Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Julie Wood, Editor Brandi Byram, Business manager Laura Roddy, Managing editor Shaumtae Blue, Retail sales manager Cory Graham, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Monday, November 29, 1999
Patrick O'Connor / TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICE
Editorials
Long wait for online enrollment is unacceptable, embarrassing
The enrollment process again has raised the perpetual question — when will our outdated enrollment system be modernized? Well, the days of long lines and surprise class closings could end if and when the University joins the modern age of online enrollment. Just don't hold your breath for it to happen any time soon.
According to a University plan, students will be able to enroll online in the future. Richard Morrell, the registrar, confirmed that there is a goal to replace the current, antiquated enrollment system with an online version. The University is in the process of updating all of its computer systems to use PeopleSoft software, which eventually will improve enrollment.
This implementation process is a monumental task, though, and the University is progressing in small steps called modules. This fall, the
KU enrollment should join the modern age of technology
first module was put in place, including a change in the software used for recruiting by the Office of Admissions and Scholarships.
Morrell would not comment on when the online enrollment module will take place, saying that he cannot attach dates to the project because of its complexity.
When the new enrollment program is installed, Morrell said he envisions the enrollment system relying on electronics to handle most paperwork. For example, a student's permit to enroll would be received electronically, either via e-mail or from a form on the World Wide Web.
This is quite a transition, as Morrell noted that the current system has been entrenched for 10 years.
This is exactly the problem. The University has been looking at the prospect of online enrollment since the early '90s but has been unable to accomplish it despite advances in technology. This enrollment system upgrade illustrates the bungling and inefficiency that sometimes accompany large bureaucracies such as the one at the University.
The registrar and the University finally may be taking forward strides to ease enrollment woes, but the lack of a public timeline offers little reason for student confidence. This project should be a top priority if it is not already, and greater communication should take place to increase accountability.
Rupali Limaye for the editorial board
Food plan should include Hill option
It's been a long morning of classes, and all you want is a decent lunch. You have class in an hour. You go to Wescoe Terrace or one of the unions to eat but soon realize that the price and quality of food are lacking. Still, you wish you could use one of the 15 meals you have left on your meal plan. But, of course, there is no other place within easy walking distance to use those meals.
This is a scenario that is all too common for students across campus. On-campus food is expensive and of questionable quality. On top of that, there is no place on Jayhawk Boulevard where a student can use a student housing meal plan.
There is a solution to this. Either the student unions or Wesco Terrace need
Too many meals on meal plans go to waste because of lack of options near classrooms
to allow students to honor student housing meal plans. In addition to helping students who continually waste meals on their meal plans, it also could give other students an opportunity to eat at a discounted rate. A student who lives off campus could have the opportunity to purchase a meal plan, which would allow those students to get reasonable prices and the convenience of eating on campus. Many students have schedules that keep them on campus all day, and a
meal plan could help lessen the expense of eating on campus.
Some students who want to use all of their meals on their meal plan get a sack lunch to bring to campus, but this is not the best solution. The student paid for a hot meal and should have the ability to get a hot meal without wasting time on a bus to get to a dining hall where the meal plan can be used.
If Dining Services could find a way to work with one of the on-campus eating establishments, both the quality and the price of food would improve. Students deserve to be able to eat on campus without spending their limited resources on food that could stand some improvement. Simple collaboration could alleviate both problems.
Emily Haverkamp for the editorial board
Kansan staff
News editors
Chad Bettes . . . . .
Becky LaBranch . . . Special sections
Thad Crane . . . Campus
Will Baxter . . . Regional
Jon Schlitt . . National
Danny Pumpley . . Online sales
Micah Kafitz . . Marketing
Emily Knowles . Production
Jenny Weaver . Production
Matt Thomas . . Creative
Kelly Heffernan . Classified
Juliana Moreira . Zone
Chad Hale . Zone
Brad Bolyard . Zone
Amy Miller . Zone
Advertising managers
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." Niels Bohr
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
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.
