Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
COLDHAM: CORPORATE WORLD CATCHING ON TO HIP-HOP
COMING FRIDAY
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THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009
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Astronomy class never fails to make me feel completely and utterly small.
--right — it's a luxury!
I just witnessed a girl take the bus from Bailey to Snow. Are you kidding me?
p
Bike + Ellsworth roof =
bilarious
I wonder if Matt Kleinmann noticed that he had a small gaggle of girls following him through the parking lot today.
--right — it's a luxury!
To the writer of the April Fools Day article in the UDK, where can I get this fake money and werewolf serum?
--right — it's a luxury!
Would like to remind people to be kind to the front desk staff at the advising center. We are doing our best to help you during this busy time.
One of the Bob Billings-Kasold bus drivers took April Fools' Day as an opportunity to make the bus ride amateur Def Comedy Jam morning. Thanks for cheering me up before my 9 a.m. class
--right — it's a luxury!
I don't remember parking my bike on my dorm's roof?
Should I ask a Muslim girl out?
She wears a hijab, but we have chemistry
To the guy who dropped his iPod on the treadmill at the reccenter last night and then proceeded to fall off himself:
Thank you! I was beginning to think I was the only one who embarrassed myself there on a regular basis!
So the guy in my econ class who has been wearing a Bud Light hat all semester suddenly switched to a Mickeys. Intriguing.
Am I the only one who finds it highly ironic that the ShamWow guy also pitches a product called the *slapchop*?
--right — it's a luxury!
So Gmail wants to play an April Fools' joke: Hardy har har.
I'm the needle in the haystack that no one wants to find.
To the chick sitting behind me in Anschutz complaining 'about her freakin' money problems on the phone: Shut the hell up! if you don't have any money you don't need an effing Coach pursue! It's not a right.
--characteristics: race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin and ancestry. Sexual orientation and gender identity should be added to this list in order to protect the LGB community of Kansas.
To the hot dog guy on campus: Where were you yesterday? I came with lots of change...
Senate should not put hold on anti-discrimination bill
EDITORIAL BOARD
A Kansas Senate committee advanced a bill on March 19 that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Kansas Act Against Discrimination, a measure that is long overdue. It is possible, however, that this important piece of legislation could be put on hold.
Under Kansas law, it is illegal to discriminate in public accommodations, employment, and housing for the following
(R-Overland Park) and Pete Brungardt (R-Salina).
The Kansas Equality Coalition supports the addition to the bill, and it was voted for by Sens. Marci Francisco (D-Lawrence), Roger Reitz (R-Manhattan), Oletha Faust-Goudeau, (D-Wichita), Tim Owens,
Using sexual orientation as a reason to prohibit someone from housing, or as grounds to remove someone from their job, is absurd. The United States is a country founded on equality for all people, and this bill would just be insuring that Kansans are holding true to this American ideal.
Currently, Senate Majority Derek Schmidt (R-Independence)
KANSAN'S
OPINION
does not know
does not know whether he will bring the bill up before the full Senate. In a Lawrence Journal- World article from March 22, he is
There should not be a timetable placed on protecting citizens. There is not a good reason for this bill to be overlooked this legislative session.
quoted as saying, "I'd just like to understand why a majority on the committee thought it needed to * be debated this year"
TO CONTACT THE
SENATE ABOUT
THE BILL:
Write or call: Senator
Derek Schmidt
*At: State Capitol —
Room 390-E
Topeka, Kansas 6612*
*Or:(785) 296-2497*
As Milton Wendland, attorney and GTA in the department of women, gender and sexuality studies asked, "How can you postpone civil rights?"
Kansas would join 26 other states that already have legislation protecting against sexual orientation discrimination. Even if you are not a part of the LGBT community, students should advocate equality for all people. Diversity should be celebrated, not put on hold.
— Caitlin Thornbrugh for The Kansan Editorial Board
EDITORIAL CARTOON
PAGE 7A
NICHOLAS SAMBALUK
STUDENT LIFE
Tough times, but reason for Jayhawks to celebrate
Lately, I've heard a lot of my peers complaining about some current circumstances that are less than ideal. The economy sucks. We're out of the tournament. It just snowed when winter is supposed to be over. But there are reasons to remain optimistic.
One of the best reasons to be attending the University: It rocks and it's also affordable. Although many of us will not be here more than four or five years, there is a sizeable population that will continue its education after an undergraduate degree. Whatever your path, the University is likely the right (or at least a smart) choice.
For those feeling a little blue, here is a reminder of how lucky you are (and proud you should be) just to a student at the University, as well as a few statistics to throw at anyone questioning our beloved university.
Mary Beth Marklein of USA Today reported in her article "Economy Influences College Choices" that seven out of 10 high school students said the struggling economy had affected their college applications. Obviously those 70 percent haven't visited Lawrence vet.
But the University goes beyond being a great bargain. The Princeton Review reports that it
has a place for all types of people, from the Greeks to the hippies, and acknowledges its "infectious school spirit."
TopUniversities.com said that greatness began with the founding of Lawrence as an abolitionist town, and the founding of the University has only continued to astonish ever since.
