CAMPUS/AREA
University Daily Kansan/Wednesday, February 5,1992
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Attaining cultural insight is goal, visiting prof says
Peegy Woods/KANSAN
ByKatherine Manweiler
Kansan staff writer
Myron Brimm, East St. Louis, Ill., freshman, and Marqueal Jordan, Kansas City, Kan., junior, play jazz piece for the audience attending the opening ceremony for Black History Month in the Big Eight Room.
People should use Black History Month as an opportunity to expand their knowledge of other cultures, a KU professor told about 30 people last night at the Kansas Union.
"We should not be content with what we know," said Kwabena Nketia, KU's Langston Hughes visiting this semester. "Black History Month is telling us to share our experiences and knowledge. We seek to explore, rather than to enact, the history we already know.
"We should explore the different worlds of Black experience and not confine ourselves to just one world."
Nketia's speech was part of an opening ceremony for the month sponsored by the office of minority affairs and the University of Kansas Black history coordinating committee. Sounds from a jazz due played by African-American students welcomed the audience to the ceremony.
Nketia told the audience that Blackhistory was utilitarian.
"It is something that we may use to affirm our identity, give us hope for the future or spur us to action," he said. "Culture is not just something handed down. It is continually constructed and reconstructed."
Nketia said it was important to look at the historical foundations of African language and institutions so the dimensions of African-American history could be expanded into national and international contexts.
Arthur Drayton, head of the African and African-American studies department, said Black History Month served to remind African-Americans of their richness and significance of their origins, renew the exploration of origins and confirm for the American conscience that the history of Africa must be the concern of all Americans.
Norma Norman, associate director of minority affairs, said people needed to explore other cultures.
"We need to look at different worlds to see how all of us interrelate, no matter what color we are," she said.
Program focuses on homeless problems
Kansan staff writer
By Andy Taylor
Keeper staff writer
Bob Simons is frustrated with the homeless situation in Lawrence.
Simons has spent 17 years advocating adequate housing for mentally-handicapped and homeless individuals as the director of Project Acceptance, a local mental health organization.
His opinion was heard last night by a six-member panel and 30 other audience members in a program titled "Homelessness: In Our Own Backyard." The program, which was at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union, was a part of Homeless Awareness Week.
"When I hear on the news that $500 million was bet on the Super Bowl, I know that we have the resources," Simons said. "I can't believe that we can spend $196,000 for a tennis court renovation at Lawrence High School, but we couldn't even get $100,000 to keep the Salvation Army Safe House open a year ago for our homeless. I think we're afraid to admit to our selfish ways."
Members of the panels said lawmakers on all levels needed to at least recognize the problems of the homeless.
"When we look at the legacy of the Reagan era, the budget cuts had a devastating effect on the homeless."
Paul Johnson executive director of Public Assistance Coalition
Forrest Swall, associate professor of social welfare and a panel member, said President Bush's recent State of the Union address was indicative of the federal government's lack of concern toward the homeless.
Paul Johnson, executive director of the Public
"There was not one word about the poor or people who are homeless," he said. "It showed the lack of political will."
Assistance Coalition of Kansas, said the Reagan era proved disastrous for the homeless.
"When we look at the legacy of the Reagan era, the budget cuts had a devastating effect on the homeless," he said.
While many people look to the federal government for answers, State Rep. Sandy Draper, R-Lawrence, said the problems should be solved on a local level. But she also said the Legislature had not yet shown an interest in dealing with the homeless this session.
"There hasn't been a lot of dialogue concerning the homeless," she said. "Our biggest issues are on school reform and property tax relief. Until we get those problems solved, homeless issues will have to wait."
Jeanie Chavez, an attorney specializing in human rights, said the average rent for Lawrence residences was higher than the state average.
"It costs an average of $525 per month while the average cost in Kansas is $375," she said. "This means a person has to make $7.50 an hour just to meet the housing costs."
She also said cost-of-living expenses had increased dramatically while the minimum wage had remained steady during the past 12 years.
