Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Mild and mostly sunny.
Monday
October 11, 1999
Section:
A
Vol. 110 • No. 37
Inside today
University seal debate prompts the executive director of the KU chapter of the ACLU to resign.
SEE PAGE 3A
Sports today
The Jayhawks matched the Wildcat's statistically on Saturday, but they lost big after failing to make big plays.
SEE PAGE 1B
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Coming Out Day gives a face to stereotypes
(USPS 650-640)
By Lesley Simmons writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Brad Badger, Jefferson, Iowa, graduate student, said he knew he was gay when he moved to Lawrence in 1992, but didn't feel comfortable telling anyone for three years.
Badger said he viewed coming out as an ongoing process, and he is still coming out to people today.
"Once you break that barrier, it becomes easier and easier the more you do it," he said.
Badger is one of the University of Kansas students who will celebrate National Coming Out Day today. The event was first celebrated in 1988. The day will provide a chance for students at the University to see people who are out, and will provide people who are out with an opportunity to celebrate it for a day, said Matthew Skinta, president of Quers and Allies.
Queers and Allies will have an information table from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. today on the
fourth floor of the Kansas Union. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Concerns office in the Student Development Center will sponsor the movie Playing the Part at 8 p.m. at the Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union
Skinta said some people questioned homosexuals drawing attention to themselves by using labels such as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered. He said that those labels already were used by society.
"The importance lies in putting a face on the labels," he said. "Someone can hate lesbians, but if their Aunt Kathy down the street is a lesbian, then it puts it in a different context."
The day also can be helpful for homosexuals who are not out, Skinta said.
"There are a lot of pressures involved with being closedest, the high level of secrecy it entails," he said. "If they can see someone who is out, it can help them to be more comfortable coming out."
Buck Rowland, Wichita graduate student and LGBT liaison, said he could never be
sure how people would react when he came out to them.
"The people I thought would support me rejected me," he said. "The people I thought would reject me supported me."
Rowland said he had worried about his parents finding out that he was gay, but his father's response was, "I've always known that."
Rowland said his fundamentalist Pentecostal family supported him.
"They love me unconditionally because that is what Jesus taught," he said. "Jesus said nothing about homosexuals."
He said sometimes people who knew he was homosexual had a hard time accepting things about him that did not fit their idea of homosexual.
"The hardest part about coming out is getting people to accept me as a whole person," he said. "They're dumbfounded to see me working on my truck, but not to see me petting my cat."
Edited by Jennifer Roush
Ronda, Spain, mayor Jose Herrera Raquejo, right Margareta O'Connell, director of Study Abroad, local business owner and former Lawrence mayor Bob Schumm, and former Ronda mayor Manuel Garcia Rubio discuss the possibility of a new sister city for Lawrence. Photo by Chad Cummings/KANSAN
Lawrence welcomes a Spanish sister city
Bv Todd Halstead
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A delegation from Ronda, Spain, visited Lawrence last weekend to give birth to a new sister city program.
The three-member team met with Mayor Erv Hodges on Saturday to discuss the new relationship between Lawrence and Ronda, which will allow the exchange of citizens between the cities.
Margareta O'Connell, director of Study Abroad, said Ronda was a good choice for a sister city because University of Kansas students went there each spring to attend a
Ronda, new sister city to Lawrence, will host foreign exchange students.
Jose Herrera Raquejo, mayor of Ronda since July, said that citizens of both cities would profit from the newly forged relationship.
branch of the University of Malaga in the mountain city.
Ronda, with a population of about 40,000 dates back to the Roman empire and is located in the southern province of Andalusia.
"The two cities will complement each other and will make a world without barriers," said Raquejo, who visited Lawrence last weekend.
Sister City
Manuel Garcia Rubio, former mayor of Ronda, said he hoped to develop the same bonds that Lawrence had with its two other
Ellie Hajek / KANSAN
sister cities, Eutin, Germany, and Hiratsuka, Japan.
"We want to develop a relationship between both cities," said Rubio, "We want to collaborate in a general manner to bring knowledge and peace to the world."
Students who study in Ronda will receive 14 hours of credit and fulfill the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' language requirement.
The Ronda program costs approximately $5,600, which covers University tuition and administrative fees, room and board, a
More harassing phone calls reported
See STUDENTS on page 3A
By Michael Terry
One week after 13 female University of Kansas students received harassing and threatening phone calls, seven similar reports have been filed with the KU Public Safety Office.
