Opinion
The University Daily Kansan
Laura Roddy, Editor
Sarah Hale, Managing editor
Kristi Elliott, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Monday, April 3, 2000
Clay McCuistion / KANSAN
Editorials
Campus boilers and transformers need upgrades before it's too late
It appears that the University of Kansas has been sitting on a time bomb, and few of us here knew it. In February, the campus received a wake-up call when a transformer at Strong Hall exploded, causing $25,000 in damage. Beneath the beautiful structures that help rank the University as one of the most beautiful in the nation, outdated and sometimes insufficient systems keep our campus running.
A case in point is the situation with the boilers at the University's Central Power Plant. Last winter, only two of the three main boilers, the systems that provide heat to the campus, were working. And the two that were working were 1961 models. George Cone, assistant director of the
Recent explosion at Strong Hall should be charged wake-up call for Kansas Legislature
power plant, said, "If we were to lose another one, we'd be in serious trouble."
Even with the new boiler that was installed a few weeks ago, with a price tag of $1.2 million, the power plant is at least 10 years behind the times. It is the basic amenities that boilers and transformers provide that we often take for granted — until we are left without heat or until they explode.
The situation at the power plant raises questions: What other structural and system problems face our campus and what is being done to keep them up to date and in good working order? Cone said, "The power plant was not in good shape. It lacked maintenance; it lacked caring; it lacked knowledge."
the blame for the situation at the power plant should not fall on Facilities Operations. It faces the unenviable task of keeping buildings that were built in the early 1900s in modern working condition while working with a budget that became even tighter this year with recent state budget cuts. It presents a troubling future as the buildings grow older and the budget that keeps them up to date shrinks. The question is: Will we have to wait for another explosion to make us realize this?
Drew Ryun for the editorial board
FDA tobacco regulation necessary
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision last week, ruled that Congress had not granted the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco as a drug. Because smoking should be viewed as a public health concern, the crucial next step is for Congress to pass legislation that gives the FDA control of tobacco.
This decision nullifies any tobacco-related rules from the FDA, including requiring tobacco sellers to ask consumers less than 27 years old to provide identification. While the Supreme Court may have made the right decision legally, the consequences of this decision are dangerous steps back
Congress must take action to ensure tobacco companies are held accountable
from the progress to curb smoking — especially among youth.
The ball now is in Congress' court, and the legislature must take action. Even Phillip Morris Co., the nation's largest cigarette producer, has admitted that smoking is addictive and causes cancer. In the interest of public health, Congress must grant the FDA the power to control the tobacco industry and to treat cigarettes as what they really are — an addictive drug.
Some agency should have the power to make sure cigarette companies are not manipulating nicotine levels or otherwise producing a more dangerous product. If the FDA does not have that power, who will?
Although the Court has made its decision, now it's obvious that we must fight this battle in the legislative arena. Congress, as the representative body of the people, must make public health a top priority and quickly introduce and pass legislation granting the FDA legal authority to do what it had been doing — regulating tobacco as an addictive drug.
Kursten Phelps for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Seth Hoffman ... Editorial
Nadia Mustafa ... Editorial
Melody Ard ... News/Special sections
Chris Fickett ... News
Julie Wood ... News
Juan H. Heath ... Online
Mike Miller ... Sports
Matt James ... Associate sports
Katie Hollar ... Campus
Nathan Willis ... Campus
Heather Woodward ... Features
Chris Borniger ... Jayplay
T.J. Johnson ... Photo imaging
Christina Neff ... Photo
Jason Pearce ... Design, graphics
Clay McCusion ... Wire
News editors
Advertising
Becky LaBranch . . .Special sections
Krista Lindemann . . .Campus
Ryan Riggin . . .Regional
Jason Hannah . . .National
Will Baxter . . .Online sales
Patrick Rupe . . Online creative
Seth Schwimmer . . Marketing
Jenny Weaver . Creative layout
Matt Thomas . Assistant creative
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Jon Schitt . Zone
Thad Crane . Zone
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"If I'd have known that I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." — Mickey Mantle
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.
