Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Ann Premer, Editor
Gerry Doyle, Managing editor
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Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Thursday, February 11, 1999
The Chicago Tribune
Editorials
Ignition interlock system needed to impede repeat DUI offenses
The Kansas House of Representatives is reviewing a bill that would change the consequences and rehabilitation of drivers who receive multiple DUIs. The implementation of ignition interlock devices as consequences for repeat offenders of drunk driving is necessary in Kansas.
An ignition interlock device is a machine that measures the blood alcohol level of the driver. Before a person convicted of more than two DUIs can operate their automobile, they must blow into the device. If the machine detects alcohol, the car will not start. The device also can be adjusted so that the car only will start during certain hours of the day, such as when the person convicted of a DUI needs transportation to go to work.
If someone already has been convicted of driving under the influence while his license is under suspension,
New bill would monitor driving privileges after second drunk driving conviction.
he would have an extended suspension and then one year of driving with an ignition interlock device. If someone has been arrested for more than two DUIs, he also would drive for one year with the ignition interlock device in the car after one year of suspended driving privileges.
State politicians are grappling with the fact that those who already have been convicted of multiple DUIs are still driving, often after drinking. The ignition interlock device acts as a preventive measure against accidents caused by drunk driving.
The device also works as a form of rehabilitation. For drivers who do
not understand the ramifications of driving drunk even after being convicted, the device acts as a watchdog, literally restricting the driver from repeating criminal actions.
The ignition interlock device would not be used for citizens receiving only one DUI. They will continue to receive a suspended license and a fine. The device is aimed at the driver who has repeated DUIs. The driver's license will remain revoked until he or she has shown proof that the ignition interlock device has been correctly installed in his or her vehicle.
Drunk driving continues to be a significant problem in Kansas, as does the number of repeat offenders who continue to drive under the influence. The Legislature's implementation of the ignition interlock device as part of the punishment for driving under the influence would be beneficial to every driver and passenger on the road.
Kathryn Jensen for the editorial board
Draft of policy offers due protection
The Electronic Media Subcommittee of Student Senate is on the right track toward enhancing the protection of electronically published information by students, staff and the University of Kansas with its draft of an Electronic Media Policy.
If the policy is enacted, all University electronic publications would be required to follow the guidelines that pertain to all forms of published information. This would apply copyright and trademark laws to electronic publishing at the University.
The policy would force Web page developers to obtain permission to publish the information, graphics or photographs on their pages if someone else owns the copyright. The enforcement of this policy would monitor not only students who may publish non-permissible information on their Web pages, but would protect the University from legal threats.
Suggestions of Electronic Media Subcommitee are worthy of University support.
The subcommittee was formed after an incident involving Academic Computing Services and the Kansas University Campus Internet Association in which the University tried to force the association into removing a link from its site to the Templin Revolution home page.
Although the University had not taken measures to develop an electronic media policy before last semester, it was a decision better made late than never.
The incident was resolved, and the subcommittee was formed to keep future problems from occurring.
Without the ability to check every student's Web page, the University has provided this policy to protect us from committing network offenses. With the policy now complete, the University should take the subcommittees recommendations seriously.
Kansan staff
Ryan Koerner ... Editorial
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you're at it."
—Horace Greeley
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ixty-five of the University of Kansas' budding leaders met for LeaderShape, a leadership camp stressing integrity, during the week of Jan. 10-15. Through what I
Perspective
can only assume a clerical error, I was selected to attend with 64 other really involved people.
Leadership camp opens writer's eyes, tear ducts
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I knew what leadership camps were all about; smiling people and false pledges of Nick's belonging to the group. I didn't want any of that.
Nick
Bartkoski
opinion@kansan.com
Before I left, one of my friends reminded me to keep up my cynicism against the onslaught of false positivity. I hate to admit it, but he was wrong.
Day One
I began the LeaderShape experience by turning to my seatmate on the bus and asking if it was too late to bail. The trip had just started, so the answer was ves, but I had to hope.
My behavior when I meet new people is a very high-octane, energetic introduction to the "Nick experience." I'm somewhat obnoxious and not serious at all, but I try to be entertaining. Still, one of my small group members said later that it left a bad taste in her mouth.
Like every leadership camp, we were broken down into small groups of about a dozen. Our first task was to come up with a group name, which ended up being Future Leadership People or FLP. However, for just a minute, we were almost called SDFOSSSFCT FLPLWQTQF, or Supe-Dupa-Fly-One-Stop-Short-of-Siberia-Freezing-Cold-and-Tired Future Leadership People, Leadershape Wing of the Flying Elvi. This was a total amalgamation of every idea we brainstormed and showed that my group was just a bit wacky.
That night the people in our cabin played an incredibly intense game of spoons. At least one player was accused of unfairly throwing elbows. Another stood up after being eliminated and cried out an explosive.
Dav Two
I talked to people about a lot of really interesting things. It was incredible. I met more people in KU's greek system in one week than I had in three and a half years at the University. I'd like to think that everyone came out with new understandings.
This was a terrible day for me. My high-energy front on Day One exhausted me, so I was emotionally drained.
I also tried to explain to someone that the final night was "cry night." This prompted a large discussion about whether REAL men cry. I found out that I was the only one that believed they didn't, even if I had cried in the past. Still, I swore that there was no way they would catch me crying.
