Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SHORMAN: A FRESHMAN'S TAKE ON A COMPLICATED FIRST ELECTION
United States First Amendment
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2009
COMING FRIDAY
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.
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--it breaks my heart to see all the buses jam-packed on such a beautiful day.
To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call (785) 864-0500.
Guys, if you're going to wear a V-necked shirt, please make sure you don't have a hairy
I just saw two dancing Liberties dancing together on 23rd Street. I love tax season!
I've seen waaay too many K-State shirts on campus. What's up with that?
Haiku: Welcome to Wescoe / as much as you don't want to, / just take their pamphlet.
There's a moon bounce on campus! That's it — I'm skipping class.
Is it weird that I love Kanye even more after the "South Park" episode?
PAGE 7A
Last night my dog ate a box of crayons, and this morning she pooped a rainbow!
Lawrence once had a mayor named Boog and now they have one named Chestnut. I limit
--of the University. The proposed $23 million sports facility comes at a time when the University faces massive budget cuts and the continued deferment of crucial maintenance for campus infrastructure. Outgoing Chancellor Hemenway has been a long-standing champion of KU Athletics, but the incoming chancellor needs to refocus his or her priorities on the University's fundamental mission — academics and research. The first step should be the initiation of a new capital campaign, a measure that is long overdue.
I've turned into one of those idiot pedestrians I used to
--of the University. The proposed $23 million sports facility comes at a time when the University faces massive budget cuts and the continued deferment of crucial maintenance for campus infrastructure. Outgoing Chancellor Hemenway has been a long-standing champion of KU Athletics, but the incoming chancellor needs to refocus his or her priorities on the University's fundamental mission — academics and research. The first step should be the initiation of a new capital campaign, a measure that is long overdue.
My roommate for next year and I are totally putting a zombie clause in our roommate contract.
Does anyone know of a shortcut from the Rec to Dunkin' Donuts?
I haven't had conditioner for weeks. My hair feels like spider legs. God of Herbal Essences, endow me now.
--of the University. The proposed $23 million sports facility comes at a time when the University faces massive budget cuts and the continued deferment of crucial maintenance for campus infrastructure. Outgoing Chancellor Hemenway has been a long-standing champion of KU Athletics, but the incoming chancellor needs to refocus his or her priorities on the University's fundamental mission — academics and research. The first step should be the initiation of a new capital campaign, a measure that is long overdue.
Irony is a Ford Focus driver with ADD.
Watching MTV's "College Life" is like stalking and watching a ton of badly tape Facebook videos with professional transitions.
So I just saw a KU Parking guy giving someone a ticket and laughing while he was doing this.
Someone needs to tell Taylor Swift that Romeo and Juliet die at the end of the play.
How do you know he wasn't listening to David Sedaris on his iPod, and that's why he was laughing?
--of the University. The proposed $23 million sports facility comes at a time when the University faces massive budget cuts and the continued deferment of crucial maintenance for campus infrastructure. Outgoing Chancellor Hemenway has been a long-standing champion of KU Athletics, but the incoming chancellor needs to refocus his or her priorities on the University's fundamental mission — academics and research. The first step should be the initiation of a new capital campaign, a measure that is long overdue.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Olympic village highlights gap between athletics, academics
U Athletics latest expansion announcement this time for an Olympic development for tech
Village-style development and field, soccer and softball has brought to the forefront several persistent questions regarding the relationship between KU Athletics and the rest
compliance. Undoubtedly, the new facility will benefit the University and its athletes, which should not be overlooked.
KANSAN'S
OPINION
The Olympic Village project is simply the latest in a long line of building projects that have dramatically changed the face of athletics at the University in the past six years. Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director said the new facilities would be "championship quality" allowing the University to attract new competitions and appeal to recruits. In addition, Marchiony said all of these new facilities would be used by women's sports, improving the University's Title IX
During the past six years, Athletics Director Lew Perkins has overseen the construction of many prominent facilities including suites at
Memorial Stadium and a museum at Allen Fieldhouse, that have showcased the University's athletics to alumni, the media and new recruits. This is precisely what the administration hired him to do. Before Perkins came to Lawrence in 2003, he managed a comparably massive expansion of athletics facilities at the University of Connecticut.
