Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
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
Thursday, March 4, 1999
Editorials
Office hours help improve grades opportunities for future success
There is a simple way for students to make better grades and build future connections. Students should take advantage of instructors' office hours or make appointments to visit with them outside of class.
Instructors' access to students outside of regular classroom teaching also is essential to students' receiving the most out of their education.
Jeannette Johnson, assistant to the provost, said that the Faculty Code of Conduct did not specify requirements for office hours and that she was not aware of students' having problems accessing faculty.
Office hour policies are an academic decision set by the individual departments, and most teachers inform students of office hours at the beginning
Students, instructors are responsible for the benefit of out-of-class assistance.
of the semester, Johnson said.
Charles Himmelberg, chairman of the mathematics department, said in the mathematics department most instructors set aside three to five hours for students and were available for appointment at other times.
"As a general rule of thumb, faculty are recommended to be available amount of time that equals the number of credit hours that they are teaching." Himmelberg said.
Himmelberg said that complaints he had heard about teachers who were
not available, usually were resolved through scheduling an appointment.
If instructors are not available during their office hours, students should notify the department head.
Instructors enjoy out-of-class contact because it gives them a chance to know students better. Additionally, office hours offer students a chance to get advice in an area that they like or might want to go into.
A student who does not initiate contact with teachers outside of class whether they are in need of assistance
whether they are in need of assistance is wasting a valuable resource.
- is wasting a variable.
Instructors must continue to be available to students. In doing so, a mutually beneficial relationship is created that enhances the educational experience.
Katrina Hull for the editorial board
New York law may violate liberties
Despite the longevity of the problem, there has been no clear-cut solution to solve drunken driving. New York City believes it has found a possible solution, but possibly at the cost of some civil liberties.
recently, New York City implemented a plan to confiscate the car of anyone who is arrested for drunken driving. Any person found to have a blood alcohol level of more than the legal limit of .10 loses his or her car contingent upon further investigation.
Any strong initiative to combat drunken driving is a positive step. Too many people lose their lives every year because of drunk drivers. But is taking away a suspect's car really the answer?
Confiscating cars of drunken drivers is problematic because of pre-conviction action.
The key word to remember in this is suspect. The person has not been convicted of a crime but would not have a car to drive to work the next day. Regardless of the amount of evidence, a person in this country is innocent until proven guilty. The confiscation of the person's car follows merely an arrest and not a conviction.
There are several issues with this initiative. As stated, there is the problem of punishment prior to conviction. Also, taking a person's car often will hurt more than just the person
who was arrested. If a family is involved, it also will be inconvenienced. Another difficulty could arise when a person is driving a car that is not his own. This occurred the very first night this plan went into action. A man who was driving a relative's car was arrested for drunken driving and had the car confiscated.
This new initiative also does not include a zero-tolerance law. A man who was 18 years old, but whose blood-alcohol was below the legal limit would not have his car confiscated.
New York City should be applauded for taking radical measures to solve a large and dangerous problem. But, simply, a person is innocent until proven guilty and losing a car without conviction is not the act to commend.
Emily Haverkamp for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Ryan Koerner . . . . . . Editorial
Jeremy Doherty . . . Associate editorial
Aaron Marvin . . . News
Laura Roddy . . . Neues
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Aaron Knopf . . Online
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Sarah Hale . Campus
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"No dav is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap." —Carrie Snow
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.
Guest columns: Should be doublespaced 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 Staufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Ryan or Kerener or Jeremy Doherty at 864-4924.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
Ruling fuels new debate about death penalty law
Perspective
Recently, the white supremacist John William King was found guilty of the brutal killing of an African-American man and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. I think that
everyone would agree that if the death penalty is appropriate, this case is a great candidate.
However, many people are still skeptical about using the death penalty, and some are outright opposed. This tragic situation gives us a chance to talk about the death penalty, and to try to decide whether it is a good thing for our society.
There are several arguments used to support the death penalty. Many people
Robert K.
Funk
opinion@kansan.com
believe that capital punishment will serve as a deterrent to potential criminals. They think that by executing people, we will send a message to potential criminals that if they choose to act so reprehensibly, we will do the worst thing possible to them, we will take their life.
Also remember that our legal system, especially the appeals process, tends to move very slowly. For a punishment to be effective as a deterrent, it has to be perceived as immediate and certain. For all of these reasons, I don't think that the death penalty serves as an effective deterent.
I find this argument very unpersuasive. Many aspiring criminals think that they'll never get caught. They have an air of invincibility about them. In addition, many wouldn't care if they did get caught. When someone is at the point in life that he or she is capable of killing or raping, he or she can't be very happy with your life. It would take a lot of hate in the heart. To these people, taking their life is hardly a threat.
Another popular argument for the death penalty is the idea of justice, that the punishment should fit the crime. "An eye for an eye..." as the Bible says. According to Nietzsche, revenge is perhaps the most powerful motivator known to man. Revenge is a very strong argument indeed, but if you start quoting the Bible in a death penalty debate, you have to expect that someone is going to throw the
death of their misguided There is an argument against the death penalty that isn't necessarily linked to refuting one of the arguments for the death penalty. We are mortals, and sometimes we make mistakes. We can always let someone out of a life sentence, and we can always do other things to try to make things right with that person. We can never give a man's life back once we've taken it.
New Testament back in your face. What about Jesus, and his principle lesson of forgiveness? At this point, the argument turns dangerously religious, so I'll abandon it here.
