Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, April 23, 1981
Aid standards too low
The office of Financial Aid has been tightening its financial aid standards later. In fact, a student must now earn a whopping 1.5 grade-point average after three semesters to be eligible for financial aid.
Such standards appear to defeat the purpose of financial aid, not to mention the purpose of a college education. And such standards may become even more unfair once President Reagan's budget cuts take effect.
After all, there very well could be less financial aid to go around. And if an excellent student could not obtain financial aid because a failing one got priority, something in the system does not compute.
The University needs to determine exactly how many sub-par students are going to be receiving financial aid.
If students cannot earn a C average by the time they are juniors, then perhaps they don't belong at a university. It's unfair for other academically talented students, who in fact may be needy, to not receive any financial aid.
It's time all students earned their financial aid.
Somehow the University needs to conduct a comprehensive study of its financial aid recipients to see where exactly the financial aid is going. If such a study exists, then the students have a right to know.
Vietnam veterans deserve increased American benefits
The story was on the third page of Monday's Kansas City Times. Though it was located down the page, the headline jumped out from the higher stories about busing, the Cubans at Fort Chaffee and the relatives of the nuns slain in El Salvador.
"Vietnam veteran silenced by killing wife, then himself," the headline read. Another story and a new memoir follow.
Early on Easter morning in Columbus, Ohio, Gerald W. Highman loaded a shotgun, shot his wife and then called his father. He told his father that he killed his wife and that he was going to kill himself. His daughter was asleep in another room while he did.
Highman's story seems familiar. You probably could have put blanks where the names
DAN
TORCHIA
were, inserted others, and nothing would be changed. He was 17 in 1969 when he fought as a Marine infantryman Da Nang and Quang Tri who were wounded twice. he went home in August 1971.
When he get back, he had flashbacks and nightmares about his duty. They continued for 10 years. Last April, he was driving in Columbus where a man threw rice paddy. He heard snarlers and helicopters.
About the same time, he began seeing a counselor at the Operation Outreach Vietnam Center in Columbus. It was one of 80 storefronts that were opened where 'Vietnam veterans could come in for help.
Highman seemed to be making progress. There was no indication that he would kill his wife.
Highman his father will take care of his five-year-old daughter. And there are a lot of questions left—why did Highman do it; why did Highman do it; why did Vietnam veterans still have problems.
I'm not talking about all Vietnamese veterans. There are many who have made the adjustment. The bad stories have attracted the most attention, and other veterans are other veterans who are doing well.
I'm not saying that veterans of other wars did not have problems. They did. What I'm saying is that there are problems that are unique to Vietnam veterans. And not only in the vocal range, but also in seemingly well-adjusted ones who may have a hidden problem. We have to take care of them now.
The demonstrations by Vietnam vets after the hostages returned home in January hopefully made the point clear. The vets were not trying to take away from the hostates. They were trvining
to make people remember that the Vietnam veterans have been largely forgotten.
We can't forget about them.
The statistics point to urgent problems. According to the Vietnam Veterans Association, the suicide rate is 25 percent higher among veterans than among peers who don't fight. The divorce rate is double, as is the unemployment rate. There are other problems, including drug and alcohol addiction. The horrors of Agent Orange are just beginning to become known.
The conventional methods open to veterans have not worked. The Veterans Administration admitted this when it started Operation Outreach VA officials admitted that normal VA factions had failed to help enough of the half-million Vietnam veterans who have problems.
There are unique problems. Vietnam veterans fought in an unpopular war. When they came home, they were not heroes, as other soldiers then. They were spat upon and called baby killers.
They came home expecting some kind of welcome, and they sat nothing.
As they have had problems adjusting, society has also had problems. Vietnam was a tragedy that affected us all. Our society feels guilty for not helping others every day in any steps to correct the problems that got us there.
It has been only eight years since we withdrew, but already we are seeing a remilitarization of the armed forces. Our leaders are giving us the same doublepeak that got us into Vietnam. We hear urgent words about Poland and El Salvador. Nothing has changed.
