University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, July 5, 1989
Campus/Area
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Neon lights up artist's life
Kelly Lamson/KANSAT
Michael Barsotti. Lawrence. demonstrates the art of glass tube bending.
Glowing tubes are used to soothe,not sell
by Donna Eades Kansan staff writer
For decades neon has lit up the American dream, flashing its message from the storefronts and along the highways of the country.
along the highways of the countrys Neon lights up Michael Barsotti, too.
"I love talking about it, and I love dreaming about what could be done with it," said Barstoli, whose neon sculptures are now on display in the Museum of 1930s Massachusetts St. "I love that happens inside a neon tube."
With his graceful neon silhouettes, minimalistic and austere, Barsotti shows that neon can be rather than assault the assault.
"I's purely decorative," he said. "There no deep philosophical meaning. I just want people to be pleasing, aesthetic moment."
Unlike many other artists who work with neon, Barsotti bends all of the glass for his sculpture. He spends his daytime hours hending glass for the Lawrence-based Kansas Neon Factory, a division of Art & Sign Graphics Corp., 619 Vermont St.
Neon, enormously popular in the 1920s and 1930s, was nearly out as an advertising medium because of the proliferation of
plastic signs in the 1950s. For many, neon began to be associated with the cheap and tawdry, and for some the glass bending began to flicker out.
But neon began experiencing a comeback in the late 1970s, said Tim Stelow, general manager of Neon's lighting division, noting its potential as an interior lighting source. Businessmen, looking for an advertising edge, began replacing plastic signs with neon. Artists, searching for new materials, spent a lot of time often hired skilled craftsmans to carry out their designs.
Barsotti bridges the gap between the neon artist and craftsman, creating and crafting high-quality medium well-suited to both purposes.
"It just happened that the two worked together for me, that I can use neon in my work. I love my vocation and my avocation just came together."
The inside of the Kansas Neon Factory, which doubles as Barstoi's shop and studio, is lit by the pale glow of purple neon. Long, thin tubes of colored glass are scattered about the room. Heating elements with open flames - a crossfire burner for tight bends, a ribbon burner for long smooth curves - light the room like oversized Bunsen burners.
To bend the glass into a letter or shape, Barsotti heats the glass tube over a heating element while blowing continuously through the tube to keep the hot glass from flattening.
The bent glass is attached to a vacuum pump and bombarded with an electric current that draws out any impurities. A rare gas, either argon or argon, forms the glass and the color of the glass and the choice of gas determines the color of the activated neon tube.
Barsotti, the only neon bender working in Lawrence, learned his trade in the traditional way, and lengthy apprenticeship process.
Although subtle gradations of color are not possible, between 150 and 175 colors are available for use in neon work, Barsotti said.
After deciding after 1 ½ years that the Kansas City Art Institute was not for him, Barsotti drove a car in Kansas City for a living.
"One night during this time some friends and I went to a neon shop. It was the first time I'd seen someone bending neon," he said. "That's when I decided what I wanted to do with my life."
Task force wants changes
Separate orientation sessions for minorities suggested
by Dick Lipsey Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas is officially committed to increasing the number of minority students on campus.
This is a goal listed in the action plan of the Minority Issues Task Force report released by the office of the executive vice chancellor on May
One method recommended by the task force was to "include a significant segment in orientation programs for minority students and provide them with orientation for minority students are not being held this summer."
"We do not separate minority students or do anything unique," said Sally Bryant, director of new student orientation. "Our philosophy is to integrate them, to help ease their transition by treating each person as a university community. There is a risk of isolating minority students."
Marshell Jackson, interim director of the office of minority affairs, had a similar view based on his past experience as director of the office of admissions.
"There was a time when I had sessions for minority students during the regular orientation program," he said. "Some students reacted to that."
They were not receptive to being singled out, and they missed some other sessions they needed. So we chose these to the fall, during Hawk Week."
Milton Scott, assistant director of admissions, is in charge of minority student recruiting.
"All students have the same concern," he said. "A special minority orientation would be possible during Hawk Week or just before classes." Some other universities have a similar approach.
Hakim Sahu-Din, assistant director of admissions and coordinator of minority student recruiting at Kansas State University, said KState did not have a separate orientation for minority students. He said he did not know of any plans for such orientations as part of the new student program.
