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Monday, November 28, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
While the issue of low tuition was the original goal of the press release, the open admissions issue was added only after a K-State alumni donated $2,500 for the project.
VIEWPOINT
Ad campaign misleads on issue of admissions
No one ever accused the six Regent institutions of being a cohesive group. So when K-State's Student Body President Jeff Peterson launched a $2,500 media campaign showing that all six student body presidents support open admissions and keeping tuition low, it seemed like a unique occasion.
The problem is that not all of the presidents signed this statement. In particular, KU president Sherman Reeves said that although he supported lowtuition, he had long been a supporter of qualified, not open, admissions.
Peterson said that this campaign was a result of a promise he had made while running for office.
This fiasco undermines the credibility of both Mr. Peterson and the rest of the
K-STATE PRESS RELEASE Blatant Inaccuracies
student body presidents. Any future "group" statements by the campus leaders will be seriously questioned.
Even the Board of Regents is unset about the issue. Among other things, the Regents are upset that Peterson did not go through the "...established governance channels...", according to Steve Jordan, executive director of the Regents.
Publicly releasing false information is both inappropriate and inexcusable. What's even worse is that this whole issue was manifested by privately-donated money.
Peterson should publicly apologize for his antics. The only thing worse than publicly telling falsehoods is not apologizing for the wrong-doing.
Until Peterson admits his mistake, a rift of mistrust will divide Peterson from his fellow presidents and the Regents.
RICHARD BOYD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
GATT needs U.S. support before Jan.1 deadline
Congress should vote on and pass the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade before the current agreement expires Jan. 1. If Congress fails to do this, the fragile structure of GATT will be unraveled by both the new Congress and by hesitant nations that will withdraw their support from an agreement that doesn't have the clear support of the world's largest exporter — the United States.
The GATT agreement, which took 12 years to negotiate with 123 nations, would cut trade tariffs by an estimated $744 billion. This in turn would create higher-paying export-related jobs and, like NAFTA, pump billions of dollars into the U.S.economy each year. However, if GATT is delayed until the new Congress starts, protectionist senators and special
TRADE AGREEMENT Delay of GATT would kill it
interest groups will be in a strong position to either indefinitely postpone the passage of GATT or simply defeat it with a vote on the Senate floor.
Vice President Al Gore recently demonstrated his knowledge of the complex GATT situation when he lucidly said, "It is abundantly clear that a delay of GATT would kill it."
Despite some flaws in the governing structure of GATT, and other concerns that are being raised by environmental groups, GATT needs to be passed this year. If the Senate, however, either delays this vote or votes down GATT, the United States will have passed on a prime opportunity to usher in a new world order of increasingly liberalized trade.
LANCE HAMBY FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO Editor
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
JEN CARR Business manager
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
Editors
News...Sara Bennett
Editorial...Donna Heene
Campus...Mark Martin
Sports...Brian James
Photo...Daron Bennett
Mellissa Lacey
Features...Trael Carl
Planning Editor...Susan White
Design...Noah Muuser
Assistant to the editor..Robbie Johnson
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus mgr...Mark Masto
Regional mgr...Laura Guth
National mgr...Mark Masto
Coop mgr...Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr...Jen Pierer
Production mgrs...Holly Boren
    Regan Overy
Marketing director...Alan Stigic
Creative director...Dan Gier
Classified mgr...Heather Nohaus
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania are required.
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the eansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kauffer newsroom, 111 Staffer-Flint Hall
Secret stimulus of smokers solved
It is official.
The twentysomething-or others are smokers. I read it. I recognized it. But, until now, I didn't say it.
Just a few years ago, the hip standup comedians called them "cancer sticks," and they came in in "packs of death." Secondary smoke could, would kill you. Pregnant women committed infanticide every time they took a puff. Don't smoke here — it's a no-smoking area. In fact, don't smoke in any of my space. That includes my restaurant, my shopping mall, my airplane, and my planet. Go find your own space to smoke. But don't let me catch you; it's a fine.
What happened to those wonderful self-righteous childhood days, full of concern, letters to the editor and awareness. Those days were full of baby boomer moms and dads kicking the habit, and lending the voice of the saved. Smoking is baaaaa for you. Don't make the same mistake I did. It took years off my life.
COLUMNIST
But the evidence is in. Check out Wescoch. Watch the greeks. And watch the geeks. Take your fuzzy buty for a stroll downtown and catch all the hipsters taking drags. It dunn near passed me by because I thought it was a done deal: Smoking is bad, and we don't do it.
JOHN MARTIN
I needed some clarity, so I went to my smoking neighbor, Wendell G. Wendell would know because she's a junior/senior or class status
threatening to graduate, and she knows a lot of smokers.
"Wendell," I said, leaning away from the secondary smoke, "What is up with all this smoking?"
She actually squinted at me.
"You know, people you go to school with. Everyone smokes. What's up with that?"
