4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
FRIDAY,MARCH 15,2002
EDITORIAL Students need better chance at tickets
We camp out weeks in advance to ensure ideal seating. We make signs of support and chant our team to victory. We are among the best fans in the nation, and the majority of us will not be in the stands for the rest of the season to cheer on our own Kansas basketball team.
We are not alone in this injustice.
We are not alone in this instance. The NCAA needs to give the loyal student supporters more of a chance to represent their school spirit when the whole nation is watching.
The problem begins with the inevitably high ticket prices that are beyond most college students budgets. According to the NCAA Web site, www.ncaa.org, tickets for games in St. Louis are $60, $120 or $150 dollars. Sixty dollars is the lowest ticket price offered among the eight first round sites. The Final Four is already sold out, which means students who don't already have tickets won't get to cheer on their team. These prices might be reasonable, but car rides or plane tickets plus lodging can often exceed a student budget.
student budget.
Students are also unwilling to buy tickets too far in advance, because the risk of buying a ticket and then a team not making it to a higher round is too high for some risk. This leaves many game sites already sold out long before the games are completed and little, if any, student representation.
Students should have the opportunity to follow their teams. If we assume that an average tournament stadium is comparable to Kemper Arena in Kansas City, it would hold roughly 19,000 people. What we are asking is a percentage of seats reserved by each team for discounted student purchases. Students should be given at least 24 hours after the bracket announcement and each following round to make ticket purchases. After that, tickets would be open to the public.
Students sharing in March Madness would elevate the intensity of every game. At NCAA tournament games, students would show the nation what school spirit is all about. The players deserve that hometown spirit while making school history.
Jessica Smith for the editorial board
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I just wanted to say that I'm running with KUnited, and I am not Greek. In fact, two thirds of our coalition is not Greek.
The comment from the guy who doesn't care about Rock Chalk Revue hacks me off. Do you have any idea how much hard work went into that? No you don't. By the way, we raised $50,000 for the United Way.
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It really sucks that Student Senate elections are beginning again, because I'm going to have to find alternate routes to all my Wescoe classes.
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Unless financial aid increase proportionally to the tuition increase over the next five years this will be one of the most elite fraternities in the world, because only rich people will be able to go. I guess the chancellor doesn't care about poor and middle class children though.
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My dog's name is Duke, so I'm only referring to him as dog until after the tournament.
About that article today in the Kansan about tuition increases, I'd at least like to know what I'm paying for before they decide that they are going to raise the prices, and they don't even know what they're paying for. It'd be nice to know before I decide if I'm going to be here next year.
B
I see something suspicious about this tuition increase. I can see going from 10 to 20 percent increasing, but not 120 percent. I think there needs to be an investigation of the school or whoever's in charge of this, and I think there needs to be a strike if nothing is done.
The Vision Coalition? More like the Coercion Coalition.
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I was just watching MTV, and it said that Sispo's "Thong Song" should be brought back for this Spring Break. I agree with them.
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You guys call the UDK a newspaper? It's more like a newsletter for liberal, alternative freaks.
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Why is it that the sign says "No food or drink" in the computer labs, but a girl comes and sits right next to me eating carrots? I'm cool.
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Matt Fisher
KNIGHT RIDDER
PERSPECTIVE
Heed these helpful spring break tips and avoid a 'Girls Gone Wild' cameo
For those of you actually reading this and not already on your way to South Padre, I thought I'd help out fellow spring breakers with a few tips.
The forthcoming days can be a wonderful opportunity for relaxation, revelry and an escape from the realities of higher education. But danger and general humiliation can occur if you don't keep a few things in mind.
COMMENTARY
1. If you bought an "all-inclusive" package cheap, you're not allowed to whine. What's that? You're $50 flight was delayed, then you got tossed in with the freight en route to Negril or Cancun? And you're free drinks consist of generic brand rum and Natural Light? Tough luck, kiddo. You get what you pay for, and when it comes to spring break, you're going to have to pay a pretty penny.
pay a pretty penny.
2. Heed the mantra, "What happens in Cancun stays in Cancun." Please remember this applies upon your return to Mount Oread. I promise, no one in your classes, especially those who haven't suddenly turned golden brown, wants to hear about how you got so wasted that one night. Nor do we want to hear about your escapades with "that one guy" or "that one girl," whose name you don't remember because you got so wasted on generic rum and Natural Light.
3. Avoid video cameras. No matter how drunk you might be, it's not a good idea to embarrass yourself in front of any camera
Kursten Phelps
kphelps@kansan.com
crews. What seems like good spring break fun at the time will become a quite uncomfortable moment when your parents call asking about your cameo in that Girls Gone Wild video.
