University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, January 19, 1988
Campus/Area
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Policy will add hours for RAs Pay raises not part of plan
By Julie Adam Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
KU resident assistants will have to work three to five extra hours a week next semester because of a new policy enacted by the office of residential programs.
But despite the extra hours, RAs will not receive pay raises in their 10-month stipends of $825.
Jean Morrow, assistant director of residential programs, said the extra hours were added because of reevaluations of job descriptions done by her department last year. The results of the reevaluation were to add five RAs to McCollium Hall and to give RAs in each of the halls extra work hours in either the academic resource center or the front desks in the halls.
Another reason for the change, Morrow said, was that the department was trying to cut back on the number of hourly-wage employees and to make more traumatic resource centers in the residence halls.
In the smaller halls, Templin, Lewis, Hashinger and Joseph R. Pearson, RAS will be working three more hours a week than last semester. In the medium-sized halls, Ellsworth and Oliver, RAS will work four extra hours, and in the larger halls, McColm and Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin, RAS will work five extra hours a week.
Morrow said the extra hours were a balancing system, so that RAs in the smaller halls, the medium-sized halls and the larger halls would be working about the same number of hours and representing about the same number of residents.
"I want it to be fair in all the buildings. If you are an RA in McColum, what you do should be more similar than different than what you would do in other buildings," she
Mike White, resident hall director at McCollum, said the RAs weren't upset with the change after they understood how it worked.
White said that under the new policy, RAs in McCollim might have to work more desk or library time, but that it was fair because RAs in the smaller halls would work less library time but more duty time.
Morrow said adding staff to McColum also evened up the number of residents each RA had to represent in each hall. By adding the extra RAs, McColum's RAs represent about the same number of residents that RAs in other halls represent.
In the small halts, RAs now represent in about 60 residents each. In the medium-sized halls, they represent about 72 residents each. In GSP-Corbin, an RA represents about 44 residents, and in McCollum an RA represents about 56 residents. Before the addition of the five RAs to McCollum, an RA represented about 73 residents there.
The smaller halls have six RAs each, the medium-sized halls have nine RAs each, and the larger halls have 17 RAs each.
Morrow said she thought that most RAs didn't eem to mind the extra workload.
"No RAs have come to my office and placed a serious complaint or taken it up as an issue." she said.
Rod Lehnert, an RA at Templin, said he didn't think the extra hours bothered RAs in Templin.
"All RAS grumbled at first, but it has not been an inconvenience," he said
He said he thought the new policy worked well and was flexible because the RAS could choose times that would best fit into their schedules. Also, by working at the front desk and academic resource center, RAS would be able to meet more residents, Lehbertz said.
In Big Eight schools, KU is second to only Missouri in the amount of money RAS are paid for a 10-month period. Missouri pays its RAS an $853 stipend,
Morrow said that the added hours without extra pay was not unreasonable because KU RAs were well-paid compared to RAs at other universities.
Fred McEhleneh, director of residential programs, said even though RAs were not receiving cash for the extra hours worked, one must take into account that the price of living in the residence halls will increase $104 a year next semester. Since RAs receive room and board free, they are getting extra benefits that way, he said.
KU students and faculty march from the Chi Omega fountain to the Kansas Union in celebration of Martin Luther King Day. About 75 people, many singing "We Shall Overcome," participated in the march Friday.
Students celebrate King Day
By Stacy Foster
Kansan staff writer
For those who participated, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday celebration was a success.
Webb carried the banner for the march from the Chi Omega fountain to the Kansas Union. About 75 people participated.
M. Wayne Webb, Black Student Union president, said he was glad to be involved in the events on campus Friday, which included a campus march and speeches at the Kansas Union.
See related story
"It was a true honor to be able to patient at this program for King," Webb said.
p. 9.
Del-Metri Bynum, Topeka senior, has participated in the campus march for the past four years.
Webb also played the piano for the Inspirational Gospel Voices, who sang at the program.
"I thought the march had a pretty good turnout," she said. "But a lot of people still don't understand the importance of it."
Bynum said she was thankful for King because his fight allowed her the opportunity to attend a school like the University of Kansas.
For the first time, classes at KU were canceled to honor King's birthday.
Vernell Spearman, director of minority affairs, said she was glad the holiday received so much attention and that so many people participated in activities.
