UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of February 26,1980 Remove fire hazards Spring is coming and a winter weathered fence could use a fresh coat of paint for the sake of appearance. But several posts of the fence are covered with drying mold, the whole thing anyway. The paint brush hangs untouched in the garage. A car needs a few repairs but it still runs well enough to get from place to place and its owner plans to trade it in. The car continues to corrode. It is a common problem—not wanting to put the time and money into doing patchwork repairs on something that is long overdue to be replaced or renovated anyway. But when those postponed improvements endanger lives, time and money must be pushed down the list of priorities. Last week five state fire inspectors arrived at the University of Kansas to begin a two-week inspection of about 150 buildings on campus. The inspection concentrated only on those buildings occupied by students. Until last Thursday no major violations had been discovered. However, minor violations included inadequate fire extinguishing equipment in the building systems in Bailey and Dyche halls and the Military science anew building. If these are minor violations, one must wonder what constitutes a major violation. The answers lie in Marvin Hall, the jewelry and silversmithing studio in Broadcasting Hall and the top-observatory of Lindley Hall. In Marvin, inspectors found inadequate fire escapes, no fire alarm system, no exit or emergency lighting and open stairways. In the studio, torches and other heating equipment were installed in the ceiling. And in Lindley, a four-foot wide streetway is the only exit leading from the observatory. Stan Nichols, one of the fire inspectors, said that correction of the violations in Marvin had been postponed for the last few years because of the massive renovation project that will start on the building this summer. Of the studio he said, "The building is old and in bad shape. It's been neglected over the years." These buildings must be made safe for student and faculty use now. Surely the folly of waiting to correct fire damage will not happen as frequently as laterly observes as the exploters. One uncontainable spark could eliminate the patchwork repair problem. But ashes are impossible to renovate—or resuscitate. Medical scholarships worth the investment State Sen. Mike Johnson, D-Parsons must be an impatient man. He seems to like to be quiet when he asks about the results don't appear quickly enough, Johnson begins to kick his belly. Johnston's latest grevieuse is against the Kansas medical scholarship program. The program, begun in 1978, pays medical students a $2500 per year who promise to practice medicine in Kansas. There are two options in the program. A student can agree to practice in a medically approved school, or he can pay full payment of his tuition and $50 a month expenses. Or, the student can agree to work in any area of Kansas other than Johnson, Omaha, Douglas County, counties and receive only his tuition. The scholarship program has 500 students and budgeted for more than $3 million last year. Johnston has claimed that the program is too expensive and that the state should be able to limit the number of scholarships kate COLUMNIST pound awarded. The program, he has said, has not accomplished its goal of supplying the state with more doctors, and it does not seem likely that it will. LAST WEEK, Johnston supported a bill that would have the state make limited appropriations for the program, thus allowing the number of scholarships awarded. Johnston also introduced a bill that would raise the interest rate from 10 to 25 percent and allow students to opt for mentorship and opt to pay back the scholarship. Under the current program, students who decide not to practice in Kansas may receive an interest loan in the form of a 10 percent loan load. Johnson has been too quick to judge the scholarship program. She is secretary to the chancellor in Senate hearings on the bill, the program needs to run at least four more years. IN FOUR YEARS, the first two medical school classes that received the scholarships will be finishing their internships and will graduate from college. Kansas or paying back the tuition. Only then, Sen. Johnston, will we be able to arrange for these scholarships and disadvantages of the program. Although raising the interest rate in view of inflation would be a reasonable move, any other changes in the program could be detrimental and would definitely be premature. The medical scholarship program may have been one of the smartest, most beneficial actions ever taken by the Kansas City area and western Kansas, has been medically under served for too long. In some areas of the state, the nearest doctor may be more than 50 miles away, other areas, including KC and Missouri, are more family practitioners and obstetricians. TRADITIONALLY, Kansas has lost most of its medical school graduates to other states and metropolitan areas. Often communities in other state states engage in the hiring process for new doctors, or the doctors find sponsors willing to help pay for their education in return for a few years of work. Even the military draws heavily from Kansas medical school graduates, sending doctors who are particularly needed in Kansas all over the world. The scholarship