MULTICULTURALISM
Whole wide world celebrated on Wescoe Beach
"Take Over the Beach" event allowed students to share cultures
BY RAY SEGEBRECHT
rsegebrecht@kansan.com
Stephanie Farve didn't need to travel or study overseas in college to encounter people and cultures from across the world. All Farve, Lawrence senior, has to do is look around her.
"I would say Lawrence itself is pretty diverse," Farve said, "but once you're on campus, hearing the different languages everywhere you walk, it's amazing how diverse it actually is."
Farve had the opportunity yesterday afternoon to invite other students to share their cultures at the "Take Over the Beach" event outside Wescoe Hall. Farve said she has connected with her Native American cultural heritage by joining the First Nations Students Association, one of the groups at the event.
The annual Hawk Week event featured 22 organizations this year and about eight departments, said
Adrienne Collins Runnebaum, assistant director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. It also included a disc jockey, various prizes and giveaways and an opportunity for the leaders of each participating student group to talk for two minutes about their organizations over a microphone.
Runnebaum said. "Often times, they realize there are a lot of similarities among us as well."
"This is a wonderful place for students to engage themselves, meet new people, and learn to appreciate the differences among us,"
Cynthia a Oben, Yaounde,
Cameroon, junior,
said discovering those similarities has been one of her most interesting experiences at the University.
"Sometimes there will be parallels where people in Saudi Arabia or some other completely random place something in common with me," Oben said.
"I would say Lawrence itself is pretty diverse, but once you're on campus, hearing the different languages where you walk, it's amazing how diverse it actually is."
Jenny Terrell/KANSAN
Maureen Wangare, Olathe freshman, receives information about the Multicultural Theatre Initiative group from Lizzie Hartman, Shawnee senior, and Austin Robinson, Overland Park junior, at the "Take Over the Beach" information fair at Wesco on Wednesday afternoon. The fair introduced freshmen to different multicultural groups on campus.
STEPHANIE FARVE Lawrence senior
Oben, vice president of the African Students Association, said she tried to balance herself by identifying both with the African community and with the larger student body.
"We're always helping each other so it ends up being like one big family."
"I usually am African first, but it's
student because of the warm reception he received at the University
different depending on the setting." Oben said. "I am also involved with the International Students Association. I have friends from all over the world."
JOSE FRANCIISCO
FLORENCIO NETO
Racife, Brazil,Junior
"As soon as I got here, I was immediately accepted by everyone," Neto said. "I immediately considered myself part of the big group."
Jose Francisco Florencio Neto, Recife, Brazil.
junior, is beginning his second year as president of the Brazilian Student Association, or BRASA, this fall. He said he identifies himself more as a University student than a Brazilian
But Neto said he also felt a strong sense of belonging in the smaller Brazilian community through his involvement in BRASA. Neto said the Brazilian community recently made efforts to draw closer to other students with South American roots by connecting with the Peruvian Association of Lawrence and the Bolivian Community Association.
"We have activities together like barbecues," Neto said. "Our interaction between all of us is what makes us have a voice here. We're always helping each other so it ends up being; like one big family."
Jeanette Hor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, senior, said the sense of family she found in the Malaysian Students Association after arriving at the University gave her the confidence and comfort she needed to find her place amidst the larger University student body.
"The Malaysians helped me a lot when I first came over here," Hor said. "They brought me around, helped me set up my bank account, helped me settle in. That's a very important aspect."
MULTICULTURAL ACTIVITIES
The KU Office of Multicultural Affairs is planning several student programs on diversity for the fall, including:
2. Diversity Dialogues — open discussions on different popular or beneficial topics for students - the first Thursday of every month
1. Hispanic Heritage Month – various events
    starts in September
As the current president of the
3. "Colors of KU" Leadership Retreat — three-day, overnight retreat on leadership and multiculturalism - the end of October
Source: Adrienne Collins Runneboum,
assistant director of
Office of Multicultural Affairs
Malaysian Students Association, Hor said providing support for new students from her former country had become an important part of her group.
"We don't have that many Malaysian students over here," Hor said. "We are a minority, but we still have to establish our identity over here."
Aaron Quisenberry, associate director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said that many of the 43 cultural or ethnic student groups on campus
represent international students, he said the other groups, such as the Black Student Union, the Hispanic American Student Union and the First Nations Students Association, represented the cultural diversity also among native born citizens of the U.S.
