4
Tuesday, April 30, 1974
University Daily Kansan
1
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
Don't Blame Walker
The University of Kansas
Student Senate voted April 10 to cut
its allocation to the KU Athletic
Association by $23,811. In 1973-74
the allocation was $145,900 and for
the 1975-76 school year it will be
$93,519.
The KUAA board voted April 15 to increase student ticket prices in both football and basketball. Football tickets were raised from $6.50 to $15 and basketball rates went from $5.50 to $13.
As a result of these actions several senate members attempted to pass a resolution that called for the resignation of the director Walker, KU athletic director.
walker has been subjected to a majority of the criticism when actually the decision to raise prices was made by the entire athletic board. The board's decision was then approved by Chancellor Archie R. Dykes and the vice chancellors of the University.
The senate brought the actions of the athletic board upon themselves. Walker isn't the person to blame. It's his responsibility to bring in revenue for the athletic department so they can remain on a competitive level with the other schools in the Big Eight conference. The blame can only be placed on the senate.
Student ticket costs were to be increased next year regardless of the actions taken by the senate. When the allocation cut was made, the senate would that additional rate increase would be made to cover that loss.
SPOILED TOOL LONG
The students here have been spoiled too long with low prices for athletic events. The "$6.50 football ticket resulted in a student paying only $1.08 per game. In basketball, they paid 50 cents for each contest.
These prices represent what I consider a bargain price and even a steal. Where else can an individual afford these major college athletic competition?
The ticket price increase wasn't a punishment to the students but was a necessity for survival. To compete with other conference schools it was imperative to produce additional revenue.
The increase is only the second imposed during the past 10 years. In 1971 tickets were raised from $35 to $65 and from $5.00 to $6.50 in football.
Clyde Walker shouldn't be made the scapegoat. He wasn't directly
responsible for the price increase,
the senate was.
WINNING ATTITUDE
IN less than one year since he assumed his duties, Walker has instilled a positive attitude in the athletic department, which it had lacked in the past few years.
The coaches and players caught Walker's winning outlook and achieved considerable success this year. The football team finished in a second place tie and earned a trip to the Liberty Bowl, the best game of the conference championship and finished fourth in the NCAA finals.
These performances can't be directly tied to Walker but it's obvious that his enthusiasm to make KU athletic teams winners helped the attitudes of both coaches and players.
When Walker came to the University, he inherited an operating deficit and general budget debt of almost one million dollars. He has assumed the role of fundraiser to pay off this debt.
Walker also initiated plans to renovate Allen Field House. The remodeling of the fieldhouse is the first since it was built in 1955.
Walker said that estimates for an additional $78,000 in revenue from student tickets were accurate. This would, however, cover the losses incurred by low prices over the past 10 years. Therefore, the athletic department isn't making money from the increase.
KU still ranks fourth in prices for football in the conference and second in basketball. Football tickets will be $3 per game and the free NBA tickets will be $11 per contest. That is less than half what the general public pays.
RISING COSTS
Inflation has resulted in skyrocketing prices. No longer can ticket prices of two years ago be expected to cover the high operating costs of today. The increase was necessary.
Unless we, as concerned students, want to lose the athletic teams that represent the University and provide us with entertainment, we must be willing to pay the increased price to oppose the American Way, let a few individuals disrupt or possibly jeopardize the tradition that athletics have at the University of Kansas.
-Brett Marshall
Kansan Staff Reporter
Dykes Still Likable
In case anyone was wondering, I still like Archie Dykes, and it isn't because he's been treating me to the cuisine of the Kansas Union or in medicine to exotic places like the University of Kansas Medical Center.
As a matter of fact, I can't even remember when I last saw Dykes in person. But then, lack of contact could work in his favor, for I've seen enough of Dykes' foibles in his first year here not to like him.
Dykes' chief foible, for example, is that his act never changes. Hear one Dykes speech, and you've heard most of what he has to say. Different speeches, of course, dwell on different aspects of his basic point, which is that higher education is important and everyone must work together for its welfare.
Another Dykes foible is his almost mechanical public relations demeanor. His big smile, friendly handshake and pleasant small talk can be impressive on a first meeting.
But after several meetings with Dykes, you start to hear the smile click on, and the small talk begins to sound tape-recorded. And long-time professors here tend not to be impressed after Dykes has welcomed them to the campus two or three times.
Even so, Dykes' skill at public relations gets results. A massive public relations effort he led during his first months here received the thanks of Legislature's funding of most of KU's budget requests this year.
In the process of that effort, Dykes' wide travels and many appearances in the state put him, on the high regard of many.
Dykes has sparked some movement on the home front as well. He has taken steps to make his administration more efficient, most notably in the appointment of an executive vice chancellor, and increased attention to the University's need to adapt to great changes.
He doesn't forget about students in the middle of all of these weighty matters either. Dykes meets with student leaders frequently and keeps a constant stream of notes, memos and documents flowing through the mail to them between meetings.
Dykes even responds to petty complaints by students. For example, I recently wrote a letter of complaint about scheduling to another administrator and mailed Dykes a copy. He responded with a letter to me and instructions down the line to look into the matter.
