TUESDAY,MAY7,2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Mrs. E's worker cheers up students
By Adam Pracht
Kansan staff writer
Jim Carroll has been working at Mrs. E's dining hall on Daisy Hill for five years. He said that he gets along well with the students and enjoys getting to know them.
KIMBFRIY THOMPSON/KANSAN
It's not every day that the person who just made your hamburger asks you to dance.
Amy Lindsey, Wichita sophomore, said Jim Carroll, a five-year employee at Mrs. E's Cafeteria in Lewis Hall, asked her to do just that.
"It wasn't something that you would expect someone who serves your meal to do," Lindsey said.
Lindsey said the request was typical of Carroll's caring and positive outlook on life. She said she has found him to be an upbeat person who has tried to improve students' daily lives throughout the year that she has known him.
Carroll said he wanted students to feel like they were eating at home when they were in the cafeteria.
"Where people eat is where the heart is, and you have a big family to feed," he said.
Tormod Ellingsen, Tromdheim, Norway senior, said Carroll went out of his way to help students. He said Carroll would bring food out to the table for him or other members of his intramural soccer team if they were recovering from an injury. Ellingsen also said Carroll would frequently come to see them play their soccer games.
"I think he's kind of like a father figure for some," Ellingsen said. "He's very friendly to other people."
David Titterington, Prairie Village freshman, said Carroll was the only cook at Mrs. E's that he knew by name. Titterington said Carrell tried to connect with every student and make them feel at home.
"It has become acceptable to just silently walk by people, but he tries to break that," Titterington said.
Carroll said he tried to wel come students and make them
feel comfortable as they ate.
"I hope people come into my cat eterna and feel at peace with themselves," he said. "That they can joke with me and give me a hard time as I give them a hard time."
Carroll has even dressed in drag before to try to make the students smile, but he said that he was not a homosexual. He said that he once lived a homosexual lifestyle, but didn't anymore because he found that all of his relationships were based on the physical aspect.
Carroll said that he now tried to live free of labels.
"I'm Jim. I'm not gay or straight or bi or whatever people want me to be," he said. "I am just Jim, and I'm a person who wants to reach out and love people."
John Hoyt, a friend of Carroll for more than 20 years, said he was amazed by Carroll's ability to live without worrying about what others thought.
"What would it be like if you didn't have to live up to anyone's
expectations and you just became free of those?" he said. "That's very rare."
While Carroll usually works to cheer students, he said he was also there for students during hard times. He said he listened to students and sometimes offered to light a candle for them at night to let them know that he was thinking and praying for them.
"I'm there for the students 24 hours a day, and I want to be their dad or their brother or someone they can lean on," he said.
Carroll said he lit about 30 candles every night and found that it was a way to remember those in need. He said he lit one for a student who said his mother had died.
Hoyt said Carroll had often lit candles for him in times when he was struggling to raise a family and when Hoyt spent time in the hospital recovering from a serious accident.
"He's probably gone through
an entire candle factory for me," Hovt said.
Carroll said he wanted to help others even before he came to the University of Kansas. He was a server in a hospital and a nursing home and tried to be a "guardian angel"to the people there by visiting patients and residents.
While he doesn't talk about it often, Carroll said he found strength in his faith as a Christian. While he calls himself a "Jesus Freak," he said he didn't want to push his beliefs on others but just to show care for them.
Carroll said that he was just trying to fill a void that he saw in people's lives.
"People need people now," he said. "If people would just look around and see how lucky they really have it, it would be a better place to live."
Contact Pracht at
Contact Pracht at apracht@kansan.com. This story was edited by Angela Cox.
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