CAMPUS/AREA
University Daily Kansan/Monday, October 7, 1991
3
Exhibit honors desegregation
Display notes 50th anniversary of first study, graduation of African-American at Med Center
By Kerrie Gottschalk Kansan staff writer
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - In 1938 Edward Williams thought he would have to leave Kansas to finish his medical studies in Minnesota.
But in 1941, he graduated from his school of preference — the University of Kansas Medical Center.
What made Williams different from the rest of his graduating class was that he was the first African-American allowed to compete in these studies and graduate from the Med Center.
An exibit featuring Williams celebrates the 50th anniversary of that event, honors his 40-year dedication to medicine and segregated education at the Med Center.
The exhibit, "From Exclusion to Establishment: An Early History of African-American Health Care in Greater Kansas City," opened Sept. 13 at the Clendening History of Medicines Library in the Robinson Building on the Med Center campus.
The Williams display is one of three that commemorates the desegregation of the University of Kansas in the education in the Kansas City area.
"This exhibit is a celebration of people who have not been recognized," said Susan Case, librarian at Clendening.
Edward Williams
unams, who grew up in Ellsworth, was a Phi Beta Kappa undergraduate at KU. He attended his first two years of medical studies at KU but was told he had to leave to obtain his clinical training, the last two years of medical study.
Lovie Bey, second-year medical student at KU, last summer compiled a history of African-American health care in Kansas City featuring Williams.
another school for his third and fourth years of training. He applied to Howard, Northwestern and Minnesota universities.
She wrote that Williams, who was nicknamed Socrates because of his study habits, realized he would have to transfer to
He planned to attend Minnesota, but shortly before he was to leave, a group of citizens informed the Kansas governor, Walter Huxman, that African-Americans were not given an equal opportunity to complete the curriculum at KU Med Center.
ney wrote that Huxman met with the chancellor and the dean of students and strongly urged them to end the discrimination against "Neroes."
thought.
"Shortly before he left for Minnesota, Dr. Williams was advised he could attend KU to complete his degree," she wrote.
Williams practiced in Muskegon, Mich., his entire career. He retired in 1985 and remains in Muskegon.
Along with Williams, the exhibit features three hospitals that served African-Americans in the Kansas City area.
The hospitals were Whealey Provident (later known as Martin Luther King Memorial Hospital), Kansas City, Mo., founded in 1910; General Hospital No. 2, Kansas City.
Wo., founded in 1908, and Douglass Hospital,
Kansas City, Kan., founded in 1899.
Douglas was the first hospital west of the Mississippi River to serve African-American
Case said the idea for the Williams exhibit came from Melvin Williams (no relation), affirmative action officer at the Med Center.
Last year Melvin Williams told Case that a scholarship would be established in honor of Edward Williams. Melvin Williams said he will receive the doctor's award and celebrate the doctor's achievements.
Case said that she, Melvin Williams and Nancy Hulston, archivist at the Med Center, formed an informal committee that assisted them in collecting information.
To everyone's surprise, mementos, old photographs and other information flooded into the library. Case said.
What was to be an exhibit of Edward Williams' achievements quickly became an exhibit of the history of African-American health care delivery in Kansas City.
The exhibit is free and open to the public.
Credit card options abound for students
But potential problems accompany the plastic
By Michael Graham Special to the Kansan
Credit card applications cannot be escaped. They are in our mailboxes, on the walls of our classrooms and thrown in as an extra with every book we purchase at the campus book stores.
An abundance of applications and options creates problems for students and credit card companies.
"Students are in the atrisk group' in the eyes of credit card companies, the majority manage to pay off their bills," said Bradley Streeter, consumer credit counselor for Consumer Credit Counseling of Topeka.
Sreeter said he thought students had a limited perception of credit cards because they had not hadoexperienced a wide array of cards and companies.
Kip Patzzeo, Lawrence junior, received his credit card application from a product-sampling kit while living in a residence hall. Although he did comparative shopping, he said he was satisfied.
"When Citibank offers students credit cards, I don't think the students are going to take time and shop around for different credit cards. I think they accept the card out of spontaneity," Streeter said.
"I chose Citibank because I knew they are one of the main companies that offers cards to students, and they don't turn students down," Patzee
said. "I pay it off each month so I don't have any interest payments."
When shopping for a credit card, students should look at the annual fee, the annual interest rate, when interest starts and whether there is a different interest rate for cash advances, said Danette Umholt, financial services officer for Douglas County Bank.
