Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland)

University of Kansas researchers want to eliminate the painful sensations in the arms and legs of lifelong diabetes patients. A better understanding of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, the complication that causes such sensations, is the first step toward elimination. Researchers in KU's department of pharmacology and toxicology are taking that step.

Rick T. Dobrowsky, who has a doctorate in philosophy from North Carolina State University, is a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at KU. He researches neuropathy every weekday on the fifth floor of Malott Hall, where the department of pharmacology and toxicology is located. He began the project in the fall of 2000, when he first received funding from the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health. Dobrowsky would not reveal the amount of money needed but said that he must go through the funding application process each year to continue the research. He says his desire to better understand neuropathy has kept the project going.

“My expertise, nerve function, goes right along with my research,” Dobrowsky said. “I have a long standing interest not just in neurons, but in diabetes, as well. I want to learn all that I can about neuropathy.”

According to the ADA, about 20 million people in the U.S., almost 8 percent of the nation’s population, have diabetes. Nearly one-third of this number is unaware that they have the disease. The ADA says that the majority of Americans with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, where the patients have an insulin deficiency that blocks glucose from entering and fueling cells in their body. Dobrowsky says that almost half of all Americans with diabetes develop diabetic neuropathy and that it is more common in those who have had the disease for a number of years. Peripheral neuropathy, the focus of Dobrowsky’s research, is one of two major types of nerve damage that those with prolonged diabetes experience. Because the peripheral nerves start from the spinal cord and run through the arms and legs, one with neuropathy feels a painful burning in the fingers and toes.

Francisco Vasquez, a graduate student with a bachelor’s degree in biology from California State Polytechnic University, came to KU in 2005 to work with Dobrowsky on the neuropathy research. Right now, Vasquez is focusing his research on Schwann cell degeneration, a neutrophic effect in peripheral neuropathy. Vasquez says that he thinks the research could be very beneficial.

“People with diabetes eventually get that ‘funny bone’ feeling in their arms and legs,” Vasquez said. “But, the feeling is not so funny. It’s very painful, one of the more painful things that patients have to experience. Our research has not found any cures, but we’re definitely moving in that direction.”

Dobrowsky says that though he is passionate about the project, he also knows that discovering a cure for neuropathy is not going to happen right away, if at all.

“There are numerous metabolic causes for neuropathy that cannot be linked to just one protein or one gene like other complications,” Dobrowsky said. “We are trying to identify certain biochemicals involved with neuropathy, but because of all the nerves and cells related to the disease, focusing our research is nearly impossible.”

Before any medicine can be used, it must get approval from the Food and Drug Administration. A proposed medicine goes through a series of clinical trials that prove the drug’s effectiveness in treating the disease, not just its symptoms. Vasquez says that numerous drugs related to neuropathy are going through clinical trials but that none have been approved yet.

Cui-Juan Yu, who has a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from The Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China, is the third member of Dobrowsky’s research team. She came to KU in November 2003 and works as a research associate in the department of pharmacology and toxicology. After attending two different universities in China, from 1991 to summer of 2003, Yu said she enjoys the current project with Dobrowsky.

“I think that Dr. Dobrowsky is obviously very intelligent,” Yu said. “More than that, though, is his passion. He really wants to better understand neuropathy so that those who have to suffer from it can be better treated. His passion inspires me in my work, as I’m sure it does for Francisco.”

Dobrowsky says that maintaining the funding each year is the biggest challenge. He says that when he originally applied for funds, the process of appeals and changes made to the application by the ADA and NIH was supposed to last only six months. He says it took an entire year, instead. Dobrowsky says that his work is not complete.

“Our goal is to better understand a serious disease and what it will take to fight it,” Dobrowsky said. “We are going to go on with this research for as long as we can win funding.”

At more than 200 feet in the air, it’s hard not to feel more alive.

