CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 10, 1994
3
Education grant provides for disability study
By Roberta Johnson Kansan staff writer
Two KU faculty members are taking a new approach in studying the behavior of young children.
Jung Guess, professor of human development and family life, and Sally Roberts, project coordinator for special education, recently received an $850,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a longitudinal study of behavior states of young children with severe disabilities. The study is being conducted in conjunction with Rockhurst College, the University of Kansas Medical Center and the Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
The behavior state, which ranges
from deep sleep to agitated behavior, is the level of alertness and response in a person. Guess said.
Although studies have been conducted over the behaviors of normal children, Guess said, no major studies of the behavior of children with severe disabilities — including children under the age of five — have been done.
"Most research has been done on infants with normal behavior," he said. "At three months of age, it's not much of an issue."
He said "normal" behaviors were exhibited by severely disabled children at a much later age.
"We're interested in the emergence of behavior state patterns of children with disabilities." Guess said. "Their
state patterns are not typical."
Severely disabled children may show symptoms such as over-reaction, seizures and the development of strange movements.
"There are a number of behaviors that wind around one another over time." Guess said.
Some of these behaviors include motor skills, language and cognitive development
Guess said that the behaviors of young children were related to their later development.
"It's a good indicator that something's potentially out of range," he said.
diagnosed before the project began.
Roberts said that the object of the research was not to diagnose disabilities. She said that the children were
The children will be observed for one- to three-hour time frames every four months for the duration of the project.
"We have to gather the information, but we're not sure we'll be able to follow all 25." Roberts said.
Guess said that the most difficult part would be maintaining contact with all 25 children over the next five years.
Guess said that the results could be used to intervene with children who exhibit potentially dangerous behaviors at an early age.
If a child exhibits signs of potential self-injuring behavior, he said, then intervention could help prevent the child from developing that behavior.
Disability signs
Exhibition of infant-like reflexes
Excessive fussiness
Over-reaction to stimuli
The following behaviors are possible signs of physical disabilities in children. Two KU faculty members are testing students with bullying three or more of these signs.
Over-reaction to stimuli
Abnormalities in motor tone
Seizures
- Difficulties feeding and sleeping
- Significant delay in developmental stages
Abnormal head righting, rolling, standing, etc.
Failure to maintain balance
Failure to maintain balance
Appearance of extraneous move
Appearance of extraneous movements
KANSAN
Zen master to give calligraphy exhibition
Buddhist priest lectures at KU
By Ashley Schultz Kansan staff writer
Keido Fukushima was 13 when his older sister died. His grandmother died when he was 14.
"In Buddhism, there is a teaching that if one person becomes a member of the clergy, then nine generations of that family, both living and dead, will be guaranteed entrance into a sort of heavenly-like world, which is called the Pure Land," Fukushima said.
"Therefore, I initially thought that in order to save or help the soul of my elder sister and my grandmother, I would become a Buddhist priest," he said.
Fukushima is also a Zen master at the Tofukuji training monastery. Zen training is intended to achieve a state of "mushimu," or a lack of self.
Fukushima, the head abat of the Rinzi Takufukuji sequest in Kyoto, Japan, oversees 370 temples throughout Japan. He lectured last night on Zen Buddhism at the central courtyard in the Spencer Museum of Art.
"The true Zen mind is that 'mushin,'" Fukushima said. "Because the mind is empty, it is able to freely absorb or take in anything. Because it is empty it is able to freely respond to or adapt to any event or thing. In that sense, then, we can say that the empty mind is also a free mind, a fresh mind and a creative mind." Fukushima said.
"Koans" — mental stumbling
blocks or, riddles — are used for training. According to tradition, there are 1,700 koans. Including subquestions, the questions total 3,000, Fukushima said.
Two koans form the basis ofkoan training, the "mu" and the "sound of one hand clapping." Each has 100 sub-questions. A fundamental understanding of Zen can be obtained by training with these 200 questions, Fukushima said.
At the quickest pace, Fukushima said, completion of all 3,000questions would take about 10 years. Before becoming a Zen master, monks must complete all koans and about 10 years of after-monastery training.
Fukushima said he usually spent about six weeks of the year in the United States and two weeks in China. This is his sixth visit to the University of Kansas in as many years, and he said he planned to return everyyear.
A number of East Asian studies students have visited Fukushima in Kyoto over the years, said Cameron Hurst, director of the Center for East Asian Studies and professor of history. The visit was arranged jointly by the art museum and the center.
