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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
WWW.KANSAN.COM
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2006
OUR OPINION
PAGE 7A
Students must keep online data secure
A few safety precautions go without saying for students in college. Things like parking your car in a well-lit area or not bringing your real ID along with your fake one when going to the bars.
Now, added to that list, is maintaining a respectable Facebook profile.
Students cannot afford to be naive about who has access to their profile and the possible consequences of posting anything incriminating. Anyone with a.edu e-mail address has access, which can include alumni working at companies who hire recent graduates as well as KU staff, faculty and administrators.
According to the Web site's privacy policy, Facebook.com "may be required to disclose customer information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws." Students at Penn State learned about this policy the hard way when campus police identified and apprehended 50 students who rushed the field after their team beat Ohio State, because students were pictured in a Facebook group.
A University of Oklahoma student underwent an investigation by the Secret Service in November after posting "We could all donate a dollar and raise millions of dollars to hire an assassin to kill the president and replace him with a monkey."
While these case are extremely
Issue: Wild and crazy Facebook.com profiles
Stance: Students must be careful about what they post online.
First of all, use the security features that are available on the Web site. This allows you to control who can search for you and what they can see in your profile. Second, refrain from posting that "hilarious" picture of yourself holding a joint and drinking a forty, especially if you're under age. And finally, it's not necessary to make information like phone numbers, home addresses or course schedules available.
unfortunate and an encroachment upon civil liberties, they also demonstrate the increasing use of surveillance in our society that has become a fact of life. Students need to take matters into their own hands.
Malinda Osbourne for the editorial board
Let's put it this way. If "Beer" and "Mary Jane" can join Facebook, an ambitious, middle-aged stalker could do the same. Your resulting Facebook profile may not seem as colorful or self-expressive, but it's a lot better than not getting that job because you had to join the "Do Drugs and Have Sex With Random People" group.
Moore has support
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
and in record numbers.
Alissa Bauer's editorializing in her recent report of Representative Dennis Moore's visit to campus is unwarranted and inaccurate. Student support for the Democratic Party isn't merely a "perception" as she asserts. The fact that a majority of students at the University of Kansas support the Democratic Party is incontrovertible.
While the Congressman enjoys wide support from students of a diverse background at the University,including Democrats and Republicans alike, he will always have detractors like Lawrence's Anarchist group, Solidarity,but they don't speak for the University or its Student Population.
In the previous election, every student neighborhood showed its overwhelming support not only for the Democratic Party, but for Moore as well.
1, for one, am proud to have Moore as a Congressman and an Alumnus.
Jack Henry-Rhoads Independence, Mo., senior
▼ COMMENTARY
Board should better school education commissioner
From Edgewood Elementary to the University of Kansas, I am a product of the Kansas public school system. That shouldn't
JUSTIN LAMORT opinion@kansan.com
be funny, but the inept actions of our state board of education is doing its best to make it a punch line.
We all know of the evolution debate. Enough trees have died to make us aware that we should realize faith and science operate on different premises. That doesn't necessarily make one right or one wrong. It just means that only one meets the criteria for a science class.
The failure of the BOE is more than primordial pools and pasta deities. It is the BOE's repeated choice of politics over children that I find the most disturbing.
The same 6-4 majority that made us part of Leno's monologue also hired Bob Corkins as the state education commissioner in October. He's the first person to hold this position in the last 80 years without serving as a superintendent first. He's never been a principal or a teacher. His education experience is in operating very small, conservative think tanks.
This background was deemed worthy enough for Kansas taxpayers to pay his $140,000 a year salary, which is considerably more than even
So why was a man with virtually no education and management experience hired?
In an article published by the Johnson County Sun, Sen. John Vratil (R-Leawood), vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the appointment seemed "sort of like making Saddam Hussein president of the United States."
We should be ashamed that someone so unqualified was given the job to ensure the future for the children in Kansas.
I agree we need change in our school system that is more than dollars and cents, but denying the necessity of money is ludicrous. Before any real progress can be made, we need qualified people who want to improve education.
The American Dream is that your children will live a better life than the one you led and a strong school system is fundamental in
making that dream a reality. A better education means more opportunity and hope. If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't be putting so much time and money into the University. The attack on this hope by people influenced more by ideology than facts is
Max Kreutzer/KANSAN
no laughing matter. I truly hope Kansans get the joke and vote them off the national stage before any more damage is done.
- LaMort is a Cherryvale senior in psychology and political science.
▼ COMMENTARY
Education spending cuts benefit wealthy
For once Kansas State University got something right.
During the president's visit to Manhattan on Jan. 23, a KSU student did something that not everyone in the world was able to do: She questioned her leader.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the question was "Recently, $12.7 billion was cut from education, and I was just wondering, how is that supposed to help our futures?"
