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Wednesday, November 7, 1990/ University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Rock Chalk charity
Groups competing for spots in annual show earn praise for months of hard work for United Way
Thanks should be extended to the 15 student groups that applied Friday to perform in the annual Rock Chalk Revue. Their work and that of the Rock Chalk Executive Committee during the past three months represents one of the finest examples of philanthropic service at the University of Kansas. And the work has just begun.
Rock Chalk Revue began in 1950 and is an annual University production whose proceeds go to the Lawrence Way. Last year, Rock Chalk gave $28,500 to the United Way, making Rock Chalk its largest single contributor. This year's goal is $30,000.
University students participate in Rock Chalk through their living groups. Once a group decides to participate, it is responsible
for creating a notebook. The notebook provides details of the group's show and is complete with a script, music and sketches of the show's characters and backdrop. Rock Chalk directors work with each group from September to November to create a show.
Of the notebooks submitted, judges select five for performance in the spring production. A scholarship hall group, a residence hall group and 13 greek groups are competing for the 1991 spots.
This year, Rock Chalk participants will take philanthropy a step further. A coordinator for each of the 15 groups that turned in a notebook is responsible for mobilizing living group members to volunteer at the United Way center.
Sally Gibbs for the editorial board
Juror ruling
Racism has no place in Missouri court system
Last Tuesday, in a 6-5 decision, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that lawyers in that state could disqualify potential jurors of civil cases on the basis of race alone.
The decision stems from a case involving Brenda McDaniel, a Black woman from Kansas City who sued two White doctors, Norman Mutchnick and Virginia Willoughby-Grimes. McDaniel's daughter, Carrie Hatcher, then 21, died in 1983 of complications after her appendix was removed. The lawyers for the doctors were entitled to strike the four Black potential jurors from the panel. According to a story in The Kansas City Star, at least one of the potential Black jurors was removed simply because of race.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that potential jurors in criminal cases could not be disqualified because of their race, it has been unclear whether the ruling
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Charles Shangler said, "The law is expected to
eliminate racism, not give it the sanction of an institution."
If a person is biased toward an individual on trial, he or she should be removed from the list of potential jurors. But disqualifying jurors on the basis of race alone is insulting and discriminatory. Jurors should be questioned about their knowledge of the case and their ability to listen to the evidence presented to make a decision. They should not be shunned from a jury panel solely because of the color of their skin.
The Missouri decision assumes that people who share the same race automatically will show favoritism toward one another rather than considering the evidence presented during the trial. The court should give the people more credit. Black people don't always agree or sympathize with one another and neither do White people.
Race encompasses everyone. Therefore, all people, Blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians and others, can be discriminated against if Missouri's practice continues.
Sarah Bly for the editorial board
Elvis appears during road trip hallucinations
"Life. It's just funny sometimes, you know?"
unny isn't it?"
This is how our deep conversation began. He sat next to me scratching himself in various locations as I tried to station wagons across the open plains.
Occasionally, if I was lucky, he would cackle uncontrollably and sneak me a view of his absent row of front teeth. You've seen these months before. They compel you to look at them because you can't help wondering where the hell all the teeth went. Perhaps the victims of a wired tooth fairy nearing a quota deadline or something. Who really knows?
The air conditioner hummed, as did he when he wasn't babbling, yet the interior heat index was still far above normal. Kind of unique the human pores dilate in hot weather, trapped trapped bad smells to escape.
For a moment I toyed with the idea of driving to the nearest Speed Stick testing facility and submitting my passenger for research, but the results were disappointing. Our tests from his sudden, probably tuberculosis-induced, coughing spasm.
Looking to bridge a gap in conversation, I let the King find his way into the cassette player. Elvis was doing it and he asked Ghetto for *Ghetto*; we sped past a guy trying
Buck Taylor
Staff columnist
to prove his unadultered maleness by faking to his wife that he could change the blown front tire. Good advice, but turn the lug nuts the other direction.
I felt bad for the tire-changer. His wife wasn't fooled at all, and now this poor slob will have an inferiority complex and have to admit that he had led about his post-college days as a weekend NASCAR driver.
While I was busy sympathizing, my vehicular guest had been chatting to no one in particular. Or, he had been conversing with me and thought I was answering. Either way, I asked him to repeat himself.
Now, I'm open-minded and tolerant of many things. Stallone movies, Coors Light party balls and that rubbery cheese found in salad bars to name a few, but I won't stand for lies about the King.
"I said I'd met the man and he's all right."
"No. Hips Presley. We're old friends."
"Who, the guy lying to his wife about changing the tire?"
and he picked me up in his Iszu. We drank Wild Irish Rose, played cards and sang a duet of 'Love Me Tender' Nice man.'
Lies. All of it. Granted the King is alive and well, but Reno? In an Isauz? It's just not possible. I follow the sightings, I'm familiar with the pattern. All of my research places Elvis as a gunmast in New Rochelle. Who's this hallucinating amateur trying to live here?
He smiled knowingly while he began to hum a medley of Presley hits. I was still fuming over his obvious fib, but his toothless humming started sounding quite good. So good in fact that I was overcome with humility. It was then the pieces came together.
I was in the presence of royalty. I was with the King.
Sure he smelled bad. Yeah, he was disheveled, coughing and nonsensical. But he was the King. What else could matter?
