Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Lindsey Henry, Editor Marc Harrell, Business manager
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Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Friday, Jan. 30, 1998
ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
Editorials
Election commission's code wrongs the rights of student candidates
The draft of the elections code specifies that no student shall campaign on any paved portion of campus unless they have permission from a passer by.
In other words, campaigners have the right to speak on the grass but not on the sidewalk. This rule is ludicrous and should be repealed at the election code hearings on Monday. It is contrary to campaigner's rights — to say nothing of the rights of the grass.
The impetus behind the code is obvious; elections are a crazy time when students are pestered by campaigners. No one who has been on campus can forget the swarm of campaigners schmoozing en masse on Wescoe Beach. It is, to be sure, a pain.
But we — along with the Supreme Court — must balance the Constitutional right to free speech against the
The freedom to speak is ours whether we stand on grass or pavement or have permission
lesser right not to be annoyed. Campaigners may be irritating, but that's a small inconvenience compared to limiting a First-Amendment right.
We don't need anyone's permission to exercise our right of expression; we don't even need a burning permit to torch a flag. Religious nuts, firebrand wackos or even students running for a campus office have the right to occupy a spot in a public space — be it pavement or grass — and speak, no matter whom it annoys.
The University claims it is dedicated
to the free exchange of ideas. But in reality, that's only true if you stand in the right place at the right time and have permission to speak. That type of regulation has done so much for people in Moscow, Havana and Tiananmen Square.
The elections commissioner, Brad Finkeldeel, is a former vice president of Kansas State University. To be fair, this part of the code was enacted under the former elections commissioner, not Finkeldeel. But Finkeldeel, who was vice president for two years and thus, two campaigns, should know better than to allow the commission to further this violation of student's rights. The rule should be changed this year.
Protests will be heard by the elections commission at 2 p.m. Monday at the English Room in the Kansas Union.
Andy Obermueller for the editorial board
Nipping chemical castration in the bud
Chemical castration is a key component of Attorney General Carla Stovall's new sexual offender proposal. Aside from being inefficient and ineffective, we find that this method of dealing with sexual offenders doesn't deal with the root causes of sex crimes. The proposal raises serious ethical questions.
Individuals convicted of sex crimes such as rape, incest and aggravated indecent liberties are identified as sexual offenders in Kansas. The state's 1994 Violent Sexual Predator Act, affirmed by the Supreme Court and a model for other states, allows confining a sexual offender for treatment after prison. However, the attorney general seeks to tread beyond this law through mandatory chemical castration of certain sexual offenders.
Attorney General Carla Stovall goes too far in her noble quest to stop sexual predators
Chemical castration is a chemical treatment in which an injection is given to the offender on a biweekly basis. This treatment decreases the production of testosterone to pre-puberty levels, supposedly decreasing sexual tendencies.
Stovall's legislation establishes authority for judges or the parole board to mandate chemical castration as a condition probation or parole. This may appear a viable method of decreasing recidivism, but it is ineffective.
crimes are committed for more than sexual reasons, such as a need for violence, aggression or degradation of the victim. No medical evidence proves this procedure will prevent recidivism. A better alternative is prolonging psychological treatment to more effectively eliminate a criminal's motivations.
First, chemical castration doesn't solve the root of sex crimes. These
Experts admit chemical castration will not be effective for all sexual offenders. Because cases vary, it's impossible to determine who should undergo this procedure or even which experts should be the decision-makers.
Chemical castration is an unrealistic proposal. It oversteps the boundaries of imprisonment and treatment by entering the sphere of human biological alterations, that smack of Brave New World.
