Page 4
University Daily Kansan, April 29, 1981
Opinion
Chancellor Shankel
Last spring at this time, Executive Vice Chancellor Del Shankel was looking forward to this school year because he'd be back doing what he likes best - teaching and doing research in microbiology.
But the unexpected resignation of Chancellor Dykes changed that plan drastically, postponing for a year Shankel's return to the classroom and lab. When duty beckoned, Shankel stepped up to fill the chancellor's chair until a permanent replacement could be found. After all, he was the natural person for the job; no one on campus knew more about the running of the University than Shankel.
Scarceily had he assumed office when he was confronted with the banner and free speech controversy, the same problem that hounded Dykes for so long. Demonstrators at August's Convocation could have meant another ugly incident like the previous Commencement, but Shankel kept a level head and refused to have the
demonstrators arrested. With that one decisive step, Shankel had signaled a new era at KU.
And when charges about athletic program abuses and questions about academic standards began flying this winter, Shankel called a special Convocation, and in his typically friendly way, reassured faculty and students alike that he was indeed concerned.
His title may be "acting" chancellor, but his term has been far from just a caretaker administration. Vacancies and temporary administrators throughout the University could have brought KU to a screeching halt—but under Shankel's guidance, KU is still running and looking toward the future.
Now Chancellor Shankel can look forward—this time for sure—to teaching in the future. After a sabbatical in Japan, he can become the first former chancellor in recent memory to continue serving the University that he's served so well in the past.
Fragile Spanish democracy may be heading toward coup
By RICHARD M. VALELLY New York Times Special Features
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-In his dramatic display of authority, King Juan Carlos baldly rescued Spanish democracy from the hands of putschist generals and a civil guard unit that stormed the Parliament on Feb. 23, but with a little help from the new prime minister, Leopoldo Calvo Solteo, he may yet bring on another coup attempt.
Seeking to retain the loyalty of Spain's rebellious generals—the depth and extent of military discontent isn't really known—the king and Calvo Sotelo have given the generals limited authority to help police authorities defeat the terrorists in the Basque separatist organization ETA. They have also promised to invest in their training and liberties. For a military that has long been preoccupied with the importance of a strong, centralized state, this is heady stuff.
But unless the border with France is sealed, the military is almost sure to fall at its new tail.
Consequently, the generals may well conclude that only the ouster of civilian politicians will curtail the menace to national unity that they see in Basque terrorism. Once they reach this decision, a coup attempt will be in the offing.
Letting generals maintain a civilian regime's internal order only makes them detest civilian politics even more. Little else can signal a weakness in civilian politics more clearly than failure to give a civilian-led and non-authoritarian response to the problems of internal security and those social and political circumstances that feed them.
Because they abdicate performing a major task of a civilian-led state when they assign internal security to the military, civilian politicians are in a weak position to take control of the state. Civilian politicians often hasten this process—the road to authoritarianism is often paved with good intentions. As they endorse the abridgement of civil liberties and permit some form of martial law to emerge in the zone where the military is operating, they have little chance of achieving authoritarianism, for neither utter cocession is enough to quell terrorism.
Once this crisis is reached, civilian politicians have little to lose to maneuver.
the assignment. By now much of civil society is quite alarmed, for the meaning of events seems clear. Over in the barracks the military high command identified the entire system of civilian politics itself as the obstacle to the successful suppression of the society's other illuses such as pornography and homosexualism. Society is seen on the verge of complete collapse. The generals find themselves ready to go to any length to prevent anarchy.
Such an impasse often leads to the complete militarization of politics. In this way Uruguayan democracy died, as the military and their civilian allies nibbled away at democracy in order to suppress the Tupamaros in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The crisis was saved in after the Argentine military's failure to defeat the Motomeros in the mid-1970s.
Those party allies in Spain disturbed by their government's recent step must fashion a political solution to the problem of Basque status that will undercut Basque terror.
