Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, December 4, 1990
3
Aspiring artists work for needs deny the wants
By Cathy Gerrard Special to the Kansan
As artist Jack Collins slowly cleaned up after teaching his drawing class at the Lawrence Arts Center, he remembered with dread had to wait tables the next day to earn money for gas and groceries.
"I work Friday night to go to the grocery store Saturday morning," said Collins, a 1982 KU graduate who works at Becerros Mexican restaurant, 2515 W. Sixth St. "That pays the groceries and gas money for me, but I make teaching paws school loans, rent and credit cards."
Collins is just one of more than 300 local aspiring artists who struggles to make ends meet by working a second job.
Lawrence has one of the highest concentrations of artists living in any city in the country and ranks 12th in the nation in percentage of arts in the work force, according to the National Endowment for the Arts.
Collins has worked at Becerros sporadically for seven years and is teaching classes at Johnson County Community College and the Lawrence Arts Center, Ninth and Vermont streets.
"I wait tables one night a week."
Collins said. "That's because I'm teaching as much as I am now.
I worked there three times, I worked days a day there."
Collins said that if it were not for his job as a waiter, he would have difficulty putting food on his table.
"I despise it," said Collins, who also received a master's degree in fine arts at KU in 1989. "I like the people that I work with, and there are customers that are enjoyable to wait on, but I've done it a long time."
and it's not a very rewarding way to make your money."
Collins said that of his two jobs, teaching was the lesser of the two evils.
"I really shouldn't say that," he said. "Teaching is much more rewarding than waiting tables. You learn much more personal growth."
Collins said that he eventually wanted to display his work in galleries but that he wanted more art. "I just wanted the avenue he wanted to pursue."
Collins has had a one-person show displayed at the Artists En Masse
Gallery, 803 1/2 Massachusetts St.
He also said that he would not give up teaching regardless of any future success in the art business.
"It itkes you thinking, and it keeps you interacting with other people," Collins said. "It gives you new insights to the way people see things, which can be a fresh way for me to see things."
"I think of all the things I've traded off to be able to have days in the studio — financial security, a lot of superficial things. But I've got to hold on to things that really matter in life. My only goal is to always be able to maintain my time in the studio."
Against all odds
The large number of local artists is a great asset to the Lawrence Arts Center and the entire community. Ann Davis, director of the center.
“It’s one of the reasons the center is so successful,” she said. “It would not be possible without all of the artists.”
The center advances the arts in
Keith Thorpe/KANSAN
See ARTISTS, p. 8
Lawrence artist Jack Collins works on a new creation in his basement studio
New position to focus on gay, lesbian issues
Kansan staff writer
Applications were made available yesterday for a graduate assistant position aimed at establishing ongoing administrative attention to gay, lesbian and bisexual student concerns.
Bob Turvey, associate director of the Student Assistance Center, said applications would be due by 5 p.m. Friday at the Student Assistance Center in 123 Strong Hall.
Bv Monica Mendoza
A selection committee of faculty members, the center's administrators and members from Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas will
review the applications and conduct interviews next week.
"we hope to finish with the hiring process before break." Turvey said.
A job description for the position was developed by administrators from the center after receiving contributions from a broad range of sources, Turvey said.
Responsibilities include serving as a liaison with other campus offices and student organizations and developing a variety of educational programs. Students must demonstrate the ability and increasing acceptance of gay, lesbian
and bisexual students.
Karen Cook, director of GLSOK, said she hoped one of the first priorities of the new assistant would be gathering information from students that could be started at the University of Korea.
She said she thought the assistant would participate on the committee that was reviewing new programs that explore the nature of gender toward gay, lesbian and bisexual students.
That committee is expected to have a list of programs ready by March 1 to present to
Chancellor Gene A. Budig.
Cook said she was delighted that the new assistant would be ready to begin Jan. 1. She anticipates that many people will apply.
"I know of several people who are interested in the position," she said. "And as with any graduate assistant position, there will be seven candidates who are not affiliated with GLOSK."
Turvey said the position paid $625 a month for a 20-hour work week and would be financed by the Office of Student Affairs.
Media set for news on quake
By Joe Gose
That was the premise last week as the media invaded southeast Missouri to cover the earthquake foreline downwing, a New Mexico climatologist.
Special to the Kansan
CAPE GIRARDEAU Mo. — Live from the banks of the Mississippi River, it's the New Madrid Earthquake, brought to you by Ibene Brown.