Kansan staff
Nadia Mustafa for the editorial board
Paul Eakins ... Editorial
Andy Obermuerler ... Editorial
Andrea Albright ... Neus
Jodie Chester ... Neus
Julie King ... Neus
Charity Jeffries ... Online
Eric Weslander ... Sports
Harley Ratliff ... Associate sports
Ryan Koerner ... Campus
Mike Perryman ... Campus
Bryan Volk ... Features
Tim Harrington ... Associate features
Steve Puppe ... Photo
Angie Kuhn ... Design, graphics
Mitch Lucas ... Illustrations
Corrie Moore ... Wire
Gwen Oison ... Special sections
Lachelle Rhoades ... News clerk
News editors
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Leigh Bottiger . Campus
Brett Clifton . Regional
Nicole Lauderdale . National
Matt Fisher . Marketing
Chris Haghirian . Internet
Brian Allers . Production
Ashley Bonner . Production
Andee Tomlin . Promotions
Dan Kim . Creative
Rachel O'Neill . Classified
Tyler Cook . Zone
Steve Grant. Zone
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Matt York . Zone
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if possible, speak a few reasonable words." — Goethe
Letters Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
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For any questions, call Paul Eakins (eakins@kansan.com) or Andy Obermueller (andyo@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Roommate decision affects you,your CDs
Think carefully. You may be making the most important decision about your life for the next year. Take heed and look carefully when deciding about future roommates.
Perspective
During the spring semester, most students get a jump on next year's living arrangements. The earlier, the better. If you are moving out of the dorms, scholarship halls, a studio or even an unpalatable Greek experience, you need to know what you are getting into. For those of you ditching a bad roommate, don't make the same mistake twice. Be picky. Be choosy. This is going to be someone with access to your home, your phone, your remote, your
Jenny Oakson
opinion@kansan.com
pets, your CDs, your guns — it's OK to be anal.
First things first: Be practical. Sure, the stoner down the hall may seem generous when offering to smoke you up, but could you live with all sorts of sketchy people in and out of your apartment, dozens of burritos missing from your side of the freezer or stolen lamps for home-grown agricultural experiments? These could be problems. Ask yourself if you could study comparative politics with Phish constantly in the background.
Maybe you could. I don't want to sound judgmental. And you probably would save on the water bill for the lack of shower use.
The same distasteful troubles apply to lushes. You may have the time of your life dancing on bar stools with a kind-hearted boozer from chem lab. But don't disregard the countless number of trashy men and/or women that person takes home at the end of the binge. Let me tell you firsthand, when a man goes home with a less than aesthetically appealing roommate of yours, he is not too happy when he wakes up in your apartment. You just don't want to be there when a one-night stand demands money from your roomie and ends up hawking your microwave for his services.
with someone while intoxicated. The other person always remembers.
Also concerning alcohol — don't decide to live
Try to remember all of the idiosyncrasies from your last roommate and multiply them by 10. Is someone who constantly bums cigarettes going to be able to pay rent? If he has a fiancée in Chicago, will the phone bill be more than $700? Should you be alarmed if while hanging out this person asks to borrow a diaper? This is serious stuff. It's business. Put your manners aside and interrogate the witness. You could be pleasantly surprised.
Perhaps you plan on living with your best friend since kindergarten, and you are positive you know all of her little secrets. You don't. When you live with a person, you experience them. Sure, I could tell you roommate horror stories, but everyone knows someone with a roommate from hell. You may think you are an accepting person, but the amoyancies build. First it's their love of boiled hot dogs, then their addiction to "To MTV Raps," then it's the stench emanating from their room. Sooner or later, you find out she's a convicted felon and you have one less bridesmaid.
And whatever you do, don't live with a significant other — that's just asking for a breakup. Even if you plan on marrying that person — save yourself. You have time, take it easy. You may have picked out the china pattern already, but just imagine what it would be like if you did break it off. Picture yourself watching your ex get picked up for a date.
Don't be scared. It is possible to find good roommates.
And let's face it, anything is better than the dorms. I wish you luck. And don't forget to get a co-signer, because if your roommate leaves and refuses to pay rent, you have to take them to Small Claims Court — one month at a time. The one thing that makes roommate trouble the worst kind of stress is that it affects your home. Having to fight about dirty dishes and phone calls every day can take its toll. No matter where your parents live, you live in Lawrence, and your life is heavily influenced by where and how you live.
