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Wednesdav. March 2,1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Editor's Note: Because the editorial board was divided on the issue of Title IX, both sides are presented here.
Gender equity important even in the sports world
If Student Senate does not pass a bill to support closing the financial gap between men's and women's sports, it will disregard the great importance of gender equity in all areas of University life.
The bill recommends that student activity fees be increased by $6 to comply with the federal regulation known as Title IX. What's $6?
To most of us, $6 is a breakfast. Six dollars is less than the cost of a movie and a small Coke. Six dollars is a drop in the bucket.
It is true that our tuition costs are increasing and that Student Senate needs to restrict raising fees for all but the most important causes. The equal treatment of male and female athletes is one of those causes.
Opponents of the Senate bill argue that women's sports don't bring as much revenue or as much recognition to the Athletic Department. Proponents of the bill argue that without equal facilities and funds, women's sports don't stand a chance in competition with men's sports, which are consistently and falsely deemed more valuable.
We can all give up $6 worth of candy bars and Cokes, or a breakfast, to ensure that the push continues for gender equality in every aspect of life.
This bill may seem insignificant in our attempts to create a better world, but it is significant in that it is a symbol of the struggle for change. If women are not treated equally in every aspect of life, including those aspects that appear to be less popular, we will never have an equal world.
We should all contribute at least $6 toward the war against sexism and inequality wherever we can, including the basketball court, the softball diamond and the volleyball court.
DONELLA HEARNE OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Fee increase for Title IX too much for right now
Student Senate should not pass the financial committee's recommended $6 increase to student fees to help provide for gender equity in women's sports.
This is not an argument against the importance of gender equity in women's sports across the nation. This would be foolish because women's sports are unequally funded and do not receive the same national recognition as men's sports.
Nor is it an argument against the importance of gender equity in women's sports at the University of Kansas. This is no more apparent than in the lack of concern with the success of our women's basketball team, which is ranked higher than our men's team.
The argument is purely financial. Do KU students need another increase to their student fees? Granted, $6 is not much money for most of us, but for the students who are cutting expenses wherever they can, $6 makes a difference.
What if it made a difference between dinner or skipping a meal? What if it made a difference between medicine for your cold and staying sick? For many of us, $6 makes no difference, but we are the lucky ones.
It would be impractical to say that tuition and student fees should never increase. There are needs within our University that money can help meet. But the fact is, at a time such as now when tuition costs across the nation are increasing, we should be saving money, not finding other places to spend it.
DAVID ZIMMERMAN OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Wedding inspires nostalgia as best friend becomes adult
I never thought it would happen.
One of my best friends, Eric, got married.
I take that back. I knew it would happen. I just didn't think it would happen this soon.
Eric, the guy who graduated last year, the guy who lived down the hall from me when I was a freshman, the guy who played Nintendo in the wee hours of the morning, rented bad horror movies and watched basketball games with me got married last week
With his marriage, he crossed the last barrier into Adulthood.
And I helped him cross it. I was an usher in the wedding.
Eric is on a cruise now with his new wife, Susie. And I need to preserve my memories of last weekend. It was the last time Eric and I were truly on the same level as buddies.
"You have the most important part," he said. "If you aren't charming and pleasant, people will get a bad impression. And then everything won't go well."
At the rehearsal, the minister told me how to be an usher.
Arrived first the day of the wedding.
No pressure.
I walked into the chapel and wha greeted with white candles, flowers and ribbons. And silence. I was awestruck. Two hours later, this place would be brimming with activity. But now, it was deathly silent.
Eric's groommen started filing in. We adjusted our uncomfortable taxedos over and over. That's when Eric walked into the room.
He wore a black tuxedo with a snow-
white vest. His coat ran down to
his polished black shoes. He had a
white flower pinched onto his jacket.
He looked so - grownup. Somehow I
liked his favorite outfit, jeans and
a sweatshirt, better.
His parents followed him in. They presented him with a card. Tears
came into Eric's eyes as he read it. His mother began to cry. His family hugged together, just as they used to before Eric left the house, he later told me.
The wedding started. I managed to show everyone to their seats without crashing into the pews. I then walked down the aisle and waited outside the chapel. The bridesmaids came in, shaking. Their faces were white. Everyone, including myself, couldn't stop trembling. It seemed so funny, all of us children trying to be adults. We weren't very good at it.
Susie came in, crying. She looked beautiful. And terrified. I think she realized she was facing a new and frightening world. Her father wouldn't be able to hold her and tell her bedtime stories anymore. Her mother couldn't comfort her after she had bad dream. She was now, in fact, a woman.
After her walk down the aisle, I sat down and watched as my friend put his college memories on a shelf, to be taken down years from now when the cold adult world overwhelmed him.
During the ceremony I watched a little girl climb over the pews. She was
laughing, playing with a pencil, grabbing the Bibles and throwing them to the ground.
I wished right then that I could have known Eric when we were that girl's age, when something as significant as a wedding meant only a few hours away from our tree house.
But I didn't know him then. I sat there in a daze until Eric said "I do."
Now our friendship will be dinner parties instead of running on campus. I guess that is the price for growing up and wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone you love.
At least I could see in Eric's eyes that it was a price he was willing to pay.
Later, I asked Eric if he wanted to watch a basketball game with us. He said no, he needed to pack.
"I hope I don't leave anything behind," he said.
I almost cried when he said that. Because I knew that Eric was leaving behind the one thing that I cherish the most.
Dan England is a Lenexa senior in Journalism.
His childhood.
U.S., beware: Wonderbra is coming
I wish to discuss a serious threat to our national security now being posed