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Kansas Alumni Magazine BAKED GOODS • CENTURY OF SCIENCE • RECORD RELAYS I FEEL MOST COLORED WHEN I AM THROWN A GAINST A SHARP WHITE RACKGROIINDLI FEEL MO ST CJILORED W.IIEN I THROW \ AGAINST A PEEfc N EN f ft- {yr '* Few and Far Between Black students at KU I/Uete tuolUnq, (Hit the Umbo#i and Qlue casip for future Jayhawks The Office of Admissions and Scholarships is ready to welcome new 'Hawks to our nest High school Grade school through 8th grade If you know a student who is choosing You're never too young to be a Jayhawk. a university, we would be glad to send Send us information about the children information about attending the Univer- of your relatives and friends who may be sity of Kansas. interested in KU, and we'll keep in touch with: Admissions Timeline • Annual correspondence geared toward for High School Seniors specific age groups August - Receive KU Viewbook, which includes applications and general infor- • Notification of campus events mation about KU • Campus visits for individuals or classes September-December - Apply online for admissions, scholarships and housing at Please tell us: www.ukans.edu • Your name and relationship to the student (parent, relative, friend, etc.) January - Apply for federal financial aid using the Free Application for Federal • Student's name, phone number, e-mail Student Aid (FAFSA) forms available at address, mailing address your local high school. Also receive and • Student's grade level complete housing contract. • For high school students only, please March - Receive and complete New include the name of the high school the Student Orientation registration student attends June - Summer Orientation begins August - Classes start Contact Margey Frederick at 785-864-2341 or [email protected] Thanks for helping us recruit future Jayhawks. KANSAS ALUMNI CONTENTS Established in 1902 as The Graduate Magazine 1 FEATURES 'Wfe'- DEPARTMENTS I1 20 Am • «; 3 EIRST WORD Faces in the Crowd 9 The editor's turn 4 FT THE CHORL^S Why has enrollment oj black students fallen in BH Letters from readers the past 20 years? Answers are elusive. JS 2 1 6 ON THE BOULEVARD By Megan Maciejowski ^H i & Schedules of KU events On the cover: Glenn Ligon's untitled 1992 etching, from 8 JAYHAWKWALK the Spencer Museum of Art's collection, repeats a Titanic party, dinner the- atrev t If I t Le-vradt's V I \j[ Lit J phrase written in 1928 by Zora Neale Hurston: Pa§e 20 "I feel most colored when 1 am thrown against a X \J niL.L.1 v_7r Iv^j News and notes, sharp white background." Hurston's biographer is including a Marshall Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway. Scholar, stock studies, budget news and more 14 SPORTS 26 Men's and women's basketball, sviiiwf Osportsf Creative Fire 18 OREAD READER Pottery baked in a new, student-built kiln w Kooky Kansas history is the hottest arts sensation on campus. comes alive 1 1 19 OREAD WRITER By Katherine Dinsdale Composition meets the Photographs by Wally Emerson couch * 36 ASSOCIATION NEWS |k **» p» <r Rock Chalk Ball falderal, 30 Page 26 Music Mentors and more l-^ rf""^ • "^ ^""> V~^ ^"""^ *m" "V ^"^ ~^LA S~^ ~«>4 ^^ lne Discoverers 38 CASLESDM°N Kl/'s honor roll of scientific achievement reveals The latest on Adams splendid innovations that changed the world. Alumni Center, chapter and KHP events By Chris Lazzarino Profiles of Godfather's angel, Indian artist and novelist who explores Jew- U H 1k ish persecution 1 50 IN MEMORY 1 II 1 Deaths in the KU family ;-— S f 1 1 54 SCHOOLWORK p News jrom academe Page 30 60 HAIL TO OLD KU Record-setting Relays VOLUME 98 NO. 2, 2000 KANSAS ALUMNI Put Your 'We ve spent our lives mi Iding the Herbarium in Trust unable n inKU the region. This gift al 'tinue our involvement by contributing As a bov. Kl alumnus Ronald L. to ihe future success of this facility. " eeor. Ph.D.. bee naled b\ the varied and abund — Ronald & Dorothy McGregor plain life on his grandfatru ranch. His \ou Mil grew into a 42-vear career al Kl . As director ol the Herbarium at Kl from I950to 1989, he guided the growth of the Herbarium's collection ol llora to become the UIOII. inciiultii'j ^^K «n nv iviiaiiiini; Hie lection ihe Ronald L. McGreaor Because his commitment to the Mc(iregor and Ins w ifc, Kl alumna Dorothy M. McGregor, iler trust al i lie Kansas I ni\eisit\ ent AsstKiatio pro\ iite sup ancc and ix »e I lerbj the McGreaon pro\ iding them w itli inc< lor their hlelimes in auilition to a current income lax deduction and tax deduction NIVI R: ENDOWMENT P.O. luv\ 928 vi. ks ()dO44 0^28 785) N.v! 7400 FIRST WORD BY JENNIFER JACKSON SANNER his is not the first time Kansas Alumni has made minor- nary metaphors. Winner of a ity student recruitment a cover story. In June 1989 we MacArthur Foundation illustrated our feature with rows of identical portraits of genius grant and a finalist for a young white man surrounding an understated head- the Pulitzer Prize, Smith Tline, "The face of academe: KU strives to break the pattern." meticulously records the Inside the magazine, we examined the enrollments of various speech of those who have minority groups, including black students. In fall 1988, black witnessed painful, pivotal enrollment stood at 675 among 26,020 students on the episodes in American life. Lawrence campus. A decade earlier, in fall 1979, KU had As she impersonates them enrolled 836 black students among 24,125 students in on-stage, she lays bare the Lawrence. societal scars of prejudice, More than 10 years after our story, while enrollments of other fear and distrust. minority groups have continued to gain, KU has added barely A standing ovation con- more than