Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Lindsay Henry, Editor
Dave Morantz, Managing editor
Kristie Blasi, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Marc Harrell, Business manager
Colleen Eager, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
4A
Friday, April 17, 1998
CONTRIBUTED ART
Editorials
GTA semester limit would hurt students' educations, University
The University of Kansas may implement a policy that would restrict the number of years graduate students can work as teaching assistants to five years.
This policy is a bad idea that only will decrease the quality of education at the University.
the decision whether to hire or fire graduate teaching assistants should belong to the specific departments, not the administration. The departments should have the option of limiting GTAs' contracts. KU administrators should not be allowed to determine an issue so exclusive to the departments.
By mandating the limit on a University-wide basis, the administration is encroaching on the autonomy of departments. Only those who work closely
The average graduate student takes about seven years to complete a doctorate. Outside of the University it is very difficult to get a job that pertains to one's career. As many GTAs are preparing to become college professors, the teaching position provides them with the experience they need to get jobs down the road.
with the GTAs and observe their teaching on a day-to-day basis should have the option of releasing them after five years.
Carrie Wolf, GTA in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, said that the position offered free tuition and a flexible schedule, both of which helped her maintain a steady focus on her students' educations, as well as her own.
Also, experienced teachers can provide high quality instruction for their undergraduate students. The more expe
rience GTAs have, the more effective they will be as teachers.
Mark horowitz, organizer of the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition, said that because graduate funding was decreasing, GTAs were forced to rely on the tuition remission to get through school. If GTAS had to rush through school simply for financial reasons, their educations and their students' educations would suffer. They simply would not be able to dedicate the necessary time to teaching classes.
Graduate and undergraduate students should contact their departments and the KU administration and tell them that this policy is unacceptable. It would hurt the education of every student and would reduce the quality of the University.
Emily Hughey for the editorial board
Dissenting: GTA semester limit good
The University of Kansas administration would be doing no harm in imposing a 10-semester teaching limit on graduate teaching assistants.
Teaching assistants work hard and are overused and often under appreciated by University administrators. Teaching Assistants deserve a pat on the back for their dedication.
But they don't deserve to be teaching assistants for the rest of their lives. There must be a time to move on, and a 10-semester limit ensures that would happen.
Being a teaching assistant is a full-time job, but not a long-term position. Teaching assistants benefit the University by leading classes the University cannot find or afford for a professor to teach. In turn, teaching
assistants get experience in front of a classroom and make money, albeit a small amount.
But there is no reason this relationship should last more than 10 semesters. Being a teaching assistant should not be looked upon as a long term job and yet that is what it is increasingly being viewed as.
The pay may be small at the University, but as teaching assistants fight for health care, increased salaries and unlimited time to do the job, it is slowly becoming more than it was originally intended. It was supposed to be a road taken on the path toward education, but is starting to become a rest stop.
Ten semesters, or five years, is long enough.
blood. Some assistants opposed to the limit argue it would take away experienced teaching assistants and allow inexperienced teachers to jump in. This, those opposed argue, would lower the level of education.
But those who argue this forget that at one time, they too were inexperienced. New assistants deserve a shot at getting the experience they seek and need, and a 10-semester limit guarantees that new openings would continuously be created.
The limit also opens positions to new
A 10-semester limit wouldn't hurt education at the University, it would enhance it.
Teaching assistants deserve praise for their hard work, but they don't deserve unlimited job security. A 10 semester limit would hurt no one.
Kansan staff
Spencer Duncan, dissenting
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“Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.” —Homo Faber
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Perspective
Acceptance of apathy bodes badly for society
Let students believe what they want. Editorialist after editorialist and column ist after columnist have urged students to get up and go, to make a difference, and to have their voices heard
Well, pshaw. That's right. I said pshaw.
Clay McCusition opinion@kansan.com
First, and this is with no disrespect to the esteemed editors of The University Daily Kansan, if you let the Opinion page tell you how to live, you've got problems.
Second, I don't see the problem with apathy. If those who control this country refuse to consider that the young may have contributions to make, the young are entitled to their apathy.
I don't know if I'm being ironic or serious, but I do know that I'm irritated. This generation has every right to be as apathetic and mindless as possible. We're not naturally apathetic and mindless, but the times in which we live and the circumstances in which we've grown up have made many of us take that path. We're children of the baby boomers — the people who decided to "Just Say Yes" to drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll in the '60s and then forbade us from even considering the same things in the '90s.
We grew up in the '80s, a decade with a doddering president who thought contact with space aliens was a pretty neat idea, and a time when greed, lust and mindless consumerism were considered virtues. We were products of families split apart by divorces, school systems that seemed dedicated to lowering their standards and an entertainment industry set on sucking every last bit of soul we had left out of our bodies.
It's a wonder that anyone in my generation
cares. We are only the third generation to grow up in "the modern world." Those who lived through World War II came first. Then came their children, the boomers (those who defined youth and never have grown up). Who are we, then? We can't act old — our grandparents have that covered for now. But we can't act young either, because our parents are too busy grasping at their last tepid hormonal surges.
It's not that apathy is right, or is in some way a desirable state of being. If every student were dedicated to promoting and improving the University and our nation, I would be elated. I understand, though, why apathy is the only option for some. The leader of our nation — a younger man now, not the lovable grandfather figure of the '80s — is the subject of daily news reports that would make any decent man or woman feel queasy. Is this the system we're supposed to be part of? Is this the country in which we take pride?
