CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, October 27,1995
3A
El día de los muertos
The night the lights went out on campus
Skulls are incorporated into the design of many Day of the Dead objects. These masks, which are on display in Spooner Hall, are made of papier-mache and are commonly worn in dances and in processions from villages to cemeteries.
Pam Dishman / KANSAN
Museum exhibit celebrates Mexican days of the dead
By Brenden Sagen Kansan staff writer
But they are opening the Dias de los Muertos exhibit, she said.
Patricia Gomez Corona said the Museum of Anthropology in Spooner Hall was not opening a Halloween exhibit tonight.
Gomez, a member of the museum's advisory board, said the Mexican holiday was a time for people to remember their dead. The holiday will be celebrated by the exhibit, which opens at 6:30 tonight and will run until Nov. 12.
Dias de los Muertos is a Mexican adaptation of the Christian holiday All Souls Day. Corona said it had been celebrated for ages in Mexico and was a product of Spanish-Catholic influence.
She said the holiday commemorated dead ancestors, friends, and family and was a celebration of life. Households produce afendas, which are offerings to the dead, or families might have a picnic by a grave site.
"There is no fear of death," she said.
Corona said Dias de los Muertos was brought by Mexican immigrants to the United States, where its popularity fluctuated over the years.
Corona's parents were from Mexico and moved to Topeka. She said that when she was young, the family's church had a celebration of the Dias that included a novena, an nine-day Mass.
As she became older, she said, the popularity of the holiday had waned, but now that was changing.
The opening of the exhibit is part of the "Dark at the Top of the Hill" Halloween celebration, which is sponsored by the Society of Physics Students, the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Anthropology. Other exhibits will be at
the Kansas Union ballroom and the Museum of Natural History in Dyche Hall.
Maria Martin, public relations coordinator for the Museum of Anthropology, said the exhibit was one of the museum's most important. The exhibits include about 150 pieces.
Additionally, many of the exhibits were created by Mexican artisans, she said.
As part of "Dark at the Top of the Hill," visitors can hear a Kansas City mariachi band, have their pictures taken with a calavera, which is Spanish for skeleton, and enjoy a traditional Dias de los Muertos treat — pan de los muertos, or Mexican sweetbread.
Tickets for the event are $1 and are available at both museum gift shops and at Dillons.
No person or event is immune from being depicted in skeleton form. Here, two skeletons pull a cart while another dead figure follows.
Pam Dishman / KANSAN
Physics students to light up the night with pickle
By Brenden Sager Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
At 6:30 tonight, it's going to be Dark at the Top of the Hill.
"We're putting on a little show," said Phil Baringer, associate professor of physics and astronomy. His group is organizing one of three events for the Dark at the Top of Hill Halloween celebration.
Beth Huerter, office specialist for the Natural History Museum, said that two years ago, 800 people attended the event. This year she said she expected about 1,200 people.
The three events will take place at various campus buildings. They are geared toward children and families but are open to everyone.
Everyone is asked to bring flashlights because all the lights will be off.
Baringer's 20 students and professors will put on "Shows of Natural Magic," the Museum of Natural History will hold "The Museum after Dark" and the Museum of Anthropology is opening the "Days of the Dead" exhibit.
"We've been working on this for about two months," Baringer said.
Although Baringer didn't wish to spoil the surprise of the exhibits at the show, he said there would be a glowing pickle.
He said the show would consist of science experiments that the trick-or-treating type should find both entertaining and educational.
This is the fifth year the show has been presented by the Society of Physics Students, Baringer said. It started when the students received a grant from the society.
Another event is the "Museum after Dark" exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Huerter said the museum ran the show every two years because it took two years to prepare for it.
"We'll start working on Monday for the next one," she said.
About 50 volunteers and museum staff are working to get tonight's show ready.
She said exhibits from four disciplines would be represented — entomology, herpetology, ichthyology and mammalogy — insects, reptiles, fish and mammals. Visitors will be able to touch the various exhibits, and the museum hopes the visitors will learn something about them, she said.
There also will be a frog toss, an apple bob, face painting and other activities. Tickets cost $1 for all three Dark at the Top of the Hill events.
"It's going to be really, really big this year," she said.
Stick it or hang it?
Parking at KU means parking permits. But which form of permit works better - hang tags or window stickers? An analysis of the pros and cons of each permit type:
STICKERS
- difficult to steal
- easy to read
- stays in place
when affixed
20 easy to steal
tinted windshields
can make hang tag
hard to read
can fall off
Hang tags are considered a success
- tarnishes vehicle appearance
- must be scraped off and replaced annually
- other cars need courtesy passes
- costs parking department more because of annual replacement
Previous sticker system was not as convenient more costly to maintain
By Sarah Wlese
Kansan staff writer
Two years after switching from parking stickers to hang tags, Don Kearns, director of parking, said the department made the right choice.
In August 1993, the department dropped the sticker system in favor of hang tags and a new computer ticketing system.
The most obvious advantage of hang tags is convenience. Since hang tags are registered to an individual, they can be transferred to any car.
Neither system is flawless, but hang tags come out on top, Kearns said.
"We don't really care what car you use because if your tag is in viola.
tion, you get the fine," Kearns said.
The stickers were license plate-specific, so if people were using a different car, they had to stop by the parking office and get a courtesy pass.
It was inconvenient for patrons, and the parking office had to open at 7 a.m. to accommodate long lines.
Now the office doesn't open until 8 a.m., which saves the department money. Kearns said.
Unfortunately, the hang tags' convenience is not limited to the user.
Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking, said, "The thing that makes it so convenient is the thing that makes it so easy to steal."
Many people fail to lock their doors and roll up their windows, Hultine said, which makes their hang tags a prime target for theft.
People also stole stickers but because it took more time to scrape them off, theft was less likely.
Although the number of permits stolen increased from 46 in 1993 to 89
"I have no intention of ever going back to the old system."
Don Kearns director of parking
in 1994, Hultine said a department policy might be skewing figures.
If a permit is reported stolen to the KU police, the permit holder can get another permit for just $3. If a permit is lost, a replacement is full price.
She said parking board's rules committee was looking into making the replacement costs the same to discourage wrongful reports.
The hang tags cost less because they don't have to be replaced annually.
"Every year, we were having to cut a complete new sticker order for everything," Kearns said. "Now we only have to order stickers for motorcycles and convertibles."
The hang tags are good for five years, and the majority of permit holders are holding on to them. Only the tiny validation sticker has to be updated annually.
Kearns admits that the hang tags aren't perfect. Tinted windshields have at times made reading hang tags difficult. The next time around, the tags will be longer and wider, and the validation sticker will be larger and on the bottom.
Overall, the new system is cheaper easier and more convenient, Kearns said.
"I have no intention of ever going back to the old system," he said.
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