two dozen black students: Of the 25,406 students on cluded Smith's KU perfor- KU's Lawrence campus in fall 1999, 701 are black—still far mance. Her often hilarious, fewer than the number in 1979. sometimes harrowing charac- ANNA DEAVERE SMITH The University's commitment to attract more black students ters issued her challenge to America: to bravely venture beyond remains manifest not in enrollment increases but in little-touted what she calls our safe houses of identity, which she says we scholarships, little-used academic support programs, agendas of have built to shield us from the "brutal world of the other." She long-forgotten task forces and the public pronouncements of contends Americans are too eager to huddle in their houses, to two chancellors. So our cover ignore or hastily resolve conflict rather than working with their story this time pointedly asks the differences and learning from them. question: Why has KU failed to After the ovations, as Smith answered questions from the recruit more black students? KANSAS ALUMNI audience, a graduate teaching assistant stood and described a The answers, of course, are recent classroom conflict. Maggie Baldomir, who teaches theatre not easy, but as Megan and film, had shown her students the video of Smiths "Fires in Maciejowski discovered in the Mirror," a collection of monologues from people in Crown numerous interviews with stu- Heights, a district in the New York City borough of Brooklyn dents and administrators, the that saw clashes among blacks, Jews and Muslims in 1991. Class reasons may have less to do with discussion of the video sputtered, Baldomir said, the means to bringing blacks stu- when a Jewish student told his classmates that dents to campus and more to do when they laughed at Smith's portrayals of Jews, with what it means to be black in he felt they were laughing at his heritage. "For me the overwhelmingly white class- it was very hard to deal with because we were try- rooms and social structures of ing to go from one safe house to the other," Bal- the Hill. Recruitment of black domir said. "How do you get invited to the other students means coping with the feelings echoed safe house?" in our cover illustration, a 1992 etching by artist Smith embraced Baldomirs question and the Glenn Ligon from the Spencer Museum of Art's bravery of the student who had honestly shared collection. his feelings. "I believe your class sounds like a How can our community help ease the isola- great victory," she told the young teacher. "When tion that mars the KU experience of some black I talk about coming out of safe houses, I suggest students? Perhaps the solutions lie not in official people stand in the crossroads of ambiguity, ... programs but in individual understanding. Per- 1989 where it's not clear or defined. The people who haps in one sense we need more talk and less action. choose to stand in that uncomfortable place are people who When the issues involve race, real talk makes us squirm. To have the heart and the spirit and the curiosity to know about speak our minds and our hearts—or to hear others air our dif- the other." ferences—breaks rules and bruises feelings. But words that Heart, spirit, curiosity—and courage—move artists like offend polite company can speak powerfully on-stage, as play- Glenn Ligon and Anna Deavere Smith to express in poignant art wright and actress Anna Deavere Smith illustrated Feb. 10, or breathtaking theatre what so few of us dare ask or utter. As when she performed at the Lied Center as part of the millen- the University continues to struggle with diversity, we can only nium series hosted by the Hall Center for the Humanities.
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  • Walter Sutton 11.1 Walter Sutton Discovered the Connection Between Inheritance and Chromosomes, a Concept We Take for Granted Today
    Name: Date: Walter Sutton 11.1 Walter Sutton discovered the connection between inheritance and chromosomes, a concept we take for granted today. This connection set the stage for the development of modern molecular biology. Beginnings of innovation One particular grasshopper species was bigger than the others. When Sutton examined dissected tissue of Walter Sutton was born in the grasshopper, he observed very large cells under Utica, New York on April 5, his microscope. He prepared some samples and sent 1877. When Walter was then back to McClung, with the recommendation they ten, his father, William Bell begin using this species (Brachystola magna, the Sutton, a successful county “Lubber” grasshopper) for future experiments. judge, decided to move west with his family and Even though Sutton was only a second year student, open a ranch in Russell, McClung and several other faculty members quickly Kansas. agreed with Sutton, and considered his findings important to the study of reproductive cytology and Walter Sutton and his four morphology. Soon, cells from the Lubber brothers slowly became grasshopper were used by labs all over the world. accustomed to ranch life. With these cells, McClung was able to identify the About half of their ranch was grazing land for cattle, chromosome responsible for sex determination in and the other half planted with rye, barley, oats and sexual reproduction. potatoes. Walter especially enjoyed figuring out how to operate and maintain the many pieces of farm Building upon past success equipment on the Kansas ranch. Sutton received his undergraduate degree from the Sutton’s interest in farm machines and obvious University of Kansas in 1899, and his masters degree mechanical skills made the study of engineering a in 1900.
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