4
Tuesday, January 26. 1993
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Closed classes result from KU's bureaucracy
The University of Kansas is a school in crisis. It is supposed to represent the excellence of four year research institutions. However, at KU graduating in four years has become the exception, not the rule.
There are many places to point fingers. The governor and the Legislature consistently have refused to give the University the adequate amount of money it needs to function. University bureaucracy turns students into numbers in an impersonal environment. And even different schools and departments have created policies which can frustrate the most patient of students.
Many students attend classes in which they and their instructors know they have a slim chance of enrolling. Instructors encourage students to stay in classes on the chance that others may drop. Yet, there is no guarantee of enrollment.
There also are many cases where instructors, professors and graduate teaching assistants, have their hands tied by their departments. Many instructors are forced to defer to others in their department concerning the admissions of students into classes.
While there are excuses for this practice, it is odd that people who are responsible for the content of the instruction cannot be responsible for the number of people admitted into those same classes. Classroom instructors are in a far better position to evaluate their needs and the limits of their resources. If instructors are confident that they can offer adequate instruction while at the same time increasing their class size, department bureaucrats should be left out of the process.
Many students have had their graduations delayed because of policies that restrict the number of students in classes. There is no doubt that many times these decisions are made in the best interests of the instructors and students. However, these are decisions that are better made by instructors. They and the students are the ones having to live with the decisions.
STEPHEN MARTINO FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Saddam seems to be challenging incoming Clinton
The Gulf states know how to generate a little tension during (presidential) transfers of power in Washington.
Der Standard
In 1981, Iranian Mullahs wafted until the swearing-in of Ronald Reagan as U.S. president before they released the U.S. hostages. This time, Saddam Hussein seems to have been a stage director as Bill Clinton takes office and to add his own war games to the traditional fireworks.
The new president, according to Baghdad's reasoning, wants to devote himself quickly to his program of economic recovery. Hence he will be more inclined to strike a compromise with Iraq.
But while for Reagan a problem was resolved then, Clinton awaits the first crucial test of his presidency before he can unpack his bags. For Saddam's provocation of the past few weeks are clearly clear to him. He is the White House. With all means the dictator tries to free himself from the allied stranglehold and put Clinton after a fait accompli.
But Saddam might again turn out to be a champion of miscalculation. The latest air raids by the U.S. permit Clinton to take the relay baton at full speed. He need not take new initiatives for the time
being, it suffices if he consistently continues the hitherto (pursued) policy.
What the (Western) allies lack at
Clinton needs to move Iraqi people to action
present is a coherent political strategy to match their military muscle. This is worrying, for without one they may be condemned to being imprisoned or sold on, with the eventual risk of a serious foreign policy debacle.
Bill Clinton - should attempt to elaborate a political strategy aimed not at directly toppling the Iraqi leader but at encouraging Iraqs to do so. Alongside the stick of military action, he should hold out the carrot of U.S. cooperation provided Iraq adopts a regime that respects the will of the international community and the dignity and well-being of its own citizens. In place of the unintended despair Iraqs are experiencing today, he should offer the conditional hope of a lifting of sanctions. By clearly enunciating such a prospect, he may just make it possible.
Financial Times
KANSAN STAFF
GREG FARMER
STEVE PERRY
GAYLE OSTERBERG Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
TOM EBLEN
MELISSA TERLIP Retail sales manager
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Asst Managing ... Justin Krupp
News ... Monique Guelain
... David Mitchell
Editorial ... Stephen Martino
Campus ... NC Trauner
Campus ... David Mitchell
Photo ... Mark Riv兰曼
Features ... Lynne McAdoe
Graphice ... Dan Schauer
MELISSATERLIP
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Business Staff
Campus sales mgr...Brad Breen
Regional Sales mgr...Wade Baxter
National sales mgr...Jennifer Pierce
Production mgrs...Austin Stumbo
Ashley Langford
Marketing director...Angela Clevenger
Creative director...Holly Parry
Director...Dave Habber
* Director...Dave Habber
**Letters** should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 300 words. They must include the name of the person to whom they are addressed, with the University of Kansas inscribed in class name and institution, or faculty or staff position.
*Must be legible.*
*Letters* should be typeed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the writer's organization may use their own names.
The Rattan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and articles. They can be marked or brought to the Rattan offices, 111 S. Fulton Hall.
Grand columnists should be types, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
Down at the Library excercising Freedom of the Press?
"Sure, we have Madonna's 'SEX' book and you can look at it as long as you sit right here in front of me, sign a promise not to drool on it, promise not to make disgusting noises and leave a $100 deposit."
Men, women and creatures run for Chicago's City Council
A sharp-eyed reader has spotted an example of male insensitivity and political correctness that should be set right.
In a recent column, I wrote some
tung about "a Chicago alderman, a
businessman."
This led to a note from one Kathy Neeley, of Eugene, Ore., who circled the word alderman and asked, "Did Anna Langford undergo a sex change to get this position?"
She was referring to my having alum Aulis Langfoe to a female person for the job.
