UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorists represent the opinion of the Kanan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
April 14,1980
Skaters need balance
While other issues of municipal concern continue to stir up controversy, some city officials and downtown merchants agree on at least one recently issued issue. They all sidewalk roller skating looks like fun.
However, they also think downtown sidewalks, which are heavily used by shoppers and other pedestrians, may not be an appropriate place for exercising this free-wheeling form of fun.
Members of the Downtown Lawrence Association contend the skaters' activities on downtown streets are dangerous. Their contention is a valid one.
The issue was raised after an incident on Massachusetts Street about a week ago. According to the manager of the Royal College Shop, an elderly woman was knocked down by a backpacker in the same area. A fierce City Commission decided to have city staff look into the possible problems created by sidewalk skaters.
Mike Wildgen, assistant city manager, said the main problems were
Mass transit needs an aware president
with people coming out of recessed doorways and with children who got in the skaters' way. But there are other problems as well, such as unsteady skaters trying to cross streets to get from one sidewalk to another.
Several reasonable suggestions for solving the problems already have been offered by city officials as well as by downtown merchants. They include restricting sidewalk skaters to residential areas and parks and having doors during which sidewalk skating may be done downtown.
A decided amount of balance is needed to skate with the graceful ease onlookers admire. So, too, it is needed to protect the safety and rights of all participants in this solution, whether they prefer to walk or roll down the sidewalk.
The key to solving this problem to the satisfaction of all is balance. It would be unfair to completely ban skaters from downtown sidewalks because of the reckless actions of a few skaters. It would be foolish to take no action at all.
By JEFFERSON CHASE New York Times Special Features
DEPARTMENT. Com—All president candidates should but that is as far as it goes. They do not even bother to familiarize themselves with the field and so do not recognize any problem with the job. All federal funds can be spared from a federal budget produced under other priorities. After a career as an educator, they are more. The most able people are sought and considered for the Cabinet jobs—state, defense, treasury, labor and even energy —where positions point to government positions to go political second- and third-raters who do not have the standing or connections to be considered for anything
Are you aware that there are many commissaries, one of whom has more executive ability and experience than the entire board of directors of the government department?
BEFORE HE CAN GEN can work on the mass transit problem, however, a candidate and later the president must first know what the problem is. The following questions will aid the serious candidate in understanding problems preventing progress in mass transit.
But transportation is a far more important factor in the nation's daily life than energy. The current annual consumer expenditure of $420 billion—one-quarter of the entire gross national product and one-third of all U.S. imports—deserves far greater president Liberate, especially in mass transit, an area in which can so saintly offer our energy crisis.
Are you aware that there is no local mass-transit board in the entire United States that has on it a majority of regular daily users of those mass-transit facilities and that, in fact, most mass-transit boards do not even have one regular daily user of mass-transit as a member?
WHEN LOCAL MASS-TRANSIT policy — where access to transportation policy is dominated, usually use mass transit who do not use mass transit, do you really expect any improvement to result from these policies?
Are you aware that there is precedent in federal law for local control by users of
mass transit that federal health planning funds, for example, may not be granted unless the local health planning board has a mandate the providers rather than providers of health care?
As a question of simple justice, who has a master's system than the regular daily mares themselves? The question is not whether anyone else benefits but rather who has the master's system.
WHEN TRANSIT RIDERS are consistently excluded from local transit boards, the risk of tickets and this is approved by federal government. They presumably such undemocratic discrimination against that has an owner interest. Just who might that be? Who has a greater right—or even an equal right—to set transit policy than the regular daily users?
As president, will you immediately instruct your secretary of transportation to implement departmental rule requiring that there be a two-way fideal regular daily users of mass transit on local planning and operating boards as a means of receiving any federal transportation funds?
AS PRESIDENT, you will appoint as the Director of the Urban Mass Transportation department of the local administrators, people who before their appointment were regular daily users of mass transit as their principal means of transit across their homes and places of employment.
As president, you will require that at least an Urban Mass Transit Administration job be held in the Department of Transportation employees (who have access to mass transit, must use mass transit as their primary mode of to and from the government job?)
It should be clear that all of these questions are essentially rhetorical—and that is what is so frustrating to those of us who are not ready to accept candidates refuse to face even these simple rhetorical questions, all we can expect is more rhetorical statements instead of the action needed to reverse the half century of environmentalism to the brink of energy and environmental scarcity.
Jefferson Chase is vice president of the North East Transportation Coalition, a citizen's group of transit users.
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Free speech needs more attention
Freedom of speech at the University or Kansas can easily be compared to a paterodactyl—both have been labeled "extinct." To be sure, measuring the prevalence or non-prevalence of freedom of speech is a difficult task when there is no precedent for such measures. Remains remain. KUF's freedom of speech is one of the most perplexing issues facing KU.
KU certainly had its share of student activism; the Kansas Union was burned, gunshots were heard near Jayhawk Boulevard. Stable protests were frequent occurrences.
