OPINION
University Daily Kansan, June 26,1985 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
*Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas*
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas. 1889 edition includes publication dates for Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and on Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class student subscriptions are $15; second-class mail by学生 is $15 in Douglas County and $18 for衣柜县. Each county. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee. *POSTMARKER* Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan 1889-Staff Print.
News staff
News staff
Jeff Craven ... Editor
Michael Totty ... Managing Editor
Chris Lazarrino ... Editorial Editor
Andrew Hartley ... News Editor
John J. Egan ... Campus Editor
Susanne Shaw ... General Manager, News Adviser
Business staff
Because the new drinking laws go into effect Monday, official University policy changes are needed. A special task force has already submitted proposals to keep up with the new laws. These changes, if implemented, will make many students angry, but the new state law is a tough one.
Brett McCabe...Business Manager
Mark Schick...Retail Advertising Manager
Eric Scheck...National/Campus Manager
John Oberzan...Sales and Marketing Advisor
The task force recommends that there should be no alcoholic beverage of any kind permitted in any University housing, which includes residence halls, scholarship halls, Jayhawker Towers and Stouffer Place. 3.2 percent beer was permitted, but harder alcohol was not.
This means that any resident who is of legal drinking age will pay the price of regulations aimed at those who are not of legal drinking age. If 3.2 beer was permitted, it would be impossible for staff members to police under-age residents from violating the law.
Drinking dilemma
So, in order to comply with the new laws without devoting an inordinate amount of time to enforcement, the ban on alcohol was recommended. But in fact, enforcement of even the current regulations is next to impossible.
The University faces a dilemma and is going to have serious troubles with the new regulations. If the current regulations can't be enforced, how can stricter regulations be enforced? And if the new regulations somehow are enforced strictly, the University may encounter great problems filling up its housing.
NCAA crackdown
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, in coordination with university administrators, is cracking down on collegiate athletics. As a result of the NCAA convention in New Orleans, the rules are stricter and there will be a greater integration of athletic departments into the administrative systems of the member universities.
Both of these changes are desperately needed. Schools that are convicted of two major violations would face the loss of that sport for up to two years — what has been termed "the death penalty."
The football program here at the University of Kansas already has one strike against it after last year's NCAA probation. This means that the football office must run an immaculate program. But it also means that Chancellor Gene A. Budig must take an active role to ensure that no more violations are committed.
Budig voted for all of the changes, which is a positive reflection on our top administrator.
Let's hope that everyone will remain as serious about cleaning up collegiate athletics as they were at the convention.
The complaint is common. A graduate teaching assistant, usually in an introductory math or computer science course, speaks English so poorly that the students in the class cannot understand the subject matter.
Testing of teachers
One remedy, to be considered by the Board of Regents at its meeting Friday, is to require all foreign-born faculty members and teaching assistants to pass a test of spoken English. The exam would test the speaker's fluency, grammar and pronunciation. To pass, the applicant must demonstrate the ability to be understood, despite small errors, by native English speakers.
The question arises; Should only foreign instructors be singled out for competency testing? Not all professors are equally able to communicate a subject to their students, and not all students are equally able to understand their professors. Some professors, knowledgeable in their fields, might not be able to explain the subject to introductory classes.
Whether or not the Regents approve the proposal, the University of Kansas intends to require the test in the fall. The arguments for testing certainly have merit. But if the problem is more complicated than a teacher's mastery of spoken English, then the test becomes a cosmetic solution that scapegoats foreign students and faculty.
But the teacher's speaking ability might also be a convenient excuse to explain the student's lack of success. There are many more distractions in the first years of college than a teacher's grammar, but none offer the student such an easy out.
If the University is going to test for the ability to be understood, perhaps it also should test students for their ability to understand. An oral comprehension test, required of all beginning students, might reveal that the English-speaking ability of foreign instructors is only part of the problem.
Letters and Guest Columns Policv
Letters and Guest Columns Policy
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editorial editor or guest columns. Letters to the editorial editor should not exceed 300 words. Guest columns should not exceed 625 words. Letters and columns should be typewritten and double-spaced and must include the writers name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, such identification should be included. Letters and columns can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Staufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Hazing calls for harsh penalties
The brick trick, picking up an olive off a block of ice, swallowing goldfish, spaghetti races and other faded habzed techniques have kept fraternity pledges on edge since the inception of the Greek system.