"I'm from southwest Kansas originally," Quisenberry said. "I didn't have a lot of multiculturalism out there. When I came up here, it was a culture shock for me"
Farve said she hoped events
such as "Take Over the Beach" would help raise awareness at the University about those cultures, too.
"I don't think a lot of people know how many tribes there really are," Farve said, reflecting on the Native American population in North America. "There are at least over 30 tribes across the country. Each has its own culture, its own language and ways of life."
— Edited by Brenna M. T. Daldorph
NATIONAL
Steve Heaslip/THE CAPE COD TIMES
In this Tuesday picture, Barry Clifford, left, helps haul ashore a 1,500 pound cannon as he works his latest recoveries from diving on the Whydah site off of Wellfleet, Mass. Historians say the Whydah sank in a fierce storm in 1717.
Cannons found by JKF Jr. surface
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — A treasure hunter on Cape Cod brought more booty ashore from a sunken pirate ship, including two cannons first identified by John F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy was the first to spot the cannons on a dive to the shipwreck off Wellfleet, Clifford said, but archaeologists at the time brushed him off. The former president's son even drew pictures of the cannons.
Barry Clifford recently recovered new artifacts from the Whydah, a pirate ship that historians say sank in a fierce storm in 1717.
Clifford first dove with Kennedy off Martha's Vineyard in 1979 and 1980, before the pair became interested in the Whydah. The ship was discovered in 1984, according to the Whydah Museum in Provincetown.
Divers in 2007 found a weathered, plastic compass with the initials "L.F.K." attached to a cannon.
Clifford said.
The newly recovered cannons — one weighing about 1,500 pounds, the other 2,000 — have several pistols and other treasures corroded to their sides.
Kennedy dove off and on near the shipwreck until his death in a plane crash in 1999.
The compass must have ripped off Kennedy's diving suit more than 20 years ago, he said.
Rough weather and heavy sand deposits have made it difficult for divers to recover the rest of the treasure on the pirate ship.
"Anything of any value at all, they took," Clifford said. "It's like finding a department store on a shipwreck from the 18th century."
Historians say the ship ransacked more than 50 other ships in the 1700s.
He said that his mother, Kathy Jo Cook — the former president of the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts — also knew about
NATICK, Mass. — Two prominent attorneys are under police scrutiny after their son, arrested on charges he was dealing marijuana from home, told investigators his parents knew what he was doing. Police found a small smoking pipe, scale and baggies in their bedroom.
Jonathon Cook, 20, said his stepfather, Suffolk University law professor Timothy Wilton, helped him build a place to grow marijuana in exchange for some of the profits and also smoked it in the house, according to a police report.
The booty is stowed at Clifford's laboratory, the Whydah Museum and a traveling exhibition at The Field Museum in Chicago.
CRIME
Son says lawyer parents knew he sold drugs
the drug activity and frequently complained that her husband's smoking left the house smelling like marijuana, authorities said.
The parents have not been charged. Their lawyer, Bruce Singal, said they adamantly deny the accusations, which he called "reckless and ill-conceived."
Natick police Chief Nick Mabardy said police are investigating Cook's claims.
"It's a statement that he made. It up to us to investigate to see whether it's true." Mabardy said.
Authorities said they found a small smoking pipe in a dresser drawer in the parents' bedroom, a scale and several baggies in the bedroom and another pipe in a closet in an office only they use. The pipes had burnt residue that had "the same odor and appearance as
"I know when she was here, she did everything in the world to help her son, from a mental health perspective, I know he was a troubled young man," Keches said.
George Keches, an attorney who worked with Kathy Jo Cook for 12 years, called the son's allegations "absurd."
burnt marijuana," according to the police report.
Jonathon Cook, who has a criminal record dating back to when he was 13, was ordered held on $50,000 bail on drug and weapons charges.
Investigators found 15 individually packaged bags of marijuana in Jonathon Cook's bedroom, along with $700 in cash and a shotgun, according to a police report.
Jonathon Cook was arrested
Friday after an undercover
investigation. He was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of a gun without a permit and having drugs near a school.
"He said that Mr. Wilton walks around the house smoking marijuana and his mother gets upset at him because the house smells like marijuana," police wrote.
After his arrest, Cook told police his parents knew that he was selling drugs out of their home, and that his stepfather built a "grow closet" for marijuana plants. They agreed to split the proceeds of sales from the plants, Cook said.
Cook also said his stepfather bought marijuana from him, occasionally stole it from him and "constantly smoked marijuana" according to the police report.