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Students encouraged to report harassment
Office working on ways of helping victims
By David Stewart Kansan staff writer
The head of the University Senate Human Relations Committee said yesterday that the group was working on ways to educate people about what to do in case they are sexually harassed.
Abbeyshire McDohough, chairman of the Human Relations Committee, spoke to the University Senate Executive Council.
McDonough said that information from the office of affirmative action stated that people should talk first with the person doing the harassing and then should file a grievance with the affirmative action office.
McDonough said that the group had talked about suggesting that people go to the office first.
That way, she said, the office would have a file of the number of possible sexual harassment cases in her office. If no formal release was filed
Also, people at the office of affirmative action could offer counseling before the victim talks to the harasser.
"Some people feel if they say anything to that person then they are putting themselves in a bad light," McDonough said.
She said that the office would be able to suggest how the victim could approach the harasser in a non-confrontational way.
Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, associate professor of religious studies, said that the campus also needed to be aware that although we normally think of employers harassing employees, recently male students have harassed female graduate teaching assistants.
"We need to provide support to those young women," she said.
McDough said that the University needed to provide more information.
"We should keep people aware of what they should do," she said.
She said that awareness should be raised by posters or the media so that people on campus knew what to do if they were harassed or discriminated against.
Also, the committee is keeping track of campus incidents of discrimination.
"We are trying to build up evidence of what is happening," McDonough said.
One recent incident involved George Wedge, associate professor of English and linguistics, who on Nov. 23 discovered a swastika
scratched into his office door.
Evelyn Swartz, presiding officer of University Council, said that keeping a file of that sort of activity was valuable.
"I think it's important for everyone to know what's on" he, said. "We all find it extremely disturbing."
SenEx also discussed increasing campus information in another way.
The committee decided to have the Academic Procedures and Policies Committee look into whether a University Senate rule pertaining to class information needed to be clarified or modified.
The rule states: "Every instructor shall make clear, at the beginning of each course, his or her rules for the preparation of classroom assignments, collateral reading, notebooks, manuals, etc." The rule also states that his or her students may not, through ignorance, subject themselves to the charge of academic misconduct."
SenEx members reached a consensus that they wanted to look into the possibility of requiring for each class a written course description, or syllabus, that would include information about evaluation of work in the course.
Environmentalist speaks
Activist calls awareness the key to progress
By Cindy Harger Kansan staff writer
America's system of fighting environmental battles needs to be creatively reformed, a well-known environmental activist said yester-
"Our whole way of dealing with environmental issues is obsolete," said Mike Roselle, one of the founding members of Earth First!, a radical environmental group in the United States. "We, along with some other environmental organizations, have to have to try to find creative ways to get the message out about the seriousness of these problems."
Roselle addressed the issue of environmental activism yesterday in Malott Hall. About 80 people attended a lecture sponsored was sponsored by the EU Rovets.
Roselle, who is from Berkeley,
Calif., travels around the country
helping small grassroots groups fight
local environmental battles. He
stopped in Lawrence on his way to participate in a rally and protest this weekend at the Vulcan Chemica's Co. in Wichita.
He said the causes of environmental problems, such as the greenhouse effect, deforestation and threatened animal species, have become institutionalized within society. The way to combat the problems is to work on the local level and "get in there and get dirty."
"You have to fight the local issues," he said. "But you also have to keep abreast of what's happening globally. People in this country have 100 times more impact than people in most other countries."
"Earth First! is an attempt to diversify the movement — to break away from the group strategy and start experimenting with new tactics," he said. "We decided to form a more radical wing of the environmental movement, but not to institutionalize ourselves."
Earth First! has become known for its radical protest techniques that get media attention and make the public aware of the issues, Roselle said. Members have been known to chain themselves to trees, sneak their way into nuclear test sites to delay experiments and dress in bear suits during a fight against the depletion of bear habitat.
"It itaes awareness," Wicker said. "They aren't going to harm anything, but it gets the media to talk about, and people can learn about the issues."
Ken Wicker, an Overland Park senior who attended the lecture, said that civil disobedience was appropriate for some issues.
Sue Ask, Great Bend, junior, and Nicole Antonopoulos, North Brook, Ill., junior, members of Enviors, pick up 210 pounds of recyclable paper and aluminum cans. The trash was collected Wednesday from Wescoe cafeteria and was used yesterday as a display in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall.
Environs use mound of trash to encourage recycling at KU
Debbie McMahon Kansan staff writer
An Environs information table yesterday sat next to 210 pounds of trash in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall and will remain there today.
Members of Environs collected the trash — recyclable paper and aluminum cans — Wednesday from classrooms and the Wescos Hall cafeteria in hopes of recycling program at the University of Kansas.
yesterday at Wescoe, and this is what it adds up to."
Sue Ask, Great Bend junior and Enviros member, said that if that much were collected each day from Wescoe alone, the University would earn $2,049.80 from recycling trash. And $148 per ton of trash would be saved from the fee to haul trash to the Lawrence landfill.
“It’s important to realize that it is costing the University to throw this away when they could be making money.” Ask said. “We did it to see just how much recyclable goods were being wasted. When people throw things away, they think of it as just one can. Well, lots of people throw just one can away
Debbie Scanlon, Chicago, Ill., junior and also a member of Environs, said the club planned to have a pilot project at Wesco next semester with different containers to sort recyclable trash. Environs will have a benefit concert in January at The Bottleneck 737 and Bridgehill St. to raise money to buy the containers.
"I think if the pilot project) works for us, I think the University will want to do it," too. "Scanlon said."
The information table coincided with the release of the group's third newsletter this semester. Other materials, such as recycling statistics, a Greenpeace pamphlet and an online website, are postictic cleaner receipt booklet, also was available.
Steve Palma, Kansas City, Mo., freshman, was one of the students who stopped at the table yesterday.
Carriage rides to be featured at residence hall dance
"I think it's instrumental in heightening people's awareness about recycling and pollution," he said. "Definitely there's no reason why the University proposes a program if an organization proves it to be beneficial."
By Jeremy Kohn
Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Horse-drawn carriage rides for couples will be the special attraction at a semiformal dance tomorrow night for residence hall students, sponsored by the Association of University Residence Halls.
The dance, "A Miracle on Jayhawk Boulevard," will be at the Kansas
Union Ballroom from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Admission will be free, although
carriage rides will cost $5 a couple.
Students from residence and scholarship halls were sent invitations this week. Brad Bowzer, chairman of the Park community committee, and to two land Park freshmen, to do students were expected to attend.
riage would be available. The carriage ride would follow Jayhawk Boulevard from the Kansas Union to the Chi Omega fountain and back. The rides will take place between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Students had the opportunity to sign up for the rides yesterday at Ellsworth Hall, Oliver Hall, Joseph R. Pearson Hall, Lewis Hall and
Bowzer said one horse-drawn car-
Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall.
Rand Simmons. Dodge City senior at Ellsworth, said he planned an amorous ride with his girlfriend.
"That (a carriage ride) would be really romantic," Simmons said. "I want to do anything other than a regular party. A semiformal dance will be
nice."
Julie Sandidge, Lyndon freshman at Hassinger Hall, said. "It will be a chance to get away from all the studying and have a good time."
The dance, which cost about $1,000 and was paid for by AURH, will include student disc jockeys and prizes.
"We're going to try to program for
everyone." said David Innes, a Harper senior and disc jockey for the dance. "Anything from the top-40 to the fringe groups."
Gift certificates from Domino's Pizza, the KU Bookstore and area restaurants will be distributed during the dance through a raffle game. No alcohol will be served at the dance.