Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Volek)

A semester abroad to many students means a semester full of weekend excursions to exotic locations. However, with the weakness of the American dollar in Europe many students are finding it hard to make ends meet.

Study abroad fees at the University of Kansas include tuition, room and board, orientation, and emergency medical evacuation. Students are responsible for the purchase of airfare, passport and visa fees, books, supplies, and personal expenses. According to the KU Office of Financial Aid, students can apply federal loans to study abroad programs just as they can to KU coursework. Students can also receive scholarships from the Office of Study Abroad.

"I had a scholarship for $600, which helped, but more money would have been nice," said Drew Fowler, Derby, Kan., junior, who spent the fall semester in Norwich, England.

Fowler said that the daily cost of living in Norwich was the most expensive part of his trip rather than the constant traveling. He said that being abroad and dealing with currency conversions was an excellent way to learn money management skills.

"Traveling wasn't the issue. It was studying in England and going out for a beer or two every afternoon. That's their social life. They don't drink coffee, they drink beer," said Fowler.

With the value of the dollar weakening against the pound and the Euro, students are finding it harder to pay for living expenses and travel. Alexandre Skiba, Assistant Professor of Economics at KU says that the fluctuation of the dollar against foreign currency should not affect the everyday lives of students studying abroad.

"The foreign travel industry will definitely be affected by a weaker dollar," said Skiba, "but the U.S. travel industry should benefit from stronger foreign currency. For students abroad it shouldn't really be an issue."

Lawrence has a problem. The problem is not the amount of recycling taking place. It is the lack of participation by residents.

The City of Lawrence does not offer free household recycling pick-up for residents. Residents can only recycle by taking recyclable goods to parking lot drop-off bins located throughout the city.

The Traditional Neighborhood Development code presented by the PlaceMakers at the city commission meeting on Feb. 6, 2007 calls for the addition of new recycling locations as the city expands. Today, only 10 locations throughout Lawrence house these parking lot bins.

Michelle Crank, waste reduction and recycling specialist for the City of Lawrence, said the city has made no final decisions about the expansion of the recycling program.

“We’re looking into increasing the areas and drop-off locations for recycling,” she said. “We want to make recycling more convenient for residents.”

Of the 10 parking lot locations in Lawrence, only one serves north Lawrence. Multiple locations along 6th and 23rd Streets serve the majority of Lawrence residents. There are no drop-offs located west of Wakarusa Drive.

An area of concern is the area bordered by 6th Street on the north, Haskell Avenue on the east, 19th Street on the south, and Iowa Street on the west. This area provides one location, the Douglas County Bank on the corner of 9th and Kentucky Streets, for residents to recycle.

For some area residents, adding drop-off locations is not their main concern. Many residents want the city to provide free curbside recycling pickup. Lawrence resident Kate Jayne says she would recycle if the city offered the free service.

“I don’t really recycle because it’s not convenient. Even if there were more locations I don’t think it would matter,” Jayne said.

Residents must also be aware of the materials they recycle. All parking lot drop-off locations accept newspaper, but cardboard can only be taken to five of the 10 locations. Plastics, glass and cans must be taken to recycling centers that are not run by the city.

Crank says city does not accept plastics at its parking lot locations because of the difficulty of packaging and preparing them for shipment. The closest plastics recycling plant is in Kansas City, Mo., making the transportation of materials uneconomical for the city.

“Trying to package plastics for shipping is almost like trying to package air,” Crank said. “It’s not the easiest thing to do.”

Residents wishing to drop off plastic items to be recycled can choose from two locations in Lawrence. Both the Wal-Mart Community Recycling Center and the 12th & Haskell Bargain Center have contracts with outside recycling services to dispose of plastic recyclables.

Rick Shears, the recycling services coordinator at Wal-Mart says that residents brought almost 5 million tons of products to the recycling center in 2005. Shears is not worried about the possibility of new drop-off locations hurting the amount of recycling Wal-Mart sees.

