THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8. 2009
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009
NEWS
7A
FUNDRAISER
Five Rock Chalk Revue performance groups chosen
BY JESSE RANGEL
jrangel@kansan.com
For the five groups selected for this spring's Rock Chalk Revue, the annual student-produced variety show, now is the time to take a deep breath, celebrate getting picked and continue the development of the show.
In the fall, sorority and fraternity chapters pair up to determine a story idea, and proceeds from ticket sales for the show, which happens in March, are donated to the United Way.
Nick Templin, Maize senior and an organizer for "Ripe," said his group had scheduled tryouts for this week. He said work on rehearsing
the show would begin in earnest after winter break. But for now, Templin said, the anxiety of not knowing whether they were in or out was behind them.
"It's definitely a load of pressure off right now," Templin said. "You just put so much time into it prior to the getting-in or getting-out date."
The five groups were selected Nov 23. To get to that point, Templin said prospective groups had to put together a notebook for the Rock Chalk Revue advisory board describing the show, script and characters. They also had to pitch the show to the advisory board and perform about a five-minute portion of the show.
Jon Goscha, Salina junior and an
organizer for "Prepare for a Scare," said being chosen validated a whole semester's worth of work. He said each week his group had to meet deadlines such as completing character descriptions, costume designs or music. He said the group's story idea, "Prepare for a Scare," was its third choice, but the first two had been done before.
Goscha said practices would begin the first day of classes next semester, and his group would be casting before break.
"We had two workshops on Friday for people in the houses so they could learn a short dance and part of a song." Goscha said.
Patrick Peterson, Wheaton, Ill.
junior and co-executive director of
Rock Chalk Revue, said the groups would tally about 40 hours of practices each next semester.
"It's a year-long process," Peterson said. "We work with the groups all year to create these performances."
Peterson said the advisory committee wanted to increase the amount of money it was able to donate to its beneficiary, the United Way, from $60,000 last year. He said Rock Chalk Revue held events to raise money year round, such as group trips to Kansas City Royals games or gift wrapping last week at a faculty and staff appreciation sale at KU Bookstore.
Edited by Abby Olcese
SHOWS SCHEDULED TO PERFORM
- "Ripe!" Kappa Delta sorority and Theta Chi fraternity
- "Where in the World?" Gamma Phi Beta sorority and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity
- "Meet Me In Candy Land." Sigma Kappa sorority and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity
- "Flying Solo: A SuperMusical" Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity
- "Prepare for a Scare." Alpha Delta Pi sorority and Sigma Nu fraternity
The groups will perform their shows from March 4-6 at the Lied Center.
HISTORY
Survivors of Pearl Harbor gather for 68th anniversary
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PEAR Harbor survivor Arthur G. Herriford, left, salutes while U.S. Navy Lt. Ben Abney looks on during the ceremony marking the 66th anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7 at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Honolulu. Herriford served aboard the USS Detroit during the surprise attack in 1941.
BY AUDREY MCAVOY
Associated Press
PEARI, HARBOR, Hawaii — Dozens of survivors of Pearl Harbor on Monday solemnly remembered those who died in the Japanese aerial assault 68 years ago as a top Navy commander said their bravery laid the foundation for the subsequent U.S. victory in World War II.
About 2,000 servicemen and women and members of the general public joined the survivors. The crowd looked out on the spot where the USS Arizona sank in the first minutes of the attack, killing 1,177 people. Almost 1,000 people are still entombed on the battleship.
To some, the service has taken on great poignancy given the fact that U.S. troops are risking their lives in the more recent conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Last week, President Barack Obama issued orders to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
"It's the same thing all over again," said 89-year-old Richard Laubert, of Phoenix, Ore., who was a pharmacist mate at the Naval hospital at the time of the attack. "I just thought when we were doing the war that would be it for the rest of time. But it seems like we just never solve anything."
Sterling Cale, 88, said chits ran down his back as he remembered picking up wounded sailors and bodies from the water when he was a Navy corpsman 68 years ago.
"I was in the water there and picked up 46 people in four hours," Cale said. He recalled having to swim mostly underwater because diesel fuel leaking from the ships caught fire.
John Hughes, who was a Marine serving at Ewa Field, a West Oahu air station on Dec. 7, 1941, choked up when he was asked what was going through his mind.
"You think back about what happened," said Hughes, as a tear tricked down his cheek. The 90-year-old flew to Hawaii from Santa Ana.
Calif. for the ceremony.
Adm. Patrick Walsh, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, said the valor and selfless sacrifice of that morning defined the Navy. The way Navy recovered from the attack "charted a path for a wounded nation," he added.
"It's important to remember what those who serve experience in the hours that follow tragedy," Walsh said. "It's their biography that inspires us and gives us the strength, the commitment, the character and the resilience for the fights that we have ahead of us."
The youngest survivors are now about 85 years old, and their numbers are dwindling.
EMPLOYMENT
Laubert said he hopes to return for the 69th anniversary next year. The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association says the 2010 observance may mark their last gathering given the age of their members.
"When you get to 90, your chances are thinning out," Laubert said.
