4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY,APRIL16,2002
EDITORIAL Officials should allow e-mail about rally
You might know that there will be a rally for tuition and higher education Thursday in Topeka. However, many of you might not know all the details or other information regarding this rally.
One way of getting the word out to students about important events regarding the entire student body is to use the student listproc, commonly known as Students-L. Two broad-based student groups, the Student Legislative Awareness Board and Student Senate, asked permission from the provost's office to do just that and were denied. The provost's office said the request was of a political nature, and could not be allowed because of University policy regarding the use of any University resources for political purposes.
This is unfair.
This is unfair. The tuition rally is an event that affects all students of every level and it is not of a political nature. It is about an economic and social issue. By not allowing the student groups organizing the rally to get the word out to everyone involved, the administration is, in effect, showing that it supports students fighting for higher education, but refuses to help them in one of the most logical ways possible.
The administration allows e-mails regarding post-basketball-game conduct to fill everyone's inboxes, but when it comes to something everyone is affected by, the administration stands by and leaves the students scrambling to get the word out on their own.
Perhaps the administration's guidelines should be made more public so that when events such as this tuition rally occur, people can know whether it is acceptable and appropriate to announce the event on the student listproc. Of course, not every club opening or advertisement can or should make its way onto every student's computer screen, and the guidelines expressly guard against such occurrences.
However, the existing guidelines need to be revised so information about important events and issues can reach more students. If the listproc policy is intended for announcements regarding University policy, why should tuition be excluded? University policy states that Students-L e-mails must be, among other things, "about an issue of broad interest to the campus." What could possibly be of broader interest than tuition hikes, which will affect every student at KU?
This type of active passivity is not acceptable from University officials. The provost's office and the administration, in general, should actively support students fighting for their educational rights. It's one thing to say you support us as students, and it's another to show us your direct support.
Sara Zafar for the editorial board
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All I can say about these student elections is I'm the Campus Masturbator, and I demand a recount.
This is what victory sounds like: (crowd noise)
rm watching a rerun of the MTV show *Jackass*, and I just gotta say that it would have been much funnier if they would have actually died during the stunts.
First George W., now Jonathan Ng. The world is coming to an end.
I vote we abolish Senate and appoint an emperor.
]
I think it's pathetic that almost less than 15 percent of the student body voted today.
Welt, the hippies lost. I guess that sucks. Oh wait, not really.
Ha, ha.
--rm watching a rerun of the MTV show *Jackass*, and I just gotta say that it would have been much funnier if they would have actually died during the stunts.
Delta Force, I'm sorry you lost, but I told you so. I hope you're not crying yourself to sleep in your Birkenstocks with only the hope of a granola breakfast to help you out. Better luck next year. Listen to the normal people.
This is to all the drunk people who like to come back to the dorm and have sex. Make sure your roommate is not in there.
Even though Delta Force lost, I hope we can all enjoy a beer at the Jaybow next year.
I was just wondering why on the Brady Bunch they just work on their bikes all the time, and then they never ride them? And by the way, Ali Brox is the best sportswriter on staff.
Hey Jonathan, congratulations on the win. Hope to see you out at the drag show. I know you love that stuff.
Puff paint and bandanas do not win elections.
Hey Delta Force, it's OK. You guys may not have won the election, but you guys have always got non-corporate dairy farms to worry about.
TALK TO US
Leita Walker editor
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GOVT STUDY FINDS SERIOUS LACK OF EXERCISE IN AMERICA
PERSPECTIVE
Looming increase in tuition will limit opportunities for higher educaiton
The theory of public education is fairly simple. A society recognizes that it is better served by having educated citizens, so it works to ensure that this opportunity is available to all.
GUEST COMMENTARY
ensure that this opportunity is maintained. In American society, we are so concerned with having an educated populace that we mandate attendance at learning institutions until the age of 16 in most cases. On the surface, we appear to value education greatly; after all, a populace endowed with knowledge and critical-thinking skills is a requirement for a healthy democracy.
Increasingly, however, our state government is withdrawing needed financial support for public education at all levels, and particularly, for higher education.
Sarah Hoskinson opinion@kansan.com
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that education is a right. According to this document, unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 1948, primary and secondary education should be free. Higher education should be accessible to all on the basis of merit. "Merit" is a pretty vague concept, particularly in a system in which the quality of public primary and secondary schools varies greatly.
The more that public institutions are relegated to the private realm through shifting the burden of support onto students and private entities rather than the state, the more our system becomes available on the basis of money rather than merit.
This is exactly what is occurring in the Legislature. Public universities in Kansas have suffered from years of inadequate state funding, and have now turned to dramatic tuition hikes to make up for it. According to the provost's presentations on
tuition, Kansas is second to last in state appropriations per student in public higher education institutions in the Big 12. By drastically raising tuition, the message we are sending the state is that this is an acceptable solution to its neglect of public education. Pass the burden on to students and gradually privatize the system.
"merit," consider the following statistics from www.fairtest.org: The 2001 results of the SAT and ACT demonstrate a direct correlation between family income and the final score a student receives. For the SAT, students with a family income of $10,000 to $20,000 averaged a score of 898. Students in homes with an income of $50,000 to $60,000 averaged a score of 1011. The results move up incrementally with the income brackets, with students in households making more than $100,000 a year averaging a 1126.
