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Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Thursday, September 21, 2000
Jayplay: Renaissance-style fashions draw stares, laughs from onlookers.
SEE PAGE 1B
Sports: The Kansas volleyball team met a brick wall against Nebraska, losing 3-0.
SEE PAGE 8A
(USPS 650-640) VOL.111 NO.19 For comments, contact Nathan Willis or Chris Borniger at 864-4810 or e-mail editor@kansan.com
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Speaker discusses diversity issues among Hispanics
By Leita Schultes
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Students and faculty learned how to understand Hispanic-American diversity during a lecture yesterday at the Multicultural Resource Center.
Robert Rodriguez, academic services coordinator for the McNair Scholars Program, presented "Understanding Latino Diversity" as part of the Multicultural Resource Center's Brown Bag Discussion Series.
Rodriguez defined the term Latino, as well as other labels such as Chicano, Latin American and Mexican American.
"Ycu may use Latino or Hispanic as sort of an umbrella-type term," he said, but added that different terms were not necessarily interchangeable.
Hispanic is the term used by the U.S. Census Bureau, Rodriguez said, and 32.4 million Hispanics make up 11.8 percent of the U.S. population. By 2050, Hispanics will make up 25 percent of all Americans.
He said some people found the term Hispanic objectionable because of the word's Spanish ties. Others shy away from the term Chicano because it is highly politicized. The only way to find out which term a Hispanic prefers is to ask, Rodriguez said.
As he discussed each term, Rodriguez used photographs of celebrities from different Latin-American countries. He said baseball player Sammy Sosa was the new personification for the Dominican Republic, while singer Christina Aguilera's father is from Ecuador. Ricky Ricardo from "I Love Lucy" and singer Gloria Estefan, both from Cuba, were two of the first Hispanics to succeed in the United States' entertainment industry, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez also addressed stereotypes associated with Hispanic people, such as their interest in soccer or love for Mexican food.
The stereotype is that all Hispanics are Spanish-speaking Roman Catholics. Rodriguez said.
After the lecture, Lyle Dohl, Sylvan Grove senior, said that such stereotypes can be unfair and that efforts should be made at respecting diversity. The most important issue is understanding that Hispanic is an broad term, Dohl said.
The next lecture of the series, "Being a minority on a majority campus: Stresses and management," will be at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, in the Multicultural Resource Center.
— Edited by Warisa Chulindra
Mark von Schlemmer, Lawrence resident and member of People for Animal Rights, sits in a battery cage yesterday on Wescoe Beach to demonstrate the cramped conditions in which chickens live at factory farms. A battery cage ordinarily houses four to six chickens. Photo by Matt J. Dauahert/KANSAN
Activists use chicken coops to make point
By Matt Merkel-Hess writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
If you think your residence hall room is small, try living like a chicken in a factory farm, an animal rights group told students at Wescoe Beach yesterday.
The group, People for Animal Rights, had an information table, posters and a human-sized cage approximating the amount of space a chicken has in a factory farm.
Mark von Schlemmer, Lawrence resident and PAR member, crouched in the cage for short intervals, drawing attention from many passing students.
"It feels very cramped after about 10 minutes," von Schlemmer said. "It doesn't feel good."
But the cage didn't make an impression on every onlooker.
Brian Otto, Topeka sophomore,
said he was a meat-eater and the
information and cage demo
wouldn't change his mind.
"If they want to be uncomfortable to prove their point, it's up to them," Otto said. "It's not doing much for me."
Emily Libla, coordinator of education programs for PAR, said that in factory farms, four to six chickens are typically confined to a floor area smaller than two sheets of typing paper.
She said factory farms did not allow animals to live in a natural manner, that they polluted the environment and were driving family farms out of business.
"people still have this idea that animals are rolling around in some pasture somewhere and then end up on their plates, but that's not
the case," Libla said. "Animal agriculture has become an industry with intensive confinement situations. The concentration of excrement and run-off waste from factory farming is one of the largest water pollutants in the U.S."
Mahalley Allen, Kansas City,
Kan, graduate student and member
of PAR, passed out filers and talked
to students at the event yesterday.
"I think that a lot of students in particular don't understand the conditions that farm animals live in." Allen said. "So it's important to educate them."
Erin Jones, Colby senior, said she thought it was important for people to take time to learn about factory farming and where their food was coming from. Jones has been a vegetarian for five years and recently became vegan, which means she doesn't eat any animal products.
"I eat a lot better now than I ever have in my life," she said. "You have to be a lot more conscious of what you're putting into your body."
Libla said she was encouraging students to become vegetarian, to eat organic or free-range animal products and to support local organic farmers.
Libla said it wasn't just an animal rights activists who had problems with factory farms.
"Students' decisions are important," she said. "The number one thing we're asking students to do is not support factory farming."