Alderson Auditorium was almost full for the program Friday. Spearman also attended a program yesterday at the First Regular Missionary Baptist Church, 416 Lincoln St., which she said had a near-capacity crowd.
Spearman said she thought many people honored King's birthday and took time out to reflect on the things he espoused.
"I am absolutely jubilant that the state of Kansas made this a holiday, but I would like to see the holiday honored by all the schools: elementary, secondary and post-secondary." Spearman said.
Webb said he used his day off to attend a black history program in honor of King at his former high school. He said he thought the program was significant because Shawnee Mission Northwest High was a predominately white school. He said that about 10 students out of 475 in his 1985 graduating class were black.
"I really admire the school's effort because most of the white students are grossly uneducated about black history. If more people were educated there would be less racial tension," Webb said.
Program offers aid alternative
Higher wages, career experience waiting for studen
Kansan staff writer
By David Sodamann
There's gold lodged in the rocks atop Oread, and it's waiting for students who are willing to work for it.
The ore is the Kansas Career-Work Study program, a state-funded program designed to help students pay for their education by placing them in off-campus jobs. Students attending Board of Regents schools and Washburn University in Topeka are eligible to take part in the program, even if they don't qualify for other types of financial aid.
Julie Cooper, assistant director of financial aid, said that as many as 300 KU students could earn money for school through the program.
However, only 79 students now participate in the program, and some businesses have dropped out of the program because they haven't been able to find the student-workers
55 businesses
Cooper said that about 55 businesses employed KU students through the program and that five had dropped out since July.
Chris Donald, graduate student in charge of the program, said lack of publicity could be one reason why few students took advantage of the program. The program was established in 1984, but it hasn't received the
H
However, only 79 students now participate in the program,and some businesses have dropped out of the program because they haven't been able to find the student-workers they need.
attention it deserves until now, he said.
Also, potential participants may be intimidated because of the process of determining eligibility, Donald said.
Oualifications
To qualify for the program, a student must be a legal Kansas resident, be enrolled as a full-time student, have a 2.0 grade point average and show financial need. Both undergraduate and graduate students may participate.
To determine need, the amount of aid a student receives is subtracted from the average cost of attending KU. The less aid that is subtracted from the cost, the higher a student's need for aid is under the state program. Donald said.
incomes may prevent them from being eligible for traditional aid programs are the students most likely to qualify for the Kansas Career-Work-Study program.
Students participating in the Career-Work-Study program must first find a job, either with an employer who already has agreed to take part in the program, or one willing to join. The employer must be based in Kansas and abide by federal nondiscrimination requirements.
Therefore, students whose parents' high
State reimburses
Once the student has a job with a participating employer, the state reimburses the employer 50 percent of the student's wages. For example, an employer paying a student $6.70 an hour gets back $3.35 for each hour the student works.
By reimbursing employers, the state makes it possible for students to earn significantly larger amounts than they may otherwise be able to do. Also, it makes it possible for employees who can't afford high wages to attract good help.
In addition to earning money, students taking part in the program can gain experience that may help them after graduation. Donald said some architecture and engineering students, for example, were getting experience with computer-aided design, something that isn't taught on campus.
Student lobbyists planning to press lawmakers today
By Jill Jess
Kansan staff writer
A mass of students should impress Kansas legislators today. Martie Aaron says.
Aaron, director of the KU chapter of Associated Students of Kansas, said she expected about 250 students from the University of Kansas and other Board of Regents schools today at lobby sessions with the 165 legislators to promote the Margin of Excellence proposal.
"Many of them in 20 years as state legislators have never seen a student." Aaron said last night at a training session for the student lobbyists, most of whom are members of the Higher Education Rescue Operation. "We're going to see all of them."
Margin of Excellence is the Regents' three-year proposal to add $47 million to the RBC fund.
The training session included instructions from Aaron on how to lobby, what to say and how to answer potential questions. State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, also spoke to the students and posed as a representative in Western Kansas for a mock lobby session.
Winter also said that the number of student lobbists should be an effective tool.
"Students are the consumers. If everything's fine, the consumer doesn't say anything. If the consumer is raising a noise,
there must be something wrong," he said.
The lobbyists have split into groups of three to five people. Ideally, Aaron said, students from Kansas will meet with the senator or representative from their hometown, and those who are unable to meet with their legislator should write a note to their senator and representative expressing their support for Margin of Excellence. Appointments have been scheduled with every legislator, beginning at 8 a.m.
