TUESDAY MARCH 4, 2013
4A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2003
EDITORIAL BOARD
Classified pay shift doesn't fix problem
Last semester, 159 positions were eliminated and 44 people lost their jobs at the University of Kansas. One week ago, the Kansas Regents suggested raising the cost of a credit hour from $77.50 to $160.25 by 2006. Budget cuts continue with no end in sight. Chancellor Robert Hemenway warned last December: "If there is further erosion of our base budget, if no new state funds are provided, and if our faculty and staff don't see a salary increase, frankly, the results then will be much more dire." As the cuts begin to run together and sound the same, it becomes difficult to ignore the effects of a faltering economy on the University's bottom line.
As Hemenway cautions, supporting not only the expansion of the University but fair wages for its employees are crucial to the University's success. The recent tuition increases have sparked a debate central to Hemenway's portent.
Classified workers, whose pay is determined by the state's pay scale and not by the University's, are at the center of the debate. There are roughly 1,600 classified employees at the University performing jobs integral to its daily functioning.
Unfortunately, nearly 160 classified employees' salaries fall below the federal poverty line for a family of four. Even during the economic boom of the '90s, classified workers' pay lagged behind many other University employees'.
The question is not whether something should be done, but how it should be done. Recent proposals call for a departure from the state civil service system. The Classified System Alternative, as it's called, would not only allow for more flexibility in University hiring and salaries, but also shift more control from the state to the University.
The problem with the system alternative is it simply places too much trust in the hands of an administration that's regularly forced to wrestle with budget cuts. There's a danger in placing all salary responsibility in the hands of the University.
For instance, while there are nearly 1,600 KU classified workers, there are about 5,000 in the Board of Regents system. The pressure exerted by the Regents' 5,000 classified employees on the Legislature acts as a check on salaries for other less concentrated and less organized state employees. This pressure would all but disappear if Legislature no longer answered to nearly 5,000 employees. It suggests that state classified workers who are not employed by state universities are less deserving of compensation—a contention that undercuts the entire premise of fair wages.
Likewise, as state budget cuts have demonstrated, the more disconnected the Legislature is from University decisions, the more blame can be placed in Lawrence rather than in Topeka. It's naive to assume that, despite current assurances of raises, another budget crisis won't result in more layoffs. In fact, during the past five years, during increases in administration salaries and positions, 24 classified positions were cut. This was without the prospect of salary increases. There is no reason to assume that classified jobs would become smaller targets among future cuts.
But something must be done. The wage gap between the highest- and lowest-paid employees here is becoming unconscionable, particularly when the lower end of that scale dips below the poverty line. Instead of relying on the University to set salaries, the administration should be able to supplement classified employees' base salaries. A solution that allows for flexibility while maintaining job security should be the real goal.
Greg Holmquist for the editorial board
STINSON'S VIEW
Zach Stinson for The University Daily Kansan
PERSPECTIVE
Watch local film, 'C.S.A.,' to see parallels of racial intolerance
After watching C.S.A. last weekend, I started wondering just how far America has come in being tolerant of cultural differences. If you haven't heard, C.S.A., which stands for Confederate States of America, is a faux-documentary directed by KU film professor Kevin Willmott about what America would be like if the South had won the Civil War.
And let me tell you, that version of America is not pretty. At the question-and-answer session at the end of the film, one thing that struck me was when a man said that, despite the absurd changes in history and blatant examples of racism, the film was not that far from reality.
We think we live in a tolerant world, but really we've just closed our eyes to want we don't want to see.
There is still conflict between Jews and Palestinians, North Koreans and South Koreans, blacks and whites, Americans and everybody else, gays and straights, Northerners and Southerners, vegetarians and meat eaters, Greeks and nongreeks, Catholics and Protestants. East Coast and West Coast, pro-war supporters and anti-war supporters, pro-choice supporters and anti-abortionists, women versus Augusta National and the list goes on.
These conflicts aren't just petty disagreements. These are conflicts that lead to severe animosity, protests, violence and even death every day.
When you go to the South, the confederate flag is as prominent as the American flag. The people brandishing the flag will give you the line, "It represents the South."
COMMENTARY
Eric Borja
opinion@kansan.com
Yeah, and my middle finger directed at them means "hello."
Society right now is like that old grandpa or crazy uncle whom a lot of people have who still thinks you should marry someone from your own race and that one race is better than the other. We brush it off by saying "he doesn't know any better" or "that's just the way he was raised."
At fraternities and sororities every semester there are "gangsta" theme parties where the participants dress up like rappers and people from the "ghetto." They wear FUBU, do-rags, take gold chains and "wife beaters" and throw up "West side" and peace signs to the party pic photographers. I've seen it here at our University.
I don't see minority-based fraternities having "white suburbia" parties where they pull up in SUVs listening to Eminem dressed in New Balances, a North Face fleece and a polo shirt.
Intolerance is just more subdued and hidden these days. It is expressed in the mailing of anthrax, graffiti, affirmative action, racial profiling by the police, the lack of minorities in coaching, academic
tacilities, movies, TV, and politics and the fact that homosexuals can't get married in most states.
