THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.93
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1992
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Second glances: Dating across racial lines
By Erik Bauer
Kansan staff writer
Maria Tifford, Wichita sophomore, and her boyfriend Jason Graff, Lenexa sophomore, talk to their friends Bryan Rusch, Liberty, Mo., sophomore (far left), and Todd Moore, Junction City junior (far right), at Ellisworth Hall.
Although no one actually has said anything insulting to him or his girl-
Jason Graff and his girlfriend often are stared at when they walk hand in hand on campus
Iriend, Gratir,
Lenexa sophomore,
said, he
disminized
because he
white and he is
dating
an African-American woman.
Paul Kotz/ Special to the KANSAN
Graff said he thought the second glances were not malicious.
"It takes them time to accept what they see," he said.
Maria Tilford, Graff's girlfriend, said, "When we walk on campus, people will look. But they're not mean looks."
Tilford, Wichita sophomore, said that she would not let what other people did.
Graff said residents at Ellsworth Hall, where they both live, seemed to accept their relationship.
Bryan Rusch, a friend of the couple, said he thought that caring for one another was the only thing that mattered in a relationship.
"I don't think race has anything to do with it," said Rush, Kansas City. "Mitt."
But he said he thought the couple's situation was uncommon.
"It seemed weird at first, because I don't see too many interracial relations."
Yet, Jacob Gordon, associate professor of African and African-American studies, said that in the last three years, interracial dating had become more common nationwide, especially among African Americans and Hispanic Americans.
When Gordon first arrived at the University of Kansas 21 years ago, he was a freshman.
ples.
"That figure is changing drastically," he said.
The current trends toward increased interracial dating indicate that race relations are improving in the United States, Gordon said.
Barbara Ballard, acting dean of student life, said, "I think you see more interracial couples, and that involves all races. I think basically our campus is accepting of students' choices.
"There's always someone who is going to criticize and find fault," Ballard said.
"But you cannot control that."
Those who oppose interracial dating are entitled to their opinions, but it is really no one's business, she said.
A 1989 survey of the Southern California population done by two professors from the University of California-Los Angeles indicated that interracial dating was becoming more accepted.
Caverly Smith, former president of the Native American Student Association, said interracial dating also was becoming more common at Haskell Indian Junior College.
He said there also was a lot of dating among students from different Native American tribes.
Smith said that interracial dating had always been around, but that it was only recently being dealt with.
He said television, cinema and other media had brought the situation to a new level.
"I think people have just gotten used to it," Smith said.
But problems are still there, wit both friends and family.
Darrel Brannock, Kansas City, Mo, sophomore, said a main problem with his former relationship had been his girlfriend's parents.
"Theyhatedit." he said.
wasaskingfortrouble.
Brannock, who is African American, said that his parents had accepted that he was dating a white woman, but that they had warned him that he
He said the race issue had become magnified when other problems arose.
Suzanne Racine, president of the Hispanic-American Leadership Organization, said her peers in HALO
usually did not date one another because they were so close.
She said they often dated students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Racine, who is dating an African-American student, said she thought parents usually wanted their children to date within their own race
ters. It feels kind of awkward to be dating one another."
"We've developed such a rapport, she said. "We're like brothers and sis-
offen got stares when they went to the movies, but that she did not let it both her and me.
She said that she and her boyfriend
"At the University, there's pretty good acceptance," Racine said. "It's not as bad as some places, but you do get a lot of look."
Troy Alldaffer, co-director of GLSOK (left), and Scott Manning, Lawrence graduate student (middle), urge Dante Pestano, Overland Park sophomore, to sign a ballot that will be presented to President Bush.
Group lobbies against policy
Some members of Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas are joining a nationwide effort to change the Department of Defense's discriminatory policy against gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
By Shelly Solon
Kansas staff writer
The members say that a change in ROTC policy at the University of Kansas hinges on a change at the national level.
Rob Taylor, member of GLSKO, said he doubted that the University administration would take a leadership position and change its policy before changes took place at the national level.
GLSOR began a campaign last week and has a table in the Kansas Union this week where students can fill out information about a change in the national ROQT policy.
"The KU administration would join a lobbying effort with other universities," he said. "I doubt they have any responsibility being national leaders in the effort."
Del Shankel, interim executive vice chancellor, said he did not think one university could act alone.
Glen Magpantay, co-chairperson of the National Gray, Lesbian and Bisexual Student Caucus of the association, said delivering the ballots to Bush would not singlehandedly change the Defense Department's policy.
"KU has been a leader among the universities trying to make a change," he said. "But I don't believe change by a single university would be effective if it was not accompanied by other changes."
"With other groups working for change and lobbying, eventually the policy should be changed," Magpantay said. "But this action should have a profound effect. It's just one way in which we can do our part in changing national policy."
The United States Students Association sent mock ballots to KU and 400 other schools nationwide. The association will deliver completed ballots to President Bush March 9 in Washington, D.C.
pating in the ballot campaign,but that he expected about 25 more to conduct campus campaigns.
Stacey Leyton, vice president of the association, said the organization sought to promote access to higher education through activities such as lobbying for increased financial aid.
