Environmentalist David Orr will be coming to the University of Kansas to speak on Jan. 31. Orr comes to speak on the topic of environmental sustainability as the possibility of coal plants in Western Kansas becomes more real.
Associate Professor of Architecture, Stacey White said he’s one the leading minds on campus sustainability issues. He’s done more than any single person that she’s aware of on the issue of sustainability, she said.
“Every person says he’s a fantastic speaker,” White said. The topic is something that will affect all of us, and she said she was interested in hearing what he had to say about it.
Brian Sifton joined with some of the students in the K.U. Environs student group and saw Dr. Orr speak at Salina’s Prairie Fest last October. The Environs are an environmentally conscious group on campus. There Orr gave a speech entitled “The Last 30 Years,” outlining the most important concerns that climatologists, economists, business leaders, and politicians face, Sifton said.
“Orr had an uncanny ability to explain connections between the scientific, political, social and economic factors leading to the relative impasse America is at, in its collective response to climate change,” Sifton said.
“For those of us not current on all the climate change literature being produced by scientists, he provides a comprehensible snapshot of where we are in our understanding, what brought us here, and where we are likely going,” Sifton said.
The University and students have already recognized sustainability as an important issue. K.U. recently added an Office of Sustainability to offer undergraduate research opportunities into things the University could change to make to decrease its impact on the environment and human health, Sifton said.
“This issue will affect us greatly,” Junior, Sonia Marcinkowki said. With the prospect of the coal plants to be built in Western Kansas, “people need to educate themselves,” she said.
“I heard about the lecture through the Environs listserv.” Marcinkowski said. She said that it’s an issue that students are interested in because “K.U. students petitioned for a sustainability center on campus and it was passed by the in the fall.”
Orr is a Professor at Oberlin College, where he is the chair of the Environmental Studies program.
Orr was awarded the Lyndhurst Award from the Lyndhurst foundation. An award given to “recognize educational, cultural, and charitable activities of particular individuals of exceptional talent, character, and moral vision,” according to the Oberlin College website. Orr also received a National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation according to the Oberlin College website.
The Graduate Program in Urban Planning, the Environmental Studies Program, Student Senate and the Environmental Stewardship Program are all sponsoring the event.
It’s 10:30 a.m., and Alex Barr is just waking up for the school day; in his classroom. He shares the same morning routine as traditional high school students, but his day is completely different from other high school students.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. he does most, if not all of his schoolwork. His teachers post his assignments online, using programs like Apex and Blackboard. The websites have all of the necessary information for his schooling. The sites have his grades, drop boxes to drop off assignments, and calendars to show the due dates of all his assignments.
At about 1 p.m., when traditional students are finishing lunch and preparing to go to their last couple classes of the day, Barr is often done with his work. From now up until about 10 p.m., he does what he wants. He sometimes does more of his work right before he goes to sleep. That is his average school day.
“You don’t need very much time to do school work,” Barr said. He said that time at a traditional school gets inflated due to a lecture and busy work. He enjoys the “laid back” style of getting his work done whenever he wants.
The students primarily interact with their teachers by e-mail, but students are their parents are supposed to participate in a phone conference with a teacher once a month.
His bedroom became his classroom with the addition of laptop computer supplied by the Lawrence School District.
Barr said he enjoys the “flexibility” as well as not wasting his time at school all day. He added that he does learn a lot. He said when he does his assigned reading, he sometimes goes online to research it further.
A couple days after his mother sent in the application, Barr heard back that he’d been accepted into the program. He then went and spoke with a counselor at the school and chose what classes he would take. On the first day of school for the Lawrence School District, Barr went to a 5-hour orientation session. At this meeting, all the virtual school’s students were taught how to use the online programs, told how the classes would work, and sent home with their laptop computer.
Teri Barr, Alex’s mother, thinks that the program is only fitted for certain students. “I think it’s a good program for Alex,” she said. “Since he’s a senior, we agreed to do it,” she said. “If he was any younger we wouldn’t have agreed to it because socializing is important.”
“He’s pretty independent and disciplined,” she said. He seems to be learning the same things, and he often talks about his Spanish class being 'intense,'” she said.
Barr’s government and economics teacher is Kim Hett, and she teaches about 70 students in the program Alex is in.
She admits the learning is different without discussions. Listening to peer’s opinions is an aspect of learning that the program is without, she said.
“We’re trying to close that gap,” Hett said. Teachers encourage online discussions between students.
