Friday, April 9, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 3
Diversity requirement fails; dissenters cite 'vagueness'
Chris Hopkins
chopkins@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The debate about the U.S. Diversity Requirement ended yesterday after two and a half years when it was voted down by more than a 2-1 margin.
The results of the University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Assembly mail-in ballot were announced yesterday by CLAS Dean Sally Frost Mason. The final vote was 129 for and 273 against the requirement.
Mason said that it was too bad that the initiative hadn't passed but that the University would continue to encourage diversity.
"I encourage the faculty to continue the dialogue in positive ways that will convey to our students the importance of understanding and
working with those who may be dif-
different from ourselves," she said.
leren from abroad.
The proposal would have required students in CLAS seeking bachelor of arts or general studies degrees to take a class concerning diversity in America. The class could count toward all other requirements except the non-Western civilization requirement.
Don Marquis, professor of philosophy, said he was glad his colleagues were intelligent enough to vote against the requirement.
Marquis said that the proposal was far too vague and open to interpretation.
He said that he had asked in a CLAS meeting if a class about Methodists or other non-majority groups would count and was told that the minority needed to have been oppressed.
"We've got to make some kind of determination of who is and who
isn't oppressed, and w'd obviously disagree," Marquis said.
Aaron Profitt, Overland Park sophomore and CLAS Assembly member, said that the vagueness of the proposal and personal agendas could control the program.
"A certain bread and openness seems to me to be inescapable," Lester said.
Kathryn Conrad, assistant professor of English, helped with the proposal but said that rather than adjusting it, the committee that wrote it probably would explore other avenues.
Cheryl Lester, associate professor of English and initiator of the proposal, said that defining diversity more concretely could omit important groups.
"I don't think there are any immediate plans to restart, but the dialogue will continue," Conrad said.
— Edited by Kelli Raybern
N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa poet and literary giant, speaks at John Eberhard Colloquium. Momaday read from his new novel, "In the Bear's house," during his second of two talks last night at the Kansas room in the Kansas Union. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Poet recounts history of Kiowa
Pulitzer Prize winning author speaks at KU
A night in November in 1833.
By Dan Curry
dcurry@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The Kiowa people, asleep in teepees, were awoken by the light of a fire storm of falling stars, meteors like moons, coming across the bow of the earth.
"Spectacular" seems almost too tame a word for it, said N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa poet and literary giant, recounting the history of the Kiowa people to about 200 attendees to the first of two Eberhard Colloquium yesterday.
Momaday said the Kiowa saw a fortune of change in the stars, an event which The New York Times reported in an article dated November 14, 1833.
"It was within just a few years of the
falling stars that an epidemic of small pox wiped out one third of the plains population," he said. "The buffalo were on the verge of extinction. The first treaty was signed within a generation."
Momaday, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Way to Rainy Mountain," "frequently intermixes history, personal experience and the stories of his people in his novels.
He focused on "The Way to Rainy Mountain" during the first talk and on his new novel, "In the Bear's House," during his second.
during his play," "Children of the Sun," was produced at the Lied Center early this semester.
Luci Tapahonso, associate professor of English and poet, introduced Momaday using a Navajo phrase that means, "one who can speak beautiful."
"They say in Navaho that people are known by the way they speak," Tapahonso said. "Dr. Momaday is a person who speaks beautifully."
He told the story of the seven sisters and their brother. The brother, pretending he was a bear, chased his sisters, who pretended to be afraid.
With a resonate voice, Momaday recounted his earliest memories of stories he heard his family tell him.
But then the boy turned into a bear
Momaday said. Terrified, the sisters
fied for their lives. As they passed a tree
stump, the stump spoke to them.
They did, and the tree stump grew until it became the natural rock formation that people call the Devil's Tower, located in the Black Hills of Wyoming, Momaday said. The sisters rose to the sky and became the stars of the Big Dipper.
"If you will climb upon me, I will save you," Momaday said, recounting the story.
"Those stars are my sisters," Momday said, whose Kiowa name, Rock Tree Boy, refers to the Devil's Tower.
—Edited by Aerico Veczen
Chancellor sets May 1 deadline for decision
By Kristi Reimer
kreimer@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Chancellor Robert Hemenway delivers a speech to the University Council. Hemenway fielded questions concerning a fall break and salary increases for faculty. Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
Fall break issue to be settled
Chancellor Robert Hemenway said yesterday that he would make a decision by May 1 on a calendar proposal that includes a fall break but that he still had questions about the plan.
Hemenway told University Council members he had asked Provost David Shulenburger for information from other universities about whether those schools experienced an "early departure syndrome."
"The cruz of my decision is going to be, is this going to make for a better KU or will it be a detriment to KU?" he said in a question-and answer session before the council.
A plan that would revise the academic calendar to include a two-day break in mid-October and a two-week intersession in January passed the Senate Executive Committee and University Council earlier this year. It also would shorten final week from six to five days.
The proposal is widely supported by students.
Laurence Drapar, professor of molecular biosciences, said the calendar's other positive aspects should not be overlooked.
