AN 09
Opinion
FOLMSBEE:DEBUNKING COMMON BRAIN MYTHS
COMING FRIDAY
United States First Amendment
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2009
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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Regarding the article on exfoliating microbeads: Not only are they bad for the environment, they put me in an eye patch for a week!
I don't think people should "hit on each other." We need to go back to old-school courting.
To the girl complaining about her workload in the library: I will gladly trade your week for mine. Perhaps you should get off your cell phone and get off Facebook and plan your classes for next semester after midterms. And stop complaining.
complaining.
To the girl calling in with the squirrel comments: You're pretty cute. What do you say we "squirrel around" sometime?
--a tarp.
Since I haven't read any of my other Western Civ. books and I'm supposed to write a paper about Communism, should I not read the next one, too?
--a tarp.
You sound like a winner.
I hate it when songs require me to use a fork to chew my
--a tarp.
I don't know that I'd feel comfortable leaving my money with an armored truck driver that has a busted out window that he covered with
To the guy I passed outside Wescoe who said my name and grabbed my scarf. I'm sorry, but how do I know you?
--floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and "retire" the campus security fee to provide the increased funding
Shoe laces suck.
--floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and "retire" the campus security fee to provide the increased funding
PAGE 7A
Guys just need to get the pants to hit on girls without "liquid courage."
--floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and "retire" the campus security fee to provide the increased funding
So I love how the front page has the article about Jason's death and the back has a giant Abe & Jake's ad with a beer bottle. Contradictions!
--floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and "retire" the campus security fee to provide the increased funding
Blast! The headphone gnome tangled my headphones again!
--floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and "retire" the campus security fee to provide the increased funding
My roommate went to Target and bought new underwear so she wouldn't have to do laundry. Seriously?
--floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and "retire" the campus security fee to provide the increased funding
To the makers of instant oatmeal: Banana cream is NOT an acceptable flavor.
--floated a proposal to eliminate or reduce the student media fee and "retire" the campus security fee to provide the increased funding
Boogie boogie hedgehog.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Cutting campus media fee would reduce student jobs
Fallout from the economic recession is affecting campus widely. Student Senate's budget issues are the most recent in a long line of troubling financial situations. Student Senate faces inflationary costs each year, but this year Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior and student body president, has indicated no new student fees will be assessed. Recently, McGonigle
But slashing the student media fee is a misguided solution that will result in fewer services from student media organizations, possible student job losses and a long-term reduction in student hiring by the organizations that receive money from the fee.
needed for service fees, which fund programs such as bus transport and Watkins Memorial Health Center.
As a large recipient of the student media fee, The University Daily Kansan could be heavily affected, according to Jon Schlitt, sales and marketing adviser for the paper. Schlitt said The Kansan received $111,000 from the student media fee this year.
KJHK, with nearly 30,000 listeners in the Lawrence area, receives significant revenue from the fee. Tom Johnson, music and media coordinator for KJHK, said the station received two-thirds of its revenue, about $100,000, from the student media fee and raises the other third itself. According to Johnson, almost 80 percent goes toward payroll for staff that includes 12 student executive members, a part-time broadcast engineer and one full-time adviser. Without this money the station could not function on a daily basis. The remaining 20 percent pays for needs such as phone and office costs, maintenance, licensing and more.
KANSAN'S OPINION
"Funding we receive from Student Senate goes directly to paying for student positions here at the
paper," Schlitt said.
He said advertising was already down for the year, and he could not paint a rosy picture of what might
happen if additional funds were loss because of a reduction of the fee.
"Significantly reducing that amount would therefore lead to a significant reduction in student jobs here at the paper and in addition would also greatly damage the ability to provide news coverage to the student body as a whole," Schlitt said.
