4A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
FRIDAY,APRIL5,2002
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SPEAK OUT
Longetivity of Delta Force conducive to its success
Did you enjoy having a fall break last semester? Have you ever used the new city-wide bus system? Do you have a child in the new Hilltop child-care facility? Have you ever checked your e-mail on campus at one of the NEST terminals? Have you ever voted in the Student Senate elections at the Daisy Hill voting site?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have experienced the results of Delta Force's hard work. This is our sixth year on campus, and we are going strong. We are not afraid to tackle big issues because we know that we will be around to follow through with them, even if they take many years to accomplish. We were told that getting a fall break would be impossible, but people worked on it for four years and this past October the entire campus got to enjoy the fruits of that labor.
Delta Force has always been about empowering students to affect positive change on our campus and in our community. One of our overriding issues this year is improving the accessibility of information to students and increasing student power in the decision-making process. This year we learned all too well the difference between student input and student power when the tuition increase came to the table. Now it looks like students are going to be hit by an enormous increase in tuition over the next few years.
One way to increase student power in decision making is to get a student vote on the Board of Regents. The board is going to be the one to approve the tuition increase, and it also helps control such issues as the alcohol policy and the University's anti-discrimination policies. Another thing that we would be able to use this student vote to help pass is a domestic partnership policy - a very basic measure to get equal rights for homosexual and heterosexual couples. This policy is just one of our efforts to help support the diversity of this campus.
COMMENTARY
We also need to increase communication and accountability for minority recruitment and retention, which will be a long-term process. We cannot limit our definition of diversity to only include ethnicity and sexual orientation, however. Part of our opposition to the huge tuition increases is that they will price students out of an education and reduce the socioeconomic diversity of our campus.
Another socioeconomic issue that we are addressing is getting fair wages for all KU employees. We believe that people should be fairly compensated for their work. Paying students low wages
Karen Keith opinion@kansan.com
because they are students is a concept based on a middle-class standard of parental support that is unfair to student employees whose parents are not still supporting them.
Following our tradition of environmental
responsibility, we are continuing our fight to increase recycling on campus and to change policy to increase the use of recycled goods on campus in order to complete the loop.
Relevance. That's what KUnited will return to Student Senate. More specifically, relevance in issues that affect your everyday life as students at KU. That's exactly what you should be looking for in this year's Student Senate elections, and that's why you should take the extra five minutes to vote for KUnited next Wednesday and Thursday.
KUnited wants to bring relevance back to Senate
STUDENT SENATE elections 2002
Finally, we want to improve the alcohol policy, with the first step being the return of beer to the Jaybowl. Students are going to drink regardless of University policies. What safer place for students to do so than our student union, the hub of our public transportation system?
KUnited puts action behind words. With 17 returning student senators — the most out of any coalition — we have worked hard to create a list of goals, clearly laid out with a detailed plan of action for each of our issues. This ensures we will be prepared to continue working on our issues even after the election.
That's the difference. We don't just talk about lofty ideas or use abstract terms that are confusing to students. Instead, we are showing the student body how
Editor's note: SMILE candidate Paul Bammel did not submit a column for the faceoff.
Keith is a Tulsa, Okla., junior and is the Delta Force presidential candidate with vice presidential candidate Kit Brauer, Denver, soph.
Now that you know what we're all about, I encourage you to stop by the tables of all of the different coalitions and find out more about each one. When April 10 and 11 roll around, get out and vote. Last year there was only a 39-vote margin of victory for the presidential candidates, so your vote really does matter. And remember, long-term change requires long-term commitment.
we plan to achieve ourgoals, which are actually relevant and feasible.
munity service events, intramural and test times and faculty evaluations will be available.
Part of our platform includes creating a centralized Web site providing students with a resource to find out about all campus activities throughout the entire year. Consider this like an online KU Info. The site will have descriptions of each student organization, meeting times for an entire semester and contact information. Moreover, scholarship information, com-
As KU becomes more integrated through the Internet for processes such as enrollment, it will be helpful to have other user-friendly and relevant online resources for other aspects of campus life.