Hemenway said the calendar had features he supported, such as the intersession during winter break.
"Full break is only one small part," he said.
"That block of time gives us the chance to do some very creative things," he said.
He said he did not anticipate any strong objection from the Board of Regents, which would have to approve the calendar before it took effect.
But Seth Hoffman, Nunemaker senator and Delta Force candidate for student body president, said after the council meeting that he had doubts about Hemenway's enthusiasm for the calendar.
For all the monkism that has been building in this effort, I think everybody was hoping he would be more approving of it," Hoffman said. "I would really like to see it done as soon as the Legislature is over."
Hemenway also discussed the status of a faculty salary increase before a conference committee of the state Legislature. He said he was optimistic that faculty at Regents universities would get close to a 5 percent increase in pay.
"These are the times we ought to be making up for this deficit," he said, referring to a 12 percent gap between KU faculty salaries and those at peer institutions. "This can be done if we're willing to invest in the intellectual capital in this room."
he needs to声援 He said council members should not hesitate to contact their legislators and express their views.
Faculty members also questioned Hemenway about online classes and what the University's goals were. Hemenway said the administration was willing to support efforts with online education that grew out of individual departments.
"Any KU instruction is expected to set the standard," he said.
-Edited by Keith Burner
Kansan staff writer
By Kristi Reimer
A plan to restructure the Board of Regents passed a test vote in the Kansas House of Representatives yesterday. Chancellor Robert Hemenway tried to assure concerned University of Kansas faculty that the bill had potential advantages.
cation in Kansas," Hemenway said.
"Right now there is no entity that can be a voice for all of higher edu
But Hemenway said that, although the plan would mean change for the University, he was not convinced the change would be negative
"I have a feeling that no matter what incarnation the bill takes, KU is going to be hurt," said T.P. Srinivasan, professor of mathematics, at a meeting of the University Council yesterday.
He said the different elements of post-secondary education Regents universities, community colleges and technical colleges were often played off against one other in requests for state funding.
"We've been whispsaid by this fragmented structure," Hemenway said. "But this way we would have one voice."
The bill would abolish the Board of Regents and re-establish a new board in July. It would divide the board into three commissions: One for oversight of four-year universities, one for community and technical colleges, and one for coordination between the other two.
Hemenway said that among his concerns about the bill was whether a nine-member board
"That's a lot of institutions," he said.
could effectively govern six universities, 19 community colleges and 12 technical colleges.
The Senate passed the bill last month, and the House Education Committee amended it to add a funding component for community colleges. Yesterday's House vote was 76-46. A final vote was scheduled for this morning.
Passage would return the bill to the Senate, which is expected to reject the financial provisions and send the measure to a conference committee to work out a compromise during the Legislature's wrap-up session at the end of the month.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
— Edited by Keith Burner
—Edited by Keith Burner
Student Senate engineering candidates discuss issues, plans in forum
Candidates for Student Senate engineering seats shared ideas with 12 students yesterday about gaining more representation for engineering students in Senate and at the University of Kansas.
By Nadia Mustafa
nmustafa@kansan.com
Kansan staff write
Marlon Marshall, Brady Rodgers and Sonya Mohseni. YOU candidates for engineering seats, debated issues pertinent to engineering students and the University as a whole with Sarah Hm
one of two Delta Force candidates for engineering seats, at an informal debate. Delta Force's other candidate, Katherine Marchin, did not attend.
Hill, an incumbent studying chemical engineering, was elected to the Engineering Student Council for next year. She said that she wanted engineering students to become more involved in student organizations, and vice versa.
"Engineers have a lot to offer the University, and the University has a lot to offer engineers," Hill said. "Engineers can offer the campus a
problem-solving approach, and the University can benefit from that."
Marshall, an incumbent candidate studying computer engineering and a member of the Engineering Student Council and the National Society of Black Engineers, said that if elected, he would ensure that engineering students' ideas about issues were represented.
She said that if elected, she would visit student organizations at least once per semester and would set up office hours in Learned Hall to be more accessible to her constituents.
He said he would visit student organizations and organize an engineering listserv, a monthly forum for engineering students and an information table at Learned about Senate and KU organizations.
Before answering most of the questions from the moderator and students in the audience, Hill consulted with Brett Stoppel, Delta Force incumbent candidate for off campus senator and engineering student. Korb Maxwell, YOU candidate for student body president, aided the YOU candidates.
Mohseni, a chemical and biomedical engineering student and member of the American Institution of Chemical Engineers, said that she wanted a higher voter turnout within the School of Engineering. She said that if elected she would make decisions based on what she thought was best for engineering students by gaining her constituents' input and serving office hours at Learned.
saving the earth. Hill said that she would represent engineering concerns but also would consider what would be good for the
One student asked how the candidates would encourage or enable engineering students to take courses other than those required by their majors to gain a more well-rounded education
Hill said that requiring engineering students to enroll in one such course each semester would be a possibility. Also, she said that she was interested in the implementation of a multicultural or diversity requirement in the School of Engineering.
Edited by Nathan Willis
University as a whole.
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