Section A • Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, June 30, 1999
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Kids offering building advice to Hilltop
Editor's note: With the assistance of teachers Kasey Fewins and Heather Grant, children at Hilltop Child Development Center wrote and illustrated the following story about building a new center. Pat Pisani, Hilltop director, read the story Sunday to the crowd at the groundbreaking for the new center.
"Building a New Hilltop"
By the Aqua Room, June 27, 1998
First you have to have lots of people draw designs for the new building. It takes about 15 people
Then you have to buy the supplies for the new building from the store. There are so many things to buy that you have to rent a big truck.
You have to have a groundbreaking. At the groundbreaking, everyone gets together to help dig up dirt. About 1,000 people will bring shovels to help dig.
After the people have helped dig, then the construction workers start working. It takes about 139 workers to build the building.
Provest David Shulenburger helps Pat Pisani, Hilltop director, read from a story by Hilltop children about the construction of the new Hilltop building. The children wrote the story for their class. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
First they have to dig a giant hole. They use shovels, bulldozers, excavators, Bobcats and
They take dirt from the hole and put it in a dump truck. Then they
backhoes.
pour concrete in the hole.
After the concrete has dried, it is time to start building. They use wood, bricks, metal, cement and glass to build the building.
It takes lots of tools to build the building. The workers use tools like hammers, nails, screwdrivers, pliers, saws, tape measures, wrenches, levels, drills, electric saws, nuts, bolts, screws and extension cords.
After 16 days of working, the building is done. Then it is time to work inside the building. The walls have to be painted, carpet has to be installed and light switches have to be checked.
Then, it is time to move everything from the old building to the new building. It takes 400 strong people in 100 trucks to move everything.
Finally, it is time to get the kids and teachers moved in, because it wouldn't be Hilltop without the kids and teachers.
And that is how you build a new Hilton.
KU office changes name to redefine mission
By Clint Hooker
Kansan staff writer
The University's Office of Minority Affairs is changing its name and leadership staff in an effort to restructure and redefine the office's mission to students.
Beginning tomorrow, the office will be called the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
James Kitchen, associate vice chancellor and dean of students, said his idea to rename the office came form a belief that the term "minority" carried a negative connotation as something less than equal.
"We are a multi-cultural society, a multi-cultural institution, why not a multi-cultural office?" Kitchen said.
While the name change will go into effect fairly smoothly, the University is still working to fill three of the office's leadership positions, all of which were vacated when staff members left the office this year.
Kitchen said all of them, including the office's director, Sherwood
Thompson, the associate director. Gloria Flores, and two assistant directors, Tamara Lewis and Julius Williams, left to take similar positions at other universities or separate positions at KU.
Thompson went to the University of Georgia to head its minority student services office and Lewis returned to her native Virginia to work at Hampton University, Kitchen said. Flores now serves as associate director of KU's freshman/sophomore advising center, while Winn is now executive director of the African-American Task Force.
Kitchen said that the interview process had concluded last week and that he was trying to learn more about the individual candidates before any job offers would be made.
"We're hoping we'll be able to wrap this search up soon and get a new director on board" he said.
Robert Page, who will serve as the OMA's associate director when the other positions are filled, is running the office during the interim
Page, who previously served as assistant director of admissions, said the OMA would focus on the retention and recruitment of students of color and promote student leadership.
"Those were areas that I had already been working on in admissions, so it was kind of natural that I applied and was able to get the job," he said.
Page said that his work now is to get the office ready for the name change and prepare for some new programs under development.
"We're updating all of our publications, currently to reflect the name change and we're also looking at a more inclusive feel to our office," he said. "Our primary goal is to serve ethnic minorities, but we want everyone to feel like the OMA is something they can come into to get advice, ideas about programming or whatever they may want."
One of the new services being developed for students is called Hawklink 2000, a retention program designed to coordinate the
efforts of similar departmental programs through the OMA.
The department of student housing,office of financial aid,new student orientation the freshman/sophomore advising center,office of admissions,the student development center and special educational services will all take part in the collaborative effort.
Quincy Garner, Olathe senior, said the office helped incoming minority students feel more comfortable at the University by putting them around people of similar backgrounds and experiences.
Garner's fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, even helps new students move in at the beginning of the semester as a welcome to the University.
"When you come to this environment and you're moving in, and things are kind of frantic," he said. "It helps to have familiar faces, even though you may not know these people."
— Edited by Anjum Aziz