THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2009
NEWS
3A
DRUMS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
money from Student Senate. The funds pay for drumming classes for group members and drum repair. The ensemble meets every Monday
from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in room 110 of Murphy Hall
Pulling from Bassett's 15 years of experience in West African drumming tradition, the members play the traditional rhythms from the ancient
"When they are brought together, that's what makes the music have such a power."
DYLAN BASSETT ADEKU director
home mom.
Ryan said what struck her was the fact that these civilizations needed music for more than just
empire of Mali and the cultural beats of Ghana and Senegal.
Bassett said the most beautiful part of the African rhythms was the way the diverse beats worked together.
"It's that conflict between two different rhythms that wouldn't seem to fit together," he said. "When they are brought together, that's what makes the music have such a power."
entertainment. They needed it to tell the stories of their past, to celebrate the birth of a child, to mourn a loss.
In that sense, the rhythms reflect the range of people in ADEKU — from Ryan, a 20-year-old college student, to Sandy Beverly, a Lawrence resident and stay-at-
She said one songa the "Dundunba" or "strongman dance," was used by an ancient Guinea civilization to settle disputes.
"Their music in Africa is part of their everyday life." Ryan said. "We view music as strictly leisure,
Hands flash to the rhythms of an African beat last Monday night in Murphy Hall during the African Dium Ensemble's weekly meeting. The student organization played multiple beats requiring the coordination of more than 10 members who played that night.
it's not something that gets us through the day.
Ryan said she hoped to use the expressive power of the African drum in her career as a musical therapist.
Jake Herman, Manhattan soph-
are how much the people of West Africa helped one another.
"I think that over there they have a better sense of brotherhood than we have here in the States," he said. "It seems like people are more willing to help each other than being caught up in their own life."
Bassett said the Mali used "Sunu" to help laborers stay on their feet for another day of harvesting.
One song, the harvest song "Sunu" of the Mali empire, exemplifies this attitude. Herman said.
"Everybody would be tired, and then when they started singing, you'd have the energy to be able to continue going," he said. "Music was part of the work."
"Their music in Africa is part of their everyday life. We view music as strictly leisure ..."
LINDSAY RYAN Kansas City, Kan., sophomore
omore and president of the group,
said he had learned to apprecii-
As thriving as the group may be now, members agree it's missing a key element - dancers
dancers
"In Africa, there's not a separate word for music and dance," Ryan said.
meant to have dancers. But ever since the dance instructor left for
Bassett said the West African drumming tradition was
London last year. ADEKU has yet to find a replacement, turning the ensemble into a percussion performance group that lacks the traditional presentation of the songs. Herman said the group was considering actively searching for a
The ensemble's last practice of the semester will be Dec. 7. But Bassett said the first two sessions next semester, Jan. 18 and Jan. 25, will be open for new enrollees to start fresh on a new set of songs.
new dance instructor.
As of now, membership for the ensemble is free.
Follow Aly Van Dyke at twitter. com/alyvandyk.e.
— Edited by Amanda Thompson
TFXTBOOKS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
develop some kind of plan where students can come in and buy an extremely reduced-priced textbook for a major class — the big lecture classes, the 300-plus classes — and purchase their textbooks at, ideally, about a quarter of the cost," Smith said.
Smith said the plan would have to require close cooperation between the departments and the bookstores to make sure that if a teacher was going to teach a course, he or she would teach it for the next three to four semesters. At 25 percent of the cost for renting the book, the span of three to four semesters would even out the full price.
Smith said he would like to see this textbook rental program be implemented for the Fall 2010 semester. He said the rental program could also be beneficial to teachers because more students would be inclined to take a course if the textbook didn't cost about $200.
"I know in some of the classes we have on campus when you're doing intro-level courses, you're paying $180 for a single textbook, $160 for a single textbook," Smith said.
The resolution still has to go through University Administration,
but Smith said he was confident it would pass.
He said to have the bookstore buy them back for just $80 didn't make sense.
"If our faculty is here for our students, which I fully believe they are, I think it's something that they'll want," Smith said.
