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Thursday, May 4, 1978
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Stressed columns represent the views of only the writers
Waugh's plan flawed
Rarely does the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation pay attention to the wishes of student leaders. But just that happened this week when Clyde Walker, KU athletic director, decided to scrap an ill-advised scheme to expand the number of students who advise the athletic department on KU sports.
At first glance, the idea is greatly appealing. Shouldn't KUAC be exposed to as much student opinion as possible, given its lackcluster record of not responding to student interests?
Of course. But in trying to carry out the idea, Jerry Waugh, assistant athletic director, proposed that six fraternity men be selected at random from applications received by the office of the Interfraternity Council. Those six, chosen exclusively from fraternities, would have made up an athletic department advisory board.
WAUGH'S proposal, to be as charitable as possible, was stupid. It would have limited board membership to a narrow cross-section of the student body. It was obviously a slap at the Student Senate, which historically has picked some good people to scrutinize the wheels and dealings of KUAC. Those people were and are selected to speak for all students, not just IFC.
Strangely enough, Waugh's boss apparently didn't know what was going on. When Walker was contacted about the board by Mike Harper, student body president, Walker reportedly said he didn't know what
Waugh had been doing. And Walker proceeded to reject the proposal.
Such decisions as those that affect student involvement in KUAC are undeniably important ones. Does Walker care enough about those decisions to take a hand in them? If not, why not?
Walker should be given credit for killing the Waugh plan; Harper was on target in opposing it. And perhaps Walker's willingness to hear Harper is a signal that Walker really wants to be more responsive to student leaders. If that is the case, his best course of action is to get a firmer grip on his subordinates. After all, he is ultimately responsible for everything they do.
It's a good thing that Walker saw the light. Parts of the IFC application for membership on the board, distributed to University fraternities, were ludicrous. For instance, the application noted that according to Waugh, "the only qualification needed was to be a red-hot Hawk who wants to see KU teams win." There was a specific question on the application: "Are you a 'red-hot Hawk'?"
EVIDENTLY Waugh prefers kneejerk support to honest, constructive criticism. But the most disturbing part about his aborted plan is not that it emphasized boosterism, or even that it would have bypassed the Senate in favor of a few male Greeks whose names would have been pulled out of a hat. The broader issue is whether Walker really knows what's going on in his department.
Owls boot at suggestion that they include women
To the editor:
The Owl Society is the most widely misunderstood organization on campus, primarily because we have herefore felt no need to justify our existence. Our purpose as an organization is to recognize excellence among junior men. We make no claims about the college. We make no claims about a whole. It is a misconception to interpret our membership as a proclamation about women. We have chosen to confine our focus to those who are an exercise in free association.
Owl Society is not a service organization—we have no grand projects or fundraising efforts. We also enjoy the association with men who, like ourselves, have excelled in academic and extracurricular activities. The camaraderie of our society as an adult is something we lose to lose and one that outsiders refuse to appreciate. It is our sincerest belief that the qualities we value so highly should be forever lost by a decision to alter our membership.
We regret that outstanding junior women have no similar organization to enjoy, but we have no intention of allowing them to engage with those who have no conception of what it stands for. Outside
KANSAN Letters
pressure to change our membership is tantamount to mandating who our friends should be. We find this philosophically repugnant and argue that interested parties should work to create their own association rather than trying to destroy ours.
The following members of Owl Society, all juniors, signed the letter; Mark Bernhardt, Lawrence; Craig Blessing, Kansas City, Kan.; Paul Carroll, Kentucky; Chris Goble, Pittsburgh; Don Green, Ablene; Jay Howard, Salina; Mike Lyle, Augusta; Lee McCrosky, Whelan; Kevin Muncy, Shawnee Mission; Munyan, Shawnee Mission; Mark Prochaska, Ellsworth; Sam Sheldon, Ottawa; West Waugh, Eskridge; Brad Yost, Kenworth, Wales; David Southern, Knurlworth, Ilnillow.
Student Senate does its job
Instruction
In response to Kelly Lyne's letter regarding racism and sexism in the Student Senate:
To the editor:
Perhaps, Lyne, you should have stayed at the budget hearings a little longer. Maybe then you would have realized that the Senate has only a limited amount of money to distribute among all the campus organizations that come out of the woodwork at budget hearing time. You were not "raked over the coats"; the Senate has got to be used for this job in subsidizing and what exactly that money is going to be used for.
Last year I made a presentation in the budget hearings to request funding for a residence hall theater group. I was asked how we could answer questions by senators. Rather than taking offense at their apparent skepticism, I was impressed by the careful consideration they gave to my request and the organizations appearing before them. My request for funding was turned down. But I did not accuse the entire Senate of being barbary, anti-culture leaders, and now that it simply has too little that must go too far.
