University Daily Kansan, March 8, 1985
OPINION
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Dalkan Kawaan, UNSP 606 640 is published at the University of Kansas, 185 Stuaffer Finst Hall. Lawan, Kam 606 640, daily during the regular school year and Wednesday and Friday during the summer session, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final periods. Second class postage paid at Lawan, Kam 606 444 by mail are $15 for six months or $18 for six months or $3 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $1 and are paid directly to the address changes to the University Dalkan Kawaan, 185 Stuaffer Finst Hall. Lawan, Kam 606 640,
MATT DEGALAN Editor
DIANE LUBER SUSAN WORTMAN Managing Editor Editorial Editor
ROB KARWATH Campus Editor
LYNNE STARK Business Manager
DUNCAN CALHOUN MARY BERNICA
Retail Sales National Sales
Manager Manager
SUSANNE SHAW
General Manager and News Adviser
DAVID NIXON
Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Ready to admit
Kansas spends $800,000 each year teaching remedial math and English to college students. According to the Kansas Board of Regents, about one out of every four university freshmen in Regents universities drops out or flunks out by the end of the first year.
Kansas law compels universities to admit any student with a diploma from a state-accredited high school. No curriculum or grade point requirements exist.
Although this may seem harsh, it is a good idea.
No student likes to feel the frustration of failure. And no university professor enjoys spoon feeding grossly simplified knowledge.
Most KU administrators and state and local school officials spurn the proposed mandatory preparatory curriculum in favor of the voluntary guidelines set forth by the Regents two years ago.
The guidelines are fine. But Regents' studies show that only 10 percent of this year's freshman class in Regents universities completed the suggested curriculum.
That means that nine out of 10 high school students who went on to college lacked the incentive or the ability to take and pass the courses.
A mandatory curriculum would provide the necessary incentive for students to build a solid foundation on which to base their higher education.
And those students who found that they lacked the ability to pass these courses in high school could save themselves a lot of time, money and emotional scars.
Before any mandatory guidelines could be carried out, all students would have to be given the opportunity to meet them
Education in Kansas would have to be strengthened. More language, math and science teachers would have to be hired.
These are costly changes. But the long term benefits are well worth it.
State universities might lose money from those students who couldn't qualify for admission, but those who did would be much more likely to make the full investment involved in earning a degree. And the Regents could phase out their programs that teach university students what they should have learned in high school.
Rating Lawrence
So, Pittsburgh is the place to live these days.
But that's what Rand McNally said in the new edition of its "Places Rated Almanac."
Rand McNally rated 329 metropolitan areas in the United States by climate, terrain, housing, health care, transportation, education, the arts, recreation and the economic outlook.
And why was Pittsburgh rated No. 1? When you think Pittsburgh, you usually think of football and steel mills.
And where was Lawrence? Somewhere buried in the 200s. Yes, Lawrence was listed behind St. Louis, Philadelphia, Topeka and Wichita.
Talk about a slap in the civic face.
What's the matter with Lawrence? The shops are nice. The prices are not astronomical. It has city parks, clean streets, an outstanding high school, involved leaders, a community theater and a symphony. And it has the University of Kansas. What's the matter with Lawrence? The shops are nice. The prices are not astronomical. It has city parks, clean streets, an outstanding high school, involved leaders, a community theater and a symphony. And it has the University of Kansas.
What more could you ask for?
Although we hate to press the point, we do disagree with Rand McNally.
What's the matter with Lawrence?
Nothing
Basketball season
It had its six-point ups, as when the Jayhawks beat Oklahoma here at home. And it had its 30-point downs, as in the nationally televised embarrassment against Michigan.
What a season.
But no one can complain about a 25-6 record for the season. No one can complain about a No.8 ranking, according to the United Press International that came out Tuesday.
No one can complain about Ron Kellogg, Danny Manning and Greg Dreiling receiving individual playing honors. They deserve them.
And no one would dream of complaining about the Jayhawks having the fourth highest shooting percentage in the country.
For a young team, such accomplishments aren't bad at all. And they're not bad for Coach Larry Brown, either. The team gave him his best season yet as a college basketball coach.
With only the tournaments remaining, the players have nothing left to prove to fans. They just need to do what everyone knows they can do.
Good luck.
