UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, March 20, 1997
3
Fraternity suspends charter
By Ann Marchand Kansan staff writer
The Pi Kappa Alpha chapter at the University of Kansas had its international charter suspended following a hazing incident on Feb. 26. University officials said Tuesday.
The Beta Gamma chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, 2000 Stewart Ave., waived its right to a formal hearing and agreed to accept responsibility for allegations in a complaint against it filed with the University, according to a University Relations statement.
The University has placed the chapter on interim suspension, pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings that are set to conclude within two weeks.
hazing.
Until a formal punishment is set, the Pi Kappa Alpha members are prohibited from participating in University activities because they violated the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which defines
The board of directors of Pi Kappa Alpha International fraternity, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, has suspended the chapter.
Kevin Virta, executive director of Pi Kappa Alpha, said that the national fraternity was among the first to ban hazing. In 1874, the fraternity amended its constitution to ban side degrees, which were the precursor to modern hazing. Virta said.
Virta also said that the fraternity had extensive programming designed to eliminate hazing in its 204 chapters in the United States and Canada. Yet he estimated that in the past 10 years, about 35 chapter charters had been suspended, with about 20 percent of those suspensions related to hazing.
For Pi Kappa Alpha to regain its charter at the University, it must undergo a reorganization of the Beta Gamma chapter, which was established in 1914.
Fraternity president Todd Guerriert, Lake
Forest, Ill., senior, said that reorganization measures would include securing the chapter's debts, financially preparing for an anticipated loss of membership, establishing an alumni board to run the house during the suspension period, finding a housemother or other supervisory individual and complying with University and fraternity suspension measures.
But Guerrieri said that the chapter was willing to change and work through the situation.
But Pi Kappa Alpha also is financially troubled. The fraternity has two outstanding mortgages, which Guiererl estimated could be paid in full within a decade. The chapter is more than two years delinquent on its payments to the international fraternity — the amount owed is among the largest of any Pi Kappa Alpha chapters, Virta said.
"The idea here is to get this house whipped into shape," he said.
Defining Hazing
"Hazing' includes, but is not limited to, any action, activity or situation which recklessly, negligently or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health, welfare or safety of a person, creates excessive fatigue, mental or physical discomfort, exposes a person to extreme embarrassment or ridicule, involves personal servitude, or substantially interferes with the academic requirements or responsibilities of a student. It is presumed that hazing is a forced activity regardless of the apparent willingness of an individual to participate in the activity."
source: Article 22, Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities (Lawrence campus)
Scientists lead research in Brain Awareness Week
Med Center investigates Down's Syndrome, AIDS
By Emily Vrabac Kansan staff writer
Brains can be the source of infinite information, yet they can also be the source of disease.
This week is the second annual National Brain Awareness Week, and researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center are sharing knowledge gained through research.
Neuroscientists at the Med Center perform preliminary research to understand the brain's many mechanisms. The researchers are studying topics such as AIDS, brain damage recovery, infant brain development and Down's Syndrome.
"Research is wonderful in that it doesn't provide answers so much as it provides more questions," said Peter Smith, neuroscientist at the Med Center.
Paul Cheney, director of the Smith Mental Retardation and Human Development and Research Center at the Med Center, said the research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
"We have nine neuroscientists involved in a large basic science research effort concerned with the development of the brain and its ability to reorganize following an injury." Cheney said.
Smith is researching plasticity, or how the central nervous system responds to damage or accident in people of different ages.
"Young people with brain damage can reorganize and compensate for things that older people can't," Smith said.
Smith's research has found that children's nerves can create new pathways that enable the children to regain abilities that were temporarily lost following the injury. Adults are unable to make new nerve pathways, Smith said.
He also has found that some nerves left stranded by the damage actually took on different functions in order to compensate for the injury. He said this showed the body's ability to change even after patterns had already been established.
"We're not hard-wired," Smith said. "We can cause wires to go different places and cause them to change a bit."
Cheney said other research being conducted at the Med Center involved the effects of AIDS on the brain.
"IHV can replicate in the brain and, through mechanisms not understood very well, does damage," Cheney said.
Cheney said that in addition to the AIDS and brain damage research, the neuroscientists were studying the factors that contribute to brain development in babies and what causes individuals with Down's Syndrome to have motor impairments.
The researchers observed Brain Awareness Week by traveling to Kansas City, Kan., elementary and junior high school classrooms and discussing the brain's diseases, functions and how to protect it.
