UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, March 14.1997
3A
GR Gordon-Ross / KANSAN
Caroline Curry, Arkadelphia, Ark., graduate student, and Ilya Goynensky, Moscow
Russian House fosters conversation, learning
By Harumi Kogarimal
Kansan staff writer
The Russian House allows KU students to live in a Russian environment in Lawrence.
Galina Urman, Odessa, Ukraine, graduate student and manager of the house, said that the Russian House, 1536 Tennessee St., was home to two Russian students, two visiting scholars from Kyrgyzstan and two American students studying Russian.
The house was started by Louise Redford, KU graduate from the department of Slavic languages and literatures. Redford, who is from Russia, and her husband purchased the house in 1988 and rented rooms to Russian students and students studying Russian.
"Because graduate students did not have the opportunity to speak Russian, we thought it would be a great idea to have a place like the Russian House," Redford said. "You can't learn a foreign language from the book."
The residents get together during dinner, some nights with cups of tea, to
talk about their classes at the University of Kansas and about Russia.
Caroline Curry, Arkadelphia, Ark., graduate student, said living in the house helped her improve her Russian because the native Russians sometimes would converse with her in Russian.
"I don't speak Russian all the time because they sometimes refuse to speak Russian," Curry said. "But if I didn't live here, I don't think I would have any opportunity to speak Russian."
Redford said she sold the house to Lee Lemesay, the house's current owner, several years ago because it had been difficult to manage the house after she moved to the Kansas City area.
Urman said a variety of cultures met at the house. Visitors from Spain, France and Israel have stayed in the house, and other international students sometimes have parties there.
"The Russian House is for international students to hang out," said Ilya Gnoyenskiy, Moscow senior.
KU professor making history, working to publish lost gospel
Gnostic manuscript has passages not in Bible
A KU professor's discovery in a German museum may change the way scholars look at early Christianity.
By Sean Demory
Kansan staff writer
Paul Mirecki, associate professor of religious studies, discovered fragments of a fourth-century manuscript in the Egyptian Museums in Berlin. The fragments contain a lost Gnostic gospel dating back from the first or second century A.D.
Mirecki first discovered the fragments
in 1991. Mirecki and Charles Hedrick,
professor of religious studies at Southwest Missouri State, are editing the manuscript for publication this summer.
The Gnostics were a North African sect of Christianity from the second and third centuries, said Jim Hamilton, professor of philosophy at Kansas State University. They believed salvation was based on a special knowledge that could allow release from entrapment in the flesh.
The gospel, Mirecki said, contains a discussion between the resurrected Jesus and his disciples that is independent of the biblical Gospels.
One of the passages from the lost gospel reads, "Whoever is near me is near the fire; whoever is far from me is far from life," which is almost identical
to a passage from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas discovered in Egypt in 1945.
"This lost gospel presents us with more primary evidence that the origins of early Christianity were far more diverse than medieval church historians would tell us," Mirecki said.
Mirecki said the prime importance of the lost gospel was historical.
"The point is not to discover some sort of 'real Jesus' but to reconstruct the nature of early Christianity as a set of diverse social movements in late antiquity."
"The question is not if these are the actual words of Jesus," Mirecki said. "That's a question that can never be answered, as even the biblical Gospels contain the teachings of diverse early communities rather than the direct teachings of Jesus.
KU style a case for fashion police
International students surprised by casual dress on campus, at clubs
By Steph Brewer Special to the Kansan
Where are the skirts?
That's what David Cohavi, Rehovot, Israel, senior wanted to know when he began classes at the University of Kansas. Cohavi is not the only international student who has been taken aback by KU students' casual approach to fashion.
"Go to campus. Look around you," Cohavi said. "What do people wear? Jeans."
Heather Grimmer, receptionist at the Office of Study Abroad, said British students often were surprised by KU students' casual clothing. She said they were shocked that students wore jeans and sweatshirts to bars.
"They just don't get it." she said.
For an average KU student, wearing jeans to a bar probably isn't a big deal. But to Neile Abbs, Exeter, England, junior, it seems downright sloppy. She said jeans were almost all she saw on KU students.
"They all look the same," she said. "There's no individuality."
In England, Abb's said, style was different because college students tended to follow
fashion magazines.
"A lot of fashion magazines come out every two weeks," Abbs said. "It goes into the shops and straight onto people's backs."
While KU students may look to the Gap for fashion inspiration, Anouk Hanafiah, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, junior, said her peers looked to Paris, Milan and New York.
"Whatever's on the runway, they're wearing it." Hanafiah said.
Hanafia said that in Malaysia, deciding what to wear was more stressful for her than in America.
"Over there you're like, 'I can't wear this because I wore it last time I went clubbing.' she said.
Here, she said, people don't care what you wear.
Fashion indifference may be affecting students' schoolwork, said Uche Obiorah, Umuhaai, Nigeria, freshman.
"I think students would be more focused on their course work if they wore clothing suitable to the business they are going to do," he said.
Obiorah said that while he, too, wore jeans to class, he dressed up for test days.
"It helps me get in the frame of mind," he said.
"I wouldn't say it's so hard to adapt," Cohavi said. "How many countries are not
While international students are accustomed to dressing up, however, they said it had been easy to dress down.
familiar with jeans?"
Abs, on the other hand, has not changed her style. She said she has continued to wear mostly black clothing, as she did in England.
"I wouldn't say I've followed the fashion here, because I don't think there is any," she said.
and she developed two colleges in analysis — one with small-town students and one with students from cities. The former was comparable to the University in style, the latter more formal.
freshman, style at the University is not very different from home. She said in Malaysia, the style varied from region to region. She said she attended two colleges in Malawi
Fun is not how Cohavi would describe KU fashion. He said there was no specific fashion code in Lawrence. Although he has conformed to the style, he still is surprised by certain outfits.
"The girls wore little dresses to class," she said, "They're more fun."
"I can't even think about a student in a different country out on the street with sweats," he said. "Jogging pants are for jogging."
For some students, however, jogging pants are acceptable in many situations.
"I don't think fashion has actually hit KU yet," Abbs said.
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