4A
Thursday, October 12, 1995
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: UNITY
Campus can attain diversity
Students from different cultural and ethnic groups need to interact more frequently to make the University of Kansas a truly diverse institution.
On paper, KU is somewhat diverse. According to a report released by the Division of Student Affairs last February, 8.4 percent of students on campus during Fall 1994 were minorities. In addition, international students composed 7.7 percent of KU's population.
This growth in diversity has sparked a growth in cultural awareness at KU. Different cultures and ethnic groups have formed organizations to preserve their cultural identities and to meet students similar to themselves.In fact, the number of registered cultural organizations at KU almost has doubled since 1984.
These advancements in cultural awareness are overdue. However, they have not turned KU into a truly diverse institution.
In a truly diverse institution, students and groups interact with each other
Students should expand social groups to include people with different ethnic backgrounds
on a regular basis. Other than individual observation, there are few reliable ways to measure interaction between different ethnic groups on campus. Unfortunately any honest observer would have to admit that most students limit themselves to their own ethnic groups when it comes to defining social groups. A dialogue between KU's various cultures needs to develop.The new Multicultural Resource Center has taken a step in creating an intercultural dialogue by establishing a building and resource center for all cultures. Students who take diversity seriously are encouraged to take a trip to the center.
Yet KU students shouldn't rely on the center to create real diversity. It would be a shame if students didn't take it upon themselves to experience KU's diverse environment.
MARK POTTER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: OFFICE HOURS
Office hours helpful if you go
University students and faculty need to renew their
to renew their commitments to each other and take advantage of opportunities to expand student-instructor relationships during teachers' office hours. During the school year, teachers are required to hold office hours — specific times set aside to see their students on an individual basis. Many students neglect to take advantage of this chance to seek advice, or even just get to know the professor.
Teachers need to fulfill their obligation to their students and tell them of schedule changes as early as possible. If teachers need to leave their office, simply leaving a note saying where he or she could be reached would be sufficient.
Teachers are around if you want extra help,but you need to take advantage of their availability.
Often, professors and GTAs sit quietly waiting for a student to drop by. That is a waste of their time. Many students are intimidated by the thought of speaking one-to-one with their instructor for a specific purpose, let alone just stopping by to chat.
This needs to change for the students' benefit. Learning at KU is meant to be experienced outside as well as inside the classroom.
Instructors are responsible for being available to their students, but it is the responsibility of the students to take advantage of such opportunities.
KELLY DIETRICH FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
COLLEEN MCCAIN
Editor
DAVID WILSON
Managing editor, news
ASHLEY MILLER
Managing editor, planning & design
TOM EBILEN
General manager, news adviser
Editors
News & Special Sections .. Deedra Allison
Editorial .. Heather Lawrence
Associate Editorial .. Sarah Morrison
Campus .. Virginia Margheim
Associate Campus .. Teresa Vazeye
Associate Campus .. Paul Todd
Sports .. Jennil Carlson
Sports Sports .. Tony Jackson
Photo .. Paul Kotz
Wire .. Robert Allen
On-line coordinator .. Tina Fassett
STEPHANIEL TLEY
Business manager
MATT SHAW
Retail sales manager
JAY STEINER
Sales and marketing adviser
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH
Technology coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Meredith Hennning
Regional mgr ... Tom Dulce
National mgr ... Heather Barnes
Special Section mgrs ... Heather Niahoua
Production mgrs ... Nancy Euston
Krleta Nye
Marketing director ... Konan Huuser
Public Director ... Brigit Bloomquist
Creative director ... Brittg Bloomquist
Classified mgr ... Heather Vailer
Internship/oop-mgr ... Kelly Connelly
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
'Happily ever after' goes up against reality — and loses
I used to spend every waking hour looking for happily-ever-afters, looking for romance and love.
How could anyone be happy that long?
So they lived happily ever after,
It sounds so permanent.
Just something to make me feel good.
And I would do anything for that five minutes of not feeling alone. And it always made me more unhappy.
When I was 15, I "fell in love" with this beautiful, young woman, who worked at the laundromat down the street from my house.
I'd be late to school every day so that I could just wave at this young lady on the way to school. The one day I got the courage to talk to her, I learned she only spoke Spanish. And I didn't.
So, I came back to the laundromat a few days later with a flower and a Spanish-speaking homeless man translating for me.
Until the next day when I met her.
And after an hour of small talk, I learned that the young lady I was in "love" with was 25 and flattered but not really interested.
And I again I found myself searching for happily-ever-afters that don't exist.
The girl I was destined to be with — Lorena — who worked the cash register at the grocery
STAFF COLUMNIST
Last summer, I saw her again at the grocery store, and she was pregnant. She didn't even recognize me.
store I worked at. And every bag-boy in the store, including myself, fought to work at her cash register. The only real thing standing in the way of our happiness together was her boyfriend. But we became good friends. We had some
thing in common. We both spent a lot of time looking for happily-ever-afters. And she was about two years older than me. Her happily-ever-after was to marry her boyfriend and have a little girl.
Soon enough I was fired from work, and after that, I lost touch with Lorena.
Rufus Coleman is a Dallas sophomore in journalism.
That's happily ever after.
I guess she was also a little clumsy. She always would come to work with a new bruise or two.
One day she came to work with a huge grin on her face cradling her stomach. I asked her what was so great, and she whispered to me, "I'm pregnant."
Every day after that she'd tell me about her new plans to live "happily ever after" with her boyfriend and her baby. And every day I was a little more down.
My immediate thoughts were,
"What? What about us?"
I even asked her sister, who also worked at the store, if she could do something, and she said that's the way it was supposed to be.
