OPINION
University Daily Kansan, July 24, 1985
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
KANSAN
Published since 1898 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 605-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 S. Broadway, NW, Washington, DC 20007. Published Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods, and on Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 60042. Subscriptions by mail are $1 for each student subscription in the county. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
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News staff
Jeff Cravens ... Editor
Michael Totty ... Managing Editor
Chris Lazarino ... Editorial Editor
Andrew Hartley ... News Editor
John J. Egan ... Campus Editor
Susanne Shaw ... General Manager, News Adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe ... Business Manager
Mark Schick ... Retail Advertising Manager
Eric Scheck ... National/Campus Manager
John Oberzan ... Sales and Marketing Adviser
Destructive advice
For the last couple of years, the University of Kansas has been privileged to have a true breath of fresh air in student government and on the campus as a whole. Boog Highberger and the Costume Party created a much-needed awareness of student government.
Highberger and the Freshmen Disorientation Collective are proceeding in the same vein with the KU Disorientation Handbook. Designed for future KU students, the handbook contains a great deal of useful information on alternative living arrangements, food purchases and the like, as well as alternative political ideas.
The handbook is the essence of open thought at a university, and it should have been a success. But Highberger and the Freshmen Disorientation Collective have made a very serious mistake that crushes any sense of responsible thought within the booklet.
On page 12, there is a short piece about drugs. The article begins, "Drugs are an essential part of the college experience, but unfortunately many of the best ones are illegal."
It continues, "Drug busts these days in Lawrence are infrequent, however, so if you're careful you shouldn't have to worry about the long arm of the law." The ending is a simple two-word statement: "Happy Trails!"
It is too bad that students who ruined their university careers, as well as their lives, aren't here to read flip remarks about illegal drugs. Will Highberger send copies of the booklet to the parents of students who have died of drug overdoses?
Highberger himself said the booklet was designed to influence young incoming students.
"It will help people who want to get involved in things and didn't know where to start, people who don't have any direction vet." Highberger said.
The Freshman Disorientation Collective at least covered its tracks by including in the booklet the phone number for a 24-hour crisis hotline that is staffed by trained professionals.
Highberger has said that the part about the drugs will be rewritten for future editions, but that is far too late, and the rewritten version will still promote the use of some illegal drugs.
On top of that, the collective expects student government to give it financial assistance.
Impressionable young people have been given a very irresponsible publication for guidance, and the collective should realize the irreparable damage it has done, damage that can't be fixed with a rewritten statement.
Washburn's future
Once again, the Kansas Legislature is considering the future of Washburn University. A special legislative study committee met last week to look into a request by the Washburn Board of Regents for a long-term partnership with the state. This could mean that Washburn would be an independent state university or a member of the Regents system.
Financing for Washburn is squeezed between the expense of its academic programs and the limited ability of Topeka to continue its support. This crunch shows up in the high tuition paid by Washburn students. Tuition pays for 38 percent of Washburn's budget, compared with 25 percent at the Regents schools.
But Washburn isn't alone in having budget problems. The six Regents schools also face tight budgets, in part because the state divides its money among too many schools.
Unnecessary duplication is widespread among the Regents schools and the state's community colleges. Before the Legislature decides to increase its support of Washburn, it must decide to control this duplication.
This, in fact, is one argument in favor of bringing Washburn under the control of the Regents. If Washburn were a Regents school, some say, the Regents could prevent any duplication of programs between Washburn and the other state schools.
Perhaps. But the Regents have not found it easy to control duplication now.
The Legislature needs to look at all the needs of higher education in the state. The decision to make Washburn a state university should be based on these needs and not merely to satisfy parochial interests in Topeka.
Teacher's importance
Friday's announcement of the teacher selected to be the first private citizen to ride the space shuttle carries an importance that may not be realized.
We are now truly on the edge of a whole new era of space travel, exploration and eventual colonization. Sharon McAuilfe, the teacher from Concord, N.H., represents the very beginning of colonization in space because she will have very few, if any, responsibilities for the flight or its experiments. She simply will be a passenger keeping a journal.
Soon larger numbers of passengers wil be able to be transported, which will mean that an important initial step for colonization, if we decide to attempt colonization at all, will have been reached.
Another important aspect of Friday's announcement is that it will help to bring more respect to teaching, a profession that seems to be on the edge of serious troubles.
Destruction knows few bounds
Last week marked the 40th anniversary of the invention of the most powerful and frightening weapon the atomic bomb, ever possessed, the atomic bomb.
On August 6, the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the world will commemorate the victims of the nuclear inferno, those who perished and those whose sufferings still continue.
Their horrible fate should have taught mankind that it was tinkering with a power better left untapped. But 40 years later the arsenals are missing, and they clownish plosives that make the Hiroshima bomb look like a wet firecracker.
