CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, September 9, 1993
3
Task force results questioned
Opponents claim sticking to system stymies progress
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
Peter Braithwaite, Evanston, Ill., senior said he was sick of task forces
Braithwaite, a member of the African-American Student Concerns Task Force since its formation in May 1991, said the task force's report had been lost in University bureaucracy for longer than necessary.
"Instead of actually doing it, they threw it right back into the committee system," he said.
Braithwaite said the administration had fallen short of expectations by appointing committees to study the task force's recommendations on discrimination policies, African-American retention and working with
African-American alumni.
He also said the administration's memorandum instructing deans to hire more African-American faculty fell short of expectations. The task force recommended increasing African-American faculty from 2 percent to 4 percent by the year 2000.
Braithwaite's complaint centers around a common tool of KU administrators — the task force. Task forces are committees made up of students, faculty, administrators and staff appointed by the administration. This year, the University has responded to two task forces — the African-American Task Force in January and the Sexual Harassment Task Force in July — and plans to respond to the Gay and Lesbian Task Force within three weeks.
of time when you don't get results," he said.
Braithwaite said the task force system could work against minority groups. By working within the system, they actually may lose momentum, he said.
"Sitting down in meetings is a waste
The administration's response depends on the nature and scope of the task force, said Sandra Wick, a member of the Sexual Harassment Task Force. She said task forces either could be narrowly focused, such as the Sexual Harassment Task Force, or they could be broad, such as the Gay and Lesbian and the African-American task forces.
Wick, assistant director of the college honors program, said her task force was requested by Chancellor Gene Budig and appointed by Del Shankel, former executive vice chancellor. It came in the wake of allegations that Emil Tonkovich, professor of law, sexually harassed his female students. Tonkovich was dismissed from the University in July on grounds of moral turpitude.
The task force's findings and recommendations led to the administration's consensual relationship policy announced last month, Wick said.
She said that in the past task force recommendations were a way to ignore an issue.
"They would come out of a task force, and Governance would look at them and say, 'Oh, gee, now what do we do?" Wick said.
Although Wick said she was pleased with the attention task forces had received lately, she said appointing a task force still could slow down progress.
Scott Manning, Lawrence graduate student and co-director of Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Services of Kansas, said he thought task forces were the best way for minority groups to be heard by the administration.
"If you've got an issue that's boiling around campus but you don't want to deal with it directly, appoint a task officer," she said. "That my cynical side."
"It's what always happens," he said. "The best way for the administration to deal with problems is to appoint a task force."
But Manning also said the administration dealt with all such problems by appointing task forces regardless of the situation.
"You look at the issue,you give input and you choose the people who will give you the best thinking," he said.
Meyen said the issues minority groups face were too important for unilateral action.
"It's a very indirect way of dealing with things," he said. "It's almost a stereotype. A problem comes up, let's appoint a task force."
Task forces are important to delicate situations, said Ed Meyen, executive vice chancellor. He said he recently appointed a task force on child care on campus and he wanted the opinions of different people.
"There are some issues which require collective thinking," he said. "There are some issues that require print — a narrative — to be clearly understood."
Rains bring snails, slugs
By Shan Schwartz
Kansan staff writer
When Lisa Molina walks up the sidewalk on Mississippi Street to campus everyday, there are creepy, crawly obstacles she often has to avoid.
Snails and slugs.
Straits and slugs,
"This summer, when it
was raining, there were so
young you couldn't miss
'em," said Molina, Knob
Nob, Mo. senor.
"I definitely try to step around them, because I don't want to crush them. Especially when I'm bare-foot," she said.
"All of the snails around here are air-breathers, and they can drown." Fautin said. "They're not adapted to extracting oxygen from water; they're getting it from the air."
The wet weather in Lawrence this year may be a cause for more sidewalk snail sightings, said Daphne Fautin, adjunct professor of systematics and ecology. She said the snails could be coming to the surface for air.
Fautin said another possibility was that the cool evenings were causing the snails to seek out warmer places to live. Fautin said decomposing organic matter, such as a rotting tree trunk, produced heat that could keep a snail alive for the winter.
"When water freezes, the snails do too." she said.
