Hill topics
DEPARTMENTAL Love
A common interest in special education brought Ann and Rud Tumbul together. They married six months after meeting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and their love brought them both to work at KU in 1980.
Pam Dishman/KANSAN
Story by Emily Vrabac
Romance can filter through the harrowing stress and frenzied studying of academia. These couples have found love in university environments and continue their marriages within the confines of the University of Kansas, each couple in the same department. The couples share their stories, from courting to collaborating.
Paul and Sandy Zimdars-
Swartz
Love as a religious experience Paul and Sandy Zimdars-Swartz met on a bench outside the Claremont Graduate School in California while commiserating with each other about the entrance exams that graduate students had to take at the school. Paul, who was a year ahead of Sandy, was the voice of experience that soothed her frustration.
"Circumstances threw us together quite a bit," Sandy said. "We had all these common interests, both academic and personal."
Exams were not the only thing they had in common. They soon learned that they both were from northern Ohio and that they lived next door to each other in graduate student housing.
They came to the University after graduate school, when Sandy obtained a job here.
"I was always the one who was hot to get a job," she said. "Paul was very gracious and decided to come with me."
Paul and Sandy said their common academic interests had made heated academic discussions a major component of their relationship. But aside from academic differences, the Zindarms-Swartzes said their personalities were quite distinct.
"He's patient and easygoing, which is probably a necessity living with me." she said.
Paul said he was content to let Sandy run her own show.
"Sandy is ambitious," he said. "She knows immediate what she wants
to do. That's what I find exciting in her; it's why I'm attracted to her."
Although they don't have particular plans for Valentine's Day, the Zimdars-Swartzes do plan to celebrate their 24th anniversary in June.
Howard Sypher and Beverly Davenport Sypher
Communicating their love
Communicating their love
Beverly Davenport Sypher calls it
the classic academic love story. She
was walking down the hall at the
University of Western Kentucky,
where she was an undergraduate
preparing to drop a class, when she
saw the course's graduate teaching
assistant. Howard Syvher.
She stopped him in the hallway and told him she was planning to drop Persuasion Research and Theory. Howard agreed that she should drop the class because she was the only undergraduate in it, and he walked with her to the professor's office. It was this short walk that affected their lives — but not her class schedule.
Howard said he got to know Beverly on the way to the professor's office and decided he didn't want her to drop the class. "I thought, 'She's interesting and fun to talk to, and if she drops the class I won't be able to talk to her.'" he said.
Their first date was on Valentine's Day, and they have been married 20 years.
They work in communication studies, where they are professors. He is the chairman of communication studies, and she also is associate dean of social sciences for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
"One of the most difficult things about academic couples in the same department is that people think our brains are joined," Beverly said. "People assume that we think alike. We've had disagreements; I can't imagine not disagreeing."
difficult because the Syphers are accustomed to their environment.
The Syphers said they had made an effort to separate work from home for their children's sake, which is
"We've always been together." Beverly said. "Our life has always been involved in academics. The way our life is now is the way it was when we met."
Rud and Ann Turnbull
A special education in love
A common interest brought the Turnbulls together in an academic environment where they may not otherwise have met.
She was new to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Rud Turnbull was on the faculty and was volunteer president of the local Association for Retarded Children, a position Ann Turnbull had held in her hometown of Plains, Ga. She went to Rud's meeting to become involved in the group and to put her academic expertise in special education to work.
However, she had ulterior motives in going to the meeting. A fellow faculty member had mentioned to Ann that Rud may be someone worth meeting.
"I wanted to check out this man around town," she said. "I also wanted to get involved."
Rud said Ann had immediately started volunteering for opportunities within the organization.
"I thought she was a great volunteer and a person I would like to know better," he said.
They were married six months later and now work literally side by side in offices separated by a wall and bookcases in Haworth Hall.
The Turbulls, who came to the University in 1980, are professors in special education and co-directors of the Beach Center for families of children with disabilities.
They have special insight into children with disabilities because their
son, Jay, has a disability. They also have two daughters who attend the University.
