Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, May 4, 2001
Teacher ends six-year stint at University
By Sarah Smarsh writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Mike Cuenca, a faculty member in the School of Journalism since 1994, will leave the University next week after years of tension between him, the University and the school.
Cuenca, assistant professor of journalism, will leave when his initial, six-year contract ends on Wednesday, May 16. Cuenca's departure comes in the midst of his unresolved litigation against the University.
the university.
Cuena, who is Filipino American, sued the University for racial discrimination in April of 1999. He later moved to dismiss the lawsuit to file complaints with two federal agencies, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. However, Cuena then decided to continue to pursue the lawsuit after being denied tenure last spring.
This spring, the school again denied Cuenca tenure, a decision that he maintains was motivated by racial discrimination.
Cuenca said he would continue to battle the University in the legal realm.
"Those of us who have been fighting this battle are not away," he said.
Rose Marino, associate general counsel for the University, said the University hadn't made unfair retaliations against Cuenca's legal action.
Cuneca: leaving the University after six years
Clement Hjelmgren "The University has treated him fairly, but he appears not to take the same view." Marino said.
The school has maintained that its
The school has maintained that its refusal to grant Cuenca tenure had no racial motivation, and that Cuenca's ethnicity was actually a factor in his favor when being reviewed by the faculty committee.
In February, the University's Committee on Tenure and Related Problems dismissed a complaint filed by Cuenca after he failed to provide information requested at a prehearing conference.
Cuenca said that methods of discrimination had become more sophisticated.
"We need as many voices as possible speaking out to expose those methods," he said.
case methods, he said.
Cuenca said that while he hoped to continue writing books about computer-aided design and digital imaging, his experiences at the University had motivated him to work as a social activist. Heco-founded the Kansas University Sexism and Racism Victims Coalition and founded the Civil Society Group with Cynthia Annett, lecturer in the Russian and Eastern European department, who is also pursuing a discrimination lawsuit against the University.
Keeley Thurston, Kansas City, Kan., senior, said her experiences as a student in Cuenca's visual communications class were positive. She added that it was unfortunate that he would be leaving.
"I think he was an asset to this school," Thurston said.
Ted Johnson, professor of French and Italian, poses next to a Plane tree outside Wesco Hall. Johnson uses the tree, similar to one under which Socrates held his dialogues, and other elements of nature on campus to help inspire his students and to illustrate his course. Johnson said the tree was representative of humanity because it was colorful, diverse and always changing.
Photo by Matt Daugherty/KANSAN
Edited by Courtney Craigmile
'Socratic' professor retires, almost
He will lead one class walking campus tours
By Melissa Bronnenberg
writer @kansan.com
Special to the Kansan
Penance is retrieving. Though retirement will keep the soft-spoken, white-bearded teacher busy writing books and papers, his office in Wescoe Hall will still be open for anyone wanting to talk.
After 33 years at the University of Kansas, Ted Johnson, professor of French, is retiring - but not entirely.
Johnson said that he had a lot of writing to do and wanted to spend time with family and friends, but he will still teach one class, liberal arts and sciences 292, which focuses on the analysis of buildings on
campus.
The walking tours began about 10 years ago when Johnson's class was discussing the history of mannerism in buildings, he said.
campus. He will also continue his "marathon walking tours" of campus, which always occur on StopDay.The professor is willing to share his love of philosophy and Socratic dialogue with anyone wanting to come along.
"I decided rather than talk about it, why don't we go outside and look at it," he said. The tour starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 8
The tour starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 6
at the Natural History Museum.
For Johnson, the buildings on campus represent an ancient tradition of education. He compares Mount Oread to the Acropolis in Athens, with the polis (city) at the bottom.
"It's interesting to study what these buildings inspire in people," said Johnson.
"His method of teaching personifies what university life is all about."
all about"
Hobart Jackson assistant professor of architecture
His ties to Greece don't end there.
His ties to Greeceon tend there. Hobart Jackson, assistant professor of architecture and friend of Johnson, said Johnson is a quintessential Socrates.
