May 10, 2004

Contact: Ted Johnson, (785) 842-5328.

KU professor offers 12th annual Stop Day tour of campus May 14

LAWRENCE -- Ted Johnson, professor emeritus of French and Italian, will lead his traditional Stop Day tour of the University of Kansas from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, May 14. Stop Day is the day between the last day of classes and the first day of final examinations.

The tour will begin at the main entrance of the KU Museum of Natural History and will end at Weaver Court, adjacent to Spooner Hall. The pace will be leisurely, and each stop will have a theme for discussion. Questions and participation from the group are encouraged. Walkers may join or leave the tour at any point. Individuals and groups are welcome to follow along.

"Over the years we have had some really wonderful conversations about the campus," Johnson said. Past tours, he said, have featured "really moving remarks by international students from Eastern Europe, Africa and so forth. In a word, beautiful dialogues befitting the university."

Johnson has been presenting the tour since 1992. He specializes in 19th- and 20th-century poetry, French novelist Marcel Proust, and interrelations of literature and the visual arts. Twice he has received the Mortar Board's recognition as an Outstanding Educator at KU, the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and, in 1992, the Senior Class H.O.P.E. (Honor for an Outstanding Progressive Educator) Award. Johnson also leads equinox walking tours of the campus by starlight.

In case of inclement weather, Johnson will begin his presentation in the Wilcox Classical Museum in Lippincott Hall at 9 a.m and in the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art at 1 p.m. Otherwise, times and places for the tour will be as follows:

9 a.m. "Whoso Findeth Wisdom Findeth Life," main entrance of Museum of Natural History

10 a.m. "The Seven Liberal Arts and the Classical Tradition," Lippincott Hall

11 a.m. "Make Our Garden Grow!" Twente Hall, St. George and the Prairie Acre

Noon. "Memory, the Muses, and the Liberal Arts and Sciences," Watson Library, then across campus to Murphy Hall

1 p.m. Lunch at the Crimson Cafe in the Burge Union. In case of inclement weather, the tour will meet at noon at the Marketplace Food Court in the Kansas Union.

2 p.m. "Civilization Is Measured by the Extent to which People Obey Unenforceable Laws," northeastern facade of Green Hall, then up the hill to the KU Foundry

3 p.m. "Of Cycles and Civilizations," the Chi Omega fountain and Vietnam War Memorial

4 p.m. "Of Memory, Memorials and the Forest of Academe," Memorial Campanile (perspectives on Memorial Stadium and Kansas Memorial Union), then up through Marvin Grove

5 p.m. "Tentative Syntheses and Perspectives," Weaver Court, adjacent to Spooner Hall