Vietnam is our dark spot, our black hole. Everything about it is sucked away into a void where no one really has to deal with the conspiracy of what happened. The veterans are there too.
We might see them, and feel sorry for the ones that have problems. Or we might get angry at the ones who demonstrated after the hostages were freed from their problems, and we are 'done anything about them.'
Employers can start by hiring veterans. That would help the unemployment problem. There was a move to do this a few years ago, but it has died out.
For the other emotional problems, the Operation Outreach program should continue. It is scheduled to end in October, but some senators have hinted that it may get funding to continue being an important program, and it appears to be the best program in dealing with Vietnam vets.
If we are going to place blame on Vietnam and what happened, place it on our leaders. Place it on us, who placed them there. Meanwhile, we have taken action against the people, ones who had to fight and have pot-get over it.
Private programs also could be set up along the same lines as Operation Outreach. Churches
Without our help, there will be other Gerald Highmans. And other Easter Sundays.
University Business
90c Bortes 81
Greek systems suffer segregation
The year is 1801, and segregation is alive and well at the University of Kansas.
AT KU, there are two Greek systems, each with the own national organization and rush periods.
But one difference is painfully obvious.
Among the 100 members of one Greek system, there are no white members. Among the 3,000 members of Panhellenic and the Interfraternity Council, there are about 30 black students, but most of those students live in Alpha Phi Alpha, an all-black fraternity house.
As one black fraternity member said, "It's as one or less segregation by choice, not by race."
At KU, segregation definitely exists, although it is not considered polite to mention it. And in recent years, this segregation has taken a new form—a form that seems to be impossible to correct.
No one is quite sure how to solve the problem. In the mid '70s, the University even formed a committee to investigate a charge that a KU sorority had discriminated against a black student. After months of study, the committee recommended that sororites and fraternities advertise rush to a wider variety of students and the groups complied.
Nothing changed
Since KU's segregation problem seems to be insurmountable, we have all recently tried to deny its existence—in some pretty imaginative ways.
For one thing, in administrative parlance, there are no black or white Greek systems at KU. Instead, officials call them "residential" and "non-residential" systems.
The two organizations of sororites are called Pan Hellenic and Panhellenic. Officially, there is no racial difference between the two, just a difference in the spelling and pronunciation of their names.
Perhaps it really is a coincidence that no white students belong to KU's non-residential Pan Hellenic association. And maybe it is a twist of fate that the number of black women in Panhellenic organizations can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Members of the white-or residential-Greek system give several reasons for the noticeably low number of black students in their organizations.
TOO MUCH FLAK HAS BEEN CREATED
OVER THE BUSH APPOINTMENT!
I WANT THIS ADMINISTRATION TO BE
UNITED--TEAM DLIVERS,ALL
WORKING IN ONE DIRECTION--counting minority members would be discriminatorv is just that - an excuse.
**** I HAVE THOUGHT THIS OVER
VERY CAREFULLY AND I'M
AFRAID I'M GOING TO HAVE
TO ASK YOU TO RESIGN.
BUT DAMMIT,
HAIG. YOU CAN'T
ASK ME TO RESIGN!
I'M THE PRESIDENT!
To begin with, no one is even sure how many blacks are in the system. According to Mark MacClanahan, president of IFC, it is unnecessary to count black members.
"Black or white, it doesn't make any difference to us," he said.
This sentiment is admirable, and McClanahan probably believes it. In fact, he is a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, a house that now includes two black members. However, the excuse that
VANESSA
HERRON
Before Affirmative Action, businesses used this high-sounding phrase to hide discriminatory practices.
Even if it offends the sensibilities of the residential Greek system, the first step in increasing the number of blacks in the system will be to find out how many blacks there are. Then, the groups should set goals for attracting more black students.
Many members of the residential system also have argued that blacks don't need to be part of their system since they have组织 their own clubs. Taken at face value, this argument sounds valid, but it is uncomfortably similar to the "separate but equal" argument that salved white American consciences in the early 20th century.
