CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, October 9, 1995
3A
ROTC students win ranger contest
Kansas Ranger Challenge measured soldier training
By David Teska Kansan staff writer
individually and as a team.
While most students slept on Saturday morning, 17 members of the Jayhawk Battalion were up before dawn testing their soldier skills.
KU Ranger co-instructor Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Becvar said that the competition had measured the students' training.
"It's kind of a mid-term exam for the varsity sport of ROTC," Bevar said.
At the All Kansas Ranger Challenge at Clinton Lake, 51 Army ROTC students from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Emporia State University and Pittsburg State University competed in six events: a physical fitness test, hand grenade
Each school had a nine-person team except for KU, which had two teams, and
throw, weapons disassembly and assembly, rope bridge, land navigation and a 10-kilometer run with a loaded pack.
KU won the overall competition. Emporià State was second, and Kansas State finished third.
Emporia State, which sent 16 students. A senior led each team. Teams have prepared all semester for the competition.
The events challenged the students
The physical fitness test and the 10-kilometer run measured physical endurance.
The Ranger program's goal is to push students above the rest of the battalion, said
Cadet Ken Zurcher, Kansas City, Kan., senior and a KU team leader.
Contributed photo
KU will send 11 students and four alternates to Ft. Sill, Okla., at the end of October to compete against Emporia State and Washburn University in the Brigade Ranger Challenge Competition.
Brad Louden, Overland Park sophomore, and Chris Ford, Overland Park junior, help J.J. Herman, Topeka senior, climb down from their team's rope bridge during the ROTC Ranger Challenge Saturday at Clinton Lake.
'Discovery' of America not celebrated by all
By Hannah Naughton
Kansan staff writer
Columbus Day is not the most well known federal holiday. In fact, most people do not even know it is happening until they find an empty mailbox.
Then they will recall the history lesson: "In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," blundering into the Caribbean and planting the European seed on the new and seemingly unclaimed continent.
However, Columbus Day is not a time for celebration for many Native Americans. It marks the beginning of 503 years of discrimination and misunderstanding.
"I was raised in the public schools in the cities," said Richard Taliwood, Shiprock, N.M., junior, at Haskell Indian Nations University. "I remember as a kid they would really praise Columbus.
They made him sound like a hero."
Taliwood said that while growing up he had experienced a great deal of discrimination and racism.
"I was so naive," he said. "I just thought that was how it was."
Taliwood said he learned the Native-American view of Christopher Columbus and other explorers at Haskell.
"Native people of that hemisphere took care of him. They were curious and generous and helped him recuperate," Taliwood said. "Down the line, he misled them and turned it into a profit for himself."
Angel Kwolek-Folland, associate professor of history, said that after the native people welcomed Columbus, he took some of them back to Europe as slaves to display them as a curiosity. Some people say this established a pattern for future explorers' relationship
with the Native Americans, she said.
Many Native Americans use this day to evaluate, rather than celebrate, their situation in the United States.
"I feel like on Columbus Day, that Columbus isn't really the issue," said Daniel Wildcat, chairman of the division of natural and social sciences at Haskell. "It marks the legacy of a collision of cultures. The legacy has to do with oppression, economic exploitation and cultural ambivalence toward indigenous people in the Americas. No Native person would really want to celebrate Columbus."
Wildcat said it was a day when Native and non-Native Americans should realize that the problems beginning 503 years ago are still alive.
"From a Native perspective, there have not been a lot of changes," he said. "We're still fighting for our sovereignty, for our own economic self-determination. We're fighting struggles for the recognition of our First Amendment religious freedom."
Taliwood said many racist and ignorant perceptions of Native Americans still existed. People stereotype Native Americans as dumb or stupid if they are quiet or silent. People also stereotype them as being drunken Indians, he said.
"A lot of my own relatives are very educated," Taliwood said. "They work hard. But a lot of people still think we live in teepees and ride horses."
Taliwood said he could sense many unwelcome attitudes at the University of Kansas.
