Wednesday, November 29, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Holy month gives time to reflect on faith
By Leita Schultes
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Asma Latif, foreground, Stillwater, Okla., and Aisha Chaudhri, Gujranwala, Pakistan, freshman, break their day-long fast after sunset with dates and a drink combining milk and Rooh Afza, a semibitrary liquid containing rosewater. Yesterday was the second day of Ramadan, a month-long Muslim observance of fasting during dawnlight hours. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
When Asma Rehman woke up at 5 a.m. yesterday, she had a bowl of cereal and said her first praver of the day.
Rehman, a sophomore from Kansas City, Kan., started celebrating the Islamic holiday Ramadan, a month of fasting, on Monday.
But it's not something Rehman dreads.
The fast lasts 30 days, to represent the 30 chapters of the Koran received by the prophet Mohammed. The fast requires that no food or water enter the body between sumup and sundown.
"It's so, so great. It's a time of the year when everybody gets together," she said. "I don't think it's about starving yourself. You're giving something for the sake of God."
It's a time to learn self-control and patience, added Aisha Chaudhri, an Overland Park freshman, and a time to reflect on life and understand the struggles of other people.
Five prayers during the day allow students like Rehman and Chaudhri to engage in such reflection.
Rehman said that after her first prayer at sunrise, she had the option of either sleeping for a few more hours or getting on with her day. The second prayer is at noon and then there is another around 3 p.m.
She breaks her fast after the sun sets with water, salt or a date — a practice called sunnah — because that is how Mohammed broke
his fast.
Then there is another prayer and dinner — last night she had pizza at Mrs. E's — with the fifth prayer around 7 p.m.
Many Muslims go to the mosque to pray,
and Rehman said Ramadan brings the Muslim community closer together.
Asma Latif, also an Overland Park freshman. areed.
"It's something that all Muslims are asked
But like Rehman, she does it with a willing attitude.
to do." she said.
"It's hard sometimes, but it's kind of one of those things you wouldn't do unless you wanted to," she said.
Latif said she fasted as a demonstration of her faith.
"For me, it's basically just a choice that shows that I'm willing to follow God's orders," she said.
"When I get hungry — when I'm fasting — I think about 'Well, I have the food, but I'm not eating it right now. Other people don't have the food and don't even have it to look forward to.'" she said.
Chaudhri said Ramadan was not only a fast from food but also from the temptations of procrastination and bad deeds, and it reminded her of those less fortunate.
Chaudhri also views the month as a time to rededicate herself to prayer — something she occasionally misses during the year.
"In Ramadan, I make every single prayer," she said. "This is like a month of getting yourself into this and getting yourself started and hoping you can keep it up throughout the whole rest of your life."
And although Muslims hope their rejuvenated faith lasts after Ramadan, the fast ends with the coming of Eid.
Eid symbolizes the completion of the Koran, Chaudhri said, and it's a day when fasting is prohibited and families gather to celebrate and feast.
Edited by Erin McDaniel
Fate of housing ordinance to be discussed at hearing
By Matt Merkel-Hess writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
The City Commission will decide before winter break whether to pursue a proposed housing ordinance that would reduce the number of unrelated people who can live in single-family neighborhoods from four to two.
The first hearing will occur during the commission meeting Tuesday, Dec. 12. The planning commission, an advisory body to the city commission, voted against the proposal earlier this month.
"We've had ample opportunity for all perspectives," said Mayor Jim Henry.
The commissioners said they did not want to have the hearing during finals or winter break because they wanted student input, but they wanted to start the process.
To make an ordinance, the commission must have a hearing, direct city staff to create an ordinance and conduct a final hearing. After the December hearing, a final hearing could occur after the spring semester begins.
"If there's 100 people waiting to speak, they'll enforce the three minute limit," Wildgen said.
Mike Wilden, city manager, said the planning commission hearing was the public hearing for the issue, but the commission would take new information and limit each speaker to three minutes. He encouraged anyone to submit written material that could be distributed to the commissioners.
Arly Allen is a neighborhood activist who supports limiting the number of
"I think the City Commission needs to investigate it even more thoroughly than they have done."
Arly Allen
neighborhood activist
unrelated people who can rent in singlefamily neighborhoods. He said he was surprised the commission decided to have a hearing so soon. He also questioned setting the hearing date without notifying the public.
"After having said they will not take this up until after the winter break and then making the statement to reverse themselves without letting anyone know they were thinking about this — it's just what we would expect, I guess," Allen said. "I think the City Commission needs to investigate it even more thoroughly than they have done."
Aravind Muthukrishnan, Student Legislative Advisory Board issues and research coordinator, said he hoped as many students would show up for hearing on Dec. 12 as they did for the planning Commission meeting.
"Obviously our main concern is we didn't want the hearing to occur over break when students aren't here and their voices can't be heard," he said. "I don't foresee this to be a huge problem because it happens before finals."
- Edited by Warisa Chulindra
Control of University budget could mean equal pay raises
By Jason Krall
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
By Jason Krall
At a meeting of the Unclassified Professional Staff Association (UPSA), Klim Wilcox, executive director of the Kansas Board of Regents, said members would have more influence with legislators regarding campus-based control of tuition dollars. Members do not have as much influence now because members lobby directly for salary increases. Wilcox asked members to join other campus groups in supporting University-controlled tuition management before the Kansas Legislature.
If the University of Kansas takes control of its own budget process, researchers and administrators would have more pull to increase their salaries, administrators told a group of University professional staff members yesterday.
"You're more effective if you go hand-in-hand with faculty, the chancellor and students, knowing that when it gets back here, you'll be able to help decide what to do with it," Wilcox said.
The association's 700-plus members include University administrators, program and department directors, researchers and other nonteaching faculty. Some members complained last spring when teaching faculty members received a 5.9 percent salary increase, while UPSA members received 2.5 percent. The difference was because of Kansas Senate Bill 345, passed in May 1999, which set aside about $26 million to increase salaries for teaching faculty around the state.
But as long as tuition is funneled through the state budget process, the University won't benefit from increases in its tuition revenue, some of which could be put toward salary increases for UPSA members.
"This is a good issue for you to get behind," Marlin Rein, University director of governmental affairs, told about 30 members who attended the meeting. "The way tuition is handled now, it's
CONTROL OF CAMPUS DOLLARS
**What happened:** Unclassified professional staff members including administrators, researchers and program directors were encouraged by the Kansas Board of Regents to support the effort to give Kansas universities greater control of their own tuition dollars.
What it means: The change, being considered by Gov. Bill Graves, would free up more money in the KU budget to bring unclassified professional staff salary increases up to par with pay increases for teaching faculty.
What's next: The Board of Regents has asked Graves to consider the change for fiscal year 2003.
cally a state resource and not a campus resource." Chancellor Robert Hemenway and the Board of Regents have encouraged Gov. Bill Graves to allow universities to manage their own tuition and to give state aid in the form of block grants with few restrictions. Hemenway and the board asked that the change be made for fiscal year 2003. Wilcox said Graves had expressed that he was open to the idea.
Now, when tuition revenue increases in a given year, the state reduces its aid and the University budget does not grow, Wilcox said. That means KU students wind up supporting other state expenses with their tuition, while state money goes to other projects.
"It's the students here at KU who end up funding more and more of the cost of their education," he said.
Sandra Wick, president of UPSA and associate director of the University Honors Program, said it was too early to tell whether UPSA members would throw support behind the issue. The association's executive committee will discuss the issue at its December meeting.
- Edited by Amy Randolph
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