4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 6, 2002
TALK TO US
Leita Walker editor
864-4854 or lwalker@kansan.com
Jay Krall
Kyle Ramsey managing editors
864-4854 or jkrall@kansan.com and kramser@kansan.com
Clay McCuistion readers' representative
864-4810 or cmcuistion@kansan.com
Kursten Phelps Brooke Hesler opinion editors
864-4810 or kphelps@kansan.com and bhesler@kansan.com
Amber Agee business manager
864-4014 or addirector@kansan.com
Kate Mariani retail sales manager
864-4462 or retailsales@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or mfischer@kansan.com
EDITORIAL
Increased fees justified for more bandwidth
Students living on campus shouldn't gripe if ethernet prices go up
Whether you're trying to view a Web site for research or download an mp3 to listen to while you're working on research, slow Internet connections are frustrating.
Networking and Telecommunications Services is grappling with the problem of rising costs as students in campus housing continue to download larger amounts of data. Students, in turn, are growing more and more frustrated as Internet connections often seem to slow every day.
What's the solution?
The greatest problem is that no one knows the best way to tackle this dilemma. NTS hasn't made any decisions yet, but a likely possibility is that ethernet connection fees will increase, at least for heavy users.
Nobody likes higher fees, but students must remember that NTS must be able to make ends meet if it wants to continue providing affordable high-speed Internet access on campus.
It costs the department money to provide the bandwith that all students use when they download material. With the proliferation of music and games that can be downloaded, some students are eating up a lot of bandwidth.
This, unfortunately, means everyone in student housing will probably have to pay a little more for the speed they've grown accustomed to.
Students living on campus now pay $14 per month per computer for each ethernet connection, totaling $140. But if you're living on campus, it's either ethernet or a dial-up service, such as America Online, which costs $23.90 for its standard plan.
What students and NTS need is to get beyond the technical jargon, which is confusing people and creating even more problems. Students should make an effort to understand the complex issue before gripping about it, and NTS must work harder to explain the situation in easily understandable terms.
Students would probably be more likely to swallow a reasonable ethernet fee increase for more bandwidth and faster Internet service.
We doubt anyone in residence or scholarship halls would seriously prefer reverting to a dial-up service rather than a modest hike in the cost of an ethernet connection.
Free audio and video on the Internet seems like a great thing. But just as there's no such thing as a free meal, even those great free mp3s have a hidden cost.
The cost of increased bandwidth, whether students in campus housing like it or not, is something they will all have to bear.
Kursten Phelps for the editorial board.
PERSPECTIVE
As Mount Oread took a break, the 'Kansan' kept working
stayed in bed Wednesday and Thursday.
I sometimes crawled out from between the sheets — to watch TV or forage for food in the fridge. Outside, sleet sleeted, snow snowed and rain rained. You'd be nuts, I thought, to leave home in that weather.
But most of The University Daily Kansas staff did.
That's right, the Kansan published on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The days when most students (including myself) savored a respite from anything school-related, the reporters, editors, photographers, designers and advertising staffers did their jobs. And did them well.
General manager and news adviser Malcolm Gibson decided to keep the paper printing.
"The newspaper doesn't stop." Gibson said. "Other newpapers don't do it."
Top editors approved. Jay Krall, managing editor for news, said reporters and copy editors were positive about working in the snowy conditions.
"Some people wound up doing reporting from home," he said. "Nobody griped about having to come in."
Gibson allowed some changes for
READERS' REPRESENTATIVE
Clay McCuistion cmccuistion@kansan.com
the ice.
Fewer copies were printed for the two days of canceled classes. The usual 12,000-issue run was slashed in half for Wednesday, and boosted to 8,000 for Thursday. Gibson and sales and marketing adviser Matt Fisher hand-delivered issues of the Kansan the two days.
"We made a special effort to reach as many students as possible," he said.
On Thursday, Gibson said, he and Fisher delivered some 3,000 copies to fraternities and sororities.
Response was good. Gibson said he received positive comments when he dropped off the papers. He said he suspected that students paid more attention than usual to Wednesday's and Thursday's issues.
"They were stuck inside — what else were they going to do?" he said.
Gibson and Fisher are now planning
a more organized response to snow days. They want to get the newspaper to as many students as possible, in as many places. The next time the KU administration cancels classes, Gibson told me, the Kansan will be ready.
A newspaper serves readers best when it's a reliable resource. This may mean employees have to slog through nasty weather. But their work, as shown in the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday issues of the Kansan, strengthens campus ties.
"We ran some good stories those daws." Krall said.
Thev didn't just stay in bed.
McCuision is an El Dorado senior in journalism and English. If your student group wants him to attend a meeting, or if you want to be part of a focus group that will discuss the Kansan, let him know. Contact him at cmccuccion@kansan.com, or at 864-4810. And you can visit — he will be in the newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
GTA SALARIES
Dear editor,
They said "black-tie." KU Alumni Association's Rock Chalk Ball, Friday night at the Marriott in downtown Kansas City Mo.
They also expressed disappointment at the University's offer of a paltry $7,000 minimum salary for employees so vital to KU's educational mission.
But we're graduate teachers, we thought. We don't have tuxedos and evening gowns. Scrounging up a borrowed old prom dress and a quick trip to JC Penney for some dress slacks got us in the door.
And so began many conversations with the alumni who had fond memories of taking classes taught by graduate teaching assistants. They were there to raise money for Jayhawk scholars and expressed genuine concern about the contract talks with the teachers who will teach those scholars.
