INSIDE KU's jazz master: Ron McCurdy Women's Studies: a growing field Jessie Branson: growing influence
Second Section
Nervousness part of GRE Importance makes it a tough test to take
By Charles Higginson special to the Kansas
Early on a bitter morning in February, Ellen Harkins joined a group of men and women, bent and bundled against the cold, streaming into Summerfield Hall.
On the fourth floor, they milled outside a lecture hall. Some talked quietly, a few laughed, but most of them leaned silently against the tiled wall and waited.
At 8 a.m., Harkins and the others presented their admission tickets. They filed into the lecture hall and sat, each one alone, empty seats between them.
Robert McColl, professor of geography and East Asian studies, discusses population patterns in his class called The Geography of Human Survival.
Harkins, Lawrence senior, was nervous.
"I get real anxious before tests anyway," she said.
And this was no ordinary test. This was the Graduate Record Examination General Test, better known as the GRE.
When she left the lecture hall four hours later, her educational future, to a greater or lesser extent, had been decided by what she had done.
About 300,000 students like Harkins take the GRE every year. Most of them plan to apply to graduate schools.
Although some of them have done a great deal of work and spent up to $495 to get ready for this examination, others make no preparations at
As for their chances for acceptance into graduate school, the importance of their scores varies widely among the students, both at KU and at other schools.
In some cases, their applications will be made or broken by their GRE scores.
The GRE is a standardized test administered five times a year by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J. According to ETS, the test is designed to help admissions officials evaluate applicants to graduate programs in the United States.
Harkins took the GRE to complete graduate school applications, she said.
"Pass or fail is the way I approached it," she said. "More so, like it was something to get through."
I found out within that week that I had to take the test."
With little time to prepare, Harkins practiced on the sample test included in the registration booklet and bought a preparation book for about $7. She spent the two nights before the test practicing.
"I could have done better with more preparation," she said.
And she could have spent a lot more time and money, too.
The Oreed Book Shop, like other local bookshops, sells several study and practice guides for the GRE General Test. Those range in price from $5.95 to $8.95, but they are basically similar.
Each contains several simulated GREs, answer keys and explanations, and varying amounts of test-taking strategies and advice. ETS sells preparation books based on past GREs.
Sarmila Chaudhuri, Manhattan graduate student, has taken the GRE twice. She scored well enough the first time but fell short of KU but thought she could do better.
To prepare for the first test, she bought two books with a total of 10 tests and completed a test every week. Then she took home hints to prepare for her second test.
"What helped me, I think, was the old tests sold by ETS," she said. Her scores improved best.
ETS also sells a computerized version of its preparation material that costs $53. The kit consists of four floppy盘 and a practice book with 20 exercises.
Oscar Ortiz, graduate student in Latin American studies, had been out of college 14 years before he took the GRE last June. He bought the software.
"The program is really kind of neat," he said.
The software automatically can time and score a student's efforts and includes explanations of answers and review material on basic mathematics. Ortiz practiced on weekends and whenever he had free time.
"I've never done really super well on that kind of test," he said, "I did OK on the GRE, so I guess it did help."
See TEST, p. 5B, $ \mathrm{c o l}^{-1} $
Special to the Kansan
Professor teaches a world of excitement
By Jennifer Owen
Never eat the liver of a carnivorous animal. Stick to the eyeballs and vitamin-packed entrals. And if you are eagle Philippines, you should abliphilize.
Seemingly trivial, these facts could save your life. That is what the students of Robert McColl, professor of geography and East Asian studies, are learning in his course, the Geography of Human Survival.
For McColl, this course is an extension of himself. It encompasses his philosophies of teaching, living and surviving. "The key to survival is a positive attitude," McColl said.
Often, he tells personal stories of experiences he has had in different countries, rather than list survival facts, she said.
Part of his positive outlook comes from his love of teaching. "There is nothing more fun than sharing one's enthusiasm and joy."
McColl has been teaching between sabbaticals for 22 years at the University of Kansas. Before that, he taught courses at the University of Washington and the University of California at Santa Barbara.
It is common for McColl to stand in front of his class with his left hand in his pocket while his right hand conducts the class. His right hand comes down when he emphasizes a point. His tone of voice varies with the importance of the subject. It adds color and life to the otherwise dull green room in Lindley Hall.