That, of course, is part of Dykes' style. He knows that attention to detail impresses people, so he carries on a massive correspondence something for which he was legendary at the University of Tennessee.
Such attention to detail in addition to the public requirements of his position, however, requires Dykes to work what must approach triple the ordinary work week. Early mornings, late nights and seven-day weeks are routine for him.
Hard work and effectiveness have made Dykes likable during his first academic year here. When you wonder how many days in the school day you might night around the kitchen table over Dr. Pepper was Dykes' only contact with his family, those little foolems seem rather insignificant.
Bob Simison
Political Causes Generate Crime
Defiant Behavior
(William H. Blanchard is a clinical and social psychologist. He teaches at the University of Southern California's center for urban affairs.)
adequately countered by a more increase in the physical size of our police force in the southwest.
By WILLIAM H. BLANCHARD
*Special in the Los Angeles Times*
A new phenomenon is emerging in American society: the justification of criminal behavior on the grounds that it serves more higher political purpose. The Symbiontes Liberation Army's kidnaping of Patricia Hearest—if, in fact, it was kidnapped by a group of militants—is an example. This trend is one of the chief reasons for the increase of criminal behavior of all kinds in the United States. Once upon a time stealing a car for temporary use was called "joyriding." Nowadays, it is called "crime-ridings"—a rich form of class warfare. With increasing frequency prisons are becoming not only schools for crime, as they have always been, but centers for political indictation. Such indictations has been growing since 2014, as well as in our correctional institutions. It is not the kind of thing that can be
THE POLITICIZATION of crime represents a breakdown of the basic moral rationale of our society—a blurring of the difference between crime and self-defense. In reality the most effective barrier against crime in a society isn't a strong police force but the sense of personal guilt in the potential criminal. An unemployed worker, for example, keeps looking for someone because he doesn't know or worried that he would be unworthy; he would feel shame in front of his family and wouldn't want his children to follow his example.
But suppose he had convinced himself and his family that he was only taking what belonged to him—that he was striking back against an unjust political system that had rugged the odds against him. He and his wife could discuss openly loye in the loot of their property, and would cause and the two of them would educate their children so they wouldn't be "foiled" by the prevailing Judeo-Christian ethic, which supports the structure of capitalism.
TOGETHER THEY could counter the conventional morality their children were getting in school and, when the kids were growing up, they would join members in the fight against exploiting the poor.
Suppose, in addition to everything else, our unemployed worker is black or belongs to some other minority group. He has the ability to lead an organization that lacks an equal opportunity in our society. If he can find others who think as be does, he has the makings for a political movement which, depending on the degree of bitterness and cynicism of its leadership, could decide to fight racism and injustice by assault on the society that is accountable.
THE RANDOM SHooting of white people represents only one response to this kind of political orientation. Some black people in the South are police in jail are political prisoners—that is, regardless of their crimes, they couldn't have given a fair trial in this racist case. As long as black people in prison should be released at once, once again, represents only one of many
ways in which crime and the criminal system can be reinterpreted in a new political context.
How can society combat this politicization of crime? The first step is to admit to ourselves that there is a grain of truth in many of these pseudo-political statements. All aren't true of course, but some may be partly so. If we don't face this fact, we will be helpless to stop the spreading politicization of crime.
WE MUST EXERT public pressure, therefore, to force big business and big labor to open up wide employment opportunities to ministries. We must provide an opening for ministries when they return to society. We must recognize that our correctional institutions don't correct; if we can find some means of rehabilitating the criminal within the prison system, we may be able to shorten his time behind bars or eliminate prisons altogether.
This doesn't mean we should become soft on crime. In fact, we should use whatever force and weapons necessary to counter crime. If you want to fight crime, we must go further: we must do everything we can to deprive criminals of the political justification they currently seek. We must deny them the rationale and need for violence, we must ready source of recruits for their cause.
The politicization of crime has recently been aggravated by the criminalization of politics. If we allow our politicians to explain their criminal acts on the grounds that what they were doing was good for America or that they were trying to preserve their privacy, and that disgrace, we are providing the criminal with the kind of justification he seeks.
IF A PROTESTER forms a political organization, then he can argue that he is trying only to protect and serve the group he belongs to. If he does so in a bank, he is no longer a mere bank robber, for his real purpose isn't personal gain but forcing a more equitable distribution of wealth. If he kills in the process he isn't a criminal, it's usually sense but a soldier of the revolution.
Does this all seem far-fetched? Perhaps it does to those of us who are thoroughly inculcated with middle-class values. But there is another kind of inculturation occurring on the streets today that has accrued the level of violence in our society.
If we expect to reverse the growing politicization of crime, we must make some basic changes in our system of social and criminal justice. We must learn, beyond all else, the real meaning of "equal justice before the law."
Readers Respond
To the Editor:
IEC's Original Purpose Unfulfilled
The two recent letters to the editor of the Kansan by Mohamed Younes and Professor Tarquino about the alleged problems in the system Center seem to be slightly off the point.