Gov. Mike Hayden will address the student lobbyists at 11 a.m.
"There are going to be about 50 chairs and about 250 students," Aaron said. "It's going to be great."
She said that before Hayden arrived the lobbyists should be quiet and cheer loudly when the governor came out.
"When he walks out there we want him to think he's at a pep rally and he's the home team." Aaron said. "We want him to call up his top budget analyst and say, 'We've got to find more money for these kids. They love me!'"
Hayden's budget proposal includes a 5 percent increase for faculty salaries and a 4 percent increase for student and classified employees, but does not include Margin of Excellence requests for program enhancements, such as more money for KU libraries.
Art museum gets new technologies for its anniversary
Bv Michael Carolan
The laser light show, orchestrated to the music of classical greats such as Mozart, Copland and Stravinsky, kicked off the 10th anniversary celebration of the Helen Foresmanuseum of Art on Saturday afternoon.
Kansan staff writer
Piercing beams of emerald light dance wildly above the audience. Blue, green, red and yellow prisms of light spin at speeds no human eye can detect, and 250 people applaud the vibrant ending of Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony."
About 3,000 people celebrated from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. with cake, clowns, laser shows, computer-animated films, computer graphics presentations and a comprehensive display of the museum's art, said Ann El-Omiami, curator of education at the art museum.
Curtis Barnehill, Topeka resident, and his children, Jenny and David, ages 9 and 6, look at a computer exhibit at Spencer Museum of Art's 10th anniversary celebration.
Also, almost 2,000 people participated in the evening's events, which reopened at 9 p.m. and included live music by the Homestead Greys, bringing total attendance to about 5,000.
El-Omami said the museum
expected only 1,600 people to attend. She said that she and the museum's staff were surprised at the turnout and that several hundred more schedule fliers had to be conjoined.
The $4.6 million art building, designed by Kansas City architect Robert Jenks, opened January 15, 1978 and soon became one of the top university art museums in the country. El-Omami said.
"We wanted to bring in new technologies in art," she said. "We wanted to have a theme which was educational." She considers these new technologies art?"
Swirling patterns of spheres, cubes and other three-dimensional shapes filled the screen in colors transforming from yellows to blues to greens. As the music rose to the end, a flash of light flooded the auditorium and green streams of light raced overhead.
Another laser light show, set to the British rock group Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," had four shows. Lines formed outside the museum's auditorium 40 minutes before each show.
"It was illuminating, enlightening," said Dan Long, Lawrence graduate student. "I really liked all of the colors and the varying designs on the screen."
At one point during the 45-minute show, a figure of a woman appeared and flowed across the screen, synchronized with the music.
The laser show titled "Son of a Well Tempered Laser," which was set to classical music, drew positive reaction to the music and the laser art.
That figure was created by rapidly moving one thin beam of light around the form of the figure on the screen, said Donna Webster, laser artist for Laser Systems Development Corp. of Colorado. Although the figure of the woman was prerecorded on special video tape, Webster said she designed most of the show.
"There's an aesthetic to it," she said. "It's new technology as an art form because everything we do, we create."
About 10 animated films using computer-generated images, hand-drawn figures and a process using clay figures were shown throughout the afternoon and evening.
The films were on loan from Canyon Cinema of San Francisco and the University of California in Los Angeles.
A film titled "Closed Mondays" used claymation, which involves clay figures moved inch by inch in reality but appearing to come to life on the screen. In the film, a drunken clay
man moved about an art museum while the paintings and sculpture transformed into fantastic creatures.
Another film, titled "Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons," featured the painting "Mona Lisa" cut up and rearranged using both computer-generated animation and hand drawings directly on the surface of the film.
In the Twentieth Century Gallery, Tim Forcade, a graphics application specialist with Designlabs of Lawrence, was taking video images of people, rearranging them and printing them out. High resolution graphics enabled him to create photographic quality images, he said.
"I think the computer is just another tool of art," he said.
"Whether you have a paint brush or a stick with an electronic tip, you use it to create."
The computer presentations resumed at 9 p.m., and at 9:30 p.m. the Homestead Greys, a Lawrence band, cranked out dance music in the Spencer Museum Central Court.