Monday, April 19, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 5
Minority student retention improves
By Dan Curry
by Dan Curry
dcurry@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
More students of color have chosen to attend the University of Kansas, and more have chosen to come back.
Retention Rates
According to Institutional Research and Planning, 4.6 percent more first time, fulltime minority freshmen in 1997 returned to the University in 1988.
In 1996, 344 first time, full-time minority freshmen came to the University and 242, or 70.3 percent, returned the next year.
Rachel Kesselman/KANSAN
In 1997, 362 minority freshmen came to the University. The next year, 271, or 74.9 per cent, returned.
source; Institutional Research & Planning
A conference Saturday at the Kansas Union brought together professionals from across the Midwest to discuss strategies for recruiting, matriculating and graduating students of color, said Robert Page, assistant director of admissions and conference chairman.
"Even though the University of Kansas has a high retention rate, it's still a concern across the nation," Page said. "We do feel like we have to address the issue."
In an early morning address to about 50 people, Chancellor Robert Hemenway reaffirmed his commitment to Affirmative Action policies.
Hemenway also said dialogues on recruitment and retention of minority students were especially important given the political and legal challenges to Affirmative Action elsewhere.
During the conference, several of the University's methods for retaining students of color were shared with conference participants.
"In a big research institution, it's easy to get lost," said John Augusto, assistant dean of the graduate school.
The Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center, Undergraduate Admissions, the Dean of Students, the Graduate School and the Multicultural Resource Center were
important in helping students of color and incoming freshmen become orientated, Augusta said.
Augusto, who directs the Graduate Minority Recruitment Program, said he was happy with the funding he had received the last few years from the chancellor.
in one session of the conference, the University's Supportive Educational Services was touted as a success story in retention.
Maritza Machado-Williams, director of SES, said her program, financed primarily by a federal grant, provided free tutoring, counseling and mentoring to 250 students a year, about 40 percent of whom were students of color.
To quality for aid from the program, students must be low-income, first-generation college students or possess a disability. Studies conducted by SES found that 100 percent of first-generation freshmen participating with the program returned their sophomore year. Only 59 percent of comparable set of students who did not participate with SES returned.
The conference was sponsored by the offices of the chancellor and the provost, Admissions and Scholarships, Minority Affairs, Student Life, the Coca-Cola Company and other schools within the University.
Juan H. Heath
Pride Week ends with march
Bv Clay McCuistion
By Clay McCusition Special to the Kansan
"We're here; we're queer; we're fabulous, used to get us," chanted marchers in the sixth-annual Lawrence Pride March yesterday.
Carrying pastel-colored balloons, signs and a U.S. flag, about 60 KU students and area residents demonstrated in favor of equal rights for the gay and lesbian community. The march down Massachusetts Street, followed by a rally and potluck lunch at the South Park Gazebo, was the final event of pride week.
As the marchers worked their way down the street, some onlookers cheered.
Others did not. About 15 members of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church held neon-colored signs that read "Fag Death March" and "Sin and Shame, Not Pride," among other slogans. The Topeka church is led by Rev. Fred Phelps, Sr., nationally known for his anti-homosexual sexue.
Vincent Worthington, East Lansing. Mich., graduate student, wore a red sign on his chest that read "God
Hates Bigotry" in black letters.
Hates Bigotry" in black letters. Worthington said he did not agree with the Westboro members.
"It just doesn't work that way, like the group across the street," he said. Chris Hampton, Lawrence editor for the Liberty Press, a Wichita-based monthly magazine for the LBGT community, said she was pleased to be among the 60-some marchers.
"I've been here every year for the last six years," Hampton said. "I think it's really important for those of us who feel comfortable being visible at these events to do so. I think we help more people feel comfortable being out and being visible in Lawrence," she said.
Bonnie Cuevas, president of the Topeka-Lawrence chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, carried a banner promoting her organization in the march and spoke at the rally.
"I'm here to support what these young people are doing and how they're speaking out," Cuevas said after the rally. "I draw a lot of strength from them."
Jack Shay, co-coordinator of pride week, said that, depending on the
weather, the march usually attracted 50 to 200 people.
"This is one of Lawrence's favorite things," Shay said. "We usually get a pretty good turnout.
"Throughout pride week we can focus on smaller parts of the community, and at the end of the week all the smaller communities can come together and form one big one," Shay said.
Stacey Greenbaum, Overland Park freshman, said she marched to support her friends. She carried a small sign that read "Simply Equal."
"It's great people can come together and be accepting of each other," Greenbaum said. "It's not a gay thing. It's not a lesbian thing. It's a human thing."
Edited by Liz Wristen
Don Rowland, Lawrence graduate student, leads the sixth annual Lawrence Pride march down Massachusetts Street. During the march yesterday afternoon, Rowland yelled, "What do we want?" to marchers who responded by yelling, "Equal rights!" Photo by Ruben Noguera/KANSAN
Social Work Day honors achievement
By Allan Davis
Special to the Kansan
Six students, two faculty members and one alumnus received awards Friday during the 1999 Social Work Day sponsored by the School of Social Welfare and the KU Social Work Alumni Society.
The students all received Margo Awards for outstanding student achievement in field practicum, the applied practice of social work education, during the 1988-1999 school year. The Margo Awards were established in 1986 to honor Margaret Schutz Gordon, professor emerita, who directed KU's social welfare practicum program from 1970 until her retirement in 1983.
Belinda Viertheral, Shawnee senior, won the Margo Award for an undergraduate practicum.
Graduate students Chad Sublet, Lawrence, and Kelly Fetrow, Baldwin City, received the Master of Social Work Foundation Practice award.
Brandi Schneider, Lawrence graduate student, won the Social Administration award.
Linda O'Neal, Hutchinson graduate student, and Rosalyn Wilson, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student, received the Clinical Practicum award.
Sadye Logan, associate professor of social welfare, and Vettra Ford, instructor in the school of social welfare, received the 1999 Outstanding KU Social Work Faculty award.
William Vieux, experiential therapist at Lawrence's Cedar Branch Recovery Systems, PA, received the 1999 Outstanding KU Social Work Alumnus award.
Claudia Black, a lecturer and author, delivered the keynote address, "Addictive Disorders: The Family Legacy."
Black is a clinical consultant for addictive disorders in Wickenburg, Ariz.
Alvin Brooks, president of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, gave the afternoon address, "America's Diversity: How do we take Advantage of it?" Brooks is a Kansas City, Mo., councilman and a commentator for two Kansas City radio stations. KPRS-FM and its sister station, KPRT-AM.
Brooks drew a big laugh from the audience when he commented about demonstrators he saw during a KU Queers and Allies Pride Week event.
Participants could attend their choice of seven morning and seven afternoon workshops.
This year's Social Work Day theme was "Open Minds Finding Solutions." About 450 people registered for the event, which was held at the Kansas Union.
"One sign said, 'No gays in heaven,' he said. "I wanted to get out of the car and say, 'how do you know?'
Debbie McCord, events coordinator for the School of Social Welfare, organized the day's events.
"It's a nice way for our alumni to reconnect with each other each year and to hear speakers, receive more information about the field, and see faculty members that they might like to see again," she said.
-Edited bv Katrina Hull
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