Page 4 University Daily Kansan, March 24, 1981
29
Opinion
The search lessons
The search is over, but the questions remain.
Why, in the selection of a new chancellor, don't students and faculty members have better representation? Why don't they get to vote on who's to represent them on the search committee? Why is the committee's work done with the secrecy of the Manhattan Project? Why do we vote for city commissioners, the governor and the president but not the chancellor?
The announcement last Friday that Gene A. Budig would be KU's new chancellor brought an end to the questionable search procedure used. But there was a final irony indicative of how the entire search was conducted—the Board of Regents legally skirted public scrutiny of its actual decision on the candidate by making that decision at unpublicized "informal" meetings a week before the "formal" vote was taken.
The lessons to be learned from this search are important ones. The days when a chancellor could be picked in smoke-filled rooms by self-appointed gods are over. True, the present committee's sincerity is not in question, but the methods it used to select the chancellor are in question. Just as in all other aspects of their lives, people today are crying out for a meaningful say in what affects them—and the person selected as chancellor certainly affects many people, both on Mount Oread and off.
The issue of an open search is moot—temporarily. Sooner or later, however, KU's going to have a vacancy in the chancellorship again, and when that happens, perhaps the next search committee can show that it did learn the lessons from this search. Perhaps then the majority of students, faculty members, alumni and administrators will finally get a meaningful role in the selection process.
Reagan's first test
President Reagan's first bona fide national crisis may begin Friday morning. That's when more than 150,000 members of the United Mine Workers are scheduled to strike unless they sign a new contract before the old one expires.
The man Reagan ousted from office, Jimmy Carter, faced the same coal strike situation just as he came into office, and Carter's mishandling of the strike set the tone for his whole administration. Carter waited until homes in the Northeast were without heat before he began setting his famous deadlines—which, when one deadline passed, was quickly followed by another. And another. And another. The result: national crisis.
Reagan should learn from Carter's
mistakes and act more quickly to pressure both the miners and the mine owners to negotiate. Taft-Hartley, while tempting, won't get the coal miners back into the mines, as Truman and Carter found out when they tried it. Reagan's use of executive pressure over both sides is his best shot at avoiding a Carterist crisis.
Most importantly, Reagan should be aware that encouraging lucrative raises for the miners, as Carter wound up advocating, might solve the crisis in the short run but will soon be reflected in inflated prices in steel and energy costs, adding fuel to the already hot fires of inflation.
Malice and sarcastic retorts dispel Kansas' hayseed image
The nation's eyes are on the president. His time of testing may finally have arrived.
Every native-born Kansan is cursed.
A person who admits to coming from Kansas is hanging an invisible albatross around his neck. There's no other state quite like Kansas in the negative image it conveys.
Kansas is known for wheat fields and torndoos. Mention Kansas and the response
Some states convey favorable images. Kentucky brings to mind horse races, bluegrass music and mint juleps, and Hawaii is associated with high-fashion and half-dressed beautiful women done the hula.
JANE NEUFELD
elicited is usually, "Hey, Dorothy, where's Toto?"
The children are barefoot and ride their ponies six miles to school in the snow.
According to the image of most outreaches, every Kansan is a farmer. They all drive battered Ford trucks. The men wear overalls and the women wear red gingham dresses.
These Kansas farmers talk about the crops and nothing but the crops in a sort of illiterate hick dialect. "Yep, Martha," they tell their wives, who are baking sourdough bread, "we've got to work." Reckon we ain't gotta make enough from the wheat crop to send Lester on to the fifth grade."
The entire state is flat and treeless, and it is all gray, the way it is in "The Wizard of Oz."
This image of Kansas is certainly not completely false. We have our share of farmers and wheat fields, and a fair number of macho horses. You can tell us to furnish the back of their trucks with mattresses.
But the state also has trees, hills,
businessmen, doctors and lawyers, and its
farmers.
People are unconvinced. They know that Kansas means wheat and tornadoes.
This image produces contemptuous amusement every time Kansas is mentioned. For example, in the James Bond movie "Diamonds Are Forever," the villain hovers his aim of a destructive weapon over Kansas for a few seconds, and then moves it. He can't blow up
Kansas, he explains, because the world might not know it was gone for three or four years.
In the interest of self-respect, we should stop just listening to snide jokes and start striking blonde.
One way to stop the condescending snickers is to pretend you are from New Jersey or California. Most Kansans, however, seem to have a sneaking fondness for the state and aren't really willing to repudiate it. After all, it has some good points. All that fat land makes a difference, and the state's listening to the wheat fields rattle on a summer night while the tornadoes roll by in the distance.
Trying for sophistication is another way to refute the country bumpkin image, but it usually takes a considerable investment of money and time to achieve the look of California chic at the beach. It also makes you have it. Most people decide to wait a year until the look to Kansas at a reasonable price.