(1) The qualifications of instructors should not depend upon the levels of command of the English language by foreign students. Contrary to the imprimations of Mr. Younes, ideally speaking, the poorer the students' proficiency in English, the better they are qualified for teaching. An instructor with a Master's degree in English, Linguistics or even the methodology of foreign language teaching may fail to function effectively. Even though an instructor may be able to argue convincingly that the phoneme has ceased to have meaning, it can be taught in Chinese or Japanese? There were only one or two linguistics majors learning those languages at the University of Kansas in the past academic year. In addition to the required methodology course, how many of them have taken courses relating to Far East civilization or pre-modern civilization? Language teaching should involve more than mere linguistic training.
(2) ON THE existence of the "slow" process of foreign language acquisition, Younes may be right. However, doesn't the very reason dure of the IEC lie in its emphasis on shortening the construction specifically designed to shorten this painstakingly long learning process?
(3) On the problem of attendance, I have heard of some instances of a vicious circle—poor attendance brought forth by poor instruction which ended in poor accomplishment. On many occasions, attempts to initiate conversations with American students are frustrated simply because orinary American students aren't
interested. And if we persist, our intentions are likely to be misunderstood.
(4) Concerning the correlation between the mastery of English and the eligibility for a university education, how can we foreigners account for the fact that most students admitted to their universities, must study the English language during their freshman year? Or how can the IEC reject those less than well-motivated foreign students who to come to the college because they are unable to meet the greater number of Sony's or Toyotas in this country qualifies them to come and improve their English—especially when the center knows that the presence of these students will financially support students who need jobs as instructors?
PROFESSOR Targumio pointed out, as did Younes, the existence of frustrations regarding the nature of foreign language learning. While one can appreciate the problems raised by these two letters, the ultimate purpose of the IEC and the most effective advancement of that purpose. If I am not mistaken, the center was established to help foreign students learn English most efficiently. To this end it uses possible learning problems which we become possible learning problems which include the "frustrations" of the students.
Any experienced language teacher who has taught a 10-week intensive program should know that its success hinges partly on the proper handling of these inevitable "frustrations" which arise during the fourth or fifth week and again during the eighth or ninth. If foreign students suffer any difficulties, the result of a possibly less than adequate functioning of the IEC, it may be more appropriate to deal quietly and directly with
their elimination rather than to point out their existence to other foreign students.
Masay Tsukamoto
Tokyo graduate student
Colorblind Justice
To the Editor:
The Supreme Court has decided not to decide the issues raised by the case of a white applicant to a law school, claiming victimization of unconstitutional "reverse discrimination" in accepting lower scoring minority students over his own application. The apparent rationale of this school policy, in the words of the state court upholding it, is to "achieve reasonable representation of ... minority students have been historically suppressed."
The high court has, in its context, quite legitimate reason to dismiss consideration of the case, it being not—which is to say the claimed injury has been self-corrected by intervening events as to this particular plaintif. However, the questions raised are still with us and I cannot but wonder how they should be resolved.
Countless volumes have been written on the concept of justice, housed largely in our libraries of law and philosophy. And it seems incredibly easy to wander off the path into the mists of subtle connotation. But it must be central that justice—if true justice—is not done one at a time of another. Justice one at a time need not be experience, but sense. If this student's application was denied, in the final analysis, because of his color, then it becomes a "suppression" which will inevitably have its own historical ramifications.
Discrimination is discrimination and has no color. It is what it is, regardless of
Jack Kinknett Community Attorney 501 Mississippi St.
whether worked upon a member of a minority or a majority class. We will never correct injustice by perpetrating it elsewhere even under the most benevolent of corrective intent. It is like the absurdity of attempting to achieve peace by declaring war. "There is no way to peace, peace is the war."
by Sokoloff
Griff and the Unicorn
Pans KUOK Plans
To the Editor:
I was in Lawrence last week and visited my home away from home at KU KUOK Radio. Informed sources have told me that I should not develop a business in the near future sans sales and sans commercial creativity (or the chance to develop it). In my humble opinion, developing the ancient art of browning is an important negative traits of broadcasting today.
N.
is lap
photo
perim
the Ur
studer
to por
presses
Pau
Barb
half-cafe
base
bolge
Now everyone in Lawrence can hear the sound of KUOK-FM and the corresponding ineptness that chases people with love. And you can't help but notice Mr. McDonald, Bob Shulte, and many others who were allowed to develop their talents here at KU under the previous structure of education.
Sup on t Lawr sumr Lawr Janis missi
SIM maki laser tangu
C
Lawrence will laugh at it, KLW will ignore it, and dornes will bite it out of her.
Jim Cambron Shawnee
P C
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
An All-American college newspaper
Kauai Telephone Number:
Business Office: N-4-1854
Publicized at the University of Kansas daily examination periods. Mail subscription rates: $8 a semester, $10 a quarter, and $60 a semester. Mail $600. Student subscription rate: $1.50 a semester paid in student funds and employment advertised offered to all students who regard admission are not necessarily those of the University proceeded are not necessarily those of the University.
NEWS STAFF
NEWS STAFF
News Advisor ... Susanna Shal
Editor
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Adviser ... Mel Adams
Business Manager ...
David Hunke
Member Associated Collegiate Press