University To Establish Population Research Lab

Kansas State Collegian, May 29, 1967

A Population Research Laboratory for K-State has been approved by the Kansas Board of Regents. The laboratory will have three main objectives, according to Joseph Disanto, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology and director of the laboratory.

• To study population research on a local, state and regional basis and to do comparative research on a national and cross-cultural basis.
• To provide people who use demographic materials, especially local and state agencies, with data which is more readily accessible.
• To provide a training facility for persons interested in the study of the determination and consequences of population trends.

"In order to achieve these objectives the Population Research Laboratory will work closely with state and national agencies, which include the State Department of Vital Statistics, USDA, U.S. Bureau of Census and the National Vital Statistics System of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare,” Disanto said.

Lab Tests Population Trends

Kansas State Collegian, July 17, 1967

What effect do population changes – births, deaths and migration – have on the tax base, zoning laws or sewer and water systems? What effect do these changes have on churches, schools and shopping centers?

CAN A community adapt to meet the needs of either a declining or growing population? These are some of the questions that will be answered by research now in progress in the new Population Research Laboratory at K-State. The lab, approved by the Board of Regents in June, will provide a central research facility for population studies in Kansas and demographic training for students.

WORK IS officially underway according to Joseph DiSanto, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, who is director of the lab. The lab has three main objectives: to study and compare population data on a local, state, regional and national level; to provide local and state agencies with basic population facts; and to provide a training facility for students interested in population trend study.

“PLANNING for schools, recreational programs, health and welfare projects, highway location studies, legislative action and economic development require precise knowledge of the people affected,” DiSanto said. He added that population facts aid in future planning for such programs as agriculture, education, care of the aged, social security, conservation and industrial planning. Results of the research at K-State will be made available to the governor, state departments and agencies, city and county governments, schools, libraries and those concerned with the development planning.

THE K-STATE staff consists of DiSanto and two research assistants. They will work closely with the Kansas State Department of Vital Statistics, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Bureau of Census, and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The staff will use available published materials as well as field interviews and computer analysis to conduct their research. The last comprehensive study in Kansas was completed for the period from 1940 to 1950. The present research will be valuable as baseline studies when the results of the 1970 U.S. census become available for analysis.

Laboratory predicts demographic trends

Kansas State Collegian, January 30, 1990
By Bill Sier

When corporations need demographics to determine the best location for a new store in Kansas, they can find those figures at the University's Population Research Laboratory. Located in Waters Hall, the Population Research Laboratory is designed to predict population trends, said Leonard E. Bloomquist, director and assistant professor of social anthropology and social work. The lab is intended to respond to requests for population information from Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado. This information is currently gathered by examining data from the last U.S. Census and other governmental population figures.

Bloomquist hopes to establish a machine-readable population archive with the data from the 1990 National Census. “A machine-readable database would be easier to manipulate,” Bloomquist said. With the computerized data, the lab would be better able to present the data in an easier-to-read format with charts and graphs, he said. “Most people prefer to look at graphics rather than at long columns of numbers,” Bloomquist said.

Bloomquist recently did a projection of the populations of Manhattan, Lawrence and Salina for J.C. Penney Co. This information, according to Bloomquist, could be used by the company to determine if a new store would be economically feasible in any of those cities.

Another project the lab has been working on is assessment of the relative success of local economic development projects, such as property tax breaks and the establishment of industrial parks, in non-metropolitan areas. A metropolitan area is described by the federal government as any area having a population of 50,000 or greater, including commuting patterns. For example, the Wichita metropolitan area not only includes Sedgwick County, but neighboring Butler County, because many people who work in Wichita live in and commute from there. Bloomquist will compare data from 1985 through 1990 to see what economic effects, if any, have occurred in the non-metropolitan areas.

These projects are far fewer that the four to five a month the lab used to receive, Bloomquist said. Nothing can be more frustrating to a research scientist than to have good data, but to be unable to accomplish anything with it due to limited resources, he said. “Given the situation of limited resources, we are forced to try and find creative means to support the lab,” Bloomquist said. Part of this creativity includes involvement in the establishment of an interdisciplinary research institute in the University. Along with faculty members from the departments of political science, economics and statistics, Bloomquist is participating in the creation of the Institute for Social Research.

Although the institute may need some initial seed money from the University, Bloomquist hopes that it will be able to draw money from other sources, including federal grants, state appropriations and even private contracts. “It is not so much that we're looking for work,” Bloomquist said, “but that we want to provide a service to the state as an educational institution.”

