Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, November 16, 2000
Team offers advice, help to prospective KU students
By Laita Schultes
writer@kanson.com
Kansan staff writer
They may not be greeted by familiar faces, but the Office of Admissions and Scholarships is working to ensure that students of color who visit the University of Kansas at least are met with diversity.
To accomplish that goal, the office recently began a Multicultural Recruitment Team of 13 students, ranging from freshmen to seniors.
"Before it's been kind of unofficial," said Claudia Mercado, assistant director of multicultural recruitment for admissions and scholarships. "This year we're trying to establish it as an official organization ... It's just barely getting off to a start."
She said the team primarily was comprised of African-American and Hispanic women, and she would like to see an increase in race and gender diversity.
The students help with programming during prospective student visits and offer advice to curious high schoolers. Members of the team often provide visitors a place to spend the night and acquaint them with Lawrence and multicultural resources on campus.
"We try to expose them to current students, especially students of color," Mercado said.
Sarah Zaragoza, Leawood sophomore, is one member of the team who is heavily involved. She became involved because she wanted a career in higher education and also because she thought minorities were not represented well at the University.
"It's given me a chance to kind of do something about that," she said.
Many of the students she has spoken with have not seriously considered college, Zaragoza said. She said it was gratifying to first get them interested in college, and second, to get them interested in the University.
Recruitment of multicultural students at the University has actually improved in the last few years, and this fall was up nearly 14 percent, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning. But retention has suffered as total numbers of minority students on campus have dropped consistently in the last few years.
hopped into business. Both Mercado and Zaragoza said the recruitment team could rectify that problem.
Mercado said it was important for students at the University to see people who looked like them and to know people when they arrived on campus. Zaragoza agreed that early introductions would help retention and has given her e-mail address to prospective students.
"They want somebody there they can keep in contact with." she said.
In addition, Mercado said, the recruitment team can do a lot for its members by making them feel part of the University.
"We're allowing these students to get active," she said. "And have an active voice in how students of color should be recruited."
— Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
Artistic opening
David Roby, Topeka sophomore, opened the obscene art show last night at the Stephenson Scholarship Hall with a speech about abscessity as an art form. The art show accepted donations for its support of the Douglas County AIDS Society. Photo by Ashley Marriott/KANSAN
Veil liberates, not oppresses Arab women, speaker says
By Leita Schultes
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The room was divided down the middle — six men on one side and about 20 women on the other.
As she took off layers of black cloth, she explained the hijab was "an umbrella term that means barrier."
A black-shroed figure presided at the front of the room. Jehan Faisal, a Saudi-Arabian-American woman and case manager for a Kansas City battered women's shelter, spoke yesterday at the Multicultural Resource Center's Brown Bag Lecture series. The title of her lecture was "Hilai: The veil and other boundaries for Arab women."
But while many westerners condemn the veil as oppressive and demeaning to women, Faisal discussed the covering in a liberal, feminist manner. It's a veil, not a wall, she said.
"I've heard from lots and lots of different people here that they don't know what to say to a woman in a veil," she said.
She said she was once asked, "What am I supposed to say if I'm not even good enough to see her face?"
Faisal, who came to the United States in high school with her Saudi-Arabian, Muslim father and American, Christian mother, does not veil or practice Islam.
Both American culture and her parents influenced that decision.
"She and my father both agreed that it was a terrible thing for women to be forced to veil." she said.
But she said she would wear a veil if she returned to Saudi Arabia because it would allow her to go out in public, work and get an education.
"I have freedom through the veil," she said.
The veil also liberates women from being viewed as sexual objects, she said.
Many Saudi-Arabian women believe wearing the veil prevents oppression. Without it, "You are up for approval by every single man you meet in the street," Faisal said.
Hasheem Mannan, a graduate student from India, was one of the few men who attended the lecture.
"It's a very different way of living," he said, adding that his family was Islamic.
Mannan said his mother was fairly liberal, but after living in Mecca for five years, she started to wear a veil
He said Faisal's was a fairly liberal view point, but he agreed that women should choose whether they veil.
Edited by Warisa Chulindra
"It's entirely up to them." Mannan said. "It shouldn't be forced on them."
Bush rejects Gore proposal for manual recount
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. George W. Bush said Wednesday night he believes the disputed Florida vote will be settled at midnight Friday, when the remaining absentee votes from overseas are tallied.
In answer to a speech several hours earlier by presidential rival Al Gore, Bush sought to spell out an end game for an election that has run more than a week into overtime.
"The way to conclude this election in a fair and accurate and final way is for the state of Florida to count the remaining overseas ballots, add them to the certified vote, and announce the results as required by Florida law," Bush said. His scenario would ignore the hand counts under way.
Bush rejected Gore's proposal for a statewide manual recount in Florida, calling the procedure under way in Democratic-leaning countries "neither fair or accurate. It would be arbitrary and chaotic." He said the hand counts should not be included in any final count.
Bush had hastily returned to Austin from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, after Gore appeared before the cameras more than three hours earlier. Dressed in a suit and tie, he was flanked by flags in the living room of the governor's mansion — a setting that resembled a formal White House scene.
Bush accepted Gore's offer to meet together after Florida's contentious election outcome is resolved — but did not mention the vice president's suggestion that they meet
sooner.
"Not for Vice President Gore or me, but for America this process must have a point of conclusion. America and the world must know who will be the next president," Bush said.
He said the hand counts aren't fair.
"This means every vote in Florida would be evaluated differently, by different individuals using different judgment and perhaps different local standards, or perhaps no standards at all. this would be neither fair nor accurate, it would be arbitrary and chaotic."
Bush said both candidates must respect the law and not challenge it if the outcome is unsatisfactory.
Nonetheless, both Bush and Gore have gone to court
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