program benefits the State. The state obtains medical care for its residents students receive funds for their education and gain practical experience in regions where they work. And, undoubtedly, some of those young doctors will serve in Kansas, providing medical care to the population. Perhaps Johnston just doesn't remember when his own community, Parsons, was medically under served. Only an aggressive, community-organized drive to attract doctors changed the town's medical care status. But it took more than seven years for the governors, and most of the doctors recruited by the community are out of state. EVEN IF A large number of students default on their commitments or leave Kansas after fulfilling them, the state still benefits. Defaulters will pay back their scholarships, with interest, providing funds to help students leave after practicing in Kansas will have given the state at least a few years of service. SENATOR, IT just doesn't make sense for doctors to benefit from the current scholarship program increases the state's return on its investment by directly returning doctors to the university when compared to the benefit—a state that has doctors to adequately care for its students. Find something else to fuss about. Sen, Johnston. You're not being very farsighted, or maybe, now that Porsas is taken care of himself, but I don't care much about the rest of the state. The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters can be written to the university and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affirmed in a discussion, they should include the writer's class and home town or faculty or staff position. Letters should also have the right to edit for publication. It's the most prestigious game show on television. We all know the contestants. They were in the last round and, unless they daddy badly, they'll be in the next. The nuns for the Awesome first prize, but make it for the Amazing. The name of the game 'Pick A President.' Letters Policy Tahomsi's presidential primaries in New Hampshire have all the rules, but none of the razratzmats of a game show. The Tahomesi are spectacle, but it's a poor spectacle on the tube. Equal time rule unfair to TV, radio If you watched the Republican forum on television last week, you will know I ask K. Smith, encee for the evening, reminding the contestants and the audience of the rules. Each contestant was allowed two times to speak; each had one minute to add comments. Fair enough. But then Smith went on to tell the audience not to cheer, boo or show any emotion during the contest, presumably COLUMNIST david mould EQUAL TIME is a worthy principle, but it is practically impossible to enforce. For the last 20 years, Congress, politicians and the FCU have found convenient ways of denying access to minor candidates, while public leaders maintain their commitment to earning time. In 1980, Congress kept other candidates out of the Kennedy-Nixon debates by expeditiously allowing a law allowing the debates to be held. because such reactions would influence viewers. Fortunately, laughter was not on the restricted list and Bob Dole got in a few times that was the sum of the entertainment. CHOOSING A president is a serious business, but there's no reason why television should not be allowed to make it public. The government moderator to swapper onto a set of flashing lights, take the map from a scammy clad hostess, kiss her, do a pirouette and break for a commercial. But the other two are less likely to be the Republican forum—is just as annoying. Television is not to blame. During election campaigns, political coverage outside news outlets may have a negative impact on Equal Time provision of the Federal Communications Act. This requires a network or station to grant equal time to all candidates in a contest. The station invites two candidates to discuss the issues, it must invite the rest; if one candidate fails, the others must be allowed to do so. In 1975, the FCC, with a typically strained logic, held that when a debate between candidates is arranged by an independent party, such as Maddox, will cover spot coverage of a bona fide news event, and exempt from the equal time provisions. The next year, when Lester Maddox, Eugene McCarthy and Tom Anderson tried to undermine his debates, this rule was used to keep them out. The principle of equal time can be taken to rid/use lengths. In 1978, while Ronald Reagan's old movies were excluded from the Ford Grant granted interviews to reporters. Last week, the Republican candidates did not reiterate their views; there was none of the cut and thrust of debate, no spontaneity, no excitement. It was a game without audience. EQUAL TIME is a sham. The principal debate sponsor, the League of Women Advocates, would consult with the candidates and the networks. They are scheduled weeks in advance, and their structure is tightly controlled. "You're not events" is to strain the definition of news. THE LIVELEST of the candidates was John Anderson of Illinois. And the fact that I can give him a plug here without having to answer, I am confident of evidence of a base flaw in the equal time rule. Newspapers and magazines are not required to grant equal access to all candidates. If a newspaper wants to endorse a candidate or him/her another, it is free to do so. Why are TV and radio