4A
Thursday, January 12, 1995
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
THE ISSUE: FAULTY UNIVERSITY CORRESPONDENCE
Letters detail false dismissal
Quite a few KU students received a startling and unwelcome, albeit belated, Christmas gift over winter break. And with it came the reminder that every bureaucratic mishap brings human consequences.
These students were incorrectly informed that they had been dismissed from the University.
The undergraduate office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences sent letters to 325 students Dec. 28 which stated, in no uncertain terms, that "you will not be allowed to return to KU for the next semester."
For one week these students were forced to consider an uncertain future.
Financial support from parents was no doubt placed in peril. The probability of finding full-time work became an immediate reality.
As it turned out, these students' grade points had been calculated incorrectly by the college's computers. Apparently, after the college changed its dismissal and probation policies the computer didn't quite follow
A computer error caused incorrect letters of dismissal to be sent to 325 students,causing them confusion.
Either way, it wasn't enough to eliminate the confusion and trauma that resulted from the first letter.
trend. On Jan. 3, the college sent correction letters and attempted to contact the students by phone.
Pam Houston, director of the college's undergraduate center, said that the experience was devastating to the college and that the college apologized for the inconvenience. She also said that the 325 students had not done well in the fall semester. All but about ten students would be on probation.
Although it seems that the college tried to mend the mistake by sending the letters, calling the students and fixing the computer program, sorry really isn't enough. There may not be a direct solution to the problem, but keep in mind that a letter sent to you by the University does not always represent the truth.
HEATHER LAWRENZ FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE ISSUE: CHANCELLOR'S CHALLENGES
Hemenway has work ahead
Robert Hemenway, KU's incoming chancellor, comes to the University with a variety of experiences and talents. He will need everyone of them to juggle the many challenges facing him at KU.
Some components of Hemenway's job will be foreign to him. Hemenway has never overseen the operation of a hospital, as he will with the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. The Med Center is without a permanent executive vice chancellor, and finding one will have to be a priority for Hemenway, perhaps before he moves to Kansas sometime this summer.
The changing faces and political temperament of the Kansas Legislature also will provide challenges for Hemenway as KU's need list grows and the Legislature's ability and willingness to meet those needs decreases. Hemenway will have to use all his persuasive abilities to convince skeptical legislators that KU's student body, which administrators expect to
New chancellor will face many challenges including the Medical center legislators and possible athletic dilemmas
grow in the coming years, needs and deserves more
Hemenway also will oversee an athletic department that knows its rightful place at the University behind the academic mission of the school but dedicated to running a clean program and maintaining excellence on the fields and courts. However, the man most responsible for ensuring that that happens, Bob Frederick, athletic director, may be leaving to run the newly created Big 12 Conference. If that happens, Hemenway will have to find a replacement that is just as committed to athletic integrity as he or she is to competitive success.
While these surely are just a few of the many challenges Hemenway will face as chancellor, they all mean one thing: he will have to come in with his sleeves rolled up and ready to work.
STEPHEN MARTINO FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO Editor
DENISE NEIL Managing editor
JENNIFER PERRIER Business manager
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
Editors
MARK MASTRO Retail sales manager
News ... Carlos Tejada
Planning ... Mark Martin
Editorial ... Matt Gowen
Campus ... David Wilson
... Colleen McCain
Sports ... Gerry Fey
Photo ... Jarrett Lane
Features .. Nathan Olanon
Design ... Brian James
Freelance .. Susan White
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
Business Staff
Campus mgr ... Beth Pola
Regional mgr ... Chris Branman
National mgr ... Shelly Falevits
Coop mgr ... Kelly Connery
Special Sections mgr ... Brigg Bloomquist
Production mgr ... JJ Cook
... Kim Hyun
Marketing director ... Mindy Blum
Creative director ... Dan Gler
Classified mgr ... Lisa Kueisle
Jeff MacNelly / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Gingrich comment spoils appetites at holiday meal
The last few weeks have allowed most of us the opportunity to schlep home with several weeks worth of laundry and a whimpering unpaid Visa balance. Grades followed, but they waited politely until high school buddies were rounded up for beers and thumbs were blistered by the remote after riding countless waves on the home front entertainment surf cineplex (Star Wars retro day made the entire vacation). For most of us, time yawned easily across three weeks worth of lazy Saturday.
Let's set up the scenario. Turkey, stuffing, hot-cross buns, sweet potatoes buried under those tiny marshmallows, and a seasonal buche de Noel were served up with over-polite tension and uneasy butt-squirming in the rarely used straight backed dining room chairs. You, the independent and free-spirited scholar, were gracing the family with your presence. After another semester on the Mount, you had returned to the Ponderosa for a semi-formal Christmas supper with Hoss, Little Joe, Ben, (Adam had mysteriously been left off the family cast for this meal), and all the other illiterates
For some of us though, the vacation brought a blip of tension known as "the ill-fated comment" across that otherwise smooth video screen of life. That little acknowledged moment took maybe a few seconds but will send out ripples for a lifetime. You spoke up during the dreaded holiday meal. You lived a brief instant of independent thought, a few unspoken words delivered with no regard to your surroundings. You spoke with clarity and truth; the words nearly burst in their purity.
STAFF COLUMNIST
you and your ever increasing smugness had left behind back in Dullsville. And guess what? You were away long enough that the nuclear family unit adjusted — Hop Sing just took over your room, Ben married Doris, a divorcee from Lenexa, and Frosted Minis were no longer the standard fare in the pantry. Ah, but the path to independent adulthood is littered with obvious symbols.
