CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday. October 11. 1993
3A
Surveys hold up child care plans
By James Evans
Kansan staff writer
The child care issue on campus has been addressed, and a new child care center will be built.
But members of Student Senate and the University community have some concerns about how the new facility will be administered.
Kim Cocks, education senator and Senate liaison to the Child Care Expansion Task Force, said she did not understand why the 24-member task force had not announced a plan for administering the new center, which could open as early as Spring 1995.
"A time line should be given to students to outline the progress of the task force," Cocks said. "We want to know when things are going to happen."
Cocks said students had a right to know about the development of the center because students paid $2 as part of their general fees for the new facility.
The actions of the task force, which was created in March 1993, have been slow because the task force is waiting for results of two child care need surveys conducted by the Institute of Public Policy and Business Research. A faculty-staff survey was conducted in the spring, and a student survey is being conducted.
The task force has not made any recommendations based on the surveys because the data needs to be analyzed first, Cocks said.
But she said she felt recommendations could be made without the data.
Martha Langley, co-director of the
Hilltop Child Development Center and a member of the task force, agreed with Cocks. She said the task force needed to start making recommendations for the facility.
"The Task Force has not moved as rapidly as I would like to see it move," she said.
Laura Bellinger, parent member of the Hilltop Child Development Center board of directors, said she was concerned about how the center was going to be run.
She said her son, who attended Hiltop Child Development Center, developed advanced speech skills because the center was focused on teaching and not just supervision.
Ann Eversole, head of the task force, said the committee was moving slowly because it was waiting for the results of the two surveys.
"I've been very frustrated because we've been delayed with the surveys," she said.
Eversole said that the expensive expansion plan had to go through the right channels to be approved.
"The University is a big bureaucracy, and things take time," she said. "Do I wish things could have gone faster?" Sure I do."
Eversole said that the committee would be working on recommendations this week. The task force's recommendations must be approved by Ed Meyen, executive vice chancellor, who in January will present the plan to the Kansas Legislature for approval, she said.
Single-parent student plans support group
Single parenting is a tough job for anyone. But single parents who double as college students must strike a precarious balance between academics and parenting.
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
Lewis is coordinating a single parents network through the OAKS—Non-Traditional Students Organization.
Andrea Lewis, Denver freshman and mother of an 18-month-old girl wants single parents at the University of Kansas to know that they are not alone.
"The group is still in the early planning stages, but it will be one of the services offered by OAKS," Lewis said. "Thope that this can be more of a network of friends rather than a group of people sitting around and hashing out their problems."
According to Student Assistance Center reports, 446 single parents enrolled at the University this fall.
Lewis said she envisioned a group that would meet weekly to enjoy a mix of social events and informational speeches.
"I've spoken with Watkins staff members who are interested in giving presentations on different parenting issues, but I also want to plan events that are fun and let us get to know
each other," she said. "Ofcourse, children would be welcome at our events."
Single parents struggle with issues such as child care, stress management and time management, Lewis said. Although the group's meetings would mean an additional time commitment for single parents, the benefits would outweigh any negative effects.
"It may be hard to find the time, but it's very important that single parents find the support they need." Lewis said.
Laura Morgan, OAKS staff adviser,
said single parents had few ways to
meet other students who share their
concerns.
"There is no natural social unit that single parents are a part of," Morgan said.
"This group will enhance what OAKS is already doing." Morgan said. "This will allow single parents more opportunities to make social contacts. Everyone has some social needs, and this group should fill some of those needs."
Morgan said she was pleased that Lewis had taken steps to help single parents meet one another.
For more information on the single parents network, call Lewis at 864-7317 or Morgan at 864-4064.
Richard Devinki/KANSAN
The Rev. Vince Krische, below, is the pastor of St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road. Krische says campus ministries are especially designed to serve college students' need to learn more about their religion and themselves. Above, Catholic students attending 10 p.m. Sunday mass have been photographed in a time-lapse exposure.
