THURSDAY, DEC.

10, 2015 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 30

NEWS ROUNDUP
YOU NEED TO KNOW

CAROLINE FISS/KANSAN

DAY IN THE LIFE.

From a Brazilian
violin student to a
Pi Phi house mother,
check out the
stories of University
students, faculty
and staff.
Section inside
STUDENT
FILMMAKER.
Savannah Rodgers
shines in film
festivals with
her short film
Politically Correct.
Read her story:
Arts & Culture 5

CAROLINE FISS/KANSAN

CHANCELLOR
INTERVIEW.
Bernadette GrayLittle weighed in on
concealed carry and
mental health care.
News PAGE 3

JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
Katherine Rainey addresses a group of demonstrators on Wescoe Beach.

JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
Mary Burg, executive assistant to the vice chancellor, makes a call as
demonstrators file in to the chancellors office.

For Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk, a tense

but rewarding month of advocacy
LARA KORTE
@Lara_Korte

Capping off almost a month

of diversity forums, demonstrations and conversations,
another call to action was
directed at administration
on Wednesday by the group
Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk.
The group began by entering classes in Blake and
Fraser Halls and the dean of
Social Welfares office, calling
for allyship before moving on
to demonstrate on the steps
of Wescoe Hall. The demonstrations ended in a two-hour
sit-in and discussion in the
chancellors office.
Wednesdays
events
wrapped up a tense semester
and what Kynnedi Grant, a
member of Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk, called a rollercoaster of emotions.
The group first emerged at
the Nov. 11 town hall meet-

ing, where members presented 15 demands and called for

an administrative response
to systemic discrimination
against minorities on campus.
During the same meeting,
Grant gave an account of
her own experience of an alleged hate crime. Since then,
Grant and other members
have been meeting with faculty members, attending department forums and talking
with students in an effort to
continue advocating their demands.
Grant said she feels the
group has experienced more
growth in the past three
months than most people
would experience in five
years.
Its challenged us as people first our humanity and
why we do what we do. Its
challenged our friendships.
Its challenged our relation-

ships, our professionalism,

she said. Its challenged us
in so many ways that are just
on a scale that people never
really experience sometimes
in a lifetime.
Grant said that although the
work has been stressful and
exhausting, its important.
People see us as leaders
and as people that they trust
to use their voices, Grant
said. They trust us to voice
on behalf of them because
they either cant physically do
it themselves theyre not
able or they vocally cant
articulate what theyre experiencing. And its just the
most humbling thing to have
people that trust what youre
saying and trust that youre
going to be representative
and inclusive all the time.
Although Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk has focused largely over the past month on
combating anti-black racism,

the group has made a point

to consider intersectionality
by being an advocate for all
marginalized groups on campus. During the demonstrations on Wednesday, Grant,
along with Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk members Jyleesa
Hampton, Caleb Stephens
and Katherine Rainey spoke
about issues facing LGBTQ+
students and students with
disabilities, mental health
care on campus, and creating
a safe space for students of
color.
Stephens said its important
on issues like these to be supportive of each other.
Oftentimes when you experience racism, sexism or
any of the -isms, you get
worn down, and you feel like
youre all alone so you just
try to survive, you go into
survival mode, Stephens
said. Oftentimes, speaking
to the different students of

KANSAN.COM

color and the different intersectionalities, were saying,

Were fighting for you, too,
and you can fight for yourself, and well be here, and
well stand with you.
For Rainey, one of the main
things she has taken away
from the semester is that
change is possible.
Im in awe, and Im definitely humbled by the
amount of students that have
come out in support of us,
and again, acknowledge us
as leaders and as people they
can trust to carry forward,
Rainey said. Change is possible, and its a very real expectation to have of this University and of students.
The group has been publicly
supported by several departments and organizations on
campus, including the Emily Taylor Center for Women
and Gender Equity, the Black
SEE RCIH PAGE 2

FOLLOW NEWS ONLINE

Cheap drinks, bigger risks: Bar specials could

fuel binge drinking habits, health experts say
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN

SECURITY ON
CAMPUS. The
Student Safety
Advisory Board is
planning to request
an increase to the
Campus Safety
fee to help fund
additional security
cameras on campus.
Kansan.com/news

NATALIE CRAIG/KANSAN

MUSIC IN FOCUS.
Pianist and student
Yuliana Wijaya
moved from
Indonesia to Kansas
after a music
professor heard her
perform.
Kansan.com/
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MIKE MAICKE, DUNCAN

MARSHALL & HALLIE
WILSON
@KansanNews

This is the fourth and final

story in a series from The University Daily Kansan exploring
issues impacting student wellness.
Heather Pieczynski, a junior
from Chicago, doesnt normally go out to the bars on a
Saturday afternoon, but she
cant resist the Beat the Clock
special at the Jayhawk Caf
or cheap gameday specials at
Bullwinkles.
If the Hawk is doing Beat
the Clock on Saturdays, its
hard to pass up, Pieczynski
said. I typically wouldnt go
out to the Hawk on a Saturday
afternoon, but Beat the Clock
is just a really good deal.
For Pieczynski and other students, the heavily advertised
bar promotions give them opportunities to have relatively
inexpensive fun. But health
officials and police say there is
a more significant expense at
stake: student safety.
The promotions can lead students to binge drink, which
in turn can lead to an array
of problems such as students
injuring themselves or others,
getting in trouble with police,
having unprotected sex or neglecting schoolwork.
According to the 2015 University of Kansas National
College Health Survey of 426
students, about 40 percent of
students reported binge drinking at least once within the
last two weeks. About 3 percent said they binge drank at
least four times in the last two
weeks, and about 2 percent
said they had done so at least
six times.
Binge drinking is defined in
the survey as having five or
more drinks in one sitting.

Jenny McKee, director of the

Health Education Resource
Office at Watkins Health Center, said she believes bars that
promote specific specials are
setting people up for failure.
Youre specifically targeting
vulnerable groups, and the
bars know theyre doing it,
McKee said.
The impact of college bar
promotions as a point of concern isnt new with this generation of college students. A
1997 study by the nonprofit
Center for Science in the Public Interest found the steady
drumbeat of promotions can
lead students to think its the
norm to gulp down several
drinks in one sitting.
Bar owners in many college
communities supply that ingredient, advertising special
deals that encourage students
to drink heavily every night of
the week. Those ads contribute
to students perception that
binge drinking is the norm
and encourage individual students to increase their consumption to keep up with their
peers, the study said.
Sgt. Trent McKinley, a
spokesman for the Lawrence

Police Department, said police see an increase in the

number of arrests and other
serious issues when bars run
popular promotions, such as
Dollar Night at the Jayhawk
Caf, commonly known as the
Hawk.
Not only do these promotions draw larger crowds than
a normal night, but the people
in attendance are often more
intoxicated, McKinley said.
The higher intoxication coupled with the larger crowds
can fuel fights and other calls
for help, like alcohol poisoning, he said.
The close proximity to campus of bars has an impact on a
colleges drinking culture, according to the Center for Science study. Students like the
easy accessibility, particularly
the ability to avoid drinking
and driving. Some university
towns, such as Berkeley, Calif.,
have developed zoning ordinances to control how close
liquor-selling establishments
are to campus.
Four bars that are close to
KUs campus Bullwinkles,
the Hawk, the Cave and the
Wagon Wheel are popular

largely because of their locations and their inexpensive

drinks, which are made even
cheaper when the specials are
tacked on.
Efforts to interview the managers of the four bars were unsuccessful. A manager for the
Cave declined, and requests
to the other three went unanswered after multiple attempts
to reach them.
For the typical budget-conscious college student, drink
specials make going out and
drinking more enticing. Thats
particularly the case when the
promotions mention a good
cause.
It almost feels like a baitand-switch with promotions,
like the breast cancer awareness week specials, McKee
said. They make you feel like
youre doing something good
by going to their bar and getting drunk.
Jen Salach, a bartender at the
Hawk, said gameday specials
are a big draw for students.
When KU was playing (the
mens basketball game against
Michigan State) they would do
dollar beers before tip off to try
to get people in early, Salach

said. That definitely entices a

lot of people to go out to the
bars.
The Hawk is well known for
its Dollar Night, which takes
place every Wednesday. Students can come in and expect
to have nearly everything on
the menu drop down to a single dollar.
JC Hurt, a junior from Overland Park, said he has been
drawn to the local bars indirectly by the nightly specials.
For myself, drink specials
usually dont totally draw me
to a place, but that tends to be
where most of the crowd goes,
so, you know, I feel like Id have
to go as well, Hurt said.
McKee has some suggestions
for how bar owners can limit
their impact on the drinking
culture. Among those is fewer
drink specials.
For example, offering a special where nearly any drink is
$1 on a Wednesday is probably not going to encourage
responsible behavior, McKee
said.
McKee suggests that bars
train staff to interact with patrons more effectively, noticing
when theyre intoxicated or exhibiting unusual behavior.
Bartenders typically receive
training on alcohol poisoning,
so that they are not over-serving a patron, McKee said.
While that is a good start,
also understanding tactics on
how to be an active bystander
so that they can step up when
they see any behavior that may
be problematic would be helpful to all patrons.
She also suggested that bars
continue to offer free non-alcoholic drinks to those who
serve as a designated drivers
for the night and have food
available to help mitigate the
effects of drinking.

Edited by Maddy Mikinski

NEWS
KANSAN STAFF

KANSAN.COM/NEWS | THURSDAY, DEC. 10, 2015

YOU NEED TO KNOW

RCIH FROM PAGE 1

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Student Union, the communications department, African and African American

Studies and the School of Social Welfare, among others.
Rainey also said the group
has received support from
the Interfraternity Council
and the Panhellenic Council.
To see that there are people
who understand that in the
context of this, it is way bigger than them, and they need
to reach out and they need to
ask what they can do, really
makes a difference and that
lets us know that our message is getting through, and
it lets us know that there are
systemic changes that can be
made, Rainey said.
A large part of the groups
mission over the last month

has been allyship and inclusion. Grant said she wants to

challenge every person, regardless of privilege or identities, to be an advocate for
marginalized and minority
peoples.
Looking outside yourself
is such a beautiful challenge,
and I love it, Grant said.
There is a role for everyone,
even if you can do as much
as filter hate mail, or to defend us on social media to
control the narrative of Rock
Chalk Invisible Hawk being a
movement that is productive
and fighting for change.
On Monday, Chancellor
Bernadette Gray-Little said
administration has been
looking at issues that pertain
to the demands through the
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Board.

As the [advisory board] is

working, it may be there will
be some areas that say we
have this in place, Gray-Little said. Others will say we
dont have it in place, but
we can have it done in this
amount of time.
Grant and Rainey said Rock
Chalk Invisible Hawk would
meet with Senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs Sara
Rosen on Friday to discuss
demands and how to move
forward.
Rainey said that although
she thinks it is promising
they are meeting with administration, she remains skeptical on how interactions will
look in the future.
I am glad to hear that there
are some deadlines being set,
and thats the biggest thing
thats come out of this, Rain-

ZOE LARSON/KANSAN
Students fill the chancellors office after a demonstration
on Wescoe Beach.

ey said. I think I will be satisfied when they make and

release a statement, thatll
determine my feeling about

us going forward and the way

we interact.

Edited by Leah Sitz

Senate bills address diversity and transparency

ALANA FLINN +
CASSIDY RITTER
@KansanNews

During its last meeting of the

semester, Student Senate passed
bills addressing diversity, transparency and funding.
Bills included redacting a
professors name from the resolution supporting Rock Chalk
Invisible Hawks 15 demands,
giving increased voice to minority and international students, and mandating all official
Senate meeting be recorded
were among the topics discussed
over the course of the evening.
Impeachment proceedings,
which would have continued for
Moon tonight, had been pushed
to January.
The meeting began with senators motioning to move bills
with student organizations present to the top of the agenda, and
the meeting continued that way
throughout the evening.
The first bill of the night that
passed was $5,360 for a Rock
Chalk Swing honorarium,
which will be held Feb. 12-14 at
the Kansas Union.
Senate unanimously passed a
resolution in support of encouraging KU to become the home
of a Division I wheelchair basketball team.
Some debate began over a bill
written by Nanyi Deng, an international undergraduate senator, and Tyler Childress, finance
committee chair, that would direct Tomas Green, development
director, to issue an international student climate survey on
mental health.
Deng said she wanted Green
to create the 40-question survey
and distribute it to all students,
but Student Body Vice President
Zach George stated Green does
not have the unilateral authority
to access the listserv of students
or distribute more than one survey in a year.
An amendment was added to
the bill that says Student Senate
will not have to send out the survey itself, but that it would advocate one to be sent to the student
body. The bill passed.
The agenda was moved around
once again, when Senate approved two members for the
Court of Appeals and one for
the Elections Commission was
moved to the top. All three were
approved to the respective seats.
Full Senate moved back to seeing bills with a request to create
an International Student Asso-

Correction: An article that

ran on Monday on Page 1
with the headline: Why do
students say they feel less
safe at night? incorrectly
reported information from
Jessica Mattes, an orientation program coordinator,
as a quote. The information
was paraphrased by the reporter.

ciation Senator seat, authored

by Deng. The bill passed 59-13, and the seat will be open in
spring 2016.
Deng said she is happy about
the creation of another international senator seat. This seat
would make international voices heard, she said.
Chief of Staff Adam Moon
wrote a bill which passed
extending Student Executive
Committee voting rights to the
director of diversity and inclusion, Omar Rana. Moon said
the graduate affairs director has
voting rights in the same committee, so he felt it was time to
give the director of diversity and
inclusion the same rights.
Moon followed up with another bill that would extend election
voting time in the spring from 6
a.m. on Wednesday to 4 p.m. on
Thursday. Tymon Wall, a junior/
senior College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences senator, said this
bill was originally killed because
senators were concerned that
candidates would rally votes at
the bars overnight.
We can address bar votes with
stricter legislation, Wall said.
That can be fixed in another
bill.
Moon added that the polls
would only be closed for four
hours overnight with the current system, so theres no point
in closing them.
Rana and School of Education Senator Michaella Schick
advocated a bill that awards 20
points to senators who attend or
volunteer as a tour guide, actor
or actress at the Tunnel of Oppression, an event hosted by the
Office of Multicultural Affairs.