Suzanne Holland, assistant vice chancellor for student services at the University of Missouri, said Missouri had an optional session for minority students. The session was scheduled for a two-day summer welcome program for new students.
"We had minority orientations several years ago," she said. "But we found that isolated minority students."
David Shulenburger, KU associate vice chancellor for academic affairs,
was conquerer of the implementation committee for student recruitment and retention of the Minority Issues Task Force. He said minority issue should be addressed as part of the summer orientation program.
"The report was issued too late to alter this summer's orientation program," he said. "I hope that this fall the orientation committee will keep our recommendations in mind. Orientation is an appropriate place for it. This is a place you can feel welcome and be a part of. Come through. Multi-cultural sensibility is something you have to keep pushing all the time."
Jackson said it was important to have minority programs available after the start of the semester.
"Some students will find out after two or three weeks that they need help," he said. "Ideally, it would be an on-going orientation all year, but there should be at least two or three sessions a semester."
One prospective student said he was not concerned about a minority orientation program during the summer.
"Learning has no color," said Earl Cole, a recent graduate of Summer Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kansas City, Kan. "My main concern is learning my way around. It's a big campus."
KU English professor found dead
bv a Kansan reporter
University of Kansas English professor Edward Ruhe was discovered dead in his apartment Thursday morning.
Lawrence police said the 66-year-old Rude apparently died of natural causes. The time of death was esti-
med to be Wednesday at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Barbara Paris, administrative assistant in the English Department, said Rueh had been on medical leave because she was not expected to return until 1990.
Ruhe had been teaching English at KU since 1989. He began教学 in 1948 and taught at the University after graduating from Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa. Ruhe received his doctorate from Columbia University.
At KU, Rue specialized in 18th century British literature and the Restoration, but also taught several other English classes.
Ruhe lived alone and is survived by no immediate family.
Board of Regents proposes merger
A proposal by the Board of Regents to merge the Kansas College of Technology and Kansas State University engineering technology programs could have positive effects on the Salina community.
The proposal, made Thursday at the Regents meeting in Topeka, would house the new engineering department of the Salary mount College campus in Salma.
Gerald Cooke, president of the Salina Chamber of Commerce, said the new program would strengthen community and bring recognition to Salina.
"Engineering technology is going to be the buzzword of the nineties when we talk about economic development," Cooke said Monday.
College of Technology would be given to the Salina Airport Authority.
Unter the proposal, which should not cost the state any money, the facilities now occupied by Kansas
In exchange, proceeds from the Airport Authority would be used to acquire the Marymount campus.
Carl Locke, dean of KU's School of Engineering, said the merger would not prompt changes in KU's engineering program.
"We do not have the technology degrees." Locke said.
KU requests money for KU tutors
by Barbara Kollmeyer
Program encourages student involvement in community life
Kansan staff writer
A combination of student expertise, student volunteers and community need will be the driving force behind a program being developed by Student Senate and Associated Students of Kansas.
At last week's Board of Regents meeting, a request to the State Legislature for financing to help develop the program was approved.
Bice Mosley, acturing senior director of ASK, said that a small part of the proposed program already existed at the University of Kansas. The program, Youth Educational Services, was started last year.
The YES program allows KU students needing financial assistance to tutor secondary and elementary students who are in danger of failing.
match students with communities that need services would take the idea of students getting involved in the community a step further.
He said that extending the program to community service would involve students in community activities; sometimes allowing students to use skills being taught in the structure. Immediate plans, however, involve connecting community service groups on campus with community need.
Moseley said that a program to
A current community service organization at Kansas State University consists of volunteer programs that allow students to gain experience in their fields. Students are not required to have a skill or a certain area of study to volunteer their time for a community program. Some students are eligible for grants or scholarships for their work.
scholarships for the
Laurian Cuffey, student body pres
ident at K-State, said their community service program had been successful.
"I was impressed by the need within our university environment to establish such a program." Cuffay said, "There's a feeling that students in the 80s have lost their flavor for community involvement, and this gets students involved in these types of programs."
Moseley and B. Jake White, student body president, have met with people involved in the program at K-State.
"Kansas State has the most advanced program, with 700 students a year involved, a paid faculty member, and paid coordinators." Mosesley said.
The volunteer and student work goes to communities who would normally not have the funding for projects needed in their communities.
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