8h
Monday, August 27, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
KU expands with new, diversified faculty Four of nearly 100 new faculty members tell why they chose to come to KU
By Amy Zamierowski Kansan staff writer
A new school year brings not only new students but new professors. For the fall semester, the University of Kansas has hired almost 100 new faculty and staff members from all over the world.
Pat Villeneuve
Following are four of the new faculty members around campus.
Pat Villeneuve
Pat Villeneuve, curator of education at Spencer Museum of Art, said she wanted to change people's thinking about art, and museums.
"I think it is important to make art and art education interesting and approachable to as many people as possible," she said. "We are trying to develop ways to work with teachers to use exhibitions to the class" advantage."
Villeuve said she would teach a visual art education class this fall that emphasized how teachers could use a museum as an educational resource.
Instead of looking only at how a work of art is created, she said she wanted students to look at art and create their own historical or sociological point of view.
Jerel Hilding
Villeneuve said she was on the Nation Diffusion Network, a program that helps to upgrade art education in school districts throughout the country.
One of her most gratifying recent projects was the development of an art curriculum for deaf and blind students, she said. The students made art projects but also were able to study museum pieces.
Villeneuve worked on this project while she was the director of the Tucson Museum of Art School in Los Angeles from February 1983 to September 1989.
Villeneuve came to KU because she said it had a livable community with a strong university.
After having 14 leading roles with the Joffrey Ballet in New York City, Jerel Hilding will be an assistant professor of music and dance.
Jerel Hilding
Hilding said the transition for ballet performers into other jobs was often difficult. He wanted to teach in a university setting because it offered more job security and benefits than dancing.
"I like the opportunity that a college environment provides for crea
tivity." Hiding said. "I want students to gain a greater understanding of dance, both technically and artistically."
He said he chose KU because his parents lived in southwest Iowa and he wanted to be closer to them and because Lawrence felt like home.
Hiding said he would not miss the East Coast because he thought the area was becoming economically depressed and too crowded.
He said his first concern was to become accustomed to KU and its atmosphere.
Omofololaobo Ajayi is an assistant professor in the department of women's studies and the department of theater. She said she would focus on African women and their creative aspects in their presentation of the
Omofololabo Aiayi
Having written and directed her
Omofololabo Ajayi
own plays, Ajayi said she was looking forward to presenting African plays this year.
Ajaiy was born in Nigeria but left in 1988 because women's studies were not included in the university classes.
She said she enjoyed living in Nigeria because the people were friendly, supportive and open.
Aajau said she did not like the political instability in Nigeria but thought the conflicts eventually would be resolved.
"The traditional and contemporary forms of government are trying to find a balance," she said.
Ajaiyi said she liked the environment at KU and found the general academic layout of programs appeal. She also likes the pace of life in the city, where she worked to the Northeast, where she worked at Cornell University from 1988-90.
L. Joseph Bauman
L. Joseph Bauman
L. Joseph Bauman, former IBM executive, will be the dean of the School of Business.
Bauman was director of quality/development and manufacturing for IBM. He served as a member of the task force and initial development team that originated the IBM personal computer.
In the process, Bauman implemented strategies to reduce overhead, cut manufacturing cycle times in half, increased inventory turns and created an extended logistics system using electronic data interchange.
He then managed the worldwide manufacturing of the IBM personal computer line through its growth to a multi-billion dollar business.
Bauman said that he was impressed with faculty members he had encountered and that he appreciated the support of the alumni.
He graduated from the KU School of Engineering in 1961.
"I love KU," Bauman said.
Astronomy proves Abe was honest
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — Two astronomers say they have discovered evidence that preserves Abraham Lincoln's reputation as an honest man
They say Lincoln, a lawyer before he became president, played fair when he defended a murder suspect by discrediting a witness who said he saw the crime by the light of a bright, three-quarters-full moon.
Lincoln produced an almanac that indicated the moon was setting at 11 p.m. Aug 28, 1857, when Duff Armstrong had been killed to death. Armstrong was acquired.
But townpeople remembered there was a full, bright moon that night. Some suspected Lincoln of producing an ally banana.
Now it appears both Lincoln and the townpeople's memories were correct, said astronomers Donald Crawford and Jesse West Texas State University.
Using computers to recreate the sky above central Illinois on the night of the murder, the astronomers found that what occurred was a phenomenon that caused the moon to move from its highest point in the sky.
The moon on that night was 74 percent full and near a position it reaches only once every 18.6 years. It is always visible in the sky in the northern hemisphere.
The astronomers' calculate that just before 8 p.m., during the camp meeting, the moon was due south and at its highest point for the night. But by 1 p.m., the moon was dropping near the southwestern horizon.