Majors are like chips no one can choose just one
Jenny Oakson is an Overland Park sophomore in journalism.
But since you make that choice seven nights a
One of the most important choices that you will make during your college career is, of course, light beer or dark beer.
But since you make that a week, that leaves another choice of lesser importance. I am referring, of course, to your major.
The importance of choosing one's major cannot be emphasized enough. In fact, it is such an important choice that it is usually made more than once. The process that the average student goes through in making this highly important choice looks something like this:
Freshman year: Undecided Sophomore year: Undecided
Tina Connolly opinion@kansan.com
Junior year: English, Painting, Pure Math, Skydiving, English and Skydiving, Beer Drinking, Belching and Flunking
Senior year; Undecided
This process then continues for several more years, which are called the fifth-year senior year, the I'm-Scared-of-the-Real-World year, and Insanity. The last year is sometimes called the Death from Cirrhosis of the Liver year, but this depends on whether you went to the local bar every night or stayed in and read too many 17th century Russian plays.
Once you've reached your ninth year of college, and have finally made a thoughtful decision as to your career choice, you will finally be free to concentrate on other important things, such as the rising price of liquor and your receding hairline.
With good luck, you will also have the opportunity to consider other things such as whether you might like to graduate with honors.
Unfortunately for some of you that phrase stopped after "graduate."
For those of you who are still thinking about graduating with honors, all I can say is that you have a better attention span than the rest of us.
For even if you might like to graduate with honors, there will be many dark and dreary impediments in your way. The chief obstacle will be the fact that you have an overall grade point average less than your age while still in preschool, and a major grade point average less than your age while still in the womb.
Some of the other impediments will include the 100 permission forms that must be filled out in triplicate and will require the signatures of everyone who ever had anything to do with you college career, including your second grade teacher and your dog.
And perhaps you have the right combination of persistence and single-mindedness necessary to actually succeed.
The coursework, however, is of minor importance. It is your tenacity in form filling-out that will determine whether or not you will graduate with honors, or indeed, at all.
Oddly enough, one of these is the Art and Design department, which has created staff positions that are devoted entirely to the task of not signing forms. Their duties require them to be no closer than 20 feet to their desk at all times and to take lunch breaks that last a minimum of three hours. Plus, they are forced to absent themselves from the building on Fridays, Mondays, full moons, Jewish holidays, and any day with nice weather.
After all, it is the multitude of forms at this university that demonstrate whether you are fit for the real world. Some majors even create extra forms solely for the purpose of weeding out the unfit.
These red-tape techniques are undoubtedly the most effective on art students. They are incapable of dealing with university bureaucracy and it is better that they be elected from the art program.
In conclusion, choosing your major is very important. Maybe it's even more important than the shade of your beer or having actual information between your introduction and conclusion.
Tina Connolly is a Lawrence senior in French and English — at least this week.
Feedback
Parking miscommunication forced student to cancel test
I had to cancel a graduate research test to move my car for fear of getting towed. I had paid for parking in the lot west of the Burge Union at a meter. My test began to run past the time I intended. I tried to call the parking department, only to find them closed. I was then routed to the police dispatcher, who had no real way or authority to help me. All I wanted was to let someone know that I would be there soon to move my car. It became apparent that no one knew whether they were towing or if my message could be
I had to cancel the very thing this University is set up to do: give me an education.
relayed in time to prevent it.
I therefore had to cancel the rest of the test in order to save a towing fee I could not afford.
I've paid many dollars to this University and the parking department. All I was asking for was a small allowance to be made.
I wonder which is more important: students and education or making parking for a basketball ball game?
I comply with all of the regulations. I simply want to use the facilities I pay for.
The department will probably say that its signs were posted so everyone should have known. But what happens to the person whose plans change shortly before the deadline?
It's a sad thing when students
with legitimate needs have to live in fear of the parking department.
Whom can I call with some authority after the department closes?
There seems to be a mentality that has forgotten what the university was put here for — education.
.
Robert A. Ore Lawrence graduate student