Barr has a homeroom teacher, Rachel Long, who he talks with once a month with his mother. She said that social interaction was more limited, but that interaction is still present in extracurricular activities outside of school.
Long’s opinion of the student’s social interaction is shared with Virtual School Assistant Principal, Jana Lloyd. She said that the students have incredible freedom with their learning and that they still are social.
“I think there is a give and take,” Lloyd said.
Barr’s counselor at Lawrence Free State High School, his old high school, told him about Lawrence Virtual School between his sophomore and junior years of high school. He didn’t end up applying until this last summer before his senior year.
Barr’s diploma will say Lawrence Free State High School on it, and his report cards already do.
Alex Barr – student – (785)-424-3172
Teri Barr – Alex’s mother – (785)-841-1234
Kim Hett – Barr’s government and economics teacher – khett@usd497.org
Rachael Long – Barr’s math and homeroom teacher – rlong@usd497.org
Jana Lloyd – Lawrence Virtual School Assistant Principal - jlloyd@usd497.org
Restaurants see problems and blessings with locations
An ornate metal divider separates a working college student from the empty dining room where she is supposed to be waiting tables. There is simply no work to do. All that was left was to serve the people that weren’t coming. It was just another slow Wednesday.
Junior, Ramsi Lindgren spent her day at work cleaning a little and standing around. She had two tables between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and went home that night with only $6 more than she came there with.
“There wasn’t anything for me to do at the restaurant, so I just read the newspaper,” Lindgren said.
Lindgren works at Stone Creek at 3801 W. Sixth. The restaurant has seen great business on the weekends, but it has sometimes been poor on weekdays. This is a problem that some businesses away from Massachusetts Street have to deal with. Restaurant managers say there are advantages and disadvantages to both locations. Namely, restaurants downtown have substantially more pedestrian traffic and neighboring shops around their location. But they don’t have ample parking like other restaurants situated elsewhere.
David Clemente, the owner of Stone Creek, also recognized the problem. There is nothing around the restaurant for people to shop at, he said. That problem adds to business being poor during the week, Clemente said.
According to lawrence.com there are 232 restaurants in Lawrence. Of the 232 restaurants, 60 (about one fourth) are located downtown.
Fee Monshizadeh, Manager of Marisco’s at 6th and Wakarusa, said that the average person’s busy schedule is to blame for weekdays being less busy.
“Weekends are a strong for any restaurant,” Monshizadeh said. People don’t usually go out during the week because when they get home from work it’s too late to go out to eat, he said. Business has also been very consistent, he said.
Junior Daniel Ohlemeier had his own assessment of an average weekday night. Ohlemeier used to work at Marisco’s and said that the restaurant was much slower on weekdays.
“We’re pretty slow on many weekdays,” Ohlemeier said. The reason for this was that people aren’t looking to just grab something to eat at a finer dining place, he said. He said that he believed sports bars, with more casual patron might be less affected by fewer customers during the week.
Doug Holiday, the manager of Zig and Mac’s on Wakarusa and Bob Billings Parkway, said that his restaurant wasn’t going through the same business fluctuations as the other restaurants. He also didn’t say that a location downtown, with the constant traffic, would be better or worse than his.
“There are advantages and disadvantages to both locations,” Holiday said. One advantage to his restaurant that wasn’t available downtown was the ample parking.
To be expected, more restaurants are on Massachusetts Street than any other street in Lawrence.
Free State Brewery Manager, Debbie Fey, also said that the availability of parking for restaurants farther away from downtown is something to be desired.
“Good restaurants outside of downtown have the advantage of parking,” Fey said. Patrons from outside of Lawrence often come into Free State Brewery angry about the parking situation downtown, Fey said. With all the foot traffic around downtown, business is more consistent, Fey said.
That following weekend, Lindgren went back to work. Friday she took a bigger party that was more secluded in the bottom floor of the restaurant. On Saturday, she was busy.
“I always had something to do but I wasn’t always rushed.” Lindgren said.
It was good she made the money that she did those nights because her future earnings are unpredictable until next weekend.
International students use futbol to adapt to life at KU
A dramatically under-maintained field remains hidden off a winding road near Clinton Lake dam. This simple field is without substantial portions of grass in sections and flags to designate the corners. The field means more than its maintenance would indicate. It is one of the comforts of home, even if home is a thousand miles away for a handful of University of Kansas international students.
The Lawrence Adult Soccer League has 18 teams, but one of the teams is very different from the rest. The team named Real Latino is full of international students trying to make Lawrence seem more like home. The name comes directly for the popular European club, Real Madrid, a favorite of some of the players.