The technical advances made in the last 40 years are truly amazing. Instead of using a crudely designed airplane, we now have supersonic missiles that fly halfway around the world with pinpoint accuracy.
This new technology enables us finally to use our nuclear weapons in a civilized manner. For example, we have an international agreement under which each party has been allocated a certain number of cultural or historical sites that will be exempt from serving as targets for nuclear weapons. In case of a nuclear war, the safest place might not be a
bomb shelter but actually a museum or an art gallery.
As long as nations can cooperate to negotiate worthless and idiotic agreements such as that, there is hope that they will be able to cooperate when much more is at stake, the survival of mankind.
So far we have been able to avoid the long-predicted final global war. The nuclear powers are well-aware of their overkill capacities, and, exacerbated by the escalation of unanticipated malfunction, are not likely to engage in guaranteed mutual destruction.
Nevertheless, it is time to end the deadly spiral of arms build-up before any one side can upset the delicate balances in the system that controls your tendencies.
eadicate world hunger and to finance thousands of useful and effective development programs in poor countries around the globe.
Even though these nuclear weapons may never be used, they have already cost the lives of millions of people who starved to death while the missile stacks kept growing.
The inferno of a nuclear war terrifies us like the inferno of eternal hell. Scientists tell us that any survivors would have to face a period of nuclear winter and a deadly environment.
But while the attention of the world is focused on avoiding a war that would create such conditions, the world is already headed in that general direction, step by step, day by day.
We poison our rivers, streams and oceans, and rob ourselves of precious resources. We build dams, alter riverbeds and construct artificial waterways. The results are damaging whose effects can't be vet known.
We pollute our air and are beginning to see the effects. Sulfur dioxide, washed out of the polluted air by rain, is in the air millions of miles of forests. Already, in even
remote corners of Canada and Scandinavia, lakes are dead or dying from acid rain.
The Amazon rain forest, the world's largest source of oxygen, is cut down at ever increasing rates to make room for new settlements and to satisfy the world's industrial need for wood.
Every year we pave more streets, build more roads and houses, and slowly but surely we suffocate nature
We have only lately begun to research the effects of manmade pollution on ourselves and nature. Until recently, we have been extremely careless in handling potent pollutants such as substances. Asbestos and dioxin will not be the last chemicals that suddenly turn out to be deadly.
It would be ironic if mankind survived the threat of nuclear extinction only to find itself in a hostile environment one day, unable to grow food in the water, unable to drink the poisoned water, unable to breathe the deadly air.
It is not enough to preserve peace. We must also preserve our planet as a habitable and hospitable place for children. It's the only place we have.
Peruvian leader faces problems
After 62 years of seeking power, Alianza Popular Revolutionaria Americana, a moderate left-wing party, will assume control of Peru's destiny on July 28 with Alan García as its new president. Garcia will be facing serious external and internal infiltration, such as infiltratorism, debt to the International Monetary Fund and dropping tourism.
Garcia's new administration will have to make an enormous effort to stop terrorism. For the past five years, the Shining Path, a Maistol-Lennist group, has been responsible for killing at least 5,000 people. This group's main hope is to reach power by challenging the present government of Peru. The terrorist group intensely believes that the past elections were an insult to the poor people and that again, the middle and upper class were the beneficiaries from the election held on April 14.
By murdering one of APRA's representatives, the Shining Path has declared war on the newly installed statement that will be installed Sunday.
Obviously, this drastically affects the lower class.
The minimum salary per month for an unskilled worker is $50. In one
The present government of Fernando Belaudne Terry has failed to control terrorism. At first, Belaudne wanted to settle it with talks, but the Shining Path kept murdering innocent people Later, Belaudne had to appeal to the armed forces to stop terrorists from attacking. The APRA must find better ideas than Belaudne in order to crush the Shining Path.
Inflation is another serious problem that Garcia and his new administration must face in the next five years. Inflation reached 123.5 percent in 1984. This year it is ex-aggerated to about 10 percent. Mark Basic products such as bread, flour, milk and sugar jumped in price by 50 percent.
C O L U M N I S T
year, the average worker will earn approximately $600. It has been rumored that Garcia will freeze the prices of the basic products which will benefit the entire population, especially the poor.
The new president is also planning to cut imports. It seems that in his first two years, Garcia's plan will emphasize a total austerity.
In the past two or three years.
tourism in South America has declined due to the fact that there has been radical changes in governments, confrontations between the people and the military, and terrorism.
In the past year, the Peruvian government has lost approximately $85 million because of declining tourism. Tourism in Peru reached its maximum in approximately 300,000 tourists came to Peru, which meant $55 million for Peru.
Internationally, the new administration will face economical debt with the International Monetary Fund. Peru owes the IMF and European banks a total of $3 billion in interest. Garcia has promised to start work on a plan to solve how None of the past governments have succeeded in solving this problem Peru's credibility has been declining year after year and a
APRA, as a political party, is one of the oldest parties in Latin America.
change from a right-wing to a left-wing type of government will raise a number of questions and doubts with the IMF.