How to submit letters and guest columns
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Chad Bettes or Seh Haltham at 864-4924.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (apinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924
It's uncanny at times how your attention can be drawn to a word or subject for the first time, and then consequently every time you turn around, you are hearing about that same word or subject.
Perspective
nion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924
Highway billboard asks an unsettling question
It's not that it suddenly became more prevalent. It's just that you somehow became more aware.
An experience of this sort happened to me recently as I was driving home from my best friend's house in Kansas City. There on a giant billboard along the highway were the few, simple words: "Who's the father?"
Chad
Bettes
opinion editor
opinion @ kansan.com
No graphics. No artwork or fancy photos. Just the words, screaming for a moment's attention from the passersby by zooming along the roadway below.
ing the billboard was some kind of a joke. My eyes strained to read the punch line. Unfortunately, the smaller words beneath "Who's the father" were not a punch line. They were an advertisement for a company specializing in paternity testing.
You can dial an 800 number, and for a price, be hooked up with the company that will help you determine whether the father is behind door No. 1, 2 or 3. Eenie-meenie-mie-mio.
At first, I chuckled, think-
As dumbfounded as I was by this sign of the times, I thought I had put the billboard's message out of mind.
Then came *ER*, a new Census Bureau study and Maury Povich to bring it up again. An unlikely trio, I know, but nevertheless an informative one
— thanks to Povich's generosity and the wonder of paternity testing — that the boy she thought was the father of her child was decidedly not the father.
Stricken with emotion, the girl tried to run off of the show's stage. Povich physically intervened, begging her not to go and promising her all the paternity tests she would need to find the real father. What a guy. What a spectacle.
As fans of the popular hospital drama ER already know, a main character, Peter Benton, went through a paternity scare in a recent storyline. You see, Benton's ex-wife informed him in the custody battle for their toddler that he may not actually be the father of the child. Only a paternity test could say for sure, indicating the couple's marriage vows must not have been too sacred.
But then again, who needs marriage anyway,
especially when children are involved?
Yet again this subject was brought into my consciousness when I happened to overhear the topic one day for Maury Povich's TV talk show. Imagine my surprise to hear that Povich would be dealing with mothers who weren't sure who the fathers of their babies were. Déjà vu.
I only caught a glimpse of the show, which was enough to profoundly disturb me. In the clip I saw, a young teenager mother was sobbing and screaming uncontrollably because she found out
A recent report released by the Census Bureau revealed that the out-of-wedlock birthrate for first-time mothers has skyrocketed in the United States during the last six decades. More than 40 percent of first-time mothers are now unmarried according to the report — an astonishing 500 percent increase from the figure 60 years ago.
Once again, there was no punch line. This was real life.
Don't think that I'm off in never-land, wishing for a perfect world that can't be attained. I am the son of divorced parents, so I am well aware of the realities of the modern American family. I also am aware that most problems cannot be traced to a single cause.
But we've crossed a threshold and are steering a course fraught with danger. Many among us have forgotten that freedoms often must be linked with responsibility, less they do more harm than good.
An entire generation championed free love. Women have fought for freedom from sexual repression. And men have been much more than accomplices, unwittingly forfeiting or purposefully abdicating their essential place in the family.
Then there's the children — doped up on Ritalin, shuttled between broken homes on weekends and during summers, shoved into day care to be reared by anyone but the parents. They are the forgotten ones.
We wonder why so many struggle to make the grade, why so many are filled with rage, why there is such disrespect.
Ponder the questions today's kids are faced with and we may find a strand of the answer.
We can't even fill out the father's name on a birth certificate without a blood test. This is liberation?
No longer is the question, because of divorce,
"Where's your father?" Because of our self-centered,
live-only-for-the-moment, if it feels good-
do-it mentality, it has become, "Who's the father?"
