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Wednesday February 17,1999
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Vol. 109·No.96
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Kenny Wilk, Kansas representative, talks with Kevin Yoder, student body president, left, and Korb Maxwell. Student Legislative Awareness Board legislative director. Yoder and Maxwell spent the day at the state capitol lobbying for increased faculty salaries and various other university fund increases. Photo by Ruben Noguera/KANSAN
(USPS 650-640)
Students lobby state capitol for financial aid increase
Student lobbyists at the state capitol yesterday received positive reactions to their requests for a $2 million increase in student financial aid but were disappointed by state legislators' hesitance in endorsing a 7.6 percent increase in faculty salaries.
Heather Yates, Student Legislative Awareness Board lobbying coordinator, said student senators and SLAB representatives were not able to speak to all of the state legislators they wanted to because the Kansas House of Representatives was in session. However, she said the meetings they attended still were productive.
"At least we got our say in," Yates said. "We had a chance to speak out, and they heard us. Now the prominent leadership in the House and the Senate knows the issues and where we stand."
Yates said that student lobbyists probably would end up settling for a lower increase in faculty salaries but that legislators paid a lot of attention to increasing financial aid.
"It makes it real when a legislator has a bunch of students in their office who are on the other end of the process," she said.
Erin Simpson, SLAB research director, said student lobbyists tried to convince legislators that universities deserved a significant portion of state funds.
"We're requesting a lot of money, so it's a hard sell," she said. "We're competing with a lot of other issues such as welfare and tax cuts." Kevin Yoder, student body president and SLAB chief lobbyist, said legislators understood the importance of financing higher education. He said he thought the key issue was to keep tuition affordable.
"It if the legislature increases funding, it is very realistic that there will not be a tuition increase except for inflation," Yoder said.
Representative Troy Findley, D-Lawrence, said he supported faculty salary and financial aid increases. But he said the vote would
Controversy surrounds start of Heidegger lecture series
See FACULTY on page 3A
By Chris Hopkins
Konson staff writer
Shakespeare wrote in *Romeo and Juliet* that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Walter Johnson, professor of East Asian languages and culture, however, said the Heidegger Lecture Series would smell a whole lot sweeter with a new namesake.
"I don't object to what people choose to teach, but I object to what Heijdeger was and to what he did," Johnson said.
He said that by naming the lecture series after Martin Heidegger, a Nazi party member from 1932 to 1945, the philosophy department was celebrating him.
A. C. Genova, chairman of the philosophy department, said the lecture simply would address Heidegger's philosophical thought.
"This business of a celebration, it's nutty," he said.
Johnson, who teaches a class in Chinese thought for both his department and the department of philosophy, said naming an event after someone usually meant honoring them.
Genova said he that had heard Johnson's argument had been much harsher and that Johnson might be backpedaling.
"To name a lecture after Martin Heidegger, as you would Eisenhower or Truman, is an insult to everyone," Johnson said.
"I'm sorry, but I think it's getting to the point now that it's just a matter of semantics." Genova said.
Johnson denied that he wanted to end the lectures and said that changing the name had been his goal from the beginning.
The lecture series is tied into a graduate-level philosophy class called Heidegger and the Greeks.
The first lecture will be presented by John Haugeland, a professor of philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh, on March 10. Advertisements displaying the controversial name began going up on campus recently.
Richard Buck, a doctoral candidate in philosophy, said the lecture series had been around since he had arrived at the University of Kansas eight years ago. He said because the subject was different every year, the department had to tell the campus what it's about.
He said because he was Jewish and a member of the Board of Directors for the KU Hillel Foundation, he could not ignore what Heidegger did, but at the same time he recognized his importance.
"This is not in honor of him or named after him," Buck said.
"There's really no way to justify eliminating him from the curriculum." Buck said.
Johnson said he thought that honoring Heidegger's contributions to philosophy, while at the same time decrying his Nazism, was a part of a continuing trend of compartmentalizing World War II.
Trying to separate the small amount of good from the great amount of evil of the Nazi government in Germany only serves to mask the evils, Johnson said. He said it worked the same way with each individual Nazi.
Johnson said that while he personally found Heidegger despicable, he wouldn't try to get teachers to change their curriculum to remove him. He said the only change he desired was for the name of the speeches to be changed.
Genova said he didn't think that there was another name that would work for the lecture series.
Johnson said if the University would choose not to attach a name to the lecture series at all, that would be fine with him.
"If that's his suggestion, I would ask him what he would call it if it's on Heidegger," he said. "What would you name it other than what it is?"
Kurdish rebel capture triggers hostage seizures
By Dan Curry
Kansan staff writer
Kurdis across Europe seized Greek embassies and took hostages yesterday after Turkish officials captured Abdullah Ocalan, a Kurdish rebel who led a 14-year guerrilla war for Kurdish autonomy from Turkey.
