Multimedia Writing & Production

Design Department Expands

By Arthur Hur

In the past, some prospective University of Kansas students had to go elsewhere for their college education. The problem was not necessarily the distance from their families or high tuition but because the biggest school that offered the most majors in the state of Kansas did not offer their desired major.

Aspiring high school photographers can now put the University of Kansas on their list of prospective schools. Working professionals with design backgrounds won’t have to drive far enhance their business skills.

The KU design department is going to get a little bigger.

The department of design at KU will officially launch a new photography undergraduate major, along with two graduate degree programs in interaction design and design management, in the spring of 2008. However, students had the option of getting a head start and taking a few classes towards these new majors this semester. These new programs had been under development for some time. The undergraduate photography program was formulated last year while the graduate programs took longer, under development since the 2002-03 school year.

The new undergraduate photography major, photomedia, was created after the Kansas Board of Regents approval last spring. New courses in video and multimedia will be required in addition to the traditional film photography classes, giving the degree a unique dimension. Computer imaging, motion graphics and other digital media concepts are an important part of the curriculum.

According to the design department web site, the major most asked for by prospective students was a BA or BFA in photography.

“I would have definitely done it,” said Giao Pham, KU grad student. “I love photography and find it a shame that KU doesn’t offer the program.”

The move to include a photography major comes after every other Big 12 North school included it in their art or design curriculum except for Iowa State University, according to Big 12 school web sites. Now, the program is the only one in Kansas to offer a single photography and digital media major.

The working professional who graduated with a BFA long ago has not been left out of KU’s plan to expand its design program. An additional Master of Fine Arts degree will allow people who work full-time to learn again.

The new graduate degree will have two options. Students can choose to pursue a Master of Arts in Interaction Design or MA in Design Management. According to the department website, no other university in the area offers a similar program.

Both majors will offer courses at the Edwards Campus location in Kansas City to accommodate those who work during the day. Most of the students in the graduate program are expected to be professionals already working in their fields though anyone with an appropriate background is welcome, according to the design department web site.

No other Big 12 North school offers a master’s design degree centered around business management, according to school catalogs and web sites. Schools such as Kansas State, Nebraska, Colorado and Missouri all have programs offering an Master of Fine Arts or other graduate design degree specializing in ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture and visual communication. Iowa State offers a double degree program in architecture and business, but requires more credit hours than KU’s single-major design management degree.

The MA in Interaction Design will help students study how products, services and systems interface with users, while the MA in Design Management is designed to strengthen management skills, according to the design department web site.

There are only eight other schools that offer an MA, MFA or other graduate degree in Interaction Design, including Carnegie Mellon and the University of Baltimore, according to the Interaction Design Association web site. Of those eight, only six are in the United States.

To accommodate the anticipated growth of the department, a new photo area is planned. The old photo labs will be turned into multimedia classrooms and digital labs according to the design school web site. A senior professor in interaction design position had to be created, according to the design school web site.

Students entering the new programs this year will represent new growth that has been absent in the department for some time, according to the design department web site. In about three or four years, KU will finally be able to graduate its first photography majors.

By Alex Parker

Felix Zacharias instinctively swerves around potholes when he’s driving. The staccato of exploding fireworks jolts him when he’s not expecting it. He’ll look up for flares calling for an extract. He’s taken up smoking.

Zacharias knows he’s back in Jayhawk country, not the dangerous Sunni Triangle that surrounds Baghdad, angles north to Tikrit and expands west across the Euphrates River past Ramadi. He knows an IED, like the two that destroyed Humvees in which he rode, won’t explode in discarded beer cans on the side of the street. As long as he can see a firework being lit, memories of combat and the flutter of medic helicopters don’t seem to flood back unexpectedly.

But watching Iraq implode from a Humvee turret tends to make a man cautious, no matter where he is.

Zacharias, a political science major whose gap-tooth smile belies his experience, said he is more relaxed than before he was deployed to Fallujah in 2006, shortly after an American offensive reclaimed the city. He drinks less, probably holds his tongue a bit more, but that doesn’t mean he wants to talk about it.

“When people ask me what I did in Iraq, I just tell them it’s hot,” Zacharias, Wichita sophomore, said. It’s not a subject most students at the University of Kansas – or any other university – can easily relate to.

Dan Parker, McPherson junior, said that veterans – like him and Zacharias – are largely overlooked at KU.