A short time after Hoss inhaled his second drumstick, the patriarch (Dad or Ben) made a harmless, typically brain-dead Time magazine/CBS News sound byte comment: "Newt Gingrich is just what this country needs." While Dad mused, you were daydreaming about last semester's class discussion in "Literature of the Oppressed in Modern North American Society" and "The Disenfranchisement of Financially Impaired Suburbanites in the Modern Era." You heard Dad's comment and before the self-control calvary could save the day, you ran from the protective high ground headlong into the Apaches with a six-shooter blazing. You blurted, "Gingrich is a goddam pig and a fascist. So are his supporters."
Chewing stopped. A few sidelong glances were given. Oh, no one said anything — this is a civilized cul-desac where your family lives. Mom just asked who wanted rhubarb and who wanted pumpkin.
Unspoken, but definitive, this moment moved you clearly into the "Autonomy Zone" OK, so Dad continues to pay your car insurance and tuition. Maybe he even kicks in a little "grocery" cash every month. Don't kid yourself. You have crossed the line into the DMZ of independent adulthood. Do not pass go; do not collect $200. No amount of butt-kissing will turn the clock back on this one. You have been surgically severed with the operation to be performed at a date unknown to you, but not long after you throw that funny square hat with the tassel on top into the air.
God help you if there is a glut of art history majors in the job market that year.
John Martin is a Lawrence first-year law student.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I guess Mr. Zimmerman was right. Compared to Hitler, maybe he was much better.
Bible column misses mark on God's visit
Jared Zhen Gu Lawrence Sophomore
Cultures,not race determine ethnicity
Mr. Zimmerman claimed that he didn't go around and tell every one how much better he was, like those Bible-beaters did. Right, but did he forget something? He also said before that, "...but I'm a pretty good person... at least I'm better that that Dahmer guy — he ate people, gross! I no Hitler either."
"Ikind of wish I was in one group, but I can't be," is "what Tony Sanchez says in the Dec. 6 Kansan article "Forced to Choose."
The article, "Holidays and Semester's End Can Encourage Skepticism," which was written by David Zimmerman and published in the Dec. 6, Kansan really caught my attention.
I am 23 years old, and I am Mexican. By this I mean that I was born in and lived 20 years in Mexico. I consider myself Mexican simply because I was raised there, but if I see my life from that perspective, I guess I am Lebanese-Aztec-Mayan-Spanish-Mexican.
Mr. Zimmerman questioned why God came to the earth while heaven is so great to live in. I wondered if he had ever read the Bible or talked to someone else at all. God came to Earth not because it was perfect but because it was sinful. It was because no one except God could save the dark world. Mr. Zimmerman also mentioned that he would stay in heaven where he had everything he wanted. Well, thank God that he was not Mr. Zimmerman.
I was shaped by Mexican culture, and that is who I am.
As for you,you are American.
You said that your parents divorced when you were 5, so how much influence, if any, could your Mexican father have had on you? None, I would assume.
If you want to learn about your ethnic background that's great, but please understand that you are shaped by the culture you live in.
Luis Anwar Salomon Briseno
Lawrence senior
Free thinkers needed in the 'land of sheep': inquire within
Forgive me, but I can't help wondering why. Why do you, or I, anything to me?
So, new semester, new classes,
same old Kansan. Odds are you're
reading this before some class or
another looking for a few minutes of
entertainment. Which brings you to
the editorial page
STAFF COLUMNIST
for that matter,
feel this urge to
seek out the opinions of some
pompous windbag with some time and a word processor?
This isn't an isolated incident, either. We're talking world-wide epidemic here. Pretty soon you'll sit and listen mindlessly to Rush or Dennis or George
or Oprah only because they're spouting off their opinions. Sure, they're doing it on national television or radio or in magazines, but in the end they're just telling you what to think and how to think it.
Before you ask, I agree with some of the opinion gods out there; I just can't accept the fact that I need their input to make decisions. Give me an international crisis and I, like anyone, will wait until Clinton, Dole and Letterman have their say before I presume to think for myself. Without a published opinion to back me up, I have no idea what's going on in Chechnya.
What happened? How did we get to this point? Has humanity been a flock of sheen from day one?
Of course not. The only real difference between today and the quintessential yesterday is the spread of opinion makers.
I hate the fact that most conversations I have about important issues involve the phrase "Rush said ..." or"I heard on NPR ...," but that's life these days. Most of these opinion-makers do nothing more than recite what they hear, too.
Why are there 5 million pundits in the world? Because we have 500 channels, a few million radio stations and more magazines than you can shake a postal worker at. So there are political analysts and talk-show hosts and professional demagogues. They're annoying, and they're everywhere. But, in the end, is this going to change anything?
The safest approach is to treat the opinion-makers as what they are: entertainment. Even we columnists are here not so much to convince you that our positions on life are correct, but rather to give you a five-minute break from school. If you want to take us seriously, be our guest.
If you don't, more power to you. Isaac Bell is a Wichita junior in creative writing.
How to submit letters and guest columns
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
HUBIE
All letter and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or out-right reject all submissions. For any questions, call Matt Gowen, editorial page editor, or Heather Lawrenz, associate editorial page editor, at 864-4810.
By Greg Hardin