Twenty-year-old Alex Schultz feels the butterflies creeping into his stomach when he looks down and sees specks for people, and slightly bigger dots for cars. Alex can’t stop, doesn’t want to stop, climbing toward the top of a radio tower in Manhattan, Kan. Excitement, not worry, pushes Alex higher when he notices an American Airlines plane ascending into the sky just miles to his left, seemingly flying at the same height. Only a few days into his job at Hayden Towers, a radio tower construction and maintenance company, the University of Kansas sophomore cannot help but wonder, just for a split second, how on top of the world the plane’s pilot must feel.

How much he wanted to be there

Alex Schultz was only 4 when he saw his first Blue Angels air show. He remembers watching the famous group of Navy fighter planes blasting in the sky, tumbling and spinning, entertaining the crowd with dangerous mid-air maneuvers near his home in Dallas.

“By the end of the show, I had made up my mind,” Alex said. “I was not just going to be a pilot. I was going to be a Blue Angel.”

And, until last semester, this high-flying dream was his life’s motivation.

Growing up, he lined his walls with drawings, photographs and posters of Navy fighter planes. The military, particularly the Navy, became Alex’s identity, what made him happy. After seven years in Dallas and eight more in Monroe, Mich., his parents moved with him and his younger sister, Cassie, to Topeka. Alex was 16. His family worked their lives around his dream. They moved into the Shawnee Heights High School district, after weeks of searching by his dad, the only area high school that offered Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp, or ROTC. By the time Alex graduated, he was his school’s cadet executive officer, the second-highest rank in the program. College was the next step toward becoming a Navy pilot.

Then his dream started to tumble.

Alex applied to the Naval Academy in the fall of his senior year and to the University of Kansas. He remembers ripping the letter from the Naval Academy open when it arrived: He was wait-listed.

“I got a couple of letters for several months after I applied,” Alex said. “Most of them were just trying to keep my interest. After really believing I would be in the Naval Academy, all such hopes got shot down.”

In June after his senior year, he found out he had not been accepted. He was angry. But he still had another option. The University of Kansas offered Alex a Navy ROTC scholarship.

Alex said his first semester, in the fall of 2005, went well. His grade point average hit 3.5. His pilot dreams remained intact. Then his parents’ relationship deteriorated during his second semester of last year. His grades did, too. He withdrew.

Steven Griswold, Forsyth, Ill., sophomore at KU, and Alex’s best friend, noticed an increasing lack of motivation in Alex.

“He was always really talkative, from the first day I met him,” Griswold said. “I definitely noticed when he started keeping to himself and not leaving his door open like he always used to.”

The military teaches duty, honor and respect. Alex wanted emotional support.

“I lost interest in my classes, but the biggest problem was the lack of support,” Alex said. “I didn’t want to talk to my parents, and I felt like everyone was dragging me down. The Navy ROTC program paid for my education, so they’re supposed to care about how you’re doing, but they just don’t.”

Alex’s grades plummeted to below a 2.0. He had to attend a meeting with the program’s board of review. He got a second chance, but being a pilot became the last thing on his mind. For the first time in his life, Alex pondered whether the Navy was for him or not.

“I thought a lot about the lack of support, the lack of care that everyone with similar dreams showed,” Alex said. “I thought, if I’m dealing with all this now, how much worse is it going to be in the actual Navy?”

“He just never seemed happy for a period of three to four months,” said Will McCullough, another college friend. “He seemed more excited the day he told me he was out of ROTC than he had the entire semester.”

Alex dropped out of KU in the fall of 2006. He owes the University’s Navy ROTC more than $10,000 worth of student loans.

Alex feels the wind around him pick up as he nears the radio tower’s top. By this time, snow falls from clouds that appear touchable.

“Right now, I am just trying to work and pay off my loans,” Alex said. “I don’t know for sure when I’ll come back to KU, or if I will. It’s funny, though, because with my job now, I love being high in the sky.”

Lawrence has moved one step closer to getting its first Church’s Chicken.