In addition, many people are offended that our tax dollars should go to supporting these people for the rest of their lives. It is especially appalling that the taxes of a victim's family would theoretically go to support the person that killed their loved one.
Opponents of the death penalty would quickly refute this argument, saying (correctly) that it is much cheaper to put someone in prison for life than to fight through the appeals process and actually execute them.
This refutation isn't exactly on point. Even if it is more expensive, isn't it more appropriate that the tax dollars of the victim's family are spent on pursuing justice? On the flip side, should the killer's family have their money go toward fighting for the death of their misguided loved one?
Obviously this isn't as much of a concern in cases like King's, where the evidence is fairly overwhelming. However, it is a huge consideration in any case where the evidence isn't airtight. I think there is a lot to be said for the argument that we are mere mortals, and unless we are omnipotent, we shouldn't be playing God.
What then is the answer? My gut reaction supports Nietzsche's thinking. I think that lethal injection is too good for King. I think that he should lose his life in the same manner in which he took James Byrd's life. But then I think about King's family. Should we make them suffer more than they already have? What good would it do? Where does it end?
Nietzsche and Jesus are having a Celebrity Death Match in my head, and I'm tired of being the guest referee. I'm going to think about something else for a while.
Funk is a Scott City graduate student in business and law.
Caffeine gas, painkillers keys to KU's problems
W with the first signs of spring comes the usual mutters of irritation from the KU campus.
After a long and tiring winter, students and pro-
After a long and tiring wint fessors are ready to complain. Problems at the University are eagerly seized as signs of impending doom. Drastic solutions to solve them are presented.
This year, however, I'm concerned. KU denizens are rabid about diversity requirements, faculty salaries and Student Senate. But they're ignoring more subtle and pervasive issues.
Everyone has a good time.
Clay McCuistion opinion@kansan.com
I've written up a list of these problems, along with my solutions. Though incomplete, I hope they start a dialogue on how to make the University of Kansas a better place for all.
I know this sounds like a little dilemma; it sounds as if I'm being trivial. But looking at my fellow students in my 8:30 a.m. American Literature class convinced me sleer deprivation is a problem.
Tired Students
Do we hear administrators offering solutions to this problem? Are there heated debates about it on the opinion page? Unfortunately, no.
But there should be.
But that's should be done.
If the campus were alert and awake, think of how much more could be accomplished. Imagine the mental activity that could take place.
ment and safety in my Solution: Find some way to make caffeine into a gas, and pump it through the air ducts of classes that meet before noon. Students who sit too close to the vents might be a little jittery, but the rest of the class would be on its collective toes.
Credit Card Salesmen
Credit Card Car Insurance
Anyone who has walked through the Kansas Union during winter or down the sidewalks during summer knows about these people. They stand behind their tables, offering colorful T-shirts or tasty candy bars.
All you have to do, they say, is fill out a form. To actually receive a credit card, the company requires seven years of indentured servitude, but no one
reads the fine print that closely. No, people happily sign their freedom away, eager for a filshy shirt
My Solution: The predatory salesman should be outfitted with electric collars that give painful electronic shocks when they move outside a three-foot radius.
titudes.
True, it would be a bad experience for them, but credit card debt is a bad experience for students.
I think it would all balance out nicely.
Halovers Administrators and city officials are all a twitter about alcohol. New restrictions are being formulated, ad campaigns designed and bars closed.
These concerned citizens ignore a very real problem for students who drink. The students attend class, but pounding headaches, dry mouths and body aches diminish their attention spans. Hangovers rob us of valuable time and creativity.
My Solution: Some students will binge no matter what, but writing them off is silly. KU should buy a truckload of industrial-strength painkillers and make them available in restrooms across campus.
Hangovers
No such displays have appeared recently. What's the problem? Even the preacher who stood on the lawn last year of Stauffer-Flint and shouted names at longhaired students is staying away.
True, the billboards were disgusting, morally repugnant and hysterically exaggerated. They were kind of fun, though. Bored students could stand on the lawns and heckle.
My solution: Spread the word among right-wing Christian circles that the University is full of morally degenerate devil-worshipers. Assuming the evangelicals believe that already, tell them the devil-worship is worse than usual.
one cord connected within a
A Lack of Irritating Lawn Displays Last semester, the University was the astonished host to grotesque anti-abortion billboards. The campus could talk about nothing else for a good two weeks.
It doesn't matter whether the painkillers are addictive, either. Problem drinkers already are hooked on one controlled substance. What's another?
devil won't ship a book. Within minutes, the loud, irksome demonstrators would return. And finally, students might watch something other than Jerry Springer.
McCuistion is an El Dorado sophomore in pre-journalism.
Feedback
Guns, concealed or not, are dangerous
It is my intention to again make some observations about gun control. The opinion page of the University Daily Kansan has published various articles on this theme. The last had to do with concealed weapons. It is my contention that "concealed weapons" is a
It is my contention that "concealed weapons" is a smoke screen. All guns can be
dangerous, whether they are carried in the open or concealed. You think that if people obtain guns legally, it makes that much difference whether they are concealed or not. Obviously, the editorial board would have to agree that if criminals have guns, it makes no difference whether they are legal or not, or whether they are concealed. The propensity for their employment by criminals is still there. So what to
do about guns and violence Enforce the laws.
This is all we can do in a free society that offers wide civil liberties to everyone. If you could envision a society in which nobody was allowed guns, how could you prevent criminals from getting them? Although drugs are illegal, they are everywhere. The same would be true of guns.
John Garson Lawrence graduate student