THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31,2011
HALLOWEEN FROM PAGE 1
PAGE 3.
Sunday
For more traditional Halloween activities, look no further than Schaake's Pumpkin Patch.
"It's the family thing to do every year," said Julie Embrey, Lawrence resident. "I've brought my 15-year-old out every year and taken the 'how tall you fall' pictures."
The pumpkin patch sells pumpkins for 40 cents per pound and offers other fall activities such as hay rides and a hay maze. Today is the last day the patch is open to the public, something Sheila Lynch, who works on the farm, is excited for.
"It's kind of a happy day," Lynch said. "It's a very long month."
And the time leading up to Halloween is even longer. Although
the pumpkin patch is only open one month of a year, Lynch said they spend six months preparing, with pumpkins being planted in late June. The fully-operational farm also grows corn, soy beans, squash and gourds.
Todav
With the popularity of shows such as "The Vampire Diaries" and "True Blood" and films such as "Twilight", the supernatural has experienced a rebirth, Gothic has been around much longer than Edward Cullen. That evolution is the subject of The Gothic Imagination, a new book written by John C. Tibbetts, an associate professor of film and media studies.
"Today we have got the zombies and the vampires and all of that making their fresh appearance," Tibbetts said. "Nothing new there
at all, but they're reaching a new generation."
Today, Tibbett is discussing his book in Alderson Auditorium at 2:30 p.m., which features interviews with prominent creative figures in the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres such as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury and Robert Bloch.
Beyond the obvious horror movie connection, Tibbetts said that Halloween and Gothic works both depend on people being able to get enough psychological distance from a horrifying subject to find pleasure in inherently scary things such as pain, death and suffering.
"Really, all horror fiction is at its root facing mortality with a side-long glance," Tibbets said.
Edited by Mike Lavieri
KELSEY CIPOLLA/KANSAN
Halloween provides an opportunity to enjoy places like Schaake's PumpkinPatch.
RESEARCH FROM PAGE 1
how they are combating the commercialization of knowledge and how to move toward making open access the default way to share research information.
David Shulenburger, a former University provost and former president of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, now works to encourage open access. He said it's hard to make advancements in technology and medical fields if the research is not available for all.
"Any constraint on scholarly communication stops progress," Shulenburger said. "If there hadn't been open access over the years, what wouldn't we have today?"
CAMPUS
— Edited by Jason Bennett
Group offers support for international students
IAN CUMMINGS icummings@kansan.com
The greatest difficulty for international students in the United States is loneliness, according to one student from South Korea.
Seyool Oh, a graduate student in aerospace engineering from Inhae, South Korea, solved that problem for some of the University's international students and families Saturday night, with the first general meeting of the International Family Association (IFA) in the Relays Room of the Burge Union. At least 165 people, including international students and their families, attended a dinner and elected IFA officers.
Oh said he surveyed 71 international families and found that 31 percent named loneliness as their greatest difficulty in the U.S., over language barriers and keeping up with work. He said that was one reason why he organized the IFA. The survey appeared in People of KU, a book printed by the IFA in 2001.
"We were expecting 50 people," Oh said as he ran back and forth with more chairs and snack food. He went to the podium and struggled to make himself heard over guests talking in several languages and children mashing the keys of a piano in the corner.
Masud Aziz, a doctoral student in electrical engineering from Bangladesh, attended with is son Itkan. 3. Masud said he didn't know what was happening, beyond the dinner, but thought it sounded like a good opportunity to meet people.
Oh, a graduate senator and the organizer of the event, was also the incumbent candidate for IFA president in the meeting's general election. An email from the IFA confirmed his election as president Sunday. He and the IFA vice president Jie Chen, of China, held the same offices in the now-defunct Stouffer Neighborhood Association, which was dissolved by the KU Housing Department last year.
Oh said the IFA was a social association and would not address politics or issues of housing. However, he did offer some basic information about international student housing, noting that the majority of residents in Stouffer Place Apartments were international students. But he said the IFAs focus was on family and friendship. The association will try to help international
students with their common concerns, which include family, professional studies, the difficulties of cultural integration and "unstable social status."
The IFA also confirmed the election Sunday of Yan Chen, of China, as IFA treasurer and Shirong Wen, of China, as secretary. Yi Zhang and Yuoson So were confirmed as representatives of Asian students. Roberto Castillo, a doctoral student of architecture from Caracas, Venezuela, was confirmed at the regional representative for South America.
Castillo attended the meeting with his wife, Carla, and daughter, Helena. 2. He didn't know exactly what was on the agenda, but looked forward to opportunities to socialize and share cultures through the association.
Oh said the IFA would hold a second meeting to discuss how the remaining positions could be filled.
The IFA has not yet announced the date of its next meeting. Oh said the association will meet at least once each semester.
— Edited by Laura Nightengale
ABBY DAVIS/KANSAN
Members of the IFA and their families grab food during the International Family Fall Party. The party provided food and an opportunity to vote on candidates for the IFA election.
CULTURE
Dream becomes reality for Harry Potter fans at the Union
dmeredith@kansan.com
DANA MEREDITH
The movies and books might be over, but the spirit of Harry Potter lived on in the Kansas Union Friday evening.
Student Union Activities held a Harry Potter Extravaganza before a double showing of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" in Woodruff Auditorium. Guests enjoyed a variety of Harry Potter-themed treats — courtesy of KU Dining — from butterbeer floats to treacle tarts to snake-shaped pastries to raven claws, which were actually chicken wings.
Cooing softly in the hallway, two live owls were on display courtesy of Prairie Park Nature Center. Guests posed for a picture with a cardboard cutout of Ron Weasley, tested their Harry Potter knowledge in a trivia contest and sat at the table of their favorite Hogwarts house.
The idea for this Harry Potter celebration all started with a dream.
Alison Adkins, associate coordinator for the SUA culinary committee, said she dreamed SUA had a butterbeer festival. In her dream, the festival was a hit — the Kansas quidditch team even made an appearance.
One month and many hours of research later, Adkins' dream became a reality, quidditch team and all.
"It was really fun to plan." Adkins, a senior from Clay Center, said. "We got to be super creative with it."
Patrick Blanchard, coordinator for the SUA culinary committee, said that as far as he knew, this was the first Harry Potter event SUA had ever hosted.
He encouraged guests to dress up for the extravaganza. And many did, wearing everything from Gryffindor scarves to replicas of the Sorting Hat to house elf costumes.
Daniel Swendson, a senior from Burlington, said he enjoyed the event's atmosphere and food, especially the cauldron cakes.
"it's kind of sad that there won't be any more Harry Potter things," he said. "But it's not like they're gone forever. I can just reread the books or rewatch the movies."
Mick Snyder, an 8-year-old Lawrence resident, is part of the new generation of Potter fans, carrying on the love for the characters created by author J.K. Rowling. He's already read all seven books in the series and said that it was hard to choose a favorite.
"All of them are pretty good," he said. "It's exciting, and it's about magic, and they explore Hogwarts."
Adkins said that while she thought Harry Potter would continue to be popular, the opportunity to host events like this one were running out.
"I think that this is the last chance for an event like this for a while, which is kind of why it's so fun," she said. "It is kind of like a last goodbye."
- Edited by Jayson Jenks
ABBY DAVIS/KANSAN
Haylee Slocum, a freshman from Shawnee, and Sam Oppenheimer, a junior from Leawood, pose with "Ron Weasley" in the SUA photobooth at the Harry Potter Extravaganza. The photoboth included many different costume accessories found in the Harry Potter movies.