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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL. 103, NO. 69
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1991
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
Valerie Bontrager / KANSAN
TAN MAN STILL CATCHING RAYS
NEWS:864-4810
John Schneider, also known as the Tan Man, sunbaths beside his trailer on Michigan Street. Schneider was laying out yesterday afternoon despite a high of 49 degrees.
KU sunbathing legend absent from campus, spends time at home
By David Wilson Special to the Kansan
The Tan Man is missing. Lawrence's original, full-time sun worshiper and a subject of KU lore has not been seen sunbathing on campus since 1988.
For more than a decade, the Tan Man was part of the KU landscape. He was a Lawrence man who would sit outside, shirtless and shoeless, and soak up the rays for five or six hours at a time, even on winter days. His primary campus hangout was a bench on the east side of Wescoe, in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall.
So where has the Tan Man been? The Tan Man, whose real name is John Schneider, now sathes only around his trailer on Michigan Street.
"The traffic is bad so I don't ride my bike, and the cab fare went up." Schneider said.
But economic and safety considerations are not the only reasons for the disappearance of such a legend. The main reason the Tan Man stopped coming to campus was that people stopped saying hello.
"They just wouldn't say anything," Schneider said. "I'd say, 'hi,' and they wouldn't say anything back."
On campus, Schneider could absorb the rays of humanity as well as the rays of the sun.
"I could meet people, more younger people, who would be more likely to talk to me," he said.
Don Marquis, professor of philosophy, said that people did not pay much attention to Schneider the last few years he tanned on campus.
"I sometimes said, 'hello' to him," Marquis said. "But I've found that if you stop to talk to some of the characters around here, you may be in for a longer conversation than you expected."
Marquis said Schneider regularly would sunbathe when the temperature was around 50 — or even lower.
Schneider is not bothered by the cold or the threat of skin cancer.
"I go to the doctor, and he tells me to put that sunscreen stuff on," Schneider said.
Schneider was born April 8, 1943, in Wichita, but celebrates his birthday June 21, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year.
"It's warmer then," he said.
Schneider went to high school in Augusta and came to Lawrence in 1967. After nine years of tanning on campus, Schneider left for Corpus Christi, Texas, in December 1977 in search of a summer climate. He returned to Lawrence in May 1979.
"I thought it was warmer down there, but the people weren't as nice," he said.
During his years on campus, Schneider left such an impression on people at KU that both Lawrence Yello Sub locations sell a tea named for
him — Tan Man Sun Tea.
"There's nothing special about the recipe," said Bob Jones, owner of Yello Sub. "It's with Yello Sub for many years."
Schneider said that he relished the local fame that tanning brought him.
He once appeared on a postcard created by two KU students. A photograph of Schneider was pasted onto a picture of Potter Lake. The postcard read, "Don't skd Nebraska, surf Lawrence!"
He also remembers being featured in an ad for Pyramid Pizza. The design of the ad was similar to the postcard.
"They had me on a surfboard." he said.
Schneider's tan has faded a bit since his days on campus. He walks slowly and carefully, and his speech is calm. He smiles, but the smile is tinged with a bit of sadness.
Schneider has worked for the last thirteen years as a night janitor at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He works nights so he can sunbathe during the day.
For now, Schneider plans to do all his sunbathing at the trailer park, where he is content to talk with his neighbors.
"It's probably better that way."
New Iowa policy on sexual films prompts debate
Students notified before explicit material shown
By David Stewart
Kansan staff writer
Required warnings about sexually explicit material have prompted protest at one of KU's peer institutions.
Now the new policy at the University of Iowa in Iowa City has raised concerns among the KU faculty on how much liberty professors have to present controversial material in class.
The Iowa Board of Regents enacted a policy last month that would require faculty to inform their students before any showing of "explicit representations of human sexual acts."
The policy stemmed from complaints about two films depicting explicit homosexual acts shown during class to Iowa students who were not informed of the films' content, said Marvin Berenstein, president of the Iowa Board of Regents and author of the Iowa policy.
Berenstein said the policy was nothing more than a courtesy to students, and teachers had the discretion to provide warnings on explicit material.
"The policy is not intended to be stifling to academic freedom," Berenstein said. "It was brought to an issue by various students who were embarrassed and didn't want to go to a class to see some of this stuff."
Berenstein said he had received a petition of about 100 signatures from Iowa faculty members who objected to the new policy. Though Berenstein remained concerned about the faculty's right to academic freedom, he said students should have the right to be warned.
"This is the right answer," Berenstein said. "Nobody has an ax to grind on the Regents. This is just to protect students from potential embarrassment."
Although student objections to films showing homosexual sex prompted the policy, Berenstein said complaints that the Iowa Board of Regents were homophobic were absolutely false.
"I would have had the same reaction if it had been a man and a woman making love," Berenstein said. "It has absolutely nothing to do with homophobia. Speaking for the entire board, that was never an issue."
Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare, said he gave students in his human sexuality class the choice of whether they wanted to watch prepared audio-video material. Dailey said the syllabus for the class let students know ahead of time that Dailey would present explicit material.
"Students need to be aware of what is going on in class," Dailey said. "I recognize that some students may choose not to view the material."
Dailey said it was his decision and not University policy to make students aware of the class' content. Even so, Dailey said he saw the University of Iowa policy as a major infringement of academic freedom.
"For me, it's an issue of common courtesy," Dailey said. "Adults need to take responsibility for their own learning."
Chuck Berg, professor of theater and film and director of film studies, said he was not aware of any policy intended to inform students of potentially explicit material. Berg said that just by giving warnings to students about explicit material, professors would need to define what such material was.