Earlier this month, the Board of Zoning Appeals granted a request from Lahu, L.L.C., the company that owns the land, to reduce the parking lot setback of the 1400 W. Sixth St. property. Up to that point, Zarif Haque, the land’s owner, and his agent, Terrence Campbell, had faced opposition to their site plan for the new restaurant. The initial plan failed to meet city-zoning ordinances, and their variance request had to meet five conditions of Lawrence’s land developmental code.

But, with the request granted, Haque solved a problem that had been holding the plan back since they submitted it the last week of February.

“When we proposed the original plan, the city gave us a long list of requirements,” Campbell said. “We could not meet these requirements without first dealing with the 15-foot parking setback. Our variance dealt with the setback, and now that they have approved it, we can move on to smaller issues.”

Paul Patterson, one of the two planners working on the project, represented the city at the March meeting. He explained to the five board members the conditions that the variance needed to meet. After the meeting, Patterson realized the importance of the board’s approval.

“Having their request granted allows Mr. Haque and his company to do something different and more aesthetic with the setback,” Patterson said. “It gives them more space, which is ultimately the biggest issue with their plan.”

Though the variance brought Haque closer to a workable site plan, it did not guarantee a building permit. Through the Metropolitan Planning Office, Lawrence requires all site plan applicants to follow a strict process before any construction can take place. Four weeks after Haque’s Jan. 24 pre-application meeting with Mary Miller, the other city planner for the project, he submitted his plan. Miller saw problems with the plan already.

“They have a sort of pork chop setup for the drive-through, where the customers’ cars exit towards oncoming cars at the Sixth Street entrance,” Miller said. “Even the police said they were worried about potential traffic and safety issues.”

Patterson and Miller sent the site plan to 15 city departments; these agencies are reviewing the plan and have 21 days to respond either with their approval or with more changes Haque must make to the plan. Campbell would not discuss the specific remaining problems with the plan, but he said most of the issues arise from having to deal with surrounding businesses and residences.

One of these residences lies just north of the property, adjacent to the parking setback. Joe Barnes and his wife have lived in the house for more than 30 years. Though the couple is not opposed to the restaurant’s construction, Mr. Barnes doesn’t know how the plan has even made it this far.

“When I found out they were trying to make the property into a restaurant, my first reaction was shock,” Barnes said. “With all the traffic that comes around here, I thought there’d be no chance the city would consider building another restaurant in the area.”

Even though the plan’s review period concludes March 19, Haque realizes he then must revise the plan so that it features all changes the departments require for its approval. Haque hopes to obtain a building permit by this summer so that construction can begin by August or September.

Campbell said that he knows reaching an agreement with the city can be a tedious process, but he thinks that the plan already got through the hardest part.

“It’s all still a work in progress, going back and forth between the city and us,” he said. “But, getting the variance was a big deal, so we don’t have much doubt that our plan will eventually go through. By this fall, there should be a Church’s Chicken in Lawrence.”

Women at KU who feel their voices are never heard may finally find listeners on Saturday, Feb. 3, at the 2007 women’s leadership conference “Redefining the Voice in Every Woman.”

The conference lasts from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and will be in the Kansas Room, on the 6th floor of the Kansas Union. The Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center, the group in charge of the event, decided to make this year’s presentation free. Kathy Rose-Mockry, director of the center, said that she hopes more women will attend because of this decision.

“The women’s conference is always a huge success and often a life-changing experience for those that come,” Rose-Mockry said. “Many students in years past have missed out simply because they could not afford it, so we eliminated that barrier this year.”

Called V.I.E.W. for short, the conference will feature keynote speaker Marlesa Roney, vice provost for Student Success. The center puts on the event at KU every year to promote independence and self-perception in college women.

“The ETWRC is here at KU to raise awareness, get women informed and, most importantly, to get women empowered,” Rose-Mockry said. “The V.I.E.W. conference is probably our most successful program in accomplishing these things and more.”