The bill passed 62-0-1.

A resolution sponsored by 30
senators passed that encourages
all University policies, admission applications, restrooms
and student housing to accomodate transgender students.
Policies and admission applications would use gender-neutral
language, and student housing
would be encouraged to make
transgender student housing as
well as transgender bathrooms
on each floor of every new campus building.
Senate tabled a bill that would
create a new position, the Director of Internal Affairs. The director would take over the responsibilities of Executive Secretary
that were consolidated into the
Communications Director Position, according to the bill.
Moon said during a negative
speech that there is not enough
funding for the new position.
The bill was tabled indefinitely,
but Childress, Moon and Senate
Treasurer Madeline Sniezek will
now look into whether Senate
has the money for the position.
Some bills made edits to the
Student Senate Rules and Regulations, including one with 20
sponsors that now mandates a
transcript and recording of every official Senate meeting.
One of the authors, Daisy
Tackett, a freshman/sophomore
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator, said the passage
of this bill was essential to Senate accountability.
If were not recording during
a meeting, how do we know if
people are lying or misrepresenting themselves? Tackett
said during her speech. I dont

want Senate to devolve to that

environment, and I think its
very important to have this.
Chance Maginness, a freshman/sophomore College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator,
said during a negative speech
that recording every meeting is
unfeasible because one person
cannot be held accountable for
ensuring every single Senate
meeting is accurately recorded.
This is legislating to absolutely extreme circumstances, like
the one that happened in the
staff meeting, Maginness said.
We cant allow ourselves to legislate to extreme circumstances
because it will create undue consequences.
Im going to throw this out
there, Chance is just wrong,
Angela Murphy, graduate affairs
director, said during Maginnesss speech.
George later reminded senators to be civil to one another,
following a comment from Harrison Baker, a junior/senior College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
senator.
Baker followed by deferring to
Danica Hoose, a former senator, who gave a room-silencing
speech encouraging senators to
act with more poise and respect
toward each other.
Theres no need for these
House of Cards-type games.
Theres no need for the political
tension and reaction were all
just humans trying to live in this
University together coexisting,
Hoose said. So just quit being
mean to each other, pass this,
because if you cant have a voice
recording of something you said
out there in the public because

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youre worried, then why are

you saying it?
Transparency is a good thing,
Hoose said.
The original bill requiring all
official Senate meetings to be
recorded passed with 65 percent
of the vote.
The last bill passed would redact a professors name from a
resolution previously passed by
Senate. The resolution gave full
Senate support to all of Rock
Chalk Invisible Hawks 15 demands.
During the last part of the
night, officer reports, Pringle
announced the second annual Ad Astra per Aspera First
Generation Scholarship. Applicants must be first generation
students who plan to pursue a
career in public service. Applications are due Feb. 12 by 5 p.m.
to the Student Senate offices.

NEWS

KANSAN.COM

Gray-Little talks climate and mental health care

LARA KORTE
@Lara_Korte

Over the past semester, the

University has faced issues surrounding race, diversity, mental
health and state funding. The
Kansan sat down with Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little
on Monday morning to take a
look back at the year so far and
to hear where administration is
going.
Campus climate

At the Nov. 11 town hall meeting, many students and faculty

voiced concerns about lack of
diversity and inclusion at the
University. Gray-Little said she
has seen a continuation of these
conversations in different areas
on campus.
Certainly there have been
more conversations about diversity and individuals and
groups expressing their views
both in the forum and in
notes they have written to me,
Gray-Little said. So I would
say theres a change more
conversation and more awareness of this topic and the topics
that people are dealing with.
In response to the concerns
expressed at the town hall
meeting, the administration
created the Diversity, Equity
and Inclusion Advisory Board.
Gray-Little said this board is
going to look at how to improve
the experience of minorities on
campus.
I wanted a way to have a different group looking at what are
we doing, how well are we doing it, and are we achieving the
effects that we want, Gray-Little said. Thats really the reason
for creating that group.
As far as the effects of the advisory group, Gray-Little said she
hopes it can give all students on
campus a sense that this is a
place that is welcoming, inclusive and that values individual
and group differences.

One of the 15 demands presented by the group Rock

Chalk Invisible Hawk at the
town hall meeting included
mandatory, intense inclusion
and belonging training for all
levels of students, staff, faculty
and administration. Although
Gray-Little said that is something that is possible for the
University, she wants the conversation to continue outside
of training programs because
it would be a one-time experience rather than a continued
conversation. She said she believes conversations like those
facilitated at several recent department forums are helpful
when solving problems around
diversity and inclusion.
I think most of the things we
do in mandatory training are
usually time-limited and set,
Gray-Little said. I think its an
ongoing conversation where
you dont get to a point and say,
Well Ive done the training.
Everything is fine now. Where
you have continuing conversation. I think over a period of
time that will be very helpful.
Gray-Little said the issues the
administration are looking at
include the other items listed
by the student group. Gray-Little said that how the University
prioritizes the demands depends on feasibility, staff and
resources.
As the [advisory board] is
working, it may be there will
be some areas that say we have
this in place. Others will say we
dont have it in place, but we
can have it done in this amount
of time, Gray-Little said.
Guns on campus
Gray-Little released a statement on Kansas policy allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons on campus.
The policy is scheduled to go
into effect July 1, 2017.
Gray-Little said she does not
agree with the law but would
find ways to comply with it.

I want to be clear that I am

not in favor of allowing concealed carry on university
campuses, Gray-Little said in
the release. But again, unless
legislators change state law
which is unlikely given the
wide margin by which it was
passed we must be ready to
comply with it.
The state legislature passed a
bill allowing concealed carry in
public buildings in 2013. Universities were granted a fouryear exemption, which will expire in July 2017.
Gray-Little said the University expects the Kansas Board of
Regents to present a modified
firearms policy by next month.
To prepare for the change,
the Kansas Board of Regents
has been working with universities to amend the Regents
weapons policy, which applies
to all Regents institutions but
allows each one to determine
some of the specifics of how to
implement the policy on their
campuses, Gray-Little said.
The University Senates information session on the firearms
policy will be held in Budig 120
from 2:30-4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The session will be live
streamed for those not able to
attend in person, according
to the University Governance
website.
Turnovers in
administration
Recently, the University has
seen several administrators
leave, including the dean of
Arts and Sciences, dean of Libraries, dean of the School of
Social Welfare and, more recently, Provost Jeffrey Vitter,
who is leaving the University in
January.
Gray-Little said she does not
feel the administrative turnover
comes as a surprise, and that
she feels the number of resignations are a normal amount. In
the case of a provost, she said,
its not unusual.

Its kind of expected that

anytime after four or five
years, someone would be in
the process of looking for that,
Gray-Little said.
As for other resignations,
Gray-Little said its simply because the University has talented administrators.
Thats always the challenge if
you get people who are doing
really good and do a really great
job, Gray-Little said. Theyre
going to get all types of opportunity.
State budget
As state funding for higher
education continues to dwindle
in the state of Kansas, there has
been concern and speculation
about the future of publicly
funded institutions like the
University of Kansas.
Gray-Little said the University
is currently facing a dilemma of
how to continue to provide services to students while keeping
tuition affordable. Gray-Little
said that with any budget cut,
the administration has to look
critically at what services are
essential to the University.
How do we have the kind of
offerings we have at a price that
a larger percentage of students
can afford? Gray-Little said.
Thats the question were all
trying to address.
Gray-Little said the states
budget is in a kind of unclear,
unstable place right now. In
the last few years, as funding
and resources have decreased,
Gray-Little said tuition has
gone up, but there is a limit on
how high the University can
raise it. She said there is a certain point where students cannot afford the tuition.
To compensate for lack of
public funding, Gray-Little said
the University has received alternative funding from private
sources.
We fortunately also had
some contributions, especially
toward scholarships and facili-

CAROLINE FISS/KANSAN
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little meets with a reporter
to discuss the latest issues affecting the University.

ties from gifts, and so fundraising becomes more and more

important, Gray-Little said.
Mental health
Gray-Little said administration is looking at how to increase staff and decrease wait
time for mental health care
appointments in addition to
providing staff members who
are representative of student
identities.
It is not possible to guarantee
that when a student goes there,
they will find a person of their
gender and ethnic background
waiting there to see them,
Gray-Little said. But I think we
can work toward having staff
diversity, which would change
the tenor of the place and I
think make students feel that
the staff in general are aware
of the diversity of the campus.
And thats the goal that we
want.
Several students have raised
concerns that the University
does not provide adequate resources for students with severe

mental illnesses, like bipolar

disorders.
Gray-Little said that, to some
degree theres always going
to be a level of health service,
whether it be mental or physical, that the University will not
be able to offer.
Theres always going to be
a time that for either mental
health or other health services,
theres a level of services that is
not going to be offered at the
University, and for which a student will have to be referred to
someone or to some place that
has more extensive facilities or
expertise, Gray-Little said.
Gray-Little said she believes
there needs to be a clear conversation about exactly what
services the University offers
in order to prevent frustration
when a student is in need.
I think we have to have that
conversation about what is a
reasonable expectation for a
Universitys mental health offerings, Gray-Little said.

James Hoyt contributed to this

report.

7749

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KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, DEC. 10, 2015

We must unite against Islamophobia

to support Muslims here and abroad
RYAN LISTON
@rliston235

Good luck to
everyone! You can
do it!
Stop Day plans:
sleep. Sleep. And
more sleep. And did I
mention sleep?
One time I went to
the Underground and
no one was mopping.
It was weird.
Just saw some guy
doing the Macarena
while walking to the
library.

Following the terrorist

attacks in Paris Nov. 13 and
the San Bernardino shooting
Dec. 2, widespread Islamophobia has risen throughout
the country and crept into the
rhetoric of politicians. Some
politicians have suggested
measures such as increasing
restrictions on the admittance of refugees into the
country and even banning all

Can KU please fix

the towers parking
lot lights? I dont feel
safe walking to and
from my car.
Stop stealing the
mice in Anschutz
Wi-fi is appropriately
named because Im
constantly asking
why? it doesnt
work.
Petition for students
to be returned $1 of
their tuition for each
minute we spend
waiting for Jayhawk
wifi or Blackboard to
work
How often are
KU parking ticket
appeals won? Asking
for a friend
Biffed it on the street
in front of Spencer.
That was fun.
I am vitamin
EVERYTHING
deficient.

terrorist groups such as ISIS,

according to a study by PEW
Research; however, according
to a survey of 1000 people
conducted by YouGov and the
Huffington Post, 55 percent
of Americans had either a
somewhat or very unfavorable
view of Islam.
With such a high number of
Americans expressing unfavorable opinions towards the
Islamic religion and Muslim
people, Muslims in the United
States may find themselves

in a hostile environment and

fear for their own safety. No
one in this country should be
afraid of religious persecution,
especially when this country
was largely founded by people
seeking religious freedom for
themselves.
If we turn our backs on Muslims, then we are helping ISIS
and other terrorist organizations create anti-American
sentiments they can use to
coerce people to join their
wicked cause.

In times of crisis, it is easy to

let our passions and emotions
win us over and lay waste
to logic, but we must unite
in support of the millions
of peaceful Muslims in the
United States and around the
world to ensure that terrorism
does not destroy freedom.

Ryan Liston is a freshman

from Lawrence studying journalism.
Edited by Amber
Vandegrift

We shouldnt let a desire for profit drive education

JESSE BURBANK
@JBurbank1

Dear roommate if
something doesnt
work DONT USE IT

Muslims from entering the

United States. While the vast
majority of Muslims are not
radical terrorists, the fires of
Islamophobia have grown
hotter. To combat this trend,
we cannot vilify the Muslim
community in our country, in
our communities and on our
campus based on the actions
of a minority group, which
does not represent the religion
as a whole.
Most Muslim people do
not support terrorism or

Earlier this year, Wisconsin

Gov. Scott Walker attempted
to alter the mission statement
of the University of Wisconsin by omitting references
to search for truth and
improve the human condition and replacing them with
meet the states workforce
needs.
While the change was defeated, Gov. Walkers attempt
speaks to a larger trend in
society and academia: an
obsession with making mon-

ey. Leaders from President

Obama to Sen. Marco Rubio
to Gov. Sam Brownback have
spoken about the need to
extract more economic value
out of education.
I often hear this same
logic in how people think of
success. When talking with
classmates about the future,
most frame success in the
same terms: Which major
will bring in the most wealth?
Where will I see the biggest
return on my investment of
time and money?
This same commercialized
logic seems to pervade all

aspects of society today.

