Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Lindsey Henry, *Editor*
Dave Morantz, *Managing editor*
Kristie Blasi, *Managing editor*
Tom Eblen, *General manager*, news advisor
Marc Harrell, Business manager
Colleen Eager, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
4A
Monday, May 4, 1998
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Editorial
KU administrators, students should work to improve University
The administration's first responsibility is to listen to and meet students' needs. It has made many promises of improving campus life for students, and it should follow through. For example, it has promised an easier, more up-to-date enrollment system. With this system, students eventually would enroll online, an important step in bringing the University into the 21st century and serving the needs of students.
The school year is almost finished, but many things at the University of Kansas remain uncompleted. Students and administrators have responsibilities that they should give priority to next year.
Students' needs also can be better met by having a more diverse University. When Chancellor Robert Hemenway arrived, he promised to increase the number of minority faculty at the University from 125 to 200 by the year 2000. This was an admirable goal, but by December of 1997 he had hired only nine new minority faculty, bringing the total to 134. The administration should make every effort to reach this goal of 200 minority faculty and strive to bring in even more. This would improve the quality of education for all KU students and provide diverse views and ideas.
Similarly, the University should work to increase the diversity of the student population. Of course, it is a difficult task to make a predominantly Caucasian university and city attractive to prospective minority students, but it can be done if enough effort is put forth.
Additionally, the administration should strengthen the advising system, making advisers more available to students and ensuring that new students are aware of the opportunities at the University. Better communication simply would help students know what options are available.
Meeting students' needs, community unity, better communication should be priorities
The administration also should make an effort to hire the most qualified Graduate Teaching Assistants available. GTAs teach many classes and almost all students have had to depend on at least one GTA to help improve their educations. Consequently, because the University does depend so heavily on GTAs, it should treat them as employees worthy of all of the benefits granted to most state employees.
One last request in order to make students a little happier: The powers that be should improve the food selection at Wescoe Terrace. This food court in Wescoe Hall has overpriced, less-than-adequate food that many students eat simply for the convenient location. As one of the major lunch stops for students and faculty, it should have meals actually worth eating.
The administration isn't the only one with responsibilities — students also have important responsibilities next year. Some of the goals we have discussed for the administration could be much more easily achieved with more student effort. Students should go to their advisers when they have problems or questions, not just during enrollment. Advising is an interactive process that only will be effective if students take the initiative. Also, if students want specific professors to be their advisers, they should request it, not just blindly
accept what the administration gives them.
When students have a problem with the University, they should speak with administrators, faculty and student senators to see if the problem can be fixed. If students do not make their views known, then problems will persist. Thousands of students could be experiencing the same problems, but no one would realize students' desires if they do not speak up.
The University is part of the Lawrence community, and students should get involved in it. They should take time for local politics and consider things like bike lanes and citywide transportation because these are issues that will affect them, or at least students just like them in the future. Involvement in local charities and community groups could help students feel that Lawrence really is their home, not just a temporary, four-year stop between their childhood home and their future career.
Many greek organizations have set impressive precedents by donating time and money to local charities through programs like the Rock Chalk Revue. Other student organizations have joined with Lawrence residents and dedicated their time to local causes, such as the effort to stop the South Lawrence Trafficway and to create a city-wide public transportation system.
If every KU student showed such dedication, the Lawrence community would be inundated with volunteers, and the bond between it and the University would be the strongest it ever has been.
Working together, the administration and students could improve education, student-professor relations and life for everyone at the University.