COLUMNIST
So what is wrong with calling someone an adderman when that is what they need?
There is a lot wrong with it, and I plead guilty to having committed an act of insensitivity.
It is the dreaded third syllable: alder-MAN
As Ms. Neeley, from all the way out there in Oregon, we肯然 noted, Anna Langford is not a man. So why, she Langford, was Iow, was I calling her an alderMAN?
I could try to mount a defense by saying that when Anna Laundoff was fired, she should be fired.
I should have taken it upon myself to purge that degrading syllable, "MAN," which in the modern dictionary of enlightened sensitivity means something like, "an oppressive beast; crude, lewd, domineering, selfish, arrogant, only for reproductive assistance with their test tubes, someday will be unnecessary for that purpose, halleluiah!"
Had I been sensitive, I would have called her an adultwoman.
That's what Ms. Neeley suggested, saying, "What is wrong with 'alder-woman'? It doesn't sound funny to me at all."
Alderperson might seem like an alternative. However, alderperson wouldn't pass the test 100 percent because it could be read as alderPERSON. And a son is of the dreaded male persuasion, get it?
Ah, but that shows that Ms. Neeley's eye isn't as sharp as it might be. No, alderwoman wouldn't do because it has the dreaded M word in it, too: AlderwoMAN.
So what does that leave us with?
About all I can think of is aldercreature, which sounds like something that might be used by a zoologist or a paleontologist to describe some strange form of wildlife.
For the sake of political correctness, maybe the City Council should give thought to officially changing its name to 'Bellevue,' the city to the gender-neutral alder creature.
On the other hand, some of them might not want to be known as alder-creatures. One must think of the wife and children.
"What does your husband do?"
"He is an aldercreature."
"Oh, my goodness, is there any treatment for it?"
Yes, the time has come to do away with the title alderman. Firemen long ago became firefighters. Policemen became police officers. And in one California town, it has become forbidden to use the phrase manhole cover, although I would think that some feminists would think that giving a sewer lid a male connotation is just and proper.
And it wouldn't be a bad idea for members of Congress to refer to themselves as congresscreatures or, in many cases, congressglutons.
This is just another example of how alert we in the news business must be. The language has changed, and we must change with it.
So I appreciate Ms. Neeley having pointed out my serious breach of political correctness and sensitivity, and I want to express my gratitude.
Thanks a lot, babe. And believe me, doll, it won't happen again.
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
Enrollment red tape plagues University
The University of Kansas may have the greatest journalism school in the nation, a top ranked basketball team and a football team that won us the Aloha Bowl. But let's face it, when it comes to administration, the University of Kansas is a bureaucratic nightmare.
Every day the students wake up to the melodic sound of the school horn, which signals the end of classes. They skip (or slide, as the case may be) to school full of the joys of spring to study all those subjects that they never really wanted to take. So many people have had to shell out a load of cash for their second-choice subjects and hope that the courses will be available next term. This situation has largely arisen because many popular classes are closed and there surplus students are turned away.
Last term, when registration (1 use that word loosely) was taking place, angry students complained loudly about the number of closed classes
there were $r$ and the increasing likelihood that they would have to pay for classes that they were not necessarily interested in. I did quite well. I managed to get into two classes, one of them being the "Missionaries Impact on African Culture." Although I am sure that this class would have been interesting, it is not exactly useful for someone who needs to take a temporary U.S. history course to complete her degree.
Then of course there is Strong Hall, that Minotaur's labyrinth and any
sane person's idea of hell. This is the play-off for the human pingpong game whereby helpful administrators send you from one office to another across campus chasing after thousands of signatures, stamps and relevant pieces of colored paper. Is this all entirely necessary?
Take the dean's stamp for example.
What is the point of that? Is there any,
or is it just another KU tactic to drive
you up the wall? Maybe I am missing
some great point that will reveal that
the dean's stamp has omnipotent
powers which will influence my acad-
emic career, nay, my whole life forever.
Maybe its significance is so obvious
that I just can't see it ... maybe,
but somehow I don't think so.
If there isn't any point in the stamp, then it is a waste of time for everyone, and it is very trying on the patience. To get the stamp I must sift through the card, but I'll stick to Reminders in the KU timetable to find the room. Then, having lost my
way in Hall Hall because the rooms have been changed, I have to wait in an endless queue for someone behind the desk to say "15 hours" in a questioning tone, to which I will nod. He or she will ring the total hours in a brightly colored pen and send me on my merry way to the next office.
I know that my account of the registration game is a bit exaggerated, although looking back on it, I'm not too sure. The dean's stamp is a small part of the whole process and is relatively easier to acquire in comparison to the treasured green class opener. However, it is an example of what I consider to be unnecessary bureaucracy which KU continuously seems to entangle us in. Of course you can always look on the bright side. When you eventually graduate from KU, it's likely that you will have excellent powers of persuasion and the patience of a saint.
Francesca Glyn-Jones Is a Ludlow, Eng land. junior majoring in American studies.
Mystery Strip
bv David Rosenfield