After Ocaian's capture, Turkish officials claimed victory against the rebel movement. The conflict has left 37,000 people dead and relations with neighboring countries tense.
"It a bad situation," said Elena Dollopis, a recent KU graduate from Macedonia, Greece. "I don't know how this will develop later. I honestly don't know."
Ocalan is being held on the tiny island of Imrali in the Marmara Sea, according to Turkey's private ATV television.
Kurds, however, enraged by the arrest of Ocalan, accused Greece of allowing Ocalan to be taken out of hiding from the Greek Embassy in Kenya and transported to Turkey.
The Kurds make up 20 percent of Turkey's population.
Kurdish protesters reacted by occupying Greek embassies and consulates in at least 21 European cities, as well as a consulate in Vancouver, Canada. In the Hague, Netherlands, the occupation of the Greek ambassador's residence finished and all three hostages were released unharmed early today.
In Istanbul, about 1,000 Kurds set cars on fire in a Kurdish neighborhood.
Greece said it it was not involved in Ocalan's capture, saying Ocalan left the emboly voluntary.
However, lawyers working for Ocalan said he was dragged from the compound by Kenyan
security agents and forced to board a plane to Turkey.
In Washington,
White House
spokesman Joe Lock-
hart said Ocalan's
arrest was a blow
against terrorism
but denied hints
by Greece's foreign minister that
the United States
could have been
involved in Ocalan's
capture.
Dollopis said trouble among Greeks, Kurds and Turks was nothing new.
"Things happen every sin-
Tugberk Emirzade, Lefkosha, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus senior, said he viewed Turkey's custody of Ocalan as a relief from a marauding terrorist.
"I was really glad to hear that he was finally caught," Emirzade said. "At least now they can stop him from controlling his terrorist groups. For many years he has been attacking villages, tourist buses and touristic places just to give Turkey a bad reputation."
"Things happen every single day at the border at Greece and Turkey, and nobody knows about it." Dollopis said. "Every time it gets worse. It's been for centuries now, and they won't leave us alone."
Husey in Sevay, Minarelikiy, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus graduate student, agreed
that Ocalan's capture was fortunate.
"I think it's a definitely a positive development. The reason is that he leads a terrorist organization."
Although Sevay didn't condone the way the Kurds had been treated in Turkey, he did not think terrorism was justified.
Furthermore, Turkey is made up of many different types of people, Sevay said. If every group of people revolted from Turkey, there would be no point in having a country.
"The solution is really more economic than political." he said.
Kurds need to be given better opportunities to improve their lives such as better educational services, Sevay said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Former congressmen call for more cooperation
By Kristi Reimer
Kansan staff writer
After a round of handshakes and smiles, two former members of Congress told student political groups yesterday that today's representatives were in danger of losing touch with each other and with average people.
"The personal side of Congress is really important," former Rep. Lou Frey, R.Fla., said to about 15 members of KU Young Democrats and College Republicans at the Kansas Union. "But now they have to schedule seminars to get members to talk to each other."
Frey and former Rep. Jim Lloyd, D-Callif, are visiting the University of Kansas this week to offer their expertise in political science classes and discuss the merits of public service with students. They served in Congress in the 1970s.
In an informal question-and-answer session with the Young Democrats and College Republicans, Frey and Lloyd discussed the problems of partisanship, term limits and soft money.
Frey and Lloyd agreed that the camaraderie of Congress, which crossed party lines in the '70s, was disappearing. Frey, a Republican, said he used to play racquetball with the Democratic chairman of an influential committee.
"If I introduced a bill, at least he'd give me a hearing before he killed it," Frev said.
Frey and Lloyd said part of the reason that representatives had less time for friendship and respect was the
push for term limits, which some states have imposed.
"Soft money totally eliminates the impact of John Q. Citizen," Lloyd said.
"They come in on a mission, and it's a suicide mission if they're right or left of the center." Frey said.
The former congressmen also expressed concern about the role of soft money, funds from corporations and organizations that skirt campaign spending limits, in political campaigns.
Both Frey and Lloyd also said contact with their constituents was a major part of their jobs. Frey used to mail letters and cookbooks to people in his district on special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Lloyd made it a rule to answer mail immediately.
Burdett Loomis, interim director of the Dole Institute for Public Service and Public Policy, said prioritizing that kind of contact was a dying tradition.
"I defy you to find someone in your districts who does what these two have done." Loomis said to the students. "Vince Snowbarger did not work hard enough at this. He did either of those things, he might still be in office."
Ward Cook, Mission Hills senior and chairman of the College Republicans, said he was interested in Frey and Lloyd's comments because they were no longer in Congress.
"To often we hear the rhetoric and hogwash," he said. "I wanted to hear an honest opinion of how Congress really is."