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University Daily Kansan / Thursday, February 6, 1992
OPINION
Proposed policy cuts into freedom of speech
I sincerely hope that what I am about to tell you bothers someone else on this campus besides myself, because if it doesn't, I'm afraid we all are in serious trouble.
Did you know that if the University Council and the chancellor today approve a new policy limiting free speech, you and I will lose our First Amendment right to free speech while on University grounds?
That means we will be less free to communicate openly, discuss and voice our opinions on campus than we will be off campus.
The new policy,which is nothing more than a hate-speech code like those already found to be unconstitutional at the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin, would prohibit certain kinds of speech viewed as discriminatory or offensive to minorities.
This vague policy would limit speech that;
*is addressed directly to individuals and meant only to threaten violence, property damage or imminent lawless action.
"and that has no essential part of any exposition of ideas and (is) of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from (it) is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality."
Although I accept the first limitation
Karen Vaughan guest columnist
because it is based on strong legal authority, I cannot accept the ambiguous and overly broad terminology used in the second.
I can't tell speech exposition of ideas of a sort? And who gave the University of Kansas the power to decide what has what is "truth," and what is "morality"?
I would be very interested to know just whose "morality" will determine the kinds of speech I and my fellow students will be allowed to use on campus.
Although I am proud to be a student at this university, I am shocked that our administrators would even consider me. We restrict our constitutional freedoms.
Surely they have succumbed to the pressures of political correctness and will regain their sanity today when they vote to do away with this outrageous infringement on our personal freedoms.
I strongly agree that racial slurs.
sexist jokes and insensitive comments are deplorable. But it is not by prohibiting them that we help the victims and promote cultural understanding
It is not through less speech that this truth, as all truths, will be known, but through more speech. Whether we like it or not, we learn not only from those we agree with but also from those we would never agree with.
As one of my professors once said to me about his encounter with the Ku Klux Klan, "You don't know what a skunk smells like until you are standing next to one."
I believe he was right. We cannot foster understanding and tolerance if we choose to shield ourselves from the problem.
If anyone is going to take away our First Amendment right to free speech then let it be the Supreme Court.
But KU, get off the "politically correct" bandwagon and start uphooling the values and principles for which you have always stood. If you don't, I know at least one KU student who will be waiting anxiously for the day when she can walk down that Hill and back to freedom.
- Karen Vaughan is a Tulsa, Okla., graduate student majoring in journalism.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
City has to protect residents
The loss of lives proves a new system of protecting pedestrians and bicyclists is roadless.
and bicyclists is needed
It is a shame that something bad has to happen before people who have the power to make changes actually take the initiative to do so.
The Lawrence City Commission was approached at its Nov. 5 meeting by the head of the Babcock Tenants Association with a request for a pedestrian crosswalk on the corner of 17th and Massachusetts streets. The request was supported by a petition signed by several Babcock residents. The commission denied the request, saying research indicated that the intersection was just too busy for pedestrians regardless of whether there was a crosswalk.
Residents of Babcock Place Apartments, which are near the intersection, complained about the dangerous intersection several times without results.
Unfortunately, their requests for a cross-walk were proven valid last week when a woman was fatally hit while trying to cross this very intersection. Surprisingly enough, the 86-year-old woman was a walker. If a fit 86-year-old can get hit while trying to cross this intersection, what kind of assurance does this give to anyone else trying to cross
the street?
The commission currently has another shot at granting requests to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
The death of a KU professor last semester resulting from a bicycle accident, also involving a motor vehicle, has prompted a Lawrence environmental group to encourage the city to begin a system of greenways. Greenways, which are pathways for pedestrians and cyclists and are separate from roadways, would not only provide safety for pedestrians and cyclists but also help preserve the environment.
Too bad the commission did not carefully look into the requests of the Babcock residents in November. As taxpayers, Lawrence residents should be assured that at least some of their money is being used to protect their lives.
It is hoped that the commission has learned from the death of the Babcock resident and will be more careful the next time it reviews requests that pertain to the safety of Lawrence's citizens. Granting the proposal for the greenways would be an excellent opportunity for the commission to do its part in ensuring the safety of future lives.
Sobriety checkpoints illegal
Tiffany Lasha Hurt for the editorial board
Random searches by police aimed at stopping drunks violate constitutional rights
The Bill of Rights, Article V, section four forbids unreasonable searches and seizure and provides that search or arrest warrants be issued only upon probable cause. With that in mind, does a police officer have the right to stop any car on the road and request the driver submit to a sobriety test?
Johnson County District Judge Franklin Davis says no. Checkpoints violate a state law requiring reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed before police can stop someone. Yet Attorney General Bob Stephan advises to continue this practice.
Only six percent of drivers stopped at checkpoints in Johnson county last year were charged with driving under the influence or other offenses. No statistics were available on how may of those charges resulted in convictions.
The motivation to reduce drunk driving is commendable. But the method of violating constitutional rights is not. Judge Davis said that the checkpoints were illegal if no law specifically authorized them. If Kansas voters feel strongly enough about legalizing checkpoints, they should encourage the Legislate to make an amendment authorizing such searches. Until then, the practice of stopping cars randomly, without probable cause, is illegal and should be discontinued.
Kate Kelley for the editorial board
Gaines will be missed
This time last year I attended the last Biology 104 class taught by Gaines in Hoch Auditorium. Professor Gaines brought the subject of biology to life.