But since the early 1970s, the student activists, once widespread on college campuses, have been replaced by an even
While little controversy has been stirred nationwide concerning freedom of speech, critics have called for the officials for the past two years. For most universities, freedom of speech is a by-gone issue of the Vietnam era. During this time, it has become an issue of speech rights in their protest of the war.
david lewis
COLUMNIST
larger group of apathetic students, concerned only with career objectives. Once again, KU was no exception. From 1793 to 1798, except for demonstrations by Iranian students, KU students did not stage a major protest. But while other universities speech has suddenly resurfaced at the University of Kansas.
THIS IS NOT to say that apathetic KU students are a thing of the past. In fact, they have been a thing of the past. However, a tiny minority of students have resurrected the issue of freedom of speech, often to the irre KU officials. The minority of students who graduate students left over from the Vietnam War.
This minority has rallied around certain issues because, quite frankly, they were bored. The past seven years have been ultra-boring ones compared to the riotus, and many students decided to stir up some controversies and their efforts were a smashing success.
Protests became more commonplace. More students began to lash out at the administration. The students knew how to get the administration to respond—bad public relations. Any adverse publicity, whether by demonstration, convinced the administration to action. And veteran students used the magic formula—the one they learned years ago.
IF ONE BELIEVED a student rights activist, KU administrators were members of the Gestapo in disguise and their only goal was to completely suppress dissident students. The university was the Mecca of freedom of speech and its students were one big, happy family. Ac
tually, KU is something in-between-far in between.
In assessing the health of KU's freedom of speech, the best place to start would be a report from KU's Blue Ribbon committee on freedom of speech. The University Senate formed the committee in September to examine issues related to freedom of speech.
The report rightfully concluded that more attention needed to be devoted to freedom of speech. Unfortunately, KU officials did not know what kind of incidents occurred. For example, student rights activist Ron Kuby was arrested on charges of interfering with the duties of a police officer after he displayed a banner at KU's memorial last May. Not once was Kubya meeting.
If Chancellor Archie R. Dykes approves the report, the banner policy will not be abused to such extremes in the future.
THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED that KU's banner policy be replaced by a more specific one. The obscure banner policy was used to overrule a suit filed by the two officials, alleging that KU officials abused KUy's rights to freedom of speech.
But the presence of the Blue Ribbon committee was far more important than any recommendation. In forming the committee, KU recognized that freedom of speech was an important issue that could prevent the fact that freedom of speech is an issue is indeed a healthy sign. After all, KU is involved the merit of its own policies.
Nevertheless, KU officials remain public relations-oriented to a ridiculous extreme. They are also demanding that students' freedom of speech rights. When the Union was burned, the Legislature considered KU a bolt of gyrpses, trumps Republicans, and that appropriations to KU reflected that belief.
The DYKEKS ADMINISTRATION has been wondrous in building up KU's stature. The administration has turned KU around in the last two months, and reputation is very important. However, KU
officials must learn that a university is a place where ideas are exchanged.
Sometimes students will demonstrate.
Sometimes students will distribute
literature. Sometimes students will put up
a poster and should not and cannot forever be prevented.
Maybe KU officials can suppress dissident students for a while. But considering the sad state of affairs in the Middle East, who can deny that another Vietnam could be around the corner? And if KU students distanceence once again will be rampant.
In the Vietnam era, KU was not prepared for the heated reactions of its student KU. It also lacked the press and suffered the consequences. Now KU officials have a chance to prepay for the reaction.
The Blue Ribbon committee was a definite KU officer, and the KU official will not stop there. Otherwise, dissident students in a time of crisis may again engage the campus. And this time, they are to be prosecuted.
BGS degree won't deprive students
To the Editor:
I am grateful to David Lewis and the newspaper he serves for providing me with opinions and points of view that I might benefit from. We would be nice if that student at the University of Kansas would, under the proposed BGS degree, be deprived of the opportunity to take courses they "really wanted to take." Lewis has never been an academic or other faculty members and student representatives who make up the College Assembly are "KU officials." Lewis has, by characterizing the proposed degree course, a "trend of specialization," revolutionized my conception of the term "liberal education." By implication, Lewis has always made it possible for KU students to avoid this "trend of specialization."
No, Lewis, the proposed BGS will not prevent students from taking the classes they really wanted to take. I doubt very
KANSAN letters
much that many of my colleagues consider themselves to be college officials; I will let the student representatives speak for me, and they will faculty members and students believed when the BGS degree was introduced, that it would permit specialized training in a way not otherwise provided for within the university. The versely, many colleges and students alike believe that one of the purposes of all general degree requirements is to provide precisely non-specialized breadth to a college institution provided by most major programs.
Lewis gives many reasons why students choose the RSE lesson: it does not mention that they do not have a degree, nor does degree not accept a positive decision, but it does; more out of a desire to avoid other problems than out of the excitement of a pre-planned, sensible curriculum that is not possible without a degree.
Finally, Lewis suggests that the College Assembly will approve the BGS degree changes. I certainly hope that the assembly will NOT approve these changes without considering whether they will only further underpin the vitality of the current AB program.