In Student Senate, the money from funding fees is managed by boards of student senators. According to Felix Zacharias, Wichita junior and chairman of the Student Media Fee Board, the board draws up a budget in the preceding year to fund services in the coming year. Last year, his board distributed roughly $100,000 to KJHK, $20,000 to KU Filmworks, $15,000 to Kiosk, the student literary magazine, and $1,000 to KUPedia, in addition to funding for The Kansan. Zacharias said he doubted some of those organizations' abilities to survive without the money, and at best they "might be able to limp along." Zacharias also said maintaining First Amendment expression on
VOICE CONCERNS:
Contact:
Adam McGonigle
amtcongible87@yahoo.com
campus was essential, and he felt it would be curtailed without these organizations receiving the funding they needed.
The Senate's remaining options are narrow. A fee increase of any type seems unlikely. There is no political will for an increase and the University administration has not expressed support for it. This means Senate must cut existing fees to offset those inflationary costs. But balancing the entire Student Senate budget by eliminating only two fees is a shortsighted solution, especially when the costs of such action would have a profoundly negative influence on crucial student services and student jobs.
STUDENT LIFE
During a budget crisis, the University should be united by the common challenges of reduced funding. Everyone at the University, from undergraduates to professors, custodians to police, suffers from funding cuts. Student Senate should focus first on fees that do not support student jobs, such as the newspaper readership fee, which provides national publications such as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal to students. Senate should then spread remaining cuts widely to maintain service as close as possible to the current level.
Alex Doherty for The Kansan Editorial Board
THE PRICE IS RIGHT: SPRING BREAK EDITION
JAMES FARMER
New kind of spring vacation for the economy of the future
It's no secret that money is tigh these days. Ever since Bernie Madoff stole ALG and Citibank in order to burst the housing bubble, it seems as though nobody has the financial means to do anything fun these days. Just last week, I had to cut collector plates out of my budget entirely. That is a shame, because the 15th anniversary of the release of "D2: The Mighty Ducks" is coming up, and I won't be able to commemorate it in the manner such a film deserves; with a colorful 10-piece set of china dishes.
Last year, as the economy started to collapse, TV pundits popularized the term "staycation." A staycation is kind of like a vacation, except without any of the elements that make a vacation enjoyable. The idea is that you can stay at home or in your hometown and still have "fun" without having to spend too much money.
But that was 2008, and those halcyon days are long gone. Now that we're approaching Thunderdome, even staycations are too costly for the average citizen. You can't play backyard badminton
The point is, in this economy, we can't afford to be happy. And with spring break right around the corner, vacation options are slimmer than ever.
or peruse the local art museum without some industry or another begging you for billions of dollars. The other day I had to tell some General Motors guys I had given my last billion to a street musician on Mass. I felt bad as they slinked away, but that guy played a mean pan flute and deserved every penny.
Anyway, I have come up with a surrogate answer to that alternative solution. It's called the "imagication," and it's easy: All you need to do is find a quiet room, close your eyes and let your imagination take you where you want to go. I see imaginations as the wave of the future, a perfect way to do whatever you want without paying any money at all. Until the imaginary economy collapses, too, that is.
I've scouted some of the best imagination destinations and put together this handy imagtravel guide for you to use this spring break:
New York City — In many
- The beach — On the imaginary beach, everybody is attractive, including you! Don't be surprised if some bottie asks you to go on a magical dolphin ride. That sort of things happens all the time there.
ways, Imaginary New York City is even better than the real thing: There are no muggers, and you can avoid public transportation by acquiring the ability to fly.
The sun — The beach isn't hot enough for you? Then take a trip to the sun, where it's always 10,000 degrees and sunny. And unlike in reality, you won't instantly perish if you get a few million miles too close, which would definitely put a dammer on your holiday.
Segway tours — Real-life Segway tours are boring and lame, but in your imagination, you can crank that baby up to 6 mph and not be silently mocked by those around you for riding a Segway!
- Imagistaycations - If you don't have a strong enough imagination for a good imagination, you can always try and imagine what it would be like to stay at home. "Whoa, I don't have a desk lamp like that in real life! Crazy!"
Nichols is an Overland Park sophomore in creative writing.
