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Section A · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, September 30, 1998
Tibetan monks share culture
Lawrence is one of the few stops in the Midwest
By Steph Brewer
Kansan staff writer
Monks from the largest Tibetan monastery in the world will visit Lawrence this week.
The monks, from the Ganden Jangste monastery in southern India, are traveling throughout North America with two purposes: to raise money and to share their culture, said Bruce Nelson, director of the Gandhara Institute. The Kansas City area-based institute is sponsoring the nine monks, who are led by the monastery's abbot, Khensur Rinpoche.
They will arrive in Lawrence and chant at 5 p.m. today at the South Park gazebo. The chanting will be followed by a reception at Plymouth Congregational Church.
The program is free.
The monks are on a tour that begai in July and will last until March. Nelson said the Lawrence/Kansas City visit was one of the only Midwest stops on the tour.
Nelson said the monastery of 4,000 monks was trying to raise money to accommodate and train a constant flow of Tibetan refugees.
"They are trying to preserve their traditional Thetan culture," he said.
China invaded and occupied Tibet in 1949. Tibetan opposition to Chinese rule resulted in a 1959 crackdown during which the Dali Lama, the Tibetan's leader, fled to India along with thousands of refugees. Tibet has been an international issue ever since. The Chinese have been accused of human rights violations, and the Dali Lama has yet to return to his country.
Tomorrow morning the monks will start building a sand mandala at the Spencer Museum of Art. Nelson described a mandala as a geometric painting created from colored sand. The painting represents the monks' spiritual energy.
"It's sort of a beautiful map of the universe," Nelson said.
The mandala will be on display at the museum for three days, until it is finished. After the lamas complete the mandala, they will sweep it up and tote it in the river, as a sort of blessing.
The monks will give a talk about freedom and liberation at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Terra Nova Hall, 920 1/2 Massachusetts St.
Friday, a blessing of the goddess Tara, will be held at the Lawrence Arts Center at 8 p.m.
The monks' visit will end with a seminar on Tibetan spiritual tradition at Terra Nova Hall from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
Erik Goodman, president of the University of Kansas organization Students for Free Tibet, said the monks would bring something unique to the University.
"I think more than anything, they bring a message that America is lacking a message that success is more internal than external," said Goodman, Beaver Creek, Ohio, junior.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
Today, Chanting at South Park. 5 p.m. Reception afterward at Plymouth Conareational Church. Free
- Tomorrow: Freedom and liberation talk by Khensur Rinpoche at Terra Nova Hall, 920 1/2 Massachusetts St. 7 p.m. Student cost is $5. Public cost is $10.
- Tomorrow: Building of a sand mandala begins at the Spencer Museum of Art Free
■ Friday: Blessing of the goddess Tara ceremony at Lawrence Arts Center, 200 West 9th St. 8 p.m. Student cost is $10. Public cost is $20.
■ Saturday: Tibetan spiritual tradition seminar at Terra Nova Hall. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Student cost is $30. Public cost is $50.
Nelson said that Kansas City was a major Midwest center for Buddhism. He said that in his experience, Tibetan visitors to Kansas City had connected well with residents.
"They're kind of down to earth, and so are people here," he said.
RA program promotes diversity
Bv Kelli Ravbern
Kansan staff writer
Resident assistants in student housing are now advocates and educators for diversity.
A new diversity RA's program, created by the Department of Student Housing and the Multicultural Resource Center this fall, brings diversity issues before residents.
Three RAs, called senior diversity RAs, have been trained to run the program. The program operates at Ellsworth, Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin, Hashinger, McCollum and Oliver halls.
Gloria Flores, program director at the Multicultural Resource Center, said that all RAs went through training at the center.
come to diversity programs, Flores said.
The center also held a training session Sunday to teach its three senior diversity RAs how to be effective advocates for diversity in the residence halls and how they can creatively entice residents to
Neisha Kerr, diversity RA at GSP-Corbin Hall, said that the program was teaching RAs to understand that diversity was not just about culture but also about learning from people's differences.
Through the program, the Diversity Peer Education Team, another center program, visited Ellsworth Hall. As a result of their visit, Ellsworth resident Jack Rivers decided he wanted to be involved with the team.
"It allowed me to see who they are and what they do," he said.
He also said that the program had sparked valuable discussion among other Ellsworth residents about diversity issues.
Kerr said that because the program was a collaborative effort between housing and the resource center, it would reach many students.
"The point of this program is to form a direct connection between the Multicultural Resource Center and the residence halls."
Gloria Flores
"We as RAs can reach a lot of stu
Program director at the Mulicultural Resource Center
dents not just in the residence halls, but all over campus," she said.
Flores also emphasized the campus-wide connections that the joint program helped to create.
"This is a great partnership," she said. "We are excited about the things we're doing together."
Flores said that the new program was inspired by Emily Ronning, the assistant complex director at Templin Hall, who took part in a similar program when she was a student at the University of Wisconsin.
"She wanted to model that program here at KU," Flores said.
"The point of this program is to form a direct connection between the Multicultural Resource Center and the residence halls." she said.
Ronning thought that the program was important in targeting diversity issues through more than one channel.
The program requires senior diversity RAs to work three hours each week in the center, Ronning said. She said the program trained the three senior RAs primarily as a resource for other RAs to learn about diversity issues and how to facilitate diversity programs.
"It's really to raise awareness throughout the halls," she said.
University plans to keep improving campus lighting
By Kelli Raybern
Kansan staff writer
The number of major lighting projects yet to be completed on campus is dwindling.
With about $2.5 million in University and student funds spent, the University is lighted enough — for some people.
"Ithink it's really good," said Alicia Culley, Douthart Scholarship Hall resident and Moundridge freshman, about the lighting in her area. "They have tons of light."
Not all students agree. Greta Danner, Sellard Scholarship Hall resident and Buhler sophomore, said she sometimes did not feel safe near her home.
"I personally don't like to walk on campus at night," she said.
"Campus is well lit, but when you get down by the scholarship halls, there are only a few lights."
Students at the University have been paying a $2 lighting fee per semester since Fall 1992. The University has matched funds generated by the fee for the completion of lighting projects.
John Mullens, security and emergency planning coordinator and member of the campus lighting committee, said most major lighting needs on campus had been addressed.
These gaps in the lighting coverage around the scholarship hall area concerned Danner.
"A lot of the projects now are going back and filling in gaps," he said. "They are smaller projects."
Danner said she also had noticed only one emergency phone in the scholarship hall area.
"It might make people feel safer if they were closer together," she said.
Mullens said the University planned to soon spend lighting funds on additional blue phones. About 36 additional emergency phones have been proposed for installation, including three near the scholarship halls.
Greg Wade, design and construction management landscape architect and member of the lighting board, said the Campus Light Committee hadn't yet finished its task on campus.
"We're committed to continuing expenditures of around $200,000 a year for as long as it takes to finish," he said. Wade said that even if lighting still needed improvement, progress had been made at the University.
"If you were here 10 years ago, it was incredibly dark in some areas," he said. "Now we're concentrating on kind of more peripheral areas."
Recent on-campus lighting projects since July 1997 include improved street lights on Irving Hill Road and a renovation of lighting in the parking lot north of Oliver Hall, which is nearly completed. Wade said no student funds were used in the Oliver Hall project, which was paid for by the parking department.
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