UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Thursday, October 26, 1995
3A
The nose on the bust of former chancellor Ernest Lindley has been rubbed shiny by students hoping to do well on tests. The bust is in Lindley Hall.
Superstitious students seek statue for luck
By Josh Yancey
Kansan staff writer
It's almost a Norman Rockwell scene. Almost.
A student late for his geology test rushes into Lindley Hall. Halfway up the stairs, he stops.
While laughing at his own silliness but unable to resist, he runs his finger across Ernest Hiram Lindley's nose.
It actually happened, though, and the result has been Ernest the gold-nosed Chancellor.
Lindley, the University's chancellor from 1920 to 1939, is memorialized in a bust in the building that bears his name, and he has provided some superstitious science students luck.
Bernard "Poco" Frazier created the bronze sculpture in 1954 as a 25th-anniversary gift from members of the class of 1929. It was left to the mercy of thousands of fingers.
When class members returned in 1969 for its 40th anniversary, some were concerned about the sharp contrast of the bust's smooth, gleaming nose and its rough, oxidized face, the result of 15 years' worth of nose rubbing by superstitious students.
The class of '29 eventually decided not to fix it.
"They were honored to have provided for their alma mater perhaps the first and only intellectual fetish that the University has," Frazier said in the Graduate article, seven years before his death in 1976 at the age of 70.
A quick glance today would suggest that the practice had been abandoned, that a hapless student faced with a geology exam but not knowing the difference between pyrite and limelite wouldn't even think of seeking solace on Lindlev's nose.
But John Hachmeister, lecturer in art, said he wasn't convinced that students had given up the occasional cares.
Unless the bust had been sealed with a lacquer, people must occasionally be rubbing away any oxides that formed on the nose, thereby preventing oxidation, Hachmeister said.
"Human beings have acids," he said. "Any time a bronze is touched, it is set up to corrode. I would strongly suggest that they're still rubbing the nose."
Jason Swan, Olathe senior, has a geology class in Lindley. He said he hadn't witnessed any miracle-seekers at the bust.
"I never even noticed it until now," he said.
"Now, I'll think about it every time I pass it."
New class addresses bilingual education
By Novelda Sommers Kansan staff writer
The thought of bilingual kindergartners can be humbling for college students struggling to learn the basics of a foreign language.
But students intrigued by those children and interested in learning more about them will have the chance next semester in a new linguistics course, Linguistics 490.
Ivonne Heinze, Mexico City graduate student, proposed the course last year. When the linguistics department accepted her proposal, bilingual education had yet to become a hot-button issue in U.S. politics.
"Iwonne anticipated that debate," said Clifton Pye, professor of linguistics and chairman of the linguistics department.
As part of his presidential campaign platform, Bob Dole has said that multilingual education must stop. U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich also backs the English-only movement.
For Heinze, the debate hits close to home.
Heinze, who studies children and
"I'm just saying we should not oppress those who need bilingual education."
Ivonne Heinze Mexico city graduate student
language, has a 7-year-old daughter who is bilingual.
Heinze said that her daughter's first language was Spanish but that she started speaking English while she was still a toddler.
Heinze said there were controversial studies that proved bilingual children might use more of their brain, and she plans to explore the studies in her class.
Bilingual children also are more marketable when they become adults and join the work force, she said.
However, Heinze said immigrant children who did not speak English fell behind their English-speaking g peers when they went to school because they could not understand their teachers, which was why she considered the drive of some members of Congress to eliminate bilingual education an anti-immigrant policy.
"I'm not saying. 'Let's forget about English,' Heinze said. "I'm just saying we should not oppress those who need bilingual education."
Heinze said there were many non- English speaking communities in the United States, such as the Chinese community in San Francisco and the French community in Louisiana, which the course also will discuss.
Jennifer Martin, Austin, Texas, junior, said she attended bilingual schools while growing up in Texas.
"There were classes where the teacher would say something in English then repeat it in Spanish," Martin said.
Linguistics 490 will meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:30 to 12:20. There are no prerequisites.
For my next trick, I will walk backward and talk
Matt Flickner/KANSAN
Tom Field, Olathe senior, leads a group of visitors on campus tour in front of the Kansas Union Wednesday.
By Sarah Wlese
Kansan staff writer
Senators: class attendance required
Sheldon didn't resign his seat before leaving the country, and because he was enrolled in 15
Stanley Sheldon, a nontraditional senator, is studying abroad this semester in Costa Rica and is unable to represent his constituency or attend meetings.
At least, that's what Senate decided last night when it passed a bill stating senators must be enrolled in and physically attend classes at KU. Although Senate already had a policy for attending class, a recent situation complicated the clarity of the rule, which states that senators must be enrolled in at least one hour of course work at the University.
Student senators have to go to class - at the University of Kansas.
If senators are elected and violate the rule, they automatically will be removed from their positions.
It is a matter of expediency,
hours through study abroad, Senate couldn't suspend or dismiss him until he had accumulated either three unexcused absences or six total absences.
Art Yudelson, graduate senator and co-sponsor of the bill, said that to avoid a recurrence, amending the rules was a good idea.
"We wanted to make it obvious that if you could not physically do the job, you shouldn't have the seat," Yudelson said.
The bill amends Senate's rules by stating that course work must be provided within the physical boundaries of the University or its affiliated sites in Kansas, such as the Regents Center and the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Yudelson said.
"It fress up a seat so Senate can start the replacement procedure earlier," he said.
The rule would affect elected senators who study abroad during their term, senators on internships to other cities or states and senators in other similar situations.
Alan Pierce, the other nontraditional senator, said that in Shelldon's case, the nontraditional students were under-represented for about two months because Senate's rules were unclear.
Ken Martin, Student Senate Executive Committee chairman, said Senate couldn't anticipate all senator-related scenarios with proactive rules; in some cases, reactive rule-making was the only option.
"We've had to, as the situations arise, more clearly define what a student senator is," Martin said.
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