treated differently? Why do they not have the same First Amendment rights as newspapers? The first amendment protects the airwaves are owned by the public, not the broadcasters, and there are fewer frequencies than people who want to broadcast.Equal time will ensure that all televisions have equal access to the airwaves. THE SCARITY of the airwaves argument is attractive, but fallacious. There are more than 9,000 radio and TV stations in the United States and only 1,700 in newspapers in competition with one another. There may not be enough airwaves to go around, but newsprint and newspapers aren't in plentiful supply. Television is an important source of news, and information for many Americans. To saddle it with equal time is not merely to infringe upon the first Amendment rights of journalists. If they can't do a responsible job of reporting on issues and covering the political process. Equal time has stifled public coverage on TV. Many broadcasters do not air debates because they fear a hassle over the outcome of their debate. Equal time often means no time at all. TELEVISION TODAY needs, more than ever, the freedom to be inreverent, forceful and opinionated. Politicians will always try to maintain the supremum, and equal time has stoned that one. But isn't it time to let broadcasters use their skills and technology to illuminate the political process, free from the straitjacket of federal regulation? Politics on TV can be interesting, if TV is allowed to do the job properly. Equal time allows everyone to view and discuss boering. Viewers who switch over to a game show might back switch if the biggest game show Preparation for war insures peace After all the ridiculous lambasting that has been going on lately in the Kansas, one feels compelled to put his two cents worth into question. "How did Hatet show at Hoch, I for one, was deliriously happy that someone in the press was so mad, and slapped where the slagging was sorely needed." To the Editor: Please spare us the bleeding heart journalism that has become so much a part of the Kansan this semester. Brad Gabatuz's sophomore and reactionary exchange of cutie letters in the Feb. 19 Kansan was one of the most misleading, unleashing and contrived piece of garbage. To the Editor: Glaubst first of all implies that registration of eligible men and women would necessarily signal the revival of the draft and consequently fatal combat. Not so, but because it was important again, to explain that registration is merely a move to better prepare the country militarily. What is wrong with being prepared? Anyone knows that the great civilizations throughout history (the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Persians) always been prepared for war. It is quite possible that the Soviets, weighing the correlation of forces and plotting a move into Afghanistan, took into account the weakness of Iran (a weakness so easily seen in our helplessness in the Iranian crisis) and decided to intervene militarily and commit the Soviets to an aggression that would not discount the ultimate goal of the Soviets. They have been telling us, in writing, for more than 60 years that their plans would need heed their words and be prepared to act. Molly Hatchet band serves up rehash David W. Preston Bartlesville, Okla., senior We need to be more prepared than we are. We need a registration, and, if the situation is such that we have to be ready for Persian Gulf area. That may be a sad story to Gaubat, but it is a fact we have to come to grip with. If we want to maintain the way we see our children in the same to our children, we should see the act of registration not as the first step to aid and protect them, but to ensure the future of this great country. Molly Hatchie is a prime example of the public's willingness to accept whatever she sees, and many thought we were rid of the dreaded refined fried bogue of the Outlaws, Elvin Bishop, Grinderswilder ad nauseam) until they moved on. The only public who was already eating up such hard rock dinosaurs as Van Halen and Foreigner. She takes all four of them to swipe one Dane Allman lick.) Now I guess that as long as people accept second-rate bands like this, they will keep coming back like a bad memory. So listen on your own. There are so many bands much more recent than this one, and they buckle this box. This is 1800, isn't it? Go see Pop lotton at the Lawrence Opera House or something. Dave Stuckey Leawood sophomore Task force story full of inaccuracies To the Editor: According to your article about the Task Force on Faculty Development, (Feb. 18) I am supposed to have told the Faculty executive committee that "faculty is important issue at the University that might have been overlooked by the administration." Not only did I not say this, but the task force report explicitly praises the work of our group in the importance of various aspects of faculty development. My colleagues on the task force and I do believe that even more could be gained by implementing recommendations to point the way, but we certainly don't mean to suggest that the faculty development in the past Another statement attributed to me in my story—"Faculty planning and development involves the improvement and development of teaching method—converts a misleading impression of what I actually said. The point I tried to make