4 OPINION Monday, March 29, 1993 25 UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN IN OUR OPINION KU fans should celebrate victories responsibly The University of Kansas' victory Saturday vaulted it into the Final Four and stirred the Lawrence community into a celebration frenzy. Many strucommunity into a celebration frenzy. Many students rushed Wescoe Beach and Jayhawk Boulevard to display their pleasure with KU's victory. The team's victory is a time for celebration, but students should exercise common sense in their revelry. Times are different from two years ago when the Jay hawks made the Final Four. Since then, the city has passed an ordinance banning the possession of alcohol on campus. Police officers Saturday night spent much of their time enforcing the law by asking students to pour out beer bottles and cans. With the police enforcing the alcohol law, the mixture of bottles and cans is dangerous to say the least. A few people found their bottles and cans effective projectiles. Even the shards of broken glass on the ground create a dangerous situation for the fans celebrating on campus. Furthermore, some people set off fireworks, from small crackers to bottle rockets. With 5,000 people tightly packed into a small area, inaccurate and dangerous fireworks could strike somebody. The potential for an injury is enormous and certainly not worth the risk. When the Jayhawks win their next two games on Saturday and next Monday, there will certainly be a rush to campus. Given the fact that many people will be drinking and even more people will be in town, all persons choosing to celebrate at the heart of campus should use common sense when doing so. Those who bring alcohol to campus will do so in a futile effort. Bottles and cans are bound to be poured out by police. Kansas basketball deserves to be celebrated, but the celebration should not lead to injury. Be careful and respectful of your fellow fans LETTER TO THE EDITOR Affirmative action creates problems it should prevent I am not against equal opportunity for all people, but to favor one party whether it be because of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference or gender snacks of just the opposite. Affirmative action can lead to quotas, and quotas can lead to mediocrity. Hiring by quota guarantees, in some instances, that people who are more qualified for a job will be denied that position. And what happens to the person who is less qualified? It's obvious. The employer will have to spend more money training the worker who is less qualified. Some would say that journalists, college professors and politicians live in ivory towers, and in the case of Andrew Gilman's column on affirmative action and equality, I find this to be true. It appears that political correctness has really struck this university in Gilman's column. In the column, Gilman offered his idealistic, anti-racism proposal, which in the long run hurts everyone. What really frightens me about Gilman's idea is that it depends on someone or something to enforce this institution of affirmative action. Is the government going to have to spend more money in these financially tight times to enforce these quotas? Will all companies be required to have on their payroll the same percentage of minorities as are in the general population? What will be the additional cost that an already fragile, recovering economy will have to pay if Gilman's wish were to come true? Gilman says this is a small step. I want to know what constitutes the larger steps of his plan to erase discrimination. Gilman talks about the increasing incidents of racism in this country. Has he ever considered that giving unfair advantages to minorities may cause better-qualified individuals to be racist? Has Gilman considered that programs instituted to eliminate racial discrimination on college campuses have actually caused the opposite result? Thomas P. Grelinger Kansas City, Kan., junior I do not think anyone is arguing that racial and gender discrimination does not exist, but to propose a solution that could spread racism and sexism is, at best, ironic. What I would suggest is that individualism is a better ideal than any affirmative action program that Gilman has put forth. Band member recalls thrills of tournament The members of the KU basketball band and spirit squad file onto the bus. We are tired, sweaty, thirsty and sore. And we are ecstatic. I am writing this column as a member of the band. KU has just beaten Indiana, and we are celebrating. "FINAL FOUR! FINAL FOUR!" we chant as the bus begins to sway back and forth. We are on our way. Not just to Lawrence but to New Orleans. The bus rolls out, and the driver is encouraged to reach warp speed. We want to get back as soon as we can. After all, we just might make the pep rally. Lawrence is only five hours away from St. Louis. OK, now that things are starting to settle down a bit, and Eddie Murphy's movie, "Boomerang," begins to play on the tiny video screens, I can now reflect on the trip. I must preserve every memory of this trip. This is, after all, something I will want to relive over and over... It's 8:30 on a cold. Thursday morning. During any normal week, campus would be jumping by this time, but this is the week of spring break. The only activity in this sleepy Lawrence town is on a bus behind Murphy Hall, where band and spirit squad members are busy loading the vehicle and wiping the sleep from their eyes. There are no tests for me to worry about. Just basketball, my friends and my horn. Paradise. On the way to St. Louis, Jared Klein, Overland Park junior and alto saxophonist, finds a Danny Manning basketball card in his pack of three from McDonalds. Luck. Are we superstitious? Yes. It rules the band and the spirit squad. It makes Jason Delong, Lawrence senior and tenor saxophonist, wear the same socks to every tournament game. (He does wash them in between the games.) Luck makes some band members wear a Jayhawk tattoo on their left cheeks. The only tournament game I "Hey, this is a good omen," Klein says. "I'm keenning this for luck." KANSAN REPORTER. DAN ENGLAND have attended that the Hawks did not win, and I've been to almost every round since 1991, was the UTEP game. That was the only game that I did not wear a tattoo. On our way to a pep rally at Schmiezings, a sports bar in St. Louis, we are given a new song to play, "St Louis Blues." We begin to practice by singing our notes together before we have to play it in front of the hundreds of KU fans who will be attending the rally. The cheerleaders roll their eyes. The bus stops across from the bar, where we begin to play and warm up. Notes come out in short, excited bursts. Nervous energy Once we arrive at the arena, we are led into a deep, dark tunnel underneath the stadium. It reminds me