"Our goal is to try to get the message out to the community about the importance of brain research," Cheney said.
Speaker stresses relaxation methods
By Paul Eakins Kansan staff writer
Whether working at a stressful job, doing stressful school work or just having a stressful life, most people enjoy a little relaxation now and then.
However, most people do not relax enough, which can lead to high stress and poor health, Ken Joseph said yesterday during an organizational behavior class.
Joseph, formerly head of the department of management studies at Madras University in Madras, India, said that students needed to take more time to relax and needed to worry less about falling.
To prove this point, Joseph gave statistics about stress-related injuries and death. For example, he said that about 80 percent of industrial accidents were attributable to stress and that every 33 seconds someone died because of heart and blood-vessel diseases that might have been averted by early stress management.
"There is nobody who has not failed. Failure is human. It is part of life's growth," Joseph said during his lecture. "Guilt about yesterday and worry about tomorrow kills us."
Joseph demonstrated ways that people display stress and loosened up the class with exercises, singing and dancing.
Using a combination of relaxation rhythm, Indian transcendental meditation and Eastern philosophies such as Tai Chi and Zen, Joseph showed
the class techniques to relieve stress, such as regulated and alternating breathing.
"In 20 minutes of relaxation, you can accomplish what you do in eight hours of sleep," he said.
Joseph has taught seminars on stress management and relaxation internationally for companies such as British Airways and General Electric, and he was in charge of management development and training at Indian Airlines. Although Joseph usually is paid for his services, he said he had volunteered his time yesterday for educational purposes.
Ken Joseph
Joseph said now was the time for students to develop relaxation skills.
"You've got to be kind to yourself at this age," he said.
Elaine Hollensbe, Gladstone, Mo., graduate student, who teaches the class, said that the need for relaxation could be overlooked.
"We don't stop and think about needing relaxation," Holmlensbe said after the exercises. "I'm very relaxed now, and when I came in, I wasn't."
Jim Kolich, Overland Park, senior said that what he had learned from Joseph could help him.
"It itse like I'm always wigged out," Kolich said. "I could work stress management into my routine."
Volunteer note takers ingredient for success
By Emily Vrabac
Kansan staff writer
Taking notes, listening to lectures and typing papers are things that most KU students take for granted.
But students with disabilities must rely on peer volunteers to perform these tasks for them, and the services are not always up to par, according to several students.
"It's put me in some awkward positions trying to complete classes," said Brenda Vanhyning, Lenexajunior who filed a lawsuit recently against the University. Vanhyning has disabilities in both hands that prevent her from taking notes in class, so she must rely on student note takers.
"I've had to drop some classes," said Erik Peltzman, San Francisco junior who has dyslexia. "I've had to basically just wait on graduating. That doesn't reflect my knowledge. That just reflects that I didn't get a note taker."
Vanhyning and Peltzman have had problems in classes in which no one has volunteered to be a note taker or the note takers have not even attended class. They say something is wrong with the system.
"I feel like the school itself could provide so much for me educationally," Peltzman said. "They are supposed to try to provide an equal playing field for me."
The Student Assistance Center coordinates the volunteer recruitment, and the center assists about 170 students a semester, said Michael Shuttc, the center's assistant director.
Shuttic said he was not usually made aware of problems that students were having during the semester.
"A lot of times for me, the feedback is after the fact, so there's not a lot I can do," he said. "After the class, the student tells me they never had a note taker."
In the current system, instructors receive a letter from the Student Assistance Center requesting that they recruit a note taker for a particular class. Instructors have the burden of actually selecting the note taker by the first day of class.
"I usually get the letter early enough, and I often know people from previous classes that I've taught, so I can get students who are good at it," said Donna Luckey, associate professor of architecture and urban design. "I think the faculty are generally concerned about these kinds of situations."
Ashley Masoni, Emporia sophomore, is a note taker this semester in a history class for Peltzman.
"I did it because he (the student) deserves every opportunity as everyone else," she said. "He shouldn't be at a disadvantage when we're all doing the same work. All I have to do is everything I would do in a regular class."
"I think they should provide a list of professors who work well with students with disabilities," he said.
Shuttic said the Student Assistance Center had contemplated other methods of recruiting note takers.
"There's always discussion about how to do it better," he said. "The incentive is for them to be in class to do well for themselves."
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