Athletics must strike a balance among providing reasonable facilities for its athletes, accommodating spectators and appealing to donors and recruits. But most importantly, it must contribute to the overall success of the University, which is ultimately measured in terms of academics. Keeping in mind the terms and constraints of the relationship of Athletics to the University, it is disconcerting to see the construction of yet another huge and costly athletics facility while the rest of the University literally crumbles around it. Deferred maintenance costs for older parts of campus have plagued the University for a decade and
deterrimentally affected academics. Now, with a full-blown recession, large budget cuts are projected for the next two years, and maintenance will no doubt be deferred once again, not to mention faculty layoffs and deep cuts in student services.
Next year, the University's new leadership must repair this disparity and focus first and foremost on maintaining the University's fundamental mission of academics and research. Administrators must immediately undertake a new capital campaign to make up for the money that the University can no longer count on from state government. The previous campaign, KU First, ended in 2004 with outstanding results, raising $653 million dollars. Dale Seuferling, president of KU Endowment, said the commitments for that campaign ended after five years, making 2009 or 2010 an optimal time to start a new campaign. These campaigns could be presented as a way to reinvest in the University's core mission.
"The new chancellor will be key," Seuferling said. "The alumni donors will be interested in that individual's ideals and goals."
STUDENT LIFE
One of the incoming chancellor's first goals must be to address the conspicuous disparity between athletics and academics at the University.
— Alex Doherty for The Kansan Editorial Board
MARIAM SAIFAN
Students should consider relocation after graduation
I had never been to the U.S.
until I came here to attend the
University. "Come back home
if you don't like America," my
parents told me when I left Japan.
I had no idea what my life in
Lawrence would be like, and I was
really counting on their words.
Although I have enjoyed my time at the University, with one month left until my graduation, I feel excited about moving to a new place. I haven't found a job yet, but my quest for relocation motivates me to try harder at job searching. I applied for internships at many different locations, including Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, Washington, D.C., Shanghai and Svdnev.
I knew my college life would be great as soon as I arrived in town. The view from Mount Oread stunned me. On my way from campus to downtown, a teenage boy passing by said, "Have a nice weekend!" I was pleasantly surprised. No stranger ever said "hi" to me when I lived in Tokyo.
Many students I know at the University, however, choose to stay in Kansas or the Midwest after graduation. Many of them hesitate about leaving the place
where they grew up and living away from their family and friends. But my experience has taught me that starting a new life in an unfamiliar place is not as hard as many people think.
Among my relocating experiences, living in Shanghai was the most challenging. Many customs and manners that I took for granted, such as the way people spoke and waited in line, were not accepted there.
Because of my father's job, I lived in several places during my childhood, including Saga (in southwest Japan), Tokyo and Shanghai. This experience didn't change my shy personality, but rather taught me how to adapt to a new environment quickly.
was in Shanghai and tried to like it there.
At first, I felt frustrated by those differences. But it's funny: people are less apt to reach out to you when you're holding negative feelings. I started to make more friends when I accepted the way it
Because of my previous experience, the relocation to Lawrence was relatively easy for me. As long as you keep a positive attitude, you're more likely to enjoy the new environment and make friends. Some people may argue that you cannot build a deep friendship in that way, but I disagree. You can always keep in touch with old friends through Facebook, Skype or Twitter. In fact, visiting friends is always a good excuse for me to go home or travel to other places.
If you're struggling with job searching, adding relocation to your options may increase your chances of getting a job. It can also benefit your life in the long run.
Living in three countries Japan, the U.S. and China gave me different perspectives on my way of life, and allowed me to connect with a variety of people. If you hesitate about relocation, focus on what you will gain from the experience, rather than what you may miss.
Miyakawa is a Tokyo senior in journalism.