Generations have different views

By Stephanie Chen, Special to The Olathe News

When Cindy Perez came to the United States in the second grade, she thought she was only visiting her father.
Her father had immigrated to Olathe in early 1994 to find a better job after being laid off at the local mining company in Chihuahua, Mexico, she said.
"We were going to go back, but we ended up staying a lot longer than we thought," Perez said.

A whole new world
Perez will be a senior at Olathe North High School in the fall. She said she hopes to be a lawyer someday and loves participating in Hispanic Olathe Leadership Academy, Olathe Youth Congress and Olathe Youth Court.
"Sometimes other kids are surprised that I do all this stuff and that I'm in honors classes," Perez said.
But the transition into an American lifestyle was never easy, she said, especially with her parents speaking little English. Independence and responsibility are central components of Perez's life. Since she was a little girl, Perez has translated for her parents at conferences and doctors appointments.
"It's tough to try to explain everything to them," she said.
For Cindy Perez, Olathe is home, but her parents do not agree. Perez said she accepted American views quickly because she immigrated at a young age.
But her parents, she says, are too busy working to learn English. Her father, Sergio Perez, works as a chef during the day and a vinyl cutter at night. Her mother, Maria Perez, folds uniforms and takes care of Cindy and her younger brother.
"I could have it better in Mexico," Maria Perez said in Spanish as her daughter translates. "If it was up to me we would be moving back right now."
Life in Olathe is still strange to Maria Perez, who lived in a town in Mexico where most women stayed at home.
Despite dissatisfaction, Maria Perez looks to the job and education opportunities for her family in Olathe. Her husband said the government in Mexico will not base jobs on skills or education, but on personal connection, making employment for him difficult there.
"There is room to work your way up," Maria Perez said.
Cindy Perez said her parents' language barrier makes them less receptive to American ideas.
Her mother said she doesn't understand why children in the United States move out when they are 18 years old because children in Mexico live with their parents until they are married, she said. Sergio Perez said he was hesitant to let his daughter drive and spend too much time with friends.
"They always say 'Well in Mexico...'" Cindy Perez said. "We don't agree on a lot of things, so we'll both have to give in a little."
Jose Nunez, a sophomore at Olathe North, is a natural born citizen. His mother was born here as well, but his father emigrated from Mexico. He said he feels closer to his mother because she understands what it's like to go to school in America.
"I was just brought up differently," he said.

Bridging the gap
Jose Nunez and Cindy Perez said their parents do not keep up with their schoolwork, which is a big part of their lives.
Without her mother and father involved with her academics and extracurricular activities, Perez said, her parents often do not know what is going on.
Academics were challenging because Perez had to play catch-up in elementary school, learning English as fast as she could. She could not go to her parents for help on homework and papers. With college applications approaching, Perez will have to learn the application process on her own.
Kory Norris, staff council for student services at Olathe schools said Hispanic parents are not as involved with their children's education because of their language barrier or work or because they are too intimidated to question the school system.
"The parents are learning just as they are," Norris said.
The absence of parental involvement in schoolwork hinders academic achievement for Hispanic students, Norris said. She said these students couldn't go to their parents as a resource when they have questions.
Norris said the employment position Hispanic immigrants have may not be as respected as in their home country. She said this causes some Hispanic students to steer away from leadership positions.
"Their moms and dads don't have the same advantages," Norris said.
Jim Terrones, who serves on the Olathe Human Relations Commission, said parental involvement in school could help Hispanic parents feel more comfortable with their new environment.

Reaching out both ways
The explosion of the Hispanic population in Olathe is permanent, Terrones said. He said it is critical for Hispanics to be proactive in their new community.
"In order to feel comfortable with their community, people have to reach out," he said.
Terrones said there are many opportunities in Olathe including the PTA, Citizens' Police Academy, volunteer board and faith-based organizations. Olathe has made diversity an ongoing objective, he said.
Christian Vallejos, an Olathe North senior who immigrated from Argentina three years ago, said his parents just do not have time to participate in community events. He said his parents found it hard to adapt to their new surroundings because they cannot speak English well.
"If you don't speak the language, it's hard for you to trust anyone or have open relations," Vallejos said.
Leonard Bloomquist, professor and director of population research laboratory at Kansas State University, said the relationship between Hispanic immigrants and the community is reciprocal. He conducted a study on Hispanic immigrants in two small towns in southwestern Kansas.
Bloomquist discovered more embracing communities build a stronger social infrastructure. Hispanics and women are more likely to participate in government and schools, he said.
"Taking that kind of an approach can expand to other kinds of open relations," he said. "It can create a community that benefits everyone."