The hand goes down and the voice goes up as he tells his students to walk on the top of sand dunes when they are in the desert. When walking in the desert, pacing is very important, he said.
"You may pass an old person on the trail, but as soon as you sit down to rest, along comes the old man he will never stop." McColl said.
The class laughs, as they often do.
Crazy or not, McColl is able to transfer his attitude to his students.
"I can't see myself falling asleep in his class," said Mike Kaufman, Newton sophomore. "He lives his whole life with an incredible amount of energy. He probably drives his neighbors crazy."
"You can see he really enjoys what he is doing and his enthusiasm rubs off on his students." He's puttin' Putnam, Wichita sophomore.
"I feel like I understand different cultures better." Putnam said. "I have more respect for other cultures."
Many of the survival techniques come from firsthand experience. He has traveled extensively and conducted research in such places as China, the Philippines, Iran, Thailand, Laos, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Cambodia and Burma.
In each case, he makes sure he sees the places beyond the tourist areas. He has been known to arrive at his destination without any hotel reservations or transportation.
McColl recalled having a machine gun thrust to his stomach in Burma in 1967 because he did not hear a man tell him to get out of his car. The country had been in upheaval, and the atmosphere was tense. When the gun appeared the man was on his own survival. He explained to the gunman that he was just a visitor and got out of the situation unhurt.
McColl was once in a plane when it became apparent that the passengers would have to use oxygen
mails. He plugged his in. No oxygen. But again, he escaped the situation unharmed, he said.
He has learned firsthand about the far stages of dehydration and how to survive while walking long distances in the Sahara Desert. He has experienced the effects of heights of 13,000 feet.
His techniques are practical, his students say. McColl has heard accounts of survival experiences from several students.
One former student applied what he learned when the helicopter was in went down in an icy sea, he said. Another student was able to a snowstorm because of McColl's hints on cold weather survival.
Learning to survive in any environment is only one part of the course and one part of McColl. He also wants students to gain a broad interest in the world around them and to keep an open mind.
McColl's openness, enthusiasm and positive outlook extend beyond the classroom. He believes that we live in an exciting time in history.
"We've got exciting music"
technology," he said. More people know how to think and adapt, he said.
He has seen camel drivers who listen to the Beatles and African bushmen who watch television.
On the other hand, McColl has stepped over dying people and seen some of the less fortunate of the world.
"If you put it all together, it's not a black hole, but a positive, exciting world." McColl said.
Part of his personal world includes a solar home and a love for gardening. Both are extensions of his belief in self sufficiency.
Mccoll once again will test his self-sufficiency skills when he goes to China this summer. He plans to conduct tours during the summer and will be on a sabbatical for one semester in Xing lang Province.
He will re-evaluate the geography of China through a method called landsat, which uses satellite imagery and a photograph hard-to-reach areas.
When he returns, he will undoubtedly have more experiences to share.
Feeding Lawrence's hungry: A big-city problem hits home
Little food is left after feeding the more than 120 people who come on Sundays for a free meal at the First Christian Church, 1000 Kentucky. The food is donated by different organizations, according to Rosemary Cromer, a volunteer from Corpus Christi Catholic Church.
Ruth Jacobson/KANSAN
By Jeff Suggs
Kansan staff writer
Before lunch is served, volunteer servers at the soup kitchen hold hands in prayer, blessing the meal that 40 people are anticipating as they wait outside the door.
After the prayer is over, the doors are opened and people shuffle through as they grab trays and silverware and receive helpings of beans and franks. meat-filled sandwiches, mixed vegetables, fruit salad, cake, bread and coffee or milk
In the prayer, the volunteers remind themselves that they are fortunate that they are not the ones having to wait in line for food. It is possible, they declare, that anyone could land in such a condition.
As they sit down to eat, many patrons wave at and talk with each other as if they were old friends. It's obvious that some have been here before. But the conversation in the room is not loud and boisterous as in a cafeteria on campus. It is more of a low murmur. Most of them have one thing on their minds, and that's eating.
Forrest Swall, assistant professor of social welfare, said many people in smaller communities and rural areas perceived the problem of hunger and poverty as being only a problem of big cities. But actually, said Swall, who also is the adviser of the university's board and member of RESULTS, a hunger interest group, the problem is just as great in smaller communities. Even in a town
Hunger problems are often thought of as a problem of big cities: New York, Chicago, Kansas City. It the scene just described didn't happen in a soup kitchen in some large city it happened at the Lawrence Interdecomational Nutrition Kitchen and the First Christian Church, 1000 Kentucky St. It's only a few blocks away from the University of Kansas.
like Lawrence.
