Monday
February 24, 2003
Vol. 113. Issue No. 103
Today's weather
20°
Tonight: 9°
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
NSAN
Tell us your news
Contact Kristi Henderson, Jenna Goepfert or Justin Henning at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
'Hawks rally from 32-point defecit fall to No.5 Sooners, 77-70 p.1B
Eric Braem/Kansan
Members of the Lawrence Industrial Workers of the World and the Organization of Lawrence Anti-Imperialism protest what they say are unfair labor practices by the company from which Taco Bell buys tomatoes. The groups protested Saturday at both Lawrence Taco Bells.
Taco Bell protesters fight low worker pay
By Cal Creek
creeek@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Demonstrators at area Taco Bell restaurants Saturday afternoon were prepared to be the protesters, not the protested.
Both Lawrence Taco Bell restaurants, 1408 W. 23rd St. and 1220 W. Sixth St., were protested by members of the Lawrence Industrial Workers of the World and Organization of Lawrence Anti-Imperialist. The protest stems from a hunger strike and boycott to take place Friday at the Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, Calif. The
15 to 16 protesters at the 23rd Street location were met by an even larger group of counter-protesters from KU's College Republicans. The Sixth Street store saw no counter-protesters.
"It was a pretty upbeat protest," said Andrew McNeil-Marshall, Downers Grove, Ill., sophomore, and Sixth Street protester.
He said the response was light yet positive. A few cars immediately pulled out of the Taco Bell parking lot after pulling in.
The anti-Taco Bell protesters took action Saturday to support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida.
"We were out there protesting unfair labor practices," said Chantal Guirdy, KU library assistant and IWW member.
The coalition claims that its employers underpay them to pick tomatoes. The employers then sell the tomatoes to Taco Bell, and if Taco Bell paid more for the tomatoes, then the tomato pickers could be paid more.
"We thought their protest was ridiculous," said Matt Flynn, Lenexa junior and vice chair of College Republicans. "We went there to support capitalism."
SEE TACO BELL ON PAGE 7A
Media man talks of fame, youth
By Henry C. Jackson
cjackson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
When Gordon Parks was born, the doctors who delivered him were convinced he was dead because he failed to make a sound.
Fortunately, several of Parks' sisters were standing nearby and convinced the doctor to dip Parks in a vat of cold water to gauge a reaction.
"I hollered," Parks said. "I came into this world holling and I guess I've been holling ever since."
Members of the Lawrence
and University of Kansas communities gathered at the Lied Center Saturday to celebrate the ways Parks has "hollered" throughout his life as a photographer, novelist, journalist and film director.
He offered his wit and wisdom via comments previously taped at his New York City home.
Parks himself did not attend, though he was originally scheduled to appear.
One on of the topics Parks talked about was how he faced success.
Scott Reynolds/Kansan
SEE PARKS ON PAGE 7A
Gordon Parks visits the Lied Center by way of a pre-recorded teleconference on Saturday. Parks was best known as a photo-journalist.
GPAs rising minus effort
By Lauren Airy lairey@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Across the country, students are receiving high grades and graduating with honors even though national studies show college students study less and take more remedial courses.
At the University of Kansas, the average undergraduate grade point average has increased 5 percent from Fall 1993 to Fall 2002, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, but KU students say they don't even come close to studying the two hours per in-class credit hour recommended by most professors.
According to the recommendation, a student taking 15 credit hours in a semester should spend 30 hours per week preparing. The National Survey of Student Engagement showed that not even 15 percent of students come close to that study time.
"I don't study 30 hours a week," Kurt Eaton, Tulsa sophomore, said. "I don't think anyone studies that much. I think that 30 hours is unreasonable, but I'd still be pissed off if I got straight C's"
Since Fall 1993, the average undergraduate GPA at the University has increased from 2.80 to 2.96. GPAs in the schools of Architecture, Fine Arts and Pharmacy have risen as much as 11 percent.
With higher grades around the country, "grade inflation" — the tendency to reward mediocre work with increasingly higher grades — highlights a growing concern with academic standards.
"There are pressures from advisers, students, parents," William Arnold, professor of sociology, said. "Is there grade inflation? Do we do it? Yeah, probably. My impression is that the increase comes from some people and not others on the faculty. We discovered a few years ago that some people were giving practically all A's."