And above all they must figure out how to monitor the military. They must impress on Juan Carlos, who is indeed their ally, that he cannot hope to control the military once it is unleashed on the Basque terrorist underground.
They and the monarch might well heed a classic statement on the use of emergency power that grew out of the United States' own experience with a serious threat to national unity.
in an 1868 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the imposition of marital law in Indiana during the Civil War and the sentencing to death of a man convicted of rape by David Davis, writing for the majority, stated, "Civil liberty and this kind of mortal law cannot endure together; the antagonism is irreconcilable; and, in the conflict, one or the other must persist." Spanish democracy will
The time for Spain's politicians to act is now. Their international allies must also act. Democracy has a tendency to expand and strengthen together all through Mediterranean Europe.
(Richard M. Valley, whose special interests include "civil-military relations in week democraties", is a teaching fellow and professor at Harvard University.) of government at Harvard University.)
New Yawk charming despite woes
One of the funny things about Kansas is that most people, or at least the people I know, think of it in temporary terms. We may have lived here all of our lives or gone to college here, but we have a definite line drawn when it comes to any kind of permanence. Kansas is a temporary state of being, where we collect ourselves before moving on elsewhere.
I'm not an exception to this. Since journalism's glory jobs and locations are outside of Kansas, I have been struck, and still am struck, with the possibility of eventually being in New York.
And like F. Scott FITZgerald's protagonist in "The Great Gatsby," "New York is my East Egg, that place across the bay that I gaze at and dream about.
The swankiness of Fifth Avenue is within sight of some of the worst slums in the country. The triumphs of humanity, in art, architecture, in literature, matched one for one by the misery of humanity.
m go to live in my dream this summer,
and my interest in New York has been revived
somewhat. New York is a fascinating city, and if
you can possibly try to understand it, then you
can possibly understand how things are
elsewhere.
Of course that may be impossible, because New York is so sprawling and so big that it is impossible to draw any definite conclusions. It is full of contradictions.
With all the contradictions, how can you make definite judgments about it? Is the Statue of Liberty the symbol of New York? Or is it the theatre and arts? Or is it the porn district? Or is the
or can be a combination of both? It think it is possible to be a work or a pace-setter our society it is also a more mature society.
Any major city in the country has all of the problems that New York has. They are just inbetweenspace.
That is true of all its attractions. Morris Freedman, the editor of Commentary in the 1960s, wrote in 1957 that it was possible to find comparable theatre, music and art in places besides New York. If that was true 24 years ago, then it is certainly true now.
The other places of influence have caused New Yorkers problems. It was number one for so long that when its influence did decline, people lamented the death of the city. Nonsense. As Atlantic said in 1798, New York is a wounded city, but not a dying one.
WHAT IS COMMUNISTS?
The crippling strikes by the firemen, police, sanitation and transportation in the 1960s certainly hurt. The financial crisis in 1975, when the Fed began to force money to pay its bills, could have been a fatal blow.
But the city is surviving. It has picked itself off
DAN
TORCHIA
the ground and is showing some signs of new vitality.
What keeps New York vital is its people. New Yorkers (or New Yawkahs), whether born or transplanted, are a special breed. They know about the special attributes of other cities, of the lower crime rates and quality arts, but it doesn't matter. They stay.
What the New Yorkers constantly stress is the city's energy. It challenges, repulses, attracts and gives life to the people living there. It is this energy that makes them stay, even with all of the problems.
And the average New Yorker will be the first one to admit the problems. The relationship with the city is a tenuous one, a marriage that is constantly on the rocks.
"The one thing that even the most hardened
New Yorker cannot avoid is the sheer presence of the city, its physical bulk, its completeness of movement, its squashing crowds, its oppression of youth, and its incessant violence. New Yorker who eventually defected to New Mexico.
But another New Yorker, Edwin Newman of all the problems have a useful purpose. that all of the problems have a useful purpose.
"For the rest of the country, New York is a horrible example and a safety valve," he said. "However, if the horrible example becomes too severe, may be no longer able to serve as a safety valve."
