SPORTS: U.S. hockey team advances to the medal round after defeating Italy. Page 9.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.103,NO.106
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
ADVERTISING:864-4358
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22,1994
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
African, African-American students not the same Chances slim
jennie Zeiner / KANSAN
Gregory Frost, assistant to the dean of the graduate school, said he learned a lot about African culture and his own African-American culture from wife Eileen Mai Frost, Monrovia, Liberia, graduate student.
Interaction leads to insight on themselves, each other
By Denise Neil
Kansan staff writer
when Deo Taquiba came to KU from Uganda five years ago he expected African Americans to look just like those in the pages of Ebony magazine.
"I kept looking for the glamorous and very rich," he said.
But Tajuba, Jinga, Uganda, graduate student and one of 71 African students at KU, discovered that his preconceived perceptions of African Americans were about as accurate as theirs were of him.
Gregory Frost, assistant to the associate vice chancellor and assistant to the dean of the graduate school, said he had experienced these misconceptions first-hand. In July, he married Enid-Mai Frost, Monrovia, Liberia, graduate student and president of the African Affairs Student Association.
"There's still misconceptions of Africa as a place with uncivilized people," he said. Enid-Mai Frost had been a foreign exchange student in the United States when she was in high school. She decided to return for her college education in 1985, and she met Gregory Frost in 1988.
Gregory Frost said that adapting to each other's culture had not been easy.
"She's not an American," he said. "She can be very critical of our culture and I have to be more sensitive to that."
One of the biggest differences between the two cultures is the makeup of the family, Gregory Frost said.
"The African culture is more traditional, more family-oriented in many cases, than the African-American community," he said. "When I was introduced to her family, I got to see first-hand that they're more traditional, more formal."
Enid-Mai Frost said divorce was rare in her culture and that close relationships developed beyond the boundaries of the immediate family.
"One of the hardest things has been understanding his relationship with his family," she said. "He knew from the beginning that I came from a very close family. I can't understand the lack of closeness in the African-American family."
Sandrine Lisk, second-year law student from Sierra Leone and treasurer of the African Affairs Student Association, said she thought that the African-American students and African students did not interact enough. She said her group would try to coordinate activities with the Black Student Union during African Awareness Week March 28 through April 2. The goal is to
Upcoming events
Wednesday: "Impediments to Black Empowering; Past and Present," a panel discussion featuring officials from KU and Washburn University, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Kansas Room at the Kansas Union.
KANSAN
draw the two groups together and encourage understanding of cultural differences
"The only thing we have in common is our skin color," she said. "African-Americans do not have the same cultural backgrounds."
Gregory Frost said that African Americans could learn about their backgrounds by getting to know African students.
The lessons the two cultures can teach each other are valuable. Taiuba said.
"I believe that African Americans and Africans can teach each other about ourselves," he said. "And we need to teach each other as a way to understand each other."
February Sisters helped create change
Concerns still exist despite new services
A member of the February Sisters tries to avoid a Kansan photographer after a SenEx meeting on Feb. 6, 1972. An article in the Feb. 7 Kansan reported that the women did not want their photos taken because it was a group decision to keep individuals from receiving attention. One unidentified member of the group offered a different explanation — she didn't want her father to see her picture in the paper. "I don't want him to think I'm a radical woman and cut off my funds," she said.
By Roberta Johnson Kansan staff writer
Twenty-two years after the February Sisters barricaded the East Asian Studies building at 1332 Louisiana, some of the group's goals have yet to be realized.
The group's 13-hour barricade on Feb. 4, 1972, eventually led to the creation of the Office of Affirmative Action and Department of Women's Studies at the University of Kansas. It also paved the way for increased health care programs for women and the formation of the Hiltop Child Development Center.
Max Lucas, dean of architecture and urban design, was head of the University Senate Executive Committee at that time.
SenEx supported the move for campus day care and more women's health services.
