SPORTS: The No. 18 Kansas baseball team will play host to No. 16 Wichita State at 7 tonight, Page 17
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.102,NO.128
ADVERTISING:864-4358
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1993
Irene Lanier / KANSAN
Wearing tradition
(USPS 650-640)
Big Jay, Tracie Lansing, Leavenworth sophomore, signs an autograph for a young fan during a basketball game.
The Jayhawk mascots are as much a part of games as the players themselves. The moment the students put on their hot and bulky costumes they become part of KU history.
Irene Lanier / KANSAN
Mamie Dodson, Amarillo, Texas, junior and Greg Hansen, Minneapolis sophomore, discuss memorable mascot experiences.
Irene Lanier / KANSAM
By Jess DeHaven Kansan staff writer
Big Jay, Tracie Lansing, Leavenworth sophomore, cheers on a crowd at Allen Field House. Big Jay is part of tradition and is one of the most recognizable symbols of the University.
arne Dodson takes the head of one of the two Baby Jays out of a storage closet in Allen Field House.
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She was right. Inside it's dark and hard to see. The plush blue and red fur is hot and difficult to move in.
"It's going to be heavy, and you may not be able to see." she warns.
"Baby Jay, Baby Jay, can you talk to us?" Tracie Jays says as she pulls on the rope.
There bans singing as she pumps on the drum.
"Are you a boy Jayhawk or a girl Jayhawk?" Armen Kurdian asks as he pats the head.
Dobson, Lansing and Kurdian are part of a KU tradition dating back to the 1960s. They are Jayhawk mascots, and for many fans, the games wouldn't be the same without them.
The mascots are more than entertainment for fans at Kansas football and basketball games, they are also the most easily recognized symbol of the University of Kansas and a favorite cutaway shot for national television cameras.
*u you were to take a box and put in it the thing that most represents the school, it would be the mascot.*
"The mascot is the University," Kurdian, Wichita senior, says. "When people see it, the first thing they think of is KU."
Eight students currently take turns wearing the Big Jay and Baby Jay套装: Kurdian; Dodson, Amarillo, Texas, junior; Lansing, Leavenworth sophomore; Chris Gassen, Hutchinson junior; Greg Hansen, Minneapolis sophomore; Amy Uberberg, Mission Hills senior; Tim Platt, Roeland Park sophomore; and Vicki Raynor, Lawrence freshman.
Hansen will be the Baby Jay at the Final four games in New Orleans, but Dodson says all of the mascots will probably attend the game. Each school is only allowed one mascot, so Big Jay will not be seen in New Orleans.
"Being a mascot isn't something that you do for yourself," Dodson says. "It's part of the whole spirit of KU."
The Jayhawk is part of the University's history that dates back to 1890, when the first Kansas football team became known as the Jayhawks. The first drawing of the Jayhawk appeared in 1912, taking on four other forms before it evolved into the 1946 "smiling Jayhawk" that is used today.
The Big Jay costume appeared in the 1960s. Baby Jay hatched during halftime
ceremonies of the the 1971 Homecoming Game.
With tradition like this, it's no wonder that many of the mascots say their pride in KU was a driving force in getting them to try out for positions on the spirit squad.
Lansing became a mascot because she wanted to be involved with the University on a higher level — to be a part of the spirit of KU.
"I'm a fourth generation student, so I grew up being a big KU fan," Dodson says. "As a child I remember my parents doing the 'Rock Chalk Chant,' and I thought that was
"When I came here I'd already decided that I was going to try out."
sirce:
"I wanted to be involved in a special way," Lansing said. "It's something that's just not normal."
really great.
eing a mascot requires a special personality. Whether it's running around the court waving a big card, or south stlys:
or dancing for the TV cameras, the mascots' job is to electify the crowd.
Hansen says the Jayhawk brings out a whole other side of fellow mascot Kurdian, a Naval ROTC battalion commander.
"I can be completely crazy," he says. "It's great to be able to just go nuts."
Kurdian agrees.
Hunerebay says she actually becomes the Jayhawk when she puts on the costume.
"You see yourself in the mirror, but it isn't you looking back," she says. "It's a little strange."
The Big Jay and Baby Jay have their own personalities, say those who wear the costumes.
"The Baby Jay is playful and spunky."
Dodson says. "The Big Jay is more refined
"We all have our own way of walking and our own gestures."
our own gestures.
Kurdian elaborates on the personalities
"The Big Jay is a cocky, proud, strutting-his-stuff kind of guy," he says. "The Baby Jay is a playful, jumping up and down child."
Lansing says wearing the costume brought out a different personality in her too.
"You're so carefree and you have to be happy." Lansing says. "You really mold into the costume — it makes you feel happy and you get to be stupid."
The mascots only meet once a week, so they must improvise many of the routines, especially those with other mascots.
write the Wildcat is a lot of fun," Kurdian says of the Kansas State University mascot. "We threw the ball around for awhile at the football game. It's great because you get to act like a 3-year-old."
espite the enthusiastic and light-hearted outward appearance of the mascots, the costume itself can be a burden to those who wear
It's hot here.