I hope Pope. Finney is reading this morning.
I was appalled and shocked to learn that professor Michael Gaines was resigning from his position at the University of Kansas because of the lack of support from the Legislature.
He taught the class the fundamentals of subjects such as cancer, AIDS and birth control — topics of frequent discussion in our society today.
Starting the first day, when he entered out of darkness into a spotlight to the music from "2001: A Space Odyssey," Gaines made it clear that we were not just 600 KUIDs sitting in those seats.
He memorized our faces and names from photographs we took for him. At any given moment he could pick you out from among the other 599 and ask how you felt about the topic of the day.
I was a non-believer myself of this phenomenon until I bumped into Professor Gaines one day at the Union, and he greeted me by my first name.
I've taken other large lecture courses, but no other instructor has ever made me feel I was more than just a KUID (many will never know when they see me that I ever attended their class).
Whether it was competing for free movie passes by playing Biojeopardy, eating free doughnuts for breakfast from Professor Gaines, or eating a birthday cake that he brought celebrating Charles Darwin's birthday, Professor Gaines made the class interesting, challenging and enjoyable.
I guess what really sold me the most was that during the summer after report cards came. Professor Gaines mailed me a personally signed letter.
It congratulated me on my performance in his class. It offered not only an open invitation to visit him, but letters of reference if I ever needed any.
His class should not have been titled Biology 104; it should have been titled What-You-Need to-Know-to-Be-an-Informed-Person 104.
I want to address the negative attitude expressed in Carma Padra's letter of Jan. 28.
Munro Richardson Kansas City, Mo. jurion
Safe sex with condoms
Lettersto the editor
Latex condoms do decrease the risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
If used properly, with nonoxynol-9 spermicidal lubricant inside and outside the condom, latex condoms are 98 percent effective at preventing these transmissions.
Eighty percent of college students are sexually active.
It is obvious that for many, abstinence is not a choice they have made for their lives. And, for most college students, long-term mutual monogamy is a future goal, not a present reality.
Although these may be Paden's personal choices, and good ones, they are not, nor do they need to be, everyone's.
Wichita graduate student
Gaywyn Moore
Both referred to what I felt was a misleading advertisement by a business that advertises in this paper. I have been told by the staff that I
Since November I have been trying to get either a classified ad or an editorial letter in this paper.
Advertisers' influence
I asked the business staff of this paper why I could not buy the classified ad and was told that they would not run the ad because it was unfavorable toward one of its good customers. I then asked what a student who had a complaint about an ad by such a customer could do. I was told to put papers around campus.
could not use the name of the business in a letter to the editor.
I thought that the student paper, subsidized by student fees, was to serve the students, not advertisers. Apparently I was wrong.
Maybe my complaint would have been dismissed by most of you reading the paper. But since I cannot afford to pay as much as "good customer" does, day after day, you won't get the chance.
Kelly Farrar Lawrence graduate student
Not all women are alike
Before one hastily generalizes that "this is what life is like for every woman," one should probably consult "every woman" to validate that statement.
For example, I am a woman, but I find Rebecca Pickens' letter on "a man's world" so
pathetic it is amusing. She claims to be an "independent" woman, yet she "cries tears of anger, frustration and fear" because she is worried that society will proclaim her mentally disturbed for reporting some fictitious coworker that may possibly sexually harass her. I'll bet she's a really fun date.
Maybe women such as Pickens should learn to love themselves for who they are and stop hating the male race. Try accepting your own actions.
KANSAN STAFF
Don't blame every problem in your man-hating microcosm on your gender. One person cannot change the world, but she can change herself by not displacing her own inadequacies onto others.
Until you reach a point where you can stop blaming society for your own fears, please do not take the liberty to "make men aware" of the feelings all women supposedly have. You may find it hard to believe but, guess what: There are some women who do not have to "hold back the tears" when they think of men.
Get out of the house a little more often (if you feel that society will permit it) and give men a chance. Sure, not all men are perfect, but not all women are either.
Gretchen Kaufman St. Louis sophomore
TIFFANY HARNESS Editor
VANESSA FUHRMANS Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager,news adviser
Editors
News        Mike Andrews
Editorial      Beth Randolph
Planning       Lara Gold
Campus        Eric Gorski/Rochelle Olson
Sports        Eric Nelson
Photo         Julie Jacobson
Features      Debbie Meyers
Graphics      Jeff Meyer/Aimee Brannard
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
JENNIFER CLAXTON Business manager
JAYSTEINER Retail sales manager
Campus sales mgr ..Bill Leibengow
Regional sales mgr ..Rich Harbishark
National sales mgr ..Scott Hanna
Co-op sales mgr ..Ame Johnson
Production mgrs ..Kim Wallace
Marketing director ..Lia Keeler
Creative director ..Kim Clinton
Lead project ..Leah Yount
Classified mgrs ..Kip Chin
Business Staff
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and homeetown, or faculty or staff position. Writers whose names should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newroom, 111 Stuifer-Fint Hall.
Loco Locals
AFTER MAKING HIS CHOICE
MAXINE OF 1900 SPAIN ME
THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
TAKES HER TO A FUNDRAISING
BANQUET... WHICH LEADS US
TO CHAPTER 5: A FIRST
LADY SETS THE IMAGE FOR
THE CANDIDATE.
by Tom Michaud