Lt. Schuyler Bailey said the office did not believe the seven new reports were related to the calls received Oct. 4.
Kansan staff writer
Bailey said the calls received last Monday involved an unidentified man asking for the women by name and threatening to rape and kill them if they hung up.
"The characteristics of the calls were not the same as the ones received a week ago," he said. "In these particular instances, the person who called didn't say anything, but did stay on the line breathing heavily into the phone."
Bailey said the office had been working in conjunction with the Lawrence Police Department trading information hoping to
TIPS FOR DEALING WITH HARASSING PHONE CALLS:
Hang up immediately. Do not engage in any conversation.
Note background sounds to try to identify the caller's location.
■ Immediately call the KU Public Safety Office at 864-5900 or KU Crime Stoppers at 864-8888.
Sgt. George Wheeler of the Lawrence Police Department said his department had only received one report of a harassing phone call in which a man called a KU student who lived off-campus and threatened to rape and beat her if she hung up.
Wheeler said there was no evidence at the time that linked that call to the ones that have been occurring throughout the KU campus.
uncover possible suspects in the case.
Sgt. Troy Malen of the KU Public Safety Office said the recent high number of harassing phone calls being received around campus led the office to issue a crime alert.
"The crime alert was issued on Wednesday, and it's a way to get the word out to students about what's happening to the students on KU's campus," Malen said. "The crime alert is posted in every scholarship hall and residence hall where the incidents have been concentrated."
Bailey said since the crime alert was issued, KU Crime Stoppers had taken a number of calls from individuals who had information about possible suspects.
KU Crime Stoppers, a program run by the KU Public Safety Office since 1990, is designed to give anyone with information on a crime a chance to report it anonymously.
Bailey said anyone with information pertaining to this case should contact KU Crime Stoppers and report it immediately.
Anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest is eligible for cash rewards. The process is completely anonymous upon request.
Edited by Mike Loader
Kimberly Morrow, a recent KU graduate who is visually impaired, reads a brick that was dedicated to her. Morrow's mother and her seeing eye dog Tommy accompanied her to the Audio Reader sensory garden dedication on Saturday. Photo by Tara Kraus/KANSAN
Garden's beauty appeals to those who can't see it
each, are new additions to the garden.
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
By Amber Stuever
"One particular inspiring aspect of this project was that the working budget was zero." Frederick said at the garden's dedication. "But thanks to community-wide generosity, we were able to make something out of nothing."
Kansan staff writer
Tucked amid trees near campus lies a garden whose beauty is not only in its lushness and greenery, but in its fragrances, textures and sounds.
The Audio Reader sensory garden, which was officially dedicated yesterday, focuses on non-visual aspects. The garden began in October 1996 and was planted to be fully accessible to the blind and visually impaired, containing especially fragrant and tactile-oriented plants and flowers.
"It's absolutely beautiful and it's marvelous," said Kimberly Morrow, a recent KU graduate who is visually impaired. "I'm absolutely thrilled with it, and I think that its mission was terrific."
The garden was the vision of Diana Frederick, Audio Reader's volunteer coordinator.
Audio Reader is a service for the blind and visually handicapped. It broadcasts readings of books, magazines and newspapers on closed circuit radio.
The garden is located near Memorial Stadium at Audio Reader, 1120 W. 11th St. It contains scented plants such as geraniums, roses, garlic, chives and a variety of herbs. A gazebo, a fountain, wind chimes and a brick pathway, containing engraved bricks dedicated for $100
The garden's official dedication yesterday was held three years after the conception of the garden on "Make a Difference Day" in 1996. Volunteers have planted, maintained and expanded the garden since its creation.
University of Kansas students were a portion of those volunteers and were a source of some donations, Frederick said. Other volunteers ranged in age, race and physical ability.
"It is truly a work of heart," she said. "It's not necessarily a work of art, but it comes from the hearts of many individuals."
Frederick said they planned to finish the brick pathway and to make the garden handicap accessible. They also plan to build raised garden beds along the pathway. Donations will fund future growth of the garden.
Frederick said she hoped all students would enjoy the garden.
"This is an area we hope students will feel free to stroll through," she said.
Edited by Katrina Hull