He said that 91 schools were partici-
Half the states are represented in the campaign, Magantay said.
"The military is one way many use to get that access, therefore it should be"
Wait, let me look at the word "may". It's a capital 'M'.
Let's re-read the whole sentence.
"The military is one way many use to get that access, therefore it should be"
Yes, it's "may".
Final check:
"The military is one way many use to get that access, therefore it should be"
The word "may" is correct.
The other words are also in context.
The University Council took a step toward increasing sensitivity in the KU ROTC program by approving a resolution last Thursday recommending educational training in the program.
The resolution will be sent to ROTC directors who can accept or reject it.
Troy Aldaaffer, GLSOK co-director,
said that GLSOK was not interested in
removing the ROTC program from
campus.
"We just want to fight for our country and be gay and lesbian, too," he said.
Cleanup to start on Hoch
Kansanstaff report
Minor cleanup work will begin today on the rubble that was once Hoch Auditorium.
It is the first such work begun since the building was gutted by a lightning-sparked fire June 15.
Tiliaferro Construction Inc. of Topeka was contracted by the University of Kansas to stabilize floors and other collapsing structures in the remains of the building, said Mike Richardson, director of facilities operations.
The crew will try to salvage materials covered by the rubble, including construction materials, furniture and University property in the basement, he said. Today, the contractor will make the area safe for work to begin.
That could take up to two weeks, Richardson said
He said the project would be financed with money that was collected to pay for roofing plans made before the fire.
Don Taliaferro, president of the construction company,
said the work today would concentrate on the stage area.
The workers will use more than 28 wood and metal supports to prop up the stage and ensure worker safety, he said.
The shoveling of debris will be the only sound heard, Tali-
fero said.
"This project I'm doing is a very small piece of the pie," he said.
Bomb disrupts Quayle trip
Associated Press
LONDON — Authorities found a bomb in a phone booth near the heart of London's government district, where Vice President Dan Quayle was scheduled to meet yesterday with British officials.
Police suspect the bomb was planted by the IRA, making it the second time in a month that the outlawed Irish Republican Army apparently has placed an explosive near government buildings. The earlier device blew up, but nobodv was inured.
Home Secretary Kenneth Baker said that quick action by the police averted any damage that might have
occurred.
There was no claim of responsibility, but the head of the anti-terrorist squad, Commander George Churchill-Coleman, said that the bomb bore all the earmarks of the IRA.
Yesterday's bomb, which Independent Television News said contained five pounds of the plastic explosive Semtex, was found after telephoned warnings prompted the evacuation of Parliament Square and nearby government buildings.
Churchill-Coleman said a man with an Irish accent called a television station in the morning, gave a code word and said a bomb would go off within a
half-hour in Whitehall, a government building situated between Parliament and the House.
"The warning given this morning was deliberately vague and lacking in detail," he said. "The likelihood of causing death and injury to the public was high, and to give so little warning was utterly cynical."
The U.S. Embassy said Quayle, who ended a six-day European tour yesterday, had not changed his schedule, which included stops at the Foreign Office and at the nearby residence of Prime Minister John Major. The bomb was found five hours before Quayle was due at the Foreign Office.
'Creep defense' hurt Tyson, lawyers say
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — In the end, the Mike Tyson jurors thought the victim's story that she was raped and the defense's story that the boxer was a foul-mouthed womanizer who could not keep his hands to himself.
Perhaps the defense strategy back-fired, or perhaps his attorneys simply made too convincing a case, lawyers who followed the trial said yesterday.
Or perhaps, as the jury said after the verdict, the state just had a better case.
"The creep defense" usually only makes sense if you're pleading insanity," said Dan Capila, a trial attorney and legal analyst for KCNC and KOA radio in Denver.
added weight other charges and made it that much easier for the jury to convict him, Caplis said.
The portrait of the former heavyweight boxing champion — as so consistently crude that his victim must have known he wanted sex — merely
Courtroom observers were struck by the fact that Tyson's attorneys appeared to distance themselves from him, rarely touching or talking to him. Immediately after the verdict
"The jury heard over and over through the defense that he was such a vulgar, obscene individual that any woman with him should have been placed on notice to what he wanted and who he was," said Linda Pence, a defense attorney who attended the two-week trial.
"You portray your client as a very unattractive individual, predatory in nature, disrespectful of women and thus prone to do an offense like this, and it makes it easier to return the verdict of guilty," she added. "If the defense counsel doesn't like him, why should the jury?"
late Monday, Tyson sat stock-still,
emotionless. His attorneys, appearing
utterly dejected, rested their
elbows on the defense table. None of
them looked at him, and he stared
straight ahead.
Lead defense attorney Vincent Fuller rose and polled the eight-man, four-woman jury, and each replied, "Gullity," in a firm voice. Several nodded their heads as they said the word.
Tyson was convicted of one count of rape and two counts of criminal conduct. Each count carries a maximum prison term of 20 years. Similar convictions usually result in sentences ranging from seven to 11 years, prosecutors said yesterday. Sentencing is scheduled for March 6.
"After all the evidence was weighed, the state had a stronger case," the jury foreman said later. "The accusing witness made a very convincing case."