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Finding Better Ways to Grow
Nancy Creamer, Center for Environmental Farming SystemsLatinos bring different talents into area
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics
Road
Warrior: Wait has bus riders seeing red
transportation
Money missing its target
agricultural projects
Faculty,
Students Rally to Help Grenada Students After Hurricane Ivan
College of Veterinary Medicine
Sept. 28, 2004
News & Observer
By AMY MARTINEZ
© Copyright 2004
Members of the Golden LEAF board of directors knew little about the 50-worker project from Jones County.
But what they did know didn't look too promising.
Dubbed MS Mega, the project needed $300,000 from Golden LEAF for a 24,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Trenton, a small farming community in southeastern North Carolina, to make military aircraft parts for Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point.
The project's owner was pitching in just 5 percent of the total cost. The Marines had not yet committed to buy the parts. At least half of the new jobs would be part time, and it was unclear whether they would pay well.
Meeting at a hotel near Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Sept. 2, Michael Almond urged other members of the Golden LEAF board to turn down MS Mega. "Our money is all at risk, and basically it's not being matched with skin in the game by the owner of the company," said Almond, who is president of the Charlotte Regional Partnership, an economic development organization.
But Frank Holding, executive vice chairman and director of First Citizens Bank, pointed out that Golden LEAF had given money before to projects that didn't amount to much. Besides, he argued, even if MS Mega failed, Jones County would have a new facility for attracting other projects. "The first occupant of the building might not be successful. Sometimes, it takes two or three," Holding said.
Golden LEAF's 15-member board sided with Holding, voting overwhelmingly to give Jones County the money. MS Mega had one important thing going for it: Jones County is the kind of place Golden LEAF was set up to help.
The case of MS Mega illustrates how difficult it is to attract substantial economic development projects to rural North Carolina, even when money isn't a problem. Golden LEAF, which was formed in 1999 after the state settled health-related claims against cigarette manufacturers, has $405 million in assets. Much of that money is supposed to go to economically distressed communities struggling from tobacco's demise. Golden LEAF can give money only to government agencies and nonprofits, not directly to individuals or businesses.
The organization plans to spend $15 million on economic development between now and June 30. During its annual call for proposals in August, it received 212 requests totaling nearly $98 million. Only about half were from predominantly rural counties in the state.
What's more, few of the proposals involve new or expanding businesses, such as MS Mega. Many would, at best, create jobs indirectly, such as by improving worker training.
Valeria Lee, Golden LEAF's president, concedes: "We'd like to have more projects from throughout North Carolina."
Lee said she and her staff of seven have tried harder this year to increase the number of proposals from rural communities, including holding meetings throughout the state to explain what Golden LEAF looks for in a grant request. But many rural communities do not have a full-time economic developer experienced in grant writing, she said. Also, many communities lack adequate roads, schools and Internet access, making it difficult to attract interest in the first place, she said.
Lee also pointed out that some projects, although originating in a more urban county, have regional or statewide significance. Many of the 32 proposals from Wake County, for instance, involve agricultural projects at N.C. State University. Fifteen proposals came from Pitt County, mainly because of East Carolina University.
Even so, there's no disputing that attracting businesses to rural North Carolina is a challenge. Robeson County Manager Kenneth Windley is still trying to attract a steel-tubing plant, six months after persuading Golden LEAF to give $400,000.
Initially, he had secured only half that amount. But in March, a lawyer for the project's owner threatened to take the plant -- and the 300 jobs that go with it -- somewhere else. "Since several communities have locations at least as attractive to us as Robeson County, our selection of your site was based largely on your incentives and the county's desire to help us succeed," the lawyer wrote Windley. Windley went back to Golden LEAF and got another $200,000, but the project remains on hold. In the meantime, Windley has turned his attention to several other projects that have not yet asked for Golden LEAF money.
In Jones County, MS Mega is being hailed as an economic lifesaver. The county has lost two apparel factories in the past 20 years and depends on a diminishing number of tobacco jobs. Many residents commute to work in surrounding counties.
"We don't have many good jobs here," said Larry Meadows, Jones County's manager. "Now, we send our young people off to college, and we don't see them unless we go to Raleigh to visit."
Meadows declined to identify MS Mega's owner, citing a confidentiality agreement. One of the best things about the project, he said, is that it might spin off other manufacturers.
That's all well and good, says Almond, but he says that Golden LEAF went too far for MS Mega. "Yes, we are all looking for ways to help people in rural North Carolina," he said. "But sometimes we have differences of opinions."