4. If you're leaving the country, don't be a stupid American. OK, this is my personal bias. Nothing annoyed me more when I was studying in Mexico than tourists in Puerto Vallarta screaming, "Hey Paco, bring me another beero, pleaso." Either speak English, or try to actually speak the native language of your spring break destination. Trust me, the bartenders in Cancun will not be amused by your mutilation of their language, as they have heard such comments from plenty of American kids before.
5. Don't trust the water. Anywhere. It'll just make you sick. Play it on the safe side and substitute several beers and pina coladas for the daily eight glasses of water.
6. Don't drink up all your money. You've scrimped and saved all year for your big trip, but remember, you do have to pay the bills when you get back. For some reason, landlords don't seem to react well to explanations of, "Instead of paying April's rent in dollars, how 'bout I give you my copy of Girls Gone Wild?"
7. No matter how annoying that friend of yours is, don't leave him on the side of the road. You've got to know what you're getting into when taking a long road trip. Choose your traveling mates carefully. And even if your friend insists on listening to "Bohemian Rhapsody" or his Britney Spears' greatest hits CD all the way to the beach, you're not allowed to dump him off at a rest stop in the middle of Mississippi.
sissippi.
Yes, you do have to come back to school.
Even those of you who suffer from severe senioritis like me cannot stay on spring break forever. I'm tempted as well, to stay in Miami forever and suddenly forget that I have two more months of school. But we must persevere.
vere. After all, spring break was only meant to last for one blissful week.
Phelps is a Manhattan senior in journalism, Spanish and Latin American studies.
PERSPECTIVE
Basic kindergarten lessons of respect shouldn't be forgotten on KU campus
COMMENTARY
In kindergarten I learned a few basic lessons that I carry with me even today: the ABC's, how to sing "The Muffin Man" song, to call my elders "Mr." or "Mrs." and respect.
Maybe my small town was the only one to teach this principal called "respect" to its children, and maybe over the years since kindergarten, we have either chosen to forget or ignore it. But one thing I do know, there are a lot of people at the University of Kansas who simply don't have it.
Laurel Anne Burchfield
opinion@kansan.com
I don't think a weekend goes by when I don't see empty beer boxes, loose paper and even condom wrappers or condoms themselves littering the front lawn of McCollum hall.
Newspapers scatter across every inch of campus as readers decide, after doing crosswords and checking out the Free For All, that it's far easier to simply drop the paper rather than find a trash can, or worse, a recycling bin. Restrooms are a matter of disgust as people conclude that sinks are indeed the place to toss any consumable and nonconsumable product.
And as the semester begins to wind down, this lack of respect grows increasingly worse. Yes, summer and the end of the school year are in sight, but we still have almost two months of living, working, learning and existing together.
together.
Just a few weeks ago, my boyfriend was hit by a car. He waited in front of a crosswalk for a car to pass, then, assuming that the truck at the
stop sign across the street would allow him to cross, began to walk. Not only did the driver see him walking and choose to ignore it, but after gently hitting him, the truck car continued on. The driver of the truck then stopped, rolled down the window and hollered, "You OK?"
My boyfriend asked why he had hit him. The driver smiled and then drove away.
It was a KU service truck.
That time it was in a potentially dangerous way, but this kind of disrespect occurs every day, whether through anonymous insults in the Free for All, or one person destroying another's property.
It was a rare service. There was absolutely no reason for this to happen. As a pedestrian, he wasn't violating any laws or even ignoring traffic. It was simply an act of one person deciding not to respect another.
It's arguable that it's all play. There's no real harm in leaving trash on the ground or insulting
a person's knowledge in a paper. And while that's one way to look at it, take a second and look at it from the other perspective. You're the one who has to go out and pick up that smelly slimy trash. You're the one who is insulted by an anonymous person who tells jokes about you to his or her group of friends. You're the one who gets hit by a car.
gets hit by a car.
No common person is a saint, thus there's no reason to act like one. But having respect, either for another individual, for an organization or for a piece of property, is something that shouldn't be considered saintly. It's common human decency.
ecently. I am sick of living on a campus where few care about the buildings or the living conditions of the people around them. I'm sick of hearing people insult one another for no apparent reason.
And the only way that I can see to solve these problems is to be aware of my own actions,to be as respectful as I was shown to be,and to ask you to do the same.
Respect is one of those rare grade school lessons that should be remembered. We learned it in kindergarten, don't tell me that after 15 and some years, we still haven't learned the lesson.
Burchfield is a Basehor freshman in pre-journalism and education.
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