Real Latino was started a couple seasons ago as a way for some of the students to play together. Today the team has eight international students ranging from freshmen to graduate students. There are members from Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela Peru, and Columbia on the team.
“It’s definitely exciting to bring part of our culture here to the states,” junior, Oswaldo Bravo said. Bravo joined the team last summer and said that the games were something he looks forward to after class. He also described a sense of community among all the Hispanic students.
To feel more at home, Bravo focuses on his degree on Civil and Environmental Engineering and how he could use that back in his hometown of Lima, Peru. Other students share Bravo’s feelings on the importance of playing.
“Playing of the weekends helps me refocus,” sophomore, Gonzalo Valdez said. Being 1,000 miles from hometown of Lima, Peru, it helps to do something that he loves, he said. Valdez doesn’t only play soccer to feel more at home. He said that going out with people, international students or not always helps. He also likes to cook food from home with other international students.
“As far as I know, it (the team) helps the younger students, “ Valdez said.
One of the newest additions to the squad is Carlos Hernandez, a freshman from the island of Margarita off Venezuela. He said he’s met a lot of new people through the team, which he has only played on for a few months. All the Latin people know about the team he said. Speaking Spanish helps the team communicate better, Hernandez said.
“I haven’t been homesick yet,” Hernandez said, but he did admit there were a couple things from back home that he does miss. That list of things he misses is topped by the beach and dance clubs that don’t close until 4 in the morning.
Playing on the weekends does give him the chance to relax. “You play sports and free your mind afterward,” Hernandez said.
As of this spring there are 1,613 international students. There are more than 150 students at K.U. from China, India, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia. Associate Director of International Student and Scholar Services, Daphne Johnston, said students are more often from these countries than the South American countries.
“South America is not as heavily represented here,” Johnston said.
Junior Carlos Perez Beltran is one of those South Americans that are not so well represented here. He came the K.U. in the Spring of 2005 from Caracas, Venezuela.
“I came from a five-million-person city to a 80,000-person town.” The biggest difference that he had to deal with living in Kansas was the “slower pace of life.”
Coping with the fact that you don’t have your family there with you was another thing that made adapting necessary. He also said that living in the scholarship halls for the last couple years has helped. There are 50 people living there that you can hang out with, he said.
The International Student Ambassador Program is another group that helped Perez Beltran out when he got to K.U. They are group of international students who talk to you about home and took you around town to help you become adapted, he said. You get to meet other international students that have the same concerns as you, he said.
The majority of international students (60%) are graduates. To get into K.U. as a graduate the student has to meet the admission requirements that vary from department to department. For undergraduate international students to get into K.U., the students need to have completed high school and also finished some sort of college prep. work. The application process has its differences as well for international students. The students aren’t always required to supply ACT or SAT scores. International students also need to apply through the International and Scholar Services rather than the K.U. admissions office. Finally, potential international students need to provide proof of their financial resources to pay for the first year of school in order to get a visa.
The office of International Student and Scholar Services is also responsible for helping international students adapt to life and school in Kansas. Students come to K.U. early and attend a special international student orientation. To help students adapt I.S.S.S. provides programs that match international students with a American students or with a host family.
“We do a lot to support their being here,” Johnston said.
The uniqueness of the team, Real Latino, and the bonds among the members of team is something that many of the opposing competitors have come to appreciate.
The all mesh together,” Barrington, Ill., sophomore, Jon Hartner said. “They have more of a team kind of bond to them,” he said. “They play hard and they encourage each other.”
Oswaldo Bravo explained the team’s style of futbol. It as a cooperative system of play that focuses more on sharing the ball than running around, he said. That cooperation is helpful is helpful inmany ways. Even though they’re studying far away from home, for 90 minutes every Sunday where they are at takes a backseat to what they’re doing.
1.) Bogata, Columbia. Hometown of David Robles.
2.) Lima, Peru. Hometown of Gonzalo Valdez and Oswaldo Bravo.
3.) Margarita, Venezuela. Hometown of Carlo Hernandez.
4.) Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico. Hometown of Arturo Paz and Jorge Soberon.
Sources:
Oswaldo Bravo – 550-5728
Carlos Hernandez – 550-3863
Gonzalo Valdez – 550-4286
Daphne Johnston – 864-2616
Jon Hartner – 847-337-1387
Dustin Billings. – 766-5944
Carlos Perez Beltran – 312-4569
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Volek) in the Patrick Griffith category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
