4 Monday, March 8,1993 OPINION RSTY DAILY KANSAN UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN IN OUR OPINION Western Civilization tries to cover too much The goals of the Western Civilization department are clearly stated in this, the mission statement: "Western Civilization is a two-semester interdisciplinary program which critically examines the ideas and values characteristic of Western culture from its early expressions of Ancient Greece, Rome and Israel through the modern period." Unfortunately, in practice, the majority of the students that are in the program are not being offered anything close to this. Instead they are inundated with too many authors that surpass their ability to learn and the teaching assistant's ability to teach. During a transition period such as this, mistakes understandably will occur, and through trial and error, we will create a better program. But we have reached the point of too many trials and too many errors, and it is time for the department to get the job done. The Western Civilization program has been through a challenging and unstable period in the last decade. Because of the nature of the Western Civilization program, it has unfortunately been subject to intense scrutiny as a variety of factions have championed their versions of how Western culture came to be. The student concerns with the program have been voiced time and again. There are too many books with too many authors, and it is impossible to critically examine any of them because the students and the teachers are spread too thin. By the end of the two-semester program most students have a superficial knowledge of what the 25 authors wrote but virtually no ability to "critically examine" any of them. But for some reason, every time the students voice their concern, it is simply shrugged off as those lazy, unprepared students just trying to get out of reading all of the texts. However, it has been proven that the easiest route for the students is the one we have right now. With New Analysis, basically Cliff's Notes for Western Civilization, any student can make a B or even an A in the class and never read even one text. Why in the world would we be complaining if we aren't reading the texts now and still making good grades? Maybe, just maybe, students are interested in that education that faculty are so earnestly trying to grant us. The most illustrating thing about this whole problem is that everyone knows what the problem is, and no one is doing anything about it. In an internal memo to the Western Civilization department on Feb. 4, 1992, Jim Woelfel, the head of the department, stated: "My view continues to be that students are better off really feeling that they have a handle on six to eight 'great authors and books' — even if the course reading doesn't 'cover all of the bases' — than they are being exposed to the bewildering number and variety we expose them to now." Student sentiment couldn't be expressed any more clearly. Simply prioritize the works, choose the top six or eight and teach them. The students will learn more, and the teaching assistants will be able to grasp all of the material and teach it better. No, we won't have learned everything there is to know about the founding of Western thought, but at least we will learn something, which is more than can be said now. JEFF REYNOLDS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD KANSAN STAFF GREG FARMER Editor GAYLE OSTERBERG Managing editor TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser Editors STEVE PERRY Business manager MELISSA TERLIP Retail sales manager JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator Asst Managing Justin Knott News Monique Guilain David Mitchell Editorial Stephen Martino Campus NC Trauner Sports David Mitchell Mark Ravenholt Features Lymne McAdoo Graphic Dan Schauer Business Staff Campus sales mgr...Brad Bruno Regional sales mgr...Wade Baxter National sales mgr...Jennifer Porter Co-op sales mgr...Ashley Hessel Production mgr...Taylor Langford Marketing director...Angela Cleverman Creative director...Holly Perry Art Director...Jill Cleverman Art Director...Dave Hablain Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include a class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. Guest列席者 should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be The Kanata reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kanata newhouse, 111 Standiford Flint Hall Metamorphosis of an Art and Design Project Rough Idea First Draft Second Draft Third Draft Final Completed Project Musicians should try writing their own music for a change STAFF COLUMNIST Something evil is happening in the world of music. No, it's not Billy Ray Cyrus, although his efforts certainly are not a valuable addition. Rather, it is what seems to be an increasing proclivity of mediocre artists to cover songs that were much better performed by their original Probably the most egregious of these performers is Michael Bolton. His most recent album, "Timeless: The Classics," would be better titled "Tuneless." He can run the best of songs, and this isn't the first album he's done it on. Take, for example, what he did to "Georgia On My Mind." That song was meant to be sung by Ray Charles and no one else, especially not the possum-haired likes of Bolton, whose raspy voice brings about thoughts of respiratory infection, not musical ability. His latest venture includes a mangling of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" Even the most romantic of settings and moods cannot compensate for the damage Bolton does to this song. But Bolton is far from alone in this type of musical crime: Consider Rod Stewart's interpretation of Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately." Stewart was fine on songs like "Maggie May." He nowhere near enough talent to cover Van Morrison ballads. Sinead O'Connor