CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Holly McQueen / KANSAN
Amy Drussel, Garden City junior, left, Kim Hobbs, Plattsburg, Mo., senior, and Chrisy Campobasso, Kansas City, Mo., junior, wrap themselves up with other members of Alpha Chi Omega in a human knot. Untangling the knot, an exercise that helps groups interact, was part of the Adams Campus Challenge Course.
KU challenge course creates group unity
Activities let students learn about themselves
By Liz Klinger
Kansan staff writer
It was a hot summer day at Adams Campus Challenge Course where nine executive board members of Alpha Chi Omega diligently worked to free themselves from a massive human knot.
"Kim, could you step over your arm?" asked the leader.
The board members were participating in a warm-up exercise Sunday, part of a three-hour challenge course near Lone Star Lake. The program is designed to bring their group closer together through a series of physical and cognitive challenges.
The program is run by the department of health, physical education and recreation.
kolly McQueen / KANSAN
Allan Heinze, director of physical education and recreation facilities, and Christine Janssen, Tonganoxie senior, were acting as facilitators for the day's outing.
After 15 minutes, the group was still entangled in the knot.
"Sometimes they get pretty tough," said Heinze, who studied the knot.
Finally, the knot became a large circle and nine events, smiling faces emerged.
sweaty, smiling, need more This exercise, along with others, challenges the group to work together as a unit with each of its members trying to accomplish the same goal. Safety is emphasized at all times and the facilitators always stand near the group as back-up. After each exercise, the facilitator will ask the group questions about how the exercise triggered interaction and consideration among others.
Heinze said the course allowed groups to know each other a little better, to learn about problem solving by using the strengths of the total group and to work together as a team.
Groups that have participated have ranged from KU's baseball team to church groups.
Janssen explained that the course would take participants on a journey to a far away place and that completing each element would bring them closer to home. In one activity, group members use one 10-foot long pad
Libby Swed, president of Alpha Chi Omega, leads members of her executive board on a pair of land skis during an imaginary journey at Adams Campus Challenge Course near Lone Star Lake.
of skis to make an imaginary trek down a mountain to a resort.
oogetern.
"If one person doesn't pick up their foot, the board
"and Hejya."
In this element, Heinze said everybody had to work together.
The group got off to a slow start. But within a few minutes they had picked up speed.
dies they had picked out. "She's a good leader," said Janssen, referring to the sorority's president, Libby Swed, Washington, Mo., junior, who was at the front end of the skis.
Black Student Union meets, stresses unity, remembers past
Group celebrates 25 years of unity
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
During an icebreaker at the first Black Student Union meeting last night, Terry Bell, president, asked members to identify themselves by their majors.
"It's so when you're in a class with 300 students and five Blacks, you'll get to know each other," said Bell, Tampa, Fla., senior.
BSU, the University's oldest and largest minority organization, began its 25th year last night. The group serves as an umbrella group for several African-American organizations, including the Black Panhellenic Council and the Black Poets Society. But Frank Williams, the group's parishianian, said it served a more important purpose.
"It's a unity," the said. "It gets us all together in one capacity."
Williams, Kansas City, Kan., senior,
said the group provided a sense of
belonging for African-American students,
whose numbers have yet to
return to the 1,000-plus level of the
'70s and '80s.
In Fall 1902, 686 African Americans were enrolled at the University's Lawrence campus.
"You may be the only African American in your class all through KU," he said. "Without this, there wouldn't have been anything I would have been lost."
Despite a perception of unity, African Americans need to organize to keep together. Williams said.
"One of the stereotypes is that Black people talk only to each other," he said. "But when I came up here nobody spoke to each other."
The group formed in the fall of 1968, when racial tensions were at a national high, Marshall Jackson, administrative associate at the Student Activities Center, was a junior when he joined the group at its creation.
"Black students didn't feel their needs were being responded to," he said. "They felt as if they weren't accepted."
Jackson said the mood of the era
helped the group grow quickly.
