CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, November 18.1992
3
Smokers to kick butts for one day
By Tiffany Lasha Hurt
Kansan staff writer
Tomorrow Marti Ruel will quit smoking cold turkey — but only for one day.
Ruel, director of the University Scholarship Center at the University of Kansas, is one of many smokers nationwide who will quit cigarette smoking for 24 hours, as part of the American Cancer Society's 16th annual Great American Smokeout.
The goal of the event is to get one of every five smokers to give up cigarettes and smoke less tobacco for them or to help it to quit permanently.
Ruel, a second-year smokeout veteran, has been smoking for about 18 years. Although she was not successful last year, she said she planned to quit eventually.
"The one thing I've learned about quitting is that it would be great to quit and make it forever," she said. "But sometimes that is not what happens. I think at some point in the future it will click — whether it's this year or it'll next year."
Ruel decided to participate in the smokeout when a member of Forming Awareness of Cancer Through Students asked her to.
F. A.C.T.S. will encourage students, faculty and staff to quit cigarette smoking for one day by putting their unsmoked cigarettes into a large ash tray — constructed from an old car tire — from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow in front of Wesco Hall, said Mark Heidebricht, president of the group.
The individual who turns in the most cigarettes will receive one of several prizes, including movie passes, pizzas and compact discs.
KJIKH will broadcast live from the F.A.C.K.T.S. table in front of Wescow the organization provides education- information about the effects of smoking.
Watkins Memorial Health Center also will promote the event with an informational table in the lobby of Watkins. About noon, an a capella group, Random Order, will sing a few 1950s songs it has rewritten for the event.
Other supporters include the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.
Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
According to the national Centers for Disease Control, in 1988, 434,000 deaths nationwide resulted from smoking-related illnesses. In 1989, a study showed that 25.5 percent of people age 20 and older nationwide were smokers, and 23.4 percent in Kansas were smokers.
Rich Barr, chairperson of the Douglas County division of the American Cancer Society, said the smokeout began in 1971 as a local event in Minnesota. Five years later, the American Cancer Society began to sponsor the event nationwide.
"It's really one of the cancer society's hallmarks," he said. "It's really a media event because the media gets to know people on people on the hazards of smoking."
Barr said he thought the event had been in effect for so long because it had an impact on encouraging individuals to quit smoking in the long run.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION; Daron J. Bernet / KANSAN
"We're not setting long-term goals for people. We're just asking them to quit smoking for one day."
fodaymarks the American Cancer Society's 16th annual Great American Smokeout.
Speaker focuses on stereotypes in media images
By Mark Martin
Kansan staff writer
Stereotypes of African Americans in the media and in advertising that began in the 1800s still affect us today, said Brenda Verner, founder of the African-American Women's Caucus and president of Verner Communication, a media consulting firm.
Verner gave a presentation called "Public Property Media Images of Black and White Women" to about 60 people last night in Wescoe Auditorium. The presentation, which included a slide show showing postcards, advertisements and magazine covers depicting African-America and white women, was sponsored by Black Student Union.
"I used to always ask my mom why white people had these weird stereotypes about Black people," Verner said. "But once I started collecting all of this memorabilia, I found out why. These images of pop culture are very powerful."
Verner showed ads for Sunlight Soap, which depicted African-American children in bright white clothing.
"The ads show that this soap can even clean black skin, which was associated with dirt," she said.
Vernier said African-American women were treated as slaves and ugly creatures in ads in the 1800s and early 1900s.
"All of these images were pounded into people's heads over and over," Verner said. "In so many of these, Black people are associated with animals or vegetation. They weren't ever real people."
Other ads and postcards showed African Americans slobbering over large watermelons, growing out of cotton balls, and standing among donkeys and other animals. Magazine covers from the Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s showed African Americans as chauffeurs and servants.
"In the 1970s, every Black man in the movies was a pimp
Brenda Verner, president of Verner Communications, speaks about media images of African-American and white women.
with platform shoes, and every Black woman was a prostitute," she said.
After the slide show, Verner spoke about the power of language. She said the term "Black" used as a noun was very harmful.
"Black is a skin color," she said. "It says nothing about African cultures or geographic locations or histories. You cannot group African Americans into one homogeneous group, and that is what the term 'Black' does."