"All you have to do is take one look at him," Hurst said. "He's a very important and influential cleric in Japan, and yet he maintains a very calm sense about him. There is a certain humor about him."
Fukushima will give a talk on Zen and a calligraphy exhibition at noon today in the courtyard of the art museum. He will also attend a Zen sitting at 7:30 p.m.at the parlors in the Kansas Union.
Jennie Zeiner/KANSAN
Taking a moment from his busy lecture schedule, Kelido Fukushima meditates in his hotel room. Fukushima, head abbot of a Zen sect in Japan, is visiting the University of Kansas this week and giving lectures in various classes.
Professor evaluations discussed
By Jamie Munn Kansan staff writer
KU's Senate Executive Committee continued its debate yesterday of faculty evaluations and academic misconduct — two topics that overlapped several times during their discussion.
"No one is supporting academic misconduct," said Bob Friauf, head of SenEx. "It's a little like defending motherhood."
Friauf suggested that the Kansas Board of Regents propose to the state Legislature an addition to the academic misconduct policy.
He said he would like to see a new provision that would make faculty immune from civil suits resulting from student accusations of unfair grading.
John Altevogt, SenEx member and graduate student, said he thought new businesses that sold research papers to students had increased academic misconduct.
But Steven McCabe, SenEx faculty member, said he thought increased pressures on students to excel had also contributed to the rise in misconduct.
McCabe said many students thought they would not have many job opportunities if they didn't graduate with a 4.0 grade point average.
And the grading throughout the semester directly affects the evaluations students give, said Marion Obrien, SenEx member.
Friauf said he was worried about recent suggestions by Regent John Hiebert that would give more weight to student's evaluations.
KU mandates that students' evaluations are used in the annual merit evaluation of each professor, Frirau said. But he was concerned with another of Hiebert's suggestions: that department chairs should be able to review the students' personal comments about their professors.
Friauf favored older evaluations where personal comments had been written on separate sheets of paper. The department chairs saw the numerical evaluations, but the personal comments had been delivered in a sealed envelope to the faculty member.
However, Wil Linkugel, SenEx member, said he used students' comments as a department head.
He said he had observed patterns over the years in student evaluations of certain faculty members. Then, he was able to recommend changes in the professor's teaching methods.
Cultural diversity forum to present journalists and focus on diversity in news and newsrooms
By Cheryl Cadue Kansan staff writer
Understanding and achieving cultural diversity in newsrooms across the nation will better inform readers, said Bill Hilliard, editor of the Portland, Ore., newspaper, the Oregonian.
"For too long, reporting has been done predominantly on white groups with little attention paid to the rest of the people who make up the population," said Hilliard, the first African-American president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Hilliard will be one of the speakers at "Cultural Diversity and the News," a forum to be held tomorrow from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Kansas Room at the Kansas Union.
Other speakers at the forum will be Bernard Shaw, an anchor for Cable News Network, and Caesar Andrews, executive editor for the Rockland Journal-News in West Nayack, N.Y. The forum also will include three KU School of Journalism graduates: DeNeen Brown, a reporter with the Washington Post, Phil Garcia, state editor with the Sacramento Bee, and Vernon Smith, assistant managing editor with the Dallas Morning News.
Susanne Shaw, KU journalism professor and organizer of the event, said the forum was intended to inform students about achieving diversity in the workplace and about career opportunities in journalism.
"This is an important program on diversity in the workplace," Susanne Shaw said. "The American
Society of Newspaper Editors had a goal that the work force in the newsroom would represent the country's population. We're not there, now and it's unlikely we'll be there by the year 2000."
Brown said that when she was graduated from KU in 1986 she expected to see more minorities in the newsroom.
She said news editors around the nation had recognized the need for cultural diversity in the newsroom because newspaper readers were of different races.
"For most papers, their demographics are changing rapidly." Brown said. "The Washington Post has created a team of reporters to cover Latino issues. It's an important population and in that population there are important stories to write about."
Dr. Ronald McNair, laser physicist, and his fellow crewmen executed the first runway landing of the space shuttle Challenger in February 1984. McNair's research in laser technology helped pioneer research in laser use for satellite-to-satellite communication.
In another first, McNair entertained the other four astronauts with his saxophone in their spare time, thus performing the first jazz concert in space.
McNair died in the Challenger
explosion on Jan. 28, 1986.
Source: What's a Face Productions
Upcoming events
Tonight
"Creating Families: A New Look," Marsha McCoy will discuss issues of the African-American family. 7-9 p.m., Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread. Admission is free.