O Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN NICHOLS: IN BAD ECONOMY TURN TO 'IMAGICATIONS' COMING THURSDAY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2009 United States First Amendment WWW.KANSAN.COM 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. FREE FOR ALL To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call (785) 864-0500. Never cut in front of short people. We get pissed off easily. Just a warning. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. I went down to K-State this weekend and used their computers. I changed the background of 15 of their computers to KU Basketball. I love being an asshole. "Don't want no short people round here." The Apartidment of Slovenly Balkanizing Languishes Offals Constipation in Posterior Chaldean Cabalistics. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. I finished today's Sudoku in about four minutes. Come on, UDK, get some hard Sudokus in there. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. So not only was the guy in the bus today wearing a gold grill that said "Big Daddy," he also pulled out a huge bag of chicken wings and was drinking a two-liter bottle of Diet Sprite. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. Is she blonde and sits toward the front? Because I completely agree. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. I'm still crying about a mistake I made years ago. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. I got the stink-eye again. I don't know whether to be angry or amused. Today I saw Cole Aldrich walking around with a brace on his leg. Should I be concerned? --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. So everyone must think Beyonce is fat, because she definitely weighs more than 130 pounds. PAGE 7A You were beaten with the ugly stick as a child, weren't you? --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. I so just thought we were having a tornado and was confused why there wasn't any wind. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. Sorry about the tornado siren guys. I farted. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. You are like a little kid. Everything you touch becomes sticky. --positions will need to be filled quickly by a search committee selected by the Kansas Board of Regents. I am the walrus. Coo coo ca choo. EDITORIAL BOARD Leadership changes come during an uncertain time The University Administration faces major changes as the University bids farewell to University b Governor Robert Hemenway and Provost Richard Lartiviere. In these economically uncertain times, both top-ranking Hemenway As the University's chief executive, Hemenway directed all the University's campuses, research facilities and educational centers. In December, Hemenway, after 14 years of leadership, announced that he would retire at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year. On March 2, Hemenway announced that Lariviere, provost and executive vice chancellor, had been selected to become the president of the University of Oregon, a position he would take on July 1. As the chief operations and academic officer on the Lawrence and Edwards campuses. Lariviere is tasked with fulfilling the mission of the University alongside the chancellor, administrators, faculty, staff and students. Lariviere has been at the University for three years. Hemenway has chosen Joseph Steinmetz, dean of liberal arts and sciences, as the interim provost and he will work alongside Lariviere until his departure. In January, the Kansas Board of Regents announced that it had selected a committee to search for and enlist three to five replace men students, faculty administration, staff and members of the Board of Regents. Drue Jennings of Prairie Village chairs the committee. Lariviere The committee consists of 18 members, including Todd Cohen, director of University Relations, said that the process of finding a new chancellor for the University was ongoing and that the search committee's goal was to have the position filled by July 1. The new chancellor will choose the permanent provost. "The chancellor created a very strong institution," Cohen said. "This should be a very exciting time. It's the end of an era with the two stepping down; change is definitely coming." At a press conference Hemenway gave on Dec. 8 to announce his retirement, he discussed what he would do to ensure that the next chancellor would be the right one. "I think that the things that should be looked for in the next chancellor are an ability to understand and handle difficult economic times. We all know we're going to be facing those kinds of times." Hemenway said. "My goal is going to be to do everything I can to prepare the way for the next chancellor and make sure that we've got a good method of succeeding in this very difficult time." But Sam Littman, Chicago senior, said hearing that both the chancellor and provost were KANSAN'S OPINION leaving made him nervous. "It seems like the University is already in trouble with the state budget cuts." Littman said, "And with the chancellor and provost leaving, it's a little scary because we're going to get people that might not have the experience that they do in these situations." Although both Hemenway and Lariviere have worked hard to look out for the University's interests, especially as the state Legislature pushed to cut funding for higher education, their departure leaves the University without crucial leadership during a moment of unprecedented uncertainty. CAMPUS — Nancy Wolens for The Kansan Editorial Board TYLER DOEHRING Don't cut smokers slack for casting aside cigarettes One sunny afternoon in February, I came out of Wescoe Hall, walking toward Watson Library. The sunlight was reflected on a lawn and dazzled my eyes. As I turned my eyes away from the lawn, I spied a girl in a white coat. As she passed me by, I stared at her, trying to send a signal. She quickly walked away without looking at me. I looked at the lawn by Stauffer-Flint