A century and six years ago, on March 14, a strange human entered our planet, and after seventy-six years of sojourn, he left behind him a world greatly charged and changed by the power of his mind:
He was Albert Einstein
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Great men indeed
Are to history
What mountains
To the earth,
They erupt above
The sea level
Where you and I
Spend all our struggles,
And like the reeds
Underneath tall trees
We are forever
Caught in the puzzle
Between our heads
And their pinnacles.
Anthony A. Aiya Nigeria graduate student
Controversial figures may be so because of misunderstanding, but they must not be shielded from controversy — especially on the campus of an institution of higher learning and under a guise of impartiality. LaDale George may not endorse this militant and prejudiced
Readers react to Farrakhan planning
Defining bigotry
To the editor
In his convocation address on Aug. 22, 1983, Chancellor Gene A. Budig said the following: "Clearly, there can be no place in this University for bigotry, intolerance, racial or sexual discrimination, a anti-Semitism, and university. we must allow expression of uncomfortable or controversial ideas and discoveries. But we have no obligation to provide a forum . . ."
Because the University of Kansas is soon to provide a forum, to the tune of $3,600, for Louis Farrakhan, one has to wonder what the chancellor could possibly have had in mind. Among Farrakhan's milder public statements, we find reference to Judaism as a "gutter" religion and to outlaw nation. Farrakhan refers to many people as "devils" and has on numerous occasions praised Adolf Hiller as a "very great man."
Of course, in defense of Farrakhan's invitation to KU, one must admit that bigotry, intolerance, racial prejudice and anti-Semitism are very slippery notions indeed. If only Farrakhan had said something like "homosexuality is silly" or "women's basketball is boring," then we would have had a clear-cut example of sexual discrimination and ample grounds for refusing him a forum.
Fortunately for Farrakhan, his public statements fall nearly under the category of "uncomfortable or controversial." I must admit that they make me damned uncomfortable!
A spokesman for Farrakhan said, "He likes to speak on college campuses." No wonder. Who else would listen to him? So long as one's ideas are sufficiently trite or demented and generically labeled as "controversial," some university will grant them an eternal forum under the aegis of another hackneyed notion, "tolerance."
Free expression
Tulsa, Okla., graduate student
Tim Williams
In discussing the plans with Kansan reporter Julie Mangan (March 5). George said the proposal provided for a panel of faculty members to question this controversial figure and not an open session where Farrakhan would be attacked. Thus, free expression is disingenuous; George wants Farrakhan to have charges answered to those who misunderstand, and with a closed session, expression is restricted.
On its face, the effort by LaDale George and others to bring Farrakhan to the University of Kansas seems to be consistent with faithful support of furthering free expression. As I say, on its face.
To the editor:
The arguments have been many and persuasive. One more presents itself and, Louis Farrakhan's views visit as proposed an undesirable event.
leader, but by removing the chance of rebuttal by interested students, George lends his support.
Controversy and open debate must surround those who espouse beliefs contrary to positive and cooperative doeses as Louis Farrakhan does.
Let argument abound.
Research policy
To the editor:
In the Feb. 28 edition of the Kansas, Beth Reiter reported on my presentation to the University Forum concerning classified research. Unfortunately, her report was not an accurate one. I did not say that "the University of Kansas needs to revise its policy on secret research to give researchers academic freedom and the opportunity to pursue their ideas
I did say that I believed that this was one point of view on the campus and that it was held as a strong point of view by a number of faculty. I believed that this was an important issue and one that deserved full discussion.
Further, I said that I believed that the faculty ought to have an opportunity to vote on the issue of whether or not the University Code should be revised to accommodate the needs of students and to conduct research that would have more classification than is now permitted by the code.
I will appreciate your printing this letter, as the article printed on Feb. 28 was inaccurate and gave an erroneous impression.
Frances Degen Horowitz vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and public service, dean of the graduate school
ASK gets results
I would like to thank Julie Mangan for her Feb. 27 article concerning a local tavern owner and the Associated Students of Kansas. I would like to point few points of information for the students of the University of Kansas.
To the editor:
Concerning the drinking age issue, the Kansas Legislature informed ASK that the drinking age would be raised because of the federal mandate concerning highway funding. The lobbyist for the Tavern League of Kansas has made an effort to come up with alternative legislation but as yet has introduced nothing to the Legislature.
