Volume 124 Issue 18
kansan.com
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
EDITORIAL COMMUNICATION IN SENATE IS KEY PAGE 5
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN UDK the student voice since 1904
LONG FLIGHTS
COMING TO AMERICA
REBECCA DREYFUS/KANSAN Maggie Ma, a junior from Beijing stands outside of Fraser Hall Wednesday evening. Maggie came to KU because her major is offered here and to find a good job from her excellent education in the U.S.
BRITTANY CLAMPITT bclampitt kansan.com
International students, like all students, adjust to college life in varying ways. For some it's like putting on your favorite pair of jeans, but for others, fitting in can be more difficult.
Omar Al-Kaf, a chemical engineering senior from Aden, Yen
men, had difficulty adjusting to American life when he studied in Boulder, Colo., as a high school junior. He found it filled with different cultures, different religions and even different ways of doing things around the house. Returning to America to attend the University of Kansas, however, Al-Kaf had an easier time transitioning.
"I got in touch with the Muslim community here, which I didn't do back in Boulder," Al-Kaf said.
The close proximity of the Islamic center helped Al-Kaf find a sense of community, something difficult for him because he may be the University's sole Yemeni student.
"I've been checking with the International Student Office since I came and it looks like I'm the only student from Yemen so far." Al-Kaf said with a chuckle.
After returning to Yemen for his senior year, he decided to come back to America to pursue higher education after receiving a scholarship.
Al-Kaf chose Kansas because of both its engineering program and its campus diversity.
After coming to the University, Al-Kaf got involved in the International Student Association and connected to others in his situation at the international student orientation. More than 2,000 international students attended the University during the spring 2011 semester. About one in 13 students here are from another country.
While meeting students from different cultures, Al-Kaf also
found ways to stay faithful to his own culture among his friends.
"Sometimes I'm like 'I'm going to go pray,' and they appreciate that I'm committed to my religion." Al-Kaf said. "Just seeing supporting people and people being nice to you, that's really helped me get along and be better at the University."
Graduate student Alex Mironenko said the change from life in Omsk, Russia, to America was difficult at first.
Mironenko said he was sad when the orientation was over because he wanted to keep those connections with other students.
"In the beginning I felt lonely," Mironenko said. "To me a very exciting thing was international student orientation."
The son of engineering parents, Mironenko studies chemical engineering, "continuing the tradition of my family," he said.
A Fulbright scholarship gave him the opportunity to attend the University of Kansas and study green chemistry and engineering.
Mironenko had to adjust both to American culture as well as the habits of his roommates, who are also international Fulbright scholars. He said the differences created some problems for them initially.
"I'm going to create something new, like a new environmentally friendly process, reduce some chemical use, create some alternate route," Mironenko said. "That's one of my lifetime goals."
"It was very,very hard to get used
to each other because, being from different countries, there are different water assumptions," Mironenko said. "Brazil and Honduras are very water deficient countries and Russia has an ample amount of water. So we argued about how long we should take a shower."
SEE INTERNATIONAL ON PAGE 3
REBECCA DREYFUS/KANSAN Alex Mirenkeno, a second year masters student, sits outside of Watson Library Wednesday evening.- Alex, originally from Omsk, Russia, came to study in the U.S. because of the numerous job possibilities here.
Man wrongly convicted of murder tells story
CAMPUS
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
Old bank receipts — ink decaying — lie sprinkled across the seats and floor of Darryl Hunt's car.
He asks: "Do you remember where you was at two days ago?"
Hunt's answer is on a receipt. Date, time and photo supplied. He needs the answer so he's got the proof, in case he's wrongly convicted of murder again.
After a screening of the documentary "The Trials of Darryl Hunt," journalism professor Simran Sethi led an open question and answer forum Tuesday evening at the Ecumenical Campus Ministries. Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little shared opening remarks, journalist Phoebe Zerwick joined via Skype and students, faculty and members of the public listened and posed questions to Zerwick, Hunt and Imam Khalid Griggs, a founding member of the Darryl Hunt Defense Fund.
In 1984, Hunt, a young black man, was accused of murdering Deborah Sykes, a 25-year-old white copy editor in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Sykes was returning to work when she was raped, stabbed 16
times and killed. Her body was found naked from the waist down.
A local man told police that he had seen Sykes with an black man during the morning of the crime. After describing the man's appearance, the local picked Hunt from a photo lineup.
Hunt was tried for first-degree murder, and after witnesses confirmed him as the man with Sykes on the day of the crime, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
The same witnesses from the first trial told the same story, Hunt's inmates testified that he admitted the murder to them in prison, and again, Hunt was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
"Racism has been so intertwined with justice, it's very hard to separate them," Griggs said.
He was retired in Catawba County, N.C., before an all-white jury.
Zerwick, who wrote an eight-part series in 2003 that details the injustices of Hunt's trials, discussed how different media handled the case at the time.
"The hardest was being convicted of something I didn't do," Hunt said.
"The mistake was that by being fair and balanced, we were misleading our readers and not getting to the truth," Zerwick said of the Winston-Salem Journal's analysis of the case.
Shortly after Zerwick's series, more than 19 years in prison and 10 years after DNA proved that he did not rape Sykes. Hunt was exonerated and freed in 2005.
Hunt said while he was incarcerated, he was often depressed and unsure of what to do, but faith and hope kept his dream of freedom alive.
"I grew up in the church." Hunt said.
Now Hunt travels from place to place, sharing his story and helping free those who are experiencing the nightmare he finally escaped. But he hasn't shed everything from those days.
Hunt said that he never expunged his criminal record. At the top, in large print, it still reads: "CONVICTED." In smaller print, way toward the bottom it reads: "exonerated."
The record is a reminder of what Hunt's been through and what he wants to prevent.
"I don't want to forget what they done to me." Hunt said.
Edited by Jonathon Shorman
JESSICA JANASZ/KANSAN
Students, faculty and members of the community watch "The Trials of Darry Hunt" at the Ecumenical Campus Ministries on Tuesday. A still of Deborah Sykes, the copy-editor Hunt was convicted of killing, is shown on the screen.
Index CLASSIFIEDS 11A CRYPTOQUOPS 4A SPORTS 12A
CROSSWORD 4A OPINION 5A SUDOKU 4A
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2011 The University Daily, Kansan
Don't Today is Hump Day, but you can make it through to forget the end of the week!
Today's weather Forecasts done by University students. For a more detailed forecast, see page 2A HI: 72 LO: 44
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