"Up until that time, SenEx didn't have the responsibility to deal with those types of issues," he said. "That night, the February Sisters came along and asked SenEx to get involved. It was just a case of 'This is reasonable' 'versus 'This is not reasonable.'"
The Hilltop Child Development Center has been open since 1972, but the day care center is neither free nor immediately available. Director Andi Fishman Pollack said that there was a 200-child waiting list to receive child care.
There is also a sliding fee scale based on income, she said.
The Executive Vice Chancellor's Child Care Task Force is surveying faculty and students on the child-care needs of the community, said Gerry Burns, member of the task force and president of OAKS — Non-Traditional Students Organization.
"There's no short-term way to solve the problem," he said. "There's no way we're ever going to fulfill the child-care needs of the University and City of Lawrence, but we'll come as close as possible."
The February Sisters also worked for an increase in health care services for women at Watkins Memorial Health Center.
"You couldn't get help with birth control,
even if you were married," said Mary Coral, a member of the group and a student at that time. "It was poor service for women."
Although many needed services, such as pelvic exams and birth control, are now available, they are not free to patients as the group had requested.
Today's students are more concerned with the fact that there are no female gynecologists at Watkins, said Christy Morris, Englewood, Colo., senior. Morris, a member of the Women's Student Union, said that the group was pushing for the hiring of female gynecologists.
"Bring me one and we'll hire one," said James Strobl, director of administration at Watkins. "There aren't five female gynecologists in all of College Hill."
Another unaddressed concern was the low number of women serving on the University faculty. Today, only 27 percent of faculty and librarians and 12.9 percent of faculty administrators are women. There are only two female deans in the University, one of which will begin her work this summer.
Strobl said that there was a nurse practitioner, who performs routine exams, in the office of gynecology.
"Things change from year to year," said Carol Prentice, assistant to the vice chancellor of academic affairs. "A few years ago, two of the three vice chancellors were women."
"There's a tendency to feel most comfortable with people that look like us," she said. "Women may seem less qualified, even if they look the same on paper."
that she thought there was some implicit discrimination in the hiring process.
Coral said she was unhappy with the slow progression toward the realization of the goals of the February Sisters.
Ann Weick, dean of social welfare, said
"We've been hacking at a large rock of granite," she said. "After all, look how long it took us to get the vote. In England, they threw themselves in front of horses and died. In America, women hung the President in effigy.
"You have to risk something to make some changes."
Chances slim for getting meningitis
Physicians say disease is rare, students have no cause for alarm
By Susan White Kansan staff writer
Anthony Thomas, a Kansas City, Kan., junior and resident of McCollum Hall, died of the disease Friday. Since then, several students have been fouc of THOMAS. Student
Students should not be afraid of getting meningitis their chances of catching the potentially fatal disease are slim.
THOMAS: Student left his mark in short time at University. Page 3.
But Charles Rockey chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said the number of cases nationwide and in Lawrence was low.
"1.3 out of every 100,000 people nationwide get meningitis," he said. "We expect about one case in Lawrence a year. At least, that is what incidents have indicated. But we could have two a year or none for two years."
Susan Elkins, an employee at KU Information, said worried students had called with various questions about meningitis and their chances of contracting it.
"They want to know the symptoms to look for, if they should go to Watkins for antibiotics and what floor the student who died lived on," she said. "They also are asking about the connections between the student who died last year in McCollum with the student who just died."
Yockey said that meningitis was a rare disease and that students should not worry about catching it.
"It is a very uncommon disease," he said. "Residents of McCollum have been nervous about using the dining hall, but they have nothing to be afraid of. There have only been two cases here. It is just a coincidence that they were both in McCollum."
Yockey said the biggest problem with meningitis was fear of the unknown...
Thomas had an isolated case of meningitis, and no other cases have been reported since he was diagnosed, Yockey said. Every student who was at risk of catching meningitis received preventive antibiotics last week.