“I would say that veterans are pretty easily the most underrepresented special group on campus,” Parker said. According to Joan Hahn, assistant university registrar, there are about 180 veterans enrolled at the University.

While the University supplies counseling services for all students, including
young veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are no veteran-specific services. The University’s lone staff member charged with assisting veterans is Hahn, but there are no other official advocates on campus.

Her role as a Veterans Administration-certified official is to assist veterans returning to campus with enrollment, as well as ensuring that vets receive their education benefits. Many vets begin the enrollment process when they are still on active duty, Hahn said. This can make enrollment tricky.

“If the individual is currently deployed, they are trying to plan ahead. You’re in a position where you have limited access to a computer; then you have limited access when you’re on the computer,” she said.

Parker, Hahn and Frank DeSalvo, vice provost for student success, are working on a plan to create a university position for a full-time veterans advocate who would be a point person for returning soldiers with questions or issues, a task not under Hahn’s job description.

“I think it would be very helpful,” Hahn said. “I think the system now is not ideal. I think it’s better than some. I think it’s not as good as others.”

In response to the lack of on-campus support, Parker, a Marine who served two tours in Iraq, founded the Collegiate Veterans Association in the fall of 2006 with two other former Marines. Parker is president of the group and Zacharias serves as vice president.

The KU chapter was the third to emerge in the country and the first in Kansas. It serves student soldiers as a way to wade through issues ranging from university red tape to the challenge of being older than the majority of students.

‘Common Experience’

“That’s a lot of the reason CVA was actually started,” Parker, a soft-spoken intelligence specialist who served in northern Iraq and Al Anbar province, said. “The two guys that I started CVA with, we all kind of sat down and looked around and were like, ‘Well, pretty much everyone we hang out with are veterans.’ Because you have a shared experience, a common experience.”

He said it’s hard to connect with young undergraduates who have not been to war.

“Then you sit down with someone who’s also in the military and just right there, regardless of what service they were in, you have a lot in common,” Parker said. “Nobody understands a veteran like another veteran.”

Zacharias, an infantryman who also worked as an intelligence specialist, said CVA was founded for many of the same reasons as organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Returning vets of past wars, he said, “had to go through a lot of horrific incidents. It was very tough for those people coming back at the time…these people came back, they had these experiences that they really couldn’t speak about so everyone else could understand.”

“You don’t want to talk to civilians or people who haven’t been there about it because they have no basis for relating to it,” Parker said.

That can limit the services KU provides to veterans, and few take advantage of the resources available on campus, said Pamela Botts, clinical director for KU
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).

Part of the problem is the military’s attitude towards those who need psychological help, she said. “The military’s been particularly bad about not appreciating that. There is a stigma there that soldiers are supposed to suck it up and go on.”

Botts said her staff is sensitive to student veterans’ unique circumstances. “Part of that is understanding the whole context that the veteran might be dealing with,” she said.

“We have relatively limited services here, so if someone is really struggling with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in a way that is interfering with their functioning, we may not be the best resource, because we don’t have the resources,” Botts said.

While vets seeking help are often referred to the Veterans Administration, many are reluctant to do so, Parker, a political science major who is enrolled in the Marine Corps’ Individual Ready Reserve, said.

“As soon as you go to the VA to talk about PTSD, you’ll be fitted for a straight jacket,” Parker said. “There’s that stigma that ‘Oh, this guy’s come back and now he’s the crazy war veteran.’”

A Waiting Game

Parker, who suffered hearing loss due to explosions in Iraq, said that he has worked with the VA, with the help of AMVETS, a veterans advocacy group, to assist him in speeding up the claim process. His experience is counter to what many vets face.

Some veterans who file claims with the VA wait months, sometimes years, to
hear the status of their cases. Time out of service only worsens this problem, Parker said, as he explained the difficulties many veterans face. Complicating the process is that many vets do not file claims upon discharge. Another problem is that some traumas, like PTSD, are not apparent for months or years after soldiers leave the service.

When veterans seek help at the VA or through VA clinics at hospitals, they often have to wait three to five months to even get in the door, Parker said, calling the Lawrence clinic “wildly overbooked.”

This can have a detrimental effect to people who need immediate treatment, according to Parker, who said CVA is attempting to foster communication between CAPS and a traveling VA squad that is set up solely to deal with vets from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Parker said the partnership would speed up the claim process, making it more efficient by giving veterans resources to help file and monitor their claims.

