I
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
Thursday, April 29, 1993
Students aid orientation
Assistants attempt to ease transition to University life
By Mark Kiefer
Kansan staff writer
Brochures and undergraduate catalogs tell the story of life at the University.
The transition between the two can be difficult for some.
That is where the Office of New Student Orientation comes in. Its job is to alleviate the fears and make the transition easier.
One way the office does this is by selecting students to escort incoming students and their parents around the campus and inform them of life at the University and its long history.
Cathy Webster, assistant director of New Student Orientation, said the office searched for a variety of students who best represented the diversity of the University.
There is no one picture we have of
an assistant," she said. "It's not a position for people who aren't interested in representing KU."
Webster said the office received about 60 applications from students wanting to be orientation assistants during this summer. That list was trimmed to 14 through a process that included applications, interviews and speeches by the applicants.
"It was the hardest interview process I've ever been through—and the longest," said Janet Pryor, Scammon senior and one of the students selected.
Jill Bechtel, Hutchinson sophomore agreed.
"It was more stressful and rigorous than I anticipated," she said. "But it was all worth it."
The 14 students were selected in the first week of March and have begun training for the summer orientation programs, Webster said.
"It's pretty intense training," Webster said. "They end up knowing more about KU than most faculty members who have been here for years."
the training,the students will not receive a paycheck until the middle of May
Why would a student go through this?
The future assistants said it was because they remembered when they first came to the University and how they felt then.
Even after the selection process and
"When I first came to the University, I was really overwhelmed and kind of scared." Pryor said. "I'm interested in going into student affairs. I like working with large groups of people. I thought this was right for me."
Bechtel said that she would like to use her experience as a freshman to help others.
"It was a scary and really stressful experience," Bechtel said. "Orientation helped out a lot."
And that is what orientation is all about, Webster said.
"In our evaluations, a great number of students agree that their anxiety had been relieved and they feel ready to come to KU," Webster said.
Youth program may end
Low attendance leads to probation for KU sports clinic
By Dan England
Kansan staff writer
A KU summer program that attempts to give disadvantaged Lawrence youths the inspiration to attend college may be in danger of closing down.
The National Youth Sports Program is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It gives free sport and academic instruction to children ages 10 to 16 years from low-income families in Douglas County and provides meals, transportation and a physical examination.
But the KU program, which has been on campus for three years, is on probation by the NYSP, because it has not been attracting the minimum number of 250 children per summer. KU's programs have averaged 200 children each of the past two years. The program at KU lasts for five weeks.
from June 18 to July 23.
Mary Myers, project administrator and assistant director of the Organizations and Activities Center, said the program may be cut by the NYSP.
"If we don't meet the minimum number this year, our future is uncertain." Myers said.
NYSP evaluates its programs every year, and if one program does not reach the minimum number of students for two years, it is put on probation by NYSP, Myers said. NYSP was started in 1968 with two institutions and now has 175 institutions in 44 states.
"It's all paper work," she said. "All NYSP can do is look at the number of kids that our program attracts and make their decision from there. We have to show the community of Lawrence that this is a good program."
Myers said she blamed the low attendance on the lack of awareness about the program in Lawrence.
One of the main goals of the program is to inspire older students to attend college. Myers said. The older children are given tours of KU's schools and libraries to learn the importance of a college education.
"We basically treat the kids like college students," she said.
David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs, originally matched NYSP and KU together.
"College can be such an unknown place for many of these kids," Shulen-burger said. "If we can create a comforting atmosphere that dispels the mystery, they will be more likely to come back."
The program teaches sports such as volleyball and basketball and employs KU student-athletes as instructors. Dana Stubbleford, former KU football player and first-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers, was one of the instructors last year. Myers said.
Social skills also are developed. Myers said. The program will include street gang education for the first time along with the program's regular drug and alcohol education.
Myers said the program provided a way for disadvantaged youths to have a chance in life.
"We make them understand that the background they came from is not their future," she said. "We want them to understand that they can do better."
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