4A
Opinion
Tuesday, November 23, 1999
Editorial
Department should help, not drown KU athletes
Swim coach should be suspended until inquiry is complete
In the controversy surrounding swimming coach Gary Kempf, one important point has been drowned out—the fact that the Athletics Department is complacent when dealing with serious allegations relating to the event.
bring to the welfare of students. The department seems unwilling to discipline coaches or even question coaches' treatment of students, which is the real problem. It has a responsibility to care for the welfare of student athletes, and the Kempf situation proves it is not adequately meeting that responsibility.
When the Athletics Department does not discipline its coaches, it fosters a hostile environment. Students must be able to feel secure about the department and trust that if a coach abuses them, the department will stand by the players.
But if the Kempt situation is any indication, the department prefers to stand by the coach when student athletes complain about bad treatment. The department will not protect a student's confidentiality to help avoid confrontations with the coach. There is a legitimate concern about strangling coaches with too much regulation and making their jobs impossible, but this is not one of those cases.
The Athletics Department certainly has not been too hard on Kempf, as evidenced by his 24-year coaching career at the University.
If students are alleged to break a rule, they often are suspended while an investigation takes place. For example, Dion Rayford didn't get a second chance when he was suspended from his last football game after his inappropriate behavior. However, coaches seem to get away with their behavior.
Pushing students to the brink of psychological and physical collapse, ridiculing them for injury and making them hate their opponents and their own bodies is just as inappropriate as Rayford's behavior. The Kempf brand of abuse that some students allege is worse because as a state-paid employee and a man in a position of power he carries greater responsibility. Kempf acts with the authority of the school behind him, but that authority isn't free. It comes with responsibility that Kempf has disregarded.
The Athletics Department also has a responsibility besides just making sure the University wins sports contests. There is a line that divides pushing a student to higher achievement and pushing a student into exhaustion and desperation. The department
must maintain this line. The complaints lodged against Kempf indicate that the department has failed to meet this respe tity.
Bob Frederick, director of athletics, has promised that this issue will be handled in a confidential manner. Such a process will be of little comfort to the swimmers that have leveled the chutes.
plains. The swimming team controversy must be resolved in an open water area.
forum. The general welfare of the student body would be best served with either a condemnation of Kempf's actions or a clearing of his name. If several students would have accused a professor, during several years, of belittling them in class and making fun of their intelligence, the outcome of that situation would not just be a personnel issue. It would be indicative of what kind of school the University of Kansas is.
excuse abuse in the name of good athletics. Coaches are sometimes considered hard or tough, but it is all justified in the name of competition. This is the loose mindset that dominates athletics and allows students to be mistreated.
What the Athletics Department must do in this case is investigate the complaints students have made, now and in the past. Those students, as a group, should be allowed to
should be coaching. This should be the policy the department always follows, not just in controversial situations. This would help the department realize its responsibility and realize that coaches such as Kempf who push their students too hard and disregard their well being should not be coaching at all, no matter whether they are successful or not.
Read my lips: No new Texans
Brett Watson for the editorial board
We had a whole host of contenders in the race for the Republican nomination to be Grand Poobah of the United States; so many, in fact, that I filled two columns talking about them. No
more. Now we just have two.
just have two.
In one corner, a massive pile of dollar bills.
In the other,
John McCain.
If you look very,very closely,you might be able to see George W. Bush hiding under the heap of cash.
Mike
Loader
columnist
opinion kansas.com
And well he might hide.
Shrub Bush in
person is less than impressive. There's a reason his handlers don't let him out much.
Take, for example, his recent radio interview. Bush was expecting smooth sailing and glib soundbites. What he got, however, was basic foreign policy. The interviewer asked him to name four leaders in four major hot spots. Bush got one.
I did a little experiment. Strolling down to Budig Hall, I skulked outside the door to a political science class and jumped the first five people I could catch, hitting them with the same four questions Bush got.
Two students got two right, one got
three, one got all four, and a fifth told me to go do things with myself that, I fear, are anatomically impossible.
Based on this admittedly unscientific poll, we can conclude two things.
2) At least four out of five University of Kansas students with a slight interest in politics have a better grasp of foreign affairs than the leading candidate for president of the United States.
1) Journalists are nosy people who need to stop pestering hapless (but aggressive) poli sci students.
While this undoubtedly will please Chancellor Hemenway, the rest of us have cause for concern.
But the whole sorry episode showed more than just Bush's meager knowledge of other nations. It also showed how poorly he handles the unexpected. Faced with a question not appearing on his cue cards, Bush did a splendid imitation of a deer in the headlights.
