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Ann Premer, Editor Jamie Holman, Business manager Gerry Doyle, Managing editor Sara Cropper, Retail sales manager Angie Kuhn, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Monday, March 29, 1999
The Chicago Tribune
Editorials
Standardized test ruling indicates warning for admissions, scholars
When a federal judge ruled March 8 that NCAA eligibility rules require a minimum SAT or ACT score for student athletes were racially discriminatory, he did more than throw the NCAA into chaos.
The ruling carries with it potential implications that could affect not just athletes, but every student and educator at the University of Kansas.
If upheld on appeal, the ruling opens the door for an assault on any admissions or scholarship requirements that use standardized testing, which the vast majority of schools, including the University, use.
If it is upheld that standardized testing discriminates against minorities in cases of athletic eligibility requirements, it follows that the tests also
Ruling of SAT, ACT discrimination could affect more than student athlete eligibility.
would be discriminatory when used for admissions.
Minority students could therefore sue and possibly win against colleges and universities, alleging discrimination in admissions.
Alan Cerveny, director of the Office of Admissions and Scholarships, said the University was less at risk than many other schools because it didn't establish test score cut-off lines similar to the ones the NCAA used. Instead, the University weighs test
scores as one of many factors in admissions, he said.
The lack of a definite cutoff may make the University's admissions policy as legal even if admissions cutoffs were ruled unfair, Cerveny said.
Still, the issue should not be taken lightly because all use of standardized testing potentially could be affected. Some scholarships have test-score cutoffs that clearly would be vulnerable to future legal challenges.
Admissions departments and scholarship agencies should heed the decision and make preparations in case they, too, are stripped of the ability to use scores from standardized tests.
We cannot let the chaos ravaging the world of student athletes catch the rest of the nation's students by surprise.
Nathan Willis for the editorial board
Course retake policy being revisited
During a college career, a student may wish to retake a class. There are several reasons for this: to apply for entrance to a major or professional school, to graduate, to receive departmental honors or to improve a grade.
Now, when students choose to retake a class because of an unsatisfactory grade. both the original grade and the new grade appear on students' transcripts Both are averaged into the cumulative GPA.
This practice essentially is the same as students taking a different course and having that new grade appear.
There should be another option.
A group of students are working on a proposal for the Academic Policies and Procedures committee in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that would change the course retake policy.
Proposal could allow students more competition in majors graduate programs.
The policy would allow students a one-time option to retake a course and have only the new grade appear on transcripts. Doing this would have many advantages for the student and the University.
When students compete for graduate programs against students from universities that have a retake policy, the other student's grades may seem higher. This is a disadvantage to KU students. Grade replacement would make KU graduates more competitive for graduate programs.
for a replacement grade, students are being deterred from taking classes that may interest them. Students shouldn't be reprimanded for taking classes in which they do not do as well as classes in their major.
major.
The grade replacement policy does have some drawbacks. A student would not be allowed to replace his or her grade again and again. It would be a one-time replacement. Also, the student would not receive credit for retaking the class. He or she just would benefit from the new grade. It would be the new grade that would appear on the student's transcript, regardless if it were better or worse.
The theory behind the liberal arts education is for students to experience several types of classes. By not being eligible
Even taking these drawbacks into consideration, many students could use this policy. Getting into the major you want, graduating or graduating with honors are just temptation.
Tara Kelly for the editorial board
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness." —Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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 home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
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Flu medication provides engaging outlook of life
Perspective
This comes because of a combination of factors, the most important being the barely functioning immune system of college students.
If you have general questions or comments,
e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com)
or call 864-4924.
Even more reliable than the mid-first semester, get-broken-up with by-high school sweetheart because-of that long-distance-thing season, the sickness season seems to strike nearly all at some point.
I's that (sniff) time of the year again. The time of year students dread coming but know always will strike — the mid-winter, mid-semester cold-and-flu season.
Keith Burner
opinion@kansan.com
Factors such as being a smoker or bathing regularly play important roles in the
enances of getting sick, but if you examine these, you'll see that most of them contribute to a depleted immune system and, therefore, contribute to that part of the problem.
part of the problem.
But the most telling harms that can be done to the immune system of a college student happen during the first half of any semester. During the first half, most students find themselves with extra money. Whether the source is parents, scholarships, loans, or money gained from students in exchange for a sack of weed, it all contributes to a false feeling of well being.
willing.
Having a surplus of money leads to spend it on things such as weekend-long parties. This leads to students missing class to make up sleep, which they eventually will trade back to catch up in those classes. This causes already sleep-deprived students to stress out, unwind with a few beers after failing that test because of lack of preparation and miss even more sleep.
Kansas weather patterns. Sunshine, rain, cold, heat and snow dance through the days of weeks in random order, creating a perfect breeding ground for ornery strains of flus and colds, which in turn dance through the dazed and weak on campus. Immune systems are shot, and viruses are here.
After a half semester of this vicious circle, the body is wondering what the brain is doing to it. There's no time to recover, though, because here comes midterm time, which happens to fall — this year — in the middle of a season of alternating Kansas weather patterns.
"But it won't happen to me," some say
That's what I said, too.
I was wrong.
It happened on a Monday morning. When I reached up to hit snoop, I felt like someone had sandpapered my throat and inflated a balloon in
my head, which they were trying to pop by shoving a golf tee up each one of my nostrils.
