Thursday, February 26, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Panel discusses pornography definition
By Chris Horton
horton@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The one thing agreed upon during last night's debate "The Ins and Outs of Pornography" was that there was no agreeable definition of pornography.
The debate was conducted in the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building and featured a panel of University faculty, including Charlene Muehlenhard, professor of women's studies and psychology; Don Marquis, professor of philosophy; and Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare.
An audience of about 150 watched an anti-pornography film titled Not
About Love before faculty members voiced their opinions about pornography.
Muehlenhard began the debate by questioning the definition of pornography. She said studies of pornography were subjective because the people conducting the studies made the choice of which materials to include and which to exclude.
Addressing the First Amendment issues that surround pornography, Muehlenhard said she did not see censorship as a solution.
"I think pornography has harmful effects and censorship has harmful effects," she said, "If there is censorship, who gets to decide?"
Marquis said that it was futile to
attempt to define pornography and that an individual's disgust with a given material was not viable criteria for determining if it was wrong.
"My view is that we're never going to agree about what pornography is," he said. "I think it's hard to make the case that pornography should be banned, and I think it's hard to make the case that people who view pornography are doing something that is wrong."
Dailey said that he found the public's fascination with pornography interesting.
"I think the reason the topic is relevant has less to do with pornography's consequences and more to do with its roots," he said.
In American sex education classes, an emphasis is placed on issues such as pregnancy prevention, Dailey said.
"In a high school sex-education textbook, you will not find a chapter entitled Orgasms: How the Hell do You Have Them?"
Johanna Wagenknecht, Olathe sophomore, said she had mixed feelings about pornography's effects on society.
"For the most part, I'm not against pornography. Pornography is sex, and sex is not wrong," Wagenknecht said. "I believe that people have a right to entertainment as long as it doesn't infringe upon the rights of others."
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Senate committee OKs change in chairmen elections
Marc Sheforgen and Melissa Ngo msheforgen@kansan.com mngo@kansan.com Kangan stll writes
A bill proposing that next year's Student Senate committee chairpeople be elected by this year's committees passed after heavy debate at last night's Student Rights Committee meeting.
Student Senate will consider the bill Wednesday. If Senate passes the bill, the committee chairpeople would be elected at the end of this semester rather than at the beginning of the fall semester.
In Finance Committee, senators debated the shortage of money in the unallocated account. The unallocated account has $8,618. Senators approved bills that request $7,332.64 to finance campus groups.
The reserve account is for emer
Ann Marchand, journalism senator and bill sponsor, said this change would allow the new chairpeople to become comfortable with the position during the summer.
Ben Walker, Nunemaker senator,
called the bill anti-democratic.
"The first order of business for a democratic body should be to elect a leader," he said. "It's not fair for this body to elect next year's chair."
Vsboda said taking money from the reserve account would be irresponsible and would set a bad precedent.
If Senate passes the bills next week,
$1,285.36 would remain to finance
requests for the rest of the year.
Matt Bachand, Liberal Arts and Sciences senator, said that the committee could transfer money from the reserve account.
"We need to take a hard look at the groups coming through and what the money is being used for before allocating it," Preheim said. "Last year, $79,000 that we allocated through block allocation, line-item allocation and supplemental allocation was not used."
Zach Svoboda, business senator, said the bills should have been cut more.
"We can't give all of our money away tonight," he said.
gencies, said Tom Preheim, Senate treasurer. The last substantial withdrawal from the reserve account was during the 1995-96 school year when $140,000 was used to finance KU on Wheels.
The reserve account, which is not allowed to drop below $200,000, has about $260,000.
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