For many fraternities, such having horrors are merely archaic stories. The thought of actually putting someone through experiences like that makes many chapters laugh.
But obviously, some houses still believe in these ridiculous forms of testing. They must think it's the proper way to treat a future brother.
The University of Kansas has final-
system. The SAEs definitely will have a difficult time rebounding from the sanctions, which include exclusion from rush.
How could someone put up with that kind of treatment? Why would anyone want to join such an organization? The answer is the prestige and peer pressure involved in being involved with one of the top Greek systems in the country.
ly put its foot down on having. The University recently handed down a two-year suspension to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, denying it status as a student organization.
The action was harsh — the most severe in the memory of people whose lives were changed.
All of this was because of a hazing incident that occurred sometime in April, according to more than one source. Although no one will comment officially, the incident was outrageous and serious.
Hazing, an action taken against a pledge which is supposed to "test"
the character of the pledge, is a serious matter. It is not something that should be ignored.
In recent years, many national fraternity organizations have cracked down on chapters caught hazing by their chapters. The samples of chapters guilty of hazing.
However, the SAE national has decided not to pull the charter of the KU chapter for several reasons. One is the prime location of the house, which is the closest fraternity house to campus. Another is the strong presence of the chapter seems to have. However, the chapter seems to have. However, the chapter seems to have. However, the chapter seems to have.
SAE has said that the guilty parties in this hazing incident will be dealt with.
As president of the Pi Kappa Alpha house at KU, I felt the constant pressure to avoid hazing at all costs because of the severe fines levied by our national to various chapters caught hazing.
Also, I think I lose my respect for any responsible 18-or 19-year-old who would subject himself to the kind of ridicule that comes with a hazing incident such as the SAE case.
The thought of physically abusing someone in one of many ways is tasteless. But, amazingly, some techniques can be used to use these techniques.
How could someone put up with that kind of treatment? Why would anyone want to join such an organization? The answer is the prestige and peer pressure involved in being involved with one of the top Greek systems in the country.
Some pledges just come to expect such treatment, which is a very sad statement about the reputations of the Greek system, the house and the individuals involved.
Many might think the punishment on the SAEs was too harsh. After all, it was supposedly only one isolated incident. I'm sure the house would promise not to let it happen again.
But the University has taken a giant step towards eliminating this type of activity from the campus. By taking a hard line, KU has set a precedent that will be an excellent example to follow.
Actually, the SAE incident is another poor reflection on the Greek community. It gives the anti-Greek people at KU more ammunition in their argument that fraternities are a farce.
U.S. forcing Nicaragua to Soviets
In the end, the SAEs hazed more than just a pledge. Their punishment is fitting.
The ultimate nightmare for every true-blooded, patriotic American has to be the emergence of a second Cuba anywhere on the American continents and, therefore, on America's doorstep.
The Reagan administration is convinced that this nightmare has come true in Nicaragua and consequently regards Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista regime as incarnations of evil.
Citing the domino theory, which once served as a means to get America involved in Vietnam, President Reagan speaks of the necessity to stop this festering sore of com­-munity that spread to neighbor­ing countries.
In its effort to remove the Sandinista regime, the Reagan administration has proved that it is unable to cross the boundaries of legality.
But is Nicaragua really in the process of becoming a second Cuba?
In its fifth year, the Cuban revolution already was a puppet of the Soviet Union. Its economic and military survival depended on theocratic enterprise and political opposition had been largely eliminated.
Mining the harbors of a foreign country is an act of war and as such requires authorization by Congress. Yet, unlike Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Reagan didn't even need the pretext of a Guinea fire to justify that constitutionally rest with Congress. Did anybody even mention impeachment?
America agrees with Ronald Reagan that a second Cuba can't be tolerated, at least to the extent that America's political representatives have just authorized $27 million in non-lethal aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, which Reagan affectionately labels freedom fighters.
The Soviets are eager to maintain distance from Nicaragua because they fear the dangers of a direct confrontation with the United States. The idea that Moscow would sell modern fighter jets to the Sandistas, as once alleged by the Reagan administration, seems futile. The Soviets remember the Cuban missile crisis all too well to risk a replay.
In Nicaragua, private enterprise still plays a dominant role in agriculture, trade and industry, though under strong control by the government. Despite existing censorship, there is an independent newspaper and there are opposition parties that have their own publications, untreated by the terrors found in totalitarian regimes.