I felt like crap that night. I already felt drained and pretty paranoid. I figured everyone was just humming me until they could destroy me because I assumed that I was disliked. The lowest blow came when we were supposed to have a face-to-face discussion with someone totally different from us. Of course, the person who decided that I was her antithesis was a girl to whom I was attracted. Plus, in the process of talking, I accidentally shared one of my really embarrassing stories from grade school. I NEVER tell those because the moral of those stories is that I was the fat kid no one liked.
After all of that, I went to bed early. I was pretty certain I never wanted to deal with humanity again.
My plan for this day was to avoid people in the hopes I wouldn't upset anyone. It was tough, though. People were trying constantly to engage me in conversation.
I'm not sure how impressive that was I mean, we were all leaders, responsible for reaching
Day Three
out to other people, but they at least chipped the fresh wall I was constructing for myself.
For the first time in my life, I felt like a leader. All the participants were broken into four smaller groups, and we were told to build the largest possible balloon tower with all towers connected. Originally the plan was to build four competitive towers and connect them at the end. I came up with the brainstorm of pooling our efforts for one big tower (it would be tall, and totally connected) and then sold it to the group. The most shocking moment for me was when suddenly the room got quiet while I was trying to convince a group. I got quiet too, and then I was told that the silence was for me to talk. That was a very powerful moment for me.
Dav Four
While some guys were talking in my cabin that night, I made one of my off-the-cuff remarks about how everyone hated me. That comment sparked the group to psychoanalyze me. It made a big impact. The most important thing I learned was that I wasn't the only person who felt alone in the world. Everyone feels that way at times.
We finished the day in our small groups, telling how we felt about each member, I may never forget all of the things I was told. They were some of the most thoughtful and loving things I've heard. There were a lot of common themes: Nick's a funny guy, we enjoy Nick's presence, Nick should give himself more credit. Things I've heard a billion times. But this time, it stuck.
Dav Five
Every other time I've been paid a compliment I made fun of myself, the compliment or the giver, and often all three. This time, I sat and listened.
These people actually cared for me. I figured I would never find a group to which I would feel as close as my family, but those guys ruled.
We sat and talked about what we meant to one another until about 4:30 in the morning.
Day Six
I cried.
This was still an emotional day. We had been writing in journals since day one. On that day, one of the questions in this journal was "How will I maintain energy and balance when I return home?" As I started to think about that question, I realized how important my group was. It hit me hard that I was going to leave them soon, and then I did something I wasn't expecting.
I tried my hardest to hold back, but when my tears finally broke through, it was hard to hold them back. These people that I loved like my family were going home, and although these homes were all around the KU campus, I felt like they were going to be a million miles away from me. I thought I would never see them again.
When I arrived, I had thought I had nothing in common with these people. We came from all sorts of different organizations with a whole lot of differences, and we left from there a family.
I don't know how I'll interact with this group now. Maybe we'll stay in contact forever, maybe I'll see one of them in passing and chat, maybe we won't ever talk again, but for that week, we were a unified whole. We lived and breathed as a group, genuinely loved one another and made some bonds that hopefully will never be broken.
Although I was expecting people to merely humor me, I found that a lot of people knew of me and enjoyed my work on the Kansas. Not only that, but these people seemed to genuinely think I was funny, and these were attractive women to boot. It was just like a Nick Bartkoski fantasy camp.
It would be nice to think the real world could work that way.
Bartkosci is a Basehor senior in journalism and English. Check out the UDKI, www.kansan.com, for more about his Leader Shape experience.
Guest columnist brings perfect view
I just wanted to say guest columnist William M. Tuttle Jr., was the most sound view I have read on the diversity requirement. As The University of Kansas enters the new millennium it is important that the University adds the cultural diversity requirement. Without this requirement, I feel this academic institution would not prepare future students for the real world.
Feedback
America is a country that is made up of many different cultures and within these rich cultures exist voices of our past and future. To not require students to learn this is to say all minorities are invisible and it really doesn't matter what you do after you leave the University. What is sad is that I'm surrounded every day by college-educated students
Jessica Gonzales Palm Springs, Calif., senior
Diversity proposal deserved parody
A course in cultural diversity would at least give students an eye-opening look that they probably would not have seen before. It is really disgusting to me to think that many view this requirement as a let's-get-whitie scheme because it is not about the minority against the Caucasian. It is about education and to be educated you must look at the world from more than one view and this requirement would allow this to occur.
The notion that the diversity requirement is above
who are completely blind to reality — the reality that not everyone sees America as justified by their past or current actions.
levity is absurd. I believe Professor Don Marquis' parody in the Feb. 2. Kansan was justified and needed.
No cause is above criticism,
and parody is one of the oldest forms of criticism known to man.
To believe that the diversity requirement stands on a moral foundation that is beyond reproach is to concede that it has no foundation.
Those who find no flaw with their thoughts are those who are not thinking at all. Those who fear criticism for their beliefs are those whose beliefs need to be criticized the most. The diversity requirement is politically correct garbage, and the instant we allow the morally sanctimonious to dictate our education is the instant our education becomes worthless.
Michael Bannen Lawrence senior