Campus ministries provide alternatives
Students are able to explore, question religious beliefs
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
In a traditional place of worship, a person often is confirmed, married and buried in the same institution.
But when religious students come to the University of Kansas, they need a temporary place of worship and often a place to question their own beliefs.
So campus ministries have been established in neighborhoods near the campus. Not quite churches or recreation centers, campus ministries attempt to fit into the atmosphere of curiosity and academia surrounding the University.
Attending a campus ministry is not like attending a regular house of worship back home, said the Rev. Vince Krische of St. Lawrence Catholic
Campus Center. He said the center tried to provide a balance to campus life.
"We want to offer them a faithful and moral perspective to their intellectual development," Krische said. "It's really critical they develop spiritually."
Campus ministries offer programs most relig i o u s organizations do not: workshops on personal morality, current
Rev. Vince Krische
events and questions many are afraid to ask in a more traditional setting.
Krische also said the center watched out for Catholic students who might need help with schoolwork or might simply be overwhelmed by the size of KU.
denominations.
KU has 10 campus ministries housed in centers on the outskirts of campus. Each is supported by the larger religious organizations to which it belongs. The Hillel House, 940 Mississippi St., is for Jewish students. All the rest are for differ-
Each one belongs to a group called Kansas University Religious Advisers, Krische said. The group signs an agreement with KU's department of student affairs that recognizes reli-
glious groups' significance on campus. In return, the groups agree not to pressure students into attending.
"We don't come out at you and say,
"Have you been come?" Krische said.
The atmosphere surrounding campus ministries fits with the growth atmosphere KU offers, said the Rev. Joe Alford of the Canterbury House, 1116 Louisiana St., which serves Episcopalian students. Often, he said, young people are told they are wrong when they ask questions about their own beliefs in the usual religious setting.
"You can really explore with students," Alford said. "They want to talk about it. They want to push the edges."
Such exploring is part of being a student, Alford said.
"I think students should come to campus ministries and be changed," he said. "It's not the same thing they learned back home. It's bigger and more diverse. They should be able to ask more questions."
Classroom etiquette has been vanishing on the Hill
By David Wilson Kansan staff writer
David Bergeron stood behind a lectern earlier this semester, calmly lecturing on Elizabeth theater to a class of mostly juniors and seniors. Suddenly, he stopped his lecture.
"Excuse me," he said as he turned to focus his attention on a student in the back of the room. "Would you please stop passing notes back there? If you want to pass notes, you can do so out in the hall."
The red-faced student mumbled a meek response: "I'm sorry."
Bergerson, professor of English, said the incident was minor and, for his class, rare. But that incident and others like it happen often enough at the University of Kansas to make some professors and students wonder at times whether they are at a major
university or the local junior high.
"There been a decline in what I would call classroom etiquette," said Sandra Zimdars-Zwartz, professor of religion. She said students in her classes were more likely to wander into class late, leave early, talk to friends or read the newspaper during class.
"I have indeed stopped and told them that their behavior was exceptionally rude," she said.
Unlike plagiarism, offenses such as chattering in class are usually resolved in the classroom, making trends hard for administrators to detect, said
Disruptive classroom behavior is addressed in the student code of rights and responsibilities under "conduct of students and organizations." The section prohibits "substantial disruption or obstruction of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary proceedings or other University activities."
Danny Kaiser, assistant dean of student life.
But the increase in unruly classroom behavior hasn't gone unnoticed.
"Students are ruder," said Burdett Loomis, professor of political science. "It's an issue. It isn't something that's insignificant."
Loomis, who teaches an introductory political science class in 3139 Wescoe, said disruptions happened more in required classes held in big lecture halls.
The reasons for the decline in behavior is cultural. Bergeron said.
"We as a culture have less respect for institutions of authority than we did 20 years ago," he said. "It's largely a question of respect."
The consequences of such behavior should not be downplained. Zimdars-Swartz said.
"In general, it contributes to making education mediocre," she said.
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