Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Lindsey Henry, Editor Marc Harrell, Business manager Dave Morantz, Managing editor Colleen Eager, Retail sales manager Kristie Biasi, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news advisor Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 1998
W. David Keith / KANSAN
Editorials
Diversity discussion leaves out disabled students at University
One of the most highly publicized problems for the university is the lack of diversity on campus — the University is beginning to push for a more well-rounded student population. But even with all the attention focused on making the campus more racially and religiously diverse, nothing has been said about the shamefully low number of disabled students.
It is true that the University needs to concentrate on developing a more racially diverse campus, but attention also needs to be directed to the relative lack of physically disabled students. Of the 23,290 people enrolled for the fall 1997 semester at the Lawrence campus, only 26 were classified as having permanent mobility impairment, according to the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities. That means that about 1 percent of KU students are in wheelchairs or have their mobility impeded in other physical wavs.
Only 26 students are in wheelchairs or have their mobility impeded.
This shockingly low number shows that there is something wrong with our campus, even with the programs set up to make life easier for physically disabled students, such as the newly renamed Services for Students with Disabilities office and the demand-response lift-van service run by KU on Wheels. The service gives an average of 400 rides per month to students with disabilities.
according to KU on Wheels.
Of course, the campus itself does not make getting around any easier. It is naturally hilly and probably will always be difficult for those with physical disabilities to manage. This makes it even more important for the University to accommodate students with disabilities.
So, it is a distressing when two soda machines can effectively block two of Wescoe Hall's wheelchair accessible water fountains for weeks, as was the case last semester. Luckily, staff and faculty members noticed the situation, and administrators took action to remedy it.
The University must make an effort to change the disproportionately low number of physically disabled students to make this a truly diverse University.
Susan Dunavan for the editorial board
Consider the challenges faced by others
The Kansan has instituted a new program called "Editor for a Day." Students who don't understand how things work in a daily newspaper can shadow an editor to learn about the job and its responsibilities.
The idea is that this *defacto* baptism by fire will cause students to step outside their routine and play another role: After all, empathy is fine, but it's no substitute for experience.
Imagine how life would be different if we all had to go through a one day program to teach us about the thing we know the least about. Could there be a better cure for ignorance than to be its victim?
What it is like to be handicapped is one insight too few students consider.
Could there be a better cure for ignorance than to be its victim?
Most students go through their day without devoting a second thought to things like transportation or mobility, but disabled students can't do that. Few of us have made any significant effort to understand the needs of our disabled schoolmates.
In any community, when people try to understand one another's lives and problems, everyone benefits
crosswalks, inattentive drivers, crowds, narrow hallways and steep inclines. It's hard to go even a day without taking the stairs two at a time, let alone resting at the landing. Most of us have gone through our lives being noted for exceptional abilities, not for deficits in them. And it's important to note that no disabled person wants to be felt sorry for or singled out for being different. But just overlooking differences ignores individuality and objectifies people, neither of which help improve the human condition.
Just like being "Editor for a Day," students should consider what it's like to be disabled for a day. Try to think at stairs, handrails, ice.
The concept of understanding is a vital step toward building a campus where disabled students are welcome and feel comfortable instead of considered an obstacle.
Kansan staff
Andy Obermueller for the editorial board
News editors
Paul Eakins . . . Editorial
Andy Obermueller . . . Editorial
Andrea Albright . . . News
Jodie Chester . . . News
Julie King . . . News
Charity Jeffries . . Online
Eric Weslander . . Sports
Harley Rattliff . 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 Olson . Special sections
Lachelle Rhoades . News clerk
Advertising managers
Kristie Bisel . *Assistant retail, PR*
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*
Jamie Holman . *Zone*
Brian LeFevre . *Zone*
Matt York . *Zone*
"The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward." — John Maynard Keynes, economist
How to submit letters and guest columns
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.
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuaffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. 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.
Perspective
Genetic engineering runs risk of perfection
It was bound to happen. When Dolly the Sheep was cloned at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, all of the red lights and alarm bells sounded. How close were we coming
bells sounded. How close to the reality of a Huxian human production center?
According to Richard Seed, pretty damn close. He is determined to make the cloning of humans a reality. The first question is: can he do it? Well, he's pretty bright—he's a Harvard physicist. He has also been studying genetics for the past 12 years, a period that saw genetics go from a fringe science to the center of understanding in a biological world.
Tom
Winter
twinter@eagle
Some biologists think the number of unfertilized eggs that Seed would need to pull the experiment off would be about 300 — assuming the Scottish trial-and-error system is a genetic standard and can be applied to humans. The high number of eggs required means there would have to be quite a few participants willing to ovulate for Seed, no pun intended.
I don't think this will be a problem, nor do I think he will have trouble funding his research. If it doesn't come from the U.S. government, which it won't, it will come from private organizations that are already profiting from biotechnology. It's also possible that the funding could come from a foreign economy. In the world of science, there is always some country willing to foot the bill. We know that the Food and Drug Administration isn't going to approve it, but maybe a European country, Asia, or even a former Soviet Bloc country will decide that they are going to trailblaze the future. They could easily get a jump on the moralists and show what genetic engineering is all about.
While the Soviet Union may have had problems keeping their people clothed and fed, they didn't have any problem putting the first man in space or developing nuclear weapons or orbiting a space station around the Earth.
