THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2007
>> BOARD OF REGENTS
NEWS 3A
School's letting out early? Initiative underway to shorten academic calendar
BY ERIN SOMMER
esommer@kansan.com
Student Body President Hannah Love is pushing for fewer class days each semester. Love met last week with the Board of Regents in Topeka about the possibility of lowering the number of instructional days required of Kansas institutions.
The Board of Regents currently requires an academic year, fall and spring semester, to consist of 150 instructional days. These days do not include final week.
Love said that the idea originated from a Student Senate Executive Committee meeting.
"I think that the college system is on a K-12 system," Love said. "That's something that needs to be changed."
Love also said that the current organization of the academic year
required students to have short summer and long winter breaks. This can sometimes hinder students applying for summer internships.
Don Steeples, vice provost for scholarly support, said that he met with Love during the summer to discuss the academic calendar. He also said that the KU administration would follow whatever guidelines the Board of Regents set.
"The problem that I've got with the current calendar is that if you count the number of minutes in a three-hour lecture it's 2,200 minutes for a Monday-Wednesday-Friday class. If you count the same, it's 2,325 for a Tuesday-Thursday class," Steeples said. "The thing I'm trying to do is see if we can make that more balanced."
Steeples said that he thought the Board of Regents would listen to Love's concerns. He said the current policy was put in place several years ago.
The Board of Regents could not be reached for comment.
"Instructional days is part of a larger discussion that's come about, that the calendar needs to be reviewed," Love said.
Last spring Love ran for office on the platform of revising the academic calendar. When Love, along with Student Body Vice President Ray Wittlinger, ran for office with the United Students coalition last year, their platform promised to institute a "dead week," a week before finals in which instructors cannot give tests or assignments.
Love said that she would continue to meet with the Board of Regents and the Calendar Committee to discuss the issue.
Edited by Jeff Briscoe
SCIENCE
A member of the Dolichohynchops in an encampment in the Natural History Museum on the University of Kansas campus. National Geographic consulted the museum for the film "Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure." The film was digitally animated and shot in western Kansas.
Sarah Leonard/KANSAN
THEATER
Andrew Wacker/KANSAN
Carter Waite, Falmouth, Maine, senior, and Cassidy Kirch, Olathe freshman, rehearse for their performance in the theatrical production "Translations." The show will be performed at 7:30 tonight and tomorrow night at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday in Murphy Hall.
Actors master Irish dialect for historical production
BY MATT LINDBERG mlindberg@kansan.com
The department of theater and film sheds light on a moment in history this weekend with the opening of "Translations." The production, set in 1833 Ireland, deals with characters adjusting to newly implemented British rule. The show opens at 7:30 tonight in the Crafton-Preyer Theater in Murphy Hall.
Courtney Schweitzer, a KU alumna, plays Bridgett in the production. Schweitzer said "Translations" dealt with an important event in history.
"It has been an incredibly enlightening and rewarding experience for me," Schweitzer said. "Few people realize the suffering that the Irish endured during this period in history."
Doug Weaver, a KU theater alumnus and the director of "Translations," said the show was
more than a history lesson for the audience and should connect with students today.
"It's about love and politics — all the characters have a love for something or someone. This show deals with the inability to achieve love or to understand it while also dealing with the British," Weaver said.
Weaver said rehearsals went better than he expected thanks to a great cast and crew. He withdrew every show he fears what looks good on paper might not transcribe once the show becomes a production. He said the actors in this show only enhanced his ideas.
Schweitzer said the cast worked hard to perfect every aspect of the show, but the dialect was a challenge.
"The most difficult aspect of working on this piece has been perfecting the Northern Irish dialect", Schweitzer said, "Aside from technical accuracy and audibility,
we have to engage in the accent as opposed to simply using it as a costume"
Kip Niven, a KU theater alumnus, has returned to portray Hugh in the show. Niven has appeared on Broadway, in film and in television. Niven said the language and dialect of the show was an important part of its success.
"Everyone in a place speaks in a unique dialect," Niven said. "It's a very successful play. It was brought to Broadway and is a very compelling story." Niven categorized the show as a romantic drama.
"Translations" opens at 7:30 tonight in Crafton-Preyer Theater. The show will be performed throughout the weekend, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Additional shows will take place Oct. 18-20. Tickets cost $10 for students, $15 for senior citizens and $16 for the general public.
New dinosaur documentary features a prehistoric Kansas
BY DYLAN SANDS
dsands@kansan.com
Long before the Jayhawk, another bird of prey braved bloodthirsty foes where Allen Fieldhouse and Memorial Stadium now stand. The Hesperornis, a prehistoric swimming bird, and other dinosaurs that once roamed Kansas are the subject of a new 3-D documentary made by National Geographic. The filmmakers consulted experts from KU's own Natural History Museum to make "Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure" as accurate as possible.
Much of the film was shot in western Kansas, with digital animation added afterwards. The film follows a family of Dolichorhynchops, or "Dollies," as they encounter marine animals such as Platecarpus, which swallowed their prey whole like snakes; the long-necked plesiosaur, Styxosaurus; and the enormous Tylosaurus. The story takes place in the Late Cretaceous period, when Kansas was at the bottom of a 250 foot-deep ocean.
The film also shows the Hesperornis, a flightless bird that used its feet to propel itself underwater. Larry Martin, professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the KU Natural History Museum,
has spent more than 40 years studying the prehistoric bird.
He said the University had the world's largest collection of Hesperornis fossil remains. Martin studied early versions of the animated sequences of Hesperornis and lent his expertise to the film's producers.
"I was advising them on how the movements of the bird should look," Martin said. "They kept changing them until I liked them, so I'm happy," he said with a laugh.
The filmmakers used elaborate computer animation to bring some of the specimens at the museum to life. They paid particular attention to a model Martin designed with the help of filmmaker George Lucas' production company, Industrial Light and Magic. Martin said he had to improvise using some of Lucas' material to create the model.
"The Hesperornis had these funny, small feathers," he said. "We ended up using wookie fur for those."
Mike Everhart, adjunct curator of paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University, helped with
The model now resides at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque, N.M.
the film from conception through production. He said it addressed a period of time most Kansans were unfamiliar with.
"It's hard to imagine high and dry here in Kansas that this part of the world has been underwater longer than it's above water." Everhart said.
According to Everhart, 85 percent of the earth was covered in water during the Late Cretaceous period, 140 to 65 million years ago.
Everhart said he was thrilled with the result of the special effects and the fact that the film will be shown in IMAX theaters.
"There was very little land for most dinosaurs to run around on," he said. "The rest belonged to the sea monsters."
"It is the most accurate portrayal of these creatures ever done," he said. "That they'll be seen in 3-D is an extra bit of excitement."
"Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure" premieres today at IMAX, REAL-D and other specialty theaters nationwide.
The film is narrated by actor Liev Schreiber and Richard Evans. David Rhodes and Peter Gabriel composed an original score.
Edited by Amelia Freidline
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