University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 29.1988
Campus/Area
3
Minority dancers say faculty discriminates
By Christine Martin
Kansan staff writer
Several minority students in the dance program at KU have alleged that the University is not sensitive to minorities, and although some administrators say they are aware of students' concerns, department heads say they aren't.
"It's not as blatant as someone wearing a white hood," Geboe said. "It's the same principle."
Rhonda Myrick, Chicago junior,
said that she was ignored in some of
her classes by her professors
because she was black. She said that
she found support with other minor-
experiences and gave her experience in the dance program.
Ben Geboe, Lawrence senior, said that for him, the problem had been building since he came to KU as a player. He has Haskell Indian Junior College.
Myrick said she was not notified of a scholarship last spring until the day before the application was due. She said she thought she had been neglected because she was a minority student.
Administrators in the dance program say they are surprised by the students' complaints, because, they are not informed them that a problem exists.
"It's a shock to me," said Stephen Anderson, chairman of the music and dance department. "If the chairman of the department doesn't know about it, I don't know who does. I have no knowledge of it, and if I don't know about it, someone's going to the wrong place with information."
Janet Hamburg, associate professor of music and dance and director
of the dance program, said she preferred not to comment.
Peter Thompson, dean of fine arts,
said that students should contact
someone in the department if they
had problems.
But the students say they have not informed dance administrators of their complaints because they think administrators will not listen to them.
"They feel ill at ease with minorities," Gebo said. "They feel there is a barrier there, and they're not in breaking in through the barrier."
Laura Krodinger, Desoto, Mo,
senior, who is white, said she supported the minority students in the program.
"It isn't the white students who aren't understand," she said.
"It's the faculty and the administration."
Maribel Trujillo, Overland Park freshman, said it was too much of a coincidence that students who were taking classes differently were all minorities.
Trujillo, who is Hispanic, said that although she didn't appear to be a minority, she still was treated differently because she and other minority students were befriended by a professor in the dance program. The professor, Scott Douglas Morrow, was denied tenure this spring.
Geboe said that Morrow had helped him and other minority students incorporate their ethnic culture into dance routines.
"He goes out of his way to make the students feel the belong." Geboe said. "Scott losing tenure illustrates that the university administration is
not sincerely committed in actions toward helping minorities and keeping them here, making them feel safe and protected, petty policies. It's the entire system.
Morrow said he preferred not to comment.
Brinkman said that he was not aware of specific problems but that the dance program was being reviewed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The review could be finished in June, he said.
Geboe and Trujillo said they wrote letters to Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, about what they thought were problems in the dance program. They said they had received no response.
Ramaley said that her office had received a letter, and that although she was not directly involved, she was one of minority students' concerns.
He said every department and program in the University was reviewed by the Regents once every five years. After reviewing a report written by the department, the Regents evaluate the program and make recommendations to the department. Faculty members are responsible for following the recommendations.
Brinkman said that individual student concerns were considered in the report.
"Often, we have questions raised about school instructors," Brinkman said. "We need to look at the situation and find facts about what really is the case."
Historic depot will be moved
Kansan staff writer
By Donna Stokes
The Save the Depot task force is moving ahead with plans to move and renovate the 100-year-old Union Pacific depot in north Lawrence.
Plans became a reality for the task force after the Lawrence City Commission donated $3,000 to help pay for an engineering study by Warren Schwabauer of Norton and Schmidt engineering firm in Kansas City. Mo.
The study will cost $6,600 and should be completed by the first or second week in May, after which architects will begin bidding on the project, said Craig Patterson, chairman of the Save the Depot task force.
"Now, we're dealing with the rea situation," Patterson said. "Until now, we were dealing with a moving
'O
Our number one goal is to get the building moved this fall.
- Dennis Brown
Lawrence Preservation Alliance
target.
"The study will quantify everything, so the architects do not have to before they make a bid. It will propose a design for the foundation, height of the building and outline the procedure for reinforcing the structure."
Dennis Brown, member of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance, said the alliance had raised $4,000 to rest the rest of the money for the study.
The Union Pacific Railway Company donated the site for the depot, 90 feet south of its current location. It would cost $16 to buy a lot for the depot. Brown said.
said. "Right now, the foundation and the soil around it are keeping it in place."
"We need to build a steel cage around the structure to keep it from falling apart when we move it," he
The railway company also donated $100,000 to the cause.
"We think that will pay for about half the cost of the move," Brown said.
"Our number one goal is to get the building moved this fall," he said.
Video entrepreneur does it all
By Elaine Woodford
Kansan staff writer
Most graduates walk down the Hill and leave the University of Kansas with a single degree and a small amount of job experience.
But when Lon Freeman graduates in May, he'll earn two degrees, leave as the owner of two companies and have job experience at nine radio stations and one television station.
"It's easy." he said.
Freeman, Tonganoxie senior, will receive bachelor's degrees in political science and theater and media arts in May. He is also the founder and owner of K-Lon Productions, a disc jockey service, and Video Deja View, a video production company at 2641 Mavrick Lane.