"What?" I asked turning to face him
"Life. It's just funny sometimes, you know?"
"I was hitchhiking outside Reno
Um-hmm, oh mighty one. It sure is. Could you open a window? I think the heat is getting to me.
"Funny isn't it?"
Buck Taylor is a Winnetka, Ill.,
senior majoring in journalism.
ETAXMAN UniversityDaily Kansan
~ A MAJOR DECISION ~
No justice for this law student
I am a Black, female, non-traditional student who was excluded from the School of Law after the Spring 1990 examination period.
Margaret Robertson
I was subjected to a myriad of obstacles which, I believe, may only be characterized as unreasonable. One of the first law classes I enrolled in was a small group of 22 students customarily known as one's "small section." For a variety of reasons I entered a classroom, entering class, which meant that I was the only Black student in all but one of my classes.
Guest columnist
It was with my small section classmates that I encountered my first bitter experience. I can still vividly recall recalling at the Burge Union for lunch immediately after class one day to find my entire small section gathered at a few long tables they were sitting in, and then them with my food tray, they all became suddenly very quiet and bowed their heads, ignoring my very presence. Perhaps they were afraid I would ask to join them, or maybe they were ashamed to see me because no one had been around. I am not sure which, if any, of those reasons account for their odd behavior.
Later, after receiving a less than satisfactory grade for the third time on a small section assignment, I frantically sought the advice and counsel of my small section professor. He had given the class permission to collaborate on various assignments, but he was not the class members were benefiting from the opportunity. I candidally expressed to him that I felt that the intentional alienation by the other class members was having an adverse effect on my class performance, telling me that when he was a first-year law student he had not been permitted to collaborate at all.
In a later conversation with my small section professor, he suggested that perhaps my small section classmates alienated me because I was almost 50 years old. I have never accepted that theory, primarily because I have experienced no such alienation from Black students in the law school, many of whom were in their 20s.
Two weeks before our final papers were due, my small section professor finally told me that the law school offered a tutorial program for students who needed academic support with their studies. Why he waived so long to give me that vital information, I am not sure. I am sure, however, that I would have had to write an "A" final paper to overcome thepoor reading skills. As a result of the lack ofacademic support during the initial stages of my academy difficulty, my small section professor felt that I had not performed satisfactorily in the two classes in which he evaluated
My difficulties were far from unique. Out of sheer frustration with the plight of Black law students, the Black American Law Student Association requested a meeting with the dean and faculty of the law school to seek some solutions.
me, and I was summarily placed on academic probation.
My difficulties were far from unique. Out of sheer frustration with the plight of Black law students, the Black American Law Student Association (BALS) requested a meeting with the dean and faculty of the law school to seek some solutions. At the first meeting, only a handful of faculty members attended. At that meeting and others following, the president of Black law school students and suggested strategies to increase the enrolment of Black students, especially Black students from Kansas. There were no Black students from Kansas in my entering class.
BALSA also suggested various fundraising methods that could be implemented with the assistance of the law school so future Black students would not suffer the financial burden. The BALSA faculty experienced. These specific suggestions, as far as I am aware, were simply ignored.
Finally, members of BALSA submitted a written petition outlining our concerns and asking for specific relief. It is curious to note that most of the students that signed this petition were the victims of what appeared to be swift and unjustifiable reprisals that ranged from characteristically poor semester evaluations to outright exclusion.
I am a widow and sole supporter of my son, who is developmentally disabled and epileptic. Throughout the past school year, I made numerous trips to Kansas City, Mo., to appeal to social welfare representatives in connection with my son's disability. In addition, I had to make personal pleas to my son's landlord in Kansas City during class hours so
that he would not be evicted from his housing arrangements because of non-payment of rent. I was in a constant state of heightened stress that severely affected my academic performance.
During the past summer while I was working out of state in an effort to improve my financial picture, I received notice of my exclusion from law school. I immediately telephoned the chairperson of the academic committee for guidance on the process to petition my exclusion, on the grounds of my unique and grossly extimating circumstances. I left my summer job early to prepare to meet with the committee.
Two of the five committee members were the very professors who had given me the evaluations that initiated my exclusion in the first place! There was not one minority among them who might have displayed more sensitivity toward my special economic and social problems that I felt were primarily due to my current decision. I think that I was not given a fair and impartial hearing in a matter that had life-altering consequences that extend far beyond the walls of the law school.
The committee reached its decision on purely academic grounds, despite law school policy permitting consideration of extenating circumstances. Not one question was asked of me that related to the extinguishing circumference of the room in the committee. I also explained that my son's personal problems had been resolved and that I was in a much better financial posture than I had been, primarily because of my summer employment and other subsequent attentions to me by the university. But I hesitated that one hour I was summarily excused Just like that.
I was a high school dropout and a teenage mother. Nonetheless, I returned to school at night and earned my high school diploma. I graduated from high school and graduated with a grade point average well above 3.0, despite working full time while raising a family. I have worked in law firms for 25 years, always with my eye on the future, believing my community as an attorney
I appealed to Chancellor Gene A. Budig to investigate the matter. I did not ask for sympathy, but merely for a reconsideration of my exclusion. He delegated my request to Dean Jerry, who recently informed me that the committee's decision to exclude我 would stand.
Margaret Robertson is a New York City graduate student majoring in social work.
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Three Imaginary Girls
By Tom Avery
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