CAMPUS
Take a break from careless lies
On any given weekend, you can hear the excitement of sexually charged young students preparing for a night out on the town. After a week of a challenging college curriculum, hey, they deserve it. The evening objectives range from seeking random hookups to simply scoring some free drinks. But when I engage in this strangely acceptable behavior, I prefer to stand back and take the role of observer.
I very much enjoy witnessing the humorous attempts at pick-up lines made by boys in a drunken stupor. My recent favorite: "Hey, (insert random girl's name here))" And when the girl looks at them, utterly confused, "Oh sorry, I thought you were someone else." No, you didn't! Are you seriously going to try to pull that one off?
This brings me to my main complaint: unnecessary lying.
According to a study performed by psychologist Robert S. Feldman for the University of Massachusetts, the average person lies two to three times within a 10-minute conversation. That's more times than Brittany has a breakdown in a year. Disturbing. Because this study was performed on students who had not been drinking, I can only imagine the plethora of white lies slurring from one's mouth after a few cocktails. I'm certainly no Honest Abe, but I'm baffled to think that nearly every conversation that takes place is largely artificial. The bar scene probably generates more lies than any other conversational locale. Just last week, I observed a friend lie about her age five or more times in a row. I wouldn't have given these guys any insight into my personal life either, but why lie your age for no reason?
THE FRESH'MAN PERSPECTIVE
ANN WILSON
From a young age we have the "honesty is the best policy" motto instilled in our brains, but adult society seems to teach us that it's OK to lie on occasion. When friends ask for an opinion on their outfits, as my roommates know, I'm often brutally honest. But most people will say, "You look great!" with big smiles plastered on their faces. Though I agree that in some cases it is acceptable to tie to spare someone's feelings, what's the point of blatantly lying to some guy at the bar you'll probably never see again?
We are all guilty of this habitual crime because it's so effortless and we think, What's the harm? The problem is, these lies start out small and can easily escalate to something much bigger. If we start saying only the things we think other people want to hear, we inevitably lose sight of our true selves.
If people are going out at night hoping to encounter their true loves (or at least a date) at the bar, do they really want to start a relationship based on lies?
If you're going to lie, lie about something that actually matters. If a guy is really going to dismiss you because of your age, you don't need or want him anyway. It's just better to be honest and upfront from the get-go. So save yourself some pride and dignity and just tell the truth.
Wilson is a Hutchinson freshman in journalism and English.
FROM TEXAS
TRAVIS HOLLAND
Texas A&M
The Battalion
America's image deteriorating
In just a week, the United States' image abroad has been torn apart. A few days of haste, rash decisions have made the nation look foolish and weak on the world stage.
One ironic flop was made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She presented Russia's foreign minister with what was supposed to be a "reset" button, starting a beginning with relations between the two countries. Instead, she made a fool of the U.S. when the button was incorrectly translated.
Instead of saying "reset," the button used the Russian word for "overcharge." It was a simple enough mistake, and Clinton made light of it at the ceremony, but it certainly didn't do anything to help the way Russians view America. When using such a symbolic gesture in front of the world, someone in the administration should at least be competent enough to make sure it is properly translated.
In another development, President Barack Obama told the New York Times that the U.S. is not winning the war in Afghanistan and we should begin talking with elements of
the Taliban. Aside from demoralizing our troops and the general public, this sends a message that America is weak and beginning surrender talks.
Despite adamant claims that this isn't a surrender, it sure looks like one. The Taliban was one of the main reasons the U.S. entered Afghanistan in the first place, and now the president wants to negotiate with them. Even with the best of intentions, other countries take notice, and it seriously reduces American bargaining power in world politics.
The Obama administration also invited Iran to an upcoming international conference in Afghanistan. That may seem harmless, but many will interpret this and the other recent foreign policy actions as signs that America has no other options, and is having to negotiate with its enemies.
Maybe one at a time, these moves wouldn't have been anything to worry about. But together, they portray a weakened nation, ready to bargain with anyone and everyone who poses a threat. This isn't the case, and the Obama administration should consider the message it is sending to adversaries of the U.S.
UWire
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Brenna Hawley, Tara Smith, Mary Sorrick, Kelsey Hayden and Dan Thomson.
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