Opinion
The University Daily Kansan
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4A
Monday, March 6, 2000
Clay McCuistion / KANSAN
Editorials
University needs centralized office to address sexual assault strictly
On Feb. 25, Columbia University passed an unprecedented sexual assault policy that made Columbia the first and only university in the nation to have a full-time position dealing with issues of sexual assault on and off campus. The policy also mandates that students must make up at least one-third of all committees involved in examining cases of sexual assault.
Other universities, including the University of Kansas, also should make a stronger effort to fight sexual assault, which is an important issue on all campuses. The University should establish a system to deal with cases of sexual assault in a brisk and efficient way.
The University has several committees and organizations that address the issue
Coordinating organization would help students wade through duplicate services
of sexual assault. The Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center is the main one. It aims to prevent and educate, and it works with individual victims of sexual assault in dating and domestic relationships. Moreover, it cooperates with several student organizations.
Other organizations include the Office of the University Ombudsman, Counseling and Psychological Services and Legal Services for Students. However, for as many resources as our campus has, it still lacks one main policy
or campaign that would deal solely with the issue of sexual assault. When dealing with an issue of such magnitude is delegated to various offices and organizations, the purpose can be undermined.
The University needs a main office that will concentrate on sexual assault, coordinating events of awareness and prevention, providing support to assault victims and ensuring that disciplinary action is taken.
Student input and participation are essential in establishing such an system. The organizations that already are dealing with the issue should unify and coordinate in making the KU community aware of the issue of sexual assault and in implementing and enforcing an efficient policy.
Cynthia Malakasis for the editorial board
Academic, business boundaries blur
Universities across the nation are experiencing a crisis. They are acting along business principles instead of academic ones, as corporations pirate their research. Because the University of Kansas could fall into this trap, we must establish a strong boundary between the University and businesses.
The Bayh-Dole Act, which allows universities to patent technological advances, has merged the university and corporate world into an academic industrial complex. Research-based departments now are beholden to corporations that help finance their research.
The problem is that with the introduction of commerce into academia comes a competitive mindset. Professors and their graduate students are reluctant to share research findings
Confidentiality agreements have no place in academia; University need clear limits
In one case at the University of South Florida, a graduate student who had made a breakthrough in removing ammonia from waste water was prosecuted by the university, which had an agenda of protecting its intellectual property that conflicted with its responsibility to the student and the academic world in general.
porate America on a college campus is beneficial. Corporations endow universities with the materials they need and can't get from public revenue. But this financing doesn't justify the harm of making the academic system function in such a contradictory manner.
with colleagues, and corporate sponsors often require confidentiality agreements to protect what they view as trade secrets.
The University of Kansas is prominent in the field of scientific research and easily could become a victim of this phenomenon. The solution is to set clear boundaries for both corporations and universities. Corporations should be allowed to promote their philanthropy by donating money to public institutions, but they should not be able to make demands and essentially buy a university. In turn, universities should stay out of the business world and remain in the business of expanding the limits of knowledge.
Brett Watson for the editorial board
Some argue that the presence of cor-
Kansan staff
Seth Hoffman . . . Editorial
Nadia Mustafa . . . Editorial
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
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Perspective
Students' protests, riots not terrorist movement
Since my arrival at the West Bank, I have seen political activity that is unrivaled elsewhere. Two weeks ago, my political science professor was arrested by the Palestinian National Authority for speaking out against the party's corruption and bureaucracy. Shortly
after that, the president of the Birzeit University and leader of the Islamic bloc was arrested by the Israeli government.
Students have continued their protests against these arrests and Israel's invasion of South Lebanon. This has resulted in demonstrations and canceled classes. And demonstrations in the Golan Heights against Israeli occupation continue to receive media attention.
Despite all that I've seen, I don't think that my memory
Almas
Sayeed
columnist
opinionofkansan.com
ever will erase watching about 100 students throwing stones during a protest against the presence of French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
Aside from the fact that Saturday normally would be a day off for me back home, my Saturday two weeks ago was more or less like a normal school day at Birzeit University. The significant difference was the anticipated visit of Jospin and other French dignitaries to the university's law institute. It was a beautiful day, and the French flag had been raised along side the Palestinian flag.
But beneath the apparent serenity, campus leaders and members of student political parties assembled to protest a statement made earlier by Jospin that the Lebanese group Hezbollah, viewed here as resistance fighters against the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon, was a terrorist group whose actions would not be tolerated by the French government. The protests began peacefully with students shouting slogans, trying to disrupt the atmosphere with politically charged speeches and banners. Jospin was even able to complete his speech with few interruptions except for one notable Palestinian youth who screamed, "We consider you a traitor," in perfect French.
It was Jospin's departure from campus that led to student riots. A small number of students simultaneously began throwing stones at Jospin and the other visitors. The riot quickly turned
violent as the stones landed on cars, went through glass and grazed people's heads. Jospin was protected by bodyguards from the Palestinian National Authority.