How to submit letters and guest columns
All letters and guest columns should be e-mailed to opinion@kansan.com or submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Holl. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Nadia Mustafa or Seth Hoffman at 864-4924.
**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.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924
Perspective
NCAA bosses exploit Bracketville residents
The NCAA Tournament is coming down to another not-so-exciting finish. Forget about the seeds and brackets because, like last year, the winners and losers were decided long before any tip-off.
Recordless of who wins the game on the court,
Regardless of who wins the NCAA comes out the big winner, and the athletes come out the losers. This outcome will remain the same as long as the NCAA continues to use unpaid "amateurs" to build its billion-dollar empire.
Jimmy Barmann columnist
@online@xansan.com
The NCAA has long said it is an "amateur" organization. In fact, the NCAA does not even have to pay taxes because of this distinction. Can you name another amateur organization that will have operating revenue of $303,335,000 for 1999-2000'
from a sneer dollar standpoint, the slavery that the NCAA masks as amateurism rivals any other form of slavery in U.S. history.
It is true that most of the players are given scholarships, which are good for four years regardless of how long they go to school or if they ever attend class. Most National Merit scholars receive similar scholarships, but they do not have to fear being suspended from a class or exam if they are given a check from a family friend — plus they allegedly are allowed to drink alcohol with high-ranking officials at the University of Kansas.
Here are some facts: NCAA Executive Cedric Dempsey's annual salary/benefits total more than $400,000. The annual benefits of each of the next five highest-ranking NCAA executives are $200,000. The NCAA recently signed an 11-year, $8 billion contract granting CBS the exclusive rights to air the NCAA Tournament.
in addition to being the most antiquated organization in all of sports, the NCAA also must be the cocklest to think it can rake in billions of dollars at the expense of an unpaid labor pool. The problem is that it will be able to continue to do this until somebody stands up and exposes the NCAA for the professional sports organization that it is.
Here are some more figures that the NCAA wants the public to be appalled by: $6,125; $1,000; and $2,500. These are the dollar amounts taken from agents/AAU coaches that led to the suspensions of JaRon Rush, Kareem Rush and Chris Porter, respectively.
James Naismith, a Kansas native, invented the power of basketball, and it would be only fitting that a Kansas man causes the demise of the NCAA. For example, anyone who follows NCAA basketball is familiar with the new "Welcome to Bracketville" campaign that Nike is using. Apparently, you can go to nike.com and vote for a mayor of Bracketville, with one of the candidates being Roy Williams. I say Roy can be mayor of Bracketville, only if he chooses Lester Earl to be President of Bracketville. (It would have to be Lester because any Kansas player with eligibility remaining was, of course, be suspended by the NCAA for taking money from Nikel.)
Lester's first act as president would take place on March 1, the official beginning of March Madness. He would hand out $200 checks to every NCAA basketball player, thus making every NCAA player illegal. The NCAA then would have to suspend every player, cancel the tournament and, in all likelihood, face an estimated $345 million lawsuit filed by CBS. A bigger embarrassment than the lawsuit to the NCAA, I would presume, would be the fact that Lester Earl got the last laugh.
Lester is a player who fans are supposed to look at with a suspicious eye because he drives a nice car, took money from a "shady character" in Louisiana and made Roy's life hell. This is the same Roy who makes enough money through his Kansas and Nike contracts, along with his TV appearances and ESPN commercials to buy several nice cars and probably several shady people from Louisiana
You see, if simply left up to the NCAA or Roy,
things would be the same. But if you put the Lester
Earl in charge, a hasuspicion that things might
end up a little more fair to the athletes who make
the NCAA the billion dollar professional organization
that it is.
Feedback
Barmann is a Lenexa sophomore in economics.
