OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
7A
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2008
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Encyclopedia project deserves objectivism
Third-party involvement in WiKUpedia will encourage accuracy, remove bias
"An informational Web site that relies on factual content from the impassioned, opinionated and frequently intoxicated students of our University."
The WIKUpedia project prides itself on being an objective information source for all things related to the University of Kansas. It has become its own student group, acknowledged by the University, complete with three student officers and a sponsor from the School of Journalism. Anyone is welcome and even encouraged to create new pages or simply edit or add to existing ones. The creators have reached out to KUInfo, the Alumni Association and the student body, holding an informational session earlier this week to demonstrate to people how they can modify and add to it. It seems to be on the right track toward being what it claims.
But the origins of the endeavor seem to reveal its potential for something more or less than objective.
According to Jarrod Morgenstern, Jarrod Morgenstern, Overland Park senior and School of Journalism senator, one of the founders, the idea for the Web site came out of a brainstorming session between him and four other members of Connect, a new student political party that will be running for the first time in upcoming Student Senate elections. It was then developed and created by
the members of this group.
The Web site is hosted by the Connect Web site, essentially as a subsidiary to that of the political party, at connectku.com/wiki, and all of the edits made to the pages — by anyone — are reviewed and deemed necessary or appropriate by the Web site's six administrators, three of which are supporters of Connect. Two offer technical support, and the last is the president of the KU Chess Club.
This does not seem like the most fertile grounds for the seeds of blind, objective truth.
The founders have made oaths of discretion, assuring that their work is entirely apolitical and solely about the proliferation of information.
And maybe they're right. Maybe they want this to be some glorious and conveniently organized platter of information for the world about our Midwestern university, but they are all seniors. In four months new leadership will be required, and there is no guarantee that they will remain as noble as their predecessors.
For the project to be successful, it needs to be run by an independent student organization.
relies on factual content from the impassioned, opinionated and frequently intoxicated students of our university, nationally known for
An informational Web site that
Max Rinkel
wearing its "Muck Fizzou" T-shirts?
it causes some worry.
"This project is just a fraction of what it will be one, two or even 20
years from now" Morgenstern said.
-Zach White for the editorial board
COMMENTARY
Conventional relationships leave students wanting more
Experts question monogamy, say it contradicts human nature
When my alarm sounds in the mornings, I wake and slide my boots on my sheets-softened feet and walk two inches taller to class. I return to my sheets where that extra two inches of confidence is sloughed off; a time when one becomes susceptible to the loneliness that comes when naked feet obtain warmth from sheets and not other naked feet.
This is the stuff of lonesome times so easily arising in our hungry, adolescent soul searching, when we want the comfort of a partner or miss the presence of a long-distance lover. Being in a committed relationship is something that most of us want to experience in our time here, and monogamy is something that has been placed on a pedestal since the beginning of religiously sanctioned unions. But now we must deny the whole idea of "finding true love" and "soul mates" and question if humans truly are inherently monogamous.
David Barash and Judith Eve Lipton co-wrote the book "The Monogamy Myth: Fidelity and infidelity in Animals and People." They argue, "Monogamists are going against some of the deepest-seated evolutionary inclinations
with which biology has endowed most creatures, Homo sapiens included" Through study of monogamy in the animal kingdom (which is very rare, according to Barash and Lipton) and patterns in which men and women wander from monogamous relationships, we are obligated to give attention to the idea that monogamy is our own creation, and this is why it concerns us so greatly.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the last reported divorce rate for a calendar year is 38 percent in 2005. We are all aware of this high rate, exemplified in some cases by the genuine interest and intrigue exhibited when one says that their parents are still together. Is this evidence in defense of the idea that we are not meant to be monogamous? "Hooking up" is not a new term, and author Laura Sessions Stepp (author of "Unhooked") suggests that women "hook up," or engage in some sort of non-emotional, sexual act, because women are increasingly goal-oriented in their professional lives and believe that a non-committed "hook up" would not obstruct their ambitions.
When a good friend of mine, an insightful English major, was asked to give a definition of monogamy, he wrote: monogamy-1) a state of being, not unlike marriage, resulting from idiot religiosity; 2) two lovers lacking imagination, curable by direct application of grain alcohol at an office party."
Essentially everyone dreams of soul mate or perfect match, but now is the time for us to tell those
standard images of monogamy like beach weddings and Hawaii honeymoons to screw off. Thanks to my spirited friend for personifying my point, which comes to: monogamy stems from historically held social norms that, in the end, create a path that we end up believing is the only one to true happiness. Monogamy is not something built into our DNA, but rather a convention of comfort that we turn to because we all want to be loved, and because it is so ingrained in us that we cannot imagine a life of happiness without a mate.
