OPINION
University Daily Kansan, May 1, 1985
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Page 4
The University Daily Kansan (USP5) 620-640 is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stauffer Fint Hall Lawn, Kanan. KCan 6045; daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods Second class postage pay at Lawn, Kanan KCan 6044 Subscriptions by mail are for $15 for six months or second class subscriptions for $18 for six months or $15 a year outdoor the county. Student subscriptions are $13 for first grade and $16 for second grade address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 StauFFER Fint Hall Lawn, Kanan. KCan 6045
MATT DEGALAN Editor
DIANE LUBER SUSAN WORTMAN Managing Editor Editorial Editor
LYNNE STARK Business Manager
ROB KARWATH Campus Editor
DUNCAN CALHOUN MARY BERNICA
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
DAVID NIXON Campus Sales Manager
General Manager and News Adviser
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
It's getting cold
With the advent of spring, it's common to put away sweaters and long underwear and put on summer clothes.
But the climate in the buildings around the University will have some people wearing sweaters all summer long.
Some rooms on campus are so cold that people working inside have no choice but to dress for the temperatures they are forced to endure all day, rather than for the warm weather that has finally arrived.
The temperature control problem at the University is a serious one. Some staff and professors leave their office windows open all year because their rooms are too hot in the winter and too cold in the summer. Other places are very cold or very hot regardless of the season.
Students, familiar with the problem, know that they have to bring along a sweater if they are going to wear their sleeveless summer shirts to class. Otherwise, chattering teeth and goose bumps will remind them that 75-degree days outside often have no correlation to KU thermstats.
Health concerns make the situation even more serious. Moving between the extreme hot and cold temperatures of some rooms on campus, sitting day after day in ice cold classrooms and then going outdoors to the hot weather, or sitting in overheated rooms during cold winter months all take a toll on an individual's health.
The constant discomfort caused by the temperatures is reason enough to give attention to the climate problem.
The cost of revamping the heating and cooling system throughout the University would be far beyond the limits of KU's operating budget. But surely, a great deal of money could be saved simply by making a concerted effort to work with the systems that each building has and regulating the thermostats.
The temperatures on campus deserve more attention from facilities operations. The problems that can be easily fixed should be taken care of. And the buildings that have more serious heating and cooling problems should be studied carefully so that necessary improvements can be made.
If nothing is done, people will be forced to continue enduring arctic temperatures inside some buildings, and sweating it out in others.
Smoking policy
Tonight, the Student Senate is likely to consider a petition seeking review of policies about smoking on campus. The petition asks that Caryl Smith, dean of student life, appoint a committee to conduct the review.
The petition, submitted by the University Affairs Committee of Student Senate, argues for an "inalienable right ... to breathe clean air." It also refers to the surgeon general's determination that tobacco smoke may be hazardous to both smokers and non-smokers.
A review in some form is a good idea. As in any large population, the University has a large number of smokers and a large number of people who dislike smoking. The mixture of these groups means that the University has a genuine issue of the quality of life, an issue that deserves careful study.
Smoking and related habits are highly personal, and any policy should show understanding of that fact. Restriction of smoking should not begin from a sense of superiority or vengeance.
Nevertheless, restriction of smoking should occur. The particulars belong with those who may study the issue — gathering information, learning about policies at other institutions and separating reason from emotion — but the air in campus buildings needs clearing too often for the matter to be ignored.
The University does not have, nor is it claiming, any call to moralize about smoking. But it does have a duty to keep its physical environment suitable for all, and smoking is unpleasant to many non-smokers.
Despite the wailing of the Tobacco Institute, the risks of smoking seem evident. If the University can establish a fair policy that also encourages smokers to think twice about their habit, wouldn't that help everyone?
A state university, which provides leadership and leaders for the state and the nation, should be able to lead through the example of its own policies. A progressive approach to the issue of tobacco smoke in public places is very much in order.
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten and double-spaced and should not exceed 300 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include his class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. The Kansan also invites inquiries and groups to invite guest columns. Columns published or brought to the Kansan office 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
LETTERS POLICY
UHLIG UNIVERSITY DAILY VANISH
The real thing simply ain't anymore
I wonder if I'm the only person in the United States who is so distressed at the news that Coca-Cola is changing its flavor?
There's no way you haven't heard about it by now. The Coca-Cola Co orchestrated a lavish press conference and launched new television commercials to spread the news. The company also released its 99-year-old formula and locked it in a vault in the Trust Company of the Georgia Bank, vowing never to use it again.
The old formula is being replaced by a new one with a new taste. Roberto C. Goizueta, chairman of Coca-Cola, said the new taste was "smoother, rounder, yet bolder."
People who have tasted the new Coke say it is sweeter than the old. You may think this makes no real difference in a world that harbors far more serious problems. But it does, ob, it does...
Coca-Cola is much more than a product, although looking at it strictly as a piece of merchandise, it is the most successful single product in the history of world commerce. Since its creation a century, has been an integral part of growing up in the United States.
When you think of the landmarks in your life, they all are accompanied by Coke — the old Coke, that is.
As a kid you went to the circus with your family. Your dad bought you a bag of peanuts and a Coke
As a teenager you cruised Main Street with your buddies. And once
in a while you stopped the car and everyone had a Coke.
As a college student you studied for finals in the basement of the fraternity house. In the middle of the night, when you didn't know if you would make it until dawn, you took a break and had a Coke.
Now if these examples all sound like moments out of a Ocea-Cola advertisement, that is precisely the point. Most TV commercials
BOB
GREENE
Syndicated
Columnist
have to stretch to emphasize the point that the products they are pashing are a part of U.S. life insurance. The same formulas famously has been part of the U.S.