"Wait, wait, is this 50 questions?" he first stammered.
Then, informed that it was instead a quiz on his knowledge of foreign affairs, he bristled - and promptly challenged his interviewer to name the foreign minister of Mexico.
The interviewer pointed out that he wasn't running for president, whereupon Bush made his view on the matter known in a clear, concise statement:
"What I'm suggesting to you is. if
you can't name the foreign minister of Mexico, therefore, you know, you're not capable about what you do. But the truth of the matter is you are, whether you can or not."
Thank you, Dubya, that explains everything.
The man is woefully ignorant. Do I know the names of all those leaders? Nope, I'd have gotten two at the most.
But Gore would have gotten them. Bradley would have gotten them. McCain would have gotten them. All three of these men have been dealing intimately in our nation's foreign policy for years.
Bush falls behind McCain in character, honor, knowledge, and experience. Where his rival is serene and decisive, Bush is cranky and petulant. Examine his later comment on his flunked quiz: "I don't really mind people picking on me." Bush said in a *Time* magazine interview. "I know what I can do, I've never held myself out to be any great genius, but I'm plenty smart." Does he or those he not sound like a sixth grader, whining of bullies even as he tries to look modest and competent?
But hey, he's got money.
Let's see if we'll elect a leader. Or a bag of greasy bills.
Loader is an Henderson, Nev. junior in journalism.
Feedback
Official statement from the Athletics director
The Athletics Department is obviously aware of the criticism of head swimming coach, Gary Kempf. We have an internal process to deal with such issues, which is confidential. I personally want to assure all concerned that we take this matter seriously and any others which may occur.
Bob Frederick Director of Athletics
I read Emily Hughey's piece yesterday and re-lived all the memories of my swimming career at KU once again. A Jayhawk since birth, my father played basketball and my sister played tennis here. I learned the Rock Chalk chant along with my ABC's. I loved swimming when I began at KU. After Gary, I loved my teammates, but hated the sport.
Former swimmer says coach was intimidating
Gary would attack your self-esteem, something extremely precious to 17 and 18 year-old women. While many survived without damage, I watched many talented swimmers come to the program with a sparkle in their eyes and determination to be the best. They would leave the University as sad, broken athletes who might never compete again. We were doing something we loved and he took that away from us.
With Gary, it was "his way or the Trailway." He ran a tight ship, and if you didn't like it, you could leave. Ask him about "mandatory optionals," those optional practices during off-season and finals that were
I spent four years second-guessing every move I made, walking on eggshells and injuring myself physically and mentally, just to please someone who really means so very little. Now, nearly 7 years after my eligibility is through, his actions and words still affect my self-esteem and how I deal with others.
mandatory, if we opted to be a member of the team. Never mind that it consistently put us over the NCAA training limit.
This is just the tip of the iceberg on how Gary has intimidated and made individuals feel worthless at a time in their lives when were are just beginning to recognize that they could accomplish anything. I hope the investigation will continue. It's time to call you on the carpet, Garv.
Amy Brainard 1993 graduate
Swim story disappointing
I was very disappointed in the "Coach Under Fire" article that was published on Wednesday. I am a swimmer here at KU, and I have much respect for Gary. I think he's a good man and a great coach
Gary has to be honest with his swimmers, and sometimes honesty hurts. You can't afford to be fat and swim. You can't be lazy and still swim fast. Any way you break the news is going to be offending. If you have a bad swim, Gary tells you. I admire that kind of honesty in a coach. What the swimmers quoted in the article didn't realize was that it was not a personal attack — it was simply a statement of fact. (There was also much exaggeration in those accusations against Gary.) Gary isn't simply a coach. He's a motivator. He wants to instill in us the same drive to win that he has. Sure he's going to hack of people in the process. Anyone who coaches a sport 25 years at any university is going to run into athletes they just don't get along with. If that's one (out of sixty) a year, that makes 25 angry ex-swimmers. What the Kansan did was seek out the mad ones and interview them. That was biased and unprofessional. For every one of those there are 59 others who are content and happy with Gary as a coach.
As far as the parents are concerned, they know nothing but what the swimmers tell them. So of course they're going to be upset when Bobby runs home and cries to his mother that practice was hard and he just can't handle it anymore and the coach doesn't care. In reality, swimming is one of the most grueling sports to train for out there, no matter who your coach is.
Some of us train five mornings a week:
Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30 a.m.
Monday and Friday at 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.
on Saturday mornings. In addition,
every afternoon you will find us at
Robinson cranking out set after set from
2:45 to 5:30 p.m. It's hard. It's very hard.