And because Black History Month has ended, I'm wondering if we really learned anything or took time to appreciate the numerous contributions locally and nationally that African Americans have made.
I'd say I acknowledged most of the black history tributes, but I am betting most people around here really didn't learn that much. The many newspaper articles and special programming about the African-American culture and history abruptly came to an end Saturday and Americans went along their merry ways knowing that they recognized a race that they have slighted in the worst ways possible with the shortest month of the year.
The problem with tolerance, though, is that it is impossible to attain. No matter how idealistic we become about looking past someone's appearance or beliefs and just seeing a person, someone's appearance and beliefs make up who that person is.
Another aspect of tolerance is there is an inherent assumption that one's group, belief or lifestyle is superior to another. Like the people who believe they are 100 percent tolerant of everyone in the world believe they are better than those who hold prejudices. We all just need to realize that at the end of day, we are all equal pains in the ass.
Borja is a Springfield, Mo., senior in journalism.
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This goes out to KU Parking for overselling the lots. Real brilliant.
编
I think CNN uses the same picture for every new terrorist they find.
If studies show that watching porn makes you enjoy sex with your girlfriend less, does having a girlfriend make you enjoy porn less?
First of all, in the scientific community the word "theory" does not mean what we all think of "theory" as meaning. It means a universal scientific truth that everyone agrees upon as yet to be refuted. Evolution is not a theory, it is scientific truth. I challenge all you creationists to take the course KU offers called Prehistoric Life. Better yet, read the book *Ishmael*, then tell me if you still think evolution does not exist.
are not capable of reason" or "a woman's place is in the home."
My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
are not capable of reason" or "a woman's place is in the home."
PERSPECTIVE
愚
There once was a woman from Venus whose body was shaped like a penis.
My Juicy Juice says that it has 100 percent fruit juice in it, plus other added ingredients. What?
Don't have sex with your cousin. It's bad.
Every day for the past four weeks, I've walked by a smashed pigeon on the fourth floor of the Union parking lot. You'd imagine that they'd be able to pick it up with all the money we're giving them.
Female oppression not present in United States
There are many places around the world where women are genuinely oppressed;the United States is not one of them.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, feminist groups persist in believing that sexism and the patriarchy are ever-present dark forces in American society and that we are in danger of "going back." As Dinesh D'Souza argues in Letters to a Young Conservative, advances in technology, not second-wave feminism and the railings of Betty, Gloria and their cohorts, went a lot further to enable women to be more than just wives and mothers.
This technology, from the light bulb to the birth control pill, was, with few exceptions, invented by white males, e.g. "the patriarchy." How odd that the patriarchy, so intent on subjugating women, wound up giving them the tools to cast off the chains of their oppression.
To be sure, there were negative attitudes toward women, and we are all glad to be rid of them. Women, however, have done just as much to perpetuate such negative stereotypes as "women
hastered sorority girls have demonstrated more of a penchant for rational thought.
I recently attended Gloria Steinem's lecture in the Lied Center to hear from one of the most prominent feminist voices of the 20th century. Steinem troted out the same tiresome musings on the patriarchy and the oft-repeated whopper that "women earn 70 cents to a man's dollar." This statistic is misleading because it compares all women to all men, ignoring the fact that women tend to enter professions such as nursing and elementary education, which have low starting salaries and little opportunity for advancement.
Additionally, women are more likely to care for small children and the elderly, thus placing regular hours and flexibility over career advancement. My female physician in Wichita works only part time in order to free up time for family obligations. Well, great, but women don't get equal pay for less work. If it is really true that women are systematically paid less than women, why aren't corporations rushing out to hire women in order to cut their overheads?
As a little experiment on Yahoo, I typed in the query "violence against women." It returned an impressive 352,000 queries. In contrast, "violence against men" returned a measly 3,010 queries.
Another topic Steinem touched on was violence against women. This seems reasonable enough, as we can all agree that rape and domestic abuse are a real problem. Certainly no reasonable person is arguing in favor of violence against women. However, this obsessive focus on violence against women obscures the overwhelming majority of homicide, battery and suicide victims are male — not that the amount of writing or discussion on the subject reflects this.
This is similar to the whole breast cancer-prostate cancer paradigm. Breast cancer receives infinitely more research dollars and attention (as well as chic pink ribbons), although the number of prostate cancer cases actually exceeds the number of breast cancer cases --
198,100 versus 192,200.
Despite this, a poll conducted by the Lifetime Television Network among its viewers cited "finding a cure for breast cancer" as one of the most important issues facing America.
American women are blessed with an incredible range of opportunities and privileges. The greatest barrier to female achievement in this society is individual merit and reality. To persist in telling women they are oppressed is doing no one a favor, least of all women themselves. To blame one's failure or unhappiness on outside forces may be comforting psychologically, but just as the poor student who blames his lousy academic record on his instructors, it will do little in terms of encouraging behavior that will improve his station.
Women would do well to see modern feminism for what it is: a bitter philosophy of victimology, which insists on viewing everything through a prism of gender.
Arrah Nielson is a Wichita junior in biological anthropology.