WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012
PAGE 5
opinion
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351
When my boyfriend has me quiz him on his engineering formulas, I read psi as trident and think about "The Little Mermaid."
By the time I've figured out it would have been faster to walk to Daisy Hill, I'm already committed to waiting for the bus
FREE FOR ALL
I'm not sure if I should applaud the girl wearing jeans and Sperry's on the elliptical at the rec, or be upset with her
Just made up some new thermodynamic laws so my homework answers now make sense.
Don't know how I feel about beating my law professors at trivia, especially when the question is about the Constitu-
I feel like a parent and homework is my child; it's there when I get home; it never lets me do what I want; and the only alone time I get is in the shower.
It is nights like Tuesday night that make me wish I was nocturnal... The weather was so gorgeous at 2 a.m.!
I can resist everything, except temptation.
Voldemort should have made Waldo a horcrux.
I wonder if the girl wearing ear warmers knows it was 60 degrees at 8 this morning.
Just saw a girl roller-blading to class, and now I wish I didn't live so far from campus.
I'd hate to bust your bubble, but satan was an angel.
If you're going to show up 47 minutes late to class, just don't come. Just don't.
Two guys hold the door open for you at the same time. The ultimate act of teamwork and chivalry.
Friends don't let friends cut their mullet.
He's one tall glass of water. What are short people? Shots?
Lately, all my roommate's boyfriends have been assholes... but this new one likes "Lord of the Rings," so I think he's safe. LOTR NERDS UNITE!
Just once I wanna see someone get a "Today is a 1" on their horoscope.
I meant to say I flew through the air like Peter Pan, but I accidently said Peter Pain. Guess who has a new nickname?
"The pastel shorts are coming! The pastel shorts are coming" exclaimed Paul Revere on the first 75-degree day on KU camus.
Dear roommate. Maybe if the sink wasn't fill with your dirty dishes, I could dump my Sonic drinks out when I'm done. Also, thanks for calling me out in the FFA, this is kind of cool.
I wish it would rain soon, that way all the Ron Paul cheaked would go away.
Sometimes, you just need a good cry
That's probably because your GPA is so low after you failed your economics class last semester.
CULTURE
Heck yes I wanted that Marlboro smoke blown in my face!
I love this breezy wind flowing through my beard.
Life wears on all of us. College is often a series of highs and lows that can leave us in constant limbo between utter happiness and downright depression. Stress is a big factor in all of this. Between school, extra-curricular activities and social lives, we tend to be extremely busy most of the time.
If you're like me, you tend to get distracted by your social life more often than you should. Maybe you spend Friday night partying, saying, "I'll start my homework tomorrow." Then you spend all day Saturday trying to start your homework, but end up partying again.
When Sunday rolls around, you realize what a mountain of
homework you've let pile up, and you can't help but stress about it. Add in the drama from last night when you were rejected by that cute girl or your
good grades, graduate and get a decent job someday. So what do you do?
boyfriend dumped you, and that stress can easily turn into depression.
If you're a girl, the best answer is to cry. Just cry. Go to the "I Need a Good Cry" playlist in your iTunes library and open up the floodgates. If you don't have a playlist specifically designed for crying, then start one. You only need the basics: some good old Rascal Flatts, a dash of Adele's melancholy
With all of the unpredictable things that college can throw at you, there's no time to pity yourself. You need a quick fix for your mood swings so you can get your homework done, get
melodies and the No.
"Who knows? Maybe your moans of bereavement will even encourage your neighbor in the apartment upstairs to let loose and have a good cry."
waterworks flow. Let the teardrops fall. Let the streams of sadness run down your face, but keep your mouth closed, because they're a little bit salty.
Actually, don't even worry about it. Leave your mouth open. We all need a good wail every now and again. If you cry
1 crying song of all time, "Halelujah" by Leonard Cohen. Once you've compiled the essentials, it's easy. Let the
quietly, you don't even come close to getting the full effect. Who knows? Maybe your moans of bereavement will even encourage your neighbor in the apartment upstairs to let loose and have a good cry.
But what if you're not a girl? What if social constraints and gender roles tell you that you're not allowed to cry? What if your fifth grade football coach called you a "sissy" and laughed you off the field for crying? What if you've been conditioned to view crying as a sign of weakness and
wouldn't let loose a tear if your life depended on it?
Screw that. Cry anyway.
ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN BENEDICK
Sure that. Cry anyway.
Everyone knows that you have plenty of Adele on your iPod.
Even if you claim not to, everyone knows you're lying. You like the song "Someone Like You"
even more than your younger sister does.
You can cry. Cry me a river, and drown your sorrows. If anyone makes fun of you, hand them their headphones and watch the waterworks start.
wasn't too much of a man to cry after hearing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", then you will absolutely never be too much of a man to cry. So go ahead, give society's gender stereotypes a swift kick to the hypothetical gonads and relieve your stress all at the same time. Give crying a chance.
Trust me, if Abe Lincoln
Lovell is a sophomore in creative writing from Overland Park.
RELIGION
An adventure in fasting: finding God and my faith
Arguing with my friends about faith has become a daily activity for me. Some days I believe in God and really feel enlightened, but other days my scientific mind overpowers me, and I am left with a mind full of doubt and skepticism.
When I argue with people, the disagreement always comes to a similar conclusion: I have never tried to be faithful, therefore I am missing the fruits that its followers enjoy. I usually discount this argument
because I have read a lot of the Bible, and it is easy for me to point out contradictions and crazy ideas that don't make sense.
because I have heard of its cleansing and spiritual effects. With this fast, I limited myself to only water with the hope that I would find what it means to be spiritual and to make
God a part of my life. The following is what
"Being faithful is kind of like beer. You can acquire a taste for it, it makes you feel warm, and while you're drinking it, it makes you feel free."