Are we making higher education available on the basis of merit or on the basis of money? Lower-class students, statistically, do not fare as well on measures of "merit" that universities use, such as the PSAT and the ACT. Thus, students miss out on the opportunity for financial aid, as the PSAT is a qualifying exam for becoming a National Merit Scholar and high ACT scores open doors for countless scholarships. Students are then placed in a situation in which they must agree to take on thousands of dollars in debt — and often work 20 to 40 hours a week while in school — to gain access to the education that so many others have at their fingertips.
To demonstrate the way social class affects one's opportunity to achieve these standards of
The same is true of the ACT, in which averages range from 18.9 for a student in a family making $18,000 to $24,000 annually to 23.4 for a student from a family making more than $100,000 annually.
The combined problems of a flawed system of merit measurement, inadequate financial aid and the massive tuition hikes that have been proposed all point to a disproportionate burden being placed upon the shoulders of low-income students. This should tell us that the University's commitment to diversity is shallow and not one that includes economic factors.
The role of a public institution of higher education is not to be an elite institution; it is to provide accessible and affordable education to citizens of the state. Let us not forget this as our state continues to butcher our budget, our University administration threatens to double tuition and our right to an education becomes dependent upon money.
Is society really better served this way?
Hoskinson is a Burton senior in religious studies.
STOP THE DEATH PENALTY
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear editor.
Amnesty International is currently sponsoring a death penalty awareness program here at KU.
Never mind Columbia Law School research proving one in seven death penalty verdicts are mistaken, never mind that smokers have less risk of cancer than blacks of execution. The best possible death penalty is still indefensible.
What do we need to be aware of? That after several hundred government-sponsored ritual killings in the last couple of years, the usual rationalizations for the death penalty — vengeance, safety, deterrence and justice — still don't add up.
Vengeance is anger wrapped in payback. I'm not going to explain why it is wrong to be wrong, even if someone else started it. I don't get to kill your son if you killed mine.
Safety is a matter of good cops, good prisons, good programs and competent prison staff. We don't have to kill killers to be safe. We have to lock them up and do it right.
Execution doesn't effectively deter because most murderers honestly don't think they'll get caught. That's why they kill. And the ugly fact about deterrence is that it has nothing to do with guilt. Suppose one murder is stopped because someone is executed. It doesn't matter whether that person is guilty. All that matters is whether the rest of us think they are.
And we know we've seen plenty of innocents executed in the last 20 years. No morally decent nation
What is justice? In a well-governed society, it is giving what is deserved. What is deserved in a well governed society? That's a matter of what society is here for; to help make our lives better, to help those who are hurt and to help protect all of us from each other. None of these have anything to do with ritually killing anyone.
would embrace deterrence as the reason for a death penalty unless it also believed the death penalty was just.
A government that wants the right to ritually kill its citizens has forgotten why we create good governments in the first place. But it sure hasn't forgotten how to buy votes with the filthy cash of vengeance.
Yes, we still want some kind of payback. But looking to the death penalty for payback is like someone who boasts that they got their due when the person who stole a life's wages from them drops a dime in their toilet. When payback is for the death of your mom, sister or son, it's a nonstarter: You lose, totally. Payback is futile. Face it. Better find another way to look at this.
Is there another way of looking at it? The only sane way: Safety, healing and maybe, someday, forgiveness. Lock them up and move on. Leave it to God. The death penalty is simply an expression of ignorance or anger. Either way, we need to join the rest of the civilized world — all of Europe—and forget about it. But don't forget this: 'There are innocent people out there who will be ritually killed by our government if we don't. Most of them are black. But
you already heard that, didn't you? Contact KU Amnesty International to learn what you can do to help.
Roksana Alavi Oklahoma City graduate student SIMISM, NOT LEADERSHIP
Dear editor.
During the past year, I've spoken with Robert Chamberlain enough to know that he is a smart young man with leadership potential. It is a shame that his columns in The University Daily Kansan never reflect that potential.
Last week Mr. Chamberlain wrote an opinion column chastising Student Senate for its many efforts on behalf of KU students. Although I have never served as a student senator, I couldn't help but be troubled by his column. Mr. Chamberlain's pessimistic attacks on student government may amuse KU's many skeptics, but his attacks are not real leadership. Real leaders do not rely on cynicism; they lead the way with optimism. Real leaders do not mock problems and those that seek to fix them; they become involved to help find solutions.
Mr. Chamberlain, your columns do not make KU a better place. They do not remedy the challenges you purport to care about. Some day you will understand this. Until then, I fear your columns will be a shameful waste of your talents.
Dustin Johnson
Pierre, S.D., graduate student
GREEKS AND SENATE
Dear editor.
I attended KU from 1993 to 1998 and ran for Senate (with Delta Force) as a senior. Throughout my KU career, I witnessed more than proportionate Greek representation in Student Senate. In fact, this motivated my run in the first place. Do not be fooled by the statistics. While the Greek population of the campus hovered around 20 percent, the number of Excel award winners, Chancellor's Award winners and other measures of "leadership" were definitely not this low. Student Senate was at least 65 percent Greek-affiliated while I was enrolled as an undergraduate.
All of this leads me to my point: Greeks are not now, nor have they historically been, underrepresented at KU. They are a numerical minority, yes, but hold more operative power than any other group on campus.
Am I opposed to proportional greek representation? Of course not. I'm all in favor of knocking them down to 20 percent of the leadership positions on campus. Am I looking to do that? No. Keep the voting as it is, and vote against gerrymandering under the guise of "fairness." I guarantee you, Greeks will still hold more than 20 percent of the positions and still do OK on campus.
Matt Bachand
Baltimore 1988 graduate
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