I had to go to class, and I was so sick I didn't know if I could. But I wasn't sure whether I should mix the potion with the pills, and I wasn't sure whether the potion would make me pass out in class.
I had to go to the kitchen. Looking through the pile of medicine on my dresser, I found a half-empty box of Sudafed and a partial bottle of NyQuil. The top of the bottle was crusty, but that's not what made me consider not drinking it.
no way to get around it, I was sick.
"Why not? It could be interesting." I said to myself. That no idea.
And Thad to go to class.
Sitting there waiting for my 11:30 class, I observed the sea of yellow pullovers, wondering whether it was some high school popularity contest or whether everyone had just decided they liked the pullovers coincidentally at the same time.
neyed in the world. I'm the one.
By 10:30, the magic drugs were doing what they were supposed to. I was feeling good. Free of symptoms and completely messed up. I sat on Wescoe Beach for an hour and watched the world go by. And looking at life from an altered perception of reality is not that bad an experience.
The world can be interesting when viewed through NyQuil goggles. I couldn't stop laughing when my friend Al began a learned statement about the similarities of Hobbes', Locke's and Rousseau's states of nature.
I watched some women walk by with nips up turned — not caring to view the surroundings they thought they were too good for — followed closely by guys with nips turned down so they could better check out the stuck-up girls' posters.
Classes went fine that day, and though my head was in the clouds. I think I learned more than usual.
After showering, I swallowed two Sudafed, chasing them with two large gulps of NyQuil, and journeved into the world. The time was 10 a.m.
"But, dude, the intrinsic brutishness of Hobbes' natural man could only be called flawed if Locke's state of state of war is taken with a grain of salt. And Rousseau was sure..."
Where else but college can a fellow sophisticate begin an academic argument with, "But, but," and have confidence anyone would listen to the rest? College is beautiful.
College of Maryland
The rest of my week was spent in the same state, and I got more accomplished than I had in the previous three.
I guess it was pretty cool for a while to view the normalities of life through a slightly altered perception of reality and be sick, but I'd rather be well.
Burner is a Leon senior in journalism.
I spent a weekend earlier this month in Topeka at the Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values. The focus was to gather student leader
Faith and values forum motivates future leaders
As spring fever breaks and large portions of the student body migrate to The Crossing instead of to class, I urge you to remember a few things.
As a Christian attending the forum, it was easy for me to take the attitude, "Hey — I know about Jesus' life. Let's get to the rest of it."
from around the state to talk about leadership, values, goals and priorities. It was centered around the life of Jesus Christ as a leader.
Angie
Kuhn
opinion @ kanisan.com
But that's not what the forum was about, and I'd like to present a few of the ideas to you as they relate to student life.
Speakers at the forum said that Jesus Christ was one of the only religious leaders who still, thousands of years after his crucifixion, has followers who are willing to die for him. His words, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer still are remembered and memorized by people around the world.
As a graduating senior — as hopefully some of you are or will be soon — I find myself thinking, "What have I done here, or in my life thus far, that has made an impact?" I decided that I still have a lot to do at the university of Kansas.
On the subject of moving fast. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and State Rep. Susan Wagle had some insightful hints to share at the forum about motivation and moving forward. I spent a few moments with Brownback after his address.
He reminded me to live for now, with one eye on the future.
When I asked Brownback how he had been so successful in achieving his career goals, he explained that the more he trusted God, the more God trusted him. The less he trusted God, the less God trusted him.
It could have been a political line to tell me what I wanted to hear, but I'll choose to believe Brownback and think to myself how fortunate it is to have leaders like him.
Wagle seconded his idea, adding that you need to have faith in and argue for what you believe in. And you have to do something about it now. Be ready to be trusted, and make a difference.
tonging it as soon you call.
Ogilvy shared a story about a legislative clerk who was killed in an auto accident. When Ogilvy met with the clerk's widow, she urged him to go home right away and hug his wife and children, telling them how important they were. Family is an often forgotten priority.
Lloyd Ogilvy, chapain for the U.S. Senate, spoke at the Kansas State Prayer Breakfast about defining what was important and then doing it as soon as you could.
Figure out what you value and believe in it. Stand for it. Stay motivated in these last couple of months.
I hope someone will try to follow some of these great examples. Take a look at the truly great leaders and make a difference before you leave the University.
I know that I am not the only person at the University deciding where to go, what to do, what to study and how to make a difference. That's a priority right there — how to leave a mark.
Kuhn is an Overland Park senior in journalism and a Kansan managing editor.
Feedback
Students not victims of academic cruelty
I would agree with Clay McCuistion that in some classes at the University of Kansas the relationships between professors and students is not entirely amiable. However, McCuistion speaks in his March 15 column as if the students are entirely innocent victims of academic
oppression. Do they have any responsibilities at all?
Collaborative learning entails cooperation and motivation on the parts of teachers and students. Many teachers do not spring tests or quizzes unless this ideal cooperative atmosphere has disintegrated
Perhaps if there were more students who learned for the
—a disintegration often due to student apathy, late-night parties, and student hostility, not only to militaristic teachers.
oeneffits of their minds (an overly idealistic conception, I believe), teachers could embrace the idea of collaborative learning.
I was recently a student. I am now both a teacher and a student. I know both sides of the coin. This young man simply cannot fork all the blame onto professors. Sometimes, teachers just do what they can.
Susan Gatton Wichita graduate student