"We were pretty successful in getting students to respond," he said. "The Civil Rights Movement was very much in front of everybody's minds."
The real boost for the group came at the 1969 Homecoming ceremony. Jackson said the group protested the election of a white Homecoming Queen by electing a Homecoming Queen of its own. They celebrated Homecoming away from the main campus celebration, angering KU alumni.
"They thought that a Black female was necessary because of the contribution of Black athletes," he said.
Bell said that because KU's African Americans still did not have an equal voice, he felt no pressure to live up to the accomplishments of the group in past years.
"The recommendations for change in the past need to be checked on to see if they are still in order," he said.
Camille LaFleur, Topeka freshman, said she was grateful for the presence of such a group.
"I came to get involved," LaFleur said. "I come from a predominantly white high school, so this is the largest number of Black people in one room I've seen in a long time."
Hungry hall residents endure long lines at the new Mrs. E's'
Tom Leininger / KANSAN
By Brian James
Kansan staff writer
Andy Zimmerman, Topeka freshman, adds his tray to the stack of dishes at the new Lenoir Eidkahl Dining Commons at Lewis Hall. Students have waited up to 20 minutes in the dinner line at the cafeteria during rush hours.
Martin Klein and Dan Ricke have not eaten breakfast since school began.
The Ellsworth sophomores have found, like most other Daisy Hill residents, that to eat during peak meal hours at the new Lenoir Ekdahl Dining Commons at Lewis Hall, they must endure long lines in the food court.
"At the rush time in the morning when everyone wants to eat, you can't get breakfast quickly enough before class," said Ricke, Rose Hill sophomore. "So I don't have breakfast."
Students who have meal plans but live at GSP-Corbin or Oliver are also permitted to eat at the new dining hall.
Long lines at the food counters are worse at peak dinner hours, between 6 and 5 p.m., they said.
The new dining hall is responsible for feeding the 2,134 residents from the Daisy Hill halls, including Templin, Lewis, Hashinger, Ellsworth, and McColum.
Several factors contribute to the lengthy lines, said Peggy Smith, director of student housing dining services.
"You have to base your schedule around rush times. At least that's what smart people do," said Klein, Elgin, Neb, sophomore. "It shouldn't be like that."
On Mondays through Thursdays during the last two weeks, the dining hall, commonly known as "Mrs. E.'s," has been averaging over 2,000 students for each lunch and dinner.
Students had not adjusted to their new daily schedules yet, she said.
"Once students find a time to eat that makes sense for them, traffic in the food court will even out."
"Every fall we've found that students come to eat at the same time, and that makes it tough," said Smith. "Last Thursday we had 2,300 students at dinner, and we know over 300 of them drove in different groups from GSP and Oliver.
the new dining hall also needed more student workers to run smooth-
ly, Smith said.
"Typically we need about 220 student workers in food services," she said. "We're not there yet."
"Lately, we've not only been hiring students, but putting aprons on them, saying, 'Here, you can be doing the dishes while the paperwork is being done.'
Mindy Pendreigh, unit manager at the new dining hall, said everyone on the food services staff had been working overtime to meet the demand. Most workers had 10 to 15 overtime hours last week. One manager had 33 overtime hours.
Many students wait until mid- September to apply for positions in food services,Smith said. Some international students were waiting for their social security cards to begin work.
"It's been pretty stressful for the staff" she said.
Staff from the dining halls at GSP Corbin, Oliver and even student housing officials had often come over to help, Pendreigh said.
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said he spent a morning last week helping in the dish room.
"Everybody in the department has pitched in," he said.
Stoner said managers at the new dining hall had gotten a late start in training the rest of the staff because of construction delays.
"Most of the staff could not get in the new hall until August 9," he said.
The first meal was a brunch on Aug.16.
Stoner said the food services staff did not have ample time to test the new equipment and practice food preparation before students arrived.
"We went from stop to the fast lane overnight," he said.
Although students said they were frustrated with waiting for food, they appreciated the variety in the food court.
"You can always find something you like," said Klein. "You always have pizza."