Activism and volunteerism are the answers for some. I wonder, though, what individual idealism can accomplish in this day and age. If the system in which we live is fatally flawed, can anyone working within it truly help anyone else? It's a question that each young person must decide on his or her own.
To me, each individual must try to make a difference in some way. It's why we are in college. We attend the University of Kansas to prepare for the future. We plan to do more in times to come than making money and savoring hedonistic pleasures. We plan to improve our lives and the lives of others by rising above the shallow values we have been taught.
I understand, however, why some of you might disagree. I understand why some of you would want to ignore the world around you and the choices it entails. I grieve, though, for the age that has made such apathy a viable and true choice.
McCuisinion is an El Dorado freshman in pre-journalism.
Titanic would be better if it were Star Wars
James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio have duped us all. They've brainwashed us into actually believing that *Titanic* is better than the greatest blockbuster of all time.
Better than the greatest book Star Wars. We need to clear our heads and rethink that idea.
Here, let me help you compare the two movies.
Boy, was *Titanic* too long. It may have been the shortest 3 1/2 hours of my life, but that first hour was a snoozer. Star Wars, on the other hand, wisely was split into three different stories and only took about 20 minutes in each film to set up the plot. George Lucas knew about our short attention spans and accompo-
Aaron Marvin opinion@kansan.com
named us, unlike a certain Titanic director. Star Wars 1. Titanic 0
By the time Titanic made its outlandish debut its budget had multiplied to about $250 million the most expensive movie ever made. In 1977, Star Wars' budget totaled a measly $11 million. Even if we factor in inflation, Star Wars would not come close to reaching Titanic's astronomical budget. And why would it want to? Star Wars' special effects, where Lucas spent most of the budget, are astounding audiences even today, 21 years after the movie's debut. Even when Titanic sinks (I hope I didn't ruin the ending for you), the special effects don't compare to when the rebels destroy the Death Star. Star Wars 2, Titanic minus 1 (its insanely expensive budget cost a point).
Now let's compare how each movie's respective behemoth structure, the ship and the Death Star, meets its maker. In *Titanic*, the ship sinks and hundreds of people die. But in *Star Wars*, the Death Star blows up, more than likely killing hundreds of thousands of people. While those hundreds of thousands on the Empire's planet destroyer may have been bad guys, the
sheer number outweigh those in *Titanic*. Plus, anything that blows up in a movie always wins a battle of comparisons. It's U.S. Bill S2A3CH110, the law of action flicks. Really, I'm not kidding. Look it up. *Star Wars 3.* *Titanic* minus 1.
Next up to bat is *Titanic* Leonardo DiCaprio. He's got millions of screaming teen-agers behind him, chanting his name. He's up against *Star Wars* Harrison Ford, who has maintained his heartthrob status for nearly 25 years. DiCaprio begins to sweat. He knows that he will take a back seat to the next big hunk. Ford knows this and smiles, and thousands of baby boomers throw themselves at him. *Star Wars 4*, *Titanic* minus 1.
And how about bad guys, you say? Well,
Titanic has Billy Zane, who plays one heck of a butthead. But unfortunately for Zane, Star Wars
has the king of bad guys, Darth Vader. The Lord of Sith could kick Zane's butthead without even firing up his light saber. Star Wars 5, Titanic minus 1.
All that is left is the music. Titanic's soundtrack has sold millions of copies. It's #1 on Billboard's Top 40. Celine Dion sings a song for it. Then there is the Star Wars soundtrack. It has sold thousands of copies. It was never in the Top 40. And Dion didn't sing a song for it. This is a tough one. But, since all of Dion's songs sound the same and all her videos show lots of close-ups of her looking unduly forlorn, Star Wars takes the prize. Star Wars 6. Titanic minus 1.
The king of all blockbusters did not deserve to be dethroned by Cameron's over-priced, too-long Titanic. The final score, 6 to minus 1, says it all. Titanic just doesn't compare to the movie it sunk in ticket sales. Maybe if Cameron had spent less time brainwashing the public and more time fixing parts of his movie, namely replacing the ship with the Death Star, Zane with Darth Vader and the title with Star Wars, he would have fared better.
Marvin is a Akchison junior in journalism and a Jedi Knight.
Feedback
use of endorsements in paper hypocritical
The inter-University Daily Kansan memo that went out last Monday said something to the effect that the "Kansan's independence had been put in jeopardy." Although KU students were not allowed the whole story of Andy Obermuller's release from the Kansan, the majority of students are smart enough to know that the dismissal was because of partisan politics. Although Obermueller was an editor, writing only editorials (a.k.a his own opinions), he was dismissed without a second thought. Imagine my amazement when, upon opening the
Tara Kelly
Overland Park freshman
I don't mind the editorial board endorsing candidates. I just mind the hypocrisy of Obermeller's dismissal combined with yesterday's editorials.
Kansan Tuesday, I saw actual, no-doubt-about-it endorsements coming from the editorial board. I can see why Obermueller was released. He showed partisan support for Campus Cause, and the Kansan overwhelmingly supported Delta Force. Let me substantiate that. It supported Delta Force in the ratio of 2.27.1. There were 41 DeltaForce endorsements and 18 Campus Cause. Partisan politics are wonderful, aren't they?
Editor's note: The Kansan traditionally has run Senate endorsements before elections.
The editorial board, which votes on the candidates, is composed of students from various backgrounds, ethnicities and majors. The editorial board's members are not on the news staff and do not influence news coverage. The editorial board voted on candidates without knowledge of the candidates' political affiliations.
For presidential and vice presidential endorsements, personal interviews were conducted for the editorial board, and the Kansan editor and managing editors participated in the vote.