"More and more traditional farmers are speaking out against factory farms." Libla said. "It's not just animal rights people that are speaking out."
Edited by Kimberly Thompson
Concert remembers bus driver
By Meghan Bainum
writer@kansan.com
Kansas writer
Rock music filled the Granada last night just as it used to fill former KU bus driver Ron "Rockin' Ron" Gleason's bus.
In fact, Rauna Gleason, Rockin' Ron's wife, said she thought Ron's spirit was at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St.
"Ron's here, and he's loving it," Gleason said. The Rockin' Ron Benefit Concert celebrated Rockin' Ron's life and raised money for his 10-year-old son Raymond's college fund.
Rockin' Ron drove a KU on Wheels bus for 12 years. He usually drove the Naismith-Oliver and Stewart Avenue routes. He died in February 1999.
The benefit was organized by Damian Siwek, Wichita senior and Raymond Gleason's mentor in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program of Lawrence. Siwek said education was important to him and that he wanted to pass on some of the support his parents gave to him when he started college.
ROCKIN' RON
TRUST FUND
Rauna Gleason said she was shocked when Siwek told her about the benefit.
To contribute to Raymond Glisson's college fund, send checks payable to the Rockin' Ron Trust Fund c/o: Damian Swek 2412, University
"He came to me and said he had done this, and there were instant tears in my eyes," she said. "I couldn't believe anyone would do something so wonderful."
All proceeds will go toward Rockin Ron's son Raymond Gleason's college fund.
Rauna Gleason said that Raymond, a spirited fourth-grader, had already named the University of Kansas as his school of choice. It's a logical choice, she said, because Raymond grew up around KU students riding his father's bus.
2412 University Drive Lawrence, KS 66049
Raymond said that math, science and recess were his favorite subjects and that after his career at KU, he wanted to be a 007 agent — just like James Bond.
Raymond's dream got a boost with help from the four bands that played at the benefit, fens of
the bands and those who came out to honor Rockin' Ron. The bands were Proudentall, Thulium, The Suggadaddies and Preferred Villain.
Matt Dunehoo, lead singer and guitarist for Proudentall, screams into the microphone at a benefit concert last night at the Granada for Rockin' Ron, the late KU bus driver. Besides celebrating the life of Ron Gleason, the event raised money for a college fund for his son, Raymond.
Photo by Carrie Julian/KANSAN
"Raymond needs to go to college," his mother said. "I was wondering how that was going to happen. Tonight will make a difference in that." He would be back at Bedford, he said.
Eric Darnell, who drove for the Lawrence Bus Company for three years, said the louder and heavier the music was, the more Ron liked it. In fact, music was one of his trademarks.
"He bent over backwards for his passengers — and they could always hear him coming," Darnell said.
Everybody who knew Rockin' Ron said he would have approved of the music.
Mina Hashmi, Emporia junior, remembered the little things Rockin' Ron did to help students out.
"If you were running behind, he wouldn't just go," she said. "He would wait so that you could catch the bus."
- Edited by Warisa Chulindra
Sergeant Rose Rozmiarek of the KU Public Safety Office uses a speed-detecting device called the Laser Technology Ultra Light to set her sights on a car traveling toward the Jayhawker Towers on 15th Street Tuesday. Rozmiarek compared the shooting accuracy of the Laser Technology Ultra Light to that of a rifle, unlike the old radar device, which had an accuracy more similar to a shotgun. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
New lasers more accurate, precise in targeting speeders
By Rob Pazell
writer@kansan.com
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Sgt. Rose Rozmiarek of the KU Public Safety Office pulls into the circle drive at Jayhawker Towers on 15th Street at 3:50 p.m., one of the busiest traffic times on campus.
She pulls a big black case from the backseat of her squad car and removes a small handheld wireless device. She points it out the window and aims steadily.
Her aim is at the top of the Hill, where a school zone begins. Her targets are speeders. Her secret weapon is the Laser Technology
Ultra Light.
The Laser Technology Ultra Light is a new device that KU Public Safety Officers are using to detect speed on campus. The public safety office bought two of them plus statistical software with grant money.
"Most aren't gonna be ready for it." Rozmiarek said. "They're not gonna know what unit actually targeted them."
Rozmiarek said she likened the lasers because they were accurate. She shot three cars in a row whose drivers were wise enough to be traveling 20 miles per hour. She even clocked a pedestrian doing two miles per hour. "I can guarantee a target vehicle," Rozmiarek said. "The laser is directed at one target only."
Ozmiraek explained that the radar device has a huge bandwidth, or range, that can pick up multiple targets. However, the lasers mark only one vehicle at a time, so there is no confusion as to who was speeding.
The unit is powered by regular or mobile batteries, enabling it to be transported away from the car. Before the lasers, the department was limited on radar because the radar could not operate away from the car. Rozmiarek said the lasers provided more versatility and mobility.
See LASERS on page 5A
2.