"His method of teaching personifies what university life is all about," Jackson said.
Johnson and Jackson met in 1980 in a figure drawing class at the Lawrence Art Center and founded a drawing group that met at the 500 Locust Gallery on Saturday mornings. The group is moving to
Jackson's studio and a farewell show is planned this Saturday and Sunday.
"I do hope he will have more time for writing and drawing. He's an amazing individual." Jackson said.
Johnson said he wanted to spend more time with his wife, Mary, a French and Latin teacher at Bishop Seabury Academy, 1411 E. 1850 Rd., and their children, Anne and Stephen, who recently moved back to Lawrence.
Johnson and his family have lived in the same house since they moved to Lawrence from Wisconsin in the fall of 1968.
"We very quickly put down roots. We're not going anywhere," he said. "I hope someday, when all universities are connected to the Internet, KU could be a place where people still wander around Mount Oread."
Edited by Doug Pacey
Learning to cook, budgeting for meals not always easy
By Sarah Warren
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
finally figured out how to do it right."
With a few weeks of school left to go, Megan Snulbuck is just figuring out her oven.
The Overland Park sophomore has scorned just enough batches of chocolate chip cookies to figure out the precise timing needed to bake perfectly golden brown treats.
fetty goes to make chocolate chip cookies several times, but our oven is a little off so they would always burn," Spielbusch said. "Now I know that I have to use it 50 degrees cooler at a certain time and use a special pan and a certain recipe. and I love
After living in the dorms her first year, Spiibush moved into an apartment last August with no cooking experience. She didn't head straight for a fast-food window, but instead stole some pots and pans from her parents and picked up some musty cookbooks from garage and book sales and let the cooking games begin.
"I didn't cook meat at all before I left home," Spielbusch said, "the cookbook explained stuff like how to defrost it correctly and not to leave raw chicken on the counter. But I still make mistakes."
But she lives with her mistakes because on a tight student budget, she can't pay for anything else.
"It's really too expensive to eat out the time, so I bought groceries," Spielbusch said. "I tried the cookbooks for awhile, but right now I'm making macaroni and cheese and eating frozen fish sticks, so I don't really know if they worked or not."
Ann Chapman, a registered dietitian at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that fast food or quick-mix foods, like macaroni and cheese and fish sticks, were a common pitfall for most college students, just as for Spielbuch.
students.
"I think there's more freedom so they tend to make their own decisions," Chapman said. "And many students don't really know how to prepare food correctly, so it seems much easier to them to just get fast food."
Jordan Tucker, Kingman junior, shares that sentiment.
"I actually enjoy cooking but I don't have the resources around so usually I will go out," Tucker said.
And, unlike Spielbuch, he would rather spend that money on food even though he said he should take a closer look at the money aspect.
I guess it's just a crazy thing like you're spending $5 at a as opposed to $100 all at once, then you think you're being cheap, but you're really not." Tucker said. "I don't buy anything at all, so I just spend money on food."
Money issues aside, Chapman said that when choosing fast food, not all were created equally.
"Chinese is a healthy alternative," Chapman said. "But really I think that if they would stock up on healthier foods like that then they wouldn't give into fast food."
However, Spielbusch said that health wasn't at the top of the list when she does go grocery shopping.
"My priority is usually cheapness, so cheapness and cost are the main factors," Spielbusch said. "But if green beans are on sale then I buy it."
But she can't guarantee that her stove won't scorch the green beans.
"The thing's got a mind of it's own," she said.
— Edited by Sydney Wallace
EVERYTHING BUT ICE
BEDS • DESKS
CHEST OF DRAWERS
BOOK CASES
unclaimed freight &
damaged merchandise
936 Mass.
"Layaway now for summer"
KJHK Biscuit of the Year Party
"DJ Battle"
Tues. May 8th@Liberty
Hall
9:30
at the door
Your History Will Be Available In The Not-Too-Distant Future
If you ordered a Jayhawker Yearbook, it will be available May 16. 17 & 18 from noon-5 p.m. in the Kansas Union