NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 5A
MONDAY, DECEMBER 5. 2005
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4A
The fraternities conduct their formal recruitment in the summer. Scott Shorten, Stillwell senior and 2005 IFC president, said all incoming freshmen receive information but recruits usually have a connection with a chapter, whether through friends or family.
"There's an incentive to get the members who are the easiest to get," he said.
Arrested demonstrators were greeted by sympathetic picketers as they unloaded from buses at the Douglas County Court House parking lot on March 8, 1965. The demonstrators were speaking out against racial inequality issues at the University.
Chapters needed to go beyond normal recruiting methods and pursue a diverse group by finding ways to pique their interest, Bauer said.
"It's a fear of the unknown," she said. "It's having the guts to step out of the box."
"I don't want to force a minority to join an IFC chapter if they don't want to, just so we can better our situation." he said.
effort to join the organizations.
Richard Young, Overland Park junior and 2005 IFC vice president for recruitment, said informational programs could generate interest from African Americans. He said better informing African Americans so they wouldn't feel like outsiders could help, but ultimately the decision to join was on their shoulders.
Yimer, Sigma Chi member, said blacks shouldn't blame the greek system because the opportunity to join exists for everyone. He said blacks have to become more open-minded and make an
Stubble said it was difficult to recruit African Americans because they gravitated toward organizations that fit their culture and values.
University Archives, Spencer Research Library
* Huawei network in London*
She said an African-American woman joined her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, this year, which excited her but opened her eyes to the issue.
"Is it exciting that we have an African American in our chapter or is it disappointing that we are excited?" she said. "I'm excited to get some diversity in our chapter, but it shouldn't be that way."
Black members said attracting more diversity could be as simple as discussing the topic of race, which Yimer said was considered "taboo." When people can't discuss the issue, it only continues misconceptions, he said.
"It's something that we shouldn't shy away from," he said. "We should confront the issue head on."
Stribue said diversity or race issues were not a focus for sororities and were seldom discussed. Efforts being made by both councils to work with NPHC could help to resolve problems, she said. Stribue said that having traditional greeks participating in NPHC's step show last year and having its members involved in this year's Greek Endeavor, a retreat for freshmen in the Greek organizations, has provided exposure to cultural differences.
"We are just trying to get
it," she said. "Maybe we don't have a huge number of African Americans within our own council, but at least we are trying to learn more about their organization and why their culture is so important to them."
Schepmann turns away from the sea of white faces staring back at her from the walls. She talks about stepping up and erasing the divide between races that has existed far too long.
She said she would like to
pursue a role in the Panhellenic community that would allow her to share her message with other African-American women so she could one day return to the study room of Gamma Phi Beta to find more faces that look like her.
"If people work hard and people are genuine, it will change," she said. "It's not going to be easy but with enough will-power, it could."
— Edited by Anne Burgard
GOVERNMENT
U.S. lacks security against attacks
BY HOPE YEN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The United States is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday.
"It's not a priority for the government right now," said the former chairman, Thomas Kean, ahead of the group's release of a report Monday assessing how well its recommendations have been followed.
J. Scott Applewhite/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thomas Kean, left, former chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, and former vice chairman Lee H. Hamilton, listen to comments by other panel members and reporters as they discuss progress on the recommendations of their 2004 report, during a news conference in Washington in this Nov. 14, 2005, file photo. The United States is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday. "It's not a priority for the government right now," said the former chairman, Thomas Kean, ahead of the group's release of a report Monday assessing how well its recommendations have been followed.
"More than four years after 9/11 ... people are not paying attention," the former Republican governor of New Jersey said. "God help us if we have another attack."
Added Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic vice chairman of the commission: "We believe that another attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as well-prepared as we should be."
The five Republicans and five Democrats on the commission, whose recommendations are now promoted through a privately funded group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, conclude that the government deserves "more Fs than As" in responding to their 41 suggested changes.
Since the commission's final report in July 2004, the government has enacted the centerpiece proposal to create a national intelligence director. But the government has stalled on other ideas, including improving
communication among emergency responders and shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to states based on risk level.
"There is a lack of a sense of urgency," Hamilton said. "There are so many competing priorities. We've got three wars going on: one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq and the war against terror. And it's awfully hard to keep people focused on something like this."
National security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday that President
Bush is committed to putting in place most of the commission's recommendations.
"Obviously, as we've said all along, we are safer, but not yet safe. There is more to do." Hadley said on "Fox News Sunday."
Kean said the Transportation Security Administration was wrong to announce changes last week that will allow airline passengers to
Ex-commissioners contended the government has been remiss by failing to act more quickly.
carry small scissors and some sharp tools. He also said the agency, by now, should have consolidated databases of passenger information into a single "terror watch list" to aid screening.
"They're talking about using more money for random checks. Terrorists coming through the airport may still not be spotted," Kean said.
"I don't think we have to go backward here," said Kean, who appeared with Hamilton on NBC's "Meet the Press."
SCIENCE
Face transplant seems a success
BY ELAINE GANLEY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS — The recipient of the world's first partial face transplant was thriving medically and psychologically a week after her groundbreaking surgery, one of her doctors said Sunday.
The woman, whose face had been partially disfigured by a dog, appeared relatively normal after the operation and doctors were happy about her mental state. Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard said in a telephone interview. Doctors had been worried about the potentially negative psychological effect of receiving part of someone else's face.
"She is perfect," Dubernard said. "Psychologically, she is doing very well."
Dubernard, one of the woman's two lead surgeons, said that the 38-year-old would remain hospitalized in the southeast city of Lyon for four to six weeks. She must take drugs to prevent her body from rejecting the donated facial parts, which Dubernard has said carry "a slightly more elevated risk of cancer."
The woman received a section of a nose, lips and chin in the 15-hour transplant surgery on Nov. 27 in the northern city of Amiens, near her home. The woman, the divorced mother of two teenage daughters, has not been identified by name.
She was mauled by a pet Labrador in May, leaving her with severe facial injuries that her doctors said made it difficult for her to speak and eat. The dog was put down.
The partial face was donated by the family of a woman who was declared brain dead. Her identity has also not been made public.
Dubernard led teams that performed a hand transplant in 1998 and the world's first double forearm transplant in January 2000.
The hand transplant recipient later had it amputated. Doctors said the man had become "mentally detached" from his new hand and failed to take the required drugs. His body rejected the limb.
Some critics have questioned the doctors' decision to bypass classic reconstructive surgery in favor of the partial face transplant, an untested procedure. But the director of the hospital where the transplant was performed said it was required.