LETTERSTO THE EDITOR
There, we saw fellow union members as well as undergraduate and faculty supporters mingling with nice people with.much nicer clothes than ours.
"What department do you teach in?" "Western Civ."
The disappointment turned to shock
They knew that KU administration had declared an impasse in the talks rather than bargain a fair contract with GTAC, the union that represents the graduate teachers.
"Oh, I took that class!" "Our son is in that class now."
when we told them that Chancellor Robert Hemenway had advised one of our members to go on Medicaid because the administration wasn't going to do anything about KU's woefully inadequate health insurance for graduate teachers.
We took to the dance floor, smiling and acknowledging the people we had met throughout the night. Dancing next to the chancellor to ABBA's "Dancing Queen," we wondered if the University administration would come back to the bargaining table. We also wondered if we could return the slacks to JC Penney.
Given this, the chancellor's stated goal of making KU a Top 25 university seemed a pie-in-the-sky dream to these alumni.
It saddened us to bring this news because we love KU just as much as those alumni.
Dan Carey
Overland Park graduate student
Ophra Leyser
DeKalb. III. graduate student
ABORTION DEBATE
Dear editor.
Are the scientists who are currently studying the human genome confused about when human life begins? If so, how could they know that the genome they are studying is sufficiently human to qualify as human?
Perhaps the Supreme Court may be unclear about the starting point for human life, but science and medicine based upon science are crystal clear. Simply stated by French geneticist Dr.
Jerome Lefjeune, "Science has a very simple conception of man; as soon as he has been conceived, a man is a man."
A basic biology course could convey this observable fact albeit in today's abortion charged climate it is not politically correct to state nor dwell upon. A pro-life activist recently quipped that "Scientists can now find life on Mars but not in the womb."
A proposed solution to restrict abortion to only the 1st trimester is no real solution given the established statistic that 85 percent of all U.S. abortions occur in the 1st trimester.
Is a 9 week old fetus in some manner inferior to a 13 or 25 week old fetus? The decision by the American medical community to allow the standard of care for their unborn patients to be based upon wantedness versus unwantedness has ominous precedent which history majors no doubt appreciate.
What if unborn humans could somehow exclude born humans from their lifestyle choices? Could not the unborn argue that the end of born human life is a "mystery," "a question with no answer?"
The question on the table is not about the science of when life begins. It is rather "When is unborn human life to be deemed valuable enough to protect from the violence of abortion?" If the answer to that question is "Only when that human life is wanted," we have made the wrong choice.
David Lee
Wichita 1973 graduate
864-0500 free for
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about
any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
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I just wanted to thank Facilities Operations for working that hard and cleaning up all that air, because I didn't fall one time walking to class. Thanks guys.
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It's not premarital sex if you have no intention of getting married.
I know how our women's team can get a Big 12 win. Just have them play K-State's men's team.
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This goes out to the guys who just helped me dig my car out of Oliver parking lot I pledge my undying love to you. Thank you so much.
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My roommate thinks she has rosacea, the disease where your cheeks stay permanently red.
To KU students: Watch for falling ice cubes.
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Why do people give money $2,000 cash back when they are selling cars? Why not just charge $2,000 less for the car?
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Hi, I called earlier saying we don't have any power or heat or hot water. Well, it's now 8, and we still don't have any of those, and it's even freakin' colder.
I really appreciate what all the football players do for us. In fact, I'd like to take them out for Domino's pizza. Oh yeah, and don't worry guys, it's on me.
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Is anyone else in love with their math TA?
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Yeah, I live in Tower B, and I just looked across the courtyard, and somebody has their bras hanging out of the window.
Hey, this is for all the Facilities Operations people. We noticed and we appreciate it greatly that there was no snow on the sidewalk, so thanks a lot.
So what's up with guys these days? This one guy we know is engaged, and he didn't even propose, and this other guy is sleeping with a man, and he doesn't even know it yet.
To better explain the term "noonan stick," noonan stick refers to the sticks that were given out at the KU-MU basketball game that were used to distract the opponent. Um, kind of like in Caddy Shack when noonan was used to miss a putt. That's just a little clarification. Thanks.
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Clerence Gilbert passes the ball to Kareem Rearm. Kareem Rearm shoots the ball. Noonan, noonan. The shot rims out, rebound Jawhaws.
Every time the opponents shoot their free throw, everyone needs to shout "noon."
I refuse to be oppressed by caution tape.
I'm sitting here at the Colorado basketball game, and I was just wondering why it's harder to get to a KU game than to get into a bar in Lawrence. Oh yeah, and it's my friend's birthday, and I'm the one who wanted a kiss from Hinrich.
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I think the Explorer and a minivan made love, and that's where they came up with the Mercury M-Class.
I just saw a mad wreck. There's a Saturn on top of a Lexus.
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Matt, I know that I have 500 other guys in my life, but I really want you.
A. B. C. D.
Those must be some price courtside tickets that the football players get. Wait a second, do they sell those tickets at Target?
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Is the KU second team accepting applications? Because I just scored like 10 points in the coed intramural tournament, so I'm golden.
I wanted to tell Al Bohl or whoever is in charge of athletic recruiting that they're doing a good job by bringing recruits to the basketball games, but if they're going to just sit there then sit them somewhere other than the first two rows directly behind the basket. If you put them in the middle of the student sections the kids will cheer with the crowd and make them feel more involved with KU, which is what you should really want.
To the person that stole my child development book, I hope you rot in hell.