Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2009
United States First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
--legislature should have worked more closely on the issue. This could have kept Regents from making an empty promise.
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I'm currently dating a guy with a pseudo mullet who legitimately wears a fanny pack... never thought I'd say that.
I spent the drive back from dinner grooving to old school Britney Spears with my dad. He picked the music.
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FML I won't be 21 until I'm a senior in college.
--legislature should have worked more closely on the issue. This could have kept Regents from making an empty promise.
What is love? Baby, don't hurt me.
I spent my night trying to get rid of my hickey so my dad doesn't see it tomorrow. Happy Fathers day, your daughter's a whore.
FFA, do you have a zombie plan?
--legislature should have worked more closely on the issue. This could have kept Regents from making an empty promise.
Zombie plan? I have 37 zombie plans!
--legislature should have worked more closely on the issue. This could have kept Regents from making an empty promise.
OK. I'm a Degrassi fan...the marathon did it!
--legislature should have worked more closely on the issue. This could have kept Regents from making an empty promise.
I miss Lawrence.
--legislature should have worked more closely on the issue. This could have kept Regents from making an empty promise.
When you're around the world seems so much less grammatically
When your around, the world seems so much brighter.
--legislature should have worked more closely on the issue. This could have kept Regents from making an empty promise.
COMMENTARY
Increased tuition is a poor decision in poor economy
The Kansas Board of Regents announced in March it would freeze tuition at all of the six state universities for the 2009-2010 school year. As a caveat, Regents said the tuition freeze would only go into effect if state funding to higher education was cut by no more than 7 percent.
In May, the Kansas House of Representatives appropriations committee announced it would cut higher education by 12 percent.
In short, Regents made a promise they couldn't keep. In increasingly difficult times, it makes little sense to rely on the generosity of the legislature, who is forced to make impossible decisions regarding the state's financial priorities. Nevertheless, it seems as though Regents and the
In a stagnant economy, where credit is drying up and part-time jobs are scare, many students may have trouble coping with another tuition increase. What's worse is that many recent graduates are still looking for full-time employment against hiring freezes and national layoffs. This can make paying off student loans nearly impossible for some.
KU students should find the latest tuition hike hard to swallow. A recent audit showed the KU athletics department had $72 million in its account in June of last year. While the Athletics Department
KANSAN'S OPINION
makes plans to build a new Olympic village, and continues to make improvements to its existing facilities, students will have to scramble for extra cash
to finance their educations.
This is especially disheartening considering the $40 fee all students pay each semester to the athletics department for the funding of nonrevenue sports.
In a time of economic crisis, it seems the University has not done enough to cut spending. Although many faculty and staff jobs remain
unfilled, the University has had very few layoffs to speak of.
If students are asked to reach deeper into their pockets, the University should do everything in its power to cut expenditures wherever possible.
It's clear that the University, Regents and the legislature should be doing more to avoid tuition hikes in these uncertain times. While they may be inevitable, they should be a last resort. Students are the ones struggling most, both before and after college. And they shouldn't be asked to foot the bill for poor decisions.
— Kevin Hardy for the Kansan Editorial Board
NOTES FROM ABROAD
Smoking in Dublin sheds light on U.S. taboo
Smokers die younger. Smoking skills. Protect children: Don't make them breathe your smoke.
These are the warnings that decorate my 10 Euro, about $14, pack of Camel Lights. Cigarettes in Lawrence cost less than half of the price here, and don't come with those pesky reminders that you're not breathing in anything good. So why am I finding Dublin to be a smokers paradise?
Maybe it has to do with being pushed 20 feet away from doors and entrances while its pouring rain on campus. Here though, I can blissfully seek cover under building overhangs during a typical rainy Dublin day. Ashtrays are outside nearly every building so smokers don't have to litter the street with cigarette butts (and yes, people use them). Certain bars and restaurants even offer indoor smoking lounges
for those who choose to smoke.
The number of smokers here and at home isn't much different 20 percent in Kansas and 25 percent in Dublin.
In the U.S., smokers pay a "sin" tax that goes towards healthcare and other public incentives. If smokers are expected to make up for their sinful habit by paying a tax, I wonder why there's no "glutton"
The biggest difference between smoking here and in the states though, is that buying cigarettes doesn't make you a bad person.
tax on Big Macs that goes towards education. Yes, I know such a move would be impossible, and slightly totalitarian. You can't prove Big Mac fiends are gluttons in the same way you can prove smokers are bad. Here though, people don't take much stock in the statistics, which have scared the U.S. into a national health frenzy.
According to John Brignell, a retired Professor of Industrial Instrumentation at the University of Southampton, smoking isn't nearly as bad as most would believe. In his book, "Sorry, Wrong Number" Brignell claims that of the 400,000 premature deaths a year in the U.S., 60 percent of the smokers who died prematurely were older than 70, and 17 percent of them were 85 and older.
I'm sure Brignell's own research has flaws and just like anti-smoking studies, I'm sure he also has his own
agenda. It goes to show though, that a good and healthy lifestyle is not something that can be quantified with statistics, but needs to be determined by the individual.
This is something understood in Dublin. With more than 1 million people currently living in the city, 10 percent of which come from foreign nations, Dublin is exceptionally open-minded and respectful of individuals and their freedom of choice. And unlike in the U.S., this tolerance is extended to smokers.
Americans, I think, are expected to live a perfect life. But we've become so concerned with the longevity of our lives that we sometimes forget about the quality of it.
After living here, I'm more concerned with how I live rather than how people say I should live.
A billboard advertisement in Dublin reads "It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years."
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