Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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While others were saying. It ' s so cold in here I can ' t grasp my damn pen. And the discrepancies between rooms and buildings were often called into question. Posters with notepads attached were displayed in every cam- pus building with the inscription: Are you uncomfortable? Too Hot or Too Cold . If a person was uncomfortable. he was asked to fill in the time, loca- tion, date, and room. The task force was seeking the misuses of energy in buildings. Budding architects still trekked to Seaton Hall on Sunday afternoons to sketch and work on drawing projects. budding chemists still trudged through snow-blown sidewalks to laboratories, and budding journalists still braved the cold January winds to make it over to Kedzie Hall — but something was dif- ferent. The heat had been turned low for the weekend, not to be turned on again until Monday morning. More ' than one student wore a beanie cap on Sunday afternoons. Campus lights were turned out early and building hours were cut down all just to cut back on energy usage. Five to ten years ago, when oil com- panies and other energy suppliers were warning of the impending energy crisis, few would listen with a serious ear. Now, some of the major oil com- panies are being castigated for their high profits, resulting from the high price of gasoline. A need to develop incentives for deeper and more pene- trating research in seeking energy stockpiles has surfaced Some conservative economists were calling for an end to the fuss over windfall profits. What the country needs to do, said these people, is to increase oil company profits. They reason that it is the oil companies that will need to search for alternative sources of energy. And so the answer to our fluctuating energy crisis seems simple — alterna- tive sources of energy. However, there are several problems with this simple solution. First, any new energy form is bound to be more expensive than the 50 to 60 cents per gallon people were screaming about in 1974. Social costs involved in switching to another form of energy would be high. In a country that can ' t even switch its system of measurement, the probability of mak- ing an energy switchover without too much chaos seems slim. Inasmuch as strict governmental controls are not a favorable alterna- tive, the second problem with an alter- nate source of energy is that someone must do the necessary research someone with an incentive. And it is looking like that incentive will have to be fabricated by the government. For an incentive system to work, the price of gasoline would have to start reflecting its demand. While skyrocket- ing prices at the pump would be reces- sive in its burden, it would provide an indication of the true value of the energy we are using. These solutions still untried, the country entered 1975 in a state of stalemate — no gas rationing, but lots of threats. People were beginning to wonder what happened to the signs of the sixties: Live Better Electrically or Use Gas — It ' s Cheaper . Both gas and electricity are products of the energy producers, and the price of both was kept artificially low for years. Only now are the true prices of natural resources being borne by the con- sumer. But the issue is both social and eco- nomic. Socially, we cannot allow rising energy costs to price persons on fixed or low incomes out of the energy mar- ket — because it is a market of sur- vival. Everyone needs heat, light, and gasoline. A rise in the price of energy products will have an inflationary effect on the rest of the energy-con- suming public, and especially on the energy-consuming businesses. If America wants some form of energy in the next 50 years, it must bear the monetary burden now. Ameri- cans are finally realizing that resources are scarce and assessing the real costs of these resources to the consumer IS something that should have been done long ago. K-Staters seemed doomed in 1974 to a life in dark rooms and packed car- pools, with the ever-present invigorat- ing mid-January chill sifting their hair and bringing goose-bumps to the sur- face of their skin. Energy 1975 — 29

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Lower thermostat chills By Scott Kraft My God. its cold in here. I ' m sorry, sir, but we don ' t have campus Sunday martyr any control over the supply, talk to . . . It ' s a socioeconomic problem. Hey, I don ' t care about your socioeconomic problems — I just want light and heat. Is that too much to ask ' ? In a day and age when it is possible to purchase nearly any service or commodity, Americans are finding it increasingly frustrating to adjust to colder building temperatures, power failures, and the demand-depressing effect of high gasoline prices. At the K-State front, the energy problems ranged from intense to mini- mal. Energy task forces and the like have appeared at K-State since it was learned in early October that the Uni- versity ' s energy supply would be cut down. K-State ' s energy supplier ' s sup- plier was cutting down. The energy task force was estab- lished on campus, and a concerted effort was made to conserve energy. But, as so often happens during a time when energy is being conserved, stu- dents and faculty became more sensi- tive of the temperatures around them. Verbal attacks on the people who set the heat were often heard. I ' m burning up In here and we ' re supposed to be having an energy cri- sis. 28 — Energy 1975

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Vegetation: apartment living ' s link to environment The magazine article said that every really with-it apart- ment for 1975 should be filled with greenery, and the apart- ment in the pictures was a student ' s dream. Even though the physical aspects of my shabby second-story Manhattan, Kansas. penthouse didn ' t resemble the sleek, well-furnished look of the magazine ' s Manhattan, New York, apartment. I figured the liaison could at least be vegetation. When the KSU Horticulture Club advertised Hs plant safe early in the fall, I decided this would be a great opportunity to buy a couple plants and begin my apartment ' s gradual trans- formation into a local botanical garden. Partially because I ' m a sucker, and partially because I can ' t resist a good buy, I found myself leaving the Hort Club ' s sale with a few more than the two plants I had planned to buy — nine more to be exact. The apartment was instantly transformed into a sec- ond-story greenhouse. Really, though, the apartment did look pretty good with all the plants lacing the window sills. I was proud of myself for taking the environmental, ecological, natural, and vogue step into the world of plants — I knew Better Homes and Gardens would be proud of me. Although many of the articles I had read on the care of plants preached the therapeutic benefits of talking to the plants, I did feel a little silly asking my Spanish Ivy how it Was doing every morning. To avoid giving it an identity crisis, I began calling it Pedro, and I really think it enjoyed this per- sonified touch. Maybe because I never could figure out what kind of plant the one on the kitchen window sill was, and therefore couldn ' t assign it an ethnic name, its health began to sink around Thanksgiving. and during Final Week bit the dust so to speak. I really felt like a failure, as if Hort Club would never let me into another sale because I had let one of its off- spring pass on. My guilt and problems were compounded with the onset of Christmas break, and home being 1000 miles away. The fea- sibility of making it through fWA ' s security check with my ten plants-and my family greeting my brood with joy at the other end was slim. So, I recruited a plant sitter for the break. And, the must have really had a way with words as the plants all looked much bigger and healthier when I returned for sec- ond semester. I felt somewhat like a grandmother on her annual visit to see the grandkids, remarking, My how you ' ve grown. Your hair vine is so long! My greenhouse attendant role for second semester went along fairly well. I even ventured into the hierarchy of plant care and repotted some of my oxygen makers, and pinched back another. Although it was touch-and-go for awhile with the Coleus I pinched back, all were in good health by Spring Break time. In fact, I was mildly insulted when my plants looked so good after I left them in the hands of the plant sitter again over Spring Break. The least they might have done was wilt a little. The big obstacle course the plants and I have yet to face is the challenge of the drive to that home of mine 1000 miles from the penthouse. My only consolation when thinking of the impending sojourn is that I didn ' t purchase the rubber tree that beckoned me on my Hort Club shopping spree. A five foot passenger without knee joints might have provided quite a survival test — for both of us. Providing the vegetation and I make it home, I am in a quandary as to what to do with them when I transform from student into summer camp counselor. I just don ' t know if Pedro could make it in my knapsack.