"Maybe they're seeking a place where they be less
likely to freeze."
Another reason for seeing snails or slugs on the sidewalk, Fautin said, was that they couldn't make it all the way across the dry surface.
Snails lay down a slime trail and glide on top of it, Fautin said. The slime is made mostly of water, and if a sidewalk does not contain any moisture, Fautin said, a snail must use water from its own body to produce the slime.
So what should one do if concerned about a snail on the sidewalk? Fautin said probably the best thing to do would be to pick it up and toss it back into the grass.
Snails are not the only noticeable creatures on campus this time of year.
Dog Day Cicadas, commonly known as locusts, are usually heard at night with their chirp-like songs.
"they're singing during the day, too," said Robert Brooks, collection manager of the museum of entomology in Snow Hall. Brooks said that there was less noise at night, making the cicadas easier to hear.
Brooks said the males sing two different songs to attract female mates. A long-range song is sung to attract females to the vicinity, he said. The song changes to a short-range song once a female is visible.
Brian Vandervliet / KANSAN
Calling attention
Midshipman fourth class Chris Willits, Leeward freshman, is inspected closely by midshipman first class Tim Newland, Lawrence senior, while staff sergeant Todd Manyx watches with a discerning eye.
ON THE RECORD
A student's parking permit valued at $53 was taken from a car in the 500 block of Mississippi Street on Friday, Lawrence police reported.
A student's KUID and drivers license were taken in the 700 block of New Hampshire Street on Monday, Lawrence police reported.
tools, valued together at 8170, were taken from a car in the 1000 block of West 23rd Street on Tuesday, Lawrence police reported.
A student's radar detector and bag of
A student's parking permit valued at $53 was taken from a car in parking lot No. 50 on Tuesday, KU police reported.
A student's purse and its contents, valued at $36, were taken from the
ladies locker room at Robinson Center on Tuesday. KU police reported.
A student's car was damaged and a stereo, amplifier, speakers, compact discs and sunglasses, valued together at $1,510, were taken from the car in parking lot No. 112 on Tuesday, KU police reported. Damage to the car was estimated at $100.
Ruling on gay mom upsets local residents
By Shan Schwartz
Kansan staff writer
Homosexual students and parents in Lawrence are angered by a Virginia court ruling that has taken a boy away from his mother because she is a lesbian.
Circuit Judge Buford Parsons ruled Tuesday that Sharon Bottoms "immoral" relationship with live-in lover April Wade "renders her an unfit parent."
The case pitted Sharon Bottoms against her mother, Kay Bottoms, who said that Sharon's two-year-old son would be mentally and physically harmed if raised by the lesbian couple.
Parsons said that the "extraordinary nature" of Bottom's deficiency as a parent outweighed legal presumption in keeping the mother and child together.
Diane Silver, a Lawrence resident who is also a lesbian and a mother of a 7-year-old boy, was angered by the ruling.
"It's a terrifying decision based on ignorance," Silver said. "It's terrifying because it says a mother can lose her child, no matter how good a mother she is, simply because she's a lesbian."
"You cannot judge a person by a group they're a part of. The judges have to look at parents as individuals. Lesbians can be good parents, and lesbians can be bad parents, just like anyone else."
The judge also noted that Sharon Bottoms admitted to engaging in oral sex, which is a felony in Virginia.
Kay Bottoms had the judge that the child calls Wade "Da-Da"—proof, she said, that the boy could grow up so comfortable with her. She walked through a mug from a woman.
Sharon Bottoms said that she and her lover had kissed in front of the boy but that they had never engaged in sex in front of him.
Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare, said the ruling exemplified the rawness and destructive mythology about gays and lesbians.
"It's avery heterosexist bias," Dailey said. "That's saying that if a person isn't heterosexual, they can't be a good parent. And we know that there are a good number of homosexuals who are good parents."
Dailey said that engaging in oral sex was no reason for someone to be labeled as an unfit parent.
If that is so, in the state of Virginia, probably sixty to seventy percent of all parents are immoral, and they should lose custody of their children, too.
"It was probably a conservative, moralistic judge. He reached for a law to justify his decision."
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
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