Philosopher Michael Sandel
discusses this in his book
What Money Cant Buy: The
Moral Limits of Markets. He
argues that when we allow
all parts of our life to be
governed by the market by
what will give us the most
profit and utility we disregard morality.
When we allow our lives and
educations to be driven by
profit, we do not think about
whether something is right or
wrong, good or bad.
Sandel continues: When we
decide that certain goods may

be bought and sold, we decide,

at least implicitly, that it is
appropriate to treat them as
commodities, as instruments
of profit and use. But not all
goods are properly valued in
this way.
Examples include the value
of human life, happiness and
civic participation.
However, when we allow
the market to govern even
our most intimate decisions,
we fundamentally change the
character of these decisions.
As Sandel puts it, Once we
see that markets and commerce change the character of

the goods they touch, we have

to ask where markets belong
and where they dont.
Dont let money be the sole
determinant of your actions, either in life or in your
education. Do what you find
fulfillment in rather than what
is likely to give you material
wealth. In this way we can
listen to Sandels warning that
we have drifted from having
a market economy to being a
market society.

Jesse Burbank is a junior from

Quinter studying economics,
political science and history.

Social media platforms are not optimal places to

discuss our interpersonal conflicts and arguments
MATTHEW CLOUGH
@mcloughsofly

Its not uncommon to see

someone write something
controversial or instigating on
a Twitter page, and it's easy
to write back a demeaning
remark behind the security
of a computer screen. The
longer the conflict goes on,
the more people get involved,
and suddenly its a huge issue
that stemmed from something
trivial.
Although such engagements
can be entertaining to watch,
the phenomenon known as

subtweeting is representative
of little more than immaturity and the inability to
handle arguments in an adult,
responsible manner. To many,
the act comes off as petty, and
can often be interpreted as
someone just looking to start
a fight.
This can become especially
problematic for people using
their Twitter accounts for both
personal and professional
purposes. Potential employers who happens to stumble
across a couple harsh quips
on a Twitter profile may view
him or her as unprofessional
and not worth considering for

a position.
Aside from professional
settings, the culture of subtweeting is simply becoming
too much of a mainstream
sensation. The Guardian
published an article in July
2014 detailing how to craft the
perfect comeback, while Digital Trends has even gone so far
as to call it an art. When did
our culture become so focused
on such trivial matters?
Arguing on Facebook and
other social media platforms
has become a common occurrence as well. Its especially
easy to get carried away when
someone isnt talking with

other people in person, and

such arguments can easily
turn into bullying.
The bottom line is that
acts like subtweeting and
starting fights with others on
Facebook and other social
media platforms does little if
anything to solve the issues at
hand. Just like with relationships, personal communication is essential to resolve anything. Squabbling over social
media only results in creating
a more hostile environment
for interaction, and usually
just annoys others who follow
the people involved.
Social media platforms

should ultimately be used

to promote information,
spread knowledge and keep
in touch with the people you
care about. Turning them
into places for conflict and
controversy helps no one and
can really only create petty
rifts between friends. Keeping
arguments off the Internet and
focusing on productive conversation is a much better way
to utilize the positives social
media has to offer.

Matthew Clough is a junior

from Wichita studying English
and journalism.

I am hydrating in
preparation for this
weekend
So excited to be a
second-semester
senior but equally
disappointed that
Ill have to be a ~real
adult~ soon

Pretty sure my
friends have never
loved me more than
when I walked in the
door with pizza
Finals
Inals
Nals
Als
Ls
S
Sa
Sad
So far, no internships
or job offers. This is
a sign from a higher
power that Im meant
to be a dog parent.

READ MORE
AT
KANSAN.COM
@KANSANNEWS
/THEKANSAN
@UNIVERSITY
DAILYKANSAN

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Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in
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THE KANSAN
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Editorial Board are Katie
Kutsko, Emma LeGault,
Emily Stewart and Anissa
Fritz.

ARTS & CULTURE

KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, DEC. 10, 2015

HOROSCOPES
WHATS YOUR SIGN?
Aries (March 21-April 19)
Interesting and influential
conversations arise over
the next three weeks.
Schedule actions beyond
just talk. Test theories
before committing. Watch
your step, and expect
surprises. Communicate
with your team. Secure the
ground taken. Acknowledge players.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Expand your boundaries
over the next three weeks.
Meet with important and
interesting people. Take
action for a cause near to
your heart. Family comes
first, and theyre your
foundational support.
Invent an inspiring future
together.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Learn economics, handson, over the next three
weeks. Get down to practical work. Sift through the
data to find the missing
clues. Set up structures to
build and maintain your
advantage. Test a new
appliance or tool.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Communication between
partners grows your
enterprise stronger over
the next three weeks.
Talk about financial goals,
and how to reach them.
Avoid risky business and
distractions. Stick to solid,
detailed plans. Create an
inspiring tagline.
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)
Upgrade your tech at
work. Professional communications channels
thrive over the next three
weeks. Find the expertise you need through
friend recommendations.
Your networks have the
resources you seek. Talk
about what youre creating and invite participation.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Grow strategic partnerships to advance over the
next three weeks. Talk
about what you want to
create together. Invent
exciting possibilities. To
build a reputation for
trustworthiness, keep your
promises. Speak your passion for what you love.
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Enjoy time at home with
family and friends. Social
graces serve you well.
A three-week domestic
phase keeps you buzzing
close to the hive. Upgrade
your household technology. Talk about dreams and
desires. Reconnect with
someone you love.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Its easier to express
yourself for three weeks.
Start fresh with a friend.
Communications are wide
open. Accept advice from
loved ones, and especially children. Be willing to
compromise. Encourage
someone to step from
dreaming into action.
Sagittarius(Nov.22-Dec.21)
Financial communications
turn a profit over the next
three weeks. Its a good
time to ask for money.
Research, study and find
clever solutions. Provide
increasing value. Be
quick, but not impetuous.
Slow down around sharp
objects.
Capricorn (Dec.22-Jan.19)
Explore and discover over
the next three weeks.
Learn voraciously from
masters. The puzzle pieces
are coming together,
but not necessarily as
you imagined. Abandon
expectations, and go with
the flow. Notice what
wants to happen.
Aquarius (Jan.20-Feb.18)
Reflect on the past, before
making long-term plans.
Dress up and share nostalgic moments. Glamour
enhances the romance.
Dreams could seem
prophetic. Hold on to
what youve got, and give
thanks. Share your gratitude and appreciations.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Collaboration makes
things happen over the
next three weeks. Coordinate efforts and delegate
tasks. Talk about whats
wanted and needed. Dont
press a controversial point.
Heed constructive criticism. Gain an advantage
from an insiders tip.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Savannah Rodgers on the set of The Generation Gap, a film she directed.

Student filmmaker shines in film festivals

with her short film Politically Correct
BRIANNA CHILDERS
@breeanuhh3

When University student and

filmmaker Savannah Rodgers
was 12, she was inspired to become a screenwriter. It was all
because of one movie: Chasing
Amy.
Rodgers, who is from Olathe,
said the film's plot and narratives drew her into the story.
I was so inspired by it on a
multitude of levels that I really wanted to become a writer,
Rodgers said. Ever since then I
have just wanted to create movies that make people feel something.
Before college, Rodgers wanted to move to California to pursue a career in film but realized
it wasnt financially reasonable,
so she came to the University to
learn as much as she could about
film. Initially she wasn't going to

attend college, but now she is a

junior and pursuing a degree in
film and media studies.
Though Rodgers knew at an
early age she wanted to be a
writer, it wasn't until she was 16
that she realized her passion for
filmmaking. Rodgers said she
thinks film is a powerful medium that allows for a lot of creativity with dialogue and translates life's subtleties.
[Film] is a very interesting
way to connect with an audience
because I think a lot of people
learn through what they see and
hear, Rodgers said. If you have
a great movie, you can inspire
people one way or another, not
that Im necessarily inspirational. Its just my goal to make people feel happy or sad, hopeless,
or whatever.
During her time at the University, Rodgers has directed seven
films. One of them, Politically
Correct, has been in 15 film

festivals, including Free State

Festival, KC Fringe Festival and
Merlinka International Queer
Festival in Serbia. The film has
also won a multitude of awards.
Politically Correct is a short
film about TV writers who try
so hard to be respectful that they
cant get any work done.
Rodgers said the film comes
down to political correctness.
I feel like we are at a time in
our culture where people are
very opposed to the idea of political correctness, but all it really
means is being respectful of one
another, so I thought it would be
funny to write a short film about
TV writers who try so hard to be
respectful that they cant move
forward with their careers,
Rodgers said.
The short film is six minutes
long, and Rodgers said she cant
believe its been in as many festivals as it has. She said she thinks
it has been a good experience

and said she's met a lot of talented people she would have never
met otherwise.
Rodgers said she keeps a running list of dialogue on her
phone of things she hears and
thinks would be hilarious for
her screenplays.
There is a great quote that
says, 'If you are going to tell people the truth, you better damn
well make them laugh.' Thats
pretty much how I feel, Rodgers
said.
She said she bounces a lot of
her ideas off of her writing partners at the University, and by
the end of the week she has a
script to show them. While the
script may prove to be its own
task, Rodgers said the process of
filmmaking is a "pain in the ass."
Making movies is a difficult
process on any level, especially
on a professional level, but its
very hard when you have no
money, Rodgers said. Its a lot

more time than people think,

and its very grueling at times,
but if you dont love it, whats the
point?
Rodgers said that when she
makes her short films, a shoot
usually takes two days, but she
has also shot a micro short film
that only took about an hour.
The location of a film also plays
a big role in films. Rodgers said
she loves shooting in Lawrence
because its a "great community"
that supports the arts and her
fellow filmmakers.
In the future, Rodgers said she
hopes to run a TV show and
would like to do more directing.
I want to work and work hard,
and I want to make stuff that
makes people happy, Rodgers
said. If I make the audience
feel something very strongly
one way or another, whether its
good or bad, I did my job.

Music in Focus: The Lawrence band La Guerre

is in the studio recording an album, Rage Etc.
RYAN MILLER
@Ryanmiller_UDK

Theres a fairly new band in

town, and it's already making a
name for itself. The band is La
Guerre, and it consists of four
Lawrence residents.
Katlyn Conroy, founder of
La Guerre, said she decided to
create the band after leaving a
previous band, Cowboy Indian
Bear. After starting La Guerre,
Conroy initially had a rotating
cast of musicians in the band.
"It was just very hard to keep
up because [of] having to train
new people," Conroy said. "So I
decided to try and get a permanent lineup."
Orion Dollar, a 2015 University graduate, and sophomore
Quinlan Carttar were previously in a band together and got in
contact with Conroy through a
mutual friend. They joined La
Guerre around April.
The last member to join was
Brian Roberts, who moved to
Lawrence with his wife in August so she could attend graduate school at the University.
I was on Craigslist looking for
a place to play my drums, and
I saw their ad, and it sounded
like a good fit," Roberts said. "I
heard their music and was like
super impressed with it. We met
and really hit it off and hit the
ground running."
Conroy sings, plays the keyboard and occasionally plays
guitar; Dollar plays guitar; Carttar does additional vocals and
plays bass; Roberts plays drums.

The group said that while they

play a variety of music, the best
description of their sound is
avant-garde pop.
I think the content of it is dark
and haunting, but the sounds
can be light and pretty as well,
Conroy said. Its dark and odd
and doesnt necessarily fit into
a box, but you can put it on at
a party and people wont freak
out.
Conroy said the name La
Guerre is inspired by a 10-minute a capella song involving a
war in France that she sang in
French class in high school.
That always stuck with me,
and a lot of the themes in the
songs I write have to do with inner battles," Conroy said. "I just
wanted a really strong name that
didnt invoke a specific genre. I
didnt want people to know what
they were going to hear before
they heard it."
The band is playing different gigs and is in the process
of working on an album, titled
Rage Etc. Theyre currently in
the recording process and hope
to have it completed by February.
Were going to really focus on
knocking this album out and
hopefully have some new material and start playing pretty frequently in the spring, Conroy
said.
So far, each band member has
faced challenges, but they said
they are enjoying each other's
company and flexibility.
Roberts said his main challenge has been translating music.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Members of La Guerre. Theyre hoping to have Rage Etc. completed by February.

"Theres a lot of electronic stuff

Im having to translate into an
acoustic drum set, so theres a
lot of interpretation and changes
and trying to make everything
similar to electronic drums,"
Roberts said. "Thats a big challenge, but its been great for
me because the past couple of
months Ive played with these
guys Ive progressed tremendously."
Carttar said her biggest challenge has been learning to play
the bass synth.
My experience with instruments has all been analog up
until now, and now its all digital," Carttar said. "And theres
so much knowledge that comes
with it."
Dollar said hes worked to incorporate guitar into some of

their songs.
Trying to incorporate guitar
into the songs that Katlyn wrote
without it being too guitar-ish
like just trying to find sounds
that fit basically is a bit of a
challenge, but its also really fun
to try to experiment like that,
he said.
Conroy said her biggest struggle has been writing music for
the band.
"The biggest challenge is writing things that are something
we can all be proud of and play
and feel really confident about,"
she said, "and just in general like
how we as musicians or us as a
collective band fits into the crazy world of music, [where] there
are just no rules or easy ways to
get about doing anything or getting anywhere."

Over all, the band members

agreed they are looking forward
to completing the album and
continuing to play shows.
Worst case scenario is we
have an album we love and are
really proud of, even if we dont
have a label that wants it immediately," Carttar said. "Itll be a
really good thing either way."
Conroy said shes happy to be
playing with a more permanent
band again and is looking forward to their future.
We all just get along so well,
and it just fits really well," Conroy said. "I just feel there can
only be really good things to
come, and, despite what we do
and what happens, I feel like we
have nowhere to go but up, and
thats really exciting."

