Providing a voice for Washburn students since 1897
November 15, 2017
Volume 144, Issue 12
News Pages 1-3 Catalonian independence
Opinion Page 4 Roy Moore allegations
washburnreview.org
Features Pages 5-8 Top holiday tech gifts
Sports Pages 9-12 New era for basketball
Vietnam veteran shares story with students Julia Eilert Washburn Review julia.eilert@washburn.edu
In order to prepare for Veterans Day, Washburn University invited retired Colonel Leroy Stutz to talk about his experiences with students Nov. 9. Stutz was an officer and a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and was a POW during the Vietnam War for 2284 days, just over six years.
Photo by Julia Eilert
Demonstrated: Asking for a volunteer, Colonel Stutz demonstrated the way he was walked to a nearby village after being captured. After his presentation, Colonel Stutz was able to stay and answer questions.
Stutz began his talk by reminding the audience that Veteran’s Day originally came from Armistice Day. “You might, this coming Saturday, when you see one of those old guys like me, stick your hand out and say ‘Thank you for your service,’” said Stutz. From there, Stutz explained how he went about making the decision to enter the Air Force, as well as his journey through training at the U.S. Air Force Academy and attending school. He attended Washburn for one year before he received an appointment to the academy and graduating in 1964. Stutz opened up to the audience about his capture in 1966, and described his thought process as he was floating to the ground after he and his co-pilot, Robert Gregory ejected from their jet over Yên Bái. “I look up at the ‘chute, and I see there’s little holes appearing,” said Stutz. “And I look down at the ground and there are some guys down there with rifles, and they are shooting at me, and this is not good. Cleverly, I came down right in the middle of a village.” Stutz selected volunteers from the audience to help
him demonstrate how he was brought into camp and interrogated by his captors. Skimming over his time in captivity, Stutz talked about his countless changes of location while imprisoned, and how he was transported from village to village to be displayed to villagers. He explained that he and other prisoners used a tap code cipher to communicate from different cells. The code is something he was able to teach his wife Karen and he still uses it to this day with her. “Every camp, every cell that I was ever in, in North Vietnam, they would ring a bell, and that bell meant you were supposed to go to bed,” said Stutz. “Every night, every cell, I heard: ‘Tap, tap tap, tap, tap. Goodnight. God Bless.’” Many students felt that they could better sympathize with veterans of the Vietnam War after listening to Stutz’s firsthand account. “I think we should do this more often,” said Alex Grenné, junior elementary education major. “I loved it, honestly. Me volunteering was the best part, and it was great because [I can now relate to Stutz better.]”
Science students balance research and studies Whitney Clum Washburn Review whitney.clum@washburn.edu
No one at Washburn can better identify with Thomas Edison’s famous quote than research students: “I have not failed, I’ve successfully discovered 10,000 things that won’t work.” After either taking the required amount of classes or reaching upperclassmen status, students in biology and chemistry work with a professor so that they may fulfill their research requirements for their major. Science students conducting their independent research projects will often spend much of their free time each day between classes to work in the labs. “There’s a time you set up with your teacher to set up a protocol,” said Maluki Radford, junior molecular biology major. “On Thursdays, I go in after Physics, and I am there basically all day, usually past 5. You are going to be making agar (a gel commonly used in the lab), autoclaving this, checking on these samples– so it’s a credit hour. But it’s more than that if you actually want to get work done.” Not all students approach their research in the same way or in the same time frame. Ashlee Herken, junior molecular biology ma-
jor, spent a year on a project with the Honors Program before branching out and partnering with professors on their research. “The first one I started with the Honors Program, working with Dr. Herbig,” Herken said. “I approached him and said ‘Hey I want to do an Honors project,’ and he said, ‘Oh, you mentioned magnetotaxis (bacteria that are able to swim or move toward a magnetic field).’ So I collected a sample from my pond and spent a year analyzing my pond water as well as water from lake Perry. After that entire year, I was successful in enriching my magnetotactic bacteria once, and they are extremely hard to culture. That was where the project ended. I am currently helping [Herbig] on his bacteriophage research, as well as working with Dr. Sadikot. She does a bioinformatics project which is partnered with Washington University at St. Louis.” In general, there are two types of research. The first,
most common type is when a student joins a pre-existing project spearheaded by a professor, where previous students have already done preliminary work to jumpstart the project.
then figure out how to perform steps that require equipment that the university may not possess. “I’m currently working on naegleria fowleri (a brain eating amoeba) and trying to quantify that in a water sample by what we call real time, or PCR techniques,” said Radford. “You have absolutely no idea what you are doing, just running [the experiments] because you’ve been told to, then finally that ‘Aha!’ moment of, ‘Oh my gosh, my education has brought me somewhere.’” Outside of simply earning Washburn students their diplomas, research projects have had applications in the real Graphic by Xavier Strong world. “With magnetoIn the second and less tactic bacteria, the future common type of research, applications in the media student will initiate a cal field would be tumor project with the help of research,” Herken said. a professor. According “Apparently tumors have to Herken, this type of a really strong magnetic research requires sifting pull, so they would culture through a veritable mounthese bacteria, extract the tain of scientific papers and magnets from them, purify videos in order to formulate the magnets and then inject a protocol. Students must you with them. Then you
can expose them to a really fast rotating magnetic field, heat the tumor up and kill it without actually affecting any other part in your body.” Students’ research may also have beneficial implications for local water supplies. “[The naegleria fowleri research will] allow [the EPA] to pinpoint what certain lakes have it, and then see how that’s involved in harmful algal blooms,” Radford said. “It’s allowing detection, identification and safety.” Unique challenges of research aside, both Herken and Radford seem to agree that their different research projects have given them invaluable experiences. “Washburn University is providing me with opportunities I would never get at other universities because they are so large,” said Herken. “Having two and a half years of research [under my belt] when I go to grad school, [other universities] can see I have these techniques, I’ve developed them and it works so well with critical thinking.”