Laid-off professionals look for temporary holiday work
BY CHRISTOPHER LEONARD AND MAE ANDERSON
Associated Press
Mara Proctor used to design limestone hearths and columns for luxury homes near Kansas City, drawing on her college education and six years of training.
These days, she's leading customers around a store that sells sculptured snowmen and Santa figurines.
It isn't by choice. Until a few weeks ago, Proctor was among the record 5.9 million Americans who have been jobless for at least six months. Now she belongs to a subset of that group: Out-of-work professionals and managers, engineers and teachers who have turned, in desperation, to holiday-season jobs as sales clerks.
Retailers report a surge in applications this year from professionals who had never applied for such jobs before.
"You'll find Wall Street stock brokers and small business owners trying to find temporary retail jobs during the holidays," said Ellen Davis, vice president of the National Retail Federation.
to their experience or expertise. Yet the nation's unemployment crisis left these people jobless so much longer than they'd expected that many count themselves fortunate to have anything.
The pay is low, the jobs temporary. And the work is hardly equal
Laid off eight
opening - compared with just 1.7 workers per opening when the recession began in December 2007.
months ago, Proctor said she figured, "OK, I'll do the unemployment thing for a couple of weeks and get a new job."
In a bleak labor market, holiday-season hiring has meant at least a respite for many long-term unemployed. Not that it's easy to land even these jobs. Most retailers have cut back. And overall in the economy, six applicants, on average, are competing for each
For the stores, though, the availability of clerks with experience managing or working effectively with customers.
GLENN ALBUM
President of Human
Resources, Toys 'R' Us
dent of human resources at Toys R Us. Album said the company this year has hired, among others, former teachers and an accountant.
"It enables us to be somewhat more selective and hire a higher-caliber clerk," said Glenn Albam, vice presi-
On a cold morning before Thanksgiving, Proctor jangled a set of keys and opened the Sticks boutique for business at the Country Club Plaza shopping district in Kansas City. When she was laid off in March, the notion of a retail job didn't even cross her
with coworkers is a luxury. They've been able to cull the excellent from the merely qualified.
"It enables us to be somewhat more selective and hire a higher-caliber clerk."
Mara Proctor arranges merchandise at Sticks boutique in Kansas City, Mo. Proctor is among the legions of workers finding temporary relief from employment with a seasonal job.
"What's great with the highercaliber team members is there is much, much better service in the store," he said.
At 32, she had spent six years hopping easily from job to job in the home design business, seeking out higher responsibilities and pay with each move. Last year, she worked for a contractor, using com-
"It's very scary out there right now. You get 101 excuses why they can't hire you."
mind.
LISA PAGAN
Former department
store manager
be unemployed again.
After her layoff, she thought shed be marketable. But the market had collapsed. By late summer, Proctor had burned through much of her personal savings.
She leapt at the chance to work temporarily as manager of a Sticks location, selling handmade wooden sculptures. Still, the job lasts only until Jan. 6. After that, she'll
puter drafting programs to draw floor plans.
Retailers pay their sales clerks an average of about $13 an hour, the government estimates. Proctor declined to say how much she's paid, beyond saying it's well below what she earned as a designer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
At Hoffman's Chocolates in West Palm Beach, Fla., the lavish holiday display of Christmas lights, toy trains and a robotic Santa
But it's more than the $400 a week shed been collecting in unemployment benefits.
Claus draws onlookers each year. But finding skilled workers for the holiday rush used to be difficult, said CEO Fred Meltzer.
Until this year. When it posted 45 jobs in its chocolate factory and on the sales floor, Hoffman's received 550 applications. Some came from people laid off by the circulation department of the Palm Beach Post. Others had worked for law firms. Another was Lisa Pagan, a former department store manager.
Once she heard Hoffman's was hiring, Pagan said she put on her best job-interview outfit — just to drop off her resume. She landed a position that pays less than half what she made last year as a department-store manager.
But after a year of unemployment, Pagan, a 38-year-old divorced mother of two, isn't complaining.
"It's very scary out there right now," she said. "You get 101 excuses why they can't hire you. You get into panic mode."
The trend illustrates the despair of unemployed people with professional backgrounds who face a pitiless job market, said John Lonski, chief economist of Moody's Capital Markets Research Group. Even though the economy has begun growing again, employers aren't confident enough in the recovery or their own businesses to step up hiring.
Competition is especially fierce for retail jobs, in part because the industry has cut 1 million jobs since January 2008, said Davis of the National Retail Federation. Many retailers, fearing another weak holiday season, are trying to manage with leaners staff.
"Companies are still capable of meeting customer demands with their now often downsized staffs." Lonski said.
"Not only are there fewer positions, but more people are applying" Davis said.
That helps explain why shoppers who phone customer service at online retailer Moosejaw Mountaineering get Scott Beebe, a trained engineer with two postgraduate degrees and eight years of experience in product development for General Motors.
Beebe, 33, took a buyout from GM in September, feeling the future was bleak at the shrinking
automaker. With experience at a development lab where he earned about $75,000. Beebe has since been seeking engineering or management work. No luck.
So in the meantime, he's taken a temporary job at Moosejaw's call center in suburban Detroit. He's making $8 an hour.
"It's a good distraction from searching day in and day out," he said.