Second Section
Rebuilding is out enthusiasm is in for football coach
By Craig Anderson
Assistant sports editor
Assistant sports editor
Glen Mason, the new football coach for the University of Kansas.
You won't hear the word "rebuilding" when new Kansas football coach Glen Mason talks about the direction his program is taking.
"I refuse to use the word," said Mason, who was hired Dec. 30 to replace fired Jayhawk coach Bob Valesente. "That sounds great to a freshman or sophomore, but what do the seniors think when they hear it? That doesn't help their attitudes any."
When the fans and media evaluate the Jayhawks, Mason said, they should look for a well-coached team and a team that plays with as much enthusiasm and hard work as it can. Victories will come with other factors, said the 36-year-old Ohio native.
Mason signed a five-year contract with a base salary of $78,000 a year. With other incentives such as a television contract, housing allowance and insurance annuity, his contract is believed to be worth about $200,000 a year. Mason would not comment on his contract.
Included in Valesente's record was a 31-17 loss to Mason's Kent State team early last season. Mason said he had good memories of his first trip to Lawrence last fall.
"I remember walking up on campus the day before our game and thinking how beautiful it was," Mason said. "I also went to Anschutz (Sports Pavilion) and was really impressed with the facility. Little did I know then that I would be returning so soon."
Mason became the 34th coach in Kansas football history and the fourth coach in six years. He took over for Valesette, who posted a 4-17-1 record in his two seasons at the University of Kansas.
Impressions of the Big Eight Conference already exist in Mason's mind. He served as an assistant coach at Iowa state under Earle Bruce in 1975 and 1976. Bruce, who
was fired last year as football coach at Ohio State, was a leading candidate for the job as coach at KU.
"There are two teams that are out in front, and everyone is chasing them," Mason said of Oklahoma and Nebraska. "Initially, you have to worry about the battle for third place."
Between them, Oklahoma and Nebraska have won or shared 40 of the last 42 Big Eight titles. Kansas hasn't won a Big Eight crown since 1968, when it shared the title with Oklahoma.
Mason is no stranger to having to overcome forecasts of doom for his teams. His 1986 Kent State team was predicted to finish in last place in the Mid-American Conference but finished second. Mason was selected 1986 MAC coach of the year for his efforts. He was 12-10 in two years as the Golden Flashes' coach.
Kansas Athletic Director Bob Frederick, who agonized about finding a head coach for the Jayhawks, said he felt that the job had the right man for the job.
("Mason) is described in football fraternities as the best young coach in America," he said.
Mason takes over a program that has had its share of difficulties in the past few years. Because of academic inelegibilities and defences, Kansas will only have about 75 players on scholarship next season. Mason also will be hampered by a late start in recruiting.
With the national letter-of-intent signing day about a month away, Mason said he hoped Kansas could still sign some high-quality athletes. Mason is concentrating his recruiting efforts to improve Kansas City area and the state of Kansas.
"I'm sure we're a little bit behind, but that just means we will have to knock on a few more doors," he said. "In my experience recruiting, it seems to me to be two common denominators. Kids want to play for
a winner, and they want an opportunity to play early in their careers.
"You don't give them any guarantees. You sell yourself, your ideas and your commitment. You've got to sell him on a dream."
Besides recruiting in the Kansas City area and in the state of Kansas, Mason hopes to branch out to the football-rich Ohio prep ranks. Mason recruited heavily in Ohio when he was at Kent State. He was also an assistant coach at Ball State and Ohio State.
recruiting there,” he said. “I don't need a road map to find those towns. I'm on a first-name basis with just about every coach in northern Ohio
'I spent the better part of ten years
Mason said he would recruit junior college players sparingly. He wants to build his foundation on high school recruits, with the hope of being able to redshirt as many of them as possible.
As for being about 20 players short of the scholarship limit, Mason said he couldn't worry about that now. What he can do is build for the future.
control, he said of the shortage in numbers. When I was at Kent State when I was at Oxford.