Holding hasn't changed his mind, either. Standing up for MS Mega "was my way of speaking up for a poor county," he said. "If it was located in a big metropolitan area, I probably would not have spoken up as quickly."
LOTS OF IDEAS
Golden LEAF had 212 proposals for grant money in 2005. They fall into the following categories:
TYPE NO. REQUESTED AMOUNT
OF APPLICATIONS
Agriculture 48 $14.87 million
Community
assistance and education* 55 $19.86 million
Economic development 46 $27.08 million
Tourism 42 $7.86 million
Work force preparedness** 21 $28.28 million
*AN EXAMPLE OF A COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE PROJECT IS A PROPOSAL BY THE AMERICAN RED CROSS TO BUY A BUILDING IN GREENVILLE. AN EXAMPLE OF AN EDUCATION PROJECT WOULD BE CATAWBA VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, WHICH WANTS MONEY TO OFFER HIGHER-EDUCATION COURSES.
**WORK FORCE PREPAREDNESS PROJECTS INVOLVE TRAINING FOR SPECIFIC TYPES OF JOBS.
(GOLDEN LEAF)
Sept. 28, 2004
Associated Press; Winston-Salem Journal; Canoe.ca, Canada; CNews
By Jonathan Drew
© Copyright 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Organic farming sounds simple - no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or genetically engineered plants. But succeeding at it can be complicated. "There's so many things that interact naturally that you can't control that you could with chemicals. I think you could spend a whole lifetime learning how," said Dale Dyko, who raises corn, spelt - a type of wheat - and soybeans on about 30 acres in Xenia in western Ohio.
A recent wave of research at universities around the country tries to take some of the guesswork and financial uncertainty out of the practice.
Organic-food sales almost tripled from 1997 through 2003 to $10.4 billion, according to the Organic Trade Association. Organic fruits and vegetables account for most of the sales, but organic meats and snack foods - such as corn chips and rice cakes - are two of the fastest-growing segments.
"Organic agriculture is just a growth culture within all agricultural industries," said Matt Kleinhenz, the lead researcher on a study at Ohio State University.
"Scientifically and practically we don't know enough about it."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it has been increasing its financial support of organic-farming research at universities and other organizations since 2000.
Funding for one program has increased nearly fourfold to about $1.9 million from 2000, said Philip Schwab, a policy adviser with the agency.
However, organic farming makes up only a small part of U.S. agriculture. Certified organic crops were grown on 562,486 acres in 2002, a fraction of the 300 million acres on which all crops were harvested, according to the USDA's census.
Making money at farming has for generations meant using chemicals to kill weeds, fight off insects and disease and otherwise wrench predictable results from soil and plants. Going organic - and abandoning use of nearly all chemicals - unleashes a different set of variables.
"Conventional ag is a little bit more like a recipe. You know what to pour out of the bag," said Nancy Creamer, the director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems at N.C. State University.
Farmers like Ed Snavely, who switched from traditional to organic methods in 1986, say that they have relied on advice from other growers and trial and error to develop techniques.
Snavely monitors temperature and soil moisture and scrapes his fingers through the dirt looking for young weeds just below the surface that look like tiny, white hairs to decide when to attach the tools to his tractor that will rip the weeds from the soil.
He'll typically do so three times before planting his crops, which include corn, buckwheat, soybeans and hay, and four times after planting. Waiting even a day too long can allow the weeds to grow too big to manage easily, he said.
Snavely used to kill weeds on his 100 acres in Knox County by spraying chemicals, which required only one trip through the fields.
"With most of your conventional farmers, it's plant, spray and forget. If you're going to go organic, you can't plant and forget. You've got to be out there walking your fields," he said.
Going organic can also be a financial risk. In subtracting nearly all chemicals, farmers say they also subtract from their profits in the first few years. It takes time to master a new way of farming.
Compounding the problem, a farmer who switches from conventional growing methods has to wait three years to obtain certification from the government, a label that helps ensure higher prices.
Snavely said he would have benefited if more scientific data had been available when he first made the switch.
"I took some big yield reductions because I didn't know what I was doing," he said.
Current studies aim to generate data that can be accessed through the Internet or obtained from university and government employees who consult with farmers.
Cathy Eastman, a vegetable entomologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, leads a study that uses three different crop strategies and three kinds of soil enrichment. Scientists from five different fields are studying plant and soil health and how to control weeds and insects.