Though the center runs the conference, KU students plan the majority of its setup. Rose-Mockry has attended the event every year since her arrival here in 1997 and says it always reflects what the students want. Rachel Burchfield, Overland Park, Kan., sophomore, voluntarily works at the center and looks forward to attending an event she helped plan.

“I didn’t know what the ETWRC or conference was all about last year, so I didn’t go,” Burchfield said. “This year, now that I’ve actually played a role in its development, I’m way excited for the conference and what it will offer to us KU ladies.”

Despite no cost and a student-friendly environment, V.I.E.W. is not for everyone. Abbey Faris, Fort Collins, Co., junior, attended last year’s conference and came away disappointed.

“I agreed with most of the ideas mentioned and sympathized with the issues addressed,” Faris said. “But, I think too much of it was boring lecture, not encouragement and helpful advice like I expected. I felt like I was just in another class, only with a lot more girls.”

Rose-Mockry says that this year’s conference will provide more interaction time, where attendees break up into small groups and hear what fellow students have to say. She feels that V.I.E.W. will have a lasting impact on those who attend.

“Women at all levels of college will, without a doubt, hear encouragement they’ll remember for a long time and meet people who can expand their horizons as a woman and student,” Rose-Mockry said. “February 3 is the biggest date marked on my calendar this year.”

As the plane landed at the Buenos Aires airport, the runway lights’ blinking couldn’t match Rachel Bock’s fastened heartbeat.

She wondered where the high-rise buildings were and why she couldn’t see a McDonalds or Starbucks nearby. The plane’s tunnel led her into a blur of people speaking only Spanish. Rachel followed the baggage claim signs with difficulty, barely remembering the language she learned the last five years. Spanish isn’t so easy when there’s no teacher to translate or classmate to for help.

English, good grades and small-town Kansas roots would be no help to Rachel in Argentina. Even as her heart raced and she realized this foreign land would be home for months, Rachel felt more excitement than fear. Other cultures had always interested her, and though she was alone this time, Rachel went to Brazil a year before. She was afraid but definitely ready.

A senior this year at KU, Rachel grew up in Wyandotte, a small county outside Kansas City, Kan. She came to KU already exposed to diversity, though. Her high school class at Sumner Academy wasn’t more than 150 students, but Rachel says she probably knew at least one classmate from almost that many countries.

“Growing up near Kansas City, most people think going to a foreign country at the age I am would be incredibly scary,” Bock said. “But I didn’t grow up in the typical Kansas town, either. I went to a high school with kids of just about every race or ethnicity you can think of.”

Rachel began taking Spanish classes in eighth grade, but her contact with other cultures didn’t stop there. She resisted the white, middle-class society that dominates much of Kansas City and embraced everyone she met. Rachel developed friendships that can only work through acceptance, not judgment. One of Rachel’s classmates at Sumner and now KU, senior Julie Vinh, became instant friends with Rachel.

“Rachel is definitely accepting of everyone,” Vinh said. “I think that’s what set her apart from others. I am Vietnamese and have never been ashamed of that, and unlike most kids, Rachel was never ashamed of it, either. She likes people for who they are, not what they are.”

With early cultural exposure and ongoing Spanish education, it didn’t take long for Rachel to start thinking about the world outside of Kansas.

“I always thought about going abroad in high school,” she said. “After my Spanish class went to Spain, after graduation, for three weeks, I knew I wanted to go to other places. I became really interested in gaining different cultural perspectives.”

In the summer of 2005, Rachel studied Portuguese for three months in Vitoria, Brazil. She recently returned from a five-month stay in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Julie wishes Rachel would try to stay closer to home more often.

“She travels a lot so that can cut into our closeness as friends,” Vinh said. “But, I’m happy for her. She’s experiencing things that most people never get to experience.”

Just like she was ready to get off that plane in Buenos Aires, Rachel feels she’s ready for just about anything by this point.

“I feel like I could move to any city around the world and be just fine,” she said. “Other cultures no longer intimidate me. They fascinate me.”