recently covered some standards on her album "Am I Not Your Girl?" A traditional interpretation of these songs would have been much better. O'Connor's style is far from compatible with these songs. of "Easy," an early '80s ballad by the Commodores, falls into the same category. And the list goes on. A group called Ugly Kid Joe now has a cover version of Harry Chapin's "Cat' in the Cradle" on the charts. For a loud, clangy rock band, they do a relatively respectable job, but they certainly don't improve on the original. Faith No More's cover Whitney Houston has ruined what was once a sad and saddy, but pretty ballad by Dolly Parton. Houston has an incredible voice, and her emotion-free approach to "I Will Always Love You" is certainly sad, but not in the way Parton's tear-jerking version is. Some of the songs on the "Honeymoon in Vegas" soundtrack, a compilation of Elvis songs, are good. Dwight Yoakam, for example, gives a spirited rendition of "Suspicious Minds." But on the same album you also get John Mellencamp's bizarre version of "Jailhouse Rock." George Michael has covered Elton John's "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," and his cover is great. (It helps that John performed with him.) But on "Two Rooms," a collection of Elton Johnson songs performed by various artists, Wilson Phillips performs an insidious cover of "Daniel." When discussing Mariah Carey's cover of "I'll Be There," a song originally performed by the Jackson 5, "Saturday Night Lives" David Spade directed the following comment toward Carey: "You know why they sang that? So you wouldn't have to. It's called originality. Check it out." Some songs are just so good, you can understand why singers would want to cover them. "Unforgettable," by Nat King Cole is one of those songs. Some singers are so good that other singers shouldn't cover their songs. Nat King Cole is one of those singers. Sorry, Natalie. There should be a way to limit who covers which songs. Not legally, of course, because that would be censorship. But some sort of guidance in this area would be nice. An artist should be required to improve on a song if he wants to cover it, or at the minimum, should produce an enjoyable variation. So the question becomes, who should decide which songs are covered? It should be someone who's ready to pass judgment on such matters. A Kansan columnist, for example. Julie Wasson is a Springfield, Mo., senior majoring in political science and journalism. Trekkie dreams of deep space fantasy I have decided to come out of the closet: I am a Trekkie; a hidden, shame-faced Trekkie. Yes, I too want to go where no man (or woman) has gone before. Embarrassing as this may seem, I have found myself captivated for hours each week in front of the television. Occasionally, I even imagine myself on the new space station, "Deep Space Nine." However, I don't want to be Dax, or even the woman who plays the indomitable major, and no, I don't want to be the commander. I want to be the shape changer. For those of you who have yet to be ensnaRED by this whimsical show, the shape changer is just what he sounds like. He can change into anything. Often he changes into an inanimate object such as a chair. He is incredible. Imagine what you could do with this talent. You would never be locked out of your home or car. You could When I was a child, I used to watch reruns of "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie." Though I now know the sexist implications of these shows, when I was a child, I just wanted to be magic. I would imagine myself able to wiggle my nose or blink my eyes and be anywhere I chose. I would imagine the ability to have whatever I wanted become a key or a piece of paper and slide under the door. If someone wanted to go somewhere they could become an airplane or a car. The possibilities are endless. and to blink out of any uncomfortable situation. Sometimes I would use this method when I was lying in bed at night and heard my parents fighting, or worse when my father got mad. I would think as hard as I could and blink with all my might and imagine I was somewhere far from our kitchen in Overland Park. It never worked. But if I were a shape changer, I wouldn't even have to leave. I could simply change shape. I could become the wall, or the proverbial fly on the wall. I could see what everyone was doing and not have to take part. Just think about the implication for students. A shape changer could turn into the textbook and know every answer on a test. Think about the dating potential. You find out what it is that one special person is searching for and lo and behold you are the one. Tall, short, thin or voluptuous; the world is yours. There would be no stopping you. If you are a woman and the guy you are with is trying to go a bit further than you care, presto-change-o you are a gun, and you are pointed at him. This bit of escapist fiction brings me back to a time when I was a young girl in sixth grade. All of the other girls were, shall I say, rounder at that age than I was, and I was mortified and embarrassed when all of the boys in the class decided it was my day to be the brunt of a cruel-kid joke. If I had been bewitched, I would have been out of there. If I had been Jeannie, well, the subject would have never come up. But if I had been a shape changer, it would have been all over. I would have turned myself into the big brother I always wanted, and those boys would have been history. Lisa Cosmilis is a Lawrence graduate student majoring in Journalism. 1906 FM THIS IS DUIN'S T SHIRT AFTER IT FOUND OUT THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY ARE 3-PEAT CHANNELS! THIS IS JDUS'S TSHIRT AFTER IT'S BEEN BUT BACK ON A BOO THAT HAS BEEN STUDY INS FOR TWO DAYS STRAIGHT WITHOUT A SHOWER! by Moses Smith THIS IS WORLD TAKEH ONCE MAX FALKENSTIEN TOLD BOO DIEWS THAT QIOU'W UMSS STILL THE #1 RADIO STATION.