Kleinhenz and other researchers at Ohio State are studying how farmers can survive a transition to organic farming from conventional farming. They are examining economics, horticulture, soil biology, plant diseases and other issues.
Among their initial findings: Manure has improved soil fertility faster than expected, and weeds have produced fewer seeds in fallow fields, indicating that the weed population would probably decline more quickly there.
N.C. State's Creamer said that the organic farming studies will also help conventional farmers. A study that she is leading tests how crops grow after the removal of each of three chemicals - a herbicide, a pesticide and chemical fertilizer.
"A lot of conventional farmers have been waiting for the universities to confirm some of the existing anecdotal evidence," she said.
Latinos bring different talents into area
Sept. 28, 2004
Rocky Mount Telegram
By Joe Miller and Tom Murphy
© Copyright 2004
Thirty years ago, Dr. Eduardo Marsigli came to Rocky Mount to achieve the American dream.
In recent years, more and more Hispanics are following his lead as they look for opportunities in the Twin Counties.
Marsigli, who is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and his brother, Dr. Adolfo Marsigli, work as board-certified orthopedic surgeons at Nash Orthopedic Associates.
Eduardo Marsigli said if someone asked him if he would recommend moving to Rocky Mount, he would be honest with them.
"I would tell them that the people here are very friendly," he said. "(But) I would make it clear to them that there are few jobs available here."
He said many Hispanics end up in low-paying jobs, especially as migrant farmers.
The migration of Hispanics to the United States has dramatically increased the supply of lower-skilled workers and depressed their wages, said Dr. Mike Walden, an N.C. State University economist.
"In some senses, domestically skilled workers are less well off," Walden said. "They are competing with more folks that do what they can do. Companies can now draw from a larger pool of workers and have been able to pass savings onto the consumers."
Walden said economists can see the impact of an increased flow of Hispanics into the country.
"You can drive in any county in North Carolina and see the impact," he said. "Virtually every county has significantly more Hispanic restaurants. You can see the cultural impacts in terms of new businesses and the languages spoken, which means it's important for more people to speak Spanish."
Most migrant Hispanics are people who have lower levels of education, lower skill levels and take jobs in construction and the service industry, Walden said.
"They have taken positions that tend to pay at the lower 30 percent of the wage scale," he said. "Still, that is better pay than they can get in their home country. It's a positive for them, although it may look like a negative for U.S. residents."
Walden said Hispanics have higher rates of poverty, and a higher percentage of them would qualify for public assistance.
Edith Serrano works as a Spanish interpreter with the Nash County Department of Social Services. She said she helps Hispanics who don't speak English understand what services the department offers.
"I enjoy helping some of the Hispanics in the sense that a lot of the times, people are not aware of the services that are around," Serrano said. "I feel like I'm sort of between the worker and the client."
Serrano is the daughter of migrant farmers from Mexico and was born in Idaho.
"I can relate to a lot of our clients because of the experience that we lived through," Serrano said.
Serrano said many Hispanics have difficulty finding work because they can't speak English.
"I think a lot of the jobs want somebody that's bilingual," she said. "Being able to speak the language is a barrier to them. I know I had a lady that said she paid somebody $30 just to interpret. I thought that was really outrageous."
Serrano said most immigrants want legal status in the United States.
"(For) a lot of people, their main desire is they want to become legal and be able to travel in and out of the country without being penalized," she said.
Jorge Riso is a waiter at the Las Lomas restaurant on Sunset Avenue. He is originally from Mexico and moved to Rocky Mount about 18 months ago.
Riso said he thinks the U.S. government should issue identification cards to everyone who comes into the United States.
"I think (they should) give identification to everyone because sometimes (when people) go somewhere, they ask for you for I.D., and you don't have one," Riso said.
Riso said issuing identification cards to everyone would make it easier for the government to know how many people are in the country.
"Without that, they can say we have 100 Hispanic persons here in Rocky Mount, but that's the people they know," he said. "It can be more."
Serrano applauds community colleges for offering English as a second language classes free and for area government offices hiring interpreters.
"They're making an effort," she said.
Steve Rogers, Rocky Mount office manager for the N.C. Employment Security Commission, said programs are in place to help Hispanics in the job market and with business ventures.
"There are some companies that have Spanish language orientation sessions in Spanish, especially ones that hire sizable numbers of Hispanics," Rogers said. "There are networking opportunities available from migrant centers, radio stations and the faith community."