The smell of bacon and hot biscuits rises from the kitchen at First United Methodist Church, and as the clock hits 7 a.m., the students are ready. One of them opens the adjoining room’s doors, and a stream of people noisily enters. The men and women of all ages and appearances who pile into the room represent Lawrence’s homeless community. The students send smiles to the faces of those now in line when they reveal a feast of eggs, pancakes, hash browns and just about every kind of breakfast food imaginable. The volunteers had been preparing the meal since 6 this morning, and as they take enthusiastic orders from their homeless customers, they forget about any exhaustion or sleepy bugs that may have set in. The customers talk with their student servers in between bites and fill the room with feelings of satisfaction. Jubilee Café is a success once again, but there’s a bittersweet smile on the face of Clark Keffer, who stands alone in the kitchen. The program’s director doesn’t know how many more mornings the café will last. They just aren’t getting the money that they used to.

“Any program like Jubilee Café, that is, one that’s fairly small and runs through volunteers, has a hard time maintaining funds,” Keffer said. “We do apply and get a grant or two each year, but the number of homeless people is consistently increasing. Therefore, our need for money keeps going up, too.”

Keffer said that the program receives about $3,500 in grants each year but that it costs almost $300 per week to run the café. He said that these grants simply weren’t enough.

Jubilee Café didn’t always have to rely on just grants for funding. In 1994, the Episcopal-Lutheran Campus Center at the University of Kansas founded the program. The Center and the Canterbury House, both religious ministries that are located on the KU campus, paid for Jubilee as its most important outreach service. Interns who worked in the ministries donated money to the program, and Father Joe, the priest who initiated Jubilee, paid whatever amount of money out of his salary that was necessary to keep it running. About a year and a half ago, though, Jubilee lost all these funds.

Father Joe, the head priest at the Canterbury House, left KU to start his own church in Tennessee, and the priest who took his place as the House’s director decided to drop Jubilee from the ministry’s budget. The Center for Community Outreach, located in the Kansas Union, has since run the program. But, students direct the Center through donations, and there is no continuous income for Jubilee like there used to be.

Keffer, who started as a volunteer when the café first opened, began directing the program when these changes took place. He said that it had been a huge struggle for the last year and a half to get enough money.

“Since Canterbury stopped supporting us, we’ve been fighting and scratching for money,” Keffer said. “There is no nonstop source of income anymore, so we’ve basically been surviving from fundraiser to fundraiser.”

Every Wednesday night, Jubilee Café puts on a fundraising program called “Breakfast for Dinner.” Any Lawrence resident can come and spend $5 for an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, and Jubilee uses this money for the morning sessions every Tuesday and Friday. Keffer said that the Wednesday night program was not bringing in the funds that he hoped it would.

Kim Koelling, Colleyville, Texas, freshman, has volunteered weekly at Jubilee Café since her arrival at KU last semester. She said that she didn’t understand why there was a funding crisis.

“At the ‘Breakfast for Dinner’ deal, anyone can come and spend only $5 for all they can eat,” Koelling said. “That $5 means almost four meals for someone less fortunate on Tuesday and Friday. Homeless people need food and fellowship more than anything, and all Lawrence people have to do is spend a few bucks once a week to give them those things. But, for some reason, not enough people want to do that.”

Recently, Koelling and two other freshmen volunteers at Jubilee Café came up with another fundraising opportunity. Koelling, who played volleyball all four years for her high school in Texas, decided to attract donations through a volleyball tournament. The tournament will be held at 1 p.m. on May 11 at the Clinton Lake volleyball courts. Anyone interested in playing in or watching the tournament must pay $5. The tournament will feature five-person co-ed teams.

Josh Ibarra, Overland Park, Kan., freshman, helped Koelling organize the fundraiser and said that he hoped it would be a huge success.

“Anyone can come out on Stop Day, bring whoever they want and just have some fun for the afternoon,” said Ibarra, a volunteer at Jubilee since the beginning of the semester. “We’re advertising the event on Facebook, and we already have more than 50 confirmed attendants. At $5 per person, that’s about $250 going toward Jubilee Café right there.