It is reasonable, according to Parker, that the University is not prepared to deal with a lot of the issues veterans face.

“It’s a smaller population,” he said. “There are some instances, I guess, where CAPS could be useful, but it’s probably better to refer (veterans) to the VA.”

For Zacharias, who proudly displays a photo of his mangled Humvee on his MySpace page and conducted about 100 combat missions, it’s clear that CVA provides a catharsis for war veterans that neither CAPS nor the VA are able to.

“Imagine trying to describe that to a friend of yours who has no idea.”

By Soleak Seang

          The plane landed at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, where passengers lined up at the customs counters, ready to go. But Faisal Baksh was not ready. Two airport policemen escorted him and about 10 other passengers to a special room for investigation. They are Muslims, and the police pay extra attention to them.

          “When I got off my plane, I was treated like a VIP,” Faisal Baksh, a Pakistani graduate student in chemical engineering at the University of Kansas, recalled his arrival. “Because I had airport police accompany me. But the feeling was so different.”

          The image of Islam in the United States was hurt after the Sept. 11 attacks by Islamic militants, associated with Al-Qaeda. Today, various Muslim communities across the country try to rebuild the image and bridge the misconceptions about Islam. These communities have established Muslim student associations at many American campuses.

          At KU, the Muslim Student Association, established in the 1970s, continues its mission, but with a new task. “We are trying to unite ourselves on the campus,” said MSA president Ala Abdel-halim, who is a student from Palestine. “At the same time, we create awareness about Islam among the other students.”

          According to the Web site of the Muslim American Society, an organization working to integrate Muslim communities into American society, there are certain groups in and outside of America which have portrayed Muslims as seditious, dangerous, and incompatible with American life.”

          At KU, however, it appears that many do not share that view. Some non-Muslim students joined their Muslim friends to express religious harmony and strengthen their interfaith friendship. They abstained from food for one day from sunrise to sunset to pledge for the one-day fast-a-thon event, where they enjoyed an evening of celebration and learned about Ramadan, a major traditional practice in Islam.

          Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. During the month of Ramadan, Muslim people abstain from food, drink and other earthy pleasures from dawn till dusk. They break their fast after the Ramadan is over. “I am very happy now, but that’s not because I can eat during the day,” said Naser Albaghli, a Kuwaiti undergraduate student in civil engineering. “It’s because I know I did my duties toward myself and others.”

          In Lawrence, the practice of Muslim tradition is respected despite the misconceptions in the post Sept. 11 United States. “We want to preserve our Muslim tradition here in Lawrence, and we also invite our non-Muslim friends to join us,” Ala Abdel-halim said. “We want to eliminate misconceptions about Islam around the world, especially among Americans.”

          Lawrence has a mosque, which serves as the center for preserving Muslim tradition. At the mosque, observant Muslims perform ablution before praying to God. They wash their hands, mouth, face, arms and feet. They get into rows, and there is no more talk. They bow their heads to thank Allah while the Imam, the leader of the prayers, recites the Azan, the Muslim call to prayer, in the lyrical tones of traditional Arabic.

          Faisal Baksh goes to the mosque every Friday. He doesn’t seem to have any more difficulty as he had at the airport. Baksh received his driver’s license one day after he applied for it. “I felt that people at the airport had a negative stereotype of Muslims.” Baksh said. “But here [Lawrence], I don’t feel that kind of stereotype.”

          According to the MSA, KU has about 300 Muslim students, 60 of whom are members of the MSA. "Our association is working to promote unity and understanding among Muslims and between Muslims and non-Muslims at KU,” Ala said. “We introduce social, cultural and religious activities that serve the best tradition of Islam and present Islamic principles to non-Muslims.”

          The MSA president placed most of the blame for the misconceptions about Islam on the media. “Media often relate Islam to terrorist acts,” he said. “They sometimes report that Islam motivates people to be terrorists or to kill other people. But actually it is not true.”

          Malcolm Gibson, General Manager of the University Daily Kansan, welcomed the criticism but said it’s far more complex than just blaming the media. “There is a shared responsibility.” Gibson said, “The people who speak on the media and the audience who chooses to use the media must also share this responsibility.”