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Paul Eakins for the editorial board
Kansan staff
News editors
Paul Eakins ... Editorial
Ann Premer ... Editorial
Andrea Albright ... News
Jodie Chester ... News
Julie King ... News
Charity Jeffries .. Online
Eric Weslander .. Sports
Harley Rattiff .. Associate sports
Ryan Koermer .. Campus
Mike Perryman .. Campus
Bryan Volk .. Features
Tim Harrington .. Associate features
Steve Purpe .. Photo
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Mitch Lucas .. Illustrations
Corrie Moore .. Wire
Gwen Olson .. Special sections
Lacheline Rhoades .. News clerk
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Kristi Bissel . *Assistant retail, PR*
Leigh Bottiger . Campus
Brett Clifton . Regional
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Matt Fisher . Marketing
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Ashley Bonner . Production
Andee Tomlin . Promotions
Dan Kim . Creative
Rachel O'Neill . Classified
Tyler Cook . Zone
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Jamie Holman . Zone
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Matt York . Zone
"Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt," - Bergen Evans
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Perspective
Abused woman shows fear, admirable strength
the power some men have over women isn't fair. They can rip apart selfesteem, safety and pride with a slap across the cheek. Heard that before? We all
have, but it's not everyday when the scary reality of domestic abuse pounds on your front door.
Lindsey Henry
thenry@kansan.com
As I got ready for school the other morning, I heard someone beating on my neighbor's door. Strange, I thought, to be banging on the door so early in the day, but I didn't think more about it and continued to dry my hair.
Then the banging was on my front door. I headed to the door and peeked through my peep hole to
I opened the door and she apologetically explained that her boyfriend had hit her and pushed her and her children out of his car. She cried as she asked to come in and use my phone to call someone ... anyone. I silently ushered her into my apartment, gave her the phone and watched as a complete stranger's world fell apart at my kitchen table.
She asked for a phone book, and I obliged. Furiously, she dialled again and again, getting a busy signal from the women's shelter in my neighborhood. Frustrated, she glanced at the ashtrays around the apartment and asked if I smoked, and if she could have a cigarette. I fumbled around looking for my cigarettes, only to remember I was out. I apologized several times — I wanted to help her in any way; I felt I failed her with nothing to give. So I offered her and her daughter something to drink. They accepted, and she returned to the phone.
I played with the little girl as the mother, I couldn't have been more than a year
see who was demanding attention. A woman stood there, hitting my door, with a baby asleep in a carrier and a little girl at her side. Tears gushed down her cheeks.
older than me, punched the numbers in the phone, breathing heavily and muttering to herself as she found no one to help her —no one except me, someone who had no idea what she was doing, someone who wanted to help but had no idea how. The little girl, smiling and dancing around, seemed unfazed and much calmer than me or her mom. I wondered if she was used to this situation, if it had happened before.
About 20 minutes after the family entered my apartment, the pounding on my door started again. The woman grabbed her kids, ran into my bedroom and slammed the door, whispering "we're not here," afraid her boyfriend had followed her.
But everything wasn't OK. It is not OK for a mother and her children to be forced to run to a complete stranger for help. It's not OK for a little girl to act oblivious to a scary situation. It's not OK for a man to threaten a woman and her children. It's wrong, it's scary and it's upsetting to hear about, let alone to witness.
Confused and a bit scared, I again peeked through the peek hole, only to see ... a FedEx man. Relieved, I signed for my package and opened my bedroom door to tell the woman that everything was OK.
We (she had asked me what I thought she should do) decided to walk to the shelter to make sure they would be safe. I walked her out, and she disappeared into the morning. I left a note on my door with the number of where I'd be if she returned or if she needed anything. I haven't heard anything.
I hope she and her kids are all right — looking back I wish I'd called the police or done something more to help. I wanted to make sure they were safe from the man in their lives — the man who had the power to send the mother searching for a stranger's help. At the same time, I wished I'd told her I admired her strength to put any fears aside and search for help in a strange neighborhood. I wondered if I'd have been strong enough to do the same.
Henry is an Overland Park junior in journalism and the Kansan editor.
Feedback
Jaime Young Omaha, Neb., sophomore
Quit whining, enjoy the extra bus seat
I am writing in response to Shyra Darris column on Thursday in the Kansan. I have the same problem as you do Shyra. Nobody wants to sit by me either. For the longest time I would get off the bus and go to my room and look at myself in the mirror and wonder did I look weird or smell bad. I did this for the entire first semester. When people sat by me, they would keep their feet in the aisle. I even asked someone why he chose not to sit next to me. This is the good part. He told me that he would not sit next to me because of my skin. I was shocked. I asked him to repeat himself, and he did. He said that he would not sit next to me because I was white. Yes, read it again.