But what we really need to ask is 'Is this the right thing to do?'
The truth is, no matter how distant the real
ity of human cloning seems, the closer it brings us to genetic engineering. Cloning is the exact replication of an existing organism. Genetic engineering is the creation of an organism from scratch. This application of genetics is becoming an incredibly real possibility, especially because the entire human gene is expected to be mapped by 2005.
A computer-guru friend of mine once said that we as a species have stopped evolving. We control our climate with air conditioners and the like; we control our health. In essence, we adjust our environment to us instead of the other way around. In this light, it seems that genetic engineering is adjusting us to some vague notion of perfection.
Let's assume that we are God. We want to create perfect children, or at least, initially, disease-free children, which is what Richard Seed claims he wants to eventually do. Our children would have had all possibility for human ailments genetically removed. Their generation might lack the ails of cancer, muscular dystrophy and other physical diseases. They would also lack alcoholism, manic depression, schizophrenia and other mental diseases.
What you then have is someone who never gets sick and never eats a cheeseburger because the "fat-craving" gene has been kicked out of their system. They would not have long bouts of depression, fits of anger or thoughts of suicide. Of course, this application of genetic engineering is still theoretical.
Now let's add into the equation that people want to choose the height, stature and attractiveness of their offspring. Now we might not all jump on the bandwagon and say we want tall, beautiful children, but believe me, if genetic engineering becomes widespread, people's insecurities about their own physical inequities will be whispered in a doctor's confidence. The use of technology is often driven by fear — I want my children to be in the fraternal order of personal insecurities. I'd rather be 58" with bad vision, clumsiness, an air of contemplation and a hell of a lot of skepticism.
It just makes that pint of beer taste so much sweeter.
Winter is a Blue Springs, Mo., senior in advertising and biology.
Pouring out a little liquor for the human experience
A few weeks ago I was at a party and I poured out a little liquor for Chris Farley. I was immediately accosted by the
people around me who wondered how I could pay respect to an uncouth, coke-addicted slob. I couldn't respond amid the fury that I illicited and the wailing of Jerry Garcia in the background.
Jerry Garcia? A little ironic, don't you think?
Now I'd like to respond without derision and without Jerry Garcia egging me on.
Nick Zaller
nickzaz@falcon
We are drawn to people with eclectic talents. Artists, writers, musicians, actors and athletes are often idolized and we pay our obeisance to the little bit each contribute to interpreting the human experience.
The shrines we have built are mere dreams, dreams that help us understand what it means to be a human being. Often there is confusion as to what is important and what the difference is between reality and dreams. What are we admiring and respecting in artists and entertainers?
During the years, there have been many tragedies involving people who have impressed us with great artistic talent but who were not necessarily great people. Chris Farley was overweight and had serious drug problems. He glamorized the live-fast-and-die- young mentality that so many entertainers have championed. Del Close, a friend of Farley, said in a recent interview, "When a fat kid desperately wants acceptance, he'll do what it takes to be accepted, even if that's being the most outrageous guy in the room." Farley saw himself as the fat kid seeking acceptance in the shadow of fallen star comedian Jim Belushi, whom he emulated.
I'm not saying that I want to be like Chris Farley when I pay respect to him as a comedian. I'm saying that when I watch Chris Farley on television, I laugh. I escape to another place for a short time, and I just laugh. That's
what I respect.
There are countless other examples of entertainers who lived on the edge. Charlie Parker, Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Jim Belushi and Tupac Shakur are just a few. None of these people were deities. They were people with gifts and they gave their gifts to whoever would accept them. I do not condone the lifestyle of any of these people, but they have all given me perspective through their artistic expression of the human condition. Even though I did not know any of those people, each one has affected me in some way. Their creative expression and interpretation of humanity on an internal and external plane is what has affected me, not their drugs, violence or countless other vices. For example, I like jazz music and I like Charlie Parker. But Charlie Parker's music, not his heroin, is what takes me to another reality that invigorates my thoughts and emotions.
Thus far I have only mentioned figures in the public eye who have achieved fame and notoriety. But everyone of us has a unique piece of the puzzle which defines the human psyche. Chris Farley is not any better than a friend who makes me laugh. Jerry Garcia is no better than someone singing in the shower. A Monet painting has no more meaning than a little girl's painting of her interpretation of the sunset. Each of us is capable of expressing our feelings.
We are all emotional beings. The rich, famous and impersonal do not have a greater impact than neighbors, friends and family members. So when I poured out a little liquor for Chris Farley, I was really pouring out a little liquor for creative expression which is an essential part of our existence.
In addition, we can and do have an impact on one another. Artistic expression of feelings greatly broadens this impact, but everyday interactions can play an integral role as well. One does not have to be famous or have special talents to have a meaningful interpretation of life. Conversely, because a person is famous or has special abilities does not necessarily mean their interpretations should be more reverently received than anyone else's.
Zaller is a Tulsa, Okla., senior in Chinese and biology.
Online Opinion
Each week we will describe an interesting web site for our readers. Web site of the Week:
http://www.emilyslist.org/
Emily's List identifies viable pro-choice Democratic women candidates for key federal and statewide offices and supports them in three ways: By raising campaign contributions, by building strong campaigns and by mobilizing women voters.