"If I had a nickel for every time I was asked
is it hot in there?" I'd be rich, Hungerberg
sometimes it gets so hot that the kids
it. It is heavy, bulky, and above all, hot.
May be magnesium Ions used.
Story continued, Page 9.
Committee to propose elimination
By Dan England
Kansan staff writer
A University Council committee will recommend the elimination of five academic degrees to Council treasury.
Senate Executive Committee approved the proposals yesterday.
Academic Procedures and Policies,
the Council committee, based its
decisions on a recommendation by
David Shulenburger, acting vice
chancellor for academic affairs; program
review of faculty and students; and public
hearings, said Susan Craig, who
heads the committee.
The University originally had recommended during program review that six degrees be eliminated.
The public hearings, which began Feb. 15, gave anyone the chance to speak out either for or against the elimination of a degree.
The committee recommended the elimination of the B.S. in toxicology because no students were associated with the program, Craig wrote in a recommendation letter to Council.
In discussion on the visual arts degree, faculty in that program asked the committee to wait 3 to 5 years in order to hire more faculty for the visual arts education Ph.D.. But Craig wrote that even if more faculty were hired, there appeared to be no plans to give more funding for the program and recommended its elimination.
The committee recommended the elimination of the B.A. in history and philosophy of science because only one degree had been awarded in the area since 1987, and two students are currently in the program, Craig wrote.
The B.S. in geophysics should be developed as a concentration with the B.S. in geology, not as a separate degree. Craig said. The committee recommended that the degree be eliminated.
The committee recommended the elimination of the B.S. in recreation despite its high enrollment. Craig said that the chronic lack of tenured faculty in the program was not consistent with the standards for degrees at KU.
However, the proposed elimination of the B.S. in engineering physics was rejected by the committee. Craig said that students and faculty had high quality students and faculty.
Council's role in the recommendations is to debate them and then either accept them or turn them down, said Dick Trace, who heads Council.
"Our role is not to conduct a new hearing." Tracy said.
The recommendations will go to Chancellor Gene Budig if they pass Council. Budig will then make the final decision to either keep the degree or eliminate it.
Degrees in danger
Academic Procedures and Policies, a University Council committee, has recommended that five academic degrees be eliminated. The committee will present its recommendations to Council today.
Recommended eliminations:
B.A. in biology
B.A. in history and philosophy of science
Ph.D. in visual arts education
B.S. in physics
B.S. in recreation
Of the originally suggested six eliminations, two are recommended to keep one the B.S. in engineering physics.
The city of Lawrence has put a new twist on Kansas coach Roy William's superstition of spitting into the Mississippi River. Jayhawk fans will be sending their saliva into the Kansas River during the "Sunrise Spitfest," hoping to send good luck to the team in New Orleans.
Spitting for luck
Concert to feature work of P.D.Q. Bach
By James J. Reece
See story. Page 3.
Kansan staff writer
The squawk of ducks or the violent crash of cymbals hitting the floor is the not the normal sound to be heard emanating from the stage in Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.
But — no April Fool's joke — such sounds may be heard as the KU Symphonic Band, in tuxedos and dresses, performs there at 7:30 tonight with guest conductor Peter Schickele.
"This is KU Band's April Fool's gift to the University," said Robert Foster, director of the music and dance department.
seincklebe is a unique classical composer who employs such sounds to satirize classical music while performing as a professor that discovered P.D. Q.B. Chach, a character he invented in 1959. Foster said the saint of seinklebe's music lay in its element of surprise. He said it often began resembling familiar classical
pieces.
"Then, all of a sudden, something strange happens," he said.
Schickele said that his 'Grand Serenade For an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion" included the "Crasho Grosso"
custom bass drum
-- dropped cymbals -- and required
woodwind musicians at one point to play
only their mouthpieces.
"It kind of sounds like squawking." Schickle said. "But they have to squawk on the right note. It's not something they teach you in music school, but you can do it."
The serenade is one of four Schickele compositions the KU Symphonic Band will perform tonight.
Schickele said his fondness for blending zany theatrics and music began in 1945 when he watched the slapstick performance of Spike Jones. Schickele first performed as the discoverer of P.D.Q. Bach in 1959 as a lark while studying at the Jullard School in New York City.
In 1655, he performed in Carnegie Hall
Now, he performs the P.D. Q. Bach music annually at Carnegie Hall.
and launched into a career that would span a quarter-century. During that time, he composed 70 pieces as P.D.Q. Bach and more than 100 pieces using his own name.
Schickle said P.D.Q. Bach still had dedicated, yet sedate, groupies, who had seen the annual Carnegie show since it started.
"Sometimes we call them P.D.Q. Bach Nerds." he said.
"Basically, that is the only industrial strength P.D. Q. Bach concert." Schickele said. "I used to travel with a stage manager and a lot of props."
This week, he is only traveling with a conductor's baton and wants to emphasize his more serious work, including a public radio show called "Schickele Mix," a music analysis show that spices rap, Islamic chants, the Beatles and Conway Twity.
Renee Knoeber / KANSAN
Composer Peter Schickele directs KU's Symphonic Band during rehearsal. Schickele, who created P.D.B, Bach, will conduct the band at 7:30 tonight in Crafton-Preyer Theatre.