Thursday, September 14, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 3
Chat rooms hardly veil genders, researcher says
By Jason Krall
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
College-age students aren't that creative when they play out their sexual fantasies online, one researcher says.
Chat room users 18- to 23-years-old tend to play out stereotypical situations when they engage in sexual role playing, said Susan Herring, professor of information science and linguistics at Indiana University. Herring made a presentation titled "Gender in Cyberspace: Implications for Internet Research" at the Kansas Union yesterday.
Chat dialogue often mimics plot lines from romance novels. Herring said.
"I found that when young people try to reach beyond the everyday for fantasy, they play out these very stereotypical story lines," she said. "There's usually the sexually aggressive male and the cov female."
But sexual fantasy isn't the only area where researchers have found that gender roles in everyday life carry over to Internet communication, Herring said.
Herring found that 89 percent of all the chat room fantasies she studied could be considered stereotypical.
"Early research said the Internet deconstructs gender, because you can't see the physical body of the person you're talking with," she said. "But gender differences do exist on the Internet, much as in other contexts."
On average, men post longer messages in news groups and other forums than women. Women often leave shorter messages, and are far more likely to apologize for leaving a long message. Herring said.
while using a real-time chat service in the Budig Hall computer lab.
"Most of the time, you can tell," she said. "Guys talk a lot more."
Alexis Robinson, Topeka sophomore,
said she noticed the same patterns
"Internet users simply re-represent the differences in communication styles between men and women that we see in face-to-face meetings," he said.
Women are more polite and supportive in Web discussions, while men tend to be more aggressive and are more likely to resort to insults in an online argument, said Rob Kling, researcher at Indiana University's Center for Information Studies. Kling attended Herring's presentation.
Men also spend more time exploring new Web sites, downloading software and following links, while women tend to log out when they've found what they were looking for, Herring found.
— Edited by Clay McCuskin
Senate targets voters, housing ordinance
By Kusten Phelps
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Student Senate wants students to register to vote and, at the same time, express their disapproval of a proposed housing ordinance change in Lawrence.
The Student Legislative Awareness Board, which is part of Senate, will sponsor a voter registration drive starting next week as part of a
larger effort to educate students about November's elections and get them to the polls.
At the same time, the Student Rights committee plans to coordinate a petition drive with the registration drive. The petition would express student disapproval of the ordinance proposal, which would reduce the number of non-related persons living in a single-family residence from four to two persons.
"I would really like to go to the city commission and show them a big stack of a thousand voter registration cards
that say 'Douglas County' on them and say, 'Guess how many people can vote you out?" said Greg Smith, Student Rights committee vice-chairman. "If we can show them that we actually are a voting power, that will put fear in them."
Holly Krebs, Student Rights committee chairwoman, outlined the arguments of Arly Allen, a Lawrence resident who favors the proposal. Allen has argued that students are disruptive to the neighborhoods; have more spending power than many single families; push out other single families from the neighborhoods, leading to a decline in elementary school enrollment; and have caused land values to increase, leading to higher property taxes.
"Some of these numbers are ridiculous," Smith said. "They've got us making $13,000 to $18,000 a year. I want to meet these students that are making that money. We've got to go to the city and say 'Look, we're poor. The idea we make $13,000 a year is ridiculous. The idea we're bad neighbors is ridiculous.' We have to win them over with this logic."
The city planning commission will vote on the ordinance at its Oct. 25 meeting. If it passes, the city commission probably will vote on it in November.
STUDENT SENATE
What happened? Senate discussed a Lawrence housing proposal to limit non-related persons living in a single-family residence to two persons.
What it means: Senate will work to express student disapproval of the proposed ordinance.
What's next: Senate plans to include a petition drive with next week's SLAB voter registration drive.
Krebs said students could have an impact by registering to vote as Douglas County residents, signing the petition, participating in a letter writing drive and attending the city and planning commission meetings.
Senate approved a petition requesting student representation on the KU/Coca-Cola Partnership Council. The petition was amended to express University Council's support of the petition. Erin Simpson, off-campus senator, said University Council would push for faculty representation on the council.
— Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
Recruiting minorities is focus for University
the campus and the reasons behind those decisions.
Continued from page 1A
A final category addresses faculty searches for which no minorities applied. The survey asks for possible reasons for the lack of minority candidates and ideas for additional efforts that would have resulted in minority applicants.
Shulenburger said the administration looked at minority faculty recruitment figures every year, and the survey was a different way of getting that information.
"We thought we'd see this year if there were any common reasons that we can work on as a university." Shulen burial said.
He said he had not received all the responses yet, but he planned to work with the Office of Equal Opportunity and academic deans to analyze the results.
"Hopefully, we can get a better feel of things that we might change to successfully recruit more minorities," Shulenburger said.
Robert Page, Jr., director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said more minority faculty members would improve the University's learning environment.
"It aligns itself with what we would like to do with minority student enrollment, and that is to get a true representation of the world." Page said. "More diversity builds a stronger learning environment because teachers bring in their out-of-class experiences that enhances the inclass experience."
— Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
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