of a dungeon. Muffled activity can be heard from the Louisville-Indiana game. Time out. We are allowed to go to our section in the front. We enter the stadium, and the KU fans jump up and begin to cheer. Electricity fills the air. Welcome to the NCAA tournament. Band members, rookies and veterans alike, feel their hair raise on end. "It's like a regular season game with eight times the intensity," says Scott Jarboe, Olathe freshman and trombonist. With five minutes left in the California game and KU leading by 10, the Rock Chalk chant begins to echo through the stadium. Friday is a day for reflection and recovery. Our chops are tired, our bodies are sore and our throats hurt. wants this to last as long as possible. He doesn't know if he will be back next year. "I hate it," Fuchs says. "it really hurts. These are 30 of my closest friends, and this is the thing I'll miss the most." Saturday. The big game. Relax. RELAX? Yeah, right. Some band members wring their hands. Others just walk around. Anything to calm the nerves. And we aren't the only ones. We are in the arena two hours before the big game starts. Band members pace back and forth. Fuchs tells us to have a seat. "You can't help but get pumped up with the atmosphere," says Sonya Snyder, Topeka senior and captain of the cheerleaders. Tawny Hall, Topeka senior, says "I'm so nervous, I feel like I'm playing the game." Band members are told not to jump up or stand during the game. So when KU scores we jump to our knees and pound the floor, screaming. Jeff Fuchs, director of the band. I hate to be a gushing teenager, but it was totally awesome. Let's face it. No one cheers for you for playing an instrument. But in the tournament we were cheered several times. We were celebrities. It felt good. Really good. When time ran out and the players began to cut down the nets, that was their moment. When the team had its rally at Allen Field House, which we missed by ten minutes, that was its moment. The team sure deserved it. Our moment comes when there were two minutes left on the clock, with KU leading by 11. Time out is called. We jump up and begin hugging each other. We know the game is ours. And then we begin to play "In the Stone," one of our trademark songs. The crowd goes nuts. Organized chaos. To be a part of this, to be a factor of the victory, to celebrate and play together. This is our moment. And it is sweet. Dan England is a Lenexa junior majoring in journalism. STEPHEN MARTIN Jayhawks overcome predictions It was no small feat making it to the Big Easy, but the Jayhawks did it. Roy's boys, counter to the predictions of the pundits, went ballistin on Ball State and BYU, schooled Jaskid Kison and California and became the only conference team to ever beat Bobby Houssers twice in the same season. But with Kansas' fans in the national media, like most announcers at CBS, a person might think that the Jay-hawks are more worthless than Coach Williams' favorite opponent, St. Mary's sisters of the Blind. Mike Francesca, CBS' regular sit-behind the desk-and pick-the-East- Coast teams commentator, made a few predictions that didn't set well with Rex Walters. Namely, that he was in line to be upset by Bull State. Walters then launched into a verbal trade about Francesa's qualifications to analyze basketball teams. Walters' point: Francesa doesn't apparently have any. Yet, what are we to expect from CBS? Sweetly, she says: "The exception of James Brown, is the clef in one respect or another." Of course, what should we expect from CBS, the network that gave us Bill Walton in 1991. Walton is yet another example of someone who played the game well but couldn't cover it to save his life. Like Francesca, Walton in 1991 predicted a first-round victory by playing at the hands of New Orleans. Obviously, Walton isn't going to be getting a job as an odds-maker anytime soon as Kansas made it to the championship game that year. Accordingly, as fans, we have to be content knowing our team is one of the most fundamentally sound, our coach is one of the best and brightest, and people like Mike Francesca earned their right to gab from a high-priced broadcast school and not by putting leather on a wood floor. How soon people forget that Kansas is the third-most successful program in NCAA history and has been in just as many Final Fours as Kentucky. As for recent history, Kansas has been in four of the last eight Final Fours, a total surpassed only by Duke. Kansas captured its third consecutive Big Eight championship this season. Oklahoma won the All-Big Eight Conference and Steve Woodberry second-team by the Associated Press. Roy Williams, in his five years at Kansas, is 132-36 including an 11-3 record in the tournament. That's a 785 overall winning percentage. Williams was named 1992 National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press and twice Big Eight Coach of the Year by AP. Williams is so highly thought of that he was the only known college coach approached in the summer of 1992 by the Los Angeles Lakers to fill their head coaching spot. KANSAN STAFF Kansas has plenty to be proud of from its student-athletes. Despite the doubles, jayhawk fans benefit by seeseeing the team compete in basketball programs in the nation. On Friday, the Kansan will produce a special section to recognize the team for their efforts and what they have accomplished this year. Seeing how they won't see or hear many poses from the audience beneath the beltway, the Kansan is committing as much space as necessary to run letters wishing the team well. I am sure you'll be Kinder than most so-called professional journalists. Editorial Editor Stephen Martino is an alo the senior malaring in political science. GREG FARMER Editor GAYLE OSTERBERG Managing editor BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator General manager, news adviser Astet Managing | Justin Knuck News | Monique Guialain David Mitchell Editorial | Stephen Martino Campus | KC Trauer Sports | David Mitchell Campus | Mark Rowlands Features | Lynne McAdoo Graphics | Dan Schauer business manager MELISSA TERLIP Retail sales manager JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser EDITORIAL EDITOR Business Staff Campus sales mgr Bred Braden Regional sales mgr Wade Baster National sales mgr Jennifer Perrier Co-op sales mgr Aahley Hessel Production mgrs Ashley Langford Marketing director Angela Clevenger Creative director Holly Parry Commercial manager Camille Art Director Dave Habler TOM EBLEN MARVE PERRY Business manager **Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number.riters affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. **Guest columns** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed. The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Staircase-Fire Hall 1906 FM By Moses Smith