"Giving a warning is not necessarily a problem," Berg said. "But where do you draw the line of what is objectionable?"
Although some professors may decide to tell their students about class content, Berg said students had to show judgment themselves.
"I believe we rely on the good judgment and common sense of my colleagues in the humanities," Berg said. "But the sense of responsibility is a two-way street. If people come to the University with such a fragile belief system that they are not willing to examine their own views, then it raises the question of what those students are doing here in the first place."
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Organization formed to bridge cultural differences
United Students seeks to join races
By Christoph Fuhrmans
Kansan staff writer
Michael Huntington and Adrien Lewis are tired of seeing segregation when they eat at the Lenoir Ekdahl Dining Commons.
Lewis, Springfield, Mass., freshman, said if students did not sit with people of the same race or culture, the students were considered sellouts by their friends.
That is why Lewis and Huntington, Hutchinson junior, are forming a new student organization called United
Students in an effort to create racial harmony on campus.
Lewis, who is vice president of United Students, said the organization was for students of all races and cultures that were part of the University.
"There is no social organization based on the fact that you're human," he said.
Huntington, president of United Students, said he did not want students to be afraid of socializing with students of different races and cultures.
"That's what we're fighting is the sellout idea," he said. "We're talking about trying to help create an environment at KU where no one feels like
an outsider."
Besides trying to improve racial harmony at KU, Lewis said the organization would allow students to learn more about different races and cultures.
"You learn a lot about people in social situations that you can't in the class rooms," he said. "That's the motivation, to see what you don't see, to learn what you don't know."
Lewis said United Students was an alternate organization to other campus groups such as the Black Student Union and the Hispanic-American Leadership Organization.
"We're not trying to break down the other organizations," he said.
Huntington, who is a resident assistant for the ninth floor at McCollum Hall, and Lewis, who lives on the ninth floor of McCollum, got the idea for United Students from discussions with other ninth-floor residents.
Huntington said he expected a positive response from the University, based on the enthusiasm of the 50 people who already had expressed interest in the group.
"We have people bouncing off the walls because they're so passionate about this," he said.
To become a KU student organization, a group must fill out an application and have an adviser as a sponsor
Huntington said United Students
would have three advisers to represent different races and cultures.
Lewis said Barbara Ballard, director of the Emily Taylor Women's Center, and Norman Yetman, professor of American studies, had agreed to be the first two advisers for the organization.
"We want to adequately represent our group," he said.
Ann Eversole, director of organizations, said United Students was in the process of registering with the University.
Students who are interested in joining United Students should call Lewis at 864-6479 or Huntington at 864-6474.
Susan McSpadden/KANSAN
Adrien Lewis, Springfield, Mass., freshman, and Michael Huntington, Hutchinson junior, have started a new organization called United Students.
Done under
The Kansas basketball team lost to the Australian National team 93-82 in an exhibition game last night at Allen Field House.
Page 11
Rock Chalk Revue — It's not just a greek thing
Directors of philanthropy want greater involvement from all University groups
By Shan Schwartz
Kansan staff writer
Rock Chalk Revue directors want all students — not just greens — to know that they can be involved in the student-run philanthropy project.
Tad Gomez, executive producer of Rock Chalk Revue, said the Revue had a "greek stereotype" that directors had been trying to eliminate for several years. Gomez said the efforts, to some degree, were working.
About half of the Revue's board of directors this year, all students, are not affiliated with any Greek living organization, Gomez said. And this year, besides show proposals from the scholarship and residence
halls, Amini Scholarship Hall paired with Alpha Delta Pi sorority to submit a show proposal.
Although nongreek groups have submitted show proposals in recent years, the five feature musicals all have been from fraternity-sorority pairs since the combined scholarship halls performed in the Revue in 1990.
Before that, it had been 15 years since a nongreek group successfully submitted a show proposal for Rock Chalk Revue.
"I think a lot of it is just exposure, "Gomez said. "If someone isn't used to having their hall submit a notebook for a show, they just think it can't or won't happen. But if you're in a fraternity or sorority, you know all about it."
halls' interest had continued.
"And hopefully the interest will keep growing." Gomez said.
Gomez said that interest from the scholarship and residence halls had been unheard of before the scholarship halls were in the 1900 Revue, but since then, the
Several living groups not involved in the Rock Chalk Revue performance contribute through community service, according to Kelly Fults, community service coordinator for Rock Chalk Revue. Last year, more than 16,000 hours of community service were donated by participating living groups.
Rock Chalk Revue culminates in a musical performance that benefits the United Way of Douglas County and will be performed Feb. 24-26. But the purpose of Rock Chalk Revue is charity.
The Revue's "Most Charitable Award" will be presented in February to the group that donates the most hours per person in community service.
And if students still want to perform on stage with Rock Chalk Revue, there are
two ways they can do that, said Scott McPhail, In-Between Acts director.
One way is to audition for an In-Between Act, a 5-6 minute performance between the featured musical productions. Auditions for In-Between Acts are scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday, and students must sign up for auditions by 5 p.m. today in the Organizations and Activities Center, 400 Kansas Union.
Another way students can perform in the show is in the Revue's opening number. McPhail said Rock Chalk Revue would be looking in January for anyone who could sing, dance or act in the opening number.
McPhail said he tried specifically to get nongreek students into the show.
"We do publicize it as something for the whole campus," McPhail said. "So I try to get students who aren't greek involved in the IBAs and the opening number."