Wednesday
April 30, 2003
Vol. 113, Issue No. 145
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NSAN
Wichita State pitching leads Shockers past Jayhawks p.1B
Senator attacks Dailey on show
John Nowak/Kansan
Katie Wolff, Shawnee, junior, and Jen Wein, Lawrence senior, balk at a comment made by Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor. The Fox television show featured commentary by Sen. Susan Wagle concerning her discontent with Dennis Dailey's, Human Sexuality in Everyday Life class.
By Cate Batchelder and Kelley Weiss cbatchelder@kansan.com and kweiss@kansan.com Kansan staff writers
Herman Leon described Sen. Susan Wagles's mission to eliminate funding to the School of Social Welfare as "the theater of the absurd."
Leon, professor emeritus of the School of Social Welfare, and about 30 students gathered on the third floor in the Kansas Union last night to watch Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor on a big-screen television. Last night's show included a segment about Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare, titled "Perv or Prof?"
The segment featured Wagle and her intern, Jessica Zahn, Linwood senior, via satellite from Wichita, The O'Reilly
Factor program director invited Dailey to the show, but he declined the offer.
Wagle proposed an amendment earlier this year, which Gov. Kathleen Sebelius line-item vetoed, to cut $3.1 million, the School of
Wagle
Social Welfare because of Dailey's Human Sexuality in Everyday Life class. Wagle and Zahn, a former student in Dailey's class, said the class contained sexual obscenity and that Dailey had harassed his students. Dailey declined to comment about the allegations or the show.
"We, like many other states, are in a financial crisis right now, and I look at this as very frivolous, unnecessary
spending," Wagle said on the show. "I don't see the academics that are going on in the classroom."
Jen Hein, Lawrence senior, organized the viewing in the Union. She is a Dailey advocate and a student in his disputed class. She said before the show, that a lot of damage could be done in the five-minute segment.
"I would hope most people could recognize a witch hunt when they see one," Hein said.
But she also joked, saying Wagle and the "sex police" would later accuse the students watching the show of having a sexual orgy "and that the gathering would have something lewd going on."
When watching, students laughed at the comments they heard.
SEE SENATOR ON PAGE 10A
Union renovations officially finished
By Lauren Bristow
lbristow@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The first cornerstone of the Kansas Memorial Union was laid 77 years ago. This afternoon the University of Kansas and Memorial Unions Corporation will dedicate a new addition and renovation.
The renovation will come to an end at 1 p.m. today in the Hawks Nest, a new student lounge and performance area.
"The process took approximately seven years from first conception to completion," said David Mucci, director of the Memorial Unions. "Everyone that comes to the dedication will get a pair of scissors to help cut the construction tape ribbon."
After its conception, construction on the $6.3 million renovation project started in the September 2001.
New features include approximately a 45 percent increase in the capacity of the Student Organization and Leadership Development Center, a covered walkway connecting the adjacent parking garage, a new area for Oread Books and an Academic Computer Service area, said Pat Beard, director of building services for the Kansas and Burge Union.
The most prominent feature of the renovation is the relocated main stairwell called the "traditions tower," Mucci said.
Embedded in the base of the tower is a piece of limestone called the Rock Chalk Stone. The stone was originally part of an old building at KU.
"I'd like to think the stone is from
The University of Kansas and Memorial Unions Corporation will dedicate the new addition and renovation of the Kansas Union this afternoon. The renovation will end at 1 p.m. today in the Hawks Nest.
Old Fraser, but we're not sure which building it actually came from," Mucci said. "There are several other pieces in the stairwell that reflect traditions here at KU such as the old whistle and a series of plaques and awards."
Other features of the stairwell include a blue ceiling in reference to "towering toward the blue"in the alma mater and steel wheat incorporated into the hand rails.
The Kansas Union has undergone two previous major renovations between 1987 to 1989 and 1992 to 1993. The recent renovation was the third and final phase of the plans.
Gould Evans Architects designed the plan for this renovation.
