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Monday. April 12, 1976
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN Comment
Oninions on this page reflect only the view of the writer.
Raise cigarette tax
The Kansas Senate has passed a bill that would raise the cigarette tax in Kansas by one cent a pack. The bill as it was originally introduced would have provided revenues from the tax for cancer research at the University of Kansas Medical Center. The version the Senate approved and sent to the House passed on Friday, directly for the Med Center, but was passed with the understanding that the legislature would appropriate such money from the state's general fund.
THE REGULAR session of the legislature ended without passage of the bill, but the House still will have a chance to approve the tax when it reconvenes on April 19 to clean up unfinished business. The House should approve the bill, which would raise the tax from 11 cents to 12 cents a pack.
The tax increase would supposedly generate about $2.9 million annually. The original bill would have credited 10 per cent of all cigarette tax revenues to the Med Center's radiation treatment fund. As the bill now stands, the amount that would be granted to the fund is unknown.
SEN. NORMAN GARR, R-Westwood and chairman of the Assessment and Taxation Committee, said it would be up to the Ways and Means committees of the legislature or the Governor to take the steps necessary to see that the
proceeds of the tax go to cancer research.
Sen. Ross Doyen, R-Concordia and the original sponsor of the bill, wanted to use the revenues generated by the tax to expand cancer research at KU into one of the leading programs of its kind in the country. KU officials supported the legislation. It would be a big boost to the University.
IF THE MONEY were relayed to the Med Center, the tax would be very commendable. As everyone knows,
"The surgeon general of the United States has determined that smoking is hazardous to your health."
Smoking and cancer have been directly linked, and most smokers will readily admit that cigarettes play havoc with their lungs. Therefore, those who claim that the increased taxes will be a burden and infringe on their rights must also pay the investment. Those who benefit most from the research done at the Medical Center will be those who have contributed the most through the tax.
An intensive cancer research program would be a very worthwhile venture for the University of Kansas. The bill should be approved. And the research department could pay the University and not merely bank the increased revenue for a rainy day.
By John Johnston Contributing Writer
The university of Missouri has been criticized for grade inflation and a general deterioration in the faculty of its nursing school during the years. There can be little doubt that some students who receive degrees and some faculty members who hold secure jobs are repped as incompetent 50, or even 20, years later. A bachelor's degree is no longer the mark of distinction it once was, nor does it guarantee an economic return to the student's and state's investment.
College can be beneficial
IN HER BOOK," The Case Against College," Caroline Bird contends that for all but the 25 per cent of students who actually love to learn, college is just an aged vat for 18-years for whom the economy has no immediate use.
SHE COMES down particularly hard on liberal arts degrees and traditional "liberal" education.
Bird rejects the contention that college provides better jobs, a more satisfying life, higher values or a broadened horizons. But it is primarily a mark of class distinction, and the erroneous presupposition behind the egalitarian desire to give students the degree that degrees would make everyone equal. Bird says.
"Faith in personal salvation by the liberal arts is professed in a creed intoned on
Guest commentary
Dean of persons needed
Though no one knows exactly what is in the Title IX Self-Evaluation Committee's report on discrimination at the University of Kansas, it was revealed recently that investigation in at least one area was insufficient.
By DAVID HAUBER
Until the report is available in its final version, the reasons for the disparities will remain unknown.
THE QUESTION has been raised that the operations of the dean of men's and the dean of women's offices have not been carried out. It appears to be on the short end of staff and budget allowances.
There are several reasons that might account for the differences between the two offices.
ANOTHER FACTOR, pointed out by William Balfour, vice president of the college that was in the spirit of righting past wrongs, women have been allowed to find a job in the dean of college. "We couldn't find one anywhere else."
First, it is well known that Emily Taylor, former dean of women, built a bastion for the women's movement. She left a large group of followers in the dean of women's office.
A final reason might be that the dean of men's office is not as aggressive in seeking more information than the dean of women's office.
Although the two offices are separated by tradition, as Balfour has said, they are
considered to be under the same roof. However, the traditions of these offices will leave them in a vulnerable position in relation to Title IX if they remain separate but unequal.