Recently, however, faith was explained to me in a way that got me thinking. Being faithful is kind of like beer. You can acquire a taste for it; it makes you feel warm; and while you're drinking it, it makes you feel free.
happened:
The problem I have been running into is that I have never actually tasted this beer, only examined the ways in which it is made and the process people go about drinking this holy ale. When I read the Bible and go to church, I find myself thinking that it is cute, but being an intelligent person, I must know better than to believe in that hocus pocus.
The only real way for me to know if I am right, however, would be to take a drink of that beer, swirl it around, and get its taste in my mouth. So, I am going to attempt to transcend the logical inconsistency barrier that is the Bible and give this faith thing a real shot.
Day 1
My final act of eating was this morning, when I had a bagel for breakfast. I decided that
would be my last meal and would get me off to a good start. Now, it is evening and I am certainly hungry and feel a little off. I am going through periods of feeling very hungry and being tired. I did not realize I would be this hungry after just a day.
Today I am less hungry, however I am thinking a lot more about eating. Also, my energy is down the drain. I have been sluggish and sleepy all day long. Still, I have had no signs or revelations of the almighty. On another note, when you have not eaten for an extended period of time, you begin to realize how often people talk about food. In nearly every conversation I have had today, food has come up, just making the temptation of food harder to resist.
I decided to begin fasting,
Dav 2:
Day 3:
Not feeling very hungry today, just jittery and full of excitement. I am feeling extra
compassionate toward people,
wanting to make people smile.
The thought of eating is a
distant idea and it seems like
something that I used to do a
long time ago, and I can only
reminisce about it now that I
have given it up.
Day 4:
After feeling shaky and uneasy, I decided to eat something. This officially ended my fast, and now I feel like a whole new person. An energy that I have not felt in a long time has found me and I feel great, even if I am dependent on food.
Throughout the experience I felt lousy, but in control of my body at the same time. I did not hear the words of God in this experiment but I did learn more about what it means to be faithful.
Faith is supposed to be slowly obtained and a person must grow with it subtly over time. Doing crash fasting is not going to show you God because if it did, fasting would be an integral part of religion for any churchgoer. Even if I can prove that the Earth is not flat or that no one can actually live inside a whale, it does not mean that there is no merit in believing in religion.
We are the makers of our own meaning and when we accept that we cannot understand everything in the universe, we must make meaning for ourselves.
Whether or not there is an unseen deity moving us around like a game of cosmic chess, life is what you make of it, so make it great for yourself and the people around you.
Samp is a senior in human biology from Lawrence.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In theory, the University operates under a system of faculty governance. Numerous committees with lengthy documentation of powers and procedures are supposedly in place to establish fairness. Tenure review is arguably the most critical duty of any University reviewer, and the associated committees and procedures are supposed to be under close scrutiny.
Why, then, is one of our best being fired?
Albert Romkes came to the KU mechanical engineering department from this country's premier program in his area of expertise. There is no dispute that Remkes admirably carried out his general responsibilities in teaching, research and service. He is an excellent, award-winning undergraduate and graduate teacher. He was instrumental in obtaining external research funding from federal agencies. He collaborated with others outside the department. He published at a rate exceeding departmental averages. The list goes on.
The primary reason stated for denial of tenure is that Remkes did not demonstrate the ability to sustain his research "as demonstrated by funded external grants with the candidate as principal investigator (PI)." This claim by the dean of engineering was introduced without documentation to the University Committee on Promotion and Tenure (UCPT) and was never allowed to be questioned, rebautted or appealed. Only after weeks of investigation did it come to light that the PI criteria had never been an approved part of the tenure policy. This is the event that derailed due process for Remkes.
What are the facts? Remkes has independently been awarded research funding as a PI and is also a significant participant (as Co-I) on other funded research. Because of the strength of Remkes' research, he has successfully competed for and won a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant (as PI),putting him in the rare 14 percent of KU proposers to the NSP engineering directorate who are successful. By doing so he firmly established himself as a top KU researcher in a highly competitive field.
Some faculty may be disturbed that the mechanics of a tenure decision are being aimed in public, thinking that resolution should be achieved through internal channels Remkes has repeatedly tried to find internal channels. There are none. Furthermore, the tenure process has been revised to bar a candidate from a second review, which was not the case when he was hired in 2005.
Albert Romkes is one of us. He has invested his time, his energy, his heart and soul to building an academic career and improving this university. The University has not treated him honestly. Remkes' accomplishments have been ignored, his appeals for review have been summarily dismissed and his appointment as a member of the faculty will soon be terminated without just cause or due process.
Enough time has elapsed for the administration to recognize the systematic failures in this case and to take corrective action. Instead, it has chosen to resist any appeal. Remkens' appointment will expire. He will no longer be part of the KU community. He will have no status. And by unfair implication, other universities will treat him as untouchable. It is imperative that we act now.
Will the chancellor choose to lead? In the best interests of the University, we call on Chancellor Gray-Little to recognize that she, the provost and UCPT were misled (knowingly or unknowingly) by the School of Engineering administrators, and to reverse the denial of tenure decision, and to promote Remkes to associate professor with tenure. The facts clearly show that Romkes is qualified. He has rightfully earned that rank.
Will KU governance do the right thing? The rights inherent in a student and faculty self-governance system also require us to be responsible. We urge the Student Senate and the Faculty Senate to take extraordinary action to block Remkes' dismissal.
Dr. Peter W. TenPas is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering
Dr. Ronald Barrett is an associate professor in the department of aerospace engineering
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