Source: The Olathe News, Retrieved February 8, 2007. Copyright © 2005–The Olathe News

Bit by Bit, Tiny Morland, Kan., Fades Away

MORLAND, Kan. — As a lawyer in this little town, Jerry Helberg does just about everything. He settles estates, writes contracts and wills, prepares tax returns and handles the rare small crime. Mr. Helberg is Morland's only lawyer. At 63, he is also probably its last, for this town is getting smaller by the year.

Mr. Helberg's three grown children, all graduates of Morland High School, have moved away.

"There was no place here for them to take a job and make a living," he said. "Every one of them would come back if there was a job here."

Morland, population 164, down from 234 in the 1990 census, sits squarely in the path of a decline that the 2000 census found sweeping through the small towns of the Great Plains. While the nation's population grew 13 percent in the 1990's, the Census Bureau found that 676 of the nation's 3,141 counties lost people.

Most of the decline was in wheat, ranching and oil country in Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota and the Dakotas. In Kansas, for example, there are now more "frontier counties" — defined by the census as having from two to six people per square mile — than there were in 1890.

Graham County, which includes Morland, lost 17 percent of its population, which fell to 2,946 in the last decade. Within 50 miles of Morland, fading towns settled more than a century ago — like Zurich, Palco, Jennings, Clayton and Dresden — lost 15 percent to 30 percent of their inhabitants. In many places, headstones outnumber mailboxes 10 and 20 to 1.

The population of the Great Plains peaked in the 1930's, but many communities throughout the Plains had been losing people for nearly a century. Demographers spotted some recovery at the start of the 90's.

"In the early 90's there was some hope for what demographers call a population rebound," said Leonard Bloomquist, director of the Population Research Laboratory at Kansas State University in Manhattan. But those hopes quickly sank as water shortages impeded growth and as chain stores like Kmart and Wal-Mart opened in towns, helping them grow but draining business from smaller communities with stores that could not compete.

A town does not vanish in a single moment. Nor does it vanish for a single reason. In Morland's case, the decline was brought on by the mechanization of agriculture and nearly two decades of low wheat prices and shrinking oil fields.

The staples of the community fell away one by one. The Union Pacific Railroad pulled out in the mid-1990's; the tracks were pulled up a couple of years ago. The Methodist church lost its full-time pastor, so the parsonage, built in the 1970's, is rented out. Over the years, Morland has lost its opera house, one of two banks, its two-story hotel, the pool hall, its weekly newspaper, its lumber yard, its three gasoline stations, its automobile dealership, three clothing stores, the shoe store and two of three grocery stores.

In 1973, the town lost its furniture, hardware and mortuary businesses at once when Joe and Jane Nichols, who ran all three, died. The hardest loss will come on Saturday, when Morland High will graduate its last class and close its doors.

What is left is on increasingly unstable ground. Houses that remain sturdy are often close to worthless.

"How do you sell houses to people that aren't here?" asked Fred Pratt, Graham County's main real estate agent. In the county seat, Hill City, he said, "Most of my houses are in the $20,000 to $30,000 range."

Mark E. Niehaus, the county appraiser, said the assessed value of property dropped to $25.5 million last year, from $36.6 million in 1989.

Lana Barton, 32, a divorced mother of two, moved to Morland two years ago to be closer to her parents. She bought a four-bedroom house on Main Street.

"I paid $13,000 for it," Ms. Barton said. "It's a nice house, too."

But her plans exclude Morland. She is studying in Hays, an hour away, to be a teacher and expects to work away from Graham County.

"I send my children to school in Hill City," she said. "It's a bigger school, with more going on."

The rolling prairie and pasture around Morland are bound by telephone lines and barbed wire, with outcroppings of sandy yellowish shale. Every two or three miles along Graham County's packed dirt roads, stands an empty farmhouse, its clapboard walls scraped of paint, its land rented or sold to big farmers. Occasionally the vista is broken by a rusty oil tank and drilling gear or the bones of a half-century-old tractor and other farm equipment. The roads, some paved, wear shifting layers of shale dust, which April storms whip into blistering fogs.