THE TRADITION of having an adviser to students first got official recognition in 1914 when Mrs. Eustace Brown was applauded by the visor by Chancellor Frank Stright. At the time, Strong was reacting to "licentiousness" among the student- body, wearing numbered wrist bracelets, "the male students, wearing numbered wrist bracelets, would physically inspect women's ankles in the dress numbers, the women's ankle bracelets in search of their "mates."
In 1921, John Dyer was appointed KU's first dean of men. Dyer defended the creation of the office, saying, "There is an evident student need for an adviser and friend who will be respected and trusted counselor" and loyal representative with all others in the University and community."
WHEATHER THE needs of students are being satisfied today and whether the offices provide help is doubtful. Certainly, emphasis on enforcement of social and sexual restrictions on men and women isn't the same as it was during the "adultery" era in the women are offered "consciousness raising" and the men are . . . well . . . the men are.
The two offices handle, among other things, housing and counseling problems. I polled 50 students by telephone—selecting every tenth name from random columns of the student directory. Of those students, 30 students used the dean of men's and women's services and, if they did, for what reason.
OF THESE CONTACTED, 24 were women and 26 were men. Twenty-four students said they had never had contact with either woman or man who had contact with either office, 16 were women and 10 were men. Two men who had contacted with the dean of men's office also had had contact with the dean of women's office.
The reasons for contacting the offices were broken down into three categories; housing, career and career counseling, or both.
A SOLUTION to the office's problem of facing Title IX restrictions and the possible overlap of duties, especially in areas not related to sex, like the titles. The labels of dean of women and dean of men only confuse and mislead.
One man and one woman sought both housing and career-counseling information. The remainder, 12 women and eight men—45 per cent of the 26 persons who had contacted the offices—sought information on how to access counseling students who had contacted the offices said they were satisfied with the experience.
If the majority of people use the offices for housing information, then that service should be separated from the more sex-specific subjects like career and personal counseling.
One office, separated into areas that serve both sexes, would be far better than the across-the-hall, separate but unequal situation that now exists.
have never considered college as anything other than the proper place for me. There are, however, many students here who seem to have selected college as the least undesirable
ceremonial occasions such as commencements. It is blasphemy to take the premises literally, and if you don't understand what the words mean, you are only admitting your lack of grace," she says.
David Hauber is a senior in journalism and a former Kansan staff writer. 355
By John Hickey Contributing Writer
Liberal arts education is, for Bird, little more than a cultic amalgamation of esoteric widsom maintained by charlite professors at the students, parents and the public.
PERSONALLY, I find this and several other birds Bird has to say a little hard to swallow. But then, I've always considered myself one of the 25 per cent who love to learn. I
of several bad options. Perhaps it is, in part, the ingress of these students that has caused the deterioration of the University.
That deterioration is itself a problem of considerable difficulty and diversity. For example, consider the statement that a bachelor's degree has been devalued. That statement is not true because that the social and intellectual status a degree once commanded has been diminished. Certainly their economic value
is also greatly reduced when degrees are, as it is said, "a dime a dozen." But those criteria for evaluating degrees are usually quite low, and benefits from my degree, the personal progress I have made.
I don't intend to say that every class has been an intellectual delight. There have been other classes continually searching for the best professors and the classes with serious students, I have managed to leave myself in charge of what it has all been worthwhile.
I THINK, contrary to what Bird says, that my life has been enriched—enriched in a way reading a big stack of books or in the classroom classes, as she suggests, could never have accomplished.
GENERALIZING ABOUT other students is quite a different matter. As long as a college has associated with it mystical attributes to which it belongs, the students will be vulnerable to the merchandising schemes some colleges are now using in
an effort to overcome the problem of declining enrollment. Radio stations broadcast commercials promising, "If you go to Harvie's Library arts College, you will discover your potential in the process of sorting out your life goals."
A DEROMANTICIZING of college is needed for students to become aware of the shortcomings and problems with their courses, perhaps they will be able to exploit the latent potential of universities, which has too often lain dormant. Certainly that is a problem both students and professors need to deal with here at KU.
Although it is probably impossible to reverse the general deterioration of the University because it results from sheer effort and from outside our control, a careful analysis of KU's potentials and limitations in terms of the benefits each student hopes to gain go a long way toward preserving the query we still have.