Browning had said there was a 50 percent chance that a destructive earthquake would occur along the New Madrid fault yesterday.
Evelyn Boardman of the Cape Girardeau Downtown Merchants Association said, "We've had reporters from Tokyo, the London Financial Times and CNN to name a few. It started about a week ago, but the real heavy influx didn't start until Wednesday."
While most of the attention yesterday centered on the epicenter of the predicted quake, New Madrid, KSTP-TV, the Minnesota ABC affiliate, reported live from Griffin's Bar district from front district of Cape, Gardeau.
"We're serving Tequila Tremors and Survival Sunrises," said Wayne Griffin, owner of the bar.
The media also reported on the slowdown in business since some citizens abandoned the area.
"I can't wait until the 5th of December," said Jim Riley of Red Letter Communications, an advertising firm. "It's been a disaster for business around here. We're going to be selling advertisement boom after the 5th."
But Boardman didn't think the predicted quake affected local business.
"It's business as usual," she said. "Ibem Browning had his prediction, and I had mine. I said it was going to be a normal, routine Monday."
Boardman did not agree with the reports of fleeing citizens either.
"I really don't know of anybody leaving town," she said. "I have to think those are, by and large, rumors."
But Cal Deweese, who was at Griffin's Bar, said he had been told by friends that people had been taking their money out of banks.
Meanwhile, Lou Harvin of KSTP wrapped up his live story at the bar.
"It's pathetic," he said. "If it does happen, it's only going to last 15 seconds."
"We've been here since Thursday, and we're staying until Thursday," Harvin said after the report. "There's nothing going on here. If there's no quake, you have to make stuff up."
Changes in KU math program help students stay enrolled
Bv Tatsuva Shimizu
Kansan staff writer
Changes in the structure of Math 101 this semester have resulted in higher test grades and fewer dropouts from the class, said Marilyn Carlson, coordinator of Kansas Algebra Program.
The math department this semester modified the Self Instructed Mastery Plan, under which students study at their own pace in Math 101, college algebra, and Math 002, intermediate algebra.
Before this semester, Math 101 students had to take a test every week, a midterm, a final and had to receive credit. With a passing grade to receive credit.
They did not have to attend class, but students could receive help from math department tutors in Strong Hall.
Beginning this semester, Math 101 students were required to meet ACT requirements before being accepted to the class and upon acceptance were required to attend two classes a week.
Tutoring still is available in Strong. This semester in Math 101, 78 percent of the students passed the first five weekly tests, up from 67 percent in Spring 1990, according to mid-term assessments of the class.
compared with 47.3 percent in Spring 1990.
Also, by the eighth week of the class this semester, 31.3 percent of students enrolled dropped Math 101
Beginning this semester, students who took the ACT in October 1989 or after needed to score higher than 22 on the test's math section to be admitted. Students who took the test before October 1989 needed to score 20.
She said that many students who had enrolled in Math 101 before the changes were made this semester were not prepared for the class.
"Just getting students in the right class is really helpful." Carlson said.
Students who did not meet those requirements were required to enrol in Math 002
They took the class because they
wanted to take as few math classes as possible. Carlson said.
The modified class has more instructional resources than most of the lecture classes in the University, she said.
In the class, students can make sure that they not only understand solving methods of problems but also can actually solve them. she said.
"We get students actually involved in the problem solving." she said.
Carlson also said that giving credit for doing homework - another addition to the class this semester - helped students.
"It motivates them to work on problems out of the book before they take tests," she said.
Scott Nickel, a Math 101 instructor,
said that besides explaining problems
in the class, he picked a student
from it to solve a problem on
the blackboard.
He said that more students did homework this semester because they were given credit for it.
"Before, they never did the homework." Nickel said. "What most students would do would be to go through the book very quickly, try to get an idea how to do problems and go to take the test.
"They would just keep taking the tablet so they wouldn't have materials to study from."
He said tutors were spending less time this semester explaining to
However, by doing homework, students need to dig through the textbook themselves, he said, and tutors need to explain problems fewer times.
James Shinkle, Winnetka, Ill., sophomore, said the change in the structure of Math 101 was helpful for him.
students what was in the textbook.
Last year, he took the class and dropped it. He said students in the class were supposed to study on their own.
"I learn better in the classroom," he said.
He can get to know the teacher and can ask him questions personally, he said.