A few weeks passed, and suddenly all the plans went away. She stopped talking about it.
She told me that she had lost her baby. She said that she and her boyfriend had gotten into a physical fight with a neighbor, and she lost the baby.
The story changed all the time until one day, she said she lost the baby because her boyfriend beat her. And all the marks she had from accidents all came from him.
I begged her to just leave him and to come live with me and my family. I told her that I could pay for her with the money I made from work. But she wouldn't.
And I knew that I couldn't really afford to take care of her, but it was so frustrating because there was nothing I could do. That day she left telling me that her boyfriend didn't do it on purpose. "It was an accident."
Nothing really changed. One day she'd be fully ready to leave him, the next she was completely in love with him.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Senate denies funds with false reasoning
1995 marks the 75th anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment. For nearly a century, American women have enjoyed the right to freedom of expression. At least, that's what I thought until I read an article in last Thursday's Kansan, "Feminist Group Denied Student Funding."
Apparently, when representatives from the Feminist Collective Force appeared before the Student Senate finance committee last Wednesday night to request $307 of unallocated funds, they were denied funding for reasons that screamed sexism hiding under the mask of "we support women's rights, but ... we're not feminists."
The first reason that was given for not funding the newly organized Feminist Collective Force had to do with the group's name. According to committee member Lindsay Sander, if the group associates itself with he feminist label it will only hinder the group's own growth.
A feminist is a person who believes that the differences between men and women should be celebrated, lending themselves reason only to that of treating men and women equally rather than unequally and/or unfairly.
Clearly, Sander is under the impression that being a feminist is what the media has often historically defined feminist to be — "a bunch of manhating, ball busting, hell-raising dykes."
nists is based on untruthful stereotypes versus reliable facts. Woman to woman Lindsey, I am deeply disappointed in you. From my own personal feminist perspective, let me tell you what being a feminist is really about.
Certainly it would be safe for me to assume then that Sander's knowledge of femi-
A feminist is a person who also believes that the stereotypically fixed notions on how men and women should behave serve as the foundation for sexism, an ideology that stunts the growth of both men and women.
Feminists of all colors, shapes, sizes and sexes share the goal of stimulating growth through working together to increase awareness in regard to the issues that affect all of us.
If, in fact, someone is "scared away from becoming a member of the group because they think "feminist" is a dirty word, then most likely, the Feminist Collective Force would not want that person to be a part of the group, especially if that person did nothing to educate himself or herself on whether or not they had any real, rational reason to be afraid of "feminists" in the first place.
The second and last reason given for not funding the group came from Andy Obermuelter.
Andy said that since the Student Senate already funded the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, funding the Feminist Collective Force would he a duplication of services. He then suggested that members of the group work through the center.
Well, Andy, I have a suggestion for you. I suggest that you get your "facts" straight because the center is not funded by Senate.
Overall, it appears that if anyone should be concerned here it is the entire University of Kansas student body. We should be concerned about the kind of harmful attitudes present in the minds of people whom we are to depend on for support in exercising our rights to freedom of expression.
The "reasons" used by the finance committee to not fund the group could have similarly been used to not fund other groups like the Black Student Union or the Hispanic American Leadership Organization. In this case, if there is any group to be afraid of and/or if there is any group that does not serve as a catalyst for growth, it is not the group, but rather, the finance committee.
Obviously, it appears that some members of the finance committee could have benefited most by the awareness that the group will continue to raise.
Amber Robillard Wichita senior
We are immune to the faces and the pain of violent crime
Sixteen years, two months and 24 days ago, a man was murdered. He was nameless to the world, but he was a husband to his high school sweetheart and a father to his 4-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son. The story of his
STAFF COLUMNIST
murder, witnessed by his wife and children, didn't make the national news. It barely was heard outside the Eastern coalmining community, where he and his family lived. And if the nation had heard, I doubt it would have sparked more
than a whisper or a sigh.
When I think about it now, I shudder — 10 years ago, I couldn't bare to discuss it because I was that little girl, 4 years old and fatherless.
Each year, a new layer of skin dresses the callous that I have developed on the subject of my father's murder. I find myself — my feelings numb. I have started to accept that these things happen every day to people all over the world.
When it comes to murder, we are an old pair of leather gloves — worn out and even comfortable with the fact of murder as a part of life. We deal with it every day and night. The evening news floods our ears, and the newspapers blind our eyes with stories of inhumanities. Only the most gruesome stick in our heads. Like the flesheating monster Jeffrey Dahmer. He is very hard to forget. But who was not — the numerous tortured souls he murdered. Their names have escaped us. We have placed them on our list of life's casualties.
Maybe we forget the names and faces of victims because it is hard to believe; or maybe we forget because there are so many. We have developed body-size callouses in order to protect ourselves from the truth, which is that parents beat their children to death, and children kill for Nike shoes — or worse, for fun.
Granted, there are sick people out there who need major psychological help, but there are also the children whom we have neglected to teach respect for human life. And they are killing by the thousands.
We witness, helplessly, lives taken from humans every day, but we are to blame for the human aspect taken from life. We need to remember the dead and teach our children that just because something happens so frequently, such as murder, it doesn't make it acceptable.
We all would benefit if the next time we are blasted with the murder count in Bosnia, or even our own backyard, we sat down, closed our eyes and remembered that these are not just numbers. They are people, with real names and real families, who are hurting and questioning how the world became one without respect for life.
Amy McVey is an Oiaethe sophomore in journalism.
How to submit letters and guest columns
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest columns: Should be double spaced, typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Heather Lawrenz, editorial page editor, or Sarah Morrison, associate editorial editor, at 864-4810.
---