineering students not getting jobs after graduation.

"Every year at our career fair, there are literally hundreds of companies there looking to hire engineering students," Prescott said.
Seybert said she wasn't worried about finding a job after graduation. She only worried about deciding what type of job she wanted to go into.

"The possibilities are so endless, I hardly know where to look," she said.

Scott also isn't worried about finding a job after graduation.

"Because everything is electronic nowadays, there should always be a demand for electrical engineers," she said.

"The job market is obviously in transition currently, given the economic situation," said Cathy Schwabauer, director of Career Services at the School of Engineering. "Electrical engineering is a very broad engineering discipline and thus graduating students may be able to weather economic downturns a little better."

Employers offer electrical engineering graduates one of the highest salaries out of all engineering students.

A survey conducted by the School of Engineering in December 2007 and May 2008 showed that out of nine different engineering disciplines only petroleum and aerospace engineering graduates reported higher salaries than electrical engineering students. The average salary reported by electrical engineering students was $55, 421.

"If a female student graduates with an electrical engineering degree, a good internship or two, and a good GPA, companies will fight over her," Seybert said.

Seybert said that she may be in the minority within her major, but she doesn't regret her decision to go into electrical engineering.

"I chose engineering because it was hard and I knew that I would never be bored," she said. "And hey, I like to solve differential equations."

     Lawrence has some new entomological residents.  University of Kansas doctoral candidate Ismael Hinojosa-Díaz discovered the giant resin bee, also known as Megachile sculpturalis, near campus last June.  Before then, the farthest west the bee had been spotted was in Ohio.  The species, a native of Asia, is relatively new to the North America.  
    "Of course I got a little bit excited," he said.
    Hinojosa-Diaz said the discovery completely altered the projected model of how the species would spread throughout the United States.  He would know.  He helped to author a paper in 2005 that applied statistical modeling collected by studying non-native plants to project the bees' migration patterns.  
    The giant resin bee differs from most bees native to the United States because they are non-social, meaning they do not live in colonies or hives.  The bees collect resin to line their shelter, reproduce, and die before their offspring emerge and seek out new places to live, repeating the cycle.
Charles Michener, professor emeritus and doctor of entomology, said the introduction of the giant resin bee would alter the landscape of North American entomology.
    "This bee belongs to a group of bees known from the old world," he said. "There's no native bee like it."
    The matter of just how the species arrived in the first place is still a mystery to those studying it.
    "Nobody knows just how," Michener said.  'We just don't know how it spreads."
    Hinojosa-Diaz said it has been challenging to study the progression of the giant resin bee, because so few sightings are reported or thoroughly documented.  He did say, however, that with a new ecosystem to deal with, the bee would have to adjust its habits.
    "Since it's not its natural environment, the same things aren't affecting it," he said.
    Both Hinojosa-Diaz and Michener said they were skeptical the bees progression had anything to do with global warming, and that it was typical for insects to spread until what they deemed "equilibrium."  However, they were both uncertain whether or not the bee would reach its new projected areas.
    "There are other suitable habitats for it on the pacific coast," Michener said.  "Whether or not it'll get there, I don't know."

     One famous pinup character is about to mount a comeback in order to help American troops.  Betty Boop, the iconic cartoon character who thrived during the 1930's, will return in November to be a part of the Kansas Lottery's Veterans Benefit scratch ticket series.
    The series, launched in 2003, supports veterans programs by directly contributing all profits from the production and sale of the tickets to different causes.  The tickets have raised nearly $4 million since the start of their run.  However, due to Kansas's gaming law, that was not entirely easy.  As Sally Lunsford, a Kansas Lottery spokesperson, pointed out, it took a significant effort to change the policy.
    "The (state) legislature had to approve these games," she said.
    The funds raised from the sale of the tickets go to various resources providing veterans with medical aid, living accommodations, and even proper burial arrangements.  However, the program that receives the bulk of funds are the Kansas National Guard Educational Assistance Act scholarships.  Lunsford said the scholarships were designed to aid returning veterans of current foreign conflict theatres to college classrooms.
    Though he served in the Navy and not the National Guard, Douglas County veterans service representative Matthew Fowler benefited from the same type of program when he returned to the University of Kansas after his term of service.
    "I got a good, solid education," Fowler said.
    As a service representative for the Kansas Commission on Veterans' Affairs, it is Fowler's job to travel around Douglas County to be an advocate for veterans, to ensure that they take full advantage of any and all opportunities that are available to them.  But, as a catchall service member, Fowler said he does interact with a diverse group of veterans.
    "It can range from anything from a Vietnam veteran to a recently retired veteran who has recently returned," he said.
    To Fowler, the job is entirely about making other people's lives easier.
    "Unless you're doing something like that," he said, "you're not worth much."
    He did admit, however, that no matter where people stand on issues of veterans' affairs, there are going to be those who disagree on matters of funding.
"Obviously," he said,  "someone's going to think it's too much and someone's going to think it's too little."
    But more help is on the way.  The Betty Boop tickets, along with a new ticket portraying the mascots of all the branches of the U.S. armed forces, are in production to be released in November and next spring, respectively.  These designs then join the ranks of Veterans Celebration, Veterans Bucks, and Veterans Cash already in circulation among some 1,800 retailers.
    As Ed Van Patten, Kansas Lottery Executive Director, said in a release, he is just glad they can do their part
    "The Lottery is proud that the revenue generated from the sale of these tickets stays right here in Kansas to benefit our Kansas Veterans," he said. "We are grateful for our players' positive response to Veterans Benefit tickets in the past, and we ask for their support in the future."