Speaking of relevance, let's stop "talking" about minority recruitment and retention, and let's start doing something about it by pushing for a new Multicultural Resource Center. We need a new MRC to replace the current one, which is located in an inadequate and temporary facility. A new MRC will
COMMENTARY
Jonathan Ng
opinionkan.san.com
strengthen our campus atmosphere not just for minority students, but for all students so we will all be prepared to enter into the increasingly diverse workplace after we graduate. Tomorrow, KUnited will sponsor an MRC Rally in the front of the MRC from 3 to 5 p.m.
Another relevant aspect of our lives as KU students is parking. KUnited will work to get all lots opened to students at 5 p.m. Most parking lots restricted until 7:30 p.m. are empty after 5 p.m. These are lots students should be using for their evening meetings and events on campus.
We also want to improve safety on campus through increased emergency blue phones, especially around Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall and Daisy Hill. We will also work to implement a community bike program and easy-to-read parking maps.
Finally, KUnited strongly believes current students should not be priced out of their education. An increase in tuition should be dispersed among all students, so we can still attract more students to our University; however, current students should not have to pay as much as incoming students.
Many benefits from a tuition increase, such as stronger research and improvements to facilities, will not help juniors and seniors as much as it would incoming freshmen since it takes more time to see the outcome of those benefits. KUnited will work to ensure your money is being spent on increasing financial aid, increasing GTA salaries, improving classroom facilities and technology, among many other issues. In addition, KUnited will work to hold the University accountable for showing where our tuition dollars are being spent and how it has benefited us.
Elections are less than a week away. Stop by our table, pick up our flier and meet our candidates. KUnited will continue to work for you, building one campus, one community, one KU. See the difference. Vote KUnited.
■ Ng is a Leawood junior and is the KUnited presidential candidate with vice presidential candidate Loren Malone, Senatobia, Miss., junior.
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
ROACHES IN THE TOWERS
Dear editor.
This is in response to the "Student Surveys roach problem" (April 2). I lived in Tower A during my first year at KU. During my stay at the Towers, my apartment, shared with an international student, was clean. I was very saddened and angered to read that some think that I, because I am from another country, do not regard cleanliness to a high degree in my life.
At the time, Towers C and D were the filthiest to me and had the highest occurrences of roaches. The roach problem has always been as issue at the Towers, with or without international students.
Seth Fishman, complex director for the Towers said, "I think in A Tower, with the international students, they just aren't as clean. They have different standards of cleanliness." It may be true that people in different countries have different standards of cleanliness. However, Fishman's statement implies that international students are dirty and that we may be the cause of the roach problems.
Living in this country has taught me a lot about the filth within this society. While some Americans—like any other group of people—may be clean and tidy, there is no doubt that some of the most filthy living creatures can be found in this society.
Mr. Fishman, before generalizing and exposing your deep knowledge and insight of international students, I suggest you start by checking out your own environment.
I would expect a lot more professionalism coming from a good institution such as the University of Kansas. I can now see how some students at the University may feel this is a hostile environment if the attitudes and mindsets are filled with misconstrained ideas starting with the staff on down.
Generalizations are the root to stereotypes and prejudices and I am appalled that you have expounded stereotypes towards non-Americans, especially when a lot of the students you work with could be international students. I'm sure they appreciate your honest opinion about what you truly think of them.
I can assure you that most of the international students on this campus have little or no tolerance for roaches. Roaches are filly and unsanitary and to even imply that I as an international student would not mind roaches in my apartment angers me. International students have enough negative stereotypes as it is, we do not need anymore tacked on to us.
Yibonka Beri Lainjo Bamenda, Cameroon senior
Landing during both games and walked away with enough money to cover my rent and bills for the month. Business was certainly booming in Lawrence during March. But does anyone ever thank the team that enables them to see another season? Probably not. So here it goes.
THANK YOU JAYHAWKS
Dearestor
I am not a basketball fan. I don't pretend to know the difference between an air-ball and a brick, and am usually more interested in checking out Roy's tie than the player's collective running game. But Saturday's game was different. Saturday's game put a roof over my head, Ramen in my tummy, and even a little beer in my cup.
Thank you, Jayhawks, for waking before even the rooster every day and practicing until your souls ached. While most of us were still in bed, you were sweating, bleeding, screaming, playing. Each of you is an inspiration; never forget that.