“The only thing that affects our business is the weather,” Shears said. “There’s plenty of recycling to go around. The new locations will get more people recycling.”

The Wal-Mart center receives no funding from the city. Wal-Mart owns the building and the equipment, while Community Living Opportunities, a non-profit organization based in Johnson County, operates the recycling center. Shears says that the center is gradually “building bridges” with the city’s recycling department.

“We are trying to keep a continuous flow of information with the city to keep each other up to date,” Shears said.

Lawrence ranks above the national average in household recycling. In order to continue this trend, residents need to consider their recycling options. While free curbside recycling is not likely, the possibility of more drop-off locations is a reality.

The end of the school year means it’s time to load up the car and head home for summer. There’s just one problem; you can’t fit in your car because you’re leaving with more than you came with. Don’t worry. Renting a storage unit for the summer could solve the problem.

According to the Self Storage Association Web site, the industry grew by 741 percent between 1984 and 2006. The majority of the growth in the self-storage industry in Lawrence occurred in the late 1990s.

The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce reported that employment in warehousing increased from 682 employees in 2001 to 1,203 employees in 2004. Part of this growth comes from the addition of four self-storage businesses between 2000 and 2005.

One reason for the increase in the self-storage industry in Lawrence is the rise in population over the past 20 years. A 25 percent increase in population between 1990 and 2004 led to a high demand for self-storage units.

Emma Frantz, manager of St. James Storage, 2201 Saint James Court, said that many people need to store their belongings while renovating a home or looking for a permanent residence. Frantz said that students are no longer the only source of income for self-storage businesses in Lawrence.

“We used to only be busy from May until August,” Frantz said. “But now, we’re busy in January when people start their home repair projects.”

The added business means that students needing a place to store their belongings should reserve units earlier than before. Frantz suggests students should book a unit before the beginning of May if they want to find space in Lawrence.

Frantz said the majority of students living in the dorms could get by with a five foot by 10 foot unit, but that students living in apartments may need more space. Students living in one-bedroom apartments should be prepared to rent a 10 foot by 10 foot unit or larger depending on the amount of furniture they need to store.

How much space do you need?

The Self Storage Association reports that the industry generated $22.6 billion in revenue last year. This translates to approximately $441,000 in revenue per facility. These figures only include primary storage facilities, which are businesses that offer storage units as their primary source of income. Secondary storage facilities also exist, but offer storage as a supplement to other sources of income.

Facilities in Lawrence tend to do the majority of their business in the summer. Rates during this time are often higher than during the fall and winter months. Nationwide storage chains often have higher rates, but offer valuable incentives to renters. Public Storage, 2223 Haskell Ave., only charges $1 for the first month’s rent if the renter is leasing for more than a month. The company will also find close alternatives for renters if the location does not have the desired size unit available.

The price of storage units varies depending on size. Other factors influencing price include security, whether the unit is air conditioned, and time of year.

2005 annual overhead costs for self-storage facilities

While summer means a decline in the Lawrence economy, one industry will still be thriving. So go ahead students, make sure you leave college with more stuff than you came with. Your extra stuff means big business for this growing industry.

When the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) announced plans to make significant changes to the LSAT, students worried that these changes would drastically alter their scores. After careful planning and research, the LSAC hopes that students will see these changes as beneficial rather than harmful.

Time for a change

The decision to change the reading comprehension section of the LSAT comes after eight years of research by the LSAC. During the mid-1990s, LSAC researchers attended law school classes and noted that students needed the ability to work with multiple texts. In 1998, the LSAC Test Development staff began work with ACT to discuss possible formats for a new test.

Field tests of the new comparative reading questions were administered between 2002 and 2003. The field tests were given as part of a regular LSAT administration, but were ungraded ‘sample sections’. Test-takers were aware of the ‘sample section’ but didn’t know which of the five sections was ungraded.

Major revisions to the LSAT are infrequent, says Wendy Margolis, director of communications for the LSAC. When research shows there is a necessary skill for law school that could be measured better by a test revision then the LSAC will inquire about changing the test, she said.