was that there is extensive literature on faculty improvement and assessment of teaching improvement and assessment of teaching task force in its report tried to go well beyond those concerns, important as they unquestionably are. Chairman of the Task Force on Faculty Development Parking appellants should stick to guns Recently I received a letter from the University Parking and Traffic Court concerning an incident where I received at the beginning of the year. The court has decided to extend to me an invitation to reconsider my desire to appeal in court, because of the 'fremendous backlog' This letter is the worst insult I could imagine. I am sure that others who are appealing tickets and tickets in doing so only go to the wrong end of downright ridiculous. It is the traffic court's own fault that it is so far behind. If it didn't give out so many bad tickets, there wouldn't be so many appeals. I hope the number of appeals will tell the court something. I urge everyone else who received one of these letters to stick to it. If we don't give in, we'll bet them yet. Jay Simpson Jay Simpson Leawood freshman To the Editor: Save state prairie for future Kansans In regard to Bob Pittman's column (Feb. 19), I have heard that at one time the grass was besty high to a horse and that buffalo, both native Americans and well as native Americans made their homes on the prairie here in Kansas. I have lived in Kansas all my life and never have see tall grass. I do not see buffalo, or buffalo, except in zoos. Gone are the bear and the wool. Gone, too, is the plains Indian. One cannot fence, plow, cut and kill them. And that say he is preserving the oarite. I have no desire to turn working people off their land. Nor do I wish to see bee canars, or to get there to see bees across the plains. I want to set aside a small piece of the prairie—to let it bloom, blush or burn, to learn it unfettered by the laws of nature. Such generations will not say "I have heard," but rather "I have seen grass bighy high to the land." Chainy J. Folsom Lawrence senior Dating unnecessary for athletic recruiting To the Editor: As a KUAC board member I was relieved to know that the school wouldn't plan to organize a dating service for athletic recruiting program. Perhaps with a little time off, could even come once more and be even better placed so than the one he provided in last Wednesday's bad "date" wouldn't be hard for starters. Elizabeth C. Banks Associate professor of classics THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN USPS (98440) 65440. Published at the University of Kansas August daylight through Monday and May Monday and Tuesday. Mail enclosed $125 to KUPS, Attention: KUPS, Box 700, Lawrence, Kansas. Patents submitted by mail are $13 for each month of $25 a year in Kansas County. All other patents submitted by mail are $1 for each month of $25 a year in Kansas County. Postmaster. Send changes of address to the University Daily Kanana, Flint Hall, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS6006 Editor James Anthony Pitts Managing Editor James Anthony PHD Diana Miller Editorial Editor Brenda Walen Campus Editor Benna Cowan Associate Campus Editor Joachim Juillot Assistant Campus Editors Amy Hooldwell, Ellen Jaimeowake Director Chris Credible Sports Editor Mike Earle Associate Sports Editor Mark Moore Entertainment Editor Mary J. Howard Copy Chiefs Ted Lickling, Barbara Bagda Markup Editors Bob Pittman Marketing Director David Lowery Mason Senior Staff Writer Bob Pittman, Sassan Naimmoun Staff Writers Rick Jones, Mark Spencer Chief Photographer Jeff Harrington Photographer Ben Bengayo Photo Editor Joon Barton, Dan Martin Mahood Hammamian Business Manager Vincent Coultis TACCOE COURSE Retail Sales Manager Elaine Shawer Campus Sales Manager David Traver Advertising Manager Mike Koch Associate Marketing Manager Classified Representatives Tammy Heim, Nateala Dusee Jude Diane National Manager Paul Davin Sales Coordinator Keith Geller Staff Artist Karten Harett Staff Artist Karl Harett Graduate Assistant Alberman Sales Associate Kevin Kuster, Candy Price, Mike Rommelthai, Paul Winer, Roslyn Harvage, Susan Baines Barb Light, Karen Haskell, Hope Hindahlberger, Sheilly Hoten, Roslyn Harvage, Susan Baines Barb Light, Karen Haskell, Hope Hindahlberger, Sheilly Hoten, Roslyn Harvage, Susan Baines TACCOE COURSE Retail Sales Manager Elaine Shawer Campus Sales Manager David Traver Associate Marketing Manager Classified Representatives Tammy Heim, Nateala Dusee Jude Diane National Manager Paul Davin Sales Coordinator Keith Geller Staff Artist Karten Harett Staff Artist Karl Harett Graduate Assistant Alberman Sales Associate Kevin Kuster, Candy Price, Mike Rommelthai, Paul Winer, Roslyn Harvage, Susan Baines Barb Light, Karen Haskell, Hope Hindahlberger, Sheilly Hoten, Roslyn Harvage, Susan Baines TACCOE COURSE Retail Sales Manager Elaine Shawer Campus Sales Manager David Traver Associate Marketing Manager Classified Representatives Tammy Heim, Nateala Dusee Jude Diane National Manager Paul Davin Sales Coordinator Keith Geller Staff Artist Karten Harett Staff Artist Karl Harett Graduate Assistant Alberman Sales Associate Kevin Kuster, Candy Price, Mike Rommelthai, Paul Winer, Roslyn Harvage, Susan Baines Barb Light, Karen Haskell, Hope Hindahlberger, Sheilly Hoten, Roslyn Harvage, Susan Baines