1976 NYT SPECIAL FEATURE
'Inside story' not whole picture
WASHINGTON — The frequency of the "tight shot," as it is called in TV, is usually accounted for by the size of the cathode-ray tube. If you want detail, the most you can show on
No, the tight shot is actually
close, as they also say in television, you want to get back to what you detail? Why don't we sacrifice detail for "the big picture"?
a TV screen is two faces. With that explanation, the subject is dropped.
BUT THE TIGHT shot isn't merely a technical device of photography to get around the fact that the world is true that you have come in
our preferred way of presenting stories, people and events. The best way is to print journalism. The best reporter is the one who gets "in the inside story." Go a step further and take on the challenge that the only story is the inside story.
surely and that whatever aspects are readily visible on the surface are lies, deceptions and truth is in the center of things.
TRUTH ISN'T A good word to use here. We are less interested in truth than we are in reality, and that's why the watergate, we want the real one, and we were given it in Woodward and Bernstein's "All the President's Men," which not only made a statement, it story, it took us inside. We had something better than a front row seat; we were taken there, on the scene, eyewitness news, slapped in the face by ex-
The novelists were the first to go looking inside for reality. That what's balance and Dickens's sense of identity in clinical analysis begins around
Zola's time and from him you can draw a straight line to "Hospital,"" "Airport,"" "Koajak" and "The Blue Knight." There is a parallel discussion of journalism which moved in to the figures in the news; warts and all.
MODERN EDITORS use the expression "warts and all" a lot. Capturing the wart on the tip of the public figure's nose is proof you're not playing favorites but telling it like it was invisible, at 15 it's a minor blemish and at five with a telephoto lens it is a grotesque disfigurement. But that's reality. The tight shot is what satisfies us, what we demand. The girl manages the girl maneuver which primes shot so tight you'd think they'd be of interest only to practicing gynecologists.
Readers Respond
Meeting story inaccurate, grad students say
To the Editor:
On behalf of the Graduate Student Council, we would like to correct the many inaccuracies in the Kansas article of April 2 summarizing the GSC meeting of April 1.
headline refers to plans in the College office to offer an orientation for new TAs and Als, and a request from the college for suggestions from TAs and Als on topics to include
To begin with: GSC is not establishing any teacher training program, nor anyone who has been taught to our knowledge. Perhaps the
NEXT: IT WOULD be inaccurate to say this program (orientation?) teacher training? is the result of the Student Senate Commission on the Quality of Classroom Instruction—and an even worse mistake to say that TAs and AIs "are accountable to the Senate Commission just as professors are." We had no idea the Senate Commission was so powerful that they could faculty answer to it! It should be noted that there is on-going discussion throughout the University (and GSC) on possible teacher training programs, but whether they will be mandatory and the form they will accept has not yet been set. GSC Committee has published a teacher training report in the March GNP.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas weekly
journal, *The KU News*. Subscription periods. Second-class postage paid at Law-
ncoln Post Office or $1 a month in Memorandum or $1 a year in Douglas County and $1 a
week in Burdett County. Subscriptions are $2.00 a semester, paid through
the subscriptions are $2.00 a semester, paid through
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Carl Young
Associate Editor Campus Editor
Bett Helgaksh
Yael Aboulakhk
Associate Campus Editor Greg Hack
Assistant Campus Editors Jim Bates,
Kyle Kudron
Assistant Business Manager  Advertising Manager
Associate Customer Manager  Client Service
Clientized Manager  Manager  Double Service
Business Manager
Next: A committee was formed—not on fee waiver proposals, but to gather information on the category of fees mentioned in the fee waiver proposal endorsed by GSC.
NEXT TO LAST: The article states "The purchase of low-cost liability insurance for graduate assistants was defeated by one vote" GSC is the third highest in years was almost equally divided. Whether students are able to purchase this insurance will be
decided by the administration, not by GSC.
Last: The new GradExe
elected by GSC ballot was
announced at this meeting,
although not mentioned in the
lecture, and with a high
opportunity to list the new GradExe
members at this time: Bob Chovetti, Lawrence graduate student; Kathy Dugan, Lawrence graduate student; Jeffrey Mackenzie, graduate student; Charlotte Kimbrough, Lawrence graduate student; Bill Remmers, Lawrence graduate student; Mary Jane Sisk, Lawrence graduate student; Mary Jay Williams, Hoyt graduate student.