"I have to be strong. That's my struggle when I go up there," he said. "If someone could have the courage to come up to me and ask me questions, in a courageous and respectful way, to try to understand, I would want to help them."
Walkers raise money for heart association
Most of the proceeds will stay in Kansas
By Joann Birk
Kansan staff writer
The cold weather Saturday morning did not stop University of Kansas students and Lawrence residents from digging out their hats and gloves to walk through campus.
the walk.
About 85 people joined in this year's American Heart Walk, which began at Watkins Memorial Health Center and circled the University.
The walk, which took about an hour, was sponsored by the American Heart Association to raise money for research and education about heart disease.
"When my friend asked me to do it, I thought it was a great cause," he said.
Candyce Waitley, registered nurse at Watkins, said the American Heart Walk was a good opportunity for students and residents to participate in heart-healthy activities while raising money.
This year's walkers raised about $4,500 for the cause, said Jeff Doherty, area director for the American Heart Association.
Saul Musquiz, Goodland senior, said he was asked by a co-worker at Commerce Bank, 955 Iowa St., to collect donations and participate in
"Besides increasing awareness, the walk ties the community with the University." Waitley said.
Pam Dishman / KANSAN
People walk through campus to raise money for the American Heart Association. The association sponsored the walk Saturday to raise money and awareness about heart disease and heart-healthy activities.
Dougherty told the walk was only one of a number of fund-raising efforts in Lawrence. Dance-for-Hearth, a dance marathon to raise money, is held throughout the year at different sites, including Robinson Center. Jump Rope-for-Heart is held at Lawrence grade schools, and Hoops-for-Heart is held in Lawrence junior high schools.
More than 88,000 Kansas volunteers participated in American Heart Association activities last year. Doherty said 75 percent of the money raised at these events stayed in Kansas.
As of July 1, the association had
given the University of Kansas Medical Center more than $440,000 in research funding and the University of Kansas more than $276,000.
million Americans had heart attacks in 1994 and that more than one in three Americans age 19 and under have high cholesterol.
The association estimates that 1.5
KU lacks Hispanic courses
Curriculum should address growing population, some say
By Hannah Naughton
Kansan staff writer
According to census projections, Americans with Hispanic and Latin American heritage will be the largest U.S. minority population in the next 20 years, but the University does not have a program that focuses on Hispanic-American culture.
"Compared to African American and women's studies, it's pretty minimal," said Nicolas Shump. Lawrence graduate student.
Shump taught a course last semester that investigated the Hispanic-American experience. It was unique because in its approach, it excluded the study of Latin America and was specifically geared toward the U.S. Hispanic or Latino culture, he said.
Before this, Norman Yetman, a professor of American studies, taught a course in the 1970s, which investigated the Chicano culture. Juan Velasco, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese, taught a course on modern Chicano writers.
These are the only classes at the University that have dealt primarily with issues of Hispanic and Latino Americans. Yetman said.
"The Latino presence in the United States is a very important component of society and should be addressed," he said.
Yetman said he had argued repeatedly for the addition of courses like these to the curriculum to better be able to address the growing population of Hispanics.
Shump said his class, which had nine students last semester, was not offered this semester for three reasons: cuts to the graduate teaching assistants' budget, decreased money in the department of American studies and lack of interest.
"There really wasn't a great deal of interest," Shump said. "I was disappointed that only nine people went. I did a good job at getting the word out. I don't know if there's really a commitment to it by the administration."
The African-American studies department has been at the University for 25 years, said Linda Wiley, secretary for African and African-American studies department. During the last five years, the program has grown with increases in students, classes and teacher, she said.
"The administration and structure of the University are more geared toward what African-American students want." Shump said.
The African-American students have been better organized than Hispanic Americans in the past, Shump said. The priority of the Hispanic American Leadership Organization hasn't been starting a program.
Shump said a reason it might have been harder for Hispanic and Latino Americans to organize was because they have a number of diverse and very different backgrounds, dependent upon their countries.
"It's tough sometimes for different groups to get past their differences and work together," he said.
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