During a question-and-answer period after her presentation, Verner criticized Spike Lee for his treatment of women in his movies. Verner said African Americans should think for themselves, instead of following all African-American leaders.
"In a call for Black unity, we don't allow room for different reactions," she said. "I'm telling you, our future leaders, to not accept things just because they come from Black people. You need to decide what is right and wrong for yourself."
Hearing dates set for four arrested in abortion protest
Fifth demonstrator enters court today
By Joe Harder
Kansan staff write
Hearing dates for entering pleas have been set for four of the five adult abortion protesters who were arrested Saturday in the blockading of the entrance of a Lawrence physician's office.
All five of the protesters were charged Monday with criminal trespassing, a class B misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Those arrested were among about 30 anti-abortion advocates who protested Saturday at Dale Clinton's office, 15 F. Seventh St.
Brian Young, 20, Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Bryan Longworth, 23, Martetta, Ga., were both given Nov. 25 hearing dates yesterday in Douglas County District Court. Both posted bond yesterday and were released from the Douglas County Jail.
During Longworth's and Young's hearing yesterday, Judge Jean Shepherd told both of them that they had an option to perform community service to work off court costs.
ris, 29, both of McPherson, were released Monday on $500 recognizance bonds. Sonja will appear on Dec. 8; Jennifer on Dec. 15.
A recognizance bond allowed the women to be released on the good faith that they would appear for their court dates, rather than requiring them to post bond.
The fifth adult defendant, Sarah Steele, 20, Wichita, was released Saturday after posting $500 bond. Her first court appearance is scheduled for today, when she will be given a hearing date to enter a plea.
Five juveniles also were detained Saturday after participating in the blockade. All five have been released to their parents.
Sonja Harris, 19, and Jennifer Har-
The five juveniles and five adults were arrested after police warned them to move off the private property, according to information released by the Lawrence police department.
Members of KU Students for Life, the Wichita-based Youth for America, Lawrence residents and other anti-abortion activists have been holding weekly protests at the office since Oct. 17, the date of a Lawrence rally sponsored by Collegians Active to Liberate Life.
Police said the arrests on Saturday were the first made in connection to the protests.
University preserves prairie acre
By Joe Harder
Kansan staff writer
Before the buildings of the University of Kansas sprouted on Mount Oread, the entire ridge was covered with wind-blown grass and prairie flowers.
But now, after 133 years of campa-
development, that blanket of virgin prairie has been reduced to less than an acre southwest of Blake Hall.
And even that small plot, known as Prairie Acre, is being worn away, not by concrete and building development but by other plant life.
According to a survey taken on Sept. 15, only about 30 plant species were present, Kindscher said. The area should contain about 100 species.
"It's at a point where it's being shaded out by trees on the south side," said Kelly Kindscher, an assistant scientist at the KU Biological Survey. Non-native plants also are invading the property and taking over the original prairie plants, he said.
Phillip Wells, professor of botany, said that one of the non-native plant culprits was smooth brome grass on the south end of the area.
"Some idot probably planted that there," he said.
The restoration process will include cutting down about 10 trees that shade out sunlight, Kindscher said.
Shelley Wells, environmental education coordinator in the office of the University's Environmental Ombudsman, said the trees were not part of the original prairie environment and needed to be cut down to preserve it.
"We hope that people will understand why the trees need to be removed," she said.
Kindscher said the restoration would begin in a few weeks when workers began removing brush and grass from the site.
After the trees and non-native plants have been removed from the edges of the prairie, the prairie will be burned and reseeded with native prairie grasses next spring.
Kindscher said the restoration project had both historical and environmental importance to the University.
"It needs to be done from a historical perspective, because this is something that was done a long, long time ago," he said. "And from an ecological perspective, it's a part of our natural history."
Wells said that the Prairie Acre was officially set aside during commencement week of 1932. She said that the several alumni who instigated the move were concerned that the University would build on the acre.
The willingness to leave an unbroken piece of land on campus spoke well of the University, she said.
Prairie repair
Restoration of the native grasslands located southwest of Blake Hall begins in a few weeks. The area, known as Prairie Acre, was set aside to preserve native prairie grasses in 1923.
Source:Kansan research Sean Tevis / KANSAN
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