Rud said the phrase that best describes their relationship is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
"No one of us could do as much alone as we do together," he said.
Ann said that their abilities complemented each other and that they appreciated what each other did at home and at work.
"There are not the firm boundaries that many people have between children and work and marriage and work," Ann said. "It's just especially fulfilling."
Sweetheart
By Richard Lorant The Associated Press
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
The hearts taste the same.
Just the sayings are new.
Change is in the sugar-dusted air where little candy hearts have rolled off the same production line every Valentine's Day for generations.
This year, phrases such as "E-Mail Me" and
ge Me" have joined traditional statements like "Be Mine" on the pastel-colored hearts, while "Hot Stuff" has gone the way of "Groovy" and o ther outdated catch phrases.
Adding new sayings and dropping old ones is a haphazard practice at the New England Confectionery Co., where century-old machines stamp out Sweet-hearts Conversation Hearts and Necco Wafers.
This is not rocket science here. It's fun," said Walter Marshall, vice president of the company.
--anyone else who wanted to weigh in before choosing this year's slogans. The six new entries were inspired by everyone from Jerry Seinfeld ("I Don't Think So") to Marshall's grandson Joshua ("Awesome").
There are only a few rules in choosing new phrases. Marshall said the mottoes had to be G-rated and short enough to fit on the poster who wrote
Marshall collected ideas from
The new lines among the 195 phrases stamped on the
co-workers, customers and
hearts in red dye also include "Excuse Me" and
"Hello." Some of the banished phrases are: "Buzz
"This is not rocket science here. It's fun."
Walter Marshall
vice president, New England Confectionary Co.
Off," "Stop," "Try Me," "Bad Boy" and "Say Yes." Conversation hearts were developed by Necco in 1902. About 10 billion hearts will make their way into people's hands by Valentine's Day, and four-fifths of them are made by Necco. The hearts are relative newcomers to Necco, Wefer, which have
The hearts are relative newcomers next to Necco Wafers, which have been on the market for 150 years.
of sugar. gums
and flavoring,
and the
chalky discs
h ave
remained virtually unchanged
since they first
were stamped out by
Necco founder Oliver Chase in 1847.
NIGHT Life
FRIDAY
LAB Jazz Trio, 6 p.m. at Nouvelle Deli, 129 E. 10th St. Free.
Bill Mazwell & Friends, 10 p.m. at Nouvelle Deli, 129 E. 10th St.
Free.
■ Fiesta de la Cultura Mexicana Concert: KU Symphony Orchestra,
7:30 p.m. at the Lied Center. Cost: $4 students and $5 public.
The Jesus Lizard, Firewater and Blue Meanies, 10 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Cost: $10.
Alan White & Friends, 10 p.m. at Nouvelle Deli, 129 E. 10th St. Free.
Juan Carlos Laguana, classical guitar; 7:30 p.m. at Bales Recital Hall. Cost: $4 student and $6 public.
BRF-49 and the Starlite Rounders & Crown Electrics, 10 p.m. at Liberty Hall 644 Massachusetts St. Cost; $8.
Scroat Belly and Hellcat Trio, 10 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New
Hampshire St. Cost: $4 and $5.
SUNDAY
Organ Alumni Recital Series: Marck Steinbach, organ; 2:30 p.m. at
Baker Recital Hall, Free
Choral Concert: "For my Valentine"; University Singers, Women's Choral and Concert Choir, 2:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church. Free.
Danzig and The Electric Hirfell Club, 10 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. Cost $18.50
Massachusetts St. Coast Bottom
Swing Set 9 p.m.at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Free.
MONDAY
MONDAY
Open Mike, 8 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Free.
n. at Nouvelle Deli, 129 E. 10th St. Free.
TUESDAY
Grither and Emotional Feedback, 9:30 p.m. at The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St. Cost:$3 and $4.
■ Sebadho, 10 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. Cost: $10
adulten tickets
Frog Pond and Love Nuts, 9 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Cost: $4 and $5.
A. B. C. D. E.