Wednesday, March 7, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
It's a groove thing
Jennifer Morrow, left, Kansas City, Kan., sophomore, and Jehan Mohammed, Kansas City, Kan., senior, dance and sing to cap off the probate ceremony of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. The actual ceremony, which signified full membership in the sorority, was held at Wesco Beach Friday. Photo by J E Wilson/KANSAN
Construction disrupts classrooms
Noisy renovations disturb teaching in Military Science
By Rachel Moluf Special to the Kansan
Noise from construction is interfering with classes in the Military Science Building.
For some, such as Samuel Evan Kreider, graduate teaching assistant for Humanities and Western Civilization, the construction is interfering with teaching.
Contractors removed all the doors to classrooms on the first floor, which are used for both general and military science classes, as part of the renovations to the building.
Kreider said that another time, the noise was so bad that he let his class leave early.
"Last week, I was literally shouting during one class," Kreider said. "I excused myself from class for a few minutes to go talk to one of the workers. I asked how long he would be working and explained that we couldn't hear. He said he was almost done, and a few minutes later, the pounding stopped."
"I know it isn't (the contractors') fault that sound carries through and they have work to do," he said. "But it's impossible to run discussions when we can't even hear ourselves speak."
Kreider said he didn't know why the contractors took off the doors and then left them off while they did other work.
if I had a door, it would be nice — then I could close it," he said. Cmdr. Jeffrey H. Richards, executive officer of the Naval ROTC unit, said that as a Navy officer, he was used to working through the noise.
"The only real effect is we've moved some of the primary classes we held on the ground floor to the basement," Richards said. "But we did have a meeting the other day, and we had to ask them to stop pounding for 15 minutes."
Dave Nobles, Leesville, La., sophomore, said he would like to know why the construction couldn't wait until the summer.
"When you try to sit in class, there's a lot of banging around." Nobles said. "It's really hard to concentrate."
Nobles said the noise was so bad that his history class moved from the ground floor of the Military Science Building to Wescoc Hall.
"I don't even know why they're doing it," Nobles said. "It didn't seem like there was anything wrong."
Don Whipple, project architect for Design and Construction Management, said the construction would make the building meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The act required lever handles on bathroom doors, two-level water fountains and doors wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through.
"We'll end up with one floor (in the Military Science Building) that's available for general use and is handicapped accessible," Whipple said.
"Construction companies have to be insured specifically for each project and get bonded before starting work." Whipple said. "Normally, that takes 60 days, but it can take three times that long, and this one did. Rather than wait even longer (when the paperwork came through), we went ahead and started construction."
He said the project was not originally scheduled to start during the semester.
Whipple said Design and Construction Management had a policy to help decrease noise levels while classes were in session.
"The contractors have agreed that if they're too noisy in one area, they'll move to another area to work," he said. "They have also been working at night to help fight the noise problem."
Whippe said the renovations to the Military Science Building were also the last of the major crumbling classroom projects.
The state allocated $163 million to be divided among the six Regents universities for the crumbling classroom project in 1996. That money was to be spent by December 2001, said Bud Stallworth, assistant director for Design and Construction Management.
Stallworth said some crumbling classroom projects included the Murphy Hall addition, the renovations to Joseph R. Pearson Hall and upgrading the mechanical and electrical systems in Strong Hall.
"We prioritized the number of projects we thought we could do, based on need." Stallworth said. "The Military Science project was one of the last we bid due to complexities, even though it was one of the top priorities."
Jeff Reed, Kansas City, Mo., senior and Battalion executive officer of the Naval ROTC, said it was about time the Military Science Building had some renovations.
"This is the oldest building on campus and one of the only ones that's not handicapped accessible," Reed said. "The construction is a little disruptive, but it's a necessary trade-off."
The renovations are tentatively scheduled to be completed Wednesday, May 23.
Asian American Student Union
— Edited by Sydney Wallace
Panel explores heritage, identity
Students discuss cuisine, cultural misunderstandings
Charu Narula has lost count how many times people have asked her if she worshiped rats.
By Danny Phillips
writer@kanson.com
Kansan staff writer
The Leawood senior has had to endure this and other stereotypes while growing up in the United States.
She and three other students of Asian descent talked frankly about their personal heritage and the noticeable absence of Asian-American history in U.S. education last night at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Union.
Fifty people attended the second installment of the Multicultural Resource Center's diversity dialogue series, entitled "Missing In History: Excavating the Asian-American Experience."
Narula was born in Ohio, and she said she has encountered numerous people who were shocked that she was a U.S. citizen.
"They were expecting that I was born outside of the country because of the way I look," she said.
At times, its even been hard for her to be accepted by Indian cul
ture or American culture because she said she's a little bit of both. Sometimes people were curious why she was a member of the Asian American Student Union.
Panel member Jerry Wang, Atlanta senior, moved from Taiwan with his parents to the United States when he was 5 years old. They opened a restaurant, and Wang opened it was hard for him to talk with his parents about his heritage.
"A lot of people don't even consider me Asian," said Narula.
The only time he got a taste of Asian culture while growing up, he said, was when he attended family funerals and witnessed the Taiwanese rituals.
"I never realized I was Asian," he said.
Tiffany Lopez, Minneapolis sophomore, said her parents moved to Kansas as a way "to better their lives." It was for that reason that they didn't talk very much about the culture they had left.