"Students should try to select a card without an annual fee." Umboltz said. "Beware of a card with a high cash advance fee or cards that charge instantaneous interest on cash advances."
Once students obtain cards, they can minimize the amount they pay on the cards several ways, Umholtz said. Students should avoid cash advances, and they should not overextend themselves so that they can pay their bills off every month.
"A cardholder should go through the same thought process they would if they were using cash for their purchases," Umholtz said. "Don't use a credit card unless you have an emergency."
Streeter said he thought the only true way to save money was to pay off the cards and get rid of them.
"If somebody charges something on a card and allows that charge to remain on the card for one year, by the time you add Kansas sales tax to their card's annual percentage rate, they end up paying 24 to 26.5 percent on that purchase," Streeter said.
KJHK staff members throw records and compact discs into a crowd during a giveaway on Campanile Hill. The radio station celebrated its 16th birthday Saturday by giving away free merchandise and a concert.
Happy birthday
Center aids adjustment to English
By Jennifer Bach Kansan staff writer
But some foreign students want to meet native speakers
Foreign students coming to the University of Kansas can prepare for their education by learning English at the Applied English Center.
But sitting inside a classroom studying grammar and writing compositions is not enough education for some foreign students struggling to speak the new language.
Becky Wu, a freshman from China, has been at KU for about two months.
Although English courses available at the center are helpful, she would learn more if students were allowed to interact with U.S. students during class, she said.
Wu is taking four English courses: grammar, composition, reading and speaking. About twice a week, she listens to English tapes to supplement her classes.
Her final English examination is scheduled Dec. 7, and she wants to improve her speaking by then so that she can complete other courses successfully. To do that, she needs more practice in English.
"The class is all international students," she said. "I have no time to speak to American students."
Although she would like to meet students walking around campus after class, she goes home, too shy to talk to U.S. students by herself, she said.
Wu said the professors should use class time to take the foreign students around campus and help them interact with other students.
Charles Seibel, assistant to the director of the Applied English Center, said foreign students were encouraged to live in residence halls rather than apartments when they came to the University.
He said this gave them the chance to live and interact with U.S. students.
"Social activities can also make progress faster," Seibel said.
It is important for the foreign students to apply their language skills outside of class.
"If you merely speak in class and then revert back to your native language at home, then it won't stick," he said.
The ideal format is for the foreign students to learn the basics of the language and then apply it outside of class, he said.
To supplement the classes, instructors sometimes bring in guest speakers from the community or the University to talk with the students. The center also offers optional conversation sessions for the students.
During these sessions, volunteer U.S. students and foreign students engage in their conversation conversations to help improve their conversation skills. Sibal said.
Although Wu said she wished the center would provide outside practice, she thought she would be pre-ready for that.
"I wish they would help us meet more students," she said. "But I think I learn a lot in class, and I think if you study for the test, it is easy to pass."
Nobel Prize-winning poet exposed Mexico's political and economic difficulties
By Jennifer Bach Kansan staff writer
Attitude and reality have influenced the work of the poet who won the 1990 Nobel Prize in literature.
What most of society calls reality are parodies of what actually is, writes Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet. But at the same time, Mexican reality is a parody of what should be.
Last year, Paz became the first Mexican to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
His writings received attention for exposing his country's harsh solitude
from the Western literary and economic world and interweaving Mexico's reality with literature.
from the West-
The Swedish Academy described Paz's prize-
Octavio Paz
winning poetry as impassioned writings with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence.
Not only was Pax a poet, but he also was a writt of his writings. Hererelated his poems to his previous works, thus creating a sense of tradition.
He ridiculed the ideas of money, glory, justice, power and God in his poems and said that anything separating men from one another should be rejected.
Paz rejected conventional, societal values and morality and focused on surrealism.
Paz did not view his writings as political, but as humanitarian, which reflected the love and concern he felt
toward his country.
Paz thought it would be more influential not to write poetry but also to transform life into poetry, rather than to make poetry out of life.
Paz was born in March 1914 and published his first poetry when he was 17.
In 1897, Paz visited Spain for a writere congress where he met many of the 20th century's most innovative poets.
His influence on Mexico expanded into the political realm when he became a diplomat in 1945.
In 1962, he served as ambassador in India, only to resign in protest of a massacre of Mexican students that occurred before the Mexican Olympic Games in 1968 in Mexico City.
He was a supporter of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who opened Mexican markets and made many state-run enterprises private.
Paz represented his country not only as a poet but as a diplomat and a neoconservative champion of free market politics.
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