--athletes is ridiculous. You always hear swimming grips about how much time it takes to train. Well, next time look who is there when you get there and still there when you leave. The amount of time it takes is unbelievable. Gary could easily find a less demanding and more rewarding career, but he loves Kansas University and especially Kansas swimming.
Bettes is a Shawnee graduate student in journalism.
Feedback
As a member of the University of Kansas swim team, I am upset (to say the very least) at the feature article regarding our head coach, Gary Kempf. I found the article to be extremely one-sided, focusing almost entirely on a few individuals that have personal problems with Coach Kempf.
My first impulse is to respond on an equally personal level to those making the accusations, but I'm choosing what I consider to be a more dignified approach. I'd like instead to thank Gary Kempt and the coaching staff. Never have I met or heard of a coach that is as dedicated to a program and its athletes as Gary is to the University of Kansas.
The complaints of those with personal vendettas should not overshadow Coach Kempf's dedication and commitment to the sport of swimming and the program here at KU. I chose to transfer to KU from another Division I program with the full expectation that Gary would challenge and push me as an athlete, and he hasn't let me down. So, I'd like to thank you, Gary (and your staff), for your commitment to us as a team and the University. Please don't forget how many lives you have influenced positively.
Accusations bother swimmer
Kelly Brock Roswell, Ga., senior
Kempf tough, not abusive
I have tried to be patient as I have read the articles concerning Gary Kempf in several papers. At first I couldn't justify spending the time to respond to these erroneous accusations. However, because of the one-sided coverage of this issue, I felt compelled to share my unique third party perspective that no one has taken the time to consider.
I have been exposed to Kansas swimming and Gary Kempf in a way that has allowed me to see the truth. To even begin to present a picture of Gary not caring about his
As far as psychological abuse, is there truly any way on earth that one person can tell another person they have a weight problem without offending them?
As far as coaching turnover, I know that Gary has always encouraged his assistants to pursue head coaching jobs, even when it meant losing a great coach from his staff as they pursue their own coaching careers. Who would want assistant coaches that have no desire to move up?
I challenge the people who dug up all of these negatives to apply as much energy into researching all of the positives that Gary has put into this world. I married one of Gary's former swimmers and coaches. She achieved awards on the Big Eight level as well as the national level and made it all the way to the Olympic trials, most recently being honored by induction into the KU Athletic Hall of Fame. All of this was achieved under Gary's coaching.
On the issue of "his way or the highway," he is the head coach, and swimmers choose to follow his leadership when they willingly sign a letter of intent or walk onto the pool deck everyday.
Let's consider the verbal abuse allegation. Anyone who has competed in any sport can claim he or she was verbally abused ... or is this motivation? Let's face it. It's all in how you take it and utilize the feedback to improve.
You are publishing the complaints of the minority, and you have to wonder if these people are just looking for an excuse for their own lack of desire and commitment to compete at the NCAA Division I level.
The bottom line is that a few people have started an unjustified smear campaign against one of KU's best assets. The only people who know the real truth are those who have been there. If KU loses Gary Kempf, KU will be the big loser.
Mark Long
Bartlesville, Okla.
Swimmer would not do it again
Kansas swimming consistently competes on the national level with less than adequate facilities and very few, if any, big name stars. He consistently gets the most out of people and gets them to work together as a team. Coaching is not about being liked; it is about getting the most out of people. His teams academic achievements are the envy of any program.
I have witnessed Gary's style in dealing with all of the aforementioned issues. Yes, he's tough, he's direct, but he isn't personally abusive. His goal as a coach is to lead each of his athletes to their maximum potential as students and athletes.
I was shocked to read that Coach Kemp's abusive coaching practices have been going on until the present time. Even as one of KU's most successful women swimmers (14-time Big 8 champion and 7-time All American from 1978-1981), I can attest that the complaints cited by current athletes regarding Gary's coaching style had been going on during my tenure at KU over 20 years ago. I can only describe my four-year athletic career at KU as four years of hell, and KU could never offer me enough scholarship money to go through those four years again.
Lanny Schaffer former Kansas swimmer