The weekend's weather
Tomorrow: Warm with mostly sunny skies.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Sunday: Cooling down with periods of clouds and sunshine.
Kansan Weekend Edition
Friday
September 11, 1998
Section:
A
Vol. 109 • No. 17
Saturday
& Sunday
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
（USPS650-640)
Committee to discuss calendar
Fall break may not occur until year 2000 or later
By Jason Pearce
Kansan staff writer
A school calendar proposal that aims to give students more time to pursue academic endeavors outside of the University is being considered by a University Council committee today.
The Calendar Committee, led by Bill Tsutsui, will discuss the possibility of adding a fall break, an intersession period between the fall and spring semesters and a shorter finals period.
Last spring, University governance approved a new calendar that included a two-day fall break to begin in October 1999, but Provost David Shulenburger sent the proposal back to the committee. Shulenburger recommended an intersession period.
Carol Prentice, assistant to the provost,
said an intersession period — an extended
winter break — would give students the
opportunity to take short courses and to
study abroad during the winter break.
"It gives students the opportunity to gain more academic experience," Prentice said.
The committee would like to make room for these changes, but it must schedule 150 days of class per academic year with at least 10 days for finals, registrar Richard Morrell said.
"When we start putting in an intersession and fall and spring breaks, suddenly we run out of room on the calendar." Morrell said.
The committee will meet at 4 p.m. in 205 Strong Hall to address the recommendation.
Tsutsui, professor of Japanese history, said that if the calendar committee and the provost approved the new calendar, it would not go into effect until 2000 or 2001.
Pounding tradition
Tsutsui said that the first proposal would have started and ended both semesters on the same day of the week by scheduling stop day on a Friday with a five-day finals week beginning on the following Monday rather than a seven-day finals period.
"On paper, it would have been just perfect, and it would have helped people to plan their semesters better." "Sutsui said.
But he said that the administration thought the Kansas Board of Regents would not have approved it because of a general suspicion against a fall break.
"Many people thought the calendar was a done deal, and it seemed to make sense," Tsutsui said. "Sometimes ideas that seem really good may be politically a little touchy."
Now the committee will focus its efforts on keeping the original plan and adding the intersession period.
One concern about adding the intersession, he said, is that it could extend the school year through the end of May.
Tsuitsui said that the committee was not sure how long the intersession would last but that it could add an extra week of time between the semesters.
"A lot of faculty members don't want to go longer into the summer." Tsutsui said.
He also said that an intersession would force the spring semester to begin after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
"If classes start after Martin Luther King Day, students may not observe the holiday as much." he said.
But Morrell said that the 1999, 2000 and 2001 spring semesters are scheduled to begin after the holiday.
Index
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents.
News .2A
Sports .1B
Opinion .4A
Classifieds .5B
Game times .2B
Horoscopes .2B
Entertainment .6A
Movie Listings .6B
A symbol of the rivalry between the University of Missouri and University of Kansas football teams, this war drum will be following the team to its game Saturday against the Tigers. It will be presented to the winner. Kansas won possession of the drum after defeating the Tigers in last year's match. Photo by Matt Daugherty/KANSAN
By Pallavi Agarwal Kansan staff writer
A war drum that echoes the oldest running football rivalry west of the Mississippi is bound for Columbia, Mo., for the Saturday Kansas-Missouri football game.
Fourteen members of the Student Alumni Association will accompany the two-foot high, one-and-a半 foot wide piece of history and tradition, said Kendall Dav. association president.
"We are the tradition keepers who are in charge of taking care of the drum," he said. "The drum is an effort by the Missouri alumni to revive the rivalry between the two teams and is presented before the start of the first football game of the season between the two teams."
The presentation of the war drum runs one year behind schedule. Because Kansas won the game last year, the KU representatives officially will be presented with the drum. If Kansas wins again, the drum will return to Lawrence.
Day said that not many KU students knew about the tradition and that the enthusiasm for it certainly was greater in the Missouri camp.
John Paris, Overland Park freshman, has been to a few KU-Missouri games but had not heard of the war-drum tradition.
Others such as Jason Jeffrief, Wellsville graduate student, have seen the war drum ceremony and enjoy the tradition.
Day said that the representatives for the alumni groups beat the drum during the game to cheer on their team and to annoy the other side.
The ceremony behind the war drum also helps members of the student alumni groups at the two universities bond, said Jennifer Mueller, students program coordinator of the alumni association. Before the game, the two teams have a tailgate party, she said.
The present war drum, which is a Taos Indian drum, has had two predecessors.
A gold football, which first kicked off the tradition, was lost sometime back, Day said. That was followed by an Osage Indian war drum, which now sits in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana.
The present war drum, which has a picture of the Jayhawk on one side and the Missouri tiger on the other, may not have reached the high echelons of South Bend, but it was displayed last year in the Student Union Activities display case.
Rockin' good time
The Jayhawk Music Festival will be Saturday at Clinton Lake. More parking has been cleared on the grounds, so get there early to get a good space.
See page 6A
Matthew Friedrichs, sports editor, and Jeffrey Eye, a member of the Antlers, exchanged columns about Saturday's Kansas-Missouri grudge match.
War of the writers
Seepage 1B
Spreading good will
Backpedaling won't be the only trait to distinguish KU Ambassadors. They will wear t-shirts on tours as well. See page 5A
Rounders not a square movie
Kansan movie critic Jeremy Doherty reviews the high-stakes story about a gambler, played by Matt Damon. Doherty liked this one too.
SeePage6A