4A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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OPINION
THURSDAY,FEB.21,2002
TALKTOUS
Leita Walker
editor
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Jay Krail
Kyle Ramsey
managing editors
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Clay McCusition readers' representative 864-4910 or mcn.org
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Brooke Hesler
opinion editors
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& hekslanan.com
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Malcolm Gibson
general manager
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KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL
Sharing medal makes best out of bad situation
For a week now, we've watched a soap opera on ice unfold before our eyes: Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Canadian pairs figure skaters, "robbed" of their gold on Feb. 11. Russian pair, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, remained calm and dignified as tensions mounted.
Then, Sunday night, Sale and Pelletier were awarded the gold medal as well. Now, the Russians are up in arms at the insult. Meanwhile, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne was last seen cowering in a bunker somewhere in Afghanistan. It's Salt Lake City, 84195, and Aaron Spelling is frantically trying to buy the TV rights.
But while everyone cashes in on their 15 minutes, they've lost track of the main point in all this: Corruption has brought the system down.
One judge stood up during the opening ceremony and pledged an oath to the world that all of the Olympic officials would judge fairly and without bias. Less than 72 hours later, the world saw what that oath had meant.
The Olympics is a business. No one doubts that. There are rivers of money flowing through it as cities vie to become host, NBC nabs as many advertisers as possible, athletes sign endorsement deals and the host cities rope in as many tourists as possible. One would have to be naive not to see that.
Yet, at the heart of it all, the Olympics stands for something noble. Faster. Higher. Stronger. The ideal is alive, and that's what's been tarnished this past week.
The International Olympic Committee made the best of a bad situation when they awarded Canada the co-gold. No one wanted to deny the Canadians what should have been theirs. At the same time, no one wanted to strip the Russians of their rightful medal because of an incident over which they had no control. Sharing the gold was the lesser of three evils. Truly, it was the only fair solution.
Yet, if the committee thinks it can pass out medals like candy bars and everyone will be satisfied, it has another thing coming. Closed-door hearings and six-day investigations just won't cut it.
Dan Osman for the editorial board.
The head of the International Skating Union has proposed abolishing the 6.0 scale, one that's been a tradition in the skating world for 110 years. The ISU is also saying the number of judges needs to be increased to 15 from its current nine, or that judges should always be from countries that aren't participating in the event.
In the end, though, it's unlikely that anything will come of this. No, nothing will change. It will be business as usual. And the only people to get hurt will be athletes who spend their whole lives preparing for performances and fans who only wish to see the winner win.
'Kansan'report card
Pass:
MTV's 'Be Heard.' Young people from five cities across the globe grilled Secretary of State Colin Powell in an MTV-sponsored forum. Cheers to the kids in Washington, D.C., Sao Paulo, Cairo, New Delhi and London showed Powell that 20-something demands explanations, too.
Big 12 Champions. For the first time in four years, the men's basketball team secured its place atop the conference standings—and the Jayhawks did it in style.
Girl Scout cookies. You just can't deny the goodness of Thin Mints and Caramel Delites. Mmm ... Plus, now they've gone kosher.
Fail:
Basketball tickets. After the Athletics Department extended the deadline to pick up tickets for the last two men's basketball games, some students with vouchers were still left empty-handed.
Great Britain. While practicing military operations near Gibraltar last weekend, British marines misread a map and accidentally invaded Spain. They quickly left when they discovered Penepole Cruz was nowhere to be found.
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People talking too loud on their cell phones. Shh .. nobody needs to hear about how you were so drunk this weekend you puked your guts out on the lawn of GSP-Corbin Hall.
PERSPECTIVE
State legislature to blame for proposed tuition increases
Much has been made of the proposed tuition increases coming for state universities in Kansas. Many students are appealing to our administrators or the Board of Regents to curb the apparently inevitable tide. But are the chancellors or the Regents really to blame for this sudden shift?
It's doubtful that the cost of running the University of Kansas and its facilities has gone up as dramatically as the size of the proposed increases. Are we being mismanaged? Is the administration skimming profits? Not likely.
The culprit is not the Regents or the University's administrators, but rather the state legislature. During the last several years, most Kansas elected officials have demonstrated nothing short of a fetish for tax cutting. This followed a national trend, led by Republicans, who believed that the only reasonable thing to do with surplus tax dollars in a booming economy was to "return it to the people."
Similarly, Gov. Graves boasted his tax-cutting credentials during his reelection in 1998, and other Republican lawmakers have been just as eager.
Now that the economy is in the dumps, these tax cuts have left Kansas and many other states with new deficits and budget shortfalls.
What is a state government to do? The legislature could raise taxes again to maintain funding for the priorities to which it has committed. Instead,legislators are looking for ways to cut spending.
COMMENTARY
David Grummon opinion@kansan.com
KU students can think back to increases in student housing costs in recent years. Did the cost of maintenance for buildings suddenly jump that high? Not much, one administrator explained to me. The state, though, has been reducing its percentage of paying for those costs. While school endowments do their best to stem the tide with charitable contributions, universities have no choice but to either make the students pay more or cut back on what it offers.
Among the biggest sacrificial lambs is education. For state universities, the tuition increase is the latest sign that many of our legislators no longer feel public higher education should be a priority.
The bigger picture is just as maddening. The state, by mandate of its people, set up public universities to offer quality higher education for its residents at affordable prices. Then, to keep getting reelected, lawmakers cut taxes and refused to increase spending on the
state's universities to keep up with its portion of the costs. To make up the difference, the Regents have to raise tuition.