She squinted again.
"Must be because it looks cool."
Wendell G. irowned "Taster good?"
Wendell C. freunge
She scrunched her face.
"Some earth mother thing? You know, smoking nature's bounty. Enjoying the fruits of our mother?"
She giggled that time.
"Yeah, okay. I got it this time. It's a feminist thing that I'm supposed to be in the dark about. Some intentional alienation quasi-emaculation retribution crap. I don't like it. That whole attitude pisses me off."
"What???" She wanted to know if I
wanted a Coke or Pop Tart or whatever on her way into the kitchen.
"Sure," I said, calming down. I still hadn't tried the classics vet.
"The who?" she velled back.
"Hey, Wendell," I yelled to the kitchen. "What about the Marxist angle? Empathy for the working man, the downtrodden, you know, the proletariat?"
"Whatever"
I siped my Coke. One shot at this, I thought to myself.
"Wendell, I got one more thought for you, and then we can watch the zip code show. Okay?"
"Is it some Freudian deal? A phallic symbol, maybe?"
You're disgusting," she said.
"I give up."
She smiled. "My friends and I just smoke cuz we want to, dummy." I knew it
Mark Coatney is a Linwood graduate student in political science.
Pentagon plan is worthwhile
Sean Finn / KANSAN
As a ten-year Air Force veteran, I see several problems with the facts as presented by Mr. Lerner.
In a recent editorial, Jack Lerner expressed an opposition to the Pentagon's proposal to shift $2.7 million from long-term weapons development programs to morale boosting measures.
The first is the statement "everyone agrees that the U.S. military must be pared down."
In the last four years the military has reduced its force considerably. The Air Force has already reduced the meaning levels about one third.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The money marked for morale-boosting measures does not go to payraises for soldiers.
Mr. Lerner's contention that "soldiers already receive a handsome income" is one that I dispute.
Mr. Lerner would be wise to research his topics prior to presenting them in a public forum.
This money provides needed services that are not provided by the communities in which they live.
By not doing so he discredits himself, and he discredts the newspaper
Various sources suggest that the income received by military personnel range from 8 percent to 15 percent below the income of people in comparable jobs in the private sector.
Michael Sapp
he works for.
Staff Sgt. US Air Force, Inactive Reserve
junior
Disgruntled readers frown on misspellings
This is in regards to our "award winning" newspaper.
One thing I notice reading the famous paper is the misspelled words. An award winning paper does not have stupid mistakes like that, you don't see misspellings in USA Today do ya?
And another thing, if our paper is so great why doesn't it have NBA scores and standings, or do you know what the NBA stands for. Let me help you, it stands for professional basketball.
The pro basketball season is in its ninth game and I have not seen one score in your paper. This is all I can think of now, but as the semester goes on I'm sure I'll see more stupid and ignorant mistakes.
Brad Caldwell Burlington sophomore
Military editorial not researched
Jack Lerner and the rest of the Editorial Board must not have served in the military, not that any liberals
would volunteer for such a duty, right Bill? How else can you explain the well-researched viewpoint of military cuts? I even think the Kansan itself may have written an Associated Press story recently about the vast numbers of military families living below the poverty level. Jack must have a different definition of dire straits than I do.
Lerner then pays lip service to giving money to branch parts of the military, like Gulf War vets and Veterans Affairs, but I have a feeling he'd really just like to see it dumped into more entitlement programs that liberals love so well. And of course, when has a liberal ever really wanted the government to give money back to the taxpayers, as he suggests at the end of his article.
Jack, one more thing. Before you speak for everyone, check it out. Not everyone agrees that the military must be paid more. After all, it seems our Draft Dodger in Chief has more for the military to do than ever before. If more than one of Billary's little crises hit at one time, we might need the force we have. That is what the military is for, to be prepared if something happens.
Naw, on second thought, go ahead and cut the military down to nothing and send them a hundred different places all over the world. Who cares? After all, their job's not supposed to be easy, right?
Michael Rohrer Lawrence senior
Republicrats' voice: big business, money
Mr. Zimmerman should reread Aristotle to find that an oligarchy leads to democracy which degenerates into a tyranny. America has yet to complete the switch to democracy. Democracy, according to Aristotle, comes after the ruling oligarchy has gained all power into its hands. The two systems have been mixed in America preventing a revolt, but oligarchic forces have today gained much of the power.
I agree with David Zimmerman that our political system is falling apart through apathy. I think this apathy arises from our votes not having a true, direct effect upon our lives. The propositions we vote on have little tangible impact on our lives. There also appears to be little difference between the two parties. The Republicans seem to mirror each other. Was there much difference between Slattery and Graves? No. They are politicians addicted to big business and money. Getting to substantive issues requires a different voice than the Republicats.
Steven McFarland Lawrence senior
MIXED MEDIA
By Jack Ohman