This Web site also referred to the University as "an ideal campus," and claims that at this college "opportunities are boundless." That's definitely not an understatement.
"KU students love life at their school," the Review said.
The University has been called home for the astronomer who discovered Pluto, New York Times best-selling author Steve Doocy, the former CEO of Pepsi-Cola Co., the first African-American woman to entertain at the White House, governors, national (and Emmy-award winning) news anchors, the inventor of that semi-popular sport called basketball, NASA astronauts and Nobel Prize-winners. And I can't forget the wildly popular actor Paul
Rudd, Olympic gold medalists, the discoverer of vitamin A, ambassadors (to countries such as South Africa and Qatar), the co-founder of Netscape and the first female senator to have been elected before her husband.
Unfortunately, there are just too many legendary layhawks for me to mention them all. For more than a decade, the University has received four stars from the Fiske Guide to Colleges, and U.S. News and World Report ranked it at 89 out of the Best National Universities in a survey of more than 1400 colleges.
Oh, and even though it's 2009,
we can all still brag about our
Orange Bowl and NCAA National
Championship victories of 2008.
Be serious; don't you think
Mizzou would do the same if
they actually won something?
The bottom line — our school is awesome, and we are all thereby awesome by association. Now that I have stroked the ego of all current and former KU students and faculty, go out there and have a wonderful day. Don't forget to yell "Rock Chalk" to anyone you see, because it always has been, and always will be, great to a Jayhawk.
Buser is a Columbia, Ill. junior in journalism and English.
FROM SOUTH CAROLINA
NCAA tournament boycotts Confederate-flag flying city
BY RYAN QUINN U. of South Carolina The Daily Gamecock
A flag symbolizes a country as long as that country exists. When that country ceases to exist — 1865 for the CSA — the flag no longer symbolizes something real. A flag then becomes a symbol that is defined by human emotion. Many believe that the Confederate flag is a symbol of the glory of the old South. Many believe that it honors the soldiers who died for what they believed in. Vastly more believe it represents racism, prejudice and hate.
I was reading an article in The State Tuesday, and I was shocked to learn that the reason we miss out on all the March Madness is because of the Stars and Bars. Yes, it seems that having the Confederate flag on State House grounds actually does hurt something — other than the feelings of thousands of residents. The NCAA forbids Columbia from hosting a game, though we have the perfect accommodations, solely because the Confederate flag still flies at our Capitol. Sometimes I wish that Sherman had made Columbia "Famously Hot" like he did Savannah.
Though many respect the Confederate flag, the fact that many others are offended by it means that it has no place at our Capitol. Our Capitol is supposed to be a representation
Likewise, no matter what you believe the Civil War was about, or what the flag represents, too many people are offended by it. It doesn't matter which group — pro-flag or anti-flag — is in the majority. Anything that is that close to 50-50 is too debatable to be on State House grounds.
Whether or not a symbol should be displayed in a public place should be based on consensus. Though the swastika is a symbol of luck to some Hindus and Buddhists, it is a symbol of hate to just about everyone else. And though some former German soldiers may see the Nazi flag as an honor to those who died in the war, it is not allowed to fly in Germany.
of all, not some.
Many rebuke this reasoning by citing that we don't take the American flag down — even though extremists burn it and many Europeans hate it. But the simple fact is that the American flag represents a real country — and here in America, the flag is respected.
We all know the general consensus in the world and in the United States on what the Confederate flag means. Even in the South, you'd be hard-pressed to prove that a majority thinks highly of the Confederate flag.
Hang it on your wall. Fly it on your house. Put it on your boat. I don't care where you put it, just don't put it at the Capitol. Remember, that's my Capitol, too.
UWire
Student Senate elections about participation not coalitions
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I just asked a friend what he'd do with $20 million. He replied by saying, "I'd get the hell out of this place, buy a beach-front house, a really fast car and then put the rest of it under my mattress. Why do you ask?"
With this money, Senate funds things such as Watkins Health Center, KU on Wheels, Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center and KU Recycling. In addition to this, senators are appointed or elected to serve on various boards and committees to represent you when choosing a new chancellor or
Each year approximately 85 percent of the student body abstains from Student Senate elections. Student fees may seem like just another drop in the bucket after factoring in the rest of your tuition but it adds up to be a budget slightly shy of $20 million.
changing the academic calendar. So why don't you vote?
Regardless of whether or not you've voted in Student Senate elections, we've got your money. Regardless of whether or not you'll ever ride a KU bus you've already paid $56 per semester to ensure that they'll run. Despite that Title IX is a federally mandated law, money from your wallet ($80 per fiscal year per student or $2.4 million) made up the funding difference between men's and women's sports and paid for the construction of a boathouse that you most likely aren't ever going to use.
Student Senate elections will be held the second week of April. Four coalitions are running this year. Every year that I have attended the University a new coalition has been formed claiming to reach out to the disenfranchised student body.
— Sonia Marcinkowski is a senior from Blue Springs, Mo., and a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Senator
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864-4810 or bhawley@kansan.com
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EEDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Brenna Hawley, Tara Smith, Mary Sorick, Kelsey Hawley and Dan Thomson.