The president responded as if he were confused, and it seemed that he couldn't hear the question. It wasn't until after the student repeated her question that she got an answer that neither she nor the rest of
NEIL SPECTOR opinion@kansan.com the audience expected.
the audience expected.
The same Times article reported that President Bush responded by saying, "I think what we did was reform the student-loan program. We're not cutting money out of it. In other words, people aren't going to be cut off the program. We're just making sure it works better."
When I realized that this was the intention of the president, I had to laugh.
I laughed because the new plan does more than just cut the budget for federal student loans; it also increases the interest rates of current loans. How is this making things better?
Through this budget cut, funds are not only being taken away from student loans but also from single mothers and foster parents, among other people. How can the president live with himself knowing that he is providing a tax break for people who have an annual income of more than $1 million? Does he know that there are many other people out there who have a greater need for that money? If he did, this plan would not exist.
This whole arrangement
is not smart at all. It has the sole intention of taking from the needy and giving to the rich. Where is the justice in that? Why take away from the people who have legitimate needs while others who have more than enough receive a break?
George Bush is in his second term and he is doing things that prove to everyone that he has nothing to lose. Only a President with nothing to lose could support such a plan, because he no longer needs the support of the American people. If he did, a plan like this would be nowhere on his radar.
Spector is a Buffalo Grove, ill., senior in political science
Free for AI Call 864-0500
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansas editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
I love when KU beats Texas in any sport, because Texas just plain sucks.
Honestly Verizon Wireless, do people need five speakerphones for the price of one?
Hello? Bang, bang. Goodbye.
Is it bad when your car starts shaking?
Everyone needs to stop
being such fair-weather fans and stay behind not only our team but our coach.
To the guy who is putting the iPod earbud in your left ear, the one that's labeled for the right: Everything turns to porn, I definitely recommend it.
Everyone needs to stop being such Missouri fans and
Everyone needs to stop being such Missouri fans and stay behind our team.
Honestly, the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam that wave at me on 23rd Street need to go. If anything, they make me not want to go into that business because they're
I love Brandon Rush, and I mean that in a "Brokeback Mountain" kind of way.
Hey Free-For-All, you want to stop sucking this semester? Aw, what!
stupid.
I just left a message, well like I talked to an Anheuser-Busch guy, and I told him the University of Kansas loves Budweiser. Yeah!
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Yeah, in response to the football expert Kansas City Chiefs fan who said the Denver Broncos were a failure, I'd just like to say: Hey buddy, congratulations on almost making the playoffs.
Yeah, nothing says respect for human dignity like a 15-foot-tall picture of an abortion on a truck. So yeah, can we get the abortion truck back?
I'm worried that Matt Klein-
might jump pro. Actually, I'm worried that he might skip pro altogether, and jump
Hey coach Self, you could put a better team together with the players that have transferred than the players you got.
straight to the hall of fame. Matt Kleinmann for All-American.
Yes, Free-For-All, we would like to know why coach Self did not put Julian in last night. He's amazing, come on!
I like stoplights. Once you hit one, you seem to keep hitting them all.
♦
For all those pro-abortionists out there, if you don't want to have babies, don't have sex.
Free-For-All, you suck today. Make it better tomorrow.
have sex
When I get that feeling, I need sexual healing. Sexual healing.
I don't know, I'm just freaking out, we lost Micah Downs and I have no idea where we're going to be without a strong three-man position, because we don't have
anybody that's really good at that three position that would possibly be able to fill that void with him being gone.
Free-For-All, it was Claire that I had sex with on Phil's bed, not Kara. Now Claire broke up with me because she thought I was having sex with another girl. Thanks a lot.
Yeah, so the person who said that Bush cut $71 million to repair the levee. I'm pretty sure that was put into place in '93, and I'm pretty sure that Bush wasn't in office in '93.
OK, these Sudoku puzzles are freaking addictive.
Hey FFA, it's Ryan. I really need my copy of Mona Lisa Smile back. Thanks, bro. Bye.
Hey, I just wanted to say thank you to the parking lot guy who didn't give me a ticket when he
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saw me parking in the wrong lot.
I hope this doesn't get anyone in trouble.Thanks, bye.
I just had three girls call my phone and when I picked up, they said don't pick up, I want to hear your voice mail. I think that's very safe Free-For-All.
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About camping for basketball tickets, we seriously need more roll calls. Our camping group is there all the time, and it's not fair to us that there's no roll call. (Editor's note: Anyone can initiate a roll call.)
I was just wondering if anyone else found the Masked Avengers comic extremely offensive?
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Yeah, so whoever leaves all the Chuck Norris comments on Free-For-All really needs to get original, because I found the Web site where you got all those at. God, you're a loser.
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