CAMPUS / AREA
University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 24, 1992
3
Plans for center embrace ethnicity
KU lags behind most peer schools in developing multicultural community
By Jay Williams
Kansan staff writer
Wednesday night's announcement of the creation of a multicultural center in the fall of 1993 will help the University of Kansas catch up with other universities around the nation.
The center will be in an existing campus building in the 1400 block of Louisiana Street. Its mission will be determined by a committee that has not been formed yet.
KU will finance one half-time employee and $10,000 to begin programs at the center. Student Senate is an additional $10,000 to the center.
Three of KU's five peer institutions
the University of Iowa, the University of Colorado and the University of Oklahoma already have separate centers dealing with multicultural concerns. The University of North Carolina and the University of Oregon do not.
Iowa has two separate centers—the Chicano/Native American Cultural Center and the Afro-American Cultural Center, said Sharon Bowers, director of the Chicano/Native American Cultural Center.
Bowers said the centers, which opened in 1971, were in separate buildings on the lowa campus. The centers contain offices for ethnic minority organizations, lounge areas and rooms for social and cultural events. A kitchen also is available for student use.
"We try to emphasize the social aspects and a feeling of community," Bowers said.
She said the Chicano/Native American Cultural Center operated on a $7,000 yearly budget provided by the university, with $3,000 paying the salaries of the 10-member staff. The rest of the money is directed to programs sponsored by the center.
Oklahoma uses two floors of a residence hall for cultural events, but that does not include office space for campus groups, said Vi Wickham, assistant director for Student Support Services at Oklahoma.
The University of Nebraska, which is not a peer institution of KU, has had its Culture Center since 1973.
Reshelle Ray, director of the center,
said the three-story center offered a wide array of services, including meeting space, office space for minority organizations, a computer center and recreational activities.
The center, staffed by students from different ethnic backgrounds, is across the street from the university's main student union.
Ray said the creation of the center took four years from its conceptualization to its completion.
The 1991-92 budget for the center, paid with student fees, was $29,947, she said. The money used for maintaining the center is the budget for the main student union.
Ray said the center was open to all Nebraska students.
"We are not only catering to certain students, but we want to facilitate learning for all students at the university." she said.
The center often conducts forums for the university on various topics of multiculturalism.
About 40 of the 300 student groups at Nebraska have used the center for gatherings, Ray said.
At Oregon, all offices for minority groups are in the university's union, said Jim Garcia, counselor in the university's office of minority affairs. The exception is the American Indian student group, which owns its own building on campus.
Garcia said he did not think the university's lack of a cultural center was wealthy.
"The idea has been expressed before at this university, he said. "So far, it has fallen on deaf ears. The students face to hang out and feel comfortable."
Garcia said the university ranked next-to-hat in the Ten institu-
tions of Canada (Fakultät für Künftigste Analyse).
"We need to reach out to students," he said. "We cannot continue to give them lip service."
Julie Denesha / KANSAN
Measuring up
Scott Pohlenz, Springfield, Mo., senior, works to finish a model for his architecture class. Pohlenz and other class members have worked on the project around the clock for the past five days in a Marvin Hall studio to finish the model before tomorrow's deadline.
Bill would outlaw funeral protests
Kansanstaff writer
By Andy Taylor
Protesting outside funerals could be prohibited if Gov. Joan Finney lets a bill that would forbid such demonstrations become Kansas law this weekend.
Martha Walker, the governor's press secretary,
said Finney was expected to let the Kansas Funeral
Picketing Act become law without her signature.
"She has only mentioned it once this week in a
walkabout." Walker said that she
would let her be without her side until the
Under Kansas law, the governor can veto a bill, sign it into law or let the it become effective without her signature.
The bill would prohibit protests before, during and
after a funeral at a mortuary, funeral home or church. Breaking the law would be classified as a class B misdemeanor, which is punishable through fines or jail terms.
The bill, which passed both chambers of the Legislature this session, was inspired by protests by the Fred Phelps ministry, an anti-homosexual and anti-AIDS group in Topeka.
Phelps, a Baptist minister for 45 years, said that he and other people from his church, Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, frequently demonstrated at funerals of people who had died of AIDS-related illnesses.
He said it was his biblical duty as a preacher to demonstrate at the funerals.
Phelps also said he would challenge the constitutionality of the bill if it passed.
"I urge Finney to sign the bill," he said. "Then we can get on with demonstrating its unconstitutional folly."
Phelps' latest protest was Wednesday at a funeral in Topeka for Ken Scott, a KU sophomore who died last week of an AIDS-related illness in a Kansas City, Mo., hospital.
Phelps said his protests usually consisted of reciting Bible verses and picketing in front of the funeral. He referred to people with the AIDS virus as "fags" and "sodomites."
One of the signs displayed at Wednesday's protest read "God Hates Fags."
Peggy Woods/KANSAN
Polar affinity
Applied English Center students Munehisa Otake, Hiratsuka, Japan, left, and Ataru Yamamoto, Mikkati, Japan, center, dance around a Maypole with Cordley Elementary School fifth graders Diana Paules, second from left, Ammy Hummelgaard, second from right, and Jerry Christensen.
'Rescue 911' show on KU nears
By Michelle Betts Kansan staff writer
A pipe-bomb explosion on the KU campus more than one year ago will be re-created on national television next week.
"Rescue 911," a television show that re-creates real-life emergencies, will televise an episode about a pipe bomb that exploded March 28, 1991 near Joseph R. Pearson Hall.
The episode will air Wednesday at 9:45 p.m. after "Batman" on CBS. CBS affiliates are Channel 13 in Topeka and Channel 5 in Kansas City, Mo. Thirteen members of the "Rescue 911" film crew came to Lawrence for about a week in early December to film the episode.
Burdel Welsh, KU police representative, said the episode was 15 minutes long and dealt with only the KU pipe-bomb incident. "Rescue 911" usually depicts four different emergency situations during the hour-long show.
Lt. John Mullens, KU police representat- tive, said he thought many
CBS episode will feature 15 minute segment at 9:45 p.m. Wednesday about pipe-bomb blast last year near JRP.
viewers would watch the show because of the time it was being aired.
"There will be a lot of people about 18 to 20 years old who will be watching "Batman" who will watch the show since it comes on before the news," Mullens said.
Mullens said there were pros and cons about airing a portrayal of this type of emergency at KU.
"The publicity may get copy-cat situations," he said. "But the people are in prison for it, and it shows the true nature of the seriousness of the consequences of this crime."
The original incident occurred at 3:30 a.m. when a pipe bomb exploded about 50 feet from JRP. KU police detective Mike Riner moved the bomb minutes before from underneath a security Jeep.
When the bomb exploded, it broke windows in the residence hall and a car windshield. No one was injured.
"It threw shrapnel over an area
"of a football field," Welsh said.
Joseph Ceresko, then a KU student, and John Bitker, Lawrence resident, were arrested for planting the bomb and are serving 21-month and 27-month prison terms, respectively.
Ceresko was suspended from the University of Kansas because of the incident.
Mullens said that before the pipe bomb incident, the last time a bomb exploded on campus was Dec. 11, 1971 in Summerfield Hall.