Garcia, at age 36, is the youngest president in Peru's history. He will be facing Peru's worst economic crisis since the Depression of the 1940s.
Starting on July 28, Independence Day in Peru, the Peruvian people will experience some radical changes that will affect the entire country. As the elected president said, "We know that Peru will respond to any threats to its sovereignty, and we referred to the economic chaos by ratifying the decision of defending the country before the requirements of the international creditors.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kassebaum responds
To the Editor.
I would like to respond to the many students at KU who signed the petition calling on South Africa to abandon apartheid. A copy of this petition and the list of signatures was sent to me by the KU Committee on South Africa, accompanied by a request for my support for congressional legislation imposing economic sanctions on South Africa.
As chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa in the Senate, and an observer of South African affairs, I am very concerned about the South Africa problem I have been especially worried about the unrest that has occurred in South Africa during the last eight months. The unrest of blacks are not only highly objectable morally, they also raise serious questions about where South Africa is heading.
I believe that we should take some tangible actions to impress upon the South African government the importance of ending their policy of apartheid. Such actions have been approved by the Foreign Relations Committee. These involve a ban on nuclear dealings with South Africa, a halt to bank lending to the South African government, and a ban on computer sales to apartheid-enforcing agencies.
On the other hand, I am not in favor, at this time, of cutting back or eliminating American economic dealings with the South African private sector. Such sanctions, I believe, could be detrimental to the
interests of the black majority There are many in South Africa whose views I respect, such as Alan Paton, who believe sanctions would only lead to further reprisals and would not be effective in convincing the South African government to make changes. While I do not believe economic sanctions are the answer, neither do I accept the status quo.
The U.S. government should make it clear that it views apartheid as a morally repugnant system that must be changed. It should press for a serious process of reform, both because it is right, and because only fundamental change can protect the future of all South Africans.
Nancy Landon Kassebaum United States Senator
Critical KU senators
Shawn Aday's article on "Slabers" (July 17 Kansas, page 1) raises some interesting points about Lawrence's youth. In the conclusion of this book, the owner of Adventureland Video as saving, "It's a community problem."
To the Editor.
Lawrence's slabbers To the Editor.
I would like to respond to the comments of Gordon Woods, Michael Foubert and Tim Holler as printed in the Kansan July 17. Once again we have a vivid example of a few ambitious student senators trying to place the student government officers in a dilemma. If they are around the office all the time, let's criticize them for not being accessible and not mixing with the average student. If the student body president goes to class, he is neglecting his duties. If he doesn't, he is ignoring his education and is only going to school to play student government.
ii wutman Easley is lobbying in Topeka, or Jeff Polack is serving as President of the Associated Students of Kansas Board of Directors, or on
If we are to believe these types of criticisms, it is obvious why it is hard to get capable people involved in student government and the political process. No wonder students are not as involved as former U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph (July 17 Kansas, p.3) would like us to be.
Boller discusses ASK as if it were a foreign entity, shadowing over the fact that KU has by far the most influential role in ASK's stances.
the Kansas Foundation for Leadership and Learning, let's criticize them for not being on campus.
Boller is extremely patronizing with his comment, "It really hurts KU when we take a smaller school into the Regents System." The last school to join the system was Wichita State in the 1960s and there is very little evidence that it has hurt KU. Regents reports have commended the smaller Regents universities for their undergraduate programs and it appears that Washburn would probably continue to concentrate on undergraduate programs if it joined the Regents.
Mark Bannister Hays first-year law student
Mark Bannister
This is at a time when KU is trying to promote its graduate programs and is working to place them in the top tier in the country. Washburn is already receiving state money and is using it to promote programs which are duplicative of KU's and other Regents schools. If Washburn was in the state system, the Board of Regents would have the power to control duplication.
This point deserved a more in-depth analysis. Since the implementation of the new liquor laws on July 1, the youth of Kansas have been forced out of the controlled environment of bars that serve 3.2 percent of adults and have been driven to methods of entertainment on their own.
While some youth find productive endeavors for their leisure time, other Lawrence 18- and recent 19-year-olds congregate on the weekends in high traffic areas with friends in high-traffic Shopping Center is one such area.
in analyzing the linkages between the new, idiotic and prohibition-oriented laws and the phenomena of slabbers. Aday could have added to this by considering matching between the youth and the larger Lawrence community
Whatever the design of the new liquor laws, this unforeseen consequence will taint the intentions of the lawmakers. It is a matter of time before lawmakers realize that it is much better to have the young adults of the state welcomed to the controlled environment of a 3.2 bar than the unstructured environment of a shopping center parking lot.
Kent A. Ward
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Lawrence graduate student