Tomorrow's weather
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PO BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 66601-3585
A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Friday will be warm with periods of sunshine and clouds.
ansan
Thursday
February 26, 1998
Section:
A
Vol. 108 • No. 109
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Vol. 108·No.109
Sports today
Guard Kenny Gregory is fighting a scoring slump and an aching back while trying to adjust to life as a Jayhawk.
SEE PAGE 1B
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Unexplained course-content probe leaves uneasy feeling
(USPS 650-640)
By Gerry Doyle and Brandon Coppe
gdoyle@kansan.com
bcopple@kansan.com
Kansas State University
Kansan staff writers
Someone in the Kansas Legislature has requested a list of university courses with content directly related to homosexuality or bisexuality.
The University must by law comply. But it does not have to like it. The source and the purpose of the request remain unknown, and the mystery may be feeding the fires of discontent.
"Censorship does not work," said Robert Anderson, professor of French, Italian and Western Civilization. "The University is here to teach people to think. It's like 'Brave New World.'"
Because of a designer's error, Marc Romito, Leawood senior, was identified incorrectly. He was identified as Jon Colby Miller, Muleshoe, Texas, junior, on page 1A of yesterday's Kansan.
The request was routed through the Board of Regents, which received it from the legislative research department in Topeka. It asks Regents institutions to compile the list.
The University provost's office conducted a search of course descriptions using the words homosexuality and bisexuality. The search found two courses: JOUR 605, Media Ethics and
Correction:
"The University is here to teach and be discriminating. It's like 'Brave New World.'"
Robert Anderson Professor of French
John Ginn, Knight Distinguished Professor of Journalism, teaches the media-ethics class.
HPMD 911, a medical ethics class at the Uni versity of Kansas Medical Center.
"I have seen things like this come up in the past," he said. "It can be premature to get excited about it, but if someone starts campaigning about what we should and should not teach, it's a clear violation of academic freedom."
Gimn's class uses case studies that involve a moral dilemma. One case study involved the publication of a homosexual marriage announcement. In the course catalog, the word homosexuality is used to illustrate the kind of ethical dilemmas the course will address. Gimn said.
Although the search found only two classes with course descriptions that mentioned homosexuality or bisexuality, other University courses deal with these issues.
Dennis Daley, professor of social welfare, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in human sexuality. Daley said his classes dealt frankly and explicitly with sexual issues, including those related to homosexuality and bisexuality.
"I have two basic reactions," he said. "Sadness, as I keep thinking of people in this society who are gay and lesbian and are excluded on a regular basis. The second is that I'm not surprised. We live in a world that is remarkably intolerant, and this is another example of intolerance."
It may be premature to assume that intolerant or bigotry are behind the legislative request, said Laurence Draper, professor of microbiology and president of Faculty Senate.
A web page has been created to provide information and discussion about the request. The site's location is www.turnleaf.com/witchhunt/
"There's too much speculation out there," he said. "We don't know who this is from or what it's for. It gets people upset, but they don't know why they're upset."
Reaction to the request has been strong statewide. News of the request appeared Friday on the Rainbow List, an electronic bulletin board geared toward homophone issues.
Draper said that course content was determined almost exclusively by the faculty teaching the course and that neither the administration nor the legislature could dictate content to faculty.
Norge Jerome, University of Kansas Medical Center professor emeritus of preventive medicine and associate dean for minority affairs, plans a project with Abe Tefera, Med Center accountant. Jerome has taught courses at the Med Center since 1967. Photo by Lisa Stevens John/KANSAN
"Imagine a black woman in the 60s, what kind of characteristic that they need to be successful in a predominantly male-driven area. Simple things that we take for granted were not simple for her."
- Shadrack Smith, University of Kansas Medical Center physician
A TASTE OF CULTURE
Lisa Stevens John
Kansan staff writer
When Norge Jerome moved to Kansas City, Kan., in 1967, she had a difficult time finding a landlord who would rent an apartment to an African American.
She remembered being turned down by a property owner.
"He said, 'You are the kind of Negro I want to rent to when I decide I am ready to rent to Negroes.'" Jerome said.
"When people learned I was Dr. Jerome — it was fine — they had a place for me, but when I showed up to sign the contract, the doors were closed," she said.
Jerome, 67, is professor emeritus of preventive medicine and associate dean for minority affairs at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She came to the United States from Grenada in 1956 to attend college at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Jerome said it was difficult to find a job in Washington, D.C., because of the color of her skin.
"Not even a soda-fountain job would they give me," she said. "The job was there, but as soon as they saw me, it was closed to me."
By 1962, she had earned her doctorate in nutritional science with a minor in cultural anthropology. She said she was the first nutritional anthropologist in the world.
After graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in dietetics and nutrition, Jerome went to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and earned her master's degree in food microbiology.