ARTS & CULTURE

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ARTS & CULTURE

7
JARRET ROGERS
@JarretRogers

TOP 10 SONGS OF 2015

ALRIGHT
by Kendrick Lamar

Before you start reading this

list, please understand one
thing: I dont know what the
best songs of the year are. I
have no way of being able to
calculate this, and neither do
you. All I can do is tell you
what caught my ear.
I probably left some stuff out
that should be on this list, but
that happens. I really enjoyed
all these songs this year, and
I hope that if you didnt hear
them earlier, youll take a listen.
So with that said, here are my
10 favorite songs of 2015 in no
particular order.

VISIT KANSAN.COM
FOR MORE CONTENT

Rogers: Here
are the top 10
albums of 2015

"EMOTION" by Carly Rae Jepsen If Taylor Swift is the

pop star who writes about the past, Carly Rae Jepsen is the pop star
who writes about imagining the future.
From the beginning, Jepsen bursts out the lyrics, Run away with
me, drawing an image of the future she wants with the person she
loves. Jepsen made the best pure pop album of 2015 and didnt care
how many people were listening in the process.

@JarretRogers

"In Colour" by Jamie XX Going solo can be disastrous

for some and a breakthrough for others. For Jamie XX, his first solo
album was the latter.
As the producer of beats behind Romy and Oliver of the XX, Jamie
stands in the back and is often never heard from. On In Colour Jamie is front and center. Romy and Oliver are featured on three great
songs, but they dont separate themselves from the pack, making this
a complete album that is perfectly paced and masterfully crafted.

With the year and semester coming to an end, it's time to look back
at all of the great albums released this year. Here are 10 of my favorites:
"Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper" by Panda Bear
Panda Bear, also known as Noah Lennox, takes a second for himself on this record. In his band, Animal Collective, he isnt the main
voice, and he clearly needed to say some things.
Throughout the 13 songs on the record, Lennox brings you into his
world, where hes thankful for even the ability to think and where
he ponders his own fears and insecurities. Both his musical aptitude
and his ability to have his voice be heard are things we should all
be thankful for in 2015. Few do this music thing better than Noah
Lennox.

"The Things We Do To Find People Like Us" by

Beach Slang Echoing vibes from the '90s, Beach Slang just
wants to rock out. They have no ulterior motives behind their music,
and they make music that feels nostalgic for a time when those vibes
were present amongst all of music.
Beach Slang doesnt care about anything other than making great
music and they make great music.

"Summertime 06" by Vince Staples In a video with

Noisey in 2014, Earl Sweatshirt said Vince Staples didn't need much
time to make great music. In 2015, Staples proved him right by putting out a 20-song double record that comes in at under an hour.
Staples doesnt need much time, and Staples doesnt want much
time. When it comes to Stapless music, the best strategy is to sit
down and listen like your life depends on it. If you dont, you might
miss something, and his music is too good and too important for us
not to heed the words he spits all the way to the final mic drop.

"To Pimp a Butterfly" by Kendrick Lamar Kendrick

Lamar made the album we need in 2015. He gave us the album that,
in 2015, was most culturally relevant and shifted the narrative the
most.
Fox News said after a performances of Lamar's that his words would
incite violence. And if we needed any other representation, artistically speaking, of where we stand as a country, Im not sure what it is.

"Art Angels" by Grimes Grimes is the anti-pop-star who

makes beautiful songs meant for head-banging and rage while also
composing some of the most smooth dance songs out right now.
The contrasting styles keep listeners on their toes, and on the B-side
the album brings things down a notch, but Grimes doesnt lose touch
with what makes her music so special. Everything feels smooth and
meditated, as the album has been in the works for the better part of
three years. Art Angels is an album that was worth the wait.

"Every Open Eye" by Chvrches There are some bands

most bands, really that might not shift the narrative around music
or provide a fresh listening experience, but thats not all that makes
a record great.
Chvrches' Every Open Eye, doesnt push forward into a new universe for the band or their electronic-pop genre, but what it does is
provide a moment of refreshment. Its refreshing to step away from
albums that make you think about the culture that surrounds you
and just listen to great music. Lead singer Lauren Mayberry shines
vocally, and the production surrounds her exquisitely to make one of
the most enjoyable records of 2015.

"Ego Death" by The Internet Some albums dont get what

they deserve, and it seemed like the Internets record Ego Death
was headed that way until a recent Grammy nomination, a welcome
nod for any artist.
Ego Death fuses together beats and production that feel fitting both
for this smooth combination of hip-hop and jazz and for a Tyler, the
Creator album. The album has sounds fitting for a horror movie and
a piano bar. Ego Death is an ambitious, exciting album for a group
that is just getting started.
Edited by Amber Vandegrift

"I Love You, Honeybear" by Father John Misty Joshua Tillman is one of the best songwriters and composers we have in
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KANSAN.COM

Kansas volleyball receives

awards from the AVCA
AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just

Postseason awards continue to rack up for the No. 9

Kansas Jayhawks. On Tuesday, the American Volleyball
Coaches Association (AVCA)
released its regional awards.
Kansas is in the AVCA's Midwest Region.
Four Jayhawks were named
to the AVCA All-Midwest
Team.
Coach Ray Bechard was selected as AVCA All-Midwest
Coach of the Year. This is
the third time over the past

four years Bechard earned

a regional coach of the year
award. He won the award in
2012 and 2013.
Three Kansas players
sophomore setter Ainise
Havili, sophomore right side
hitter Kelsie Payne and junior
middle blocker Tayler Soucie
were selected to the AVCA
All-Midwest First Team.
Kansas had the most players
named to the All-Midwest
Team. Missouri State had
two of its players make the
cut. Other Big 12 players who
made the cut included Kansas
State's Katie Brand and Iowa
State's Caitlin Nolan. Iowa

State's Jess Schaben made the

AVCA All-Midwest Second
Team and won the Freshman
of the Year award for the region.
This is Havili's second time
being tabbed to the team.
Eight Jayhawks, counting
Havili, Payne and Soucie,
have been slated to an AVCA
All-Regional team. They join
the ranks of Chelsea Albers,
Caroline Jarmoc, Josi Lima,
Sara McClinton and Erin McNorton.
Havili is the third player
in the history of the Kansas
program to be slated to an
All-Regional first team twice.

JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
Junior safety Fish Smithson was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team.

Four Kansas football

players honored in Big
12 postseason awards
DEREK SKILLETT
@derek_skillett

The Big 12 released its postseason awards for the 2015

football season. While schools
like Oklahoma, Baylor and
Oklahoma State took home
many honors, a few Jayhawks
were honored.
Junior safety Fish Smithson
was named to the All-Big 12
Second Team.
Smithson led the Jayhawks
with 111 total tackles, which
also ranked him at No. 15 in
the country in the total tackles
category. Smithson's 87 solo
tackles, including an average
of 7.9 solo stops per game, led
the nation.

The Jayhawks also received

three All-Big 12 Honorable
Mention players: senior defensive end Ben Goodman, sophomore tight end Ben Johnson
and junior fullback Michael
Zunica.
As one of the leaders of the
Jayhawk defense, Goodman
proved to be one of Kansas'
best pass rushers. Goodman
led the defense with 5.5 sacks
and 9.5 tackles-for-loss. He
also ranked seventh on the
team with 34 total tackles.
In his sophomore season,
Johnson became one of the
more reliable tight ends for the
Jayhawks. He recorded 13 receptions for 115 yards and no
touchdowns, managing to average 8.85 yards per reception.

Zunica, while he didn't receive the same amount of

production as many of the key
offensive pieces for the Jayhawks, succeeded as an effective blocker and a key asset on
special teams. Zunica recorded one tackle during the 2015
season.
While the Jayhawks failed to
secure a win this season, there
is plenty of talent on the roster. With many young players
getting a lot of valuable game
experience, it may not be long
before they start to produce
big-time stats and help the Jayhawks get back to respectability on the field.
Edited by Dani Malakoff

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ZOE LARSON/KANSAN
Taylor Soucie and Ainise Havili throw their hands up after a point won. Havili, Kelsie
Payne and Tayler Soucie were all selected to the AVCA All-Midwest First Team.

Hardy: They may have similar

beginnings, but KU volleyball
and football have diverged
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy

Both wear crimson and blue

and the word Kansas across
their chests. Both are fall sports,
which often times leak into the
winter months. Both have gone
through tumultuous years
one of them is enduring just
that but also years of national
success.
The Kansas volleyball and football teams are similar. Yet, when
awards were dished out this
past week, as the regular season
wound down, it painted an entirely different picture: The two
programs are in entirly opposite
states as it stands today.
The football team, which went
0-12 under new head coach
David Beaty, is in a mode of
rebuilding, with some hope of a
formidable product on the field
on the horizon. The Jayhawks
season ended with no postseason play at 0-12.
This year was a low point in
Kansas football history.
The volleyball squad, under
coach Ray Bechard, started
the season 19-0 the longest
winning streak and best start in
the teams history. For the third
year in a row, the team finished
second in the Big 12, and for
the second time in three years,
the Jayhawks are going to the
Sweet 16.
This year has been the peak
of Kansas volleyballs 40-year
history.
Three volleyball players
sophomores Ainise Havili and
Kelsie Payne and junior Tayler
Soucie were all named to
the All-Big 12 first team. Those
same three were five of the
players named to the AVCA
Midwest Region team.
On the football side of things,
Beatys team picked up no AllBig 12 first team honors.
Though each team had one
player on the All-Big 12 second

team, the coaching awards,

which Bechard has swept thus
far, made it clear. Bechards team
has evolved since he arrived in
1998. In the four years before his
arrival, Kansas never went over
.500. Hes gone .500 or better in
14 of his 18 seasons since, and
he has led the Jayhawks to two
Sweet 16 appearances the
only two in Kansas volleyball
history.
Seemingly everyone in the
Kansas football program is fully
supporting Beaty and his staff
after the winless season. Yet he
appears years and years away
from any coach-of-the-year consideration, which Bechard got a
taste of this year. From the looks
of it now, he could be another
year away from a win, and hes
certainly got some rebuilding
to do before a postseason
appearance.

Each day were going to

move closer to being a Big
12 championship team,
and I think thats important that they understand
what that means each
and every day so theyre
challenged.
RAY BECHARD
Volleyball Coach

Bechard went through that

too, though. It was his sixth
season when he finally broke
into the NCAA tournament,
and it wasnt until last year that
Bechard finally won two games
and advanced to the Sweet 16.
Bechard talked this season about
the teams essential intent
win a Big 12 Championship and
make it to the Elite 8.
Each day were going to move
closer to being a Big 12 championship team, and I think thats
important that they understand
what that means each and every
day so theyre challenged,
Bechard said. Weve had to stop

practice a few times and say,

Are you training like a Big 12
Champion right now? Are you
training like a team that wants to
be in the Elite 8?
One of those can be accomplished this weekend. The
other is still on the horizon, as
Bechard is still riding in the
coat-tails of Texas volleyball.
Bechard, while he wasnt
making NCAA tournament appearances, was making progress.
Jayhawk fans should hope its
the same for Beaty and Kansas
football. Slowly, Beaty should be
able to bring in wins and get to
.500. After all, Bechard was 5-15
in the Big 12 in his first season
and below .500 on the year. But
he built a culture that was strong
enough to bring in recruits, keep
those recruits, and he continued
to build off of them to get to the
point the team is today.
With building blocks like junior
safety Fish Smithson, who led
the Big 12 in tackles with 111,
and freshman quarterback Ryan
Willis and a handful of young
targets for him to build rapport
with, Beaty has a few players
with whom he can move the
program forward. He has installed his own version of essential intent, which, for now, is not
about winning games (though
thats certainly important) but
rather earning it.
While the two programs seem
to be in stark contrast now, whos
to say they cant be similar in the
near future? After all, Bechard
and his players know it can be
done theyre only one game
away from achieving the goals
that Bechard set for the team at
the beginning of the season.
We would have definitely had
an unprecedented season if
we made it to the Elite 8, said
sophomore setter Ainise Havili.
It would definitely make a
statement about the program
and how far weve come.

SPORTS

KANSAN.COM

KELCIE MATOUSEK/KANSAN
Junior guard Brannen Greene passes the ball to a teammate. This is the first game Greene has played in since his suspension.

Despite Brannen Greenes return and Cheick Diallos OK,

Kansas mens basketball has yet to play at its full strength
SHANE JACKSON
@jacksonshane3

It has been an eventful start

to the 2015-16 season for Kansas, to say the least. In the early
stages of the season, Kansas
coach Bill Self wrestled with
the NCAA over the eligibility
of freshman big man Cheick
Diallo. Then, just as that was
clearing up, junior guard Brannen Greene was slapped with a
six-game suspension.
Nevertheless, Kansas stormed
out to a 6-1 start on the season,
which included a championship performance in the Maui
Invitational, and appeared to
be one of the more talented
teams in the country.
With Greene returning early
and Diallo cleared, Wednesdays contest against Holy

Cross was the first chance for

Kansas fans to see the team at
full strength.
Or so they thought.
Senior forward Jamari Traylor and junior forward Landen
Lucas were both held out of
the game for precautionary
reasons, as they were a bit
banged up.
"They got the shaft tonight because they could have played,
but I didn't see any reason to
[play them]," Self said. "They
could have played five minutes
but then turned an ankle, and
we need to be at full strength."
Despite not having a pair of
their frontcourt pieces, the
Jayhawks stormed past the
Crusaders, 92-59.
One reason for the lopsided
win was the return of Greene,
who came back one game early

from his suspension.

"He's been practicing well,
and his attitude has been really good, so I thought that was
enough," Self said. "He definitely earned his way back on
the court."