Please start giving us some by apologizing for that ugly unwarranted verbal attack you published on our coach. He has enough on his mind trying to coach us without having to worry about rumors flying in the paper about how "terrible" of a man he is. It's simply not true.
There are many that can't handle it. So some blame Gary for their problems and quit swimming. Others just quietly and peacefully exit. At any rate, the swimmers that remain on the team deserve some respect.
Nathan Rice Dallas sophomore
He may have had help, but Oswald shot Kennedy
There's a very good chance you may not remember why Nov. 22, 1963, was a
I remember why Nov. 22, 1963, was a special day in United States history.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 36 years ago on that day. On Nov. 21, 1963, I was in sixth grade in San Antonio, Texas.
Kennedy visited San Antonio the day before he went to Fort Worth and Dallas. Just a fence separated my back yard from his motorcade as he passed by, but I didn't see him.
Nov. 22, 1963. I was at lunch recess when a teacher told us school was out for the day. He said that the president had been shot and was dead. My first reaction was that then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Texan, was responsible. Afterward, I was
responsible. After all, it happened in Texas.
The funeral procession is the next thing I recall. We watched it on our black and white television set. The military band played dreary funeral music. It was a dismal day. And it was sad, so sad. The assassination was a terrible thing to happen, and we couldn't get back what we had lost.
Gradually the events of that Friday became clear. Lee Harvey Oswald was a
Allan Davis guest columnist opinion @kansan.com
Communist and worked in the building where the shots came from. His Mannlicher-Carcano bolt-action rifle had been recovered. Obviously, he had done it. He was a communist and that made him guilty. Nobody seemed to believe the people who said the shots came from the grassy knoll, probably because the evidence against Oswald made him look so guilty.
And then the Zapruder film appeared in Life magazine, frame by frame. If you have never seen the Zapruder film, you should. It showed almost everything that happened as the shots hit Kennedy. It shows what was probably the fatal shot, and it showed the front of Kennedy's head exploding.
Someone used the Zapruder film to measure
the amount of time that the three shots took. CBS had sharpshooters use Mannlicher-Carcano bolt-action rifles to try to shoot three accurate shots within the time as evidenced by the Zapruder film. Accuracy aside, none of the three were able to fire three shots in the measured amount of time.
The 1977 House Select Committee on Assassinations reported that four shots were audible on a tape from a motorcycle policeman's radio. The committee also said there was a plot. But they didn't name anyone.
So who done it? Don't search too hard. I doubt that U.S. government officials were involved. Why destabilize the government at a time when anti-communism was the name of the game?
I think that if there was a plot, it probably involved somebody who knew what Oswald was going to do and took advantage of the situation to take a shot. Oswald, so to speak, had fleas, and one of them probably fired the fourth shot, if there was one.
Was there any semblance of a cover-up? I think so. The FBI monitored Oswald after he returned from the Soviet Union. It was the bureau's job. He was a communist. The cover-up occurred because the FBI sought to hide the fact that they had been monitoring him and yet had no knowledge of what Oswald was going to do. Oswald made the FBI look bad; almost derelict in their duty. They should have known because they should have watched him more closely.
In 1990, I was in Dallas waiting on a bus and decided to go for a walk. I stood on a hill and realized that I knew the scene. I was on the other side of Dealey Plaza across from the Texas Schoolbook Depository. I crossed the plaza. I looked down the road that I had seen so many times. I didn't look at the grassy knoll. It never occurred to me to do so. I walked over to the depository. There's a plaque there on the depository that tells what Oswald did. And he really did.
Davis is a Topeka graduate student in journalism.
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Julie Wood, Editor
Laura Roddy, Managing editor
Cory Graham, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
News editors
Brandi Byram, Business manager
Shauntea Blue, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Chad Bettes . . . . . . . . . . . Editorial
Seth Hoffman . . . . . . . . . Associate editorial
Carl Kaminski . . . . . . . . . News
Juan H. Heath . . . . . . . Online
Chris Fickett . . . . . . . Sports
Brad Hallier . . . . . . . Association sports
Nadia Mustafa . . . . Campus
Heather Woodward . . . Campus
Steph Brewer . . . . Features
Dan Curry . . . . . . . . Association features
Matt Daugherty . . . Photo
Kristi Elliott . . . Design, graphics
T.J. Johnson . . . Wire
Melody Ard . . Special sections
Advertising managers
Advertising managers
Becky LaBranch ... Special sections
Thad Crane ... Campus
Will Baxter ... Regional
Jon Schlitt ... National
Danny Pumpely ... 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
Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"I could prove God statistically."
—George Gallup