4A
Tuesday, March 5, 1996
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
Aggressive recruiting would help diversify administration
The University of Kansas emphasizes hiring minorities for administrative positions and increasing diversity on campus. Hiring practices usually are based upon the qualifications of applicants. The administration should be more diverse, but the entire University would benefit from more aggressive strategies in recruitment.
New administrators are hired by a search committee formed at the department or school level. A job description is written by the committee and advertised in professional journals. The committee narrows the list of applicants and eventually decides on a candidate.
The committee, however, too often waits for applicants to come to it and hires applicants similar to the standing staff.
"If the opening is in a department with a large percentage of women, then a female would have an advantage," said Maurice Bryan, director of affirmative action. "We have to look at a broad spectrum of information."
THE ISSUE: Diversity
A shortage of minorities exists at the University's administrative level. According to the 1995 faculty/staff demographic report, African Americans account for just two of 31 faculty administrators and 33 of 976 unclassified professionals, who are nonfaculty administrators.
The University needs more diversity in the administrative ranks, and it is important for everyone involved in search committees to work harder and dig around the country to find the most qualified applicants.
"We should look around harder and be more aggressive in recruitment," Bryan said. "We should get out and advertise and get more qualified applicants into our pool. We shouldn't go after color; we should go after talent."
Aggressive recruitment practices would create a stronger, more diverse pool of applicants.
JOHN WILSON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Boss should praise initiative instead of stoning workers
Some things are just set in stone. A move by employees in facilities operations on Feb. 26 did not follow rules that apparently were written on stone tablets. Several stones that were behind the facilities operations shed were moved to the west side of Watson Library and in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall.
"I was quite irritated and quite upset that there was an improvement made, and I didn't know about it," Oroke said. "I wasn't concerned about the looks."
The stones had been sitting behind the facilities building, and someone thought they could be put to better use.
The problem with the move was that no authorization was given. Rodger Oroke, director of facilities management, found out about the move by seeing the stones in their new location. Apparently an employee decided to move the stones without asking permission.
These stones, however, aren't just any old fossils; they are stones from Old
THE ISSUE:
Old Fraser stones
Fraser Hall. Besides the historical significance, the stones were serving a purpose in their new location. They were making it easier on the landscaping crew. The stones covered up a great deal of area that would need to be mowed if the stones were not there.
Instead of waiting to see what people thought of the stones, they promptly were moved back to the storage shed. The rationalization was that the move had not been approved. The stones could have been left where they were until authorization was received.
The stones in front of Watson Library and Stauffer Flint Hall added to the atmosphere on campus. The stones were not useful until someone moved them to a new location. Too much concern was given to the hierarchy that had been bypassed. The stones should have been given a chance in their new location.
DEBBIE THOMPSON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
ASHLEY MILLER
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VIRGINIA MARGHEIM
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ROBERT ALLEN
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By Leslie Bowyer / Illustration by Tom Nilson
the multi-colored fabric of life. Chances are, if you are a student at the University of Kansas, you have sat through the diversity and tolerance sessions during orientation and have heard the statistics attempting to prove that this institution is an open-minded and accepting atmosphere regardless of race, gender or mainstream religion.
The University has spent substantial amounts of money and energy to blow this sunshine at you. And although the approach is admirable and necessary to an extent, it is nothing but surface attempts to address a real problem within our culture. The KU curriculum, whether the administration likes it, still reflects and perpetuates an "us and them" attitude within the classroom. It is the subversive discourse which produces more damage to a society or community than the obvious and reproachable ideologies that remain in the open.
--battle. And the experience appears similar for African-American artists. Only two were mentioned, Jacob Lawrence and Henry Ossawa Tanner, and each were signified by race more than talent, an approach that aids in stimulating the "token" message for inclusion.
Diversity sessions and posters declaring our equality fall short of the real message that needs to be sent to the population. The real message is that we, regardless of race or gender, matter to the cultural heritage of this nation. The dialogue may say that every person is equal, but the under-
The reason for the current attitudes on campus is understandable. It is much easier to wear the coat of political correctness than change the entire body of thought and approach. A person can tell you he is not a racist, yet still believe, but never say, that African Americans are intellectually inferior. Although this may not be the case with the true feelings of the University, it is the message the University gives to students.
y now we all know the routine. It takes all colors to make the rainbow, diversity enhances our experience, we are all fibers in
--lying discourse, within the context of the classroom, still reflects an attitude of acceptance only for Caucasian men and a sparse amount of Caucasian women.