Another extremely tempting option is to take the Kansas image and play it for whatever satisfaction it is possible to get from a credulous audience. If this game is the ability to be a straight-faced刃
"Yes, the buffalo herds were pretty good this year," you can say. "The buffalo meat and wild berries should just about see us through the winter. Of course, we'd have had beef jerky but some scruvy rustlers made off with half our herds. But don't worry, wwehung 'em."
The problem with this approach is that a certain percentage of people will never realize it's not serious, and they will propagate even more wild-eyed stories about Kansas.
Perhaps the best solution is to counterattack the Kansas stereotypes with stereotypes of your own. If a New Yorker asks about Dorothy, him if they've got King Kong off of the Empire State Building yet. If someone from Arizona asks if buffalo stamped are a big problem out here, ask him how they keep the Gila monsters out of their gardens.
It may take some research to find somethingoten to say about every state, but it should bewidely accepted.
With any luck, we will gain a reputation for viciousness and sarcasm. At least we'll be striking down the image of flat-country stupidity and naivete. Even a reputation for malice is better than a reputation as half-witted toothless farmers from a treeless state.
KANSAN
The University Daily
(USPS 680-449) Published on the University of Kansas午夜 August through May and Thursday and June and July except Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas, Kanaus $1.50, Kansas City $2.50, Douglas County $3.00 and for all else made on the $5 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $2 a semester. Postmaster: Send changes of address to the University Daily Kanaus, Flint Hall. The University of Kansas,
Editor David Lewis
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Editorial Editor ... Don Munday
Business Manager
Terri Frey
Retail Sales Manager Larry Leibengood
National Sales Manager Barb Light
General Manager and News Adviser Rick Musser
Kansas Adviser Chuck Chownt
Desert views make trip worthwhile
On the road again
On the road again
Going places where I've never been,
Seeing things that I may never see again,
Can't wait to be read again.
=While Nelson
Willie Nelson
Like a thousand other midterm-worn KU students, three friends and I decided to drive across the country to Arizona, the sunsaturated state in the southwest section of the nation. "Go southwest young women" our souls called out to us, and the pioneering spirit that pushed those first settlers forward pushed us, too.
Besides, it was spring break and who wanted to stay in Lawrence, Kan.?
We packed ourselves into a Chevy Chevette, the four of us, suitcases, bath suits, lunches, diet Pepis and little money we had. Gas was our first priority—staying awake our sec-
Kansas was easy. The Flint Hills, Emporia, Wichita flashed by virtually unnounced. On The Road with Charles Kuralt, CBS and the KU Coeds flashred before our eyes. What a team!
Six hours later the road seemed endless. The tires hummed against the highway, pulling us to sleep. The plastic-tasting coffee and the hurried gas stops in 30-degree weather just weren't enough when the music on the AM radio turned from familiar pen to country twang.
And even the familiar pop became too familiar.
From 9 to 5 we wondered whether the devil had blue eyes and blue jeans and where did we go from them, now that all of the children had grown up? As the discs spun, your kiss got on my list and I kept on loving you even though you didn't want to talk.
By the time we got to Phoenix,we were exhausted.
Somewhere in Texas or New Mexico (in the dark the states all looked alike) Deesco Joey help us herchist the words that used to describe the Wichita lineman and the Rhinestone boy as they feel streaked by the precious and few as the pointed us in the direction of Albuquerque.
On the road again
Bake a batch of gossips we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way
It turned our way all right—and as it turned it
CYNTHIA
CURRIE
brought with it every conceivable type or crummy weather in the book of meteorology.
--plateaus, buttes and deserts stretched across the miles. In New Mexico, the rubber state that gets longer the longer you travel across it, the tumbleweeds swept across the deserts that dwarf caustics. Dirt daft cactuses, colored a dusty, mossy gray dwarf and stubbled grasses provided the only food for scrawny cattle. Ramshackle shacks with battered pickup trucks in the hardened clay front yards were framed by beautiful magenta, topped with billowing cotton cloudy tiles.
First it was The Fog. It didn't creep on cal cat feet as the poet Sandburg thought, but swept across the blackened mountains and on the road like a being from some horror movie. Adding to the eireness of the evening was the blood smeared across the road, the remains of some chainsaw massacre my vivid imagination. I saw red light bled caked the road—and to our relief was mud only mud, from the New Mexican soil, not the chainsaw remains.
Then there was Gallup, N.M. What a joy it was to drive through Gallup, an hour out of Albuquerque, right before dawn. There was a sawed-off car, ringing, it was at the rate of one inch per second.
Snow beat the windshield, shooting the car into hyperspace as lightning flashed and the wind gusted. At any moment I expected Rod Slering to appear, the time warp open up and students from the University of Kansas, would be sweep up and away from this cruel world.
Obviously, it didn't happen, and we were on the road again.
Mountains and pine trees, cactuses and
It was the same sort of clouds that framed the pine trees that shot as straight as arrows into the sky at the Sigretaes National Forest in Arizona. My car crept up the winding roads, splattering muddy sand, snow and water into the windbills of everyone we passed. The trees, silver in the early morning sun, towered overhead, protected by federal law.
