University Daily Kansan / Friday, January 24, 1992
CAMPUS/AREA
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Peggy Woorts/KANSAN
Peter McCarthy will show his painting, based on the play "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui." at a conference
African-American student leaders stress importance of unification
By Shelly Solon
Kansan staff writer
A student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor called the student radio station there to tell some jokes. He started with one about a cross between an African-American man and a ground hog. The student disc jockey put in a laugh track to follow the rest of the student's jokes.
In response to this incident, African-American students formed an organization to combat racist incidents on the Michigan campus in the late 1980s. The group gave the university administration a list of demands including increased minority enrollment and formation of an African American student union. The administration responded to the demands.
No one was disciplined.
The incident was portrayed in "Racism 101," a video presented by Sherwood Thompson, director of the office of minority affairs, at a Black Men of Today meeting last night.
Thompson said the incident was
proof that positive results could be achieved when African-American students fought racism together.
"Before we can work with allorganizations and the community, wehave to work with each other," he said. "Then we can work with everyone else and address human rights as part of a multiethnic group."
To work for change on campus, Black Men of Today members said they would concentrate on working within the African-American community.
Robert Vaughn, a member of the planning committee of Black Men of Today, said that African-American organizations and students had to form a strong family before they could achieve results.
"We have to develop our community," he said. "We have to take care of ourselves."
The group has planned a voter registration drive, a scholarship drive, activities with the Black greek system, programs with the Nation of
Trading places
Islam and a mentorship with young African-American males in Lawrence. The group also plans to travel to Leavenworth to talk with prison inmates in February.
Representatives from other organizations such as Black Panhellenic, Black Student Union and UJIMA joined about 30 people at the meeting.
Peter Braithwaite, president of Black Student Union, said that showing the video at the meeting might seem like preaching to those already sensitive to African-American issues but that the group planned to address similar issues with other students at a racism forum later this semester.
He said the group sponsored a forum last year in which both African-American and white students participated. The forum included speeches and role-playing activities.
By Jenny Martin
Kansan staff writer
British teacher exchanges jobs with KU professor
Peter McCarthy sometimes feels a little strange living in KU professor Mike Ott's house.
The second part of the video will be shown Thursday at the Black Men of Todaymeeting.
He said he has met Ott only once, but has driven his car, become good friends with his relatives, and has Ott's teaching position in the School of Fine Arts.
McCarthy is a visiting professor of art from Coventry, England, on a direct year-long exchange with Ott.
McCarthy has been head of painting at Coveath Polytechnic for the past eight years and now teaches theory and painting classes at KU.
McCarthy initiated the exchange by sending letters to several art departments at U.S. universities in search of an interested professor, he said.
He said that after Ott responded, it took a year of planning to bring the exchange to life.
The professors and their families
left in August and settled in each other's homes and towns.
"The irony is that even though you don't know the Otts, we've gotten to know some of their relatives and friends very well." McCarthy said. "It makes it difficult when you live in their house but don't even know them."
McCarthy said he had wanted to make the exchange for a long time, especially because contemporary U.S. art was dominant when he was a student and a young teacher.
"I've taught generations of English students about American artists, and I thought that teaching and working with them was essential to standing of American art." He said.
McCarthy said that both of his classes were new to the school. One is a theory course that studies consumer art criticism. The other is a studio painting class, Visual Research for Painting.
"I'm teaching the painting class in
very much the same way it would be taught in an English art school," he said. "It's a step-by-step method that involves building up resource pools and researching historical facts."
"It a growth process that requires a lot of work, but I think it's good," Barrett said. Peter Thompson, dean of fine arts, said that he thought more angles would be scheduled for the future, although no plans had been made.
Amy Barrett, Omaha, Neb., junior, and a student in McCarthy's painting class, said she had never been taught with McCarthy's method. Instead of quickly producing paintings, the class instructed students to sketch books, which are built up until class members paint their actual paintings, she said.
