CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday. February 11..1994
3
KU attracts few African-American GTAs
Brian Vandervliet / KANSAN
Sandra Barnes, left, graduate teaching assistant in chemistry, answers the questions of Gina Kim, Lenexa freshman. Barnes instructs students in the laboratory for ten hours every week. She said she enjoys helping out her students.
Teaching can be a rich experience
By Angelina Lopez Kansan staff writer
James Jackson said he appreciated his training as a graduate teaching assistant for the department of psychology at the University of Kansas.
"Being a GTA paid off a great deal," he said. "With the experience I gained through lecturing at KU, I am comfortable in front of my classes at Lehigh."
In 1992, Jackson was the first African American in the nation to graduate from a cognitive experimental psychology program. Now he is a research scientist at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
Though the experience of being a GTA is a positive one for many students, some African-American GTAs feel underrepresented at the University. Some blame the low numbers on a lack of recruitment on the University's part, whereas others say they are due to African-American students' inability to afford graduate school.
"The school doesn't have the resources to go and seek out Black graduate students," Robinson said. "It all comes down to money."
Sammie Robinson, GTA in the School of Business, said there were so few African-American GTAs at the University because there were so few African-American graduate students. Greg Frost, assistant to the dean at the Office of Research, Graduate Studies and Public Service, said that only 138 of the University's 7,167 graduate students are African Americans.
She said that the University was gra
cious in doing what it could to help support students when they applied. However, he said, the administration did not actively recruit qualified African-American students.
Ernest Jenkins, assistant instructor in history, was a GTA for two years. He said that as an undergraduate student at Furman University in South Carolina, he was attracted to the University by the quality of its history program. Although the KU administration did not recruit him, he said,
when he applied, it offered him a College of Liberal Arts and Science Minority Graduate Teaching Assistant Fellowship.
Frost said the Minority GTA Fellowship was a $7,500 plus tuition award given every year for four years to a qualified minority student. The award is sponsored by the college and the student's department.
Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, associate dean of the college, said the fellowship had been set up to attract
"It also allows more graduate students to teach in the classroom and serve as role models for minority undergraduates," she said.
more minorities to KU's graduate schools.
Jenkins said that KU's location was another reason it did not attract African-American graduate students.
"The big name schools are located in the same areas of the country where Blacks tend to live," he said. "Harvard, Princeton, Yale — big names
Tomorrow
African-American undergraduates interested in going on to graduate or professional schools have an opportunity to have their questions answered and their fears addressed.
The Association of African-American Graduate Students will sponsor a symposium, "The Next Step," from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow at the Pioneer Room in the Burge Union. It will be a round table discussion between graduate and professional school students, faculty and interested undergraduates. Clyde Mudeo, president and CEO of Full Employment Council in Kansas City, Mo., will speak about the impact and the need of post-baccalaureate education at 10:15 a.m.
"We hope to attract more African-American students to KU's graduate and professional schools," said Jonathan Allen, president of the association. "But our long-term goal is to be able to retain these students and graduate them."
KANSAN
with big resources — are going to snap them up."
Jocelyn Freeman, GTA in the department of human development and family life and a colleague of Lewis, said that if it were not for her affection toward her department, she wouldn't stay in Kansas.
Rhonda Lewis, GTA in the department of human development and family life, has lived in Kansas all her life, but she said that for many of her African-American friends, coming to Kansas had been a culture shock.
"Kansas is not seen as very attractive," she said.
"Kansas is cold and bland," she said.
"But my department is my home.
Other events
Milestones
Crispus Attucks was the first person to die in the 1770 Boston Massacre, the catalyst for the Revolutionary War. Years later, President John Adams said that the death of this African American marked the foundation of American independence.
Upcoming Events
**Tonight:** "2nd Friday," a networking event for students and faculty, sponsored by the Association of African-American Graduate Students. 8-p.m., The Granada Theater, 1020 Massachusetts St. Admission is free.
**Tomorrow:** "The Next Step," sponsored by the Association of African-American Graduate Students. Students will discuss issues concerning African-American students and opportunities for graduate schools at the University, 9 a.m.-noon, Pioneer Room, Burge Union. Admission is free.
Daily: "Soweto Blues: Life in a South African Township," a book exhibit at Watson Library.
Sunday: Kwanzaa celebration: Norma Norman, former associate director of the office of Minority Affairs, will speak on the principle of Unity (Ujmaja). 6:30-7:30 p.m., McColln Hall lobby. Admission is free.
**Monday:** Kwanzaa celebration; Dorothy Pennington, associate professor of African/African-American studies and communications studies, will speak on the principle of Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima), 6:30 p.m., McColum Hall lobby. Refreshments served and admission is free.
Marijuana 'spirit of the times' in 1974
The Kansan-Tuesday, February 12, 1974
Twenty-nine adults and one juvenile were arrested in Lawrence about 4 a.m. today as a result of a drug raid by Atty. General Vern Miller and about 125 law enforcement officers.