Chip on shoulder keeps seat empty
I can't take it anymore. Correction, I will no longer accept it silently. All of you who are so sensitive and bored that you feel the need to write an article in the Kansan are making me absolutely ill. Lately I haven't had time to read The University Daily Kansan, but on Thursday my roommate threw the paper at me and ordered me to read the latest sob-story of particular students at this University. I was shocked and appalled that the Kansan would allow such whining to be printed. I shook my head in silence, then exclaimed, "Please Lord, make it stop!" I'm tired of people complaining about petty problems. I highly doubt that anyone sitting or standing on the KU buses are worrying and praying for them to sit down next to them. I for one am praying that I don't get squashed in the process of someone trying to make their way to my empty seat. There have been several instances when I am on the bus by myself, and we stop in front of Snow. At least 50 students try to get on. Living at Jayhawker Towers, I know that it is a pain to get off at this stop. So, I let some poor tired student have my seat. It's not that I don't want to sit by them. I am just making it more convenient for myself. Please don't call me insensitive or anything else for that matter. I am just so tired of reading this boo-hoo story of a girl who just wants someone to sit by her on the bus. Honey, it isn't about your color. It isn't even about you. It's about what is convenient at the time. So, buck up, and thank God that you have that wonderful space to stretch out in.
OK, now that we all know this isn't true, lets really look at this. Who cares? Maybe the person likes to stand or is lazy and does not want to take his bag off his back, or he is being nice and letting someone else sit there because he doesn't care. No, I have one better than that, he is getting off at the next stop. Is it me or is this ludicrous. Shyra has a chip on her shoulder that needs to be removed if she truly thinks that someone not sitting by her on the bus is racially motivated. Maybe if she took that chip off her shoulder, there would be enough room to sit next to her.
Timothy Bateman Lawrence freshman
Kansan not biased in Pride Week articles
—That The University Daily Kansan is biased and not fairly representing the other side because it omitted their particular viewpoint. (The Kansan also omitted communist, vegetarian, Islamic, and Republican viewpoints. The Kansan objectively reported events of Gay Pride week, then gave its own opinions. Mere disagreement with the radical right is not bias.)
— That they detest the sin while loving gay sinners. (It is not love to fire people from their jobs, or repeal laws against thuggery; it is naked hatred.)
Kathleen and Marianne Wasson's letter consists of anti-gay cannacks from the radical religious right:
— That it is pro-homosexual to support civil rights for everyone to rent a house, hold a job, demonstrate in public, or not be beat up by thugs. (No, that is merely prohuman.)
- That their own views are True Biblical Christian and
The Christian perspective,
(That is simple arrogance.
Christianity includes all who
accept Christ as savior, many
of whom support gay rights.)
That they are different from Fred Phelps. (Phelps uses nastier language, but claims to love the sinners and supports the radical right agenda. If there are any differences of substance as opposed to style, the Wassons didn't mention them.)
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There is another Christian perspective that focuses on how sexuality is experienced, whether it is homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. Being homosexual is not a sin that requires a change in orientation to be loved by God. Sexuality has to do with how we express our sensuous relationships with ourselves and the environment. Sexuality includes and understanding of what it means to be male or female as informed by our upbringing and societal cultural messages.
The challenge is to articulate an ethic of sexuality, including our behavior with others. The primary Biblical ethic prompts us to discern the good of all relationships, regardless of sexual orientation, on the basis of whether they are free of manipulation and facade or unjust and abusive. Is the relationship compassionate and respectful of sexuality as God's gift and the embodiment of our capacity to love?
Christian views differ on sexuality
David Burress Research economist
I wanted to comment on the letter from Kathleen and Marianne Wasson. It was their opinion that The University Daly Kansan should give an unbiased perspective on homosexuality and that this was best done by presenting the true Christian understanding of homosexuality as a detestable sin. I would disagree with such an absolute and rigid condemnation of a sexual orientation.
I hope this letter contributes to the much needed conversation on sexuality and that a label of sexual orientation does not define what is a sin.
Thad Holcombe Campus Pastor for Ecumenical Christian Ministries