Thursday, May 3, 2012
kansan.com
ACCESS FOR ALL Becoming an inclusive campus
HANNAH WISE
hwise@kansan.com
Lauren Wismer sits in the front row of her biology class in Budig 120. She is in the center section in the seat on the far left. Though she faces forward, she does not see the professor. Instead, she is watching her sign language translator sign the lecture to her.
Wismer, a junior from Kansas City, Kan., was diagnosed as hard of hearing at age two. She said the hearing loss was caused by
medication given to her as an infant to treat ear infections. Her doctors do not know why her hearing is progressively declining.
Before last year, Wismer still heard fairly well, but then her hearing dropped off. She began having to use an FM-transmitter and CART, a closed captioning system for classes. Her professors would wear a small microphone that would transmit the sound directly to her hearing aids while she reads a transcript of what was being said on CART as it is typed by someone in the lecture.
This is the first semester she read sign language in classes. She was encouraged to learn sign language while she was studying at the University of Illinois because she was struggling in classes. She was a member of the diving team and dived there for two years until she broke her back.
"Since I've started using sign language I have done a lot better," Wisner said. "I wish I had started signing sooner."
SEE ACCESS PAGE 4A
PARTY TIME
LEADERSHIP
University reminds students to safely celebrate stop day
Tomorrow's Stop Day marks the beginning of the final stretch for University students. Some will use the day to rest or study and others will use it to detox after celebrating the semester's close tonight.
RACHEL SALYER rsalyer@kansan.com
Because students are expected to party tonight, the Jayhawk Buddy System is advocating for students to drink safely by handing out t-shirts on Wescoe Beach from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"We know it's a traditional party night," said Frank DeSalvo, associate vice provost for student affairs. "We're not
really asking anybody to change their behavior, but instead to think ahead so that they make it home safely."
Anyone going out tonight is asked to eat before drinking, rotate alcoholic drinks with water and to start home by 1:30 a.m. DeSalvo said they are asking students to leave a little before the bars close to limit the cumulative effect of alcohol.
"Those last drinks build on earlier drinks ingested," DeSalvo said. "Usually they don't hit students until they are at home, and by that point they no longer be surrounded
SEE STOP DAY PAGE 8A
TECHNOLOGY
Payroll system to be updated
LUKE RANKER
lranker@kansan.com
The University will simplify payroll over the summer.
Ola Faucher, director of human resources, said the University plans on switching to an electronic payroll system on July 30. With the new system, employees will clock in and out by either swiping a card or logging into the online system.
Erika Eden, assistant tech director at the Lied Center, said the new system should save time
She said tech crew members are allowed to work only 30 hours a week, and the new system will require the Lied Center to monitor crew shifts more closely. Because a crew typically works the same
"We have a lot of crew members on shift and only one computer," Eden said. "We'll just have to be patient and adjust."
normally spent on filing paper time sheets, but may require tech crew members to be more organized.
SEE PAYROLL PAGE 8A
From left: Kimberlee Hinkle, Libby Johnson and Hannah Bolton stand in front of Strong Hall. All three women have been or will be in a position of power where they have dealt with gender bias.
IFSSICA IANAS7/KANSAN
Campus leaders cope with gender bias
kcipolla@kansan.com
KELSEY CIPOLLA
kcpollaa@kansan.com
Earlier this month, Hannan Bolton joined a group of nine people after winning the election for student body president.
It wasn't an afterparty. It was the list of women who have been elected president in Student Senate's almost 70-year history.
"Looking back, I feel like a lot of people might not have had faith in me simply because I was a female," said Bolton, a junior from St. Libory, Neb. "I still feel like we've come along way over the past few years in accepting women in leadership roles."
Throughout her campaign, she never felt like people were judging her or treating her differently because she was a women, which she credits to an increase in women leaders on campus, like Bernadette Gray-Little, the University's first female chancellor.
Senate as a freshman and tried to run for president her sophomore year, but lost the nomination for reasons she thinks were based on her gender. The next year, she won the nomination and election and became the University's first female student body president in 12 years. While most of her time in office was positive, she felt she was treated unfairly by some male administrators.
Although more women are now in high profile positions, they still earn 77 cents for every dollar that men make, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That struggle for equality was a part of Hannah Love's experience as Student Body President five years ago.
"I think things are really changing here at KU," Bolton said.
CHALLENGES IN OFFICE Love got involved in Student
"There were certain men on
— Haley Miller, president of the Commission on the Status of Women
"I think a lot of people, especially younger people, have the mentality that we live in a post-feminist era when that's the furthest thing from the truth."
said she relearned how to talk to men in order to get them to listen to her, using tricks like lowering her voice and trying to make them feel like they suggested her ideas.
Throughout the year, she struggled with how to handle the situation, but received some perspective on how far women have come after talking to her mother.
"My mom would say, 'When I was in school, I wasn't even
campus I wouldn't meet with unless I had another person or another male present because they simply wouldn't talk to me," Love said.
Although she came to meetings prepared and with information on what other schools in the Big 12 were doing, men would repeatedly shut down her ideas until they were proposed by her vice president, Ray Wittlinger. It became such an issue that Love
allowed to wear pants. I wouldn't even have been allowed to run," Love said. "She wasn't even allowed to play sports. Times have changed and they continue to change."
Libby Johnson, the outgoing Student Senate president and a senior from Lawrence, still remembers the effect that seeing Love in that position of power had on her as a freshman.
"I remember watching her give
a speech at commencement and having no idea what the student body president did, but thinking it was so cool that there was a female student body president," Johnson said.
Last year, it was a position that Johnson ran for and won. She felt that being president would give her an opportunity to have a strong voice and allow her access to the resources necessary to make changes on campus.
"I've felt very respected and empowered." Johnson said of her time as president.
But after a while, she began to notice subtle differences in how she was treated or how her ideas were received because of her gender.
After being introduced with vice president Gabe Bliss, people would shake his hand before hers, thinking he was the president. At times, she felt like she had to act more authoritative to counteract assumptions and be taken seriously.
"You kind of have to think extra hard about how people are going to perceive you and be conscious of it," Johnson said.
Index
Johnson said she saw women assuming more leadership roles on campus during her time at the University. In her sophomore year, a third of student senators were women, a number that
CLASSIFIEDS 2B
CROSSWORD 6A
SEE WOMEN PAGE 8A
SPORTS 1B
SUDOKU 6A
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Don't forget
Don't forget Friday is stop day. Don't come to campus.
Today's Weather
Mostly sunny, with a 40 percent chance of rain.
Pretty day to end classes on.