TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY GANSAN PAGE 5 opinion FREE FOR ALL Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 Please: to the hand you talk, because listening I am not. Unless your name is Jeff Withey, I do not approve of facial hair. Don't tell me to not tell you how to raise your kids! Does getting into the FFA make me a published author? Editor's note: No. it makes you an anonymous contributor. My roommate was cleaning his room and something growled from under his desk. You're wearing sweatpants. It's Monday. You can't sit with me! Guys, we'll stop wearing black leggings in the winter when you stop wearing shorts with ridiculously high socks in the summer. I feel like the only virgin left here on campus, it's like Willy Wonka, and I'm one of the lucky ones with the golden ticket! Is it acceptabe to laugh out loud at the person in a velvet bathrobe while in the silent section of the library? I think yes. Goodbye, leggings. Helloooooo short shorts! Become involved and reap the benefits If going to class is your sole purpose on campus, you are really missing out. EDITORIAL All these Wescoe booths are really putting a lot of pressure on my endeavors as an antisocial student. I legitimately just saw someone using a roller cooler as a backpack. That means only 36 percent of students are taking advantage of perhaps the best part of college. I hope my professors accept my bracket as an acceptable homework replacement. According to KU Info, approximately 9,000 students are involved in some way on campus, either in a Greek organization or in a campus organization. The Student Involvement and Leadership Center (SILC), on the fourth floor of the union is home to over six hundred organizations. Those are six hundred opportunities knocking on your door, waiting for you to become involved on campus. Some say that they lack the time to get involved and others say their classes are too difficult to be adding more to their schedule. but I am here to prove to you the worth of getting involved. If you ride the bus from Naismith Hall to campus on a nice day in March, consider yourself judged. The phantom in Fraser just gave me a rorshach test: turns out I'm officially insane As far as the "best country in America" goes: The American supercontinent isn't just the USA, there are many countries in North and South America. 1. You will make invaluable connections with other go on the hunt for jobs, these references and recommendations will make you a happy graduate instead of an unem- Work is a path function. For people going up and down the same flight of stairs, their absolute value of work is all the same. Hey KU, its very green of you to blast the heat when its 75 degrees out. Sustainable energy, my ass. "Getting a great GPA is swell,but employers and graduate are more and more looking for students that know how to work well with others and actually care about making a difference." students and a variety of other people like faculty, staff and alumni. When you are ready to ployment statistic. shops, Wescoe Beach, and the residence halls, I figured out that the best place to find a significant other is in an organization because they want more out of life and perhaps you could be the puzzle piece that completes them. 2. Getting a great GPA is swell but employers and graduate schools are more and more looking for students that know how to work well with others and actually care about making a difference. asked where the best place to meet people on campus was, and after thinking of coffee 3. The classroom experience, at its best, gets students to critically think. Cody Charles, the assistant director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, says there is more to be learned outside the classroom. One time I was Luckily, getting involved is as easy as going to silc.ku.edu or looking at the posters hung all around campus. action." "The skills you get from being a leader in an organization are invaluable. The involvement piece gives you a place to put the skills you have learned into Jon Samp is a junior in human biology from Lawrence The real worth of college is not in getting notebooks full of lecture notes, but in learning more about life and working with a diverse group of people. If you cannot find an organization that floats your boat, it is easy to start one. All you need is you, two friends, and a staff or faculty person to advise you. So take a chance and get more out of your college experience. SOCIETY Revolutionizing birth control for men If scientists develop male contraceptives, it would change the way we view family plannin Balancing family and work, especially a high-power career, is exhausting, frustrating, and often overwhelming. It's a dilemma; it's not simple and it's not limited to women. More and more, men are stepping up to the plate. But until there is a more significant cultural shift in how we think about families and maternal duties, this disparity will continue. As long as the primary responsibilities of family planning, child care, and parenting continue to fall most heavily on women, we will see women who "want it all" face unappetizing Catch-22s. But hope may be in sight. "H-2 gamendazole" may sound like a mouthful, but it could spell out the beginning of a catalytic shift in the way we think about family planning, heterosexual relationships, and even wider gender roles. Those clumsy syllables translate to a compound developed at our very own University of Kansas and may lead to one of the first marketable male versions of the Pill. The Interdisciplinary Center for Male Contraceptive Research and Drug Development was born out of a five year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Researchers from multiple universities collaborated to test medication that causes temporary infertility by ceasing sperm production. What would a greater male role in pregnancy prevention mean for sex, gender, culture and power? These developments come more than fifty years after the development of the female Pill, which allowed women greater control over their bodies and their futures but also made pregnancy prevention a female responsibility with significant side effects. While the male Pill is still years away from production, it may signal important shifts in society and usher in a more equitable view of family life. Families begin with family planning, or