My mind is not completely made up on this matter, but each day I identify more work that needs to be completed colleagues that the BGS degree ought to be granted without any degree requirements or requirements.
and, perhaps, the maintenance of a GPA of 3.3. In such a way, future employers and admissions committees will know that BGS courses are likely to those courses at KU that they wanted to.
Henry F. Fullenwider
Associate professor of German
No free expression at Rumsfeld lecture To the Editor.
I would like to thank the gentlemen in the leisure suit and jackboots at the lecture by Donald Rumfield who selflessly protected me from those unprovocative signs regardless of their content. Part of the credit must go to our committee, as did all the policemen the policemen are acting. Thanks Archie.
Brian J. Shultz
Hutchinson sonhomore
Discussion needed to calm nuclear fears To the Editor:
The accident at Three Mile Island is not over yet! Many utility and government officials are worried that the radioactive materials in the containment at Unit 2 could be leaked into our equipment that is being used to keep the core cool is in danger of breaking down.
The events of this past year have caused a general distrust of officials at the airport and even灾情 to disbelief in formally accepted sources of information such as Three Mile Island.
Overriding all of the distrust is a fear manifested on the part of the people of central Pennsylvania and myself, because I have been asked by many that the worst may still come during the Unit 2 cleanup operation. The manifestation of this fear includes a middled-house fire in a suburban automobile over anyone who tries to vex krypton from the containment building. Another such incident against anyone who may try to release any more radiation into the atmosphere around Three Mile Island. Local officials are seeing reports of distinct suspectility in the Harriburg area.
The Wolf Creek Reconversion Project will be holding a vigil in Burlington in April. We will remember them, and we will safeguard, whether it is needed or whether future generations will curse our act of leaving radioactive wastes for them to deal with. We are asking you to consider anything about the use of nuclear power.
When an eight-year-old child in Middletown, Pa., said to his mother after the
accident, "Mom, if you're going to die, I want to go with you," the time to argue the facts has passed. People are frightened of the odds that advocate says that the best thing that could have happened at Three Mile Island would have been a melt down so they would not need to face the same risk. They are stupid for not knowing all of the facts about the operation of a nuclear power plant—which would make us all nuclear bombers —that feel into distrust and possible violence.
We are asking the citizens of Coffee County and of Kansas to sit on the parking lot at Fourth and Neosho, and reflect in a meeting on non-violence, upon what is happening today. We want to power plants. We ask people to talk with us about how they feel, not in an attempt to prove any points, but so that we may regain confidence that we need to be able to survive in the future.
When children as well as aunts are having screaming nightmares about Three Mile Island; when people are thinking of killing others who disagree with them about nuclear power, the time has come when we should sit down and with a lot of quiet conversation and conversation become trusting, friendly and hopeful Kanasa once again.
Pat Slick
Lawrence graduate student
Library loan policy unchanged at Marvin To the Fulkers
Regarding the letter by Kendall Simmons, I find it appropriate that this response was printed on April Fools' Day. I do admit, I have not made several points. I do have limited experience which to judge the incompetence of Watson's staff. My only bad experiences there have been limited to: a) shuffling back and forth with someone else; b) to accept my request for renewal of my extended loan privileges; and b) to convince someone (anyone!) to catalogue a geological book which had been acquired from a museum; c) to draw the card; Both efforts proved fruitless.
I also must acknowledge that Watson's ability to memorize facts fortunately, the materials that I need for my research are in Marvin Library, which, to say the least, has not yet reached me.
And, despite what Simmons says, the loan policy posted in Marvin reads as towels with regards to Underegulators and Others (those without extended loan privileges). Then, in an email sent on Thursday, one day, Unbound Journals .. one day, Survey Journals (must say Geological
Survey somewhere in the title) 4-weeks" be may ignorant of any "increase in research" to that extent I assured that this is not because of a "minimum of research" on my part. It is because constant hashes and arguments are used as tools by the worker that I need a bound journal for more than one day. Maybe someone at Watson University does the arches of the new policy if indeed there is one.
With regards to the renewal of materials, the policy at Marvin is as follows: the students will be given access to be renewed to the main desk at Marvin for the time renewal is sought. Concerning the "countless additional numbers of students" in our classes, privileges, I would submit that there are not very many Master's students with 30 or more credits (hence "countless") and even those who were, really is stupid enough to believe in the possibility of receiving credits does not need to use library materials in their research or that such conferences when 30 credits have been earned.
Finally, I would like to address the issue of my spreading 'misinformation and bad feelings about the KU libraries.' In the past we had to graduate departments in hopes of reversing the Libraries' extended loan policy. I received one anonymous response which I would like to share. The message was that if you have "we are already blessed with the worst library system in the U.S., why compound the problem by giving extended loan privileges to graduate students?" Appreciated is your thoughtful response to her doubts about the KU Library System.
Ronald R. McDowell
Boscobel, Wis.. graduate student
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