The truth, however, is the opposite. There is a plethora of worthy African-American authors capable of standing up to the Caucasian-dominated field, but they have not been canonized by the establishment and therefore are ignored. It is more than a shame — it is a direct insult that hundreds of English students never have studied such vital figures as Langston Hughes, Alex Haley, James Baldwin, Claude McKay, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Claude Brown, W.E.B. DuBois or even the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature recipient, Toni Morrison.
Canonization of worthy artists and intellectuals is possible. Since the full swing of the feminist movement of the 1970s, more women are represented in the overall curriculum. There was a time when Virginia Woolf, Mary Shelley and Kate Chopin were not typical college subjects. It would seem unusual today for a liberal arts graduate to never have encountered these authors, yet 30 years ago that was the norm. Such acceptance of African-American, Native-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-American voices into the dialogue and discourse is attainable, easier than is probably imagined, and to my optimistic sensibilities, inevitable.
History of art courses equally are guilty of exclusion. An American art class begins with the Puritans, which completely oversteps a still-thriving genre dating to prehistoric eras: Native-American and indigenous art. The message is that there was no heritage, no America, until the Freake Limner painted his first ill-executed canvas, an obvious ideology that has helped fuel the discrimination and unacceptance Native Americans still
These vacancies reveal the understandable need for an African-American Studies department, yet it seems unfortunate that we are forced to that point. The exclusion of African-American participants of history from mainstream history courses leads to the feeling of "us vs. them" as well as a confusing message from the university body. We all are Americans, the barrage of information tells us, yet they are different than me, and to learn about their experience, I must go outside the realm of American discourse to an African-American approach. It is obvious why we all need to be involved in one approach, one dialogue, one combined and balanced history.
Both English and art history courses thoroughly overlooked and rejected the Harlem Renaissance of the post-World War I years.
In four years of English classes, including American Literature II, I never have been assigned to read the work of an African-American author, except Toni Morrison in a class focused on her. James Baldwin's work was on one syllabus, but was overlooked, never assigned and eventually dropped because of time constraints.
The reason for such exclusion is ingrained in our psyche and regurgitated by many of us without thought. That's just the way it was; there are no prominent African-American authors because our culture never allowed them to write. This excuse also is constantly used in the subject of women's literature and art.
--dents who have remained informed about the restructuring as it has progressed and of the possible results to graduate students, likewise had a voice in the forum.
Hemenway not only panelist at forum
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
First, the forum was co-sponsored by two graduate student advocacy groups, the Graduate and Professional Association and the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition. Both of these groups are concerned about administrative changes that could jeopardize the
Strait's article turned a dialogue into a monologue by focusing almost exclusively on Chancellor Robert Hemenway's remarks. I write with two important clarifications.
Jason Strait's Feb. 28 article about the forum that graduate students held regarding the University restructuring and its effect on graduate students misrepresented the forum and its purpose.
University's emphasis on graduate education. These two groups worked together to publicize this event and put together the panel.
Second, regrettably missing from Strait's article were remarks made by panelists other than Hemenway.
The article makes it appear that Hemenway' field questions alone; in fact, I called on people in the audience and the questions were answered by the panelists, sometimes in turn — not by the Chancellor exclusively. Ruth Hillars and Sara Martin both are advocates for graduate education whose remarks dealt cogently with the possible day-to-day ramifications of the restructuring, whereas Hemenway's remarks tended to focus on the larger administrative framework. Renee Specher and Jay P. Schafer, both graduate stu
While I realize that having Hemenway speak is big news, the bigger message needs to get out as well.
The Graduate and Professional Association and Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition are glad Hemenway agreed to sit on the panel — who could better comment on the restructuring than the person who knows it best? But he was not alone. The other panelists' contributions were just as crucial and deserved comment.
Karen Hellekson Lawrence graduate student
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HUBIE
By Greg Hardin