Reports after the incident suggested that Jospin was slightly grazed by a stone but otherwise unharmed. A minister from the Palestinian National Authority also was grazed in the head, but the event left no one seriously injured, except, of course, the students of Birzeit University, especially those who threw the stones. Yasser Arafat, Palestinian National Authority chairman, condemned the student protesters and officially shut down the university for three days.
In a place like the West Bank, the closure of a university signals that the national authority does not support a student protest and is punishing all students collectively, despite the fact that only a few threw the stones. Now students are organizing their own protests on campus and within the city to oppose the arrests made by the Palestinian police.
Since the riot, the European and Israeli media have portrayed the students at Birzeit as ignorant, if not outright terrorists. The intensity of the international response has increased pressure on the university to crack down on the students.
Since I've been here, I have spent a lot of time contemplating the West's perception of resistance versus its perception of terrorism. What is happening here cannot simply be labeled terrorism.
ble labeling most forms of resistance in this area — except any offensive or defensive actions taken by the Israeli army — as terrorism. One conservative Israeli paper even claimed the university was a "training ground for students to learn terroristic tactics to achieve their political end." This is wrong.
I wonder what my response would be to another country's occupation of my hometown, coupled with arbitrary arrests of friends, relatives and loved ones. However people may perceive the students' actions, it is clear that what happened here is more complex than students throwing stones at Jospin out of disrespect. What happened was the result of frustration and anger at a politician who condemned a region one day and then expected to be received with open arms the next.
Sayeed is a Wichita junior in international studies, philosophy and women's studies. She is studying in the West Bank this semester.
Scientific thought, inquiry key for Kansas children
There is ongoing dialogue and debate at the University of Kansas regarding evolution. This is how it should be.
The University of Kansas Ecumenical Christian Ministries board represents diversity within the Christian faith. The board members are people from many denominations, professions and places in a spiritual walk, united by acceptance of the message and ministry of Jesus Christ.
We differ theologically and politically on many issues, but we put aside those differences
on any occasion where such differences may impede our objective of serving, teaching and learning at the University. It is in this spirit that we respond to the recent Kansas State Board of Education decision concerning the teaching of evolution, Big Bang theory and other scientific principles dealing with the origins and progression of our universe.
Thad Holcombe
guest columnist
opinion@kansan.com
We are first and foremost a Christian organization that strives to understand
its own faith and to be Christ's representatives to students, faculty and staff at the University. Our faith and commitment to Christ compel us to work for a just society free from oppression from the state, the church or any other organization. We believe Christ's message to be inclusive and based on principles of compassion and love for women and men as sisters and brothers in our time on Earth. As such, we affirm the basic rights of all people in our society, particularly those who find themselves in the minority. We believe that the Bill of Rights provides basic individual protections that cannot be taken by any majority.
The specific right central to this issue is the right to practice religious beliefs without interference from the government. This includes the right to an education that is not unduly influenced by any religious system. We unanimously oppose the decision of the Board of Education. This decision offends us as a Christian community. Factual analysis leads us to the conclusion that this decision represents a
frontal attack on the teaching of modern scien tific principles in the state of Kansas.
Although rhetorically inclusive, the only intent of this decision is the removal of accepted scientific principles from Kansas educational standards. The decision to de-emphasize is based solely on a perceived threat to one religious viewpoint, not on any properly conducted and peer-reviewed scientific process. Science curriculum must be based on scientific principles, not religious dogma. Most particularly, it should not be modified for the sole purpose of consistency with one highly sectarian interpretation of the Genesis story, particularly when that interpretation claims literal truth. God and Christ do not fit in that box.
Any changes to Kansas educational practices must be based on national and international scientific standards. Most troubling to us is the statement implicit in the debate that young people must choose between scientific inquiry and Christianity (or any other religious tradition)
— that somehow understanding the physics of light refraction through water or the biology of disease diminishes the beauty of a rainbow or the miracle of a medical procedure. Interpretation in the physical and metaphysical worlds should not be intertwined.
The secular tragedy in this debate is the denial of such joys to young people in our state who are just beginning their great journeys of discovery. The Christian tragedy is the use of Christ's message to implicitly exile young people whose gifles lie in scientific inquiry. All this is in the name of one selfish attempt to make ourselves the center of God's creation. We should not forget the lesson of Galileo, whose heresy was to suggest that the earth was not the center of creation.
Defining causality and characterization in the physical world is the role of science. Providing meaning and purpose is the role of religion. For the practicing scientist and the layperson, each day is an adventure in discovering the beauties in the universe. Each day is an opportunity to see a Creator God revealed in the intricacies of the functioning of ourselves, our societies, our planet, solar system and universe. There is poetry in mathematics, music and science, and joy in understanding our world.
Holcombe is the campus pastor for the ECM. His views are representative of the ECM board.
Feedback
College's hour rule can be flexible
Your Feb. 28 editorial about maximum hours makes a good point.
The College of Liberal Arts
— above and beyond the 40 hour limit.
and Sciences is actually flexible on this issue. In 1996 they allowed me to take two graduate courses in my major and count them toward my degree
These courses proved invaluable when I began graduate school. I would not be surprised to find that others were given a similar opportunity.
Nick Pivonka 1996 KU graduate