Then, within twenty minutes, we were climbing another type of mountain; craggy, rocky mountains covered with snow. The highway twisted slowly upward, the declines swift and winding. It was as if I was back visiting Germany, staring at the Alps that cover the southern Bavarian region of that picturesure area.
The craggy, pointed rocky slopes began to soften. Huge boulders, stacked as if a giad had carefully built his castle, jutted up from both sides of the highway.
Prickly pear, teddy bear and sanguo caterpillars covered the craps—splatches of green among the reds and grays. Occasionally the dusty green would be accented by brilliant purples, reds and golds of tender desert flowers starting to bloom in the warmings sum of March.
Seeing things that I may never see again . . .
They are images that will remain forever, despite the fact my camera sat at home. It was country so beautiful it could only be seen, and only inaccurately described.
We made it, somehow, through the mountains and valleys, the heat and the cold, the snow and the wind.
I can't wait to be on the road again.
The modern way of scrutinizing problems
New York Times Special Features
By RANDY COHEN
NEW YORK-Q. What do we know about the roots of the problem?
A. We know that it is a deeply rooted problem.
Q. What about its facets? How many does the problem have?
A. It is a multifaceted problem.
A. It is a problem of incredible complexities.
Q. What sort of implications does the problem have?
A. It has profound implications for all of us.
And for our children.
Q. How many aspects of our day-to-day life does it touch upon?
A. It touches upon nearly every aspect of our day-to-day life.
Q. Would it be fair to say that we face a deeply rooted, multifaceted problem of incredible complexity with profound implications touching
Q. Is the problem amenable to some quick fix or easy answer or magic cure?
Q. Who created this problem?
upon nearly every aspect of our day-to-day life?
A. Yes, it would.
2. Who can solve the problem?
A. People can solve it.
...that will solving the problem demand?
Solving the problem will demand sacrifice.
Solve the problem.
A. No, it is not.
B. What will solving the problem demand?
C. Yes, it will solve the problem demand?
A solving the problem will demands their own
Q. From how many of us?
A. People created it.
B. Who can solve the
A. It will demand sacrifice from all of us.
or easy answer or magic cure?
A. No. It is not
4. Will we have to do anything to our beds?
A. We'll have to tighten them.
Q. Will we have to do anything to our belts?
Q. Will we have to do anything to our sleeves?
A. We'll have to hair them.
A. We'll have to tighten them.
B. Will you take the thing.
Q. So, I'm not the only person confronting this problem, am I?
A. We'll have to run them up.
B. What sort of pollution will be required?
A. No, you are not alone. Millions of people face this problem every day.
Q. What sort of approach have researchers developed to the problem?
A. Researchers have developed an initial approach.
A. We'll have to pull together.
Q. How many prongs does this approach have?
A. It is a two-pronged approach.
Q. What about its ends?
A. It is an open-ended approach.
Q. Does this approach delve deeply into the problem?
Q. How can we delve deeper?
A. There is no need for further
A. No, it scratches the surface.
A. No, it scratches the surface.
O. How can we delve deeper?
A. There is a need for further study
O. What sort of need?
A. There is an urgent need for further study.
B. Are you researching a particular disease?
Q. What sort of need?
A. There is an urgent need.
A. There is an urgent need for further study
A. There is an urgent need for further study
B. Are we spending enough on the study?
A. By no means. Much more money is needed.
Q. Are we spending enough on this study?
"And yet, wouldn't you say that there's a problem discovering a long-term solution to this problem?"
A. By no means. More money is needed.
Q. And yet, wouldn't you say that there's:
A. I certainly would. Scientists are confident of developing a long-term solution to the problem.
Q. in the meantime, should we treat in any special way those suffering from the problem?
A. No! These suffering from the problem don't
  be to be treated differently than anyone else.
special consider at A. No, they don't
Q. What? You mean they don't want any special consideration?
Q. Well, what do they want then?
Q. How high a priority should we place on finding a solution to this problem?
A. They only want to be treated with respect and understanding.
A. It should be one of our highest national priorities.
4. Everyone has the same opinion of the best solution, don't they?
A. Yes, even among the experts there is a diversity of opinion.
A. Not among the experts. I'll bet.
Q. Not among the experts. I'll bet.
Q. What is the extent of this diversity?
A. There is a wide range of opinion.
Q. Is there any way to narrow that range
A. Yes, but only if we recognize the urgent need for further study and are willing to spend much more money, pulling together and unifying our teams is problem one of our highest national priorities.
Q. That will take real commitment, won't it?
A. It sure will.
Q. But then we can solve the problem, right? A. With a little luck, why not?
Randy Cohen is author of "Easy Answers to
Questions?" and "Didn't Why Didn'T
Think That?"
Co1
"It cert he said." one-tenth sulting."
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