Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 28, 2000
Liberty Hall is showcasing French movies
Theater to show subtitled films as part of series
By Karen Lucas Special to the Kansan
Aficionados of French-language flicks still are in luck.
The second annual Francophone Film Series began April 14 and will run through tomorrow at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St. Late August, Early September will play at 5 p.m. today, and Life on Earth
will be shown at noon tomorrow. Both films have English subtitles.
The film series is the brainchild of Caroline Jewers, associate professor of French.
"I did it purely for the fun reason of seeing movies on the big screen in Lawrence that we don't seem to get otherwise," she said.
Jewers got funding for the series from from the department of French and Italian and from the Society for French American Cultural Services and Educational Aid. Lora Duguid, owner of au Marche, 19 W. Ninth
St., helped publicize the event, and Liberty Hall provided theater space at a special rate.
Scott Bliss, Liberty Hah Cinema manager, said the festival fit in with the theater's goal to show nonmainstream films.
Jewers chose five culturally diverse films.
"I've tried both times to find films that show very different aspects of not just French culture but also Francophone culture." she said.
She gave high marks for Late August, Early September, which is directed by Olivier Assayas.
Assayas belongs to a group of
"I did it purely for the fun reason of seeing movies on the big screen in Lawrence that we don't seem to get otherwise."
Caroline Jewers Associate professor of French
new French directors that take an original and uncompromising look at French culture," she said. "It's no longer just the culture of berets and
baguettes."
Jewers said that *Life on Earth*, which is a documentary by Abderrahmane Sissako, would be a good note to end the series on. It differs a lot from Assayas' film and the films that were shown earlier: *Same Old Song*, 100% Arabica and *The Swindle*, she said.
Elinor Bill, Hyannis, Mass., sophomore and French major, said the festival was an educational opportunity.
"I think it's a great idea to have a French film festival in Lawrence because it brings French culture to American students," she said.
Admission to the films is $3.
Council's review of finals may shorten schedule
By Ryan Devlin
Kansan staff writer
Fewer days of final-exam stress may be on the way. University Council approved without debate yesterday to revise the final examinations policy. Revision of the policy could result in a shortened number of days that final exams would be scheduled.
The Calendar Committee formulated the proposal and devised a new rotation schedule for final examinations that would allot time for the newly instituted fall break.
The proposal would shorten the number of days final exams are scheduled from seven to five and would reduce the amount of time students have to take their exams from three hours to two and a half hours.
Bill Tsutsui, chair of the Calendar
Committee, said the new schedule presented a challenge because it had to be balanced so that too many students would not be taking finals at the same time. He also said that the committee was concerned that more students might have more than two finals scheduled on the same day, creating an increase in scheduling conflicts.
"Conflicts should not be a problem, but it's something we'll need to monitor in the upcoming semesters." Tsutsui said.
Council also introduced 13 incoming faculty members who will join the body next semester.
Homedam El-Hodiri, professor of economics, said he looked forward to serving again on Council. El-Hodiri is a former member and previously has served as chairman of the University Senate Executive Committee.
"It's like coming home," El-Hodiri said.
"We should have a very powerful Council next year."
New and continuing members also named Tom Beisecker, professor of communications studies, University Council president-elect. Beisecker will sit on Council as a member during the 2000-2001 session. He will become president in the fall of 2001. Current president-elect Jim Carothers will assume his executive position next year.
Beissecker said he was surprised that he was elected but said that he looked forward to serving in the office.
"University governance is a very important part of the University community," Beissecker said. "The opportunity do something within this body is something I look forward to and take very seriously."
Council also named off-campus senator Erin Simpson as vice president of
University Council. Each year the office of vice president is held by a student. Simpson will sit on the Senate Executive Committee and take the place of the Council president in the president's absence.
Council-elected six faculty members to SenEx. They are Barbara Romzek, professor of public administration and government; Russ Ostermann, professor of engineering; Chuck Krider, professor of business; Bill Tsutsul, professor of history; Lisa Wolf-Wendel, professor of teaching and leadership and Tom Beisecker.