Hes been practicing

well, and his attitude
has been really good,
so I thought that was
enough. ... He definitely earned his way back
on the court.
BILL SELF
Kansas Coach

The junior checked in at the

11:53 mark in the first half,

and he immediately knocked

down a three on his first offensive possession to increase the
lead to double digits.
His
three-point
basket
opened up the floodgates, as
the team began finding the
bottom of the net on just about
every shot beyond the arc.
"It definitely felt good to be
back on the court," Greene
said. "After practice yesterday,
coach told me I was going to
play. But I didn't really know
how many minutes I would
play."
Greene finished the game
with a trio of three-pointers,
scoring 14 points in 17 minutes.
"He doesn't really miss," said
junior guard Wayne Selden Jr.
"We are a great team when he
is out there."

Without Lucas and Traylor,

Kansas never featured a threebig-man lineup something
the team had gone to in most
games of the season. For that,
the wings found extra minutes
in the game, as was the case for
the big men, especially senior
Hunter Mickelson.
In his first official start with
Kansas, Mickelson was efficient, finishing with two
blocks, two assists and two
steals in 15 minutes.
"Hunter didn't score and
really didn't get a lot of rebounds, but I thought he did
some good things too," Self
said. "It was a nice effort, but it
wasn't anything special by any
means."
And it wasn't just the senior
who benefited. Diallo and
freshman Carlton Bragg Jr.

saw more time as a result of

the injury bug. After combining for 16 minutes on Saturday against Harvard, the two
young big men recorded 36
minutes against Holy Cross.
Over all, Wednesday didnt
turn out to be the first glimpse
of the teams full potential, but
it did allow Self to get other
players some much-needed
court time. As the conference
season looms, Self is still trying to figure out how to piece it
all together.
The Jayhawks' untapped potential has yet to be discovered,
but Wednesday night showed
that even when they are not at
full strength, they are still one
of the more difficult teams in
the country to stop.

PICTURE SENT FROM:

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SPORTS
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | THURSDAY, DEC. 10, 2015

ZOE LARSON/KANSAN
Team members celebrate after a point.

Column: Appreciating the condition of KU volleyball

AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just

To truly appreciate how good you

have it, you need to take a look back
at the past.
In recent times, Kansas volleyball
has flourished, posting single-digit
loss seasons four years in a row.
The team has been to the NCAA
Tournament four years in a row and
is currently awaiting its second Sweet
16 match of all-time.
Kansas has played 40 complete
seasons. The 2015 campaign is the
41st. Of those 41 seasons, Kansas
has posted 15 seasons with a record
under .500. Only one of those has
come within the past 10 years, when
Kansas went 10-19 in 2006.
The achievements of the past, pre-

Ray Bechard, weren't much for the

team to hang its collective hat on.
In the four seasons before Bechard
was hired, the Jayhawks went 34-86,
eclipsing a 10-win season just once.
Kansas held its first season in 1975
under the direction of Jack Isgur, a
lawyer from Missouri. Those were
different times.
Isgur's team went 30-19-2 in his
lone season as head coach, playing
teams like Swaim of KC and Max
Pack of St. Louis. Missouri and Kansas State were also on the schedule
that season. Kansas swept Kansas
State both times that year and was
swept by Missouri both times.
Bob Stanclift took over for Isgur,
coaching the Jayhawks for three
seasons from 1976 to 1978. He also
coached softball during that time and
continued that position until 1987.

He didn't coach a losing season, as

the Jayhawks went 101-62-6 under
him. But after him was when things
went dark.
Bob Lockwood held the reigns of
the program from 1979 to 1984 and
had one winning season, in 1980.
Aside from coaching volleyball,
Lockwood also held stints coaching
men's wrestling (no longer a program), men's gymnastics (no longer
a program), men's tennis (no longer
a program) and diving (men's diving
is no longer a program). In Kansas'
first two years in the Big Eight, the
Jayhawks went 0-20 in conference
play.
Frankie Albitz took over after
Lockwood quit coaching to dedicate
his time to facility management and
teaching. Albitz never led the Jayhawks to a Big Eight championship,

NCAA VOLLEYBALL
BRACKET BREAKDOWN:
How the Sweet 16 could play out

but she at least got the 1991 team to

the National Invitational Volleyball
tournament.
Albitz told the Lawrence Journal-World in 1985 that it was possible to turn the team around. She also
described the 1985 team as enthusiastic "that the school is getting more
serious about their sport."
30 years later, the University, the
students and the community are very
serious about their beloved volleyball team. Especially since they're
excelling.
If Kansas defeats Loyola Marymount on Friday, it would advance
to Elite Eight for the first time in the
program's rocky history.
"It would definitely make a statement about our program and how
far we've come," sophomore setter
Ainise Havili said.

s No. 9 Kansas heads to San Diego, here's the breakdown of the other regionals in the tournament. The best 16 volleyball teams in the country are facing off this weekend in venues
around the country. Four regionals San Diego; Des Moines, Iowa; Austin, Texas; and Lexington,
Ky. are the hosts of the 12 games that are set to be played on Dec. 11 and 12.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF., REGIONAL

The No. 1 USC Trojans (32-2), the No. 16 Creighton Bluejays

(27-8), the No. 9 Kansas Jayhawks (28-2) and the Loyola Marymount Lions (24-8) make up the four teams that are in the San
Diego Regional.
The Trojans and the Bluejays play on Friday, Dec. 11 at 10 p.m.
central time. The match can be found on ESPNU.
The Jayhawks and the Lions face off on Friday, Dec. 11 at 7:30
p.m. central time. The match will be streamed on ESPN3.
PREDICTION: USC defeats Creighton, and Kansas defeats
Loyola Marymount. I have the No. 1 overall seed USC defeating
Kansas to advance to the Final Four.

AUSTIN, TEXAS, REGIONAL

The No. 3 Texas Longhorns (27-2), the No. 14 UCLA Bruins (257), the No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers (28-6) and the No. 11 Florida
Gators (24-6) make up the Austin, Texas, Regional.
The Longhorns and the Bruins face off on Friday, Dec. 11 at 7
p.m. central time. The match will be streamed on ESPN3.
The Badgers and the Gators face off on Friday, Dec. 11 at 4:30
p.m. central time. The match will be streamed on ESPN3.
PREDICTION: Texas tops UCLA, and Wisconsin defeats Florida, with Texas upending Wisconsin for a bid to the Final Four.

The goal in 1985?

To get a conference win.

This week's goal in 2015?

"Try to go 2-0," Bechard said.
Try to get to the Final Four.

SAN DIEGO

AUSTIN

FINAL FOUR
OMAHA

BY AMIE JUST | @AMIE_JUST

Bechard said the team has been

talking about potentially making the
Elite Eight since before the season
even started.
"We talked about a Big 12 Championship," Bechard said. "We talked
about the Elite Eight. Those are a
couple things we call our 'essential
intent,' which is why we gather every
day and why we train hard [and] try
to be the best we can be each and
every day. If you don't have markers like that, it's easy to drift into
mediocrity, and this team has not
done that."

LEXINGTON

DES MOINES

DES MOINES, IOWA, REGIONAL

The No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions (28-5), the Hawaii Rainbow
Warriors (28-1), the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers (28-4) and
the Illinois Fighting Illini (21-12) make up the Des Moines, Iowa,
Regional.
The Nittany Lions and the Rainbow Warriors face off on Friday,
Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. central time.
The Golden Gophers and the Fighting Illini face off on Friday,
Dec. 11 at 5 p.m. central time. The match will be on ESPN3.
PREDICTION: Penn State defeats Hawaii, and Minnesota defeats Illinois, with Minnesota toppling Penn State to move on to
the Final Four.

LEXINGTON, KY., REGIONAL

The No. 5 Washington Huskies (30-2), the No. 12 Ohio State

Buckeyes (25-9), the No. 4 Nebraska Cornhuskers (28-4) and the
No. 13 BYU Cougars (28-3) make up the Lexington, Ky., Regional.
The Huskies and the Buckeyes face off on Friday, Dec. 11 at 6:30
p.m. central time. The match will be streamed on ESPN3.
The Huskers and the Cougars play on Friday, Dec. 11 at 4 p.m.
central time. The match will be streamed on ESPN3.
PREDICTION: Washington defeats Ohio State, and Nebraska
tops BYU. Nebraska edges out Washington for a Final Four bid.
Graphic by Jake Kaufmann/KANSAN

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

DAY
in the

LIFE

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

DAY
in the

LIFE
LETTER FROM THE
EDITOR
The end of the semester hasnt
come as a surprise to anyone.
Some students are showing up
to classes for the first time since
September, finals are creeping
up, winter is coming and the
campus is winding down.
It has been 16 weeks since we
first sat down in class. Most of us
chose the same seat each day, sitting next to the same person. We
might have been strangers at the
beginning, but after 16 weeks,
wed like to think we know our
classmates better and can even
count them as our friends.
But how well do you really know them? You may think
theyre quiet, but they could be a
talented violinist outside of biology class. You may glance over at
her doodles in her notebook, not
knowing she designs compression garments and a fashion line.
You may know shes the most
dedicated person in class, but
you may not know its because
shes a first-generation student
putting herself through college
on her own dime.
These are the students featured
in this issue of Day in the Life,
but theyre not the only people
at the University with unique
stories. People come to Lawrence
from all over the country and
the world, bringing their specific backgrounds and experiences
with them.
Day in the Life celebrates this
diversity and uniqueness. From
students to faculty to staff, Jayhawks on campus do incredible
things, and this is just a sample
of it all.
Kate Miller, Features Editor
DESIGN BY ROXY TOWNSEND

MIRANDA TREAS

designs compression garments

for transgender people

ZOE LARSON/KANSAN

Miranda Treas poses in front of her compression garments.

LARA KORTE
@lara_korte

If you wander into Chalmers Hall

any given day of the week, chances
are youll find Miranda Treas working
diligently in the senior studio.
The senior textiles major from Kansas City, Kan., spends over 40 hours a
week in the room surrounded by fabric samples, bottles of dye and sewing
patterns. Her latest work-in-progress,
which hangs on the walls, imitates the
pinkish sponges of a coral reef. The
material itself is felted fur from Treas
own pet rabbit, Aria. Treas said one
of her favorite parts of her work is
diving into new fabric techniques like
felting and weaving.
Most days Treas is here, she is working between classes on fresh color
combinations for her projects. On
weekends, Treas switches gears from
schoolwork to business work. Her
underwear line, Treas, is currently sold in a pop-up shop in Mission
Hills as well as a lingerie boutique in
Kansas City.
However, Treas newest endeavor is
something that isnt known so much
for its style as its function. Earlier
this year, Treas began designing and
producing compression garments for
transgender people.
Treas first started sewing compression garments when she was 15. She
spent summers and holiday breaks
sewing at a post-surgical garments
company where her aunt worked. As
of this year, Treas and her aunt started their line of compression garments
they design and create together.
In contrast to her fresh colorful
creations in the studio, Treas com-

pression garments are simple and discreet, and thats just how clients want
them.
Almost indistinguishable from
an average tank top, the garments
are light-beige and made of a thin,
stretchy material called lyrca. The
pieces are meant to be worn under
clothing, while inverted seams compress in to give the wearer the desired
silhouette.
Treas said her garments are designed to help transgender people feel
like themselves.
Before youre able to get surgery,
youre stuck with your old body, and
these garments help you feel like who
you are meant to be and who you
want to be, Treas said.
Although Treas said compression
can be an important part of helping
a transgender person feel like themselves, it can also be dangerous if not
done correctly.
Through working with the trans
community, Treas said she has
learned about the dangers of binding
and bandaging from stories of injured
bodies, even broken ribs.
There are things in your body that
you cant put that much pressure on,
Treas said. People physically hurting
themselves because they want to look
a certain way just should not be an
issue.
Treas and her aunt, Laura Treas,
take special care when creating their
garments. Although they do produce
a stock of generic compression tanks
and underwear, they also do custom
fittings for different body types.
Earlier this fall, the duo decided to
switch from offering their products
in an online store to offering them

to childrens hospitals and foster

care systems. Miranda said they are
currently in the stages of negotiating contracts to make their products
available in those spaces. However,
she said it can be difficult to finalize
products because, when working with
young bodies, they must be very careful.
The garments they wear can really shape them for life, which can be
a good thing but also a really bad
thing, Miranda said.
Laura said she is currently working
with doctors to see what is correct for
developing bodies.
Weve talked about having a little
bit lighter compression, Laura said,
but we just want to get doctors approval before we go forward with
that.
Although Miranda and her aunt
began making their own line of garments only recently, the pair has been
working side-by-side for years to give
the best of their sewing and designing
skills to transgender people.
Laura said when Miranda first came
to work for her at the post-surgical garments company during high
school, she found she had quite the
knack for sewing. Although she was
working alongside well-seasoned industry garment workers, Laura said
the high school student was able to
work twice as fast as her professional
counterparts.
She taught them a lot, Laura said.
She showed them how to go fast and
look very, very calm.
Laura said her nieces proficiency
earned her independence and freedom in her work.
She could not keep her own sched-

ule, she was so fast; everyone just let

her come and go, Laura said.
After enrolling in a fashion design
program her junior year of high
school, Miranda began to expand her
skill set. Laura said when she would
do custom fittings for clients, Miranda would often be in the room making suggestions and offering advice.
She was the only other design person in the building besides me, Laura
said. It gave me confidence too, and
that was helpful.
Now, as a senior in college, Laura
said Miranda is still providing her
with support and ideas as they move
forward with their independent venture.
Its so nice to have her now as this
creative, young adult thats so smart
and brings things to the table, Laura
said. We have different talents; she
brings things to the table that I dont
think of, and we work together well
that way.
In the future, Miranda said she
wants to continue working for herself.
Right now her bra and underwear
line is sold at Birdies, a lingerie shop
in Kansas City as well as the pop-up
shop. She hopes to have a website up
and running by the time she graduates.
As for her line of compression garments, Miranda said shes going to
keep moving forward with her aunt
on making them available to those
who need them. Miranda said making the compression garments is her
way of doing good.
It just makes me feel like Im giving
back, Miranda said. You should just
want to do good, and this is something that I feel is good.

DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM

HENRY SETTON Brazilian violin student

COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman

Before coming to KU, international student Henry Setton had

never left his home country of
Brazil. A second semester freshman violin student, all Setton
knew about Kansas before leaving his hometown of So Paolo
was that it gets tornadoes, as hed
seen in The Wizard of Oz.
Setton has been playing the
violin since he was 10 years old.
There are no other musicians
in his family, and he had never
picked one up before a dream
where he was playing the violin.
The dream made him ask his parents if he could take lessons. They
agreed but said he had to earn it.
Settons parents told him they
would only buy him a violin if he
continued to get good grades for
the rest of the school year. Each
side held up their end of the deal.
As a child he says he was talent-

ed but nothing crazy.

After skipping a grade in high
school, Setton started college in
Brazil at age 16 and had completed two years of it when he decided he wanted to study abroad. He
felt stuck in Brazil, where he says
the schools tend to put all of their
money into STEM programs.
In Brazil, I felt that I was stuck
and also that I couldnt grow a
lot as a musician, he said. Even
though I had a really great teacher, all the other music classes,
they were not strong enough.
They would not prepare me for
real life or to try to get a Masters
abroad, either in the U.S. or in
Europe. So I felt that it was too
weak.
Assistant Professor in the
School of Music Vronique Mathieu, Settons violin instructor at
the University, is originally from
Canada. Mathieu received her
doctorate from Indiana University and taught at the State Uni-

versity of New York Buffalo before hearing about an open violin

professorship in Lawrence. This
is her third year at the University.
I think in a way I can relate
better to international students
because I also was one during my
graduate studies, Mathieu said.
I understand the challenges they
face and can help them in various
situations.
Mathieu makes yearly trips to
Brazil to give master classes. It
was during one that she met Setton. They reconnected last summer, and he mentioned to her
that he was considering transferring to an American school. Mathieu encouraged him to apply
to KU. He agreed, and Mathieu
helped make preparations for his
audition and transition.
She would answer one million
emails every day for me, and I
know shes extremely busy, so, I
mean, shes a wonderful person,
Setton said.

Even though Setton sent his

audition video that fall after
the deadline for the spring 2015
semester the School of Music
made an exception and accepted
him. He began classes with Mathieu in January and says the two
of them have grown very close.
I like the way she tries to have a
good environment in the studio,
Setton said. Even when shes
choosing the students shes going to accept, she doesnt choose
any student. Its not only how the
student plays; its also the personality. If she feels the students
too competitive and, like, jealous,
she wouldnt accept the student,
because her priority is having a
good environment for the students. And thats great. I feel the
environment here is much better,
much less competition [than in
Brazil].
READ THE FULL STORY AT
KANSAN.COM

COURTNEY VARNEY/KANSAN
Henry Setton is an international student from Brazil.
Setton has been playing the violin since he was 10.

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DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM

ALEX ROBINSON/KANSAN
Laura Kimble works on blood samples. They often run tests on blood for students
who need medical tests done, ranging from tuburculosis to STDs.

LAURA KIMBLE
& PAT MOODY

Watkins Health Center

lab scientists who draw
cartoons on bandages
KATIE BERNARD
@KansanNews

As nervous students enter the Watkins Health Center lab for blood tests,
they are greeted by a room filled with
comfy chairs, countless posters and
the smiling faces of Laura Kimble and
Pat Moody.
After a quick procedure, students
are rewarded with a hand-drawn
bandage that could put a smile on
anyone's face.
Kimble and Moody, medical laboratory scientists, have been staples
at Watkins for a long time. Moody,
a University graduate, took her first

job out of college at Watkins 36 years

ago and has been there ever since.
Kimble joined the staff 16 years ago
after moving to Kansas. The two have
become known by students for their
hand-drawn bandages.
Many of the students who come into
the Watkins lab are anxious about
their results or getting their blood
drawn. In response to this, Kimble
and Moody draw on the bandages in
an attempt to put a smile on students'
faces before they leave the office.
We just wanted to make a better
experience for students," Kimble said.
"Its a little hug on the Band Aid."

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION ALEX ROBINSON/KANSAN

From left, Laura Kimble and Pat Moody sit down in the blood drawing room to demonstrate what they do.

A DAY IN THE LIVES OF KIMBLE AND MOODY

8:30 a.m. Arrive at the lab. Record temperatures and turn on analyzers
and computers. Check in and report results from reference lab. Read cultures.
9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Do different activities as needed, including running
tests, ordering supplies, performing maintenance, doing paperwork and
drawing blood.
4:45-5 p.m. Shut down machines and put reference lab specimens in lock
box for pickup.
5 p.m. Leave lab.

DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM
Kimble was the first to draw on
bandages after the state stopped paying for cartoon bandages. She gives
students the option of a cat, dog or
rabbit. Inspired by her coworker and
worried that the students would be
missing out if she gave them a bandage, Moody followed suit by drawing Jayhawks for her patients.
I sat down and figured out how to
draw [the Jayhawk], and then I practiced a lot, Moody said.
Drawing blood and drawing on
bandages are only small parts of their
job descriptions. Work in the lab also
involves running tests, including STD
tests, tuberculosis tests, and all blood
and urine tests. They don't always
have a set schedule; they do the work
that needs to be done when it comes
up.
Thats why I like it every day is
different," Moody said. "It requires
me to think."
Both Kimble and Moody said they
believe the best part of their work is
the opportunity to connect with and
help students. They see their job as
much more than just drawing blood
and running tests it's an opportunity to help students in need.
We can kind of give [students] a
push in the right direction and say,
'Keep your eye on your goal,' because
when youre sick you dont think you
can get through your day, much less
your semester, Kimble said.
Kimble and Moody said they specifically appreciate the opportunity they
have to work with college students for

their "big veins" and their perspective

on life.
They have fresh ideas," Kimble
said. "Its fun to see what they plan to
do after they leave here."
Both Kimble and Moody's children have come to the University
as students, and they both have had
their children as patients. Though
the women said they dont see most
students often enough to remember
their faces or names, they still see
themselves in motherly roles when
dealing with students, and they try
to care for the students in a way that
goes beyond their job description.
In healthcare youre busy. Youre
doing what you need to do to get the
student better, but maybe not necessarily talking to them, and students
really appreciate it when you show
an interest in what theyre doing,
Moody said.
The two have dealt with a wide variety of students, from students getting
blood drawn to those going through
chemotherapy or dealing with disabilities. From conversation while
they draw blood to the hand-drawn
bandages, Kimble and Moody try to
focus on the student they're seeing.
I like to think of it as the next person who comes in is going to be the
most fascinating person I see all day
long, and its usually true," Kimble
said. "If you feel that, its going to be a
good experience."

We just
wanted to
make a better
experience
for students,
Kimble said.
Its a little
hug on the
Band Aid.

Laura Kimble with a Jayhawk bandage drawn by Pat Moody.

ALEX ROBINSON/KANSAN

XX

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DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM

GRACIE WILLIAMS/KANSAN
Sunny Walsh, 77, is the house mother for Pi Phi. First a house mother in Iowa, Walsh came to the University of Kansas in 1988 to be closer to her daughter and granddaughters.

Sunny Walsh Pi Beta Phi house mom will retire after 27 years
KATE MILLER

@_Kate_Miller_

When Sunny Walshs twin granddaughters were accepted into Pi Beta

Phi, Walshs response was not the
typical, congratulatory response expected from a grandmother.
Ill never forget. I just thought,
What were they thinking? she said.
I dont want to know what theyre
doing.
By accepting a bid to Pi Phi, Walshs
granddaughters werent just entering
a society of Greek women they
were committing themselves to living in the same house as their grandmother for two of their college years.
Walsh is the 77-year-old house
mother for Pi Phi. First a house mother in Iowa, Walsh came to the Univer-

sity of Kansas in 1988 to be closer to

her daughter and granddaughters.
Taking a job as a house mother on the
University campus was just a convenient way to do that.
My whole plan was to take one
class [of women] through and then
go to a different campus, she said. I
thought, My gosh, you could live all
over the country, because you dont
have to have furniture or anything.
But it just worked so well here, so that
plan didnt work out, [and] 27 years
later, Im still here.
Walsh compares being a house
mother to running a hotel, only your
guests never go home. Shes responsible for overseeing the maintenance
of the house and its grounds, which
is located on 15th Street across from
the Jayhawker Towers. That includes

organizing the kitchen, the staff of the

house and, of course, caring for the
women living inside.
There isnt really anything you
dont do, she said. Its a challenge
every single day, and you just never
know what its going to be.
While Walsh acknowledges the importance of getting to know the 199
women in the house, she also says
that its not her duty to be their best
best friend. Her favorite part of the
job is seeing those young women
grow.
Before the numbers of sorority
women increased, women lived in
the house from their sophomore
to senior year. Walsh established a
habit early on of eating breakfast and
dinner in the dining room with the
young women, inviting freshmen and

sophomores to eat at her table during

dinner.
Every year, the house has a different personality because the people
are different, she said. You never get
tired of it. Its never the same thing
every year. I really liked that because
whether you had a good group or
kind of a tough group, it was always
a challenge.
Sydney Chrisco, a sophomore from
Baldwin City and a Pi Phi member,
said Walsh has always been a welcoming presence in the house.
Its really personal with her, Chrisco said. Shes like a mom to us.
Its not all fun and games at the
house, though. Walsh says snowstorms present difficulties for the
women, who share a small parking
lot. She also recalled a flooding of the

house that cost $40,000 to repair.

After 27 years of dealing with both
mishaps and triumphs, however,
Walsh will retire at the beginning of
January.
Im 77 years old and there arent
very many people who can work like
I have done for 27 years, she said.
I have been really blessed, and Ive
done something that I really enjoyed.
She has no plan yet for post-Pi Phi,
but trusts that something will come
along.
She does, however, have an idea of
what shell do first.
I think Ill sleep for six months, she
said with a laugh.
Edited by Leah Sitz

ALEX ROBINSON/KANSAN
Grecia Rucoba combs through pictures to help create a project dedicated to the
retired professor of the Multicultural Scholars Program.

ALEX ROBINSON/KANSAN
Rucoba, who is a Woman of Distinction, is from a family of Mexican immigrants.
She was encouraged to be the first child in her family to attend college.

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

GRECIA RUCOBA

ALEX ROBINSON/KANSAN

A first-generation student determined

to make her time at KU count

NATALIE CRAIG
@natjcraig

Its a weekday in 2012, and in the

mix of all the mail at Grecia Rucobas
house lies a blue envelope from the
University of Kansas.
Its tangible proof of Rucobas hard
work her acceptance letter. While
some students accepted to the University take it for granted, for firstgeneration college student Rucoba, it
was the biggest deal.
Every day that I am in class, that is
a success to me, she said. Just to be
here on campus is a success to me.
Rucoba, a senior at the University
and daughter of immigrants from
Mexico, said her parents always
pushed her to further her education
after high school because they never
had that opportunity.
It was never a question to my parents about me going to college, she
said. They were like, You are going.
Just because we couldnt doesnt mean
we are not going to do everything we
can to help you.
Rucoba said the biggest challenge of
being a child of immigrants is money.
I didnt always have a cell phone
and the things that my peers have but
I never experienced any kind of hardship like my mom has so I consider
myself to be so blessed, she said.
Rucoba works five jobs and has received scholarships to help finance
her education. While her parents
cannot support her financially, they
are her source of moral support.
Just because the monetary assistance is not there doesnt mean they
havent given me everything I need to
the best of their ability, she said.
Rucobas mother, Lucila Rucoba,
grew up in Jalisco, Mexico. She came
to the United States in 1988 when she
was 31. Rucoba looks to her mother

as her source of inspiration.

I am inspired by my mom because
she grew up with literally nothing,
she said. She had 13 brothers and sisters, and she got her first pair of shoes
as a gift for her first communion.
When [she] would get a banana, [she]
would split it 13 ways for each of her
brothers and sisters. I always remember that when Im having a hard day,
I just think about the bananas. That is
what keeps me going.
As a senior, Rucoba has made a
name for herself on campus through
her leadership in the scholarship
halls, as well as her involvement in
the Multicultural Scholars Program
and Multicultural Business Scholars
Program. Then this year she received
a KU Woman of Distinction award.
I was shocked that out of the girls in
my scholarship hall, Margaret Amini,
I was chosen, and then campus-wide,
that was crazy, she said. So many
of the women are so much older and
they have PhDs, and it was just such
an honor to be included on that list.
As a KU Woman of Distinction, she
wants to set an example for other students.
It has really made me have a deeper
appreciation for the type of role model I can be because I am a lot of different things, she said. I am a woman, I
am a first-generation college student,
I pay for my own school, I am Hispanic, and I feel like in all of those things
I can be a role model to women, to
first-generation college students, to
all these different groups of students.
And each one of those labels comes
with their own challenges.
As a Hispanic, Rucoba said she faces
many challenges at the University,
especially with a lack of diverse role
models.
I will look around and see a room

full of white men in a lot of my classes, and that is a little bit disheartening
just because I dont see strong Hispanic professors or leaders, Rucoba
said. I mean, theres a couple here
and there, and I really admire them,
but I just wish there were more, especially among my peers. I feel like KU
could definitely benefit from diversity, and that is a hard conversation
with not a lot of answers.
However, Rucoba finds a sense of
community within the Multicultural
Scholars Program.
A lot of those students have parents
from different countries, and that
feels like the closest to a family that
Ive had on this campus, she said.
They renew my energy a lot because
I see all of them going through similar things.
Rucoba said that in the program,
all of the students have similar work
hours to her.
I think we average 22 to 25 hours
a week and that is average, she said.
I know some students who work 30
to 35 hours a week on top of 15 to 16
credit hours. They make it seem easy.
Through all of the challenges, she
still remains driven. Rucoba will
graduate in May with a major in accounting and will return next fall for
the Masters of Accounting program.
She has an internship this summer
with CBIZ in Kansas City and said
she hopes to eventually have a job
working with a nonprofit organization.
I think that it is a really valuable
degree. Everyone needs an accountant so I do not think I will ever be
out of work, which is reassuring, she
said. I hope to move into a controller or CFO or reporting position in a
non-for-profit; that sounds like goals
to me.

DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM

LIZETTE PETER
A teacher and
researcher who focuses
on the power of
language

JARRET ROGERS
@JarretRogers

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Lizette Peter sits at her desk

and turns her computer screen
around. Her calendar stares
back with three prominent colors green, yellow and red
splattered across the screen.
Green and yellow take up the
majority of space green for
the teaching side of her job, yellow for the service, and red for
her research responsibilities.
Peter is an associate professor in the School of Education
and has been since she joined
the department in 2005 after
receiving her doctorate from
the University of Kansas. Her
teaching focuses on secondlanguage acquisition, and most
of her research to date has focused on the revitalization of
the Cherokee language.
Peter describes her current
job as finding the perfect balance between multitudes of responsibilities.
Finding that balance between 40 percent teaching, 40
percent research and 20 percent service often gets out of
whack, she said. What I find is
that my window for conducting
research and publishing gets
squashed because I spend too
much time teaching and advising students and doing service
for the University and other
places.
Peter is also the chair of the
committee that deals with the
KU Core and was on the search
committee for the vice provost
of undergraduate studies. This
qualifies as service, an obligation that falls under one of the
requirements of an associate

professor.
On top of that work for the
University, Peter also reviews
papers as a member of an editorial board for an academic journal, The Journal of Immersion
and Content-Based Language
Education, which is independent of the University.
Despite all the work she does
and as full as her calendar is, Peter said she doesnt feel like her
plate is too full.
I think I do enough. Sometimes its more than others, she
said. Just like with students, we
have our cycles. The end of the
semester can get pretty busy.
I dont think I do too much. I
think its just about right.
The path to being a professor
that focuses on language is one
that started in Montana, where
she grew up. Her family would
go to Canada, the way a family
in Kansas might go to Colorado
or Missouri. While in Canada,
she encountered French language, and, from there, her passion grew.
[I] was always fascinated by
the French signs and the French
candy wrappers and all of those
kinds of things, Peter said.
Peter went on to obtain her
bachelors degree from the University of Montana. Following
college, she spent three years in
the Peace Corps in Sri Lanka.
It was life-changing, she
said. Like I said, I grew up in
Montana, so I was pretty callow, even though I had been
overseas as an exchange student
and did a study abroad in high
school. I was never prepared to
work or live in an underdeveloped country.
Sri Lanka holds a special place

in Peters heart, as it is where

she learned about the influence
English has in the world. Its
this lesson that she remembers
every day and hopes to pass on
to students who aspire to teach
the English language to people
who dont have the same lives
and privileges.
If I have any impact on my
students who want to teach
English abroad, its what I
learned from living in a place
like Sri Lanka, and realizing
that even though English may
be seen as a language that will
help people gain economic
prosperity or find better jobs or
find better educational chances,
its also a language that has a
lot of power, and that those
who are teaching it have to be
responsible with that power,
Peter said.
Peter says that her main
source of joy on a daily basis is
teaching and interacting with
students.
I can be having a really crappy day, but, when I can go into
a class and get them engaged,
so its not just me lecturing
when you get to that place in
your teaching, I think it really
charges you and gives you a lot
of energy, Peter said.
Going forward, Peter said she
sees herself making a positive
impact on the University as she
takes on more leadership roles
and attempts to leave her mark
on the lives of students.
I think me and my colleagues
have an opportunity to do
things and make changes that
will leave a lasting legacy, she
said. Theres a lot of potential.

Edited by Dani Malakoff

10

DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Graham Wehmeyer conducts an
experiment in the lab.

GRAHAM
WEHMEYER
Who got a
perfect score
on the MCAT
JOSH MCQUADE

@L0neW0lfMcQuade

In the middle of September, many students are finally

grasping the concept of each
of their classes. But Graham
Wehmeyer, a senior microbiology major, was walking
into the dreaded MCAT, or
Medical College Admission
Test, completely prepared.
Seven and a half hours later,
Wehmeyer became one of
the few examinees to receive
a perfect 45 on the MCAT.
But the road to this perfect
score was not easy.
It began during Wehmeyers
childhood. He was always interested in sciences, especially
biology, and was raised in a
strongly academic family.
I was lucky enough to have
a family that understood the
importance of academics
my dad has been a professor at
KU since 1999 and is currently the director of the Beach
Center on Disability and the
co-director of the KU Center
on Developmental Disabilities and encouraged me to
pursue my interests at every
opportunity, he said.
However, even with an academic-heavy family, Wehmeyer said he struggled with
academics in high school. He
had trouble understanding
how he could connect the material he learned with how to
use it.
During his junior and senior
year of high school, Wehmeyer said he was lucky enough
to take part in a bioscience
program at Blue Valleys
Center for Advanced Professional Studies. This program
focused on exposing students

to how they could apply bioscience to the real world. This

included learning correct lab
techniques, knowing how to
design and perform research
projects and understanding
scientific literature.
The program sparked Wehmeyers interest for molecular
bioscience and paved the way
to his microbiology major. He
was able to obtain a position
in a molecular bioscience lab
at the University before he was
a freshman.
Despite his difficult major,
Wehmeyer said he had to adjust to a heavy load to study
for the MCAT.
It takes time and practice,
Wehmeyer said. The test
that you take, it plays to your
strengths, it plays to your
weaknesses.
The menu Wehmeyer had
created for himself looks to
be rigorous to the normal
student; however, Wehmeyer
made sure to leave room for
pleasure within his schedule.
He said he believes a student
will not be able to perform
well when under the constant
stress of the MCAT, and must
leave room for relaxation and
a social life.

Its important to not get too

caught up in studying all the
time, Wehmeyer said, If you
study 24/7, youll burn yourself out and you wont do as
well.
Wehmeyer began studying
for the MCAT in May, allowing him flexibility between
juggling studying, volunteering at Heartland Community
Health Center and a job at a
microbial genetics research
lab with Susan Egan.
[Studying] didnt [affect
my daily life] that much actually which was nice, he said,
The lab Im in is really great
because its pretty flexibleI
could fit 4-5 hours of research
in a day and then go study and
still be done at 8 or 9 and go
watch a movie or go out.
The Heartland Community
Health Center is a clinic based
in Lawrence dedicated to providing service to underserved
and uninsured people. Wehmeyer did not have much extra
time while studying for the
MCAT, but still volunteered at
the health center.
READ THE FULL STORY AT
KANSAN.COM

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

TONY
BOLDEN
Artist and associate professor of

11
CONTRIBUTED
Bolden also served in South Korea.
Tony Bolden

CONTRIBUTED

African and African American Studies

CAROLINE FISS/KANSAN
Tony Boldens love for funk and blues started early, inspired by his parents. He then pursued his passion academically.

BRIANNA CHILDERS
@breeanuhh3

When Tony Bolden, an associate

professor and undergraduate adviser
of African and African American
Studies, was young, he considered
himself an artist.
But when he uses the term artist, he
doesnt mean a singer or rapper he
means a reader.
Though reading didnt become a
passion until later, growing up, Bolden always wanted to be a writer and
said he understood that the two were
closely related.
When he was a child in the 1960s
in Berkeley, Calif., his mother used
to play BB King and Aretha Franklin
in their home, which Bolden remembers giving him a warm feeling. His
father was a reader, and though his father never went to college, he studied
jazz on his own. Boldens father also
studied Egyptology and taught himself how to read hieroglyphs.
Boldens father would also read to
him. Bolden fought it at that age, but
he would realize its importance later.
When Bolden was a soldier in Korea, he had a negative emotional experience and, while he still doesnt
know why, the next day he went to
the local library and picked up a book
by James Baldwin called Go Tell It on
the Mountain.
When I read the book remember, I am 19 years old and thousands
of miles away and I couldnt understand what I understand now, but all
those characters reminded me of my
aunts and uncles and gave me a really
warm feeling, Bolden said. Thats
where I started.

When Bolden returned home, he

moved back to California and went to
school at Merritt College in Oakland.
At the time, his father lived in Oakland, so he would stop by on his way
home to Berkeley, and his dad would
teach him the history of jazz.
He taught me how to identify the
sounds of individual instruments and
individual instrumentalists, and then
he taught me how to listen for certain
kinds of sounds that sort of reflect
certain feelings or moods or ideas,
Bolden said.
His father also taught him genealogies of musicians and who had
influenced whom. They would sit and
listen to music for hours, and when
he visited him on the weekends, his
father would take him to the living
room and put on the record player
with music from 1945-70.
Despite his fathers focus on music,
Boldens attraction to being a writer
and a literary artist remained. For
him, an artist meant an intellectual.
I aspired to be an artist, and one
thing that happened was one of the
older artists I knew told me in a formal voice, Tony, if all you want to do
is read and write, why dont you go
and pick up a masters degree somewhere? Bolden said.
Thats exactly what Bolden did.
After enlisting in the army in 1975,
he moved south, went to college
and started a family. He received his
bachelors degree in English at Dillard University in New Orleans, his
masters degree in African-American
Studies at the University of Iowa, and
has his doctorate in English from
Louisiana State University.
His first job was teaching at the Uni-

versity of Alabama, and he came to

the University of Kansas in 2009.
I had been organizing a symposium on funk music at the University
of Alabama, and the chair at KU said
I could do that here, so I came for a
campus visit and really loved the energy of the place, Bolden said.
Though Bolden isnt teaching any
classes at the University this semester,
in the past his classes have focused on
music. He has taught black popular
music and the introductory course of
African and African American Studies. He also created a course called
The Life and Times of Jimi Hendrix.
Bolden said his students learn critical skills, how to phrase questions and
how to evaluate and formulate their
own arguments. He said these are life
skills that students can always use in
any real sort of endeavor.
[What I teach my students] is also
important in terms of the history of
the country in many ways, Bolden
said. I know [my classes are about]
entertainment but in many ways
these musicians exuded democratic
principles and they reconciled the
conflict between the interest of the
individual and the collective.
Aside from teaching classes, Bolden
achieved his goal of becoming a writer, focusing on funk and blues music. He currently has three published
books and has been working on his
current book, Blue Funk: Performing the Grooves in Black Cultural
Philosophy, for 10 years.
The reason it took so long, he said,
is because he is a literary scholar and
his training is in how to interpret literature. While he writes the book, he
reads on his own and trains himself

on the information he is learning.

Blue Funk traces the history of the
concept of funk from its early beginnings.
The best way to explain [Funk] is:
Have you ever danced before and had
fun? That feeling you get, the goosepimply feeling, well in African-American cultures way back when, that was
all expressed religiously, Bolden said.
Dancing was the way people praised
God, but after slavery, there was a
split in the church, where dancing
had previously been allowed, Bolden
said. Young people couldnt express
what they had experienced because
church rituals had become conservative. Because of this lack of space for
expression, blues music was created.
The test of good blues music was
to create that feeling that you feel in
dancing, but within a profane or secular context, so Im tracking that feeling and how those ideas get expressed
in music, Bolden said.
Despite working on the book for
years, Bolden said he hasnt been discouraged.
I have a high standard, so when I
put my name on something I want it
to mean something, Bolden said.
While teaching at Alabama, Bolden
met Willie King, a singer and guitarist
who would go out into the woods to
perform. Bolden joined and watched
the performances.
Out in the country, everybody
danced, and there was no taboo,
Bolden said. The only taboo was disrespect, and that was the only thing
that wasnt allowed, so it was a really
spiritual thing.
Bolden recounts that it was almost
like going back in time because there

were no paved roads and there were

barbed wire fences. He said it was like
an old dilapidated juke joint with
plywood floors.
There were very poor people, but
they had all this dignity and there was
just a beauty to the music, Bolden
said. You had the entire community
there, from 18 to 78, and everyone
from 25 up would dance, and they
could all dance and they had their
own movement.
This experience not only plays into
his book writing, he said, but also in
the way he teaches.
Tara Green, a professor and director of African American and African
Diaspora Studies at the University of
North Carolina-Greensboro, was a
student of Bolden when he was teaching at Dillard University.
Green said Bolden has a clear and
broad outreach, he is very comfortable and always very willing to give
parts of himself to other students to
help them be at the level he is now.
I dont recall any other professor
I had bringing music into the classroom, and I think, for me, that was
something that stuck with me, because when I teach now, I teach music, Green said.
Starting from listening to blues and
jazz music in his home at a young age
to writing books about blues and jazz,
Bolden has come full circle.
But having listened to the blues, I
began to understand it wasnt just entertainment, Bolden said. There was
a logic to this, and it had to do with a
philosophy of life.