FROM NEW YORK
Too often, society uses anorexia as a punchline
JANE P. RICCOBONO
Cornell U.
Cornell Daily Sun
"I have another idea for a TV show. It's called 'Rape My House.'" A
stand-up MC in New York was warming the audience up for the next act. He was commenting on the strangeness of having an MTV show called "Pimp My Ride." It is a show for a young audience that gleefully uses the word "pimp" as if it had no association with sexual exploitation.
He made a good point, and was funny while he did it. Even though he used "rape" in the joke, it was to underline the seriousness of it. The audience laughed because we compared the gravity of rape to that of pimping and realized that the TV show lets the latter slide, even glamorizes it. In the case of "pimp," there is the argument that the word has been appropriated by some communities to have alternate meaning, but unfortunately such context is los on a lot of viewers.
When we use words like "pimp," "rape" and "anorexic" humorously or sarcastically, we are saying a lot more than the language alone would imply. For example, there is an insidious way of using "rape" that shows a total lack of reflection. I have known some to say, after a particularly challenging test, "Ohm man, that test raped me."
Actually, no. It didn't. And if you stop to think about the fact that in the United States, one out of six women has experienced an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, and that college-age women are four times more likely to be sexually assaulted, you might think rape is a bigger problem than a couple of
unanswered multiple choice questions.
"Anorexic" is misused differently, but in a way that also writes off a social ill. Since anorexia has come into the public consciousness, it has morphed from a shocking disorder to a cultural fixture. In much daily speech, and some popular media, "anorexic" describes a body type instead of a psychological condition. And it is usually loaded with unconcealed ridicule. Sometimes the caustic diminutive "rexy" is also employed toward this end.
To be clear, the anxiety behind anorexia is not always rooted in gender oppression. But the way that anorexics take out anxieties on the physical self is a largely feminine phenomenon. So, instead of attacking each individual anorexic, it would be more productive to consider why anorexia, and eating disorders in general, are still prominent among women. It may be more difficult now to see eating disorders as a problem because, not only have we been conscious of them our whole lives, we have personally seen them. But eating disorders are still around, and we would do well to investigate their position in the socio-economic system, instead of calling the skinny girl "rexy" and calling it a day.
Although wordplay is a fun and worthwhile exercise, there is a fine line between playing and hating when terms lose context. Using "rape" lightly is insensitive unless, like the wily comedian, you make a concerted effort to prove otherwise. And, contrary to what some seem to think, "anorexic" is not synonymous with stupid.
— UWire
Video conferencing causes unnecessary confusion in classrooms
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Video conferencing and internet-based learning programs are a serious threat to the viability of current learning environments and the future of humankind. They are a concrete example of our tendency to use "technology" for the sake of technology itself, beyond any kind of practical consideration for its broader implications and potential consequences. Being in class, in person, is how knowledge is transferred and understanding achieved. Scientists are already behind in terms of "people skills." In this respect, video conferencing will further the inability of scientists to communicate by decreasing their person-to-person interactions even with teachers and other scientists.
So far in the class I am taking, there are two people attending from Edwards campus and about 13 from main campus. Video conferencing has resulted in at least 20 percent of class time wasted as a result of "technical difficulties." It is annoying to everyone, inconvenient for professors and disrespectful to students for the University to push video conferencing and internet-based learning as classroom options. It is an injustice that part of the money we pay for tuition is used for this source of misunderstanding and classroom delay. Why even have a live feed? Why not just record a semester and then revoke the employment of all professors when the semester is over?
Education is about relationships established in a classroom, just as friendship and love grow in the physical presence of other people. While it is trendy to have Facebook friends, what informs these trends besides empty social pressures postulated on pretending to adequately satisfy basic human needs? And, more importantly, what are the consequences of accepting such trends and allowing them to proliferate? Think about it.
Jason Beury is a graduate research assistant in the School of Engineering
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Karran Editorial Board are Brenna Hawley, Tara Smith, Mary Sorrick, Keiley Hayden and David Thompson.