Professors can walk to class like students
Perhaps Simpson should attend one of those time-management seminars for students so that he can learn to plan his day more effectively. Or perhaps he should try walking — yes, walking. Imagine that!
Psychology Department Chairman Greg Simpson is quoted in an article in the March 29 Kansan as saying, "We [the faculty] often have to go to several different places during the day, and it's critical that we get back to our buildings on time to perform our principal duties such as teaching or office hours."
Students don't have a choice: We have to walk or ride the buses to get across campus. Apparently, our professors have been pampered: They can't imagine not being able to park right outside their office windows.
Many faculty already work to ease parking congestion by walking or cycling to work. Some of their colleagues should learn from that and quit acting like part of Roy Williams' "wine and cheese crowd" — or maybe it's "whine and cheese."
Aaron Profitt
Overland Park junior
Kempf's promotion worsens situation
As a former diving coach at the University of Kansas (1989-1997), I've been waiting for the season's end to see what fate awaited Gary Kempf after the Nov. 17 *Kansan* article, "Coach Under Fire." Hot Diggity Dog, it is about time!
Now, as director of student life, Kempf is qualified to make lives miserable for all the student athletes, not just the swimmers and divers.
And as director of coaches professional development, he'll be more than qualified in getting other coaches, besides just the swimming and diving assistants to not only leave the University, but also their professions altogether. What a monumental mistake!
Clearly, it is time for Athletics Director Bob Frederick to resign to a professor of ethics position, and
Don Fearon Kansas City, Mo., resident
Gun control danger for unarmed citizens
teach everyone the difference between right and wrong.
1 find Mike Loader's March 29 column about the NRA wrong on virtually every point.
Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, was right about President Clinton and his administration. They want more gun laws, but do not enforce existing ones. They claim that the Brady bill's required checks have prevented 500,000 people from getting guns. Because it is against the law to apply to purchase a gun if you are a convicted felon, we would expect lots of these 500,000 to be doing jail time. But instead, only a handful have been prosecuted.
Here is how gun control REALLY works:
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million disidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
In 1928, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
In 1935, China established gun control. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents (intellectuals like Loader), unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. There are many more examples of this progression from gun control to government abuse of its citizens.
The real agenda of many who advocate further restrictions on gun control is to make us totally dependent on government for protection, to increase the power of the government and to eliminate the possibility of any armed resistance to the government should it repeat the examples above.
If the president truly
believes in gun laws, he needs to enforce the ones we already have. And if he wants to eliminate guns, let the Secret Service start by turning in its weapons. Lead by example, I say.
Warren Bainter Oberlin resident
University corrupt in handling of Kempf
I didn't appreciate your cover-up attempt on co-ex coach Gary Kempf. Your one-sided March 28 article about his "promotion" was almost as dishonest as the corrupted KU administration.
This latter bunch has now confirmed my suspicion that the University of Kansas has a "good 'ole boys" club with scruples no better than a crime mafia. Its handling of the Kempf matter is utterly disgraceful and will come back to haunt them — if it hasn't already, KU students and alumni deserve better. To read that release about Kempf's reward for the years of swimmer abuse alluded to in the Nov. 17 article by Emily Hughey — who received for that article the highest recognition given by the journalism profession — one would think Kempf is some kind of athletic hero to be emulated. Not a word was mentioned about such atrocities as allowing a young man with fainting spells to remain in the swim program until he died while swimming.
We now live in a culture where it is both fashionable & acceptable to lie, even when caught with a proverbal hand in the cookie jar. It's too bad that so many young men and women had to be scarred in ways defined in the aforementioned article by Hughey. And to think that if one young lady swimmer didn't have the guts to blow the whistle on that situation, and if Hughey didn't have the guts to print the story, it still would be "business as usual" at the KU natatorium. To think that the University was so unscuppulous as to let Kempf do that for all those years should be a wake-up call for students, alumni and the public at large.
水
Frank Kramer Carrollton, Texas, resident
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