Maybe this is why I never joined women's groups. They're so damn touchy.
Columbus, Ohio, senior
Sue Parcell
Men's group's motives murky
One of the self-proclaimed purposes of the new University of Kansas Men's Coalition is to provide social services for men who do not readily available at KU.
But the fledgling organization, which recently received $300 from the Student Senate, has ignored the services already provided by the office of the dean of men.
One intention of the Men's Coalition, as registered in a statement filed in the office for student affairs, is to provide counseling programs that range from admittance to professional schools to sexual problems.
"Counseling is available in the counseling center." Alderson said Tuesday. "We have several staff who are prepared to work with students."
However, the organization is proposing to duplicate services that are, in fact, readily available to male students. ACCORDING TO Donald Alderson, dean of men, his office provides a referral service for students.
Students. The president of Men's Coalition, Mike Pendergast, Overland Park senior, last
Alderson said the office provided advice to fraternities and other living groups. He pointed out, "We are pretty well staffed to handle the needs of the
month asked Student Senate for more than $1,900 to get the organization started. The organization was first denied any money at all but later was given $300 from the Senate's unallocated funds.
Repeated attempts to contact Pendergast this week were unsuccessful.
The secretary of Men's Coalition, Steve Dillman, Overland Park sophomore, said most of the original funding would be used for advertising the organization.
BUT THE GROUP'S first meeting, held Sept. 7, drew only 16 men. That meeting had been extensively publicized by the posting of advertisements around
The group now has 62 active members, one member said, including "a few females."
Chris Huppe, treasurer of the organization, said its members wanted to work together with the Women's Coalition.
We support both male and female
However, he conceded that there was some anistynia from the women's group, which he described as a "somewhat normal reaction."
rights," Huppe, Shawnee Mission sophomore, said.
MEMBERS OF THE Women's Coalition repeatedly have refused to comment on the Men's Coalition.
Huppe said that members of the men's group had attended one of the women's meetings but that because of a full agenda, they were not allowed to speak.
"they only approached us if they thought we were a senator so that we would vote them funding," one member of the women's group said.
Women students who are not connected with the Women's Coalition have said they think the men's group is a joke and a putdown of the women's group.
Dillman responded, "It is not true that we are making fun of Women's Coalition."
According to the Men's Coalition handout, one of the reasons for organizing apparently is to oppose affirmative action.
"WE FOUND THAT the male position in society is constantly being threatened by supposedly egalitarian political and cultural developments which have
diminished the status of the male," the handout stated.
And one of the organization's intentions is to provide a counseling service for admittance to professional schools.
Huppe says that the current membership does not include any minority members, but he hashes to add that "anyone can join."
Why should the Student Senate provide money for an organization that would perpetuate a status quo that the government has tried to make equitable?
"SINCE THE TURN of the century's second decade, the aggregate political power of the average male has been more than halved" - if the Men's Coalition's statement of principles is to be believed. "Whereas most females now have access to career between a home-maker role and a career, the male is still limited to the latter."
"It would seem that many of the privileges and advantages which have historically been the right of the male have essentially dissipated by modern ethics."
Do they wonder why?
The members of the Men's Coalition agreed that the organization's image has not been the best.
To the editor:
Leban's resignation proves perplexing
KANSAN
I am perplexed about Professor Carl Leban's resignation from the University. I have perplexed about the issue of the cancellation of the Nazi memo, which was taken April 20.
It seems to me that, were I Jewish, I might at first resent the opening of a display on the eve of Passover. But upon further consideration, the repercussions of the two events' occurring simultaneously would make the display would remind viewers of the rise to power of a very disturbed man—a man
Letters
who attempted to systematically exterminate the Jewish population of Europe. Remembrances of Hitler are remembrances of the Holocaust, my mind, such remembrances can breed only compassion for Jewish Americans whose ancestors were affected or who themselves were affected by anti-Semitic maniac of Hutter.
On the eve of the commemoration of the Jews' escape to Egypt, the Nazi exhibit could
have served to commemorate the defeat of a man who, like Rameses II, sought to persecute the Jews.
Perhaps I don't understand the significance of either event well enough to perceive the threat allegedly inherent in the opening of the display on the eve of Passover. Indeed, this threat seems to be a propient of academic freedom, feels compelled to resign from the University Council for its
refusal to commend the administration for canceling the exhibit. Obviously, Leban makes a distinction between academic freedom and freedom of speech.
It is not this issue, however, that is most troubling. I am more concerned with discerning the openness of the opening of the exhibit in the first place—an exhibit that, at least in my mind, would have increased the general sympathy toward the Hitler's Germany in both Hitler's Germany and pre-Christian Egypt.
