CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, April 29, 1994
3
Brown case to be commemorated
Meeting to mark historic decision
By Angelina Lopez Kansan staff writer
Forty years ago, the Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka, Kan., decision allowed African-American children to sit in the same classroom with white children.
Today and tomorrow, civil rights activists, University administrators and educators and plaintiffs who were involved in the Brown case will recognize the impact of this decision in a symposium commemorating its 40th anniversary.
The symposium "Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education, Forty Years Later: Where Do We Go From Here?" is open to the public.
"We want to celebrate the accomplishments of the past and what has been accomplished since then," said William L. Andrews, director of the Hall Center for the Humanities, which is sponsoring the symposium. "But this is not a conference strictly about history. This is about where we're going today."
These panelists also will question what must be done in the future to further tear down the walls that still separate children in the classroom and people in the United States.
"We still have to talk about the continued segregation of American life. We've known for a long time that children need equal opportunities But we still have to learn how to live together in a multi-ethnic society."
Andrew said the strength of the symposium lay in the people invited to be panelists.
"These people were at the eye of the hurricane," he said.
Linda Brown Thompson, a plaintiff in the Brown trial, Jesse Milan, the first African-American teacher in Lawrence after schools were integrated, and others involved in the Brown decision will be take part in the symposium.
Washington Post columnist Juan Williams will speak at 8 tonight at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. William wrote the book "Eyes on the Prize," a companion to the PBS series of the same name that looked at the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1965.
Ann Weick, dean of social welfare, was invited to be a panelist because she heads the Lawrence Alliance, an organization designed to promote a discrimination-free environment.
"The Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education was a significant legal decision," she said. "Now we need to go beyond the laws that prohibit segregation and work towards policies of acceptance and tolerance."
Native Americans think spirituality can't be sold
By Susan White
Kansan staff writer
Two years ago, Leigh Gipp decided not to buy a buffalo skull that was used in a Native-American sun dance.
Gipp, the owner of Native Creations, 732 Massachusetts St., said that she convinced a KU student, who was from the Rosebud Native American Reservation in South Dakota, not to sell the skull. Gipp said that she thought the spiritual value of the skull was worth more than any monetary value she could place on it.
"I told her Native American religious items were not meant to be sold," she said. "Her money problems would still be there next week, but she would not have her buffalo skull. She works for me now."
For Native Americans, sacred items are not commodities to be bought or sold. Rather, Gipp said, they hold a special significance that money just can't buy.
"You can't buy spirituality at a store," she said. "A lot of times people come in looking for books on how to be spiritual, but I tell them that spirituality is not something you can find in a book. Everybody has the ability to be spiritual. They just have to be quiet, listen, meditate and pray."
Frank Tiger, Wichita graduate student and a Native American from the Shawnee nation, also said that spiritual items were sacred and should never be sold.
"You can give your spirit to somebody by blessing an item, but you should not sell the item," he said.
Tiger said that he thought the spirituality of Native Americans came from the inner and the outer self rather than religious items themselves.
"A person's spirituality depends on the individual an what you believe and how the
spirit feeds you,"he said
Native American Heritage Month
The Native-American spirit is a part of the circle of life that needs all the pieces to complete the whole, he said.
"If you are missing any part of the circle, you lose part of your spirit," Tiger said. "The child comes from the Mother Earth, and she is its protector along with the Father Sky. The spirit is in nature, so the spirit contributes everything to our lives."
After people die, their spirits return to the earth in a different form, Tiger said.
"Shemotah, our female maker, lowers the basket of life to take people up," he said. "Then the nurturing spirit comes back as something else like an owl. If you are an owl, you are well-respected because your job is to oversee the spirits at night."
Tiger said that the spirit was such a central part of life that in the past people would take certain practices to make sure they did not lose it.
"They would not let their pictures be taken because they were afraid the picture would take the spirit out of them," he said.
But Tiger also said that for some people spiritual items held as much of a special meaning to them as the actual spirit.
"When people are about to die, they can bless an item of a person close to them, and the item becomes the spirit," he said. "It is very sacred. Then when the person who has the item dies, it can be buried with him or her."
Leigh Gipp, owner of Native Creations, 732 Massachusetts St., said she believed that Native-American religious items had a spiritual value beyond money.
John Gamble / KANSAN
Sleepwalking injuries a rare occurrence
By Cheryl Cadue Kansan staff writer
The death of Scott McWhorter, who KU police say fell out of a fourth-floor window of Corbin Hall on Sunday, may sleepwalkers into a panic.
"It is a phenomenon of deep sleep," he said. "Other than being startling, it's not particularly harmful."
But Gerald Kerby, director of the sleep lab at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said sleepwalkers could harm themselves but rarely did.
Phorter, Dallas freshman, died at 7:23 a.m. Sunday
after falling four stories out the window of a room in Corbin Hall. KU police said that McWhorter was sleepwalking as he fell out of the window.
Sleepwalking is most common in children, and most outgrow sleepwalking in their teens. Kerby said
Sleepwalking can run in the family, he said, but no factor can determine whether a person sleepwalks
What to know
Sleepwalking occurs in the first third of the sleep period
Facts about sleepwalking from the third edition of "Principles of Ambulatory Medicine":
Sleepwalking is most common between 6 and 12 years of age.
Childhood sleepwalkers usually go into remission, but occasionally some may sleepwalk until their late 20s or 30s.
In adults, sleepwalking sometimes is seen as a psychological problem requiring evaluation and appropriate psychotherapy.
KANSAN
Charles Hallenbeck, professor of psychology, said sleepwalking, sleep-talking and bed-wetting were known as disorders of arousal.
He recommended simply trying to guide the sleepwalker back to bed. He also said waking the sleepwalker might not be a good idea.
"It really can be a scary experience to wake up in the middle of the back yard," he said.
People mistakenly believe sleepwalking has something to do with dreaming. Hallenbeck said. However, sleepwalking usually occurs in the dreamless stages of sleep.
Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said he had not seen college-age students who had a problem with sleepwalking because sleepwalking occurred mostly in children.
Yockey said that because sleepwalking was not a normal awake state, sleepwalkers would usually not remember the episode after they woke up.
"All you have to do is protect them from themselves," Yockey said. "Modify the environment so there is no danger in the near vicinity of the sleepwalker's bedroom."
Treatment consists of making the sleepwalker's environment safer, such as shutting windows and not sleeping in the top bed bunk, he said.
Yockey said stress could increase the chances for sleepwalking, but he also said stress could make any underlying problem worse.
"There are no absolutes in this," he said. "We're talking about an unusual condition and one that's hard to study."
Not much research can be done on sleepwalking because people can't be induced to sleepwalk and because sleepwalking episodes could not be predicted, he said.
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The University of Kansas
Convocation for Graduates
Saturday, May 14, 1994 7:30 pm at the Lied Center with a reception following in the foyer.
The convocation honors graduates (at all levels) who completed their degrees in December, 1993, and those who will graduate in May,'94, Summer,'94 or December,'94. It is a formal ceremony with individual recognition and a gift for each graduate. Graduates should wear academic regalia and should arrive at 7:00 to check in for the processional. Families and guests may be seated in the theatre. To help us plan, please sign the list in the School of Education, 117 Bailey Hall, 864-3726