Smith said a textbook rental program had been tried in the past with chemistry. But as a subject that constantly gets updated, the practice of renting a textbook became a moot point. Smith has other subjects in mind for textbook renting.
"I think we need to start with the math books, the big art history lectures, the big earthquakes and natural disasters, the big 1,000 person lectures," he said. "If we start there with those professors who usually teach the course for a lot of years, we could start to see the impact made right away."
Margaret Bayer, associate chain of the mathematics department, said she wholeheartedly believed in the idea of textbook rentals.
"I would encourage every means people can have for bringing down those prices," Bayer said.
Bayer said the mathematics department asked publishers to make an edition of their textbooks specifically for the University. Essentially, the mathematics department asks that certain chapters are included in the books it receives and that some chapters are
omitted. The book, then, comes at a lower price.
Bayer said math professors would generally be happy to keep a certain math book for the next several years.
"I'm using a book this semester in a 500-level course. I used the same edition of the same book six years ago," Bayer said. "The exact same thing was half the price as it is now. And there haven't been any new production costs but the book price has gone up like that."
Jonathan Earle, associate director of the history department, has co-written the textbook "Major Problems in the Early Republic 1787-1848" for a class relating to early U.S. history. When Earle heard his textbook was going to be used as an example for the pilot rental program, he said he was conflicted.
"I have two interests — as both an educator, I want you guys to be able to get the best quality textbooks for the lowest possible price," Earle said. "I'm also a author so I want to get royalties because I worked really hard to write that book."
Earle said he was skeptical because he thought there was a possibility that these rental programs wouldn't help his students or himself. He said he hoped it was beneficial to the students and
Not in connection with Student Senate, KU Bookstore officials have already discussed the option of a textbook rental program.
"We're exploring rentals as well and they have not talked to us about it at this point," said Steve Rhodes, director of KU Bookstore. "It takes a lot of preparation and you have to have the correct point of sales system and everything but we are working towards that right now."
himself as an author.
Much of what the bookstore is planning is similar to the plans being made by Smith and Student Senate with the cost of books and the targeted date to start the program. Rhodes said other details needed to be ironed out, such as if a student decided to keep a book after the end of a course. He said the bookstore was heavily leaning toward renting because the publishing market was trying to adapt to modern challenges.
"We still can't get any commitment from faculty so it's pretty much a gamble on the bookstore," Bridges said.
"The driving force is really the cost to the students, looking for that other option." Rhodes said.
Rhodes said the high cost of textbooks was a reason why publishers were leaning toward textbook rentals. Some of these books can also be obtained cheaper over the Internet. He said he thought the move toward renting was more good-natured.
"In terms of sheer numbers, it's pretty small, but the people that use it are extremely grateful." Bridges said. "If you gauge success that way, I'd say it's very successful. The fact that we have one and give students options makes it that much more so, too."
Bradley Bridges, bookstore manager at the University of Illinois, said his bookstore already had a textbook rental program in place.
Although the KU Bookstore and Student Senate haven't met yet to further discuss possibilities, Rhodes said he imagined they would meet soon to coordinate their efforts.
Bridgesaid that if the bookstore got commitment from the faculty, it would incrementally lower the price to rent the textbooks.
Follow Jesse Brown attwitter.com/jesebrown1.
Edited by Amanda Thompson
Class Closed?
KU Independent Study offers more than 150 KU credit courses online and through distance learning.
Enroll any time!
African & African-American Studies
Anthropology
Applied Behavioral Science
Atmospheric Science
Biological Sciences
Classics
Curriculum & Teaching
East Asian Languages & Cultures
Economics
Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
English
Environmental Studies
European Studies
Film and Media Studies
Geography
Geology
Health, Sport & Exercise Science
History
History of Art
Humanities & Western Civilization
Latin
Mathematics
Music
Political Science
Psychology
Psychology & Research in Education
Religious Studies
Social Welfare
Sociology
Spanish
Special Education
Speech-Language-Hearing
Theatre
Stay on track to graduate in four
785-864-5823 enroll@ku.edu ContinuingEd.ku.edu/is Check with your academic advisor before enrolling