Being able to understand arguments from multiple texts by applying skills such as comparison, contrast, generalization and synthesis are among the fundamental tasks required in law school, Margolis said.

“The introduction of comparative reading into the reading comprehension section will broaden the LSAT’s assessment of the kinds of reading skills used in law school,” Margolis said.

New vs. Old

The old LSAT asked questions in three different subject areas – reading comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical reasoning – and asked test-takers to submit a writing sample, which wasn’t graded.

The new LSAT features changes to the reading comprehension and writing sections of the test. Only about five percent of the test will be affected by these changes, says Dr. Stephen Harris, director of curriculum development for Educational Testing Consultants, Inc.

Sample questions from the new LSAT

The reading comprehension portion of the test makes up one-quarter of the test – approximately 25 questions, and out of those about six will be changed.

“The changes to the questions themselves are virtually insignificant to test-takers,” Harris said. “Instead of being asked about one passage in the reading section, you’re going to be asked to compare two.”

The total amount of reading on the test will not be significantly shorter or longer, and there are only two different types of questions that have not appeared on previous exams, Harris said. These two types of questions involve analogous reasoning and asking test-takers to describe how the author of one passage would respond to another author’s passage, said Harris, a former writer of LSAT questions.

The LSAC website says that the writing prompt will no longer be randomly assigned as either a decision-based or an argument-based prompt. Instead, all students will be given a decision-based prompt for the writing sample. This portion of the test will remain unscored.

Preparing for the new test

Changes to the curriculum regarding test-preparation will be relatively minor and the change to the reading comprehension section may actually help test-takers, says Dr. Harris. The new design sets a clear division between where one author’s passage and point of view ends and another’s begins. The old test put two conflicting views in one passage, which made distinguishing the two different views difficult.

How much are you going to spend?

“Our curriculum has not undergone any substantive changes,” Harris said when asked about how Educational Testing Consultants, Inc. handled curriculum for the new test.

“We will take our students and guide them through the new stuff, but they will still be using the same skills we taught in previous years.”

Getting accepted

Some test-takers are facing the choice of whether to submit their scores from the old test or to take the new test and submit those scores.

Students should not worry about the difference between the two tests when determining whether to send in scores, says Jacqlene Nance, director of admissions at the University of Kansas School of Law.

Students worried about the new test being scored differently than the old test have nothing to worry about, Nance says. The LSAC uses a score band, which accounts for a certain margin of error for test-takers. The score band also throws out questions if test-takers nationwide have low scores on the same questions.

Schools are also moving away from averaging the scores of people who have taken multiple tests. Many schools will report the highest score for admittance records, but will look at every submitted score by applicants, said Nance.

“There’s nothing different about how the new test is going to be scored. It doesn’t matter if you take the test in June or if you took it five years ago; we’re going to look at all of your scores,” Nance said.

Law schools don’t use the LSAT as the only basis of admission for students. Schools require essays and letters of recommendation in addition to LSAT scores.

The reason that the LSAC can continue to use the same score band is because the test still uses the same test-taking skills that were used on the old test, Nance said. If the test had been completely changed, then the scale for the scores would be different.

What’s the bottom line?

The changes to the LSAT are necessary, according to Wendy Margolis. Without changes to the test, law schools cannot accurately judge the skills needed for admission. While the changes may seem drastic, says Dr. Harris, there really is no difference in the tests.

“Anybody that was prepared to take the test before the changes will be prepared to take the new test,” Harris said.

Sources:
Dr. Stephen Harris, Educational Testing Consultants, Inc., (803) 319-4000
Wendy Margolis, LSAC, wmargolis@lsac.org
Dr. Jacqlene Nance, KU School of Law, jnance@ku.edu
Russell Shaffer, Kaplan Test Prep, (212) 453-7538
Marianne Hovgaard, Kaplan Test Prep, (785)842-5442
Megan Lewis, student, meglew@ku.edu
Tara O’Brien, student, (913) 568-6978
www.lsac.org