          “Student journalists at the UDK usually talk to Muslim people at the Islamic center and get their feeling of what is appropriate,” he said. “We are trying to make sure that we present the issue in a proper way.”

          In Lawrence, one day after the Ramadan every year, Muslim people go to the mosque in the morning to celebrate the so-called Eid, a holiday which marks the end of the holy month. “During Eid, we go to the mosque. We greet one another, and we say ‘Marry Eid',” Pakistani student Rauf Arif said. “If anyone has a problem, we will try to help.”

          “Islam means peace, and Muslims do no harm to others. If you harm other people, you are not a Muslim,” Arif said. “Osama bin Laden is not fulfilling this rule, so he cannot represent Islam.”

by Adam Bowman

On Sept. 18, three local newspapers received manila envelopes. The envelopes contained; fax reports, student tests, Social Security numbers, credit card applications and a letter about where the information came from. The kind of personal student information an identity thief could use to steal a student's identity. The letter said the math department tossed the information in dumpsters behind Snow Hall.

“I believe the University should protect student information at all costs,” said Michael Ivanuska, Overland Park, sophomore. “There is no excuse.” But students aren’t protecting themselves from identity theft.

Spenser Linares, Wichita, sophomore, said he is worried about identity theft because it is seemed like a common occurrence. “What can you do about the school misusing your information?” said Linares. “You have to give it to them to attend class.”

Sophos, a world leader in Information Technology security, did a study showing students are misusing their own information. The company created a Facebook profile and then sent out 200 friend requests. Many of the friend requests were accepted. 41 percent of the requests gave personal information. Information like birthdays, pet names and addresses were freely given out to a complete stranger. There are 35,043 people in the University of Kansas Facebook network.

Emily Chadwick, Hutchinson, graduate student, says she has a Facebook account with a few hundred friends. A dozen of those Facebook friends were made directly through Facebook.

Sally Campbell, Lawrence, sophomore said she has a Facebook account and she isn’t really concerned with identity theft. She doesn’t buy online and she always logs off of her computer. But she says her student id number is all over campus. “I use it for midterms, blue books, essays and to apply for jobs online,” said Campbell.

Most students interviewed seemed only worried about where they used their Social Security number. Jeff Peckover, Winona Minn., sophomore, said he does the things that everyone tells you to do to protect his identity. “Don’t use your Social Security number on Web sites. Know who your giving it to.”

On the Kyou Portal login page of the KU Web site, if a student forgot his or her password, there are a couple of quick steps one must do to reset their lost or forgotten password. First he or she must enter an online ID and click on “forgot password”. Next the user enters their student ID number and birth date. The user must answer a privacy question to get over the final hurdle in security. This is usually something as simple as listing a birthplace or a pet name. From there password can be changed. Or an identity thief who has been collecting information about the user could change his or her password and access all of their school information, including their Social Security number. Most of this information, except the student ID number, is something that could be gathered through casual chatting on Facebook.

The Federal Trade Commission Web site defined identity theft as the use of a person’s personally identifying information to commit fraud or other crimes. The FTC estimated that nine million Americans have their identities stolen each year. The Web site said victims of identity theft could lose job opportunities. They could also be denied loans for education, housing or cars because of negative credit reports. In rare cases, people have been arrested for crimes they did not commit.

Since the incident, Richard Laviere, provost of the University, sent E-mails through the KU Web site, notifying the University about the schools privacy policy. The math department also added 14 secure shredding bins that are controlled by an outside contractor.

Students interviewed however, hadn’t made any changes to their identity protection practices. Jeff Peckover and Spenser Linares said they haven’t taken any extra precautions.

Both Evan Prellbereg, Chicago, sophomore and Sally Campbell say they aren’t really concerned with identity theft even though they both have Facebook accounts.

Stacey Bjorgaard, Kansas City, sophomore, said that she didn’t hear about the leak of private student information from the math department. She said she’s not sure if she is worried about identity theft. “Maybe I should be,” Bjogaard said.

“Identity Theft in Colleges” posted on identity-theft-faq.com said college students made ideal targets for identity predators. The article said identity theft on college campuses accounted for nearly 31 percent of all identity theft cases each year. Students usually had good credit, making it worthwhile to steal their identity. College is a busy time in a person’s life and their identity is one of the last things on his or her mind.