It all started when Freeman purchased his first stereo for $100 and started playing music at junior high school dances in Tonganoxie. Since then, he has worked professionally in Dodge City, Lawrence and Kansas City. He also won a national video competition sponsored by MTV in New York.
Freeman also worked for KLZR-FM Radio in Lawrence before the station switched to a satellite program. He is now a part-time DJ for KCFX-FM, "The Fox" in Kansas City, Kan.
Freeman said he had worked at least 40 hours a week since he started college and had taken an average of 15 academic hours a semester.
"I want people to know that if you do have to pay for your own education, it can be done," he said. "I've earned two degrees, and I have done more work in my field than just about anyone on campus."
Besides overseeing his disc jockey service and video production company, Freeman works as music director for Gammons and also as a designer and music manager at Harris House, a Westport bar in Kansas City, Mo.
Though it might seem to be an impossible load, Freeman said he enjoyed the challenge as well as the
"I feel like I'm dragging if I'm not doing something." he said.
Video Deja View, Freeman's most recent undertaking, creates videos for fraternities, sororities, residence halls, scholarship halls, charities or any group that benefits from a campusidease instead of compiling traditional photo albums.
"It's an gothical thing," he said. "Everyone likes to see themselves on film, including me."
Freeman has been working with the Delta Chi fraternity and the Alpha Gamma Delta and Pi Beta phi sororities. For $500, he will attend to events during a study tour of the chapter and edit the film into a finished video.
"Why just have a few party pics when you can have an entire live video?" he said.
Doug Borcherding, Overland Park sophomore and rush chairman for the Delta Chi fraternity, said the fraternity had decided to use the video yearbook as an unusual approach to the rush process as well as for creating a way for the graduating seniors to take home KU memories.
"We intend to use it as a rush tool," he said. "It will basically be a video flashback of the year with sports."
"I think we'll be really pleased, and it should work out well." he said.
"I think we'll be really pleased, and it should work out well," he said.
Borchering said the last event would be filmed on May 7 and then the editing process would begin.
Freeman said he never regretted the many hours he spent working.
"It's been great. I never had to sell fast food like some college students," he said. "I'm just jamming because I'm doing something that I love."
Courses are available for independent study
By a Kansan reporter
The University of Kansas division of continuing education has announced a number of courses students through independent study.
Independent study offers more than 100 college correspondence courses. Courses that are included: BIOL 104, CLSX 148, COMS 245, COMS 455, ECON 104, ENGL 209, ENGL 320, ENGL 322, ENGL 325, ENGL 323, ENGL 351, ENGL 466, HDFL 100, HDFL 180,
KU research could lead to cancer cure
For additional information on University independent study and costs, or to find out the complete KU course catalog, call 864-444-Interested students also can vis the office in Continuing Educati Building Anex A, located nort. of the Kansas Union.
HDFL 220, HDFL 288, HIST 100
MATH 002, MATH 101, MATH 115,
MATH 121, METR 104, PHIL 148,
POLS 115, PSYC 105, PSYC 318,
REL 124, REL 475, SPAN 104,
SPAN 108, C&I 210 and EPR 300
By Brian Center
Special to the Kansar
For the last eight years, a KU professor has been working quietly on the third floor of Haworth Hall. His efforts could result in a cure for cancer, a disease that is the third most killer of people in the United States.
His goal is to use the combination, called an immunotoxin, to kill cancer cells and preserve healthy tissue. It does not suppress tumor multiply out of control, form tumors
Robert Weaver, professor and chairman of biochemistry, has used a complex technique to get at cancer cells. He has been studying the effects of combining a certain protein with an antibody.
and destroy healthy tissue.
One obstacle in treating cancer is that agents that kill cancer cells also kill the surrounding healthy cells, and the patient is done more harm than good. Weaver said. With Weaver's technique, an antibody would kill the cancer cells and harm nothing else.
The protein, which is toxic, is called ricin. It is composed of an A chain and a B chain. The B chain is a nonspecific delivery vehicle, unlike antibodies. Therefore, it will attach itself to normal cells, so the two proteins can be separated. The toxic A chain, bound to an antibody, is injected into the blood stream, where it goes directly to the cancer cells.
Weaver began work on this technique when Lou Houston, a former KU professor, came up with the idea. Houston left the University of Kansas in 1984, but Weaver is not alone in his research. He co-authored University and Eli Lilly, a drug company in Indianapolis, are working with him.
"My job is to clone the gene of the A chain," Weaver said. "Then I send the A chain to the people at Duke and Eli Lilly, and they try to make the immunotoxin there."
Making the toxic A chain is a complicated process because the chains stick tightly together and because the genes produce both
If he successfully produces the A chain, there are still problems to face. Weaver said. For example, the A chain contains sugar molecules that signal the liver to clear the toxins from the liver filters the immunotoxin out of the body before it can reach a tumor, he said.
chains, Weaver said.
Another problem is that the A toxin does not penetrate deeply into cells, Weaver said. So, even if the immunotoxin reaches the cancer cells, it might not kill the whole tumor.
Because of these problems, Weaver refrains from becoming too optimistic about his research.