"I think it's very good for faculty and students to have experience with people from other places who teach them different methods and have different ideas," Thompson said.
Sorority will re-open in fall
Alpha Xi Delta will return to campus after a 62-year absence
By Erik Bauer
Kansan staff writer
Although it has not had a chapter here for 62 years, the Alpha Xi Delta sorority will re-open a KU chapter in the fall.
Barb Lamb, extension coordinator for Alpha Xi Delta national organization, said interest from Lawrence alumni and the cooperation of the KU administration and Greek community had been factors in bringing the sorority back to campus.
The greek community has helped promote the sorority by distributing fliers and buttons. Sorority chapters also are having a "Welcome Alpha Xi Delta" banner contest.
throughout the week at a booth in the Kansas Union lobby.
Lamb and other representatives from Alpha X Delta have handed out information and answered questions
"I think people at KU have been very receptive to a new group in the greek community."Lamb said.
Joanie Bosserman, chapter consultant for the Alpha Xi Delta national headquarters, said the booth had attracted many students.
She said Alpha Xi Delta had not found permanent housing but would offer a housing option in the fall.
Margaret Miller, associate director of the organizations and activities center, said the administration supported expansion of the greek community.
The effor' to start new chapters at KU is part of a plan created three years ago by the Panhellenic expansion committee. The committee wanted to accommodate the large number of women who rush and pledge sororities.
The expansion committee is composed of one member from each chapter at the University.
Jennifer Zucco, vice president of public relations for Panhellenic, said
the organization had contacted chapters and had decided who could colonize at KU.
"We just want to make sure that they won't be underdogs at this University," she said. "They need to be a strong chapter so they can fit into a strong Greek community."
She said they also considered how organized the sorority was, its familiarity with colonization and whether the national chapter had enough money to establish a house.
Panhellenic is trying to decrease the size of pledge classes and the number of w.men living in each house, Zucco said.
KU date rape info beckons BBC
New chapters help disburse membership from the overcrowded chapters already here, she said.
The first informational meeting for Alpha Xi Delta will be at 7 p.m. Monday at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Kansan staff writer
By Kris Belden
The British Broadcasting Corp. came to campus yesterday to talk to a KU professor about date rape for a Valentine's Day broadcast.
Jenney Coffe, BBC reporter, said the BBC had come to the United States because the only research about date rape had been done here.
"Date rape is rather an American concept." she said.
The "No means no" campaign against rape in England brought the subject to the attention of the public, but the term "date rape" is not commonly used there. Coffea said.
According to a survey by a research group that Muehlenbach lead, 16 percent of KU women said they had been
The BBC interviewed Charlene Muehlenhard, associate professor of psychology and women's studies, because of her research. They planned to interview another researcher in Tucson, Ariz., Coffe said.
"Only recently
have we created a word for (date rape) and have been able to talk about it."
Sharon Danoff-Burg
Students Against Violence Against Womyn
But only 5 to 10 percent of women who are raped report the rapes, according to an Arizona study. Muehlenhard said. Of the women who are raped, 85 to 90 percent were raped by acquaintances, she said. The same study indicated that more women
raped, she said. She said the national average was 15 percent.
were raped by steady, rather than casual, dating partners, she said.
Not walking alone at night or always walking with a man does not help prevent date rape, she said. Muehlenhard said men needed to accept only an absolute yes from women before they had sex with them.
Sharon Danoff-Burg, Lawrence graduate student and member of Students Against Violence Against Womyn, agreed that it was until the term "date rape" became known that people developed an understanding of the concept.
Their creased concern about date rape is a result of the women's movement, Muelenhard said.
"Date rape has always happened," Danoff-Berg said. "Only recently have we created a word for it and been able to talk about it."
"It's called us to look at things that are unfair to women," she said. "And we look at them for what they are. The movement helps to raise consciousness."
Christine McFarland / KANSAN
A BBC photographer sets up a camera in Blake Hall for a program on acquaintance rape.