Rogers said some Hispanics have been adopted by mainstream churches whose congregations reach out to Hispanics.
"That seems to be one of the more common networking methods," he said.
The N.C. Employment Security Commission verifies immigrants' work status if a claim for unemployment insurance benefits is filed, Rogers said.
"It's an automated process, whereby if a claim is filed by a noncitizen, the claims taker goes to a federal Web site and checks out that documentation," he said. "We do not target Hispanics, because we asked everybody for identification."
There are some Hispanics that have filed claims for unemployment benefits that were found ineligible after investigations, Rogers said.
Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Eddie Baysden said the organization has few Hispanic members.
"We do not have an aggressive membership program in place," Baysden said. "We are trying to reach out to the Hispanic community. We have Hispanics who serve on a commission through Edgecombe Community College that is addressing the needs of the Hispanic community."
The Chamber has been fortunate enough to attract a few local Hispanic businesses, but its main efforts in supporting the Hispanic community have been through the small business development office that Alan Matthews directs, Baysden said.
"We have had a number of Hispanics come to see us about new startups and small business programs," he said.
Baysden said The Chamber is sensitive to the needs of Hispanics and other minorities.
"We do have members of the Hispanic community on chamber committees," he said. "It's part of our mission to become more aware of our diversity in this community. We have tried to reach out to a number of minority communities, the Hispanic community being one."
The Carolinas Gateway Partnership, with offices in Rocky Mount, supports all businesses and their endeavors, said John Gessaman, its president. Any group, including Hispanics, is eligible for the partnership's programs, he said.
"We really don't have programs in place for startup businesses," Gessaman said. "That's a function of the small business development center and community college programs out there. But it is an important thing for the area. Obviously, we are unable to offer any incentive programs for that purpose. We don't differentiate by any demographic subgroup. We focus on basic industries. The positive partnership really has been able to assist established businesses."
Gessaman said he is aware of the growing influence of the Hispanic population base in the Twin Counties.
"But it is mostly anecdotal at this point and has not found its way statistically, just because of the lag time and census report which occurs only every 10 years," he said. "One would suspect that it would have shown to be one of the fastest-growing sectors in our population base."
Gessaman said he is aware that companies have diversity programs in place for a wide range of groups.
While Marsigli contends jobs may not be plentiful, he said life is getting better for Hispanics in the United States.
"I know several employed Hispanics who are very, very happy," he said. "I've never met one that didn't want to work hard for their families."
Road Warrior: Wait has bus riders seeing red
Sept. 28, 2004
News & Observer
By BRUCE SICELOFF
© Copyright 2004
Every morning, with his left-turn signal blinking, a Capital Area Transit driver pulls up to the stop sign at the end of Pullen Road. He watches for the chance to cram the big bus into a little gap in the Western Boulevard traffic bound for downtown.
He may have to wait four or five minutes before he sees an opening and puts the accelerator down.
Sometimes the regular riders get tired of waiting. One of them steps down from the bus, walks 20 feet up Western Boulevard to a little-used pedestrian crossing and presses a button.
The green lights hanging over the crosswalk turn red. The cars on Western Boulevard stop so the bus can go.
"It's so stupid to get off a bus to push a button to turn a traffic light," says Greg Griffith, a regular for the past six years on the No. 11 CAT bus. He works downtown in the Wake County Register of Deeds Office.
The pedestrian signal was added a couple of years ago as part of a $3.7 million city project to improve Western Boulevard for both drivers and pedestrians. The crossing serves people using a greenway on the south side of Western.
"They did a lot of work along Western Boulevard to make it nice, planted trees and everything, and they put up that light. But alack and alas, it works only for walkers," Griffith says.
Griffith and his fellow travelers figure that, for a few dollars more, the city could make the traffic light work for cars and buses. Electronic sensors planted in the pavement could trip a signal change when Pullen is backed up with cars coming out of NCSU.
Raleigh has opted not to do that, because it would slow rush-hour traffic on an important east-west thoroughfare. Western Boulevard carried 34,000 cars a day in 2001.
Pedestrians also figure in another conflict between the city's need for smoother commuter traffic and NCSU's need to move more people from north to south between its two main campuses, separated by Western Boulevard.
NCSU wants to build an $8.3 million tunnel just west of Avent Ferry Road and Morrill Drive. It would carry a few thousand pedestrians and cyclists beneath Western Boulevard every day.