It seems to me that such a fact is an unprecedentedly precious thing for a company to possess, but the Coca Cola Co. is throwing it away. Apparently spooked by the gains from its acquisition, discarding that famous taste and replacing it with a taste said to be closer to that of Pepsi.
What this means to you is that you will never again experience the old taste of Coke. Remember it well, because like your childhood memories, it is now gone forever. It's a lot like learning that the house you grew up in has been torn down.
To be fair to the Coca-Cola Co., a
lot of us who wish the company had stuck with the old taste of Coke do not drink Coke anymore. Many adults who drink cola products favor the diet colas. But if you drink Diet Coke or Tab, that means that you prefer a former regular Coke drinker who switched to the diet version.
Cola companies know that their regular products — the ones sweetened with real sugar — sell best to children and teenagers. Thus, the Coca-Cola Co. apparently was gaining with its sweeteners regular Coke might do better to approximate that sweetness.
Still, the fact remains that starting immediately, we will never get to taste the old Coke again, even if we want to. It is just not going to be there. There will be a product called Coke, and the logo will be similar to the Coca-Cola logo we have known all these years, but it will not be the Coke we knew.
Speaking of bottles, I think everything started to go downhill about 10 years ago when Coke phased out the six and one-half ounce glass bottles. Those were the classic Coke bottles we grew up drinking out of. Now you can get cans and plastic tubettes and just about any other kind of bottle that you want to get the wonderful six and one-half ounce bottle. When Coke decided to get rid of that, the die was cast.
Coca-Cola is an old friend, and I wish it luck with its new flavor. Personally, though, I would be a bit more open to a plain old taste of a plain old Coke.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Hardly blameless
To the editor:
In reference to the front page article in the April 15 issue of the University Daily Kansas about astestos removal. I would like to know how Tom Anderson, director of astestos removal, said that "the EEA exacerbated us."
The EPA did no such thing. It merely stated that it could not investigate alleged asbestos violations under a certain quantity. That is certainly not exoneration. Exonervation means to be found blankless. Anderson thinks that facilities operations was "blameless," then the workers can be assured that the same sort of life-threatening situations will become commonplace again once the furor has died down.
I suggest that Anderson call the facilities operations workers together and tell them how he thinks facilities operations did nothing wrong. Let's see Anderson try to convince the men and women exposed to asbestos that he and his cohorts were blameless.
It's OK to crv
Kendall Simmons head of circulation department at Watson Library and equipped facilities operations worker
Margaret Safranek writing about violence among men — the beating incident in Robinson Gymnasium — has focused on a central issue (yesterday's Uniiversity Daily Kansan) That is, men lose their pride over women who beat them and beat up. And the pain and rage are held inside, unreleased. U.S. men are typically denied the release of pain and humiliation through crying.
To the editor:
A man who lets go of his pain through crying is liable to be humiliated, even beaten, again
Anger — our culture says that's OK, withinimits; slap your son, kick the dog, throw a few punches. We can't let go of our hurt and humiliation, so we pass it along to someone or more despised than ourselves
I'm saying that the men who beat up the guy in Robinson Gym have already lost their self-respect and have already been humiliated some time we don't know about. Probably someone they respected abused, hurt and humiliated them — a father, a coach, an older brother, a church pastor, or anyone who hurried to attention and pain around not knowing how to get it out of their systems. They pass it along to the next man and on to the next.
May be娟 and boys need abuse victim support services as much as women need rape victim support services.
Mark Larson Lawrence resident
On Budig's letter
To the editor
I should like to make several comments on Chancellor Gene A. Budig's position with respect to the divestiture issue. First, to abdicate responsibility for the effects that one's ownership in property may have on the outcome of a moral issue is not only immoral, it is abandoning this case to the federal government(one) right to sell his property for any reason he chooses, a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
Next, to expect the U.S. administration to actively pursue a policy against apartheid is to ignore the threat that the U.S. domestic protest is all about.
Finally, Chancellor Budig claims
In the 1960s, there was a folk saying, "Either you are part of the solution or you are part of the problem." Practically equivalent to this is the more concise expression attributed to Ken Kesey: "You are either on the bus or you are off the bus."
to have never used his position as head of a public university for political purposes, but that is precisely what he has done in this case.
I submit that Cancellor Budig is off the bus.
Peter Frevert
associate professor of economics
Sign of U.S. aims
To the editor:
The cover photo of the right-wing supporter holding the sign "Communism out of Nicaragua" in the April 23 issue of the Kansan says a lot about our presence in Nicaragua. The barrage of patriotic rhetoric flowing out of the White House is confusing the American people.
Our goal in Nicaragua is to remove a communist government at the expense of the Nicaraguan people. When the president refers to the "freedom fighters" struggle for democracy," he is not referring to their democracy, he is referring to ours.
Withdrawing from the region and pursuing negotiations through the Contadora process will lead to a more stable Central America.
On this crucial issue Congress
must decide whether the threat posed by the Nicaraguan government justifies ripping a country and its people apart. I believe the unrest caused by our covert actions poses a greater threat to the stability of the region than does the Sandinista government.
It's only opinions
Overland Park senior
To the editor:
It's only opinions
  getting man down.
Whatever gender
  man wants to love.
Let him be tree.
Whatever creator
  man wants to see.
Let him believe
Whatever color
  man's skin may be.
Be sure to love one another
As a brother.
Seek to understand
Help lend a hand.
"I can't understand
How can a man
Hate another man
Help me understand."
GUEST COLUMNS
Mark O'Bryan
St. Louis senior
The University Daily Kansan invites individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns should be typewritten and double-spaced and should not exceed 625 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. Columns can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject columns.
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