2006
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Lariviere shares his views on his new job
▼ MEET THE NEW PROVOST
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2006
The editorial board of The University Daily Kansas conducted interviews with two of the four candidates for the position of provost before Chancellor Robert Hemenway selected Richard Lartiere for the position on Wednesday. On Friday, Lariviere spoke with members of the editorial board from his office at the University of Texas-Austin, where he is finishing the semester as the dean of liberal arts and sciences.
Q: What about the University appeals most to you?
A: Well, leaving aside that it's a first-rate university with great faculty, I think the thing that struck my wife and I on our visits is the friendliness and collegiality of virtually everyone. From administration, students, staff, faculty, it's a collection of really nice people.
Q: How would you approach the University's four-year graduation rate?
A: I don't know enough of the fine details about the
situation at Kansas to say I have a plan in mind, but there are some tools one can use to address these matters, such as incentives of some kind or another to make sure everyone is taking an adequate number of hours to graduate in four years, looking at admission standards to make sure you're admitting people who are able to graduate in four years. One of the tools that we've used here is what we used to refer to as flat-rate tuition. Under that plan, a flat-rate is essentially the rate for 14 semester hours and anything above 14 is free. And so there is an incentive for people to take more than 14 hours and that has worked moderately well. It hasn't eliminated the problem, but it has helped a little bit.
O: What is your stance concerning alcohol on campus?
Q: What is your stance concerning alcohol on campus?
A: I'll be really blunt with you, I just don't know enough about the situation at Kansas. That's not an issue I've talked with people about yet, though I intend to, and I haven't had a chance to talk to Marlesa Roney about that. In general, and this is going to sound a little weird, but alcohol is a pretty dangerous thing. And the reason is that most people don't recognize that it's diminishing their capacities in one way or another, and most of the real unpleasant things that I've seen happen on campus almost always have a component of alcohol involved. It's something we really have to look at — not just as administrators and students but really—as a community. I know enough about human behavior that fingerwagging doesn't do much good. People have to know what's in their self-interest before they'll do anything meaningful, so this is something that requires a constant educational mission on the part of the university and the whole university community, not just the provost's office. Everybody has to understand what these dangers are.
Q: How do you feel about making end-of-term teacher evaluations available to the public?
A: I'll tell you how I personally feel and I'm going to answer that as a faculty member and not as an incoming provost or even a dean. I feel that student evaluations should be as public as any other personnel-related matter. The way I understand student evaluations to be handled on this campus — and I don't know how they're handled at Kansas yet
they are really part of the public record and we have two components of course instructor surveys here at the University of Texas. One is a numerical, fill-in-the-bubble, one through five, is this a good course, did you learn anything, etcetera and the other component is handwritten comments on the course. The numerical portion of the evaluation is put up on the Web so you can look up for every faculty member the student evaluations for every course they've taught. The written comments are not put on the Web and our faculty here have just decided that they would prefer that those written comments no longer be made available directly to department chairs but rather be given to the faculty and the faculty choose whether to share them with anyone. I personally don't think that's a good idea. I think that if we succeed or fail, have good teaching or bad teaching, that everybody has the right to know that's the case. I don't know the situation with your course instructor surveys well enough to say what the policy should be, but I want to find out about that quickly. I should tell you that I have a very high expectation in regards to teaching in general. As dean here, I routinely go to a course taught by every assistant professor in their third year. The professor knows when I'm coming, I tell them in advance and arrange to be there at a specific time. I sit through their class and take extensive notes and write up my impressions, thoughts, suggestion — both positive and negative — and give that to the professor in an email. I don't keep a copy of that, and I don't share it with anyone else. It's just between me and the professor. And this has had a very salutary affect on the evaluation of teaching in general here, something that I'm quite pleased with. When people do things well it's good to be able to tell them they're doing it well
Q: What do you want to do to fulfill Chancellor Robert Hemenway's vision of the University as a top-25 institution?
A: I understand Chancellor Hemenway to be saying that he wants to enhance the quality of the University across the board. The quality of research, the quality of teaching, the quality of students, the quality of the faculty, and I think that's exactly what KU should be doing. The University has just been evaluated by the North Central Association. In that evaluation they said a couple of things that I found pretty interesting. One that I agree with vigorously is that, in general, Kansas has this "aw, shucks" attitude. They don't really boast about how good they are and sometimes you have to boast how good you are. And the other thing they mentioned was that the qualified admissions program needed to be tightened up a little bit and that the standards for admission need to be raised. It's possible that this, along with having a reputational impact and enhancing the quality of admissions, could have a significant effect on the four-year graduation rate. But again, I'm looking at it from thirty thousand feet. I haven't had a chance to get into the numbers yet.
Q: What would your snow day policy be?
A: Well, it will be a lot tougher than the snow day policy at UF-Austin.
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PAGE 9A
Focus on fixing form leads to better bodies
As I listened to the conversation of two male students working out, I realized their main focus wasn't on exercise, but the eye candy prancing before them. It's no wonder the recreation center is full of form nightmare. However fun it may be to check out the girl with shorts so small that they barely cover her ass, your body will soon hate you for the improper stress you're placing on it.
▼ COMMENTARY
To perform a squat, start with your feet shoulder width apart. Pay close attention to your feet. They should be facing forward
— not out, not in, forward.
Sit back like you are sitting in a chair. The majority of your weight should be on your heels.
Your knees should not fall over your toes, if they do, you risk a painful knee injury.
Carter is a Shawnee sophomore in health, sport and exercise science.
