CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, February 12, 1996
3A
Meetings focus on black women
Symposium features authors, professors Somalian filmmaker
The Million Man March, female circumcision and Zora Neale Hurston were some of the topics discussed at a symposium on black women's studies Friday and Saturday at the Kansas Union.
By Heather Kirkwood
Kansan staff writer
About 75 professors, graduate students and scholars attended the symposium titled, Black Women's Studies: Retrospect and Prospect. The symposium was held in conjunction with Chancellor Robert Hemenway's inauguration and with African-American History Month.
The symposium, organized by the Hall Center for the Humanities, gave the scholars of Black women's studies a chance to discuss the impact of their work on academe and the general public.
It also discussed future scholarships in this relatively-new field.
Speakers included Black women's studies scholars such as Nell Irvin Painter, a history professor at Princeton University and author of several books including the Exodusators; Soray Mire, a Somalian filmmaker who created a documentary film about female circumcision titled Fire Eyes; Katie Cannon, a professor of religious studies at Temple University and author of several books including Katie's Cannon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community;
and Cheryl Wall, professor of English at Rutgers University and author of several books including Women of the Harlem Renaissance.
"I wanted to represent the disciplines that are most influenced by Black women's studies," said Bill Andrews, director of the Hall Center for the Humanities. "I concentrated on English, history, and religion.
"The filmmaker was coming to KU anyway, so we were fortunate enough for her to participate in the symposium."
Organizers said it was appropriate
that a symposium on Black women's studies coincided with Hemenway's inauguration. Hemenway is sometimes viewed as a Black women's studies scholar for his 1978 biography of Zora Neale Hurston, a famous African-American novelist, anthropologist and folklorist.
"It has not just been my intellectual identity that has been influenced by Black women's studies, but my identity as a human being and as an administrator has been influenced by Black women's studies and by Zora Neale Hurston." Hemenway said.
Eunice Exert-Stallworth, an artist with the Kansas Arts Commission, said she enjoyed the symposium.
"If you are a woman, you learn more about yourself," she said. "If you're a man, you learn more about women. You can't go wrong."
Student's play examines racial differences
By Jason Strait
Kansan staff writer
When Raoul Berman, Tonganoxie senior, approached Paul Lim with a play discussing the inability of Blacks, Caucasians and homosexuals to get along, Lim disagreed with it.
"Primarily, these people are like water and oil. They don't mix," said Lim, associate professor of English and director of the English Alternative Theatre.
But after the O.J. Simpson trial, Lim reconsidered.
"When Raoul wrote the play, I fully disagreed with the position it took," he said. "But after O.J., I thought maybe Raoul was on to something."
Berman's play, Grandpa's
Ghost, will be performed by the
English Alternative Theatre at 8
tonight at 100 Smith Hall.
The two-act play deals with the treatment of African Americans and gays in the U.S. military in the 1950s and with the inability of different people to get along. The performance is free.
After the play, William Tuttle.
Jr., professor of American studies and history, will moderate a discussion of issues raised by the play.
Berman said the play was based on his experiences in the military and the faulty relationships between different people.
"I think everyone has good intentions," Berman said. "People just don't understand each other. What I'm trying to get across is there is no evil person in there. Everyone just believes they are right, and they just can't get along."
Gina Thornhurst KANSAN
Lim said he chose the play to perform in conjunction with African-American History Month because he thought it would be good material to generate discussion.
Lim said that although the Simpson verdict changed his mind about giving the play a chance, he still disagreed with its premise and hoped those who attend the reading would take part in the discussion.
"We like to think, in the KU community, that we live in a good world," Lim said. "I hope that we will have some disagreement, as I did, about Raoul's play."
English Alternative Theatre actors Tony Fuemmeler, Lawrence sophomore, Jerel Taylor, and Arnold Weiss, retired professor, perform in the dress rehearsal of a staged reading of Grandpa's Ghosts, an original script by Raoul Berman, Tonganoxie senior.
Membership of KU Christian groups is on the rise
Kansan staff writer
By R. Adam Ward
Vancouver staff writer
One of the most important things Amy Schmidt, Whitehouse, N.J., freshman, did when she came to the University of Kansas was join Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.