ASK chose to make the best of a bad situation and to propose legislation that would save jobs for all 18- to 20-year-olds in the sale and handling of all alcoholic beverages, as well as a "grandfathering" in of the drinking age. This employment proposal would save jobs not only in taverns, but in grocery stores, convenience stores and various restaurants seving 3.2 percent cereal malt beverages.
I might also add that the chairman of the Republican Caucus pointed out to the Kansas House that the House Federal and State Affairs Committee included these very provisions in 1967. The OPEA ASK sent them and was only lobbying organization to include provisions for college-aged persons.
ASK has many other positive programs it is working on, such as the work-study program that was introduced in 1973 solely by ASK; programs such as the graduate fee waivers, which was also introduced by ASK; scholarships, such as the Distinguished State Scholar and the Teacher Education Scholar, have been delivered by ASK, and efforts against the federal budget President Reagan concerning guaranteed student loans, national direct student loans and other federal programs.
ASK remains ideologically opposed to the raising of the drinking age but understands the wishes of the Kansas Legislature to raise the age to 21 to save much more than $18 million in much-needed highway funds for the ASK will continue to work for the best interest of its residents and the state of Kansas, despite what Ken Wallace, or anyone else, may assume.
ASK is working, and always has worked, with and for the students at the University of Kansas as well as the students of the other Board of Regents schools and Washburn University.
Sandra Binyon
Associated Students of Kansas Kansas University delegation
Sociology Club
As a participant and one of the organizers of the undergraduate Sociology Club's round-table discussion, which was reported in the Kansan ("Sociologists hope to clear image." Feb. 28). I would like to clarify a couple of issues raised by John Rodriguez's article.
I do not believe that a common trait of sociology majors is a desire to "reform" the world. I know very few sociology majors who hold such notions. What I said was that the common denominator of those whom participated in the discussion seemed to be a desire to better understand the world so as to help change it. That is, a desire to make some kind of contribution to the world was a characteristic of the several kinds of majors who attended the meeting.
To the editor
I do not think sociology majors are more idealistic than other liberal arts and sciences students. Although the sociology students that were present discussed the comments they receive from other students when "What's your major?" is the burning question, I don't think the sociology majors whined about how idealistic and self-sacrificing their major made them. Much of the discussion focused on how wrong — and unnecessary — such an assumption is.
Rodriguez's choice of quotes, however, reinforces the stereotypical image of sociology majors as being late late '60s throwbacks. Bear in mind that the topic of discussion — what is sociology and is it important? — launched a lively and far-ranging debate. Therefore, I can appreciate the difficulties Rodriguez faced attempting to focus the group's discussion into a short article.
Although such a discussion is difficult to report, it is also challenging to lead. Many of the things that I and the faculty advisers said were intentionally overstated and were included in the discussion. Most of the qualifications and arguments that accompanied these comments were not reported.
Finally, I think the undergraduate Sociology Club's first round-table discussion was worthwhile and fun. We all said, saying goes, "You had to be there."
Rich Milby Lawrence senior Sociology Club president
Rapist stereotype
This letter is in response to the racial petition against Roderick Timmons. I feel personally hurt because some students at the University of Kansas cannot let sleeping dogs lie undisturbed and in peace. I feel threatened by the now present black-athlete rapist sterotype.
These two cooky, white, prejudiced females do not realize how much Timmons had to encounter and try to cope with through his highly publicized trial. The problem with Amy Brown and Amy Kincard is that now they have some authority in their pursues, they want to run the world.
To the editor:
Numerous white athletes have committed serious crimes, but none of the crimes was as highly publicized as the one at hand. This is not to say that these crimes should be taken lightly, but it seems that a person's race determines how much publicity he or she receives.
If Timmons were white, I do not think this issue would have been carried as far as it has. In earlier issues of the Kansan, articles of racial discrimination and prejudice at the University of Kansas were printed to try to bring to light some of the bad points of this institution.
I feel that if the University of Kansas is to remain as an institution with a respectful name, people like Brown and Kincaid should really think of the many negative possibilities that could happen or join a white supremacist group where they can speak as they want.
Stevan L. Nave
Coffeyville junior
LETTERS POLICY
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 of the Kansan. The Kansan also invites individuals and groups to submit columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office. 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.