The FTC Web site said an effective tool to prevent identity theft is awareness. Jane Rosenthal, privacy coordinator and custodian of records at the University, said the school is working on identity theft prevention education. But she offers these helpful tips: Students certainly shouldn’t share passwords. Students should be aware of their mail. Solicitation mail, especially credit card applications, should be shredded and not just tossed out. Students need to be concerned with laptops, PDAs and cell phones and treat them like a purse or wallet. Students should encrypt the information on them and lock them out when not in use.

“Students are adults and should be responsible for their choices,” said Rosenthal. “Having said that however, the University can take a lead roll in educating them in all facets to help them grow into a full life.”

If students have questions about identity theft and how to protect themselves, Rosenthal encourages them to E-mail privacy@ku.edu. Or check out the privacy office Web site.

Jessica Rojas was glad to be in Lawrence, Kan. when she came out last year.

Other people have said the same thing, a surprising attitude given the popular bumper sticker that reads: “Kansas: As bigoted as you think.” Lawrence’s liberal roots and thriving gay community make an accepting atmosphere for students who are questioning their sexual or gender orientation, according to Rojas.

Rojas, a senior at the University of Kansas, found that the tolerant atmosphere of the school and the surrounding Lawrence community made her decision to come out, or publicly announce her orientation, easier.

A native of Chicago, she moved to Kansas in 2002. Around that time, she started evaluating her sexual orientation. “I had been thinking about things,” she said. Transferring to KU as a junior gave her a new start.

Rojas belongs to Queers & Allies, the university’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social group. The group planned to celebrate this year’s National Coming Out Day with a door on Wescoe Beach that students could walk through, symbolically announcing their support of the gay community. Rojas credited the group members for their support when she was deciding to come out.

Ryan Campbell, the group’s director and a fellow student, has lived in the Lawrence area his whole life, said the town is “the exception to the rule” in Kansas. While other parts of Kansas might be more tolerant of homosexuality, he said that in his experience, Lawrence is the most open-minded. “This town is so accepting,” he said, citing the strong gay community.
Campbell found acceptance even at his local Lawrence high school, where he was a senior member of the homecoming court. He said he had an easy time coming out. “I consider myself really, really lucky,” Campbell said.

His family is a mix of conservative and liberal members, but he said they were all supportive when he came out to them. His fellow KU students have displayed equal acceptance for the most part. “My generation is more understanding,” he said.

For KU students who still might need a little encouragement to come out, a national celebration held every October might help. National Coming Out Day, which is observed every October 11, was founded to promote awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and issues, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGTB equal rights organization founded in 1980.

This year’s National Coming Out Day has an added significance. October 11, 2007, marked the 20th anniversary of the 1987 Gay and Lesbian March on Washington. That march, the second one to promote gay and lesbian rights, also marked the first appearance of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. National Coming Out Day was established the next year to commemorate the event.

“It’s always our choice” to come out, said Dr. Maggie Childs, a professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at KU. Typically, people first come out to family and close friends, said Dr. Child. She said National Coming Out Day is to tell other people: coworkers and acquaintances, for instance.

State employees might find it a little easier to be open with coworkers now. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed an executive order Aug. 13, 2007, banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered state employees, a move the Kansas Equality Coalition applauded. In a statement, Jason Dilts of the KEC said, “This order does one, simple thing: it makes the State of Kansas a fair employer.”

Still, living openly has risks. While Lawrence has a reputation as a progressive town, the state at large is very conservative, Childs said. “You always worry,” she said. “You can’t stop people from making life hard for you,” she said. That is why some people choose to be more covert in their daily lives. “You can sidestep prejudice if you want to play it careful,” Childs said.

Childs said she also worried that a place like Lawrence could make people complacent because they may not face daily overt discrimination. Campbell shared that worry. He said Queers & Allies fights to stay relevant where similar groups at other Kansas colleges and high schools still struggle with being full accepted.

“The world is not fair. Even if we have tolerance, we don’t have rights,” Child said.

Still, Campbell is optimistic. He said groups like Queers & Allies provide a safe, supportive environment and the LGBT resource office on campus is a great place to seek advice. Straight supportive people, usually called “allies,” are providing more momentum in the drive for gay rights.

“I have a lot of hope for the future,” Campbell said. For him, the relative youth of the gay rights movement means there are unexplored opportunities for the movement. “I’m crossing my fingers.”