"Nobody expects to get meningitis," he said. "Anthony Thomas was a healthy student, probably healthier than a lot who came in with cold symptoms that quickly turned into a severe disease. Students are asking 'what if it happens to me?' But it is more common to die in a car accident."
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said a stream of questions had been coming to the housing department about the disease. He said he hoped those questions were answered at a question and answer session led by Yockey last night at McCollum.
"We try to get the information out as best as we can," he said. "We will give one more session if there's any lingering concern among the students."
Staff writer Frank McCleary contributed information to this story.
Kansan staff report
Student return home
A KU student injured in a Tennessee car crash that killed another student returned last week to her home in Derby.
Theresa Noonan, sophomore, returned Thursday to Kansas after spending a week in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital, said her mother, Cecilia.
"She hopes to return to KU next week," Cecilia Noonan said. "We're still not sure yet. She has to see a plastic surgeon and some other doctors. But we hope for the best. We think she's doing pretty well."
Theresa was taken to Memphis's Methodist Central Hospital after the car she was driving crashed into a tractor trailer Feb. 10. The accident killed her passenger, Jenna Robinson. Manhattan sophomore.
The two students were traveling on Interstate Highway 55 on their way to Graceland when their car skidded on ice and hit the trailer from behind.
Who is this guy?
Without his make-up, many people may not recognize Jeremy Boldra. But when he shows up at Kansas men's basketball games, everyone knows him as "Kramer."
Page 3.
Race-based scholarships get government approval
By Angelina Lopez Kansas staff writer
Without a minority scholarship from the School of Social Welfare, Jay Jackson, Lawrence sophomore and a Native-American student, said that he would not be able attend the University of Kansas.
Jackson, like many other minority students, is only able to afford the cost of a college education because of a race-based scholarship.
In 1990, the validity of race-based scholarships was called into question. Opponents felt policies that earmarked money specifically for minority students discriminated against white students. The Bush administration proposed that these types of scholarships be eliminated.
On Thursday, however, the Department of Education announced its approval of race-based scholarships. It said that these scholarships could be used to remedy past discriminations and to help diversify the university student population.
"Lack of financial aid is the number one reason why minorities don't attend college," said Sherwood Thompson, director of the Office of Minority Affairs.
He said that a legitimate reason for giving away race-based scholarships was to increase the minority population at KU.
A large minority population not only is positive for minority students, said Maurice Bryan, director of the Office of Affirmative Action, but for all students.
"By not having a more diverse campus, we're cheating every student that graduates from here," Bryan said. "An understanding of different ethnic groups is an important part of what's necessary to be educated in the current global economy."
Thompson said there were many misconceptions about race-based scholarships.
"People think there's a big pile of money that whites don't get," he said. "They think that every college gets money for race-based scholarships and that every minority student gets a scholarship."
According to the Department of Educa-
Bryan said that race-based scholarships were not the only restrictive scholarships.
tion, the federal government spends $11 billion dollars on student financial aid, and the largest receivers of this aid are white.
The U.S. General Accounting Office found that only four percent of undergraduate scholarship dollars and five percent of undergraduate scholarships were awarded on the basis of race.
"Minority scholarships are no different than athletic scholarships, scholarships awarded to veterans and scholarships limited to certain fields of study," he said.
Amanda Hostetler, Prairie Village sophomore and president of the Lambda Sigma Society, received a minority scholarship for being a woman in science, not because of her race.
"As a product of minority scholarships, I think they are helpful in allowing minorities to get their foot in the door and prove that they are qualified," she said. "At the same time, other more qualified people may be ignored."
Where to find aid
The following is a list of places to find information about race-based scholarships:
University Scholarship Center
33 Strong Hall
864-5439
Office of Student Financial Aid
50 Strong Hall
864-4700
Endowment Association
Youngberg Hall
864-4201
The University of Kansas Regents Center
12600 Quivira Rd.
Overland Park, Kan.
864-8409
Office of Minority Affairs
145 Strong
864-4351
KANBAN