She applied her knowledge in Milwaukee, studying the food habits of African Americans.
Before changing a culture's diet, the culture itself has to be understood, Jerome said.
"This helps you to understand how people pattern their day, how they pattern their life situations and how the diet — whether it's a high-fat diet or a low-fat diet — is intricately bound with other aspects of lifestyles," she said.
Jerome also became involved with the American Anthropological Association, formed the first committee on nutritional anthropology and wrote a book, "Nutritional Anthropology."
Jerome moved to Kansas City, Kan, when she received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to study the diets of African Americans. That year, she also became educational director and assistant professor of dietetics and nutrition at the Med Center.
Alisa Lange, Med Center diversity coordinator, met Jerome about 20 years ago. Lange said she was struck by Jerome's "Katharine Heburn kind of grace."
"I wanted to be able to carry myself like that," Lange said. "I wanted to have that kind of presence."
Shadrach Smith, a Med Center physician
and assistant professor of medicine, said he admired Jerome's strength.
Imagine the characteristics an African-American woman in the 60s would need to be successful in in a male-driven society, Smith said.
"Simple things that we take for granted were not simple for her," Smith said.
Jerome said growing up in Grenada helped her deal with racism.
"Because we grew up such proud people, we knew that we weren't what they were saving." Jerome said.
Her focus, however, kept her from marrying.
"I have achieved what I have achieved largely because I didn't marry," Jerome said. "I had three opportunities to marry, but every time I looked at it analytically, I knew that I would be giving up my investment in myself ... Now, I regret it. Or at least now I wish I had other options."
Leaving Grenada also was hard, Jerome said.
"I did have cold feet," she said. "My mother came to see me off. I wanted to go, but when it came time to leave her, to tear myself away from her ... she had to push me. My mother said to me, I have lived my life. This is your future, you've got to go."
Round up for Red Cross
Wind does not prevent students from volunteering to donate blood to the Red Cross. KU sophomores Linda Bung, Poppion, Neb., Michelle Lipari, Kansas City, Mo., and Aminta Rader, St. Louis, sat outside yesterday at Robinson Center to sign up for an annual blood drive. Photo by Sean Haley/KANSAN
Theta Chi fraternity starts from ground zero
University's chapter shuts down as result of poor recruitment
By Carl Kaminski
ckaminski@kansan.com
Kanson staff writer
Theta Chi fraternity at the University of Kansas is starting from scratch.
"Their numbers got to the point where their alumni and their national organization felt like they needed to close up shop or start a new organization," said Wes Simons, assistant director of Greek Programs.
The chapter's numbers fell to 11 members at the end of the fall semester and fell to five at the beginning of this semester.
Simons said that the chapter's problems stemmed from a lack of recruitment.
"The men in the chapter couldn't generate enough enthusiasm," Simons said. "They kind of got used to recruiting not enough men."
Theta Chi's national organization responded by sending Chad Ellis and Brian Pozen, expansion coordinators who open new Theta Chi chapters across the country, to the University. They have been given office space in the Kansas Union by the Organizations and Leadership Development Center and will be on campus until spring break.
The first thing Ellis and Pozen did was scrap the KU chapter.
"They are no longer part of the group," Ellis said.
However, all five of the members were invited to rejoin. Three chose to go through the mandatory interview process, and two were chosen to be members of the new chapter. Ellis said he hoped to hear back from those two men by the end
of the week.
Ellis said the University's chapter had a strong alumni base and a large amount of money. Although the chapter does not have a house, it has more than $300,000 set aside in a housing fund, he said.
Fraternities usually will wait four or five years after dissolving a chapter and then will try to recharter it. Ellis said. Often, this is because fraternities want to wait before trying to generate new interest, he said.
Ellis and Pozen now face the task of attracting new members. Ellis said they would be recruiting student leaders and students who normally would not consider joining a fraternity.
"This is an opportunity for anyone to build their own fraternity," Ellis said. "This is a chance to build a fraternity the way it is supposed to be, not just to fix the problems of an existing one."
He said the new chapter would be alcohol free and would stress community service.
Ellis said he expected the rebuilding process to be a slow one.
"We hope to have a critical mass of 15 members by spring break." he said.
Ellis and Pozen will be holding informational meetings throughout next week.
The meetings will be at 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the atrium in the Kansas Union, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Centennial Room, 5:30 p.m. March 5 at the Centennial Room and 3:30 p.m. March 6 at the Centennial Room.
Cassie Barnhardt from Alpha Xi Delta will be at the Wednesday meeting and the March 5 and March 6 meetings.
Barnhardt, an educational leadership consultant from Alpha Xi Delta's headquarters in Indianapolis, is here to help Alpha Xi Delta increase membership within the KU chapter.
The two organizations hope to coordinate some social events during the coming weeks for prospective members, Barnhardt said.
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