NCSU's College of Engineering will move to Centennial Campus next year. Pedestrian crossings of Western Boulevard, now about 3,500 a day, are expected to more than double by 2010.
"The whole Western Boulevard, for us, is a difficult situation," says Slade McCalip, assistant transportation director for NCSU.
"The priority for the city is to move traffic east and west, and the minor streets have a hard time getting out. There are cross purposes here -- access to N.C. State and also access to the whole of Raleigh."
Because Western is elevated on a ridge, planners say a tunnel beneath it would be shorter and easier to use than a bridge over it. The underpass would remove pedestrians from the crosswalks, easing the flow for automobiles turning at the busy intersection.
Western is likely to pick up more cars as the result of Raleigh's plan for roundabouts and other measures that will slow traffic on Hillsborough Street.
The pedestrian underpass is included in long-range plans for moving people between Centennial, the planned Triangle Transit Authority rail station on NCSU's North Campus, and Hillsborough Street.
But it won't be built anytime soon. Wake County officials have given it a low priority in competition with other transportation projects seeking state funds.
Cuba's economy keeps plugging along
Sept. 28, 2004
Charlotte Observer; Bradenton Herald, FL; Centre Daily Times, PA; Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA; CubaNet, FL; Duluth News Tribune, MN; Grand Forks Herald, ND; Kansas City Star; Kansas.com, KS; Kentucky.com, KY; Knight Ridder Newspapers; Macon Telegraph, GA; MENAFN, Middle East; Monterey County Herald, CA; Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC; Philadelphia Inquirer, PA; Pioneer Press, MN; San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA; The State, SC; Tallahassee.com, FL
By NANCY SAN MARTIN
© Copyright 2004
Growing numbers of tourists are visiting Cuba, but the island is not a magnet for repeat visitors. Cuba isn't attracting new foreign investments but the most prominent joint ventures remain strong. A recent oil exploration struck out, but generated interest for further drilling.
Cuba may be a country of economic contradictions but the economy keeps plugging along.
The island's economy, analysts say, is still benefiting from President Fidel Castro's decision to open the door to foreign investors and introduce some capitalist-style reforms a decade ago.
But not all is well in the still largely centrally controlled economy, and there are some ominous signs on the horizon.
''It's not doing well at all, and all indications are that it's going to be doing worse in the future,'' said economist Maria Dolores Espino, of St. Thomas University.
That assumption is at the heart of Bush administration plans to force change on Castro's government by take aim at its most vulnerable spot: its cash-strapped coffers.
Tightened restrictions on Cuban Americans' travel and remittances to the island are among the tactics touted by the White House as the most effective way to hasten democratic transition in this hemisphere's last remaining communist nation.
FEWER U.S. VISITORS
Earlier this month, Cuba announced a 25 percent drop in the number of U.S. visitors since new travel restrictions took effect June 30, and said the trend isn't expected to change before the U.S. presidential election.
Analysts, however, say it's too soon to determine whether the new rules will have long-lasting effects on the Cuban government and economy: ''There is no doubt that the measures will have a negative impact,'' Espino said. "But Cuba has done without before.''
Over the past decade, tourism has replaced sugar exports as Cuba's main foreign-exchange earner, bringing in as much as $2 billion in gross revenue each year. Remittances from Cubans living abroad account for another $400 million to $1 billion a year, according to various estimates.
Cuban Americans make up the largest portion of the U.S. visitors, but the new rules now restrict family visits to the island to once every three years instead of once a year, and remittances may only be sent to immediate family members.
Of the 176,000 U.S. residents who legally traveled to Cuba in 2003, and spent an estimated $200 million there, about 128,000 claimed to be visiting family.
Even with the loss of Cuban-American visitors, Cuban officials have said they expect to meet their goal of 2 million tourists in 2004. In June, authorities celebrated the arrival of the millionth tourist and an 11.8 percent increase in visitors, compared to the same period last year.
But an increase in visitors is not likely to make a significant dent in the overall economy, said Art Padilla, a professor at North Carolina State University.
''The Caribbean tourism market, in general, is beginning to show signs of maturity,'' said Padilla, who has studied Cuba's tourism industry. "Total growth has flattened. There is a limit to what you can do in Cuba and in other places.''
RETURN VISITS DOWN
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many first-time visitors to Cuba choose not to return because they are turned off by poor service and the blatant disparity that exists between foreigners and Cubans, Padilla added.