Edited by Maddy Mikinski

12

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

PAMELA
RODRIGUEZ
MONTERO
Makeup and stage
designer for
University Theatre

Pamela Rodriguez Montero, a graduate student from Costa Rica, has worked on four Univeristy plays, including Johanna: Facing Forward.

ANGIE BALDELOMAR
@AngieBaldelomar

Pamela Rodriguez Montero arrives

at Murphy Hall around 9 a.m. each
day. On her way to work the backstage world of her students and fellow theater lovers greet her.
Theater has something about a
community that is just so beautiful, she said. Everyone involved
does some part, and then everything
comes together in a whole big thing.
Its just magical.
Rodriguez Montero is a graduate
student from Costa Rica pursuing
her master's degree in scenography
the integrated study of all the visual elements in the theater, like sets,
makeup and lighting. She also works
as a makeup and stage designer for
University Theatre.
Theater is inclusive of everyone
and has the ability to work with any

department, she said. You can combine theater with any other discipline,
which is something I love.
This love ultimately led her to
choose scenography as her study focus.
One of the biggest discoveries she
made during her experience at the
University is her passion for teaching. Before that, she never considered
teaching as a career path. When she
was told she had to teach a class as
part of her program, she said she was
a little worried about it.
I was scared, at first because English is not my first language, and I
thought they wouldnt understand me
through my accent, but it turned out
fine, she said.
She now says she enjoys watching
her students grow and gain more
confidence in their talents throughout the semester.

Its really rewarding, she said.

When working for Johanna: Facing
Forward," her second play working
with Rodriguez Montero, junior Kate
Smeltzer would see Rodriguez Montero for hours each day. As a result,
she even has her Jimmy Johns order
memorized.
She is so inspirational and has
opened so many doors for me, Smeltzer said. I have never done makeup
before, but I want to do it professionally now.
Smeltzer said she did not expect being handed so much responsibility in
the development of the play from the
very beginning, but that's what happened. She said that on the first day of
work, Rodriguez Montero put her in
charge of the papers an important
part of the Johanna set.
Its like she never doubts a person
for a second that they are capable of

doing something, she said.

Smeltzer said that quality also
speaks about Rodriguez Montero's
teaching skills.
"As a teacher, she is so patient and
calm, but most of all, so encouraging,
Smeltzer said. She gets excited to see
us growing as students.
Since Rodriguez Montero has been
at the University, she has participated
in four plays, designing the sets, stages and makeup. The most significant
play she has designed so far is Johanna: Facing Forward," which is based
on a real-life story about a Latina
teenager who survived abuse.
The story was so powerful, and I
got to meet with the real Johanna,
she said. It was an amazing experience.
She studied as an undergraduate
in Costa Rica, where she obtained a
bachelor's degree in visual arts. Ever

CAROLINE FISS/KANSAN

since high school she has been actively involved in the theater world,
and one of her dreams was studying
in the United States. The prolific theater industry the U.S. has to offer, she
said, put the country as her next stop.
She said studying abroad has been a
powerful opportunity.
You learn a lot of things about
yourself and about the world, she
said. You become more attached to
your country, your traditions.
And the food?
Definitely, the food, she said,
laughing. I cry when I find some of
it in the supermarket.
But the University environment and
the Lawrence community as a whole
have made her transition to the United States easier. The Small World, a
nonprofit organization in Lawrence,
is the place that helped her the most
those first few months, she said. She

DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM

developed and improved her English

skills, which prepared her to eventually apply to the University and pursue her graduate studies.
Theres just a human quality at KU
that I find to be precious, she said.
When she's not in the theater, Rodriguez Montero is part of the Latin
American Graduate Organization,
where she meets with the other members mainly to dance but also to hang
out. However, exercising is her main
hobby. She belongs to the Lawrence
running group Red Dog Dogs Days
and also loves doing yoga. She is currently trying acro-yoga, which is yoga
with a partner.
I try to be as active as possible, she

said. Its just part of who I am.

Smeltzer agreed.
Shes a ball of energy and very enthusiastic all the time, she said, "even
in the early hours in the morning.
Now in her last year of the program,
Rodriguez Montero already looking ahead. So far, she said, she only
knows she wants to continue working
in a university environment, whether
teaching or designing productions
but not necessarily at KU.
Im open for everything, whether
its here in the U.S. or Costa Rica, or
anywhere else in the world, she said.
After all, you just have one life.
Edited by Jackson Vickery

13

Im open for
everything,
whether
its here in
the U.S.
or Costa
Rica, or
anywhere
else in the
world,
Rodriguez
Montero
said. After
all, you just
have one
life.

CAROLINE FISS/KANSAN
Pamela Rodriguez Montero with
makeup she uses for University Theatre.

14

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

CASSIDY RITTER/KANSAN
Tad Carpenter offers critique on work from his sophomore class,
Visual Communications 204.

TAD CARPENTER

Instructor and owner of the design

firm Carpenter Collective

CASSIDY RITTER
@CassidyRitter

At 5:30 a.m., when most students

are still asleep and the sun hasnt yet
risen, Tad Carpenter is awake and
ready for the gym. Hes running two
miles, taking a moment to de-stress
and collect his thoughts before beginning the long day ahead.
Carpenters gym routine is similar to
the rest of his day always varying.
From 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Carpenter is running around. This is typical for the University graphic design
instructor and owner of Carpenter
Collective, a design firm in Kansas
City, Mo.
At the University, Carpenter teaches
a visual communications class. At
Carpenter Collective, he designs everything from book illustrations and
designs to branding for microbrewer-

ies and salons.

Id say creating brand identities is
probably one of my favorite things
to do just because it encompasses so
many different elements and applications, Carpenter said. I mean, to be
honest, even when I design a book or
anything like that I kind of approach
it from a brand identity standpoint
just because youre creating a little
identity in itself with pallet and type
recommendations and style.
Carpenter said it probably sounds
like the most boring job, but his love
for design runs deep. His father, an
illustrator, is a lifelong employee for
Hallmark Cards.
Im lucky that Ive been around
design and art my whole life, more
or less, Carpenter said. A lot of kids
growing up wanted to be firemen or
policemen or football players, and
yeah, maybe a little part of me wanted

those things, but when I was a kid I

knew I always wanted to be an artist
or designer.
Carpenter said each day is different.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays he teaches Visual Communications 204 at the
University, leaving less time to work
for his clients at Carpenter Collective. He said his clients are brave and
willing to take risks when it comes to
design.
I want them to trust us and be willing to take risks, and those are the
kind of clients we want to continue
to work with, he said. Weve been
lucky to work with a lot of people like
that. We hope that those are the kind
of people we can continue to work
with and just continue to do the kind
of stuff that we really enjoy doing.
Sally Carmichael, a former intern at
Carpenter Collective and student of
Carpenters in 2011, is now a designer

for Airbnb in San Francisco. She said

Carpenter makes flawless designs and
is also a kind, personal person, making him a great business owner.
Hes an insane powerhouse basically, Carmichael said. Its insane how
great he is. Hes incredibly efficient.
When Carmichael worked with
him, she said she remembered he
would print designs, talk to clients on
the phone and prepare for a presentation, all while trying to eat lunch.
I dont know how he does it, Carmichael continued.
The Carpenter Collective office is a
short walk down two flights of stairs.
Carpenter and his wife converted an
old house in West Plaza into a live/
work space. The top two levels are
for living, and the bottom level is a
walkout office space where he works.
Living so close to work makes it hard
for Carpenter to take a break, but he

doesnt mind.
It can be an early Sunday morning
when I cant sleep, and instead of going to watch TV, I typically find myself going to the office, making stuff,
he said.
Carpenters wife works for Carpenter Collective, too, which is a great
part of their relationship, he said.
While hes in Lawrence teaching, his
wife is making progress on deadlines
at the office.
So I might be here [in Lawrence]
teaching, but the trains still on the
tracks, he said.
Before beginning work in the office, Carpenter works out. With such
a busy schedule of teaching and consulting, this is a release for Carpenter.
It just makes me more focused, he
said. It makes me more productive,
just stronger in general, if I can do
some sort of physical activity, because

DAY IN THE LIFE

KANSAN.COM
if I dont Im a very big jerk. If I dont
my wife can always tell shes like,
You havent worked out in the past
day have you? You need to go do your
gym thing.
When Carpenter begins work in the
office, he starts by shifting through a
stack of emails before designing. An
hour later, Carpenter begins working
on one of many projects. He said each
project is a different level of completion because some may be put on
hold while his clients wait for approval or investors. This means Carpenter could be doing a variety of work,
from branding a new brewery in St.
Louis or a new salon in Kansas City
to branding an international freight
shipping company in Dallas. Sometimes Carpenter takes on designing
and illustrating childrens books.
In Carpenters eyes, the best part of
designing is the exploration process.
Carpenter explores and creates new
designs every day.
Youre getting to make something
out of nothing every single day in
some form or fashion, and thats
whats awesome about our process
and what we get to do, he said.
Carpenter said there is still room for
improvement though.
Weve been doing this for 10 or 11
years, and I still feel like [Carpenter
Collective] can always be a little bit
better and can do a little bit more,
and thats a healthy thing to feel and
continue to try to strive for, Carpenter said. And I think just getting new,
exciting work all the time is very motivational.
Deadlines for Carpenter vary. Some
projects take months, while others
need to be finished in a few hours.
Carpenter Collective does a lot of
branding projects, which typically
last two to four weeks before showing
the client a design.
Illustrating books is a whole new
game, Carpenter said. Its normally a
six-month, multi-step project from
the time he receives the manuscript
to when he releases the project to the
printer.
Carpenter said the first step is sharing style ideas with the client. Then
he sketches the whole book by pencil
or concept, gets approval of the client
and makes revisions. After revisions,
Carpenter adds color to the pages,
gets the clients approval, makes revisions and sends it to the printer.
To Carpenter, books are a labor of
love.
They are such a pain in the ass, and
you tell yourself, Alright, I cant do

one of these for a while. This one was

just too much, Carpenter said. But
then the book arrives on your doorstep and you get this thing that you
made. You did the whole thing, you
know, and youre like, Oh man, that
was fun. I could do another one of
those, and you do another one.
Similar to any job, Carpenter experiences frustrations with time restrictions and changing gears in the
middle of a project.
But, in the end of the day we are
lucky to do this, he said. Theres
nothing thats really chapping my
hide over and over again other than
things that are just are things that all
people collaborating on work have to
deal with in any industry.

Youre getting to make

something out of nothing every single day in
some form or fashion,
and thats whats awesome about our process
and what we get to do.
TAD CARPENTER

In the midst of a semester, Carpenter typically works late into the night.
Now that Im getting older, I try
not to pull like the 3 a.m. nonsense
anymore. It just aint helping nobody, Carpenter said. So I would
normally say I do the 8:30 to 11 p.m.,
a lot of times maybe midnight. Are
there nights that I work until 1 in the
morning or 2? Yeah, it happens, like
you just have to get stuff done, but Im
also one of those people thats very
lucky that I dont need a ton of sleep
to function.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when
Carpenter teaches, he drives from his
office Kansas City, Mo., to Lawrence.
Its not ideal by any means, but its
also the only like 45 to 50 minutes
[when] Im forced to not do anything, Carpenter said. And I think
thats probably a healthy thing for me.
Im not good at not doing anything.
During the drive, Carpenter gets
lost in the music of Johnny Cash,
Buck Owens and Willie Nelson. The
music reminds him of a slower pace
and simpler time, bringing him back
to memories of driving through small
towns in Kansas with his grandpa.
What I took away from my grandparents was the importance of hard

work, he said. My grandfather

Boehme was a state trooper and
Grandfather Carpenter worked in the
concrete industry both no-nonsense, roll-[up]-your-sleeve, get-shitdone kind of jobs. That work ethic has
always stayed with me.
Carpenter began teaching in fall
2009. His class this semester is the
first of four classes students take before being accepted into the School
of Graphic Design. When the four
classes are complete, students turn in
all of their work to design professors
to be reviewed, he said.
Megan Snelten, a junior from Lake
Zurich, Ill., is an intern at Carpenter
Collective and was in Carpenters
class last year. Snelten said Carpenter brings a lot of energy and passion
to his class. She also said Carpenter
gears class projects towards real world
applications which helps keep everyone inspired.
Carpenter particularly likes teaching the class because of the youth of
his students and their dedication.
I love this class because everyones
on pins and needles a little bit. Everyones willing to work hard because it
is a big semester and it is a big class,
but also like the kids arent too cool
for school yet, like they dont know
anything, man, Carpenter said. So
its cool to kind of introduce them
to some things and get them excited
about stuff and motivate them.
He loves watching students formulate their own ideas and become passionate about design the way he is.
I wish so badly that I didnt enjoy
teaching because its one of those
things, man. Its really hard when
you run your own business and you
have a lot of clients and a lot of work
and a lot of stuff going on, and then
to basically take two days out of the
week and come teach you have to
love it, because if not it would be an
easy thing to remove, he said. I always joke a little bit that Im like this
is probably my last semester teaching,
but the problem is its addictive and
you enjoy it. Like, you really get a lot
out of it and you love it.

15
CASSIDY RITTER/KANSAN
Tad Carpenter lectures his
sophomore class, Visual
Communications 204.

Edited by Maddy Mikinski

CONTRIBUTED
Modern-Day Venus, Tad Carpenters spin on Botticellis The Birth of Venus,
part of a project he did for Adobe.

XX

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