One theme that ran constant through each of the panel members' memories was the role food played, and still plays, in their households.
Dialogue moderator Bill Tsutsui, associate professor of history, said food was an inescapable part of culture.
Wang said his mother would usually cook meals that "stunk." He said he enjoyed the traditional
cuisines, but sometime his feelings were hurt when his friends would come over and ask, "What's that smell?"
Panel member Hubert Chen, who's lived in Kansas since 1991, said that from his experiences, people in this state were usually open to trying new things, including food. The Overland Park graduate student's friends would try anything he gave them.
"It doesn't matter how bad it smells," he joked.
"We always see America as some wonderful place," Chen said, referring to the images portrayed by Hollywood. Chen felt that Asians who migrated to the United States tended to want a better life here, and, therefore, were more likely to downplay their heritage.
The panel members then discussed why Asian-American history wasn't well-understood in this country and the stereotypes that correspond with that misunderstanding.
Although Wang said Asians assimilated into U.S. culture more easily than other minority groups, he said Asian-Americans as a whole were beginning to want more power.
Tsutsui said the dialogue was a good way to promote awareness of Asian-American history.
"History isn't just what you learn in a classroom," he said. "It's very much a personal experience."
- Edited by Joshua Richards
Revised housing ordinance still questioned
By Cynthia Malakasis
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Jeff Gearst is thankful that he and his two roommates are no longer affected by the housing ordinance now that it has been redrafted, but he still finds a number of weaknesses with it.
The Lawrence City Commission had originally drafted a housing ordinance changing the number of unrelated people who may live together in areas zoned for single families from four to two. After strong public reaction, the City Commission redrafted the ordinance and changed the number to three.
"It's going to increase rent," said Gourts, Oklahoma City junior. "Landlords will have to register, and registration fees will pass on to residents."
Geurts said he thought landlords would also suffer from the ordinance.
"It's against the laws to ask one of the potential tenants if they're married," said Geurts. "Landlords are damned if they do, and they're damned if they don't."
Michele Kessler, associate director for Legal Services for Students at the University of Kansas, explained that the controversy for the landlords lay not in asking about the marital or relationship status of potential tenants, but in the way they're planning to use that information.
"The issue would be whether they can use it against them," Kessler said.
"They can ask, but they can't use it in a discriminatory way," Kessler said.
Like Geurts, other students around Lawrence feel relieved that the redrafted ordinance is no longer threatening their own housing arrangements, but still disagree with its general spirit.
"It's completely unfair that the city tells people where to live," said Erika Zimmerman, Dodge City senior and Geurts' roommate.
Zimmerman also said she considered the decreased number of available residences for students one of the major down sides of the ordinance.
"Housing is hard to find here anyway," she said.
Jeff Whittier, Prairie Village senior,
escapes the effects of the ordinance because his brother is one of his three roommates, so while four people live in the house, the number of unrelated people does not exceed three.
But Whittier still feels the ordinance raises issues of discrimination
"It discriminates based on age because we happen to be students and don't have families," he said. "You may also get discrimination based on race or sexual orientation if the neighbors don't like you."
Whittier said he did not think the ordinance would really make a difference to the lives of families.
"Neighborhoods have had students for such a long time, they're used to it." Whittier said.
Supporters of the ordinance, however, argue that its purpose is not to attack students but rather to strengthen residential areas that have lost their neighborhood-like character.
Jo Anderson Abbott, chair of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, said that a gradual increase in the student population led to the deterioration of some traditional family neighborhoods and to certain schools closing down.
Abbott believes that even though the switch to three unrelated people is a good compromise, students are not necessarily the problem.
"For the most part, students are responsible tenants," Abbott said. "I think landlord registration is a better idea. The problem is when you have landlords not willing to take responsibility for their properties."
"They're discounting students as part of the community." Haas said.
The ordinance has also attracted the attention of students who were never subject to any of its effects.
Brecca Haas, Denver freshman and Watkins Scholarship Hall resident, said she was strongly against the ordinance.
part of the Community. Haas said.
Haas said she thought the ordinance was proposed because students were not really represented in city government.
— Edited by Sydney Wallace
Continued from page 1A
Fraternity members opt to live outside houses
Topeka senior said.
Most fraternity houses require sophomores and juniors to live in the chapter house but allow seniors the choice of living off-campus.
Bob Torongo, Naperville, Ill., senior and member of Sigma Nu fraternity, said he chose to move out of his chapter house in order to improve his living conditions.
Torongo said he wanted to have his own room, cook for himself and be able to have a cleaner living environment.
"The house tends to be pretty dirty." he said.
Even though the number of women who live in sorority houses is facing a decline of 21.3 percent since 1990, no houses have closed down.
Hillary Dunn, Dallas junior and Panhellenic vice president for public relations, said that the problem was not as acute for sorority chapter houses.
"Girls are more inclined to live with members of their house than guys," Dunn said.
The bleak facts, however, do not seem to discourage Lohy Dole or any
of the members of the new Pi Kappa Phi chapter, who are considering getting their own house.
Dohl, Silver Grove senior, said the members did not yet have a house because their chapter was just established at the University last year, but the members were excited with the prospect of getting their own house in the future.
"I think we have a lot of people that would want to move in," he said. "I don't know how long that would last."
— Edited by Sydney Wallace
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