Hall. It was scattered with a number of cigarette butts. She was walking in my direction, holding a cigarette between two fingers. She inhaled deeply, took a long puff, and blew the smoke slowly into the air. It was smooth and elegant. She then tossed away the cigarette casually, as if fixing her hair. Cigarette debris tops the list of campus litter. You can see hundreds of cigarette butts dumped on sidewalks, lawns and parking lots, around the doorways and stairwells of buildings and dorms. While many people hesitate about throwing away plastic bottles or newspapers at random places, some smokers are immune to the consequences of dropping cigarettes anywhere. Many of those cigarette butts stay where they are discarded without being picked up or biodegrading. It's frustrating that a small number of careless smokers can ruin our beautiful campus. And it is not just us who are bothered by the cigarette litter. Birds may eat it, and cigarette butts can also pollute The KU campus is not very smoker-friendly in terms of the availability of ashtrays, but that doesn't mean smokers can drop cigarette butts anywhere. If smokers think looking for an ashtray is inconvenient, they should carry a portable ashtray. the environment once storm water sweeps them off campus and carries them into creeks and rivers. Most people think littering is bad manners, but when it comes to smoking, people are more tolerant and the awareness of smokers is lower, too. Smokers who have littered campus with cigarettes should give their actions a second thought. Careful smokers and non-smokers should politely show that cigarette-butt littering is unacceptable and embarrassing. Miyakawa is a Tokyo, Japan, senior in journalism. ENTERTAINMENT ASSOCIATED PRESS Animated documentary offers new take on war For the most part I do not find documentaries to be boring. I like them just as much as I like other movies. But my roommate has a point. There is no such thing as an objective documentary, or for that matter truly objective newspapers, news shows, academic papers, etc. Every medium is unavoidably subjected to some form of bias; there is always an author. My roommate hates documentaries. He argues that they are boring and misleading because they adopt a narrative that appears to be objective, when in fact certain biases and interests drive their production. Because of this unavoidable condition, I have grown to appreciate documentaries that delve into their own subjectivity. "Waltz with Bashir" is a unique animated documentary by Israeli director Ari Folman. I left the movie theater floored. This past weekend I went to the True/False Film Fest, a documentary festival in Columbia, Mo. There I was able to watch a documentary that embraces its own limitations, both in its form and in its approach to the story presented First, it doesn't attempt to give the audience an objective assessment of the Lebanon War or of the massacres. Instead So what makes "Waltz with Bashir" different from other documentaries? The film portrays Folman's efforts to remember his experiences in the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1982 Lebanon War, memories he apparently repressed. It specifically focuses on where he was during the Sabra and Shattila massacres that occurred after the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, the Lebanese president at the time. A Lebanese Christian militia massacred hundreds of Palestinian refugees, and the IDF played a role in enabling the violence. "Waltz with Bashir" is playing at Cinemark Palace at the Plaza in Kansas City. Mo. It is slated to open at Liberty Hall soon. it makes it clear that the plot is based on Folman's and the interviewees' experiences. Folman emphasizes that this is the story told from the perspective of a 40-something trying to gain access to the memories of terrible events he experienced when he was 19. And he makes us aware that war is hell. Another compelling aspect of Folman's documentary is that it's almost entirely animated. Though some may argue that this form runs the risk of aestheticizing violence (which it does), it also provides a counter benefit: By relying on animation, Folman recognizes and makes it clear to the audience that these are his and his interviewees' memories, and thus personal and subjective. Perhaps all media can learn from "Waltz with Bashir". Although striving for objectivity is commendable, it is, in fact, only an ideal, something impossible to be achieved. It might be better for news media to recognize this and, instead of presenting an objective facade, actually admit and discuss the limitations of being observers who are, no matter what, involved in the issues reported. Their message would become more powerful by recognizing, and even embracing, their unavoidable subjectivity. De Oliveira is a Belo Horizonte, Brazil senior in journalism and history. EDITORIAL CARTOON Chris Sharron/The Daily Kent Stater UWIRE LETTER GUIDELINES Send letters to opinion@kansan.com Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the e-mail subject line. Length: 300 words The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansan.com/letters. CONTACT US Brenna Hawley, editor 864-4810 or bhawley@kansan.com Tara Smith, managing editor 864-4810 or tsmith@kansan.com Mary Sorrick, managing editor 864-4810 or msorick@kansan.com Kelsey Hayes, kansan.com managing editor 866-452-1000 Katie Blankenau, opinion editor 864-4924 or kblankenau@kansan.com Dan Thompson, editoria editor 864-4924 or dthompson@kansan.com Laura Vest; business manager 864-4358 or lvest@kansan.com Dani Erker, sales manager 864-4477 or derker@kansan.com *sales Giltman* Macaulay Gibbson, genealogy maigage and news Malcolm Gibbson 64-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com Jon Schlitt, sales and marketing adviser 864-7666 or jonshlitt@kcman.com THE EDITORIAL BOARD INTERNAL BOARD Members of the Kaiser Editorial Board are Brenna Havley, Tara Smith, Mary Sorick, Keely Hayes and Dan Thompson.