Foreign investment also has taken a dive in recent years. The Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean reports that net foreign investment in Cuba for the past two years has stood at zero.
Between 1988 and 2003, Cuba signed 585 ''economic associations with foreign capital,'' most of them joint ventures between government entities and private investors. By the end of 2003, only 342 remained active, according to Paolo Spadoni, of the University of Florida. He prepared a report on the issue this summer.
However, he notes in the report, that the fact that 342 economic associations survive indicates that "someone must be making money.''
Cuba also has diversified its partnerships beyond traditional arrangements that concentrated primarily on tourism, construction and basic industry.
''The presence of foreign investment in Cuba has been particularly strong in all the industries that have experienced the highest growth over the past decade such as oil, electricity generation, telecommunications, nickel and tourism,'' Spadoni's report states. "These sectors are considered by Cuban authorities as the engines of future growth and still offer the brightest investment opportunities in Cuba.''
In the energy sector, where Cuba must import half its oil and gas needs, the Spanish company Repsol YPF hit a dry hole in June when it sank its first offshore exploration well in the Gulf of Mexico.
But last month the company announced the dry hole produced indications of high-quality crude nearby, so it will continue studying the area and could begin drilling again within the next year.
So the economy plods along as Cuba hopes to cash in on tourism and remittances and, literally, strike it rich with oil.
Faculty, Students Rally to Help Grenada Students After Hurricane Ivan
Sept. 28, 2004
Newswise; AScribe
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Newswise — Hurricane Ivan is delivering a wave of students from Grenada to the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University.
About 60 third year veterinary students and their faculty will begin classes at K-State on Monday, Oct. 4, as part of an agreement between the College of Veterinary Medicine at K-State and the School of Veterinary Medicine at St. George's University in Grenada.
The university, located in Grenada's capital city of St. George's, was heavily damaged when Hurricane Ivan ravaged the island Sept. 7. St. George's University officials quickly sought alternative teaching arrangements to keep classes on schedule. They hope to reopen their campus in January.
The students and faculty will spend one semester in Manhattan, Kan., while the buildings that are home to their veterinary medicine education classes are repaired. St. George's University will rent teaching space from the K-State veterinary college, provide their own faculty and instruct their students as intact classes.
St. George's University has made similar arrangements with North Carolina State University for first year students and Purdue University for second year students for the school's remaining 340 veterinary students. St. George's University does not offer a clinical year of training like K-State.
Dr. Ray Sis, dean of the veterinary school at St. George's University, graduated from K-State in 1957. When he needed help, he called his colleagues at K-State, Dr. Ralph Richardson, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Ronnie Elmore, associate dean.
In a telephone interview from Grenada, Sis explained the situation. He said the school is affiliated with 17 universities in the United States to provide St. George's University students with clinical training. But when the hurricane hit, he sought K-State because of its leadership.
"We primarily chose K-State because of their dean and associate dean," Sis said, over the sounds of hammering in the background.
The news of the students' arrival has touched off a new storm ... of activity. Four K-State students -- two of whom transferred here from Grenada -- are spearheading efforts to find temporary housing for the students.
"When I first heard about this, I just got so excited about it," said Jennifer Turner, a second year veterinary student. "I just had to act on it."
That action has included opening her parents' home to these students. Finding temporary housing in Manhattan for 60 new students is a challenge. Finding housing for 60 students with pets puts that challenge in an entirely new category. Most of the rental property in Manhattan has already been leased, especially those that are pet-friendly.
When an e-mail was sent to K-State veterinary medical students asking for their support, the response was amazing.
"It was wonderful. I'm pretty sure we have enough places for the students," Turner said. "I keep hearing my classmates saying, 'I need to get my room cleaned before my new roommate arrives.'"
Housing is not the only thing the four K-State students are working on. They have also embarked upon a self-initiated campaign seeking household goods and non-perishable food items from local businesses and churches for the displaced students.
"We will try to arrange to pick up items if needed. We will do anything we can to help people who want to help these students," Turner said. "I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in their situation. They've lost everything. They left the island with one bag and their pets."
"We are very fortunate at K-State," Richardson said. "We have facilities that allow us to provide adequate teaching space for these students without compromising the learning environment for our students."
Sis described the worst of the storm as "an eight hour tornado." The storm lasted from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m., with a respite while the eye passed over. He said the veterinary school sustained heavy roof and water damage but, because of good construction, fared much better than the structures in the city. Student housing on campus was damaged; students' homes off campus were destroyed.