People do their best to get by. Fred Pratt runs farm auctions and sells real estate and used cars.

"We like living here," Mr. Pratt said. "It's a beautiful place. The only thing we don't like, you can't make any money to survive. My son is getting straight A's. He's not going to be around here."

Patty Minium Bean's father settled here in 1901 and became mayor. Her mother opened the Minium Dry Goods store on Main Street in 1958. Although it loses money, Mrs. Bean keeps it open, selling boots, overalls, zippers, thread and fabric.

"I should close it, but I just don't," Mrs. Bean said.

Her husband, Robert, 70, owns Bean's Country Store at Main and Tiger Streets, the latter named for the school's mascot, a fighting tiger. After school, until a couple of years ago, "the store would fill up with kids," said Faye E. Minium, president of Citizens State Bank on Main Street. "It doesn't anymore."

With the shuttering of Morland High, it is not likely to fill up again. The beginning of the end for Morland's combined high school and junior high came last July. Shelly Swayne, 27, the principal, waited for students to come in to talk about courses and sports for the next year.

"We kept waiting for people to walk in the door, and they never came," Ms. Swayne said. Days later, she said, "other schools started requesting our students' academic and health records."

A school that had graduated 20 to 30 students a decade ago opened this school year with just 19 high school students, an eighth grader and a seventh grader. Sports had to be discontinued, and students were sent to join Hill City High School's teams.

After some parents made clear that they would not enroll their children next fall, Morland's school board surveyed the remaining parents and found even more had decided to send their children to other schools, so the board voted in April to close the school. The elementary school with 30 pupils, an average of about four in each class, has been spared for a year.

"You shut your school and you take some of your identity away," said Todd Toll, 43, a home remodeler and chairman of the school board.

Terry Allison, 40, associate director of the Graham County United Methodist Parish who preaches here on alternate Sundays, said losing the school shook his few parishioners.

"They're proud to live where they are," Mr. Allison said. "But they feel they can't do anything to replenish what they had."

The school's closing is also shaking the economy. Last year, before the latest plunge in enrollment, Mr. Bean sold the school district $1,000 a week in food. This year he is selling it $500. Next year, he might get $350 from the grade school, then nothing.

For all that, the pioneer spirit still glows. Morland's residents take pride in their smart children and imperceptible crime rate. They relish their customs, like ham and eggs on Sunday night at Hill City's Western Hills Restaurant, their traffic- free roads and hunting wild turkeys and ringneck pheasants and fishing in Antelope Lake.

People are also doing their best to survive. Faye Minium's bank has opened branches in Hill City and WaKeeney, 25 miles south of Morland. With 800 checking accounts, almost five times the population of Morland, the bank has been growing about 15 percent a year, Ms. Minium said. She is also organizing a museum in a renovated bank building to draw tourists to Morland.

"You have to be somewhat of a pioneer to live here," she said.

Mr. Bean is reaching out, too. He persuaded small grocers in the region to combine their orders so they can get the volume discounts that wholesalers offer supermarkets, and he delivers the groceries to them.

Still, with downtowns boarded up and shopping strips struggling, the tide of flight from Graham County may be impossible to turn.

But interviews with six of Morland High's eight juniors and seniors revealed fiercely loyal Morland Tigers. Kyle Lemon, a junior who was sent last year to play for Hill City High's teams, said, "I still felt like a Tiger, even if I had to wear the red shirt" of the Hill City Ringnecks.

Georgann Meier, a cheerleader and hurdler whose mother owns the town's beauty salon and whose father works at the grain elevator, said of the school's closing: "I didn't want this to happen. You learn more at a small school. You can't hide."

But in their own aspirations, the school's final classes may be writing Morland's epitaph. Seven of the eight are children of farming families, but not one plans to become a farmer or to live in Morland.

Ms. Meier is going to a junior college across the state in Kansas City and then perhaps to a university.

"I will probably live in a small town, but not in Morland, Kan.," she said. "I'll probably come back when I retire, maybe."

Becky Ellis, 47, the music and special education teacher, is the third generation of her family to graduate from Morland High. She is the wife of a Morland farmer, and they sent their three children to Morland schools. The two older children have gone on to the University of Kansas.

"Kids here are able to go as far as they can go," Mrs. Ellis said. But, she added, "I think the loss of the school is the beginning of the end of this community."

Source: The Citizens Review, Retrieved February 8, 2007. Copyright © 2001–The New York Times Company

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