Ann Selzer
Ain Selzer
Lawrence senior
State's economy should be diversified
The findings show that although agriculture should remain a vital Kanaas enterprise, a more diversified economy would be to Kansans' advantage.
Historically dependent on agriculture for the bulk of its residents' income, Kansas has undergone what some University of Kansas economics researchers view as the beginning of a long-term shift toward other income-producing sectors.
The study was prepared for the Division of State Planning and Research and soon will be published as a companion piece to a study of Kansas University's Museum, Flora, Kansas State University demographer.
The news of the shift toward diversification of Kansans' income sources came from a study completed in September by the Institute for Economic Research, research headed by KU economist Darwin Daseff.
The study, which covered Kansans' personal before-tax income from 1970 through 1975, showed
SOME OF the implications of the study's findings are that Kansas may become more linked to the national economy. In the past, Kansas' rate of growth, its unemployment rate and other economic indicators have been somewhat insulated from the nation's ups and downs. But with the nationwide mobilization in Kansas, the national picture may play a bigger part in the state's welfare.
generally accurate and I am pleased that such an important sphere of overall activities was found interesting and given the visibility provided by your article.
But in per capita terms, Kansas moved from almost 3 percent below the national average to slightly more than 2 percent. The per capita gain, when compared with other Plains states, was about $180 million. Dalcoff said, the per capita gain can be attributed larger to Kansas slow population growth rate.
that Kansas' share of the nation's personal income remained stable at slightly more than 1 percent.
THE RATE of growth of Kansas' population lies at the heart of all considerations of the economic welfare of Kansans. The latest figures on the migration of people in and out of the state show that 30,000 more people came into the state during 1975-76 than left.
Although one year's increase does not necessarily signal a trend, it does mark the reversal of a century-long history of steadily decreasing population in Kansas. Flora has noted that a significant number of those moving into the state have been born or lived of life that has gone ignored throughout this century. Rural inhabitants sought a "better life" in the big cities, or at least the big suburbs. The
There is one error that I should like to call to your attention. The article stated, "Smith, Mulder and Jeannie Hauser, a veterinary technician, inspect the facilities annually and report on them to Paul Schloerb, dean for Health Sciences, who helps Schloerb is dean for research administration at the College of Health Sciences and Hospital in Kansas City, but has no responsibilities on this campus. Dr. John B. Mulder, our fine University veterinarian and director of the animal care unit, teaches me animal biology and graduate studies and to the animal care committee, currently under the chairmanship of Professor Larry Draper.
out-migration turnaround appears more dramatic when the fact that 6 percent of the population of Kansas packed up and moved on during the 1960s is considered.
THERE are two bright spots in the generally healthy economic picture throughout the state. The south central counties, which rely on a diversified economic base, bounced back from high unemployment rates that plagued the area during the early '70s.
Thus, the state's share of personal income from government payments rose from 23.2 percent in 1970 to 26.3 percent in 1975. More Kansans are "mainstreaming" themselves into the national economic picture through receipt of transfer payments. Jobs in the nonfarm sector are available, whereas farm jobs are few. This may account for the increase in transfer payments attributable to unemployment insurance benefits. It might imply that certain regions are more dependent on social welfare programs than on productivity.
THE DIMINISHING role that farm income—down 1.29 percent during the five-year period—plays in the state's economy reflects the shift in Kansans' means of obtaining their livelihoods.
The northwest counties, despite their heavy reliance on agriculture, recorded the greatest
Government transfer payments, mainly Social security and unemployment insurance benefits, benefit workers.
increase in personal income, without a related growth in transfer payments.
Depressed conditions affected the southeastern part of the state, which showed the biggest proportion of transfer payments. That area experienced the smallest increase in total personal income and also had the lowest per capita income, despite a healthy 2 percent increase in population.
TOTAL personal income in Kansas grew by an average annual rate of 9.5 percent a year, a rate that Daicoff thinks "indicates a healthy expansion."
But the signal is clear, although several more years might be needed for the impulse to be felt statewide. The capricious agricultural market, international and national, has singed Kansas' agricultural businessmen. A more stable economy, less sensitive to external agricultural policies and climate, must be built by diversifying Kansas' income producing sectors.
Such a diversified economy is being planned quietly. The state is in an enviable position in terms of resources, natural and human. Although nonfarm industries should be encouraged to grow in Kansas, the leveling-off of farm income should not be misinterpreted as the demise of the farm's importance. Kansas had its birth witnessed by the soil-busters.
But it's time for conscientious, planned industrial development of the nonagricultural areas of the state. That would solidify the inherent strengths Kansans are proud of.
Administrator
notes error
To the editor:
On April 13 there appeared over the byline of Rudy Sherman a Kansan article on animal cruelty, and a University. The article was
William J. Argersinger Jr Vice chancellor and dean
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