     Fei Gu, a doctoral student in education from Shanghai, China, knew a little bit about fishing and cooking, but he had never tried either of them before. He just knew that he liked the fresh fish dishes his mom cooked at home every weekend.

     Then he flew halfway around the world to attend school at the University of Kansas. He had no idea that before long, he would not only be an avid fisherman, but he would learn to cook them as well.

This is the biggest carp Fei Gu has hooked.

     Gu came to Lawrence in August 2006. He shared a two-bedroom apartment in Jayhawk Towers with three other international students. He was used to the convenient public transportation system in Shanghai and felt free to go anywhere he liked. But in Lawrence, Gu didn’t get to see downtown until his second semester. He also tried to learn basic cooking to avoid to eat pizza every day.

     The University of Kansas can be a strange experience for international students. During the fall 2007 enrollment, KU welcomed more than 1,600 international students from 112 countries. According to an International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) report, this is 44 more than the same time last year.

     “It is wonderful,” said Joe D. Potts, director of ISSS. “But we have room for more. We like our campus more diversified.” Diversity is a reality in the world and in our American society too, he said.

     Daphne Johnston, associate director of ISSS agrees. “Since the 1920s, the University has enrolled international students from around the world,” she said. According to the international student guide, “KU has a long history of warmly welcoming international students to campus. We appreciate your presence, and we have a lot to offer you.”

     Today, the world is changing, and so is the student body in KU. The makeup of the international student body changes every year. KU holds students from more countries than ever before, Johnston said.

     In 2006, California was the leading host state for international students, followed by New York and Texas. Kansas ranked 26th, said the 2006 Open Doors report, published by the Institute of International Education, the leading not-for-profit educational and cultural exchange organization in the United States.

     According to the report from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, international students and their dependents contribute nearly $13 billion to the U.S. economy each academic year. They bring unique social, cultural and academic perspectives and valuable insights to U.S. campuses. The benefits international students provide to American students and institutions are invaluable.

     “The more international students the American students see, the better,” Potts said. “An international campus is a good thing. It is a better feeling, not simply American.” International students benefit as well, he said. Most international students were born and raised in one culture. Here they study and live in a multi-cultural environment. That is a different experience compared with the life in their home countries. Potts said it was good for them to experience American culture and other cultures as well.

International students, with national flags
in hand, gathered at Kansas Union.

     “How good you feel when you see people from different places, some from the United Kingdom, some from Japan, etc., come and play together.” said Katelyn McGill, orientation coordinator in ISSS, who recalled a bowling and Ping-pong party this past spring.

     “The entire world collides here. It is amazing,” McGill said. “Sometimes, you don’t need to speak too much. Rules can speak there.” Sometimes, she said game plays the role of language, and people can teach each other very well without speaking.

     International student associations organize a variety of parties every Friday. “I joined the international party every Friday night,” said Jamil Muhammad Muktar Shagari, a freshmen from Nigeria. He also said he loved to talk with people from different countries. “I can always learn something strange to me,” he said. “ Wow, that is something I never heard of before.”

     Many students, especially those from larger groups, such as Asia, like to interact with other students from their own countries. “Being active in an international group is better than nothing,” Potts said. “ I can’t force them to come out, but I want to.”

     International students are also challenged by hard times.

     Undergraduates account for about 40 percent of international students at KU, according to an ISSS report. They are younger, they are homesick, and they miss their loved ones in their home country. It takes time to adjust to life here. McGill said the food often is a problem, because most of food here is mass produced to accommodate Americans’ taste and custom. Transportation is another problem. The public transportation system in Lawrence is not always convenient. Students say it’s not easy to reach those grocery stores if you don’t have a car.

     “I didn’t cook at home, but I do here,” said Soleak Seang, a Cambodian graduate student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. He came to KU right after his graduation from college. “If I want to go to library at night, I can’t because there is no bus, and I don’t have a car.”

     Gu is a bit luckier. “I have my first car now, “ he said. “Lawrence helped me realize my dream.” Now he can drive to fishing anytime he likes instead of having his friend drop him at Clinton Lake at night and pick him up in the next morning.

     Gu’s professors and friends invite him go fishing. After three hours’ sitting beside the lake, he found it is not that boring. He chats with friends and remembers how excited he felt when he hooked the first fish. The most important thing is he can eat fresh fish caught and cooked by himself.

     He thinks that is great.

Hiya! Let go of my purse!