I believe that monogamous relationships are successful for people because they believe in them, and that they can work for the young adult who accepts their benefits as truths. Do not cheapen the importance of your own happiness by assuming that you can only find it only in another pair of arms. Not all "hook-ups" must be without emotion, not all relationships must imply long-term commitment and self-sacrifice, and is love is the most important variety of love.
I am not encouraging rampant bed-hopping, but rather for you to be open to something other than "settling down" once you find who you think is that solitary special someone. Grab hold of those lonely thoughts and take them for something more than "nobody loves me" dribble. Love is not just another pair of feet in your bed, and life can still be pretty good with all of that extra mattress space.
Ryan is a Salina junior in art history.
COMMENTARY
Lyrics degrading to female listeners
ANNIE SIMMERMON
"I'm gonna bite-slap my ho,
and you should too."
I think it hit me as I was driving home from work the other day. I was mindlessly listening to the radio when the song "Big Pimpin" came on. So here I am singing along, thinking about getting home and fixing a lean cuisine, when—like a ton of bricks—it hits me that I am completely degrading myself. I have often dismissed song lyrics based on a fun beat or just never taking the time to really listen, but there are songs out there, especially in the rap and hip-hop genre, that endorse the mistreatment and inequality of men to women. Whether it's talking about how fun it is to "be a player" or "if your ho act up, put her six feet deep."
Does nobody else have a problem with this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here (this is a line I've been working on. I really think I might be the next Ludacris.)." "Look I don't care how crazy yo bitch is, you can't kill her, and if you did, it would mean some serious tail time..."plava."
OK, maybe not Luda. Maybe more like R.Kelly.
One might say chauvinism has existed from the beginning of time. The supposed first story ever written claims that women came from men and are therefore innately less superior. However, such ideas have
been progressively suppressed since the women's right movement, so I'm wondering when it became cool to be a bigot and how society has let it come this far.
These artists and their ideals are glorified by the media, which allows people to feel justified in their own mistreatment of others. Some men think it's cool to spread their seed all over the town, because that's what they hear on the radio and the TV. We are not animals living in some primitive world. We are rational beings capable of respect and meaningful relationships. By demoralizing our set standards as higher-thinking beings, we are slowly sending ourselves back into the Stone Age.
I don't mean to sound like Will Smith, but it's gotten a little out of control, when lyrics that talk about raping and killing women are considered the "new hot thing." We have to sit back and ask ourselves, "what kind of society are we becoming?"
Art is an expression, true, but when the emotions being sparked by that form of expression are causing more harm than good, it's time to take some responsibility for the principles we supposedly hold. I really feel, however, that this argument is hopeless, lyrics are going to keep degrading and objectifying women, artists are going to continue to make millions of dollars off of them and women are going to keep grinding their booties on the dance floor to them. Everybody's going to give up their integrity and get VDs, and the world's going to continue to turn like it always has.
Simmermon is a Leawood senior in journalism.
--day special.
My girlfriend made me cookies and gave me an awesome card for Valentine's Day. Somehow that means more to me than some sweet present. +1 for her.
Visit Kansan.com and add the Facebook application, or call 785-864-0500.
--day special.
I got my go go go go go go go go go go go go go gadget flow.
The Potomac Primaries
Try sitting at the table next to the British chick. I wanted to take my life with fire.
--day special.
Arizona Sen. John McCain is still trying to prove that he's conservative enough to deserve the nomination.
——Kelew Naves
--day special.
To the girl in the white tank top at E's last night, why tease everyone like that?
FREE FOR ALL
--day special.
OK, just because you have a British accent doesn't mean you can talk as loudly as you want in The Underground. I'm across the room, and I can still hear you every day!
I think for most people this is National Masturbate While Your Friends Are Out On Dates Day.
KU, your improved Web site pleases me immensely. It was about time.
I did not realize that there were so many fine ladies in physics 211.
--day special.
--day special.
To the person who enjoyed his or her physics test because of all the fine ladies, shouldn't you have been keeping your eyes on your test? Even if you were just looking at the ladies, it's not like the answers are
--day special.
--day special.
I'll be spending Valentine's Day camping for basketball: my one and only love
Hawks basketball is breakin this alum's heart. I'm ready to walk out of this relationship because it aint goin' nowhere, baby.
How do you mark the chapters of your life?
--day special.
I just had a five-minute Valentine's date with my left and right hand.
--day special.
BLOGS
@KANSAN.COM
COLORS
**************************
I love Bill Self and all, but he can't always blame it on the players.
--day special.
—Kelsey Hayes
It's the end of an era when you lose your last baby tooth.
To everyone out there! I would like to wish you a happy Singles Awareness Day!
Voodoo Crispy
I've heard it called Valentine's Day, something about Singles Day, and something about Masturbation Day. I think I like the latter. Not so much because I'm single, but because getting a greeting card for such a day would really make that
—Rachel Bock
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Darla Slipke, Mattrick Erickson, Dianne Smith, Bryan Dykman, Lauren Keith, Jordan Williams and Zach White.
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