CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, April 20, 1994
3
Korean students join to provide support network
By Denise Neil
Kansan staff writer
Choonbong Park often wants to express what's on his mind in his native language: Korean.
Park, a Seoul, South Korea, graduate student and president of the Korean Student Association, said the organization.
can provided a chance for the almost 150 members of the group to get together and speak the language.
"We want to be able to communicate, to express our minds in Korean to other Korean people so we're not so mentally isolated," he said.
- Park said one of the goals of the group, which has existed for about 20 years, was to provide Korean students with a network of support.
"The main purpose is to promote friendship between Korean people and maintain the Korean atmosphere or spirit among the Korean people so that we can help each other adjust better to a completely different way of living in America," he said.
The group has developed one program to try to help keep the Korean spirit alive. Because at least half of the group members are graduate students who are married and have children, Park said, a program to teach children the Korean language was developed.
"We've been running a Korean school to teach the Korean language and characters to kids who will return to Korea as soon as their fathers are done with their studies here," he said.
John Gamble / KANSAN
Group members take turns teaching the children after school three days a week.
"As new students, it can provide a lot of information about school," he said.
The group also will sponsor Korean night April 30 in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre. The event, which is intended to distinguish Korean culture from other Asian cultures, will feature traditional dances and music. The event also will include a demonstration of tae kwon do, a martial art that originated in Korea.
Lee said he was pleased with the group's accomplishments during the past four semesters.
Spring cleaning
Brian Flewelling of Tonganoxie removes the mortar from the Indiana limestone in the facade of Watson Library. Flewelling, who works for Chrisman-Wyatt Construction in Lawrence, said that yesterday's high winds made the work more difficult and dusty.
"I want to keep doing that in the future," he said.
Diversity still on the drafting board
A plan for multicultural policies is still in the planning stages six months after it was proposed.
Headed by affirmative action director Maurice Bryan, the Blueprint for Diversity program continues to develop a vision for multiculturalism for the University.
By Jamie Munn
Bryan said the program, which began in September, was necessary for the University's future.
By Jamie Munn
Kansan staff writer
"We recognize that the University of Kansas can't be a quality institution without full diversity and multiculturalism," he said.
Bryan said a 12-member committee of administrators, faculty and a student had been established to identify and recommend solutions to minority issues on campus.
"Our whole effort is to see that every student who goes through this University has the need to be exposed to and to encounter perspectives, experiences and values different from
their own," he said.
The committee, which has met three times, has been taking a comprehensive look at diversity in student and faculty recruitment and retention, Bryan said. It also is looking at diversity in student housing and the University's curriculum.
Blueprint committee members come from a variety of backgrounds, and they were beginning to work well together, Bryan said.
Octavio Hinojosa, Hutchinson senior and chair of the Student Senate
Being the only student on the committee, Hinojosa said, he was slightly intimidated but liked the added responsibility of representing student concerns.
Committee for Multicultural Affairs, said he had enjoyed working with the Blueprint committee.
Hinojosa is examining diversity plans from other schools so that ineffective policies will not be repeated at KU.
"This should prevent us from reinventing the wheel," he said.
Student quits executive posts
Student interest cited as reason
By David Wilson Kansan staff writer
The resignation culminated what Altevogt describes as a semester characterized by disregard for student participation in Council decisions.
Council and SenEx are governing bodies made up of students and faculty who review and pass proposals for Chancellor Gene Budig to consider.
John Altevogt, graduate student senator, said student participation in University Senate Executive Committee and University Council was a joke.
Altevogt said the best example of that disregard was the Senate Libraries Committee, of which he was a member, and its attempt to pass a revised library lending code.
And yesterday, he provided the punch line by resigning from both committees.
Altevogt said that the code, which was passed by Council on Thursday, was nothing more than a fine hike that only could hurt students.
Eventually, Altevogt's stalling of the passage of the code began to concern John Davidson, professor of physics and astronomy and chair of the libraries committee.
The stalling, Davidson said, was not caused by his or anyone else's refusal to let students participate.
"The comment about student input is simply not correct," he said.
In late February, Davidson revealed in a letter to SenEx a fact about Altevogt: He was not enrolled as a student at the University and may not have been eligible to vote on the lending code.
Davidson denies that Altevogt's opposition to the lending code was what prompted him to reveal the fact that he wasn't enrolled.
But, he said. "I was certainly frustrated. The committee for two years had a charge from University Council to get the code passed."
Davidson said that at one point, he had wanted to discuss the code with Altevogt and had tried to look up his home phone number in the student phone book. When he couldn't find it, he knew that something was wrong,
he said. A call to the University registrar confirmed that Altevogt wasn't enrolled.
According to the Student Senate elections code, all candidates must be enrolled in at least one hour on the Lawrence campus and must intend to remain enrolled for the fall and spring semesters.
But when the issue was referred to Senate, Altevogt received the blessing of the Student Senate Executive Committee to serve out the rest of his term.
Travis Harrod, chair of StudEx, said that because Altevogt was on a leave of absence to work on his doctorate and because he had intended to enroll this semester, he could serve out his term.
But T.P. Srinivasan, chair of SenEx,
said intention was not enough. A student senator, graduate or not, should be enrolled, he said.
"You have to belong to that body before you can speak for them," he said.
Srinivasan also said that someone who wasn't enrolled and didn't pay student fees shouldn't be able to make decisions about how student fees were spent.
Altevogt disagreed.
"The fact is, I do my job. I battle for fee payers," he said.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said the issue of eligibility was not addressed in Senate rules and regulations.
"Nowhere in rules and regulations does it expressly say you must be an enrolled student and remain so throughout the term of office," he said.
Ambler said it was unclear whether the Senate elections code, which is separate from Senate rules and regulations, was as binding as the rules and regulations.
But Altevogt said he was a student in every sense of the word.
"The only reason they raise that issue, I'd contend, is to distract me. They violated my civil rights and privacy rights in a blatant attempt to intimidate other students," he said.
Altevogt said the experience had convinced him that students could not serve effectively on committees with professors and administrators.
"The real issue here is whether or not students are going to be allowed to participate in governance," he said.