"I joined the InterVarsity because God is the most important person in my life, and being with other people who feel the same way is the most important thing for me," she said.
Schmidt said she joined the group to be with people who held views that normally were not heard on campus.
Schmidt is part of a growing number of freshmen who are joining campus Christian groups.
"I think there is a countrywide trend of people who have
not grown up in a religious environment who are seeing a need for religion in their life," said Jim Musser, director of Campus Christians, 1320 Ohio St.
Campus Christians began with 10 members and added 20 students last year. Musser said.
Several other student Christian groups have experienced similar growth in their numbers, too.
The chair, human services and theology groups at St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road, have gained new members this year.
This increase reflects more students continuing their previous church involvement in college, said Vince Krische, chaplain at the center.
He said this trend was a reversal of previous years, when students tended to become indifferent to religion once they moved to college.
The Navigators, another campus Christian group, also have experienced more student involvement, said Chris Carey, Lafayette, Calif., senior, and a member of the group.
Carey said he did not think the interest in campus Christian groups was a fad.
Instead, he said he thought it was a result of people wanting to have a closer relationship with God.
Andrea Davis, student president of the Baptist Student Union, said she thought interest in all kinds of spirituality was increasing on campus.
"People think about it and are interested in it," she said.
Parm Dishman/KANSAN
Rick Lowry, a minister from Town and Country Christian Church in Topeka, speaks to a group of about 20 people at a campus Christian organization meeting. This particular group meets every Sunday night at 13:20 Ohio for singing, scripture readings and prayer.
Hey babe...
Here's a collection of pick-up lines offered by KU students:
Aren't you tired? Because you've been running through my mind all day.
Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?
Is your daddy a thief? 'Cause he took the stars out of the sky and put them in your eyes.
Screw me if I'm wrong, but haven't we met?
Wanna wgo wrestling?
Wanna go wrestling
What's your sign?
Do you like forward men / women? Good / too bad, because I'm hitting on you.
Pick-up lines often knotty
Is that a Kansan in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?
By Susanna Lööf
Kansan staff writer
With only two days left until Valentine's Day, students may start to become a bit desperate in their chase for a date. Some may resort to pick-up lines to get the attention of that special someone.
But that is not a good strategy, said Paula Hetherington. Lenexa sophomore.
"People who use pick-up lines have no chance of survival in the relationship world, because they're fake and cheesy, and they are not an expression of their own personality," she said.
Hetherington said pick-up lines did not work on her. Instead, they had the opposite effect, she said. One pick-up line that didn't work on her was the Windex line, which goes like this: "Have you Windexed your pants? Because I can see myself in them."
"Once a guy came up to me and used that one," Hetherington said. "I about killed him. I was really grossed-out."
Not all pick-up lines are nasty, though. Diane Sporeleder, Glen Elder sophomore, heard an unusual pick-up line when she was at the Art Institute in Chicago. She was sitting on a bench waiting for a friend, and next to her sat a guy who also was waiting for somebody.
"People who use pick-up lines have no chance of survival in the relationship world because they're fake and cheesy..."
"After a while, he
Paula Hetherington
Lenexa sophomore
After a white, he turns to me and says I've been sitting here so long that I feel like an exhibition," and then he asked me out," Sporleder said.
Sporleider said she had never used a pick-up line.
Neither has Ben Boarman. Lenexa sonhonore.
Sporeler did not go out with the guy, but they had fun talking, she said.
"It's not something you use," he said. "It's more something you like ground with your friends about." he said.
something you use," he said. "It's more something you joke around with your friends about," he said.
Instead of using pick-up lines, Boarman said he tried to start a conversation when he wanted to meet somebody.
Jason Brown, an employee of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, also said he had never used a pick-up line.
"I suppose I just get to know women through friendship, he said.
Even though Boarman, Brown and other male students said they never had used pick-up lines, Allison Mayes, Junction freshman, and Emily Conway, Fort Collins, Colo., freshman, said they had heard many,
Mayes and Conway said that pick-up lines don't work on them because they know why guys use them. The women said that they usually react to pick-up lines by just laughing.