Because public opinion opposes American military involvement in Central America, the Reagan administration has set its hopes on the Nicaraguan rebels, the contras.
C O L U M N I S T
According to the regime in Managua, the contrasts are responsible for killing almost 8,000 people during the last four years. It is more likely that even non-lethal aid will similarly or later be reflected in the death toll.
To answer international criticism, the Sandinistas also blame the war waged by the rebels for making cen- sary and other restrictions necessary
The contrasts find little support even among groups opposed to the Sandistas. Their connections to the CIA and the United States, which has a dubious history of military interventions, has generated distrust for the
contras and has done more harm than good for their cause.
The conflict is increasing steadily. Ortega reacted promptly to the renewed U.S. aid by announcing more Nicaraguan arms purchases, which in turn will serve Reagan as proof of the dangerousness of the Sandimista regime and of the necessity of even more aid.
American politics once drove Cuba into the arms of the Soviet Union and history is about to repeat itself. American dissociation from Moscow is more than an just indication.
But it takes two to compromise. The Reagan administration will not rest until the Sandinistas have been removed from power, the only concession the Sandinists will definitely not make. Nothing short of a direct
But this escalation is not inevitable. Nicaragua is not yet a totalitarian state. The economic and political problems the Sandinistas have encountered have turned the revolutionaries from idealists into realists. They have learned to make compromises and they are willing to
military invasion will achieve that goal, no matter how much aid the contras receive.
Instead, financing of the rebels, trade embargoes and economic sanctions will only push the Sandinista revolution closer to totalitarianism and into political and economic dependence on the Soviet Union.
No doubt the revolution has improved the lives of the Nicaraguan people. Even the opposition praises the Sandinistas' agricultural reforms and literacy programs. Promising beginnings have been made.
Nicaragua deserves a chance to determine its own future free from pressures and outside interference and to reap the benefits of cooperation in the years of oppression and dictatorship. The Reagan administration must realize that.
But despite its successes, the fate of the Sandinista revolution depends on the United States. Without U.S. support, or at least its benevolence, Nicaragua is bound to become that totalitarian state, that mindless puppet of the Kremlin that the Reagan administration believes it is already
Getting to the root of the problem
WASHINGTON — Industry spokesmen were calling it "the day Congress produced an ice cream quorum." And maybe there were about as many senators and representatives pitting out in a cellar as there were answering roll calls in the House and Senate chambers.
But I don't think it was the lure of all the free ice cream they could eat that drew several thousand members of Congress, staff aides, reporters and whatever to "the world's biggest ice cream social."
Nor was the chief attraction the thrill of prematurely celebrating National Ice Cream Day, which won't be on the nation at large until July 14.
Rather, I'm sure it was a learning experience that pulled in the crowd.
There was an opportunity to learn that proper method of making root beer floats.
It is true that root beer floats have but two ingredients — root beer and ice cream. The drinks, however, aren't all that easy to put together. The big question is, what goes in first, the root beer or the ice cream?
Add a scoop of ice cream to a mug of root beer and you are likely to splash some of the beverage all over you best suit, or your girl friend's
Or misjudge the amount of root beer to be displaced by the ice cream
At the red and white social tent given over to root beer floats, they were putting the ice cream in first
and other guests could at least learn something from his example.
and you send liquid spilling over the brim, necessitating a hasty mop job with paper napkins
The assembled congressmen
It's a dilemma. Root beer floats are hard to make with good grace. But fortunately the International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers, which sponsored the congress shiding last week, had available the ice cream company, the main, a vice president of the A&W Beverages, White Plains, N.Y.
But put the ice cream in first and the root beer is apt to be mostly foam. Once the foam dissipates, there is barely enough root beer left to cover the ice cream, leading to complaints that either the host is being unduly frugal, or root beer wise and ice cream foolish.
But St. Germain told me "the official way is to put the root beer in first."
The assembly line had reversed the process, he said, to avoid splashing. Foam, he added, generally results from pouring warm root beer over cold ice cream.
The proper technique, I learned, is to fill a mug about three-fourths full with chilled root beer. Then, tilting the glass slightly, carefully add a layer of ice cream so that it floats. Then finish filling the mug with root beer.
So now you know