Whose view do you accept, then? Probably both. Just as one view of the city can't be drawn, one view of the New Yorkers' view of the city can't be drawn either.
If any thingtypines New York, it was the death of John Lennon last December. Lennon, who represented the dreams and hopes of the sixties, was killed by a man whose dreams had been broken. It was one of 1,787 murders in the city last year. Typical New York.
But less than a week later, over 100,000 people gathered peacefully, and silently, in Central
Both death and peacefulness are part of New York, along with hundreds of other images and emotions. They merge and clash, but eventually form a picture of a city that is unlike any other.
No matter that its influence has waned some. From here, New York is a shimming city of dwarfish fish and frogs.
Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
The writer of "Marvin monstrosity" shows himself to be a very narrow-minded art critic. If a piece of sculpture does not live up to his perseverance in the aesthetics then it deserves to be mocked.
Abstract sculpture criticism reveals artistic ignorance
"I70" was not meant to be beautiful. How could a sculpture that evokes cars speeding down a highway be pleasing to the eye? But to call "I70" a "kindergarten Tinkertoy creation," he wrote, is a scrap metal junkyard" shows a very ignorant and insensitive attitude toward abstract art. Obviously, the writer does not understand "I70" nor does he make any effort to understand it, so he ridicules it. Perhaps the Kansan should stick to news reporting and not venture into art
Miriam Neuringer Lawrence sophomore
Student loan abuse
To the editor:
As a student who could not attend KU, nor college for that matter, without the help of various student loans, I was extremely disturbed to see not one but two articles in the April 21 issue of *The College Review* that often connected to such loans. I have no doubt that some individuals use their Guaranteed Student Loans for everything but education and that some others use short-term loans from KU Endowment to finance their drug operations—and sure that these individuals are in the minority.
Speaking for myself, my family is in a position where we are not rich enough to place college tuition in the mad money fund and not poor enough to afford it. We need help. Aids. Like many others in "middle America," I
With all the recent speculation and controversy surrounding President Reagan's proposed budget cuts, articles such as these have been published. This is an important media for bringing these abuses to the taxpaying public's attention. But at the same time, I fear that these revelations are going to hurt a great many students who do not abuse these "easy" materials in school. We need to exactly the purposes for which they were intended.
So although I feel that abuses to student loan programs should be made public and also remedied to whatever degree possible, I also feel the need to raise awareness of the larger issue—that issue being that very few college students have the credit necessary to obtain a regular bank loan of, in some cases, thousands of dollars to meet their educational needs. It is also important to avoid the flood of high interest rates that now prevail.
have found GSLs to be almost the only way to get through school.
A great many serious, deserving students would not be able to receive an education and, in some cases, even eat if the student loan money were to disappear as just another cutback.
William De Roin
Wilman De Rom Warwick, R.I., senior
The University Daily KANSAN
(UFS $856-440) Published at the university of Kansas
(JUNE 2015) Subscription prices are $19.00;
June and July except Saturday, Sunday and
Saturday. June and July except Saturday, Sunday and
Saturday. Subscriptions by mail are $13 for six months or
$18 for twelve months. A year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $13 for six months or $18 for twelve months.
*
Pontmaster: Send changes of address to the University Daily Kansan, Flint Hall, The University of Kansas, Kansan, IA.
Editor David Lewis
Managing Editor Ellen Iwanato
Editorial Editor Don Munday
Administrator Andy Gould
Campus Editor Scott Paust
Campus Editor Greg Macdonald
Assistant Campus Editors Ray Forman
Business Manager
Termal Fee
National Sales Manager          Larry Leibengau
Retail Sales Manager           Barr Light
Campus Sales Manager          Karen Tennant
Production Manager            Kevin Kenner
Classifieds Manager           Annette Conrad
Tariffed Manager             Jane Wendroff
Shaff Photographer           John Hankey
General Manager and News Adviser  Rick Muskus
Kanan Adviser  Chuck Choiness