University Daily Kansan / Friday, May 1 1987
5B
Minority
Continued from p. 1B
"You have a lot of people come here from western Kansas, and they've never seen a black person before." Bynmum said. "And you have to deal with questions like, 'How come you don't wash your hair every day?' or 'How come you put so much oil in your hair?' It really gets on your nerves. And sometimes, you don't have anyone to turn to."
Bassa said, "There are common misconceptions that we are not able to pull our own weight here, that we're not able to work and that we don't want to."
The notion that blacks are chronic underachievers persists unless black students can prove they are better than average at almost everything, Bassa said.
"I feel like I'm carrying everybody else on my shoulder," Bassa said.
"When I fail, my whole race fails."
The pervasiveness of stereotypes like that, she said, translates into some real difficulties for black students.
"Some students who are disadvantaged start to believe that they can't be more than what they are. They can't break out of the mold."
For some black students, the only way to completely avoid that is to leave KU.
Leaving KU
Stacy Burtin, Kansas City, Mo,
freshman, is one student who thought
about that and made a decision after
one year at the University. This fall,
she will transfer to Howard University,
a black university in Washington,
D.C. Burtin said she and other black
students transferred because they
wanted a change.
"We wanted to be who we were," Burtin said. "We didn't want to be second rate to anyone. I've talked to friends who say, 'Yes, I want to get out of here. I just don't like it here.'"
That is something University officials are just beginning to view with concern. They say they are troubled that although KU seems to do well at attracting black students, it is less successful at keeping them.
Between fall 1978, when the University began storing dropout rates on computers, and fall 1985, black students dropped out at an average rate of 53 percent a year. The white dropout rate in that period was 37 percent.
But those figures, according to data compiled by the office of institutional research and planning, are skewed by abnormally high black dropout rates for 1978 and 1979. Those years, the rate was about 73 percent.
Those dropout rates may have been high because the University was then establishing a core curriculum making academic requirements more stringent, said Richard Lee, director of supportive educational services.
Since then the rates have decreased, although the black dropout rate still is higher than that for all other student groups.
In fall 1984, the latest year for which complete figures are available, the rate for black students was 35 percent. The dropout rate that year for white, Hispanic, American Indian and Asian or Pacific Islander students didn't exceed 26 percent for each group.
"The commitment to recruit minorities is strong," said Marshall Jackson, associate director of admissions. "We continue to attract blacks to the campus at a very respectable rate.
Also, the fact that the University has few black faculty does not reflect well on its commitment to be attractive to black students. Lee said.
Only 21 tenured minority faculty members and 20 minority administrators are employed by the University, Lee said.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said, "We not only have to be more committed. We have to be more aggressive in attracting minority faculty and staff to get students to come here."
University officials say the causes of students dropping out has so far remained mostly a matter of conjecture. But for the first time, tentative steps to answer the question are being taken.
New studies
Until now, no formal study of the reasons for the high dropout rate have been conducted at KU, Pennington said.
This year, however, Pennington and other Black Faculty Council members conducted a study of national trends concerning enrollment and dropout rates. The study was submitted to Budig with the recommendation that studies be made of KU trends.
Also this year, Amler appointed a committee to study University retention rates. One of the special areas the committee will deal with is minorities.
"We could easily sit back and rest on our laurels," Ambler said. "But public education, in my mind, has been given the assignment of helping people achieve equality, so the number of minorities we have ought to be a distortion of their percentage of the total student population."
CLIP AND USE RUSTY'S COURDS
Beret
Continued from p. 1B
world during his service. But he isn't allowed to talk about many of the places he's seen and things he's done.
"I used to say that I was a truck driver — a truck driver or a cook — to avoid that 'You're a Green Beret?' " he said. "But then I got that, 'You're a cook.'"
He said he didn't mind hiding something that he had worked so hard to achieve.
He left active duty in December 1985 and spent a month travelling in the United States. He did, and still does, keep a low profile about his service, he said.
A primary mission of the Special Forces is to train local militias in foreign countries as insurgents or counter-insurgents. But Forker said that during his travels, he also saw the poverty and saw hungry children.
"They've got this skeletal body, and they can barely get enough strength to hold up a bowl of rice," be said.
Forker said the constant uprooting and traveling began to get a little tiresome. He often would have to move without notice, he said.
"I'd come back from these trips and call my girlfriend, and she wouldn't want to talk to me, or I'd been replaced," he said.
"I didn't go into the Special
Forces to impress people," he said. "I did it for me. For total strangers that I meet in a bar or a truck stop or whatever, it really doesn't matter."
Forker enrolled at KU in the fall. He still is in the reserves. And, he said, regardless of his actual status, he probably always will be in the Special Forces.
"I'm still on a team," he said. "I'm still plugged into SF. If the balloon goes out, I'll still go."
But if the nuclear buttons were pushed, he said, there might not be much need for the Special Forces under a mushroom cloud.
He also displays an inflatable, 5-foot tall Gumby doll with a sticker reading "Trust your lust" just inside his front door.
"We like to say that we're mally men doing many things in a manly way," he said, "but there's still a lot of silly things you hang on to, like Gumby."
Forker said he had been easing into college life since he enrolled at KU. He's becoming more of a civilian, he said, although he still displays pictures and posters in his apartment from his military life.
"I loathe the nuclear weapons," he said. "If it was within my power, I'd do away with them all. Nuclear war has just about put my kind of warfare out of existence."
ORCHARDS GOLF CLUB 843-7456 * 3000 W. 15th St.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE RESIDENCE HALL STUDENTS
If you are returning to the residence halls next year you will need a NEW KUID to be used with the computerized meal card system, starting in Fall Semester. You must have the computerized KUID to eat in the cafeterias.
BEAT THE FALL RUSH!!! Have your new KUID made before you leave for the summer. Staff from the enrollment center will be in the residence halls to make new IDs for those students with Student Housing contracts for Fall Semester. There will be NO CHARGE for this replacement ID. Your new KUID will be kept for you to simply pick up on your return next Fall. The IDs will be made in the cafeterias, 4:30 - 6:30 on the following dates.
YOU MAY HAVE YOUR ID MADE AT ANY OF THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS!!
Monday, 5/4- Hashingen Tuesday, 5/5- Oliver
Wednesday, 5/6- Lewis
Thursday, 5/7- Templin
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