Like the various types of food served that day in the soup kitchen, the people in line are not one and the same. There are whites, blacks and American Indians. Young and old. People who are working and those who are not. Transients and the mentally handicapped. But all these people have one thing in common: they're hungry.
Most of these people need to use the soup kitchen to get by during the week.
"It bridges the gap in what they're getting in assistance." said Holly Sargeant, supervisor of the kitchen.
Hood sits down in a now-empty soup kitchen and talks timidly about why she needs the service. At 62, Hood lives on her own with only a monthly Social Security check to support herself. On the days the kitchen isn't open, Hood doesn't tits in home, mostly sandwiches or fruit.
Malinda Hood, Lawrence resident is one who regularly uses the kitchen
"It doesn't really pay to cook just for one." Hood said.
Before the soup kitchen opened, Hood said, she made it on her own without it. But she said that now, it was her job to nurse for her.
**War on hunger**
Though the LINK soup kitchen is close to the University, Swall said the student community on campus was unaware of the problems with hunger in Lawrence.
War on hunger
"They are oblivious." he said.
"This is like an artificial community, and most students are totally isolated from the real community."
Some students, though, are aware of the hunger problem in Lawrence. In the first week of April, KU Students Against Hunger sponsored KU's War on Hunger Week.
Steve Brown, president of KU Students Against Hunger, said the War on Hunger Week raised $2,700 to help the hungry in Lawrence and other
communities. It also collected 400 cans of food, which is enough to feed 500 people three meals a day for four days.
"I still see a lot of KU's War on Hunger Wheel buttons around." Brown said. "I think definitely we got people thinking."
Grown said the week made students more aware of the hunger problem in Lawrence, which was the most important goal of that week, he
During the War on Hunger Week, a forum on the hunger problem took place in Lawrence. During the forum, participants, including Lawrence Mayor Bob Schumm, KU professors and Bob on hunger, acknowledged that hunger was indeed a problem in the city.
Sue Beers, social services director at the Lawrence Salvation Army, said that 100 to 200 families a month used its emergency food services. It also reported that enough food to help feed families of four for three days at a time.
Donna McCall, LINK coordinator,
said that more people might use the
kitchen when the U.S. Department
reduces its food giveaway program.
"I wouldn't be surprised at all if it increased after that," McCall said.
"I see the need for the day," said Beers at the forum. "It proves it is a growing problem. It is a problem that's not going away."
Rosemary Kromer, a board member of LINK and forum participant, said that 80 to 90 people a day used the soup kitchen and that since the kitchen opened on Feb. 14, 1985, it has served 4,500 meals.
Gerald Schoenecker is an administrator with the Kansas Social Rehabilitation Service in Topeka, which is in charge of distribution of the free USDA food commodities in the state. Schoenecker said that the Temporary Food Assistance Program was set up in 1981 by the USDA to get rid
He said that large surpluses no longer existed for some commodities, such as cheese, honey and rice. So now, the USDA must reduce its sugar requirement in Kansas would feel the effects of the reduction by the beginning of June.
of some surplus commodities.
Schoenecker said it was unfortunate that so many people would be affected by the reduction
Solutions
At the forum, Swall was optimistic that the problem could be solved.
Swail said that government, including the city, needed to be more involved to end the hunger problem in Lawrence. Programs such as LINK, he said, aren't able to solve the hunger problem by themselves.
"there is no reason for this condition to exist," he said. "I happen to believe the end of hunger and home awrence is possible and can be done."
sacumm said people couldn't depend on government to do all the work to win the war against hunger. He said it took everyone to help fight hunger and make people more aware of the problem.
Holly Sargeant said that raising the minimum wage would enable more people to have the resources to feed themselves. Sargeant, with Beers, said it was hard to support a family when wage earners got only the minimum wage.
"They cannot afford to provide for their family the basic necessities and feed them, too." Beers said.
Sargeant and Beers agree that getting people off welfare programs is tough when it sometimes pays not to work.
Sargent said that because so many different types of people became casualties of hunger, it was hard to find just one solution.
"It's such a multi-faceted problem," she said. "She's not one thing that's going to solve it."