Jubilee Café serves breakfast every Tuesday and Friday morning from 7 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. in the Bailey Hall room at First United Methodist Church, located at Tenth and Vermont Streets. Anywhere from 50 to 70 homeless people attend Jubilee Café on a given Tuesday or Friday, and in just this year, the café has served more than 100,000 meals. Keffer said that it costs about $1.30 to prepare each meal.

The Lawrence Housing Practitioners Panel, who conducted a survey of the city’s homeless community in January of 2005, described a homeless person as an individual who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence. According to the survey, as of January 28, 2005, there were 112 homeless people in Lawrence. Lawrence 6 News did another study of the city’s homeless community in November of 2006 and found that the number had increased to about 413 homeless people in Lawrence, as of January of last year. The news program said that homeless count was Lawrence’s highest ever.

Jubilee Café is not the only support service for the homeless in Lawrence. Four days a week, Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen, or LINK, serves lunch at First Christian Church, located across from the Lawrence Community Shelter at 214 W. 10th Street. The Salvation Army Center is another homeless shelter, at Ninth and New Hampshire Streets.

Ronald Tinkham, 41, has been homeless in Lawrence off and on for almost three years, and he said that none of the services compare with Jubilee Café.

“I don’t like the Salvation Army Center at all,” Tinkham said. “I used to stay at the Community Shelter and eat my meals with LINK, but I just recently started going to the Jubilee thing. I wish it was open every morning.”

Along with those services already mentioned, other organizations serve Lawrence’s homeless population, as well. The Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, the Pelathe Community Resource Center and Faith Based Initiatives are three other main support services. Even with so many programs, Keffer said that the city still falls short in how it accommodates its homeless.

“Lawrence tries real hard to treat the homeless people around here,” Keffer said. “But, so far, we haven’t been able to make a unified effort. There are several different entities that help the homeless in Lawrence and Douglas County, but somehow, we aren’t able to join together and work on a common front.”

Loring Henderson, the executive director of the Lawrence Community Shelter, knows Keffer and said that Jubilee Café is an excellent program. However, Henderson said that he doesn’t agree with what Keffer said about Lawrence’s lack of unity.

“Up until a few years ago, the Salvation Army was the only true service for the homeless here,” Henderson said. “But since then, several organizations have arisen and really done a great job in providing emergency and housing services. There’s still a lot of work that can be done, but overall, Lawrence is much more accommodating for the homeless than it ever has been.”

Koelling said that she hopes the volleyball tournament can keep Jubilee Café going because it has become something that she looks forward to every week. She said that she has even brought a little tidbit from KU into her fellowship with the attendants.

“We get to sit at tables with the people and actually serve them and talk to them,” Koelling said. “Recently, I’ve been teaching a few of the regulars how to play Sudoku. A couple of them finish their breakfasts more quickly now, just so they can play Sudoku.”

Jubilee Café means more to the people of Lawrence than just a place for games, however. Keffer said that for the homeless people who come every week, it’s a place for food, fellowship and encouragement.

“As long as we can keep getting the funds and volunteers, the program will go on,” Keffer said. “Lawrence really would be a different place without Jubilee Café.”

It has only been 15 minutes since the students brought out the biscuits and gravy, and those customers who were first in the room are already back in line for seconds. A couple of volunteers are back in the kitchen slicing bread and bacon. This morning, Kim and Josh were in charge of the eggs, and the first batch is already gone. Josh whisks away at the egg yokes and milk as Kim turns the stove back on and greases the pans. Other students yell from outside the kitchen for more eggs, but neither Kim nor Josh gets frustrated.

“Sometimes, it’s hard for me to get up so early and have to cook food for almost two hours,” Ibarra said. “I almost slept in, this morning, actually. But, it’s totally worth it because we’re sacrificing a few hours a week for people that suffer almost every hour of the week. It’s a lot of fun, too. I just hope it will all keep going.”