Dear editor,
I worked at Abe and Jake's
Thank you, Jayhawks, for the formidable spirit which you have so gracefully afforded our campus, our city, and our state. You have truly captivated a nation in your battle against that merciless basket and proven yourselves heroes at a time when our country so desperately needs them. Even as the game ended, strangers embraced, but not in hopelessness. We think you're the absolute best, and always will.
And thank you, Jayhawks, for my education. Without your stellar performances year after year I could not afford my education here at the University of Kansas. As it turned out, every threepointer was $10 in my pocket — $10 dollars closer to my degree and my dreams. So I'm thanking you, presently, for my future Because of your relentless dedication, unflagging motivation and tremendous unity, I am, and always will be, a Jayhawk.
Vanessa Young Overland Park senior
Leita Walker
editor
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Free for All callers have 20 seconds
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for more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
--if you want to pad your resume get a job. Don't run for Student Senate.
Just because the United States gives them the tanks does not justify us as American citizens supporting the innocent deaths of Palestinian citizens.
Someone should tell Seth Fishman that it's very bad to make stupid generalizations. I'm an international student, and I have very high standards of cleanliness, even higher than most Americans I know, and I was very, very offended when I read the paper today.
I'm a KU alumni, and being a KU alumni is the next best thing to being a KU student, so cherish every moment of your time at the best college in the world. It will end all too soon, and you'll want to do it all over again.
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So I'm sitting in my room, and I keep hearing these fighter jets fly over Lawrence, and my roommate comes in to tell me that it's a飞over for our losing basketball team. What a ridiculous waste of money.
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This is to Drew Gooden. Whether or not you leave or stay I don't really care, but just one reminder: you are not a point guard.
Drew, we heard you say "we" in reference to next year, so I'll see you next year.
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Drew, I'll buy you a car. Just stay next year.
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This is for the guys that buzzed in the B-1 B today. You guys made me feel as giddy as a kid on Christmas day and made me realize no matter how tough it gets, aerospace engineering truly is the right major for me. Thanks guys.
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I'd like to let the geniuses protest regularly on Wescow with their cute, little agenda that they're already cutting classes, so if we don't increase tuition then we're going to lose a ton of classes. They have to face the facts. We have to give them more money.
Budig is not Jeopardy.
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Jordan, the country next to israel, is spelled J-O-R-D-A-N
not J-O-R-D-O-N.
This call is not from KU Info.
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ESPN is racist. They just showed Curt Schilling pitching for the Diamondbacks, and they showed his strikeouts on the scoreboard at KKK. That's it.
I'm watching the little tribute to the KU players at Memorial, and they just cut it off when Boschee was talking to show rocks, so I'm just a little disappointed that I listened to the chancellor stutter, and when you get to players you cut it off for rocks and whatever crap you were showing, so I would really like you to replay it, and my friend likes Hinrich, and she's real disappointed that we can't see him, and I just wanted to look at Drew. OK. Thank you. Please fix it.
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Please re-air the pie assembly, and my friend loves Hinrich, and she didn't get a chance to speak. Thank you.
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I would just like to let all the tuition-paying students at KU know that not only did the University pay for the entire basketball team to go to Atlanta for five days, two of which they were actually playing in, but they also stayed in a nice hotel, get free massages, eat out and each of them was paid $150.
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Since the cable can be all messed up, and we've only had a few channels, and I've been forced to watch TV Land, I think I've somehow developed some weird crush on Wally from Leave it to Beaver. I think I'd be better off turning the TV off.
Oh my God, I thought we were under attack. No, it's just the stupid planes for the basketball players. Who cares.
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Warning: jets on campus may be closer than they appear.
Roy's rules. Take a ride on the Roy mobile
Man, I'll tell you what, they should make smaller, single-sized bags of popcorn that you can pop in the microwave, because I'll tell you what; that big bag of Orville Redden-bockers is just too damn big for just me.
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I once stole hosts from my church, and I ate them like Prinacles in a can.
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This is to my devilish psychology teacher, I hope you rot in hell.
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I was just wondering if there were any women on this campus that didn't have to dress up like dirty sluts just to make an impression on people.
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I was just wondering if all the women in this world are out of my league who am I supposed to go after.
Dude, it's 2:15 in the morning, and the Kansas spirit squad is somewhere in Kentucky, but we're totally lost on our way to Florida. Ohman.
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