Effectively, the taxes cut for businesses and the general population have been transferred to students and their families in the form of tuition increases. We will have to pay more to be at KU so that our parents and neighbors in Kansas can pay less in taxes.
It's hard to see how this trend can benefit the people of Kansas. Increased tuition means it will be harder for the average Kansan to attend college, unless he or she is rich or is willing to go into greater debt with student loans. It seems our public universities are gradually becoming privatized.
If you want to point partisan fingers, blame the Republicans. Perhaps some legislators will have the leadership and courage to suggest that we raise taxes to support those things we as a state promised to make a priority, such as public higher education. But by the time the next election rolls around, their opponents will surely have branded them as tax-and-spend liberals.
Don't blame the Regents or the administration. The real culprits will be up for reelection in November. I can't think of a better reason to vote.
- Grummon is a third-year law student from Beloit.
864-0500 free for -
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For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
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I was absolutely appalled by the sportsmanlike behavior of many of the K-State fans at the women's basketball game this Sunday. There were signs that said, "Kill KU snobs" and booing when our players came out. I thought that was incredibly uncalled for, and I left the game early. Marian Washington, you're the greatest.
Kansas State has the most fair-weather fans ever. To call them devoted is just dumb. They never show up unless they have a winner. Why would anyone praise fans that only show up when their team is winning? I'm not really sure.
I was at the KU-K-State game on Sunday, and although it wasn't a very good game, the fieldhouse was very clean. Whoever cleaned it did a really good job.
Nothing says I love you like premarital sex.
国
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After reading the Free for All today, I was just wondering why there's no random comments like "Razor bump armpit hair" anymore? What's up with that, Eric Cowenish?
How can you say Kansas fans suck? You camp out longer for basketball games than probably any other college in the nation. Plus, given that our football team sucks, we still have pretty good attendance. You know what, if you don't like it, you can get the hell out.
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I would just like to point out that Snow Hall seems to have the most comfortable desks out of all of the buildings.
roody, while I was walking back from class, a girl made fun of me, yelling from the window of her sorority house. I didn't hear exactly what she said, but she called me the girl in the yellow sweater. That wasn't very nice considering I am a guy, and the sweater was a gift from my aunt. I like yellow. Is there anything wrong with a guy wearing yellow?
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Hey Chris, I didn't see you camping out at the Fieldhouse at 6 a.m.
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The only reason that K-State fans go see K-State men's basketball is they want to see the No.2 team in the country, and there's nothing to do in Manhattan anyway. The coolest place west of Lawrence is pretty much Denver, so I don't know. Take from what you will.
OK, on the front of the *Kansanther* there's a bunch of blood splattered everywhere, in the photo section there's K-State fans, and on the front page of the sports page it talks about how KU fans should be more like K-State fans. What's up with that? I think the *Kansanther* should get new editors.
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Yeah, maybe people should cut Robert Chamberain a break since all his article did was defend the people that defend our country.
Hey, I'd like to give a shout out to the worst columnist ever. This one's for you, Chris Wristen.
I'm watching KCPT right now, and there's two men taking a bath with a grown monkey on TV.
What I meant to say was, I'm watching KCPT, and right now there are two grown men on Taking a Bath with a Monkey.
Zoom zoom.
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I just got out of the Geography 105 lab, and Nate Dog, our TA, wanted to inform us that Cyclones don't blow. They suck.
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BLOODY FRONT PAGE
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
Dear editor,
Dear editor, Monday morning as I elbowed my way into the sea of groggy students for my much-anticipated University Daily Kansan, I yanked my hand away from the stack as if something had bitten me. As I searched for a newspaper that seemed more legible and less alarming, I began to realize the staff of the Kansan had lost its collective minds.
Although I fully understand the play on words, "Casualties of Gwar," I am unclear why the Kansan thinks the Gwar concert to be of greater newsworthiness than the closing of the Sprint center or the open dismissal of academic integrity demonstrated by the University's subscription to turnitin.com.
And then there's the blood; quite possibly the most distasteful front page of all time. Balsys, yes. But the obnoxious paddle of red, smeared over words like "shit" and well, Alex Bartlett's name in the adjacent column, seem wild inappropriate. At a time when the media's coverage of terrorism and its impending threats govern our level of anxiety and sense of security with an almost absolute authority, the UDK literally cried wolf.
The UDK's blatant disregard of all that is tactful for the mere purpose of shock value is disappointing. This is not the Pitch Weekly; we've no need for scantily clad rebels and punchy, inyour-face graphics. It is a NEWSpaper; a designated forum set on the principle of reporting the daily events that affect our lives as a community.
Get your feet off the desk, turn your
Vanessa Young Overland Park senior
backwards hat around, and take your job seriously, as we take our lives seriously.
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ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT HELP
Dear editor
Dear editor,
Until recently, I might have concurred with Prof. Dennis Dalley's statement in a letter in the Feb.12 Kansan that "it is always such a one-way street with the Athletics Department." The recent event that changed my mind is that the Athletics Department has worked closely with astronomers at KU when the observatory on the roof of Lindley Hall was demolished after being there since Lindley Hall opened in 1944
The Athletics Department has kindly
allowed us to use the roof of Memorial Stadium for our portable telescopes that are used both for classes and for public observing sessions. While the Campus Observing Station on the stadium may be temporary until funding is obtained for a facility worthy of the University of Kansas, without their timely help an academic class would have had to be cancelled, and KU students and Kansans at large would not have access to the view of the sky available only through a telescope. These public sessions are currently scheduled on the last Friday of each month from 8 to 9:30 p.m. (if cloudy, it will be the following Sunday). We are grateful for their help.
Stephen Shawl professor of physics and astronomy
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