Psychology professor Mark Landau notices metaphors all the time. Whether he's talking with a friend, reading a newspaper or listening to a politician, the metaphors are everywhere, he said.

Barack Obama wants to take the country in a new direction. He says there are brighter days ahead.

"The country's not actually relocating. Days won't literally be brighter," Landau said. "The way we make sense of politics, science, art--they all share the same basic toolbox of concrete metaphors."

People use metaphors to talk about abstract ideas or emotions. For example, "I'm feeling down" or "I'm cheering up." But Landau knows it's more than a manner of speaking. He has completed a series of studies that tested the effect that metaphors have on people's understanding of their lives.

"The way metaphors are structured in language tells us a great deal about the underlying structure of thought," Landau said.

In one experiment, he examined a common metaphor of verticality. Up is generally viewed as good and down as bad. Specifically, he looked at the metaphor progress is up, as reflected in expressions such as "moving up in the world."

Previous studies found that if a word or face is positioned higher on a screen, people more readily attribute positive qualities to it than a word or face positioned lower. Landau decided to take the idea further than previous experiments had. He tested whether this metaphor affects people's satisfaction with a major life decision.

He looked at a decision that all the participants in the experiment would have in common: The decision to attend KU.

A group of about 80 freshmen, who earned course credit for participating, completed a questionnaire. They considered six factors that influenced their decision to come to KU. The instructions asked half the participants to write the earliest factor in their decision on the bottom line and work their way up to the most recent factor on the top line. The other participants listed decision factors in the opposite direction, starting with the earliest factor on the top line and listing downward.

Eric Nevels, Landau's research assistant, monitored the study.

"At first I wasn't really sure what would happen," Nevels said. "But after a while, as more and more people did it, I thought it would work out the way he thought it would."

Landau predicted that the students who listed factors from bottom to top would express greater satisfaction with their decision to come to KU than the students who wrote from top to bottom. After writing their lists, students rated on a scale from one to seven how much they agreed with the statements: "I was destined to come to KU; I never had a doubt that KU was the ideal school for me; Being at KU gives me a strong feeling of purpose in life."

The results supported Landau's prediction: students who ordered decision factors in an upward direction rated themselves as significantly more satisfied with their decision to come to KU than those who ordered decision factors in a downward direction.

When designing the experiment, Landau tried to answer questions that critics might raise. He wanted evidence that the experiment supported his hypothesis for the reasons he thought it did.

He included additional questions to test if he'd simply affected the general mood of respondents. Nevels asked students after the experiment about any suspicions they had. Neither factor interfered with the test results, but as with any science experiment, influences are infinite.

"No one study can account for all possible explanations," Landau said.

He said his findings could interest KU recruiters. While he hopes someone explores that possibility, his work aims primarily at shedding light on how people make sense of their world.

"It's one drop in the total psychological bucket," he said.

Landau's interest in metaphor began in 2005 when he read the book, "Metaphors We Live By." In the book, linguists Lakoff and Johnson make a case for metaphor's role in everyday thought, which is what Landau designed his experiments to test.

Honors English Professor Mary Klayder teaches the book in her "Ways of Seeing" class. She too sees metaphor as more than a language tool.

"I think sometimes we use it consciously to explain something unfamiliar by comparing it to something familiar," she said. "But I talk about the way we set our lives on metaphoric structure. If we see college as a game we're going to win, we have a different mindset than if we see it as a journey."

Similarly, Landau said that attitudes toward complex social issues are often grounded in metaphor. He considers that one person might understand the U.S. drug problem as a war, while another thinks it's a chess game. They will approach the problem differently because the metaphors will guide them in different directions. He would like to explore this idea with future experiments

"It would mean understanding the basic building blocks of people's attitudes," Landau said.

He is expecting to hear in the next few weeks if his first series of experiments on metaphor has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.