Valen Johnson, Duke University professor and author of forthcoming book, College Grading: A National Crisis in Undergraduate Education, studied 42,000 grade reports and discovered easier grades in the "soft" sciences such as sociology, psychology and communications. In his report, he found the hardest grades were in the natural sciences such as physics and math.
"It's plausible that the social sciences are easier," Arnold said. "The social sciences are more open minded to alternatives."
The hike in average GPA doesn't necessarily mean college students are smarter or better prepared. The average ACT score of incoming KU students has also risen from 21.1 in 1978 to 24.3 in 2002. Study habits in this same time period have deteriorated.
The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA released a study early this month stating this year's college freshmen have the worst study habits in 15 years. The study was based on responses from about 282,000 students at 437 public and
"Students don't see C as average. Now, a B is
Jacky Carter
Shawnee freshman
private colleges and universities. According to the study, the percentage of first-year students who study less than one hour per week has nearly doubled over the past 15 years, from 8.5 percent to 15.9 percent
"If I kept up my study habits from high school, I wouldn't be cramming and rushing to finish a paper between classes. It's easy in college to slip into doing the bare minimum," Jacky Carter, Shawnee freshman, said. "In my English class last semester, my teacher said a C is average work and that there is nothing wrong with a C. That freaked me out. Students don't see C as average. Now, a B is average."
Despite a lack of studying, the A has become commonplace and the B is replacing the C as an indication of average work. In a study for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, former Harvard dean Henry Rosovsky found 15 percent of Harvard students received a B+ or better in 1950. Today, the number of students performing "above average" is 70 percent. Last year, half the grades at Harvard were either A or A- and 91 percent of Harvard graduates walked away with Latin honors.
"There are still classes that are hard and, in those, getting an A means that much more." Carter said.
But an increase in grades can be partly attributed to professors unwilling to give students a low grade, even if they deserve it.
Stuart Roistaczer, professor at Duke University, hasn't given a C in more than two years. He wrote in an article published in The Washington Post that if he sprinkles his classroom with C's that some students deserve, his class would suffer from declining enrollments and in the marketplace mentality of higher education, low enrollments indicate poor instruction. Some critics say higher grades translate into higher teacher evaluations and higher enrollments.
"I took a sociology class because I knew it was easy. The class was a joke," Eaton said. "Then I made an A in psychology and I got C's on the tests."
Students may find their sky-high GPAs worthless in the job market and professors may continue to inflate the GPA to satisfy students and parents who are paying for an education and, in turn, a job.
"I don't know that right now we see any real reaction from employers," Kent McAnally, assistant director of University Careers and Employment Services, said. "There are some employers who have cutoff GPA and, typically, 3.0 is the benchmark we see.
"If it really is epidemic, it will eventually have some effect. But we don't see it yet."
— Edited by Ryan Wood
Construction crew shows off work
By Jessica Palimenio
jalpenliono@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Students kept hammering and welding Saturday as visitors viewed their progress on the site that will become a home for a low-income family.
The construction crew is in Studio 804, a class in the School of Architecture. The class held an open house Saturday to showcase the progress it has made building the house at 1718 Atherton Court, on the east edge of Lawrence between 15th and 19th streets.
The group invited administration and community members to come to the open house.
The students are building the house as part of a contract with Tenants to Homeowners, a nonprofit organization that creates affordable housing opportunities.
"I think we just start working faster because it's the only way to stay warm," said Lindsey Plant, St. Louis senior.
The students only take a break from construction if it's raining. Instead, they head indoors to work on other projects.
The weather deterred most of the residents, but the students continued to work through the cold Saturday.
Ground was broken for the house on Jan. 29, but the students' work began much earlier than that. The students haven't had a day off since
Jan. 3, said Jean Dodd, Shawnee graduate student.
Students work at the site six days a week, and are at the studio in Marvin Hall the seventh day. After working all day at the site, they attend a night class on Tuesdays at the studio.
The subfloor, the base floor above the foundation, is now finished and students will begin construct the columns and walls. Dodd said.
This is one of the most ambitious projects the class has attempted because of the environmentally friendly aspects that are being incorporated, said Dan Rockhill, professor of architecture and advisor to the project.
SEE CONSTRUCTION ON PAGE 7A
Eric Braem/Kansen
Brian Garvey, St. Louis senior, welds a saddle on top of a steel column at the Studio 804 house at 1718 Atherton Court.
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