A FEW WORDS of praise (however faint). The article was accurate on several points. GSC did endorse the original report of the fee waiver committee, which called for a graduate waiver of tuition fees for students at RAS (RAS are not, by the way, "resident assistants"), and other graduate assistants employed by the University. GSC also discussed the Campus
Veterans' proposal to change full time hours from 12 to 9 for graduate students and GSC formed a committee of GSC and Veterans to do further research on the proposal.
Thank you for the opportunity to correct the misleading information in the article and to provide information which was, unfortunately, left out of that article. Better luck next time!
Ellen F. Reynolds
Executive Coordinator, GSC
Lawrence Graduate Student
Bob Chovetti
Spokesman for GSC
Lawrence Graduate Student
Page decried To the Editor
"Politics take tact" in the March 30 edition of the Karsan was a refreshing and well written editorial.
Jim Bates should be given the local editorial award for the best piece this year. Sometimes it seems as though the editors aren't writing writers are ignoring local events in their commentaries.
It is always good to be an
aspiring Jack Anderson or a Nicholas von Hoffman when you're pounding out editorials for the student paper, but lately he's writing for writers for the Kansas practice editorial "Afghanistanians."
HAVE YOU NOTED how much political writing deals with the hundred mechanics of conducting a campaign? The question is complicated, organization, the effectiveness of his TV commercials, how good his mailing lists are—this is a central concern in the newspapers. The candidates themselves have taken to discussing on the telly the minutiae of their campaign
There was little commentary on the Senate elections, but a lot of news coverage. There has been talk about almost anything related to things of local importance in the last few months. Instead, we have been treated to bees and trips to western Kansas. Little has been said about University football on the Kansas Game Pace.
I was beginning to think that the Kansas had a stable full of sacred cows over in Flint Hall milkshopping the presses. Jim Bates, who we are, keep the audience on hold for governance and student issues.
Jacob Riis, H.L. Mencken,
Horace Seerey, and Sam
Clemens (maybe even Bill
White) will be giving you an
inspirational slap on the back
for your efforts.
Lawrence Graduate Student
The more you move the camera in, the larger the wart gets, but at the same time the less there is to form a judgment about the human being on whose person the wart grows. Some people can't see his feet or his torso, for the screen has been filled with an uglyling fleshy growth of overpowering reality.
IN RETURN FOR an
INexperienced contact with
wartiness, we have given up
our time. We can tell
anything else can make sense
without a background; a
matrix, a context. All words,
gestures and symbols derive
from our previous experience
frame in which they are found.
Much if not most of TV footage that comes out of the White House consists of the press secretary or some other figure talking brief in front of a blue curtain. Sometimes, in interviews at place, there are outaway shots to reporters writing notes, or the TV correspondent will do his closing comment on the lawn with the White House for the background. It doesn't help much. The feeling of void is strong. You might face "like Face the Nation" or " Meet the Press." The participants always look like four men locked into a weightless anti-gravity chamber.
Trivialization is an inherent danger of attempting discourse without a frame of reference. It's only the names of the objects that continue to have wild, agreement meanings.
A SECOND DANGER is petrification. New meanings can't be derived from changing circumstances, because there are no specific shot perceptions. Hence the agreed understandings of words and phrases are those of the past. Obviously, a society can't change easily, but a society today. However, when the society is changing over extended periods of time but the terms of public discourse become changedlessly ossified, speech is less likely to formulate. This may explain the repetitive mustness of politics the last decade or so. Speech can then be backed up by news of the behind news? Part of the continuing popularity of 1930's movies is owed to their having been shot at a longer period than it can comprehensibility of the proscenium stage, and a few people still enjoy that.
They're willing to trade less reality for more meaning, but most audiences quickly get used to the idea that they want to get in there, they want the giant, free-floating, three-quarter faces on the TV screens, the candidate on the airport tarmac—the only place where I can learn to engine, and the reporters pressing their microphones and themselves in, in, in on him to snatch the real out of him so he can be more millions to eat, as men once their magic, totemic animals.