"The architects took the heartfelt and imaginative ideas from students and staff that were conceived during the planning discussions and turned those into architectural elements," Mucci said. "The renovation was an attempt to make the Union less linear driven and open it up for movement of sound and light. I think we've accomplished that."
Chancellor Robert Hemenway and other University officials will speak at the dedication. A reception will follow.
GTAC delivers petition to protest termination
— Edited by Leah Shaffer
By Lauren Airey lairey@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Members of the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition delivered a petition with about 100 graduate student signatures to the Office of the Provost yesterday to protest the termination of one of its members.
GTAC members say Abdel-Rahman Al-Gibaly was unfairly terminated from his teaching assistant position last
semester, said Dan Carey, president of GTAC. Al-Gibaly taught Arabic as a graduate teaching assistant in the department of African and African-American Studies during the Fall 2002 semester.
"We want to create an environment conducive to teaching and education," Carey said. "To fire a graduate teaching assistant in the middle of a semester after one evaluation is bad practice."
They love this stuff
By Cal Creek
ccreek@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Film — a collaborative art both in staff and content. All other arts, visual, music, theater and writing meld to form the celluloid stories projected onto the screen at 24 frames a second. Here are the stories of three KU filmmakers, who sacrifice their social and academic lives to perpetuate their careers. They don't mind.
They love this stuff.
The Graduate
As Patrick Rea darts around the set of the Channel 6 news stage, it is evident he doesn't like to relax. He tests microphones, white balances and focuses the three massive cameras and explains shot sequences to his camera men.
Rea graduated from the University of Kansas in December. Since then, he has continued to make films in Lawrence, including a project in postproduction with KU Filmworks, a film society and production unit. The film, Cellular, is about a man who talks on a cell phone so much it attaches to his head.
"I'm afraid to slow down, in the sense that I'm afraid to get lazy," he said.
"He picks up a camera and goes out and makes his movie," said Matt Jacobson, assistant professor of theatre and film. "He's the closest thing I've seen, so far, to a natural filmmaker."
Rea recently made a documentary for his hometown of Schuyler, Neb., about a high school's effort to reopen the local theater, which had been closed since the 40s.
He works part time as a camera man and floor director for Channel 6 News.
"I'm afraid to slow down, in the sense that I'm afraid to get lazy."
Patrick Rea University of Kansas graduate
Ever since Rea was a child he has wanted to be involved in making movies. It started when he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark at the age of 4.
Before coming to the University, Rea attended Central Community College, Platte Campus, in Columbus, Neb.
During his two and a half years at the University, Rea created a number of short films in classes and independently with another KU graduate, Ryan Jones. The two formed a production studio in Spring 2002 called SenoReality. Most of their films are available online at www.senoreality.com. Rea wrote and directed a majority of the movies.
Rea draws inspiration from other films,good and bad.
Rea breaks down each movie he watches to understand what went right and what went wrong with the picture. This approach has won Rea several awards. In the past year, his film The Walls won $500 at the Scarefest Film Festival in Hollywood, and Multi-task won second place and $600 at the Movie
"I think its important to see as many bad movies as good movies," Rea said.
SEE FILM ON PAGE 9A
Thanks to the recent tuition increases, the University of Kansas department of theatre and film received better editing equipment and writing programs. As a result, film students have produced more quality projects this year.
Opportunities abound for film at KU
Programs like the monthly Out of Focus movie screenings at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St., and the movie dialogue and video show, Kallide, at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St. have introduced the Lawrence community to some of the filmmakers who inhabit Oldfather Studios.
Jeremy Osbern, Lawrence junior, is one of these filmmakers. Osbern showed his film, The Passion, in April at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. But Osbern isn't alone.
"We have great students here talented filmmakers who are committed to producing work that will engage and enrich both the University, and the surrounding community," said Matt Jacobson, assistant professor of theatre and film.
Tune into KUJH News tonight to meet some of these aspiring new filmmakers and see what's making the theatre and film department so popular.
Curtis Dixon
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