lack thereof. Prevention is part of planning and I look forward to the day when a man's part in family planning shifts from a condom slipped from a wallet to a serious commitment to a prescribed medication. I have never been embarrassed to be from Kansas until I read that Rick Santorum won Saturday's caucus. And while the carrying and birthing of a child will likely always be the realm of the Options should be available, but until childcare (and all that it entails) is taken seriously as an issue we will find "Like planning a family, raising a family should not be the expected duty of one partner." mother, I hope that this will in turn transform ideas about raising and caring for children. Like planning a family, raising a family should not be the expected duty of one partner. Some families may appreciate the ability of one parent to stay home while the other provides financially, but that's not always the case. ourselves faced with the same ultimatums. And, unfortunately, the same sad statistics that reveal an under whelming number of women in the highest ranks of business, government, and industry. Onions is a junior in political science and women, gender, and sexuality studies from Shawnee. CULTURE College the best time to learn about respect Why now, you ask? Aretha Franklin is responsible for the most memorable, spelled-out and belted-out word in the history of the world: "R. E. S. P. E. C. T." It's a simple word and a familiar concept that college students should keep repeating For a lot of students, college is the first chance they have to get out of their parents' house and live the way they choose. This is the first chance they have to be who they are without rules. This is the test to see if they'll abide by societies rules or break all of them. First of all, it's important to understand respect. It isn't a quality for only one gender, race, age or career path. It applies to everyone. Respect consists of not crossing the line between acceptable behavior and rude. Respect is when Donkey in the movie "Shrek" doesn't scream when he sees Shrek for the first time or when he starts to understand Fiona's situation. Rude is when Lord Farquaad brushes Shrek off as an opponent because he isn't of the same station as the knights. How you choose to develop your social skills in terms of respect could have serious impacts after you graduate. Geography Lecture: "Can anyone tell me what is thunder?" "Angles bowling." Think about it. After you graduate, while you search for jobs, what kind of person do you want to represent yourself as? Respect could play a substantial role in landing that job you've had your eye on, or it could be the quality you lack. In the workplace, coworkers will inevitably have to interact. Considering the feelings of others and following social niceties, like holding doors, helps keep the workplace running smoothly. It's that simple. If you've got the job, good coworkers and figured out your professional life, what about your personal life? Yes, respect applies there as well. Does anybody else feel vulnerable in sweatpants? Relationships, romantic or otherwise, are built on people who consider each other's feelings and make attempts to understand them. Granted, some friendships use harsh words and humor, but in the romantic realm that's called abuse. Life in college is different than any other time in your existence and it may require respect as more of a necessity than a nicety. Things go much smoother if roommates can coexist without arguments and irritation. Sometimes that may consist of letting your roommates know you will be out late or warning them when you'll have friends over, other times it may include cleaning your space or putting in headphones. Respect doesn't ask you to go out of your way to make their life better, but it does ask you to be considerate in order to make both of your lives easier. Regardless of where you or I go in our lives, we'll need to respect others in order to get there. Shake people's hands, smile at passers-by and say please and thank you. Developing good habits toward others here should resonate into life after college. No matter how many times it's repeated, don't forget its importance. Respect is always relevant. Hawkins is a sophomore in journalism from Scranton, Kan. I've already started camping for basketball next year. I just cancel everyday because I'm the only one there. I like to imagine that when Self calls a timeout, he and the players actually discuss getting ice cream after the game. Sometimes I like to let my body blow in the wind. I aspire to be a wacky, inflatable, arm-flipping tube man. CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK What's your favorite part about spring? Follow us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion. Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them. livtrain @UDOK. Opinion The campus literally comes back to life with trees and flowers blooming. #springtime Tweeting_Bear @UDK Opinion All the salmon swimming upstream, and finally coming out of hibernation! brianjaygilmore ©UDK Opinion Drinking before 3 p.m porchbeers ThatHawkwardGuy HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR jakestaples @UOK Opinion it's nice enough outside that I feel guilty when I take the bus for not appreciating the weather. ©UDK, Opinion My favorite part of spring is being able to wear short shorts LETTER GUIDELINES Send letters to kanansanopdesk@gmail.com. Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the e-mail subject line. LETTER GUIDELINES Length: 300 words The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown.Find our **full letter to the editor policy** online at kansan.com/letters. Ian Cummings, editor 864-410 or editor@kansan.com Lisa Curran, managing editor 864-410 or lucan@kansan.com Alexis Knutsen, opinion editor 864-429 or akunat@kansan.com @UOK Opinion The 3 B's of baseball: Bombs. Biceps. Butts. #cleachater Kourtni14 Garett Lent, business manager 843-4588 or dlanasan@khan.com Koraleil Bland, sales manager 843-4777 or dlanasan@khan.com Micael Gibson, general manager and news adviser 864-7676 or ngjbson@kansan.com Jon Schmitt, sales and marketing adviser 864-7666 or jschttt@kansan.com THE EDITORIAL BOARD THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Nexan Editorial Board are Ian Cummighill, Lisa Curran, Alexs Krutsen, Angela Hawkins and Ryan Schlesinger