Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Friday, December 7, 1990
3
First of Fort Riley division heads for gulf
10 members leave from Topeka
By David Roach
By David Roach Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA - ten members of the 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley boarded an Air Force C-141 transport midday and headed for the Persian Gulf.
The soldiers were part of the 30-member forward element of the division's support command. Ten members of the command left Wednesday, and 10 more are leaving today.
They are the vanguard of the 11,500-member division's deployment to Saudi Arabia.
The division, known as the Big Red One, was ordered to the gulf early last month as part of a troop buildup designed to give the United States an offensive capability in its standoff with Iran.
Capt. Ed Chandler of division support command said the detachment would prepare for Big Red One's arrival in the gulf.
"Our mission is to support them and make their coming into the country as easy as possible," he said.
Chandler said the division was proposed by the department.
decide if we're ready or not," he said.
"We'd be prepared, or we wouldn't be prepared."
"Our commanding general has to
Mark Meseke, a spokesperson for the division, said the division would begin moving overseas en masse within the next 10 to 14 days.
The loading began last week and is expected to be completed early next week.
The group loaded three large jeeps and three trailers filled with equipment on board the jet.
Most of the division's heavy equipment is being shipped by rail on Union Pacific routes to ports in Texas and then overseas by ship.
A piece of equipment will take three weeks to reach Saudi Arabia.
The division will take about 6,000 vehicles to the gulf and will need about 1,400 railroad cars to transport the equipment. Abbott said.
Fort Riley houses about 4,000 troops besides the 1st Infantry. About 500 of those already have been sent to the gul in separate deployments.
Armv personnel load equipment onto an Air Force C-141 transport let at Forbes Field in Toneka
New cultures and experiences face students studying abroad
The Spaniards call it pirono
SEVILLE, Spain — The Spaniards can it probo.
It is the Spanish equivalent of what men in the United States do by whistling suggestively at women walking down the street.
Only in Spain, men tend to be more direct.
"They might say something vulgar," said Laura Kidwell, Lansing senior, who is attending the University of Seville through a Study Abroad program. "But they could tell me that she made more flattering, like Guapa!" (Hey, good looking!)
"Sometimes they get really creative, like 'Oh look! Someone left the gates of heaven open and an angel escaped."
"If you walk past a construction site and no one says
that, you can be assured that the site is safe."
"At first it bothered me a lot. It took some getting used to."
Students get used to cultural idiosyncracies like piropo when they immerse themselves in a foreign culture. And they must deal with sweeping changes in living conditions, and you can't not always easy, but most say the rewards are worth it.
Nancy Mitchell, assistant director of Study Abroad,
said last month at her office in Lippincott Hall, that the University of Kansas sent about 500 students abroad to study each year.
Ellen Strubert, an administrative assistant in the Spanish department, agreed with Mitchell.
justice for yourself, agreed with Satan!"
"I've never met anyone who did not absolutely love
not going abroad, Strubert said.
"We have extensive orientations to prepare them for what comes," she said. "Most of them have the time of their lives. Very few, if any, have any serious problems." He Brunet, an administrative assistant in the
*A lot of that is because most of them went for only one semester.* *Strubert said, "They just didn't get enough.*
it," she said Wednesday in her Wesco Hall office. In fact, the problem for many students is coming home,
Many get depressed when they have to come home, she said.
"I miss my family," she said. "I couldn't imagine not being home for Christmas."
But not everyone finds living in a foreign land as easy. Kidwell said she had had enough. After one semester, she moved to New York.
"Plus, I'm tired of people pushing and shoving. I am tired of people being rude, at least by American standards."
Kidwell said that one of the hardest things to adjust to in Spain was the formality in interpersonal relationships.
"It's not that they're really rude, at least not by Spanish standards," she said. "It's just the way they have with each other. I think it comes from a lack of empathy, it's very crowded, and everything is very formal."
Strubert, a graduate student in Russian and Eastern European studies, has participated in several study visits.
"There is a real formality in Spain that we not used,
o' she said. "We are probably the most informal people
in the world. You have to stay very formal with them until you are very good friends."
Strubert said students had to make adjustments, no matter which country they visited.
She said that non-Western cultures were more difficult for students to adjust to and required more preparation.
"You have to have excellent command of the language because you'll never understand the culture if you don't," she said. "So much of the culture is reflected in the language."
She said yesterday that she had been ready to come home because she had known she would return to China in the near future.
Margaret Baptist, Leawood senior, returned to Kansas this summer after almost a year in China.
"If I had thought I could never go back, I would never have come back." she said.
Baptist, who studied Chinese throughout high school and college, said she enjoyed being immersed in a totally different culture and being able to see firsthand what she had studied for years.
Even with a thorough preparation, adjusting to the culture was difficult, she said.
"The living conditions in the dormitory obviously weren't up to what we're used to," she said. "Everything was different. Even talking to people was a strain. The first couple of weeks were pretty miserable.
"But I had wanted to go over for so long that I wasn't about to turn around, and, after the first couple of weeks,
"I guess the food always takes some getting used to, but after the first month, I was so used to China that it was a big problem."
Food, apparently, is a familiar complaint among study abroad students.
Stewart Patterson, Fort Scott senior, also is studying at the University of Seville this semester.
"Food was my biggest problem," he said. "They don't have hamburgers here."
"All they eat are chicken and egg dishes, or else pork dishes," she said.
Kidwell echoed Patterson's complaint.
However, Kidwell said that despite almost 30 hours of Spanish courses at KU before coming to Spain, the most recent cohort was from New York.