Coming from the Mid-American Conference to the Big Eight Conference will be a definite step up for Mason.
"It's a tough conference. When I was at Kent State, we recruited the athletes that weren't recruited by the Big Ten (Conference)." he said. "Recruiting in the Big Eight means we have the ability to land the top-notch players from the entire country."
"I can't worry about things I can't
Besides success in the recruiting wars and on the playing field, Mason said he would emphasize the academic tradition that Kansas has built. Under Valeshe, the team had been able to raise its overall grade point average from 2.04 to 2.57. Mason promised more of the same.
"The number-one ingredient in the success of a football program is its academics," he said. "The academic well-being of the student comes first. This University represents the philosophies I stand for."
Profs predict a shortage of professionals in U.S.
Kansan staff writer
Rv Inel 7eff
Joseph Liu, a graduate student from Taiwan, came to the University of Kansas in 1986 seeking a higher degree in engineering.
Through a friend who attended KU, Liu discovered the research facilities and opportunities that were available to foreign students. He also discovered the price.
"The education in my country doesn't compare to America. It's better. It's cheaper. When I complete my graduate work, I will then return to my country." Liu said
"In the 1990s, there will be a shortage," said Paul Goldhammer, chairman of the graduate admissions
Liu is just one example of the recent increase of foreign students in the graduate programs at KU and around the country. This increase, coupled with a decline in U.S. graduate students around the country, has left KU professors predicting a shortage of professionals in education and industry in the 1990s. The increase also leaves graduate programs vulnerable to shifting politics at home and abroad.
committee in KU's department of physics. "Everyone will get real scared; Congress will get scared and start dumping money into education. Then, we will overproduce. It's a cycle. In 2005, there will be a surplus of highly trained people begging for jobs."
According to KU's office of institutional research and planning, the number of U.S. students in graduate programs at KU has declined from 4,982 in 1980 to 4,461 in 1987. During the same period, the number of foreign students has risen from 763 to 826. That amounts to 15 to 19 percent of total graduate school enrollment.
"Down the road, we might have half the faculty foreign-born," said Clark Coan, director of foreign student services. "This is a serious problem because the taxpayer in western Kansas starts to question why we need a certain department if the majority of the department is foreign faculty and foreign students. They want to know why we need the department if it's there just for foreigners."
John Bunce, director of graduate studies in mathematics, said the problem of foreign student growth in the graduate programs wasn't confined just to KU.
Bunce said. "Sixty percent of graduate students in mathematics across the country are foreign. At KU, 40 percent in the math department are foreign. And most go back to their own country.
"I graduate programs with a concern with the mathematics community."
Declining U.S. enrollment, intertwined with increasing foreign enrollment, has become a problem in math and in science departments at KU and around the country. Bunce said.
According to a report in the March 1985 issue of U.S. News and World Report, the problem has gotten so out of hand that schools are limiting their foreign enrollment in some graduate programs. For instance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where 25 percent of graduate school enrollment is foreign, allows each graduate program only 29 percent foreign enrollment.
At KU, the problem has not reached that level, according to George Woodyard, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. KU has no limitations or quota systems regulating foreign graduate enrollment at KU, he said.
See FOREIGN, d. 4B, col. 1
Criticism of first work did not dampen storyteller's ambition
By Michael Horak
Assistant campus editor
With dreams of literary fame and an empty Ohio summer to fill, 9-year-old Carol Kendall wrote one of the greatest novels of her time. Or so she thought.
"I if were anyone who was born to be a writer, it was me," the Lawrence storyteller said recently. "I knew I could write the definitive novel that summer and lost no time getting started."
A stolen Dickens theme, a heroine in the slums of Chicago and 18 pages of manuscript became the first two chapters of "The Girl Pickpocket Who Wouldn't Pick Pockets."
"I was so excited that I simply had to share my novel's beginning with somebody," Kendall said. "And who more understanding than my smiling, new schoolteacher."
She didn't expect the reaction she got.
Carol Kendall, author of the "The Gammage Cup." poses with characters from the CBS adaptation of her children's book.