The Supreme Court laid that argument to rest more than 20 years ago, and it would be fools to
One explanation for the small number of blacks in the residential system is much harder to dismiss. Members of IFC and Panhellenic say they have even interested in joining their organizations.
In this case, statistics support the argument.
the past two years, no black women have gone to school and rushed to rush. Lydia Belot, the organization's advertiser, said:
Most likely, very few black men have gone through IFC's rush, but because that organization is officially color-blind, no one knows exactly how many blacks tried to join.
The lack of black interest in joining predominantly white Greek systems stems from the commonion to most human beings. Most people feel that they are surrounded by people who are like
them. And KU students—both black and white—are no exception.
Yet, for most black students, this preference is not as chauvinistic as it sounds. To understand why many black students prefer to live near other bakeries, it's important to understand what it is like to be different and alone:
One fall, a 10-year-old girl, who was black, went to Girl Scout camp. It was her first time away from home, and the smell of the canvas tents and of dew-covered leaves was unfamiliar. So was the face of so many new faces. Most of them sighted, but she didn't think of them that way.
H
These mount
At dinner, on the first night, the girl sit near a brown-haired girl from another troop. The new girl seemed unhappy with her seat. She fidgeted and as the hot dishes of food were passed, she refused to touch or eat anything that the black girl had touched.
MII said t and, chang
They took me home early the next morning.
In
ment
install
accid
million
vehic
"I didn't think we'd have to eat with niggers," she whispered to a friend, softly, but not softly. "I should have taken it."
KDC accide highw miles
They took me home early the next morning. Every black person at KU, and in the United States, has had a similar experience with some brown-braided girl or boy. And they never forget.
THE
reme
along
Lecor
this b
It is easy to be afraid of white people, and if you try hard enough, it is easy to learn to hate them.
Gen Fort the K
Mexico the 18 this went famil Wash
All students can benefit from living with people who are unlike them—socially, economically and racially. And like it or not, most black students will have to learn to survive in predominantly white environments if they plan to hold upper level jobs in this country.
For many members of the residential Greek system, it probably is easier to live with nice people who wear nice clothes and who are all the same, nice color.
After dinner, the black girl didn't talk to anyone when she went back to her tent to lie down. She woke up alone that night and cried, then she threw up—again and again.
But must we settle for the easy way?
It also is easy for KU to maintain separate Greek systems. The University simply gives them euphemistic labels and denies that they are different.
Organizations may have to set definite goals for attracting students of other races. Or the University may have to threaten to withdraw recognition from some groups.
It would not be easy to integrate the residential and non-residential Greek systems at KU.
The University Daily
In the long run, though, the changes would be worthwhile—KU would have finally caught up with standards of equality, and of decency that were written in blood 15 years ago.
KANSAN
(SUSP 864-640) Published by the University of Kansas during August through May and Monday and Thursday from September to December. Students, Sunday and holidays. Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas 60453. Mail enclosures by mail are $2 a semester, or $3 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $2 a semester, paid through the student activity (KSU, Lawrence, KS, 60453). Change of address to the University Daily Kauai. Flint Hall, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 60453.
Editor David Lewis
David Lewis
Managing Editor
Editorial Editor
Art Director
Campus Editor
Associate Campus Editor
Assistant Campus Editors
Assignment Editor
Sports Editor
Business Manager
Terri Fry
Retail Sales Manager
National Sales Manager
Campus Sales Manager
Production Manager
Chaisehead Manager
Tearsheet Manager
Staff Artist
Staff Photographer
General Manager and News Adviser
Kanan Adviser
Ellen Iwanroto
Doe Munday
Bob Schaud
Scott Faust
Gene Myers
Ray Formanek, Susan Schoenmaker
Kathy Brunzell
John Bunkammer
Larry Leestogood
Barb Light
Kaya Wagesgo
Kevin Koutter
Amelie Conrad
Jim Weddock
Bick Binkley
John Bunkammer
Hiek Musk
Chuck Chowna