Officials: Current tensions between Japan, U.S. won't hurt in long term
By Andy Taylor
Kansan staff writer
They resemble two angry stepisers pulling each other's hair.
Japanese and U.S. officials in the past month have volleyed insults across the Pacific about trade policies and work ethics.
But local officials and KU faculty members said they thought the resentment would have little effect on future Japanese-American relations — including Lawrence's cultural exchange program with sister city Hiratsuka, Janan.
Maggie Childs, associate professor of East Asian languages and culture, said that the images of U.S. protests against Japanese products that appear on the evening news, as well as media reports of politicians criticizing the other side's products, were not symbolic of individual interests.
"These kinds of things get picked up on TV, and people think they are seen on every street corner," she said. "This is a society where we get a mistaken perception and turn it into a wide-scale phenomenon."
Childs she thought that arguments about trade policies had nothing to do with either the Japanese or the American people.
"I think it is meaningless to individuals." she said.
Philip Schrodt, professor of political science, said leadership in both countries was weak and caused politicians to point fingers at each other.
"What people need to realize is the Japanese government under Prime Minister Kichi Miyazawa is struggling on rocky ground," he said. "And with Bush's popularity falling in America, these guys are using each other as scapegoats. It's a slimy game."
going on."
Schrodt said that each country needed to see that its economy was intimately linked with that of the other country.
"A at fundamental level, people need to realize that Japan has contributed greatly to our high-tech and computer industries and that the U.S. has given the Japanese new retail concepts," he said.
Charles Deceue, executive director of KU's Higuchi Biosciences Center, said he had not noticed much resentment from either U.S. or Japanese businesspeople when he made business contacts for the center, which specializes in biomedical drug research.
"In terms of resentment, I see very little," he said. "And whether or not there will be any lingering effects, I don't think so. It's all election year rhetoric."
The publicity surrounding Japan-U.S. relations should strengthen Lawrence's sister city program with Hiratsuka, said Gary Toebben, president of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.
"The sister city program does not depend on headlines in a newspaper," he said. "In fact, from the Japanese perspective, intensifies our desire to attract intensives."
Lawrence Mayor Bob Walters, who traveled to Japan in November, said the idea of conducting relations did not center on trade and commerce.
"The sister city program is not 100 percent economic development," he said. "We try to foster development and cultural aspects of each other's cities. I haven't seen any changes in attitudes from the Lawrence citizens."
University panel to study sexual harassment policy
Kansan staff writer
By Jenny Martin
Kansas staff writer
A newly formed committee will begin its review today of the Universitv's sexual harassment policy.
"For a number of years, we have had a sexual harassment policy," said Del Shankel, interim executive vice chancellor. "But given growing concerns both nationally and locally, we thought we would examine the policy again and strengthen areas of it."
The 10-member committee was formed in November to look at the current sexual harassment policy, which was drawn up in 1982, and to recommend possible changes.
It also will look at provisions of the Faculty Code of Conduct, which do not specifically address sexual harassment.
The committee, which will meet weekly, will present a final report of recommendations by the end of the semester.
After recommendations are reviewed by student and faculty governance and the administration, action will be taken to make the changes as soon as possible, Shankel said.
Sandra Wick, assistant director of the college honors program and chairperson of the committee, said there were many different procedures at the University concerning misconduct, but not specifically sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment policies are outlined in the Office of Affirmative Action handbook, but are not included in the Faculty Code of Conduct or Student Code of Conduct, Wick said.
"The Faculty Code of Conduct was probably written before the term sexual harassment was used," she said. "There is no direct reference to sexual harassment in the code, but there could be implied ones."
The committee, which is comprised of faculty, staff, students and administrators, will decide how University policies can be updated and how they can be altered to work together.
"We have lots of procedures, but some bridges need to be built between the codes to make them internally consistent." Wick said. "It's going to be a complicated issue because there is not always a clear understanding of how policies overlap."
Wick said she would like the committee to look at larger issues, such as a clear definition of sexual harassment within the University.