Kendall is the creator of a series of fantasy books in which a peaceful race of small people struggle to defend themselves against fearsome enemies. Her other books include another fantasy, "The Firelings," two volumes of Chinese folktales and two novels written for adults.
Recounting the first time she had ever seen curled lips outside of the movie theater, Kendall calls her teacher's advice of 60 years ago as clearly as if she heard it yesterday: "Carol, don't be silly."
Fourth-grade teachers today regard her as one of the most talented children's writers in the country. In fact, for many students, her fantasy tales, such as "The Gammage Cup," "The Whisper of Glcken" and "The Minnips," are required reading.
"The Gammage Cup" was recently adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon special. It was aired on CBS Tuesday night.
Kendall can laugh about the searing criticism now.
Kendall, affectionately called "Siggy" by her friends, looks more like a woman who would read stories to her grandchildren than one who would write them.
She has a warm smile and the kind of laugh that puts the people she meets immediately at ease. Her friends say her zest for life and enthusiasm for everything she does makes her fun to be with and never dull.
She is modest about her work and does not talk much
about her past successes.
Others, though, find it easy to praise her work.
"She is one of the best children's fantasy writers I know of," said Darcy Sarch, a Lawrence elementary school librarian who has read Kendall's books for the past 25
years. "She manages to make each character seem so different and distinct, yet so human-like. You can't help but to like them."
See KENDALL, p. 6B, col. 1
Department head works to educate others,self about Latin American area
Bv Ben Johnston
Special to the Kansan
The summer after Charles Stansifer graduated from Garden Plain High School in 1949, he went to work doing odd jobs for the Santa Fe railroad.
There, for the first time, he met people who spoke a foreign language. His co-workers were Mexican-Americans who spoke Spanish.
Looking back on that summer. Stansifer, now director of Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas, believes the experience changed the course of his life.
"When I went to work for the railroad, I knew I wanted to go to college, but I didn't know what I wanted to do." Stansifer said. "I had an idea of studying a language, but I didn't know which one. While I worked for the railroad, I gained an appreciation for their culture and way of life and a curiosity about what it was like where they came from."
"Americans are constantly bombarded by the problems of Latin America. They are persuaded that Latin Americans are more violent, lazier and less skillful in government than Americans. But if you study Latin America, find that the level of intellectual and cultural accomplishment is comparable to that of our own and is admirable."
Since that summer, the main pursuit in Stansifer's life has been learning about and educating people about Latin America. He has taught at several universities, including two in Latin America. He talks regularly to a representative, university gatherings and church groups about his views on policies that affect Latin America.
Stansifer said that since the time he first arrived at Wichita State University in 1951 after spending a year at Southwestern College in Winfield, he knew teaching was what he wanted to do.
"After I got to Wichita State, I really began to enjoy school and learning about Latin America," he said. "I found it so inviolable that I never wanted to leave."
He said recently that the biggest problem he faced in educating people about Latin America was that few Americans understood the region and its people.
"The principal purpose of any Latin American educator," Stansifer said, "is to knock down negative stereotypes about Latin America.
Stansifer said he was encouraged by his parents to go to college. He sai'd that even though his family was poor, his parents did what they could to help pay for his education.
"I was inspired by my parents, who believed the way out of our poverty was through education." Stansifer said. "That idea was deeply ingrained in me."
Stanisfer's wife, Mary Ellen, said that to pay for his education, Stanisfer worked at several jobs while he was at Wichita State, where he earned his master's degree.
After he got his master's degree, Stansifer went to Tulane University in New Orleans so he could learn from William J. Griffith, a professor of Latin American history at the University of the leading Latin American scholars in the United States.
"He has taught more Latin American historians than anyone in the United States, and he seemed to believe I could be a good historian." Stansifer said.
Griffith left Tulane to become director of Latin American Studies at KU in 1970 and stayed until he retired in 1974. After Griffith retired, Stansifer became director of Latin American studies at KU.
See STANSIFER, p. 5B, col. 1