"The University classes did not prepare me for the reality," she said. "But since I've been here, I've really picked up on my listening skills, and that's really what I came here for."
Kidwell said that after a rough start, she had adjusted well to life in Seville.
She had to request a new host family after her first month, she said. The first family isolated her, denied her many privileges and treated her more as hired help than as a guest.
"The senora had coins in her eyes," she said.
Kidwell said her experience with her new family was the most rewarding part of her visit to Spain.
"They treat me like one of them for the most part," she said. "I've really enjoyed staying with them."
Kidwell said she liked her new family much more.
Instructor emphasizes necessity of risk-taking
By Amy Zamierowski
Kansan staff writer
In a darkened Hoch Auditorium yesterday afternoon, about 800 students focused on a spotlighted figure in the audience. The prosaic movements and reading prose
During his piece, neon paint was smeared on the exposed skin of Daryl Evans, the performer, while a band played a few wards away.
Evans, associate professor of sociology, teaches 800 students in a Sociology 104 class.
His performance, part of a class period that consisted of videotapes, slides, poems and readings, was one of the most important the importance of taking risks.
Rebecca Merz, teaching assistant for the class, said, "The message of the presentation is for students to find their voice and find out who they
The Homestead Grays, a local band, performed for 40 minutes before the presentation began.
Evans said, "I worked with the Homestead Grays on the piece last night trying different formulas. We made it look like the piece, so we called it beat poetry.
Evans has set aside the class period, which he considers a holiday present to students, for the past three years.
Each year the teaching assistants choose topics that they think the students in Evans' class are interested in.
The topic for last year's program was campus racism.
Evans said that this semester he and the teaching assistants enouraged the students to participate and influence in class despite its large size.
"I think our classes are usually very structured, but we want students to take some risks, and we can't possibly tell them to take risks unless we do," Evans said. "Students in our University are getting a bum full of new courses and ninnies. Some people think students can't think about the world, but this group of students is a real powerhouse for having ideas."
Evans said that most students obtained their education through the media, which is why the presentation focused on videotaped productions.
"We feel it is really important to take the best things our culture has now and fuse those with education," he said.
Bill Swart, a teaching assistant in the class, told the students near the end of the presentation. "If there is one thing we want you to get out of class, it's that if you don't think about things, others will think for you."
Students argue on gulf war
By Tatsuya Shimizu
Kansan staff writer
The KU debate team sponsored an audience participation debate attended by about 80 students at Blake Hall.
KU students who debated the Persian Gulf crisis last night were divided on whether the United States should withdraw from Kuwait, if it does not withdraw from Kuwait,
Sami Omar, an engineer from Baghdad, Iraq, who works for Amnesty International in London and is visiting Lawrence, said that although invasion of Kuwait was immoral and Iraq should leave Kuwait, the United States should not start a war
He said the U.S. public should make a distinction between the Iraqi and Afghan populations.
The human rights of the Iraqi people have been abused by the military power of Saddam Hussein, he said.
"Iraqi people were forced to fight against Iran," he said.
"Civilians of Iraq will be the ones who suffer the most," he said.
Omar said people should consider a war's effect on innocent lives when they discussed the pros and cons of starting a war.
Use of biological and chemical weapons could cause many casualties, including 30,000 U.S. troops. The Department of State estimated, he said.
Todd Dyer, Cheyenne, Wyo., freshman, said the United States should initiate an offense to stop Saddam's further aggression.
Saddam has used chemical weapons before, and it is possible that he will use biological and nuclear weapons because nobody does not stop him. Ever said.
"Innocent lives are in jeopardy," he said. "This is why we are in the Persian Gulf, to stop this aggression of our people, people as well as friends and allies."
"It's not a war for oil," he said. It's a war for the rights of the state to decide its own fate. I don't want to see people die, but I think it's important that we protect ideals and principles of our nation."
Andrew Shore, Glencoe, Ill., sophomore, said he supported a U.S. offensive.
Scott MacWilliams, Lawrence senior, said that if the United States initiated an attack, the situation would not be manageable. Diplomatic negotiation should be used instead.
He said that although he refused to go to the Vietnam War, he knew how terrible it was. If a war started, its effect would reach Lawrence.
"I hope you don't have to experience it," he said.
Legislators want to replenish fund
By Carol Krekeler
Kansan staff writer
The general fund is the state money not set aside for a specific use. Legislative researchers have estimated that the general fund would be $50 million short for fiscal 1991
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Denver, said that if the state did not find a way to increase the general fund's revenue, an economic recess-
sion most likely would occur
Finding the revenue to rejuvenate the state's general fund will be the biggest concern of the Legislature during the 1991 session, state representatives from Lawrence said yesterday.
"Education and social services are going to have to be funded through the general fund," she said. "We're going to have to replenish it."
Charlton said she would be supporting legislation in the 1991 session that increased taxes for citizens in the higher income bracket so that more money could be raised for the state.
"I favor starting there so that we can finance state education," she said. "We may have to look for other solutions, too."
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, also said he favored a tax increase for the wealthy citizens in
"We're not trying to pick on that group of people, but then we will have some of the money we need," he said.
However, Solbach said taxing the wealthy was not going to generate enough revenue to replenish the general fund.
State Rep-elect Sandy Praeger, R-Lawrence, said she favored increasing the state sales tax by 1 percent to bring more money into the state.
She said Gov-elect Joan Finney's campaign proposal to tax some of the items that now were tax exempt because she had harmful effects on the state's economy.