I cringe at the millions of mistakes that the ever-so-popular squat brings about. The exercises I see being performed incorrectly most often are squats, lunges, back extensions and abdominal crunches.
Faster is not always better, especially when it comes to abdominal workouts. Slow and steady wins this race. If you're performing ab exercises fast, you're cheating yourself. Whether you're doing abs on the floor, a ball, or a bench, you're main goal should be control. Control your body so that you're contracting your abdominals into your spine. Be careful not to just suck in your stomach, you have to draw it in using your core muscles. Keeping it contracted the entire time, slowly lift your body up, keeping your elbows wide and exhaling on the way up, inhaling on the way down. If you hold your breath or breathe on the wrong parts, your abs will form outward instead of in. No one wants pooey abs!
Lunges are another exercise performed in so many incorrect ways, I wonder how people are still walking. You should have a
By following these tips you will maximize your results with minimal effort.
ABBY CARTER opinion@kansan.com
wide enough stance so you can bend your legs straight down and not have your front knee plunging over your front toe. Everyone I see doing lunges has their legs very close together. I don't know if this is because they're trying to protect their private parts or they're afraid of falling into the splits. For lunges, wider is better. All of your weight should be on your front heel and you should feel this exercise in your front gluteus.
A back extension is an excellent exercise to work your lower back, which often gets left out of workouts. Flying through the exercise like you're on a roller coaster, however, will not benefit you. I see people whip their upper body up and down using momentum to move, instead of their core muscles. I'm waiting for someone to yell "wheeee" while doing it because it looks
like so much fun. A back extension should be done slowly, focusing on using your abdominals and lower back to lift you. Your elbows should be wide.
Free All for Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments, Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
Bill S. Preston and Theodore Logan; Spock, The Rock, Doc Ock and Hulk Hogan all came out of nowhere lightning fast, and they kicked Chuck Norris in
Since Texas lost, let's take that Big 12 title.
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail's" Black Knight, and Benito Mussolini and The Blue Meanie; Cowboy Curtis, and Jambi the Genie, Robocop, the Terminator, Captain Kirk, and Darth Vader; Lo Pan, Superman, every single Power Ranger,
Then Gandalf the Grey,
and Gandalf the White, and
his cowboy ass.
+
Whoever stole my friend's front license plate off her black Envoy is going to get drop-kicked in the face. Yeah, he's in the face.
OK, between the Winter Olympics, Sudoku, and Grey's Anatomy being the most awesomely amesomest show ever, does this school actually expect me to get anything done this semester? Seriously.
that's right, in the face.
semester? Seriously.
And then, after all that,
we got March Madness
next month. Seriously.
Does anybody else get
Yeah, me too.
a boner when the Jumbotron comes on for the Jayhawks' introduction at the basketball games?
warming up.
Hey Free-for-All, will you please tell me why my boyfriend bought me the mega-sized M&M for Valentine's day. I've been kind of thinking about it, and I think he's implying that I'm fat and ugly, because the colors are pretty nasty.
and I don't know, like,
seriously, who wants to
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Reindeer lead the way!
GUEST COLUMN
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Include: Author's name; class, home-
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Jonathan Kealing, Joshua Bickel, Nate Karlin,
Jason Shaad, Patrick Ross, Ty Beaver, John
Jordan, Malinda Loebda
SUBMIT TO
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1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
(785) 864-4810, opinion@kansan.com
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Jason Shaad or Patrick Ross at 864-4810 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
SUBMISSIONS
COMMENTARY
Grieving students share sympathy
ERIN WILEY
opinion@kansan.com
Death is the common end to all living things on earth. This doesn't make accepting the death of someone — or something — any easier.
Since last fall, I have witnessed the deaths of a former floor mate from Ellsworth Hall, a fraternity brother of my close friends and a relative I was extremely close to.
The recent death of Andrew Rotman, Cawker City freshman, came as a shock to many. Though I didn't know him, I know how the people closest to him are feeling right now. I also know that although this is hard now, things will get better again.
I had been lucky. Up to that point in my life I had never lost anyone close to me.
My best advice to someone who has lost a friend or relative unexpectedly is to never forget.
Like the most recent death at the University of Kansas, the deaths I experienced were both shocking and unexpected.
It's hard at first, but talk about your loved one. Talk about the good times and share funny stories. Hang up pictures. Do anything to keep the memory alive.
I remember cheering at a baseball team with a couple of my guy friends, including their fraternity brother, not more than three weeks before his death. A memory of walking down Jayhawk Boulevard with him late last spring also sticks out in my mind. One other memory is so simple that it probably wouldn't be remembered had he not died. The day of the baseball game, I borrowed a pen from him and was worried about returning it.
Of course, not everyone can mourn the loss of a close friend or loved one by themselves, and that's OK, too.
Because I wasn't very close to him — I would have considered him a friend, but not one of my best friends — these memories are what I have left of him. Thinking about these has helped me move past that unexpected loss.
There are many ways to go about the mourning process and realize everything will be okay.
After I attended my relative's wake, things got easier. At first I was scared and didn't want to go. I told my parents I had an extracredit event. Finally, they talked me into attending. Looking back, I'm glad I did. It made me feel better to laugh at pictures and stories with my family.
On campus, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) will help students dealing with any problem. They came to Ellsworth last fall when my floor mate died, and they were at Templin Hall to give support.
At this point I knew everything was okav and going to be better.
Call CAPS. Visit the Web site.
Do everything possible to help
yourself. There is someone out
there willing to help.
- Wiley is a Silver Lake junior in journalism and geography.
General questions should be directed to the editor at edan@kansan.com.
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