The election of Beisecker to SenEx makes him a voting, rather than former, officio member of Council.
Members of SenEx present at the meeting said they would delay the announcement of the SenEx chair until next Tuesday but named Lisa Wool-Wendel vice-chair.
KU student takes on new role calling roll in Kansas Senate
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Katring Hull
TOPEKA — When Chris Confer showed up for work Tuesday, he found out he had been promoted from intern to government employee, but only for two days.
Confer, Independence junior,
spent most of the legislative session
interning for Senate Majority
Leader Tim Emert, R-
Independence.
But when the Senate reader, the person who calls roll for attendance and votes, quit with about three days remaining in the session,
Confer was in the right place at the right time.
Yesterday and Wednesday, Confer stood in front of the Senate, reading names, messages and descriptions of bills.
"It's not physically taxing, but you want to be professional," Confer said. "At 20, that can be hard sometimes."
Confer said the transition from intern to government employee wasn't too difficult, except for having to drop his political inclinations.
"It's a different vantage point."
Confer said. "As an intern, I was allowed to be more political. It's tough when you've been tied to a
party for 88 out of 90 days and then for the last two you're told not to be political."
And toward the end of the session, party politics tend to heat up more as legislators finalize the budget of fiscal year 2001. Confer said that party lines in the Senate had been more distinct in the last two days.
"It's a very tough time to step in right at the end of the session," said Pat Saville, secretary of the Senate.
was short, too. The session should finish today or Saturday, but Confer said he could work for only two days. He had to skip his Wednesday classes to fulfill his new Senate duties.
Saville said having a reader quit so late in the session was unusual. She said she gave Confer a quick rundown of the job and a short practice before he stepped on the floor.
Confer is one of about 25 KU students who have spent the spring semester as interns for the Legislature, said Burdett Loomis, professor of political science and intern instructor.
But his time working for the state
"I think that what is interesting is that if you're around and do a good job as an intern, all kind of interesting opportunities pop up," Loomis said.
for his internship and receive some pay for his last days as an state employee. Saville said the reader was paid $600 every two weeks, but because Confer only worked for two days, he would make about $5 per hour.
Confer will earn six hours of credit
For Confer, however, the pay is irrelevant. He said that his future plans might include politics and that his experience as a Senate reader at least would go on his resume.
"The experience is much better than sitting in a classroom and learning how a bill becomes a law and looking at some '70s diagram." Confer said. "I'm up front and in the center of the action."
Watkins residents to attend hearing about hall funds
By Jim O'Malley
writer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Residents of Watkins Scholarship Hall go to court today to find out if they can go to court regarding the management of the trust that pays for maintaining their hall.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for 9 a.m. in Douglas County District Court.
Watkins residents and alumni have been questioning management of the trust since 1984. It was set up in the will of Elizabeth Miller Watkins, who donated the hall to the Board of Regents in 1926.
David J. Brown, Watkins residents' attorney, said yesterday that the hearing was limited to one issue.
"The purpose of the hearing is specifically to determine whether the residents of Watkins hall have standing to challenge the administration of the trust," he said.
At a hearing on Jan. 25, Douglas County District Judge Jack Murphy told Watkins residents to file written objections and scheduled a hearing for April.
The bank responded with a motion to dismiss, arguing that the residents lacked legal standing to object to management of of the trust. Watkins' will does not name residents as beneficiaries of the trust — it names the hall.
But Brown said hall residents were beneficiaries of the trust, which was established to maintain the hall. Residents have a real financial interest in the trust because it affects the rent they pay, and Brown said this gave them standing.
The residents argue that the annual accounting filed by Bank of America is inadequate because it does not say what the money was spent for.
They want to know why the bank pays the trust income to the University, when the Regents own the hall. They also ask why the University transfers trust income to the Kansas University Endowment Association and where that money goes.
Lynn Bretz, interim director of University Relations, said that the University was not a party in the hearing but that it was confident that the trust was managed appropriately and in accordance to Elizabeth Miller Watkins' wishes.
"The same bank has been doing the same report for 60 years, and there's been no trouble," she said.