KANSAN
By David Wilson Special to the Kansan
Shriver was not alone. That morning, 20 years ago tomorrow, 29 other people, 20 of whom were KU students, were arrested in the biggest drug raid in KU history.
In the quiet hours before daybreak on Feb. 12, 1974, Chuck Shriver lay sound asleep in his room at Jayhawk Towers. He was awakened by pounding on his door. A team of police officers burst into the room and arrested Shriver for aiding in the sale of marijuana.
For Shriver, it was a life-jarring event.
More than 100 law enforcement officers participated in the raid, which was orchestrated by then-Attorney General Vern Miller. The officers, armed with warrants, split into teams and rounded up students — everywhere from houses on Tennessee St. to rooms in Oliver Hall.
"That pretty much ruined that semester," he said.
Shriver remembered that he and his roommates, groggy and disoriented, sat on a couch
wearing nothing but underwear and handcuffs while officers barked at them.
"It was a bad deal," he said. "It was the middle of the night. We were there in bed, and they just came to the door and did their thing."
Shriver did not serve time in jail as a result of the arrest and was released from probation for good behavior.
"I had no record, and I'd only been 18 for four months," he said. "You find out pretty quick that you're an adult."
Shriver said that drugs, particularly marijuana, were part of the spirit of the times.
"Back in 1974, more people smoked pot than not," he said.
"I was just basically an 18-year-old kid. I suppose most of us were doing things we shouldn't have been, but he (Vern Miller) drumed us up. We were just students partying like everyone else, and we got the bad luck of the draw."
The bad luck began for Shriver and his roommates when the Kansas Bureau of Investigation undercover agent in charge of collecting information for the raid was posted across the ball.
Shriver said the agent had attempted to befriend him and his roommates.
"It was the buddy thing," he said. "You know, he'd make sure he bumped into us when we were dumping trash at the end of the hall."
Shriver and his roommates may have been content to regard the undercover agent as an over友 friendly student, but then-Douglas County attorney David Berkowitz was one of the few people who knew what the agent's true mission was.
And, unlike Shriver and his roommates, Berkowitz knew the reason police officers were
pounding on the door of room 105, Tower B in the early morning hours of Feb. 12, 1974.
Berkowitz said that from 1972 to 1976, there were many drug raids in Douglas County but that the one on Feb. 12, 1974, was the largest.
However, Rex Johnson, who was the Douglas County sheriff at the time, remembered the raid as uneventful.
"I don't recall breaking down any doors," he said. "There were no difficulties, really. The kids were pretty good.
"Some of them were real surprised. They wanted to know how we'd gotten the information."
Most of the students arrested in the raid did not serve time in jail, Berkowitz said.
"I would say most, but certainly not all, ended up on probation," he said.
Former Attorney General Vern Miller said the drug raid was, if nothing else, tiring.
"It was a long night," he said.
Miller said that raids like the one in 1974 did not happen today partly because of cost.
"Enforcement is a tremendous cost," he said. "I wonder if it isn't too much trouble for law enforcement."
But drug use is worse today than it was in 1974, Miller said.
Twenty years later, Shriver still remembers his brush with the law.
"Crime rates prove that," he said. "Any officer will tell you."
"It was definitely an experience," he said.
By Denise Nell
By Denise Nell Kansan staff writer
Rashed Haque said that Ramadan, a Muslim month of fasting, was easier to observe in the United States than at home.
Haque, a graduate student from Dhaka, Bangladesh, said that during the observance, Muslims abstained from eating and drinking from sunrise to sundown every day. At home in Dhaka, the days can last from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m., he said.
"You get used to it," he said. "Back home, the days are much longer. Here, it's easier."
Haque said the observance had begun in the time of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, who is considered the founder of the Islamic religion.
Mohammed, who lived from around A.D. 570 to 632, left his home in Mecca to escape religious hostility in 622. During his escape, Mohammed fasted when he traveled by day, and he ate at night, Haque said. This journey, known to Muslims as the Hegira, signifies the beginning of the Muslim calendar.
Mohammad Asalati, a junior from Kabul, Afghanistan, said Muslims fasted so they would be better able to
sympathize with the poor and hungry. Muslim children do not begin observing the fast until they are 14.
"When you see poor people hungry when you're hungry, you feel like they do, and you can help them in that way," he said. "We eat all the time, 11 months a year. It's to let our bodies rest inside. When you get used to it, it's not hard at all."
Asalati said the fast was broken at sunset when Muslim students gathered at the Mosque at 1300 Ohio St. They eat and pray together and listen while passages are read from the Koran, the Muslim's sacred book.
Ramadan will begin either today or tomorrow, Haque said. The Muslim calendar is determined by the phases of the moon, so there is no absolute day the observance will start. The observance will last for about 30 days, until Eid, which signifies the end of the fast, is celebrated.
Haque said that Muslims also were supposed to make an extra effort to avoid sin during the observance.
"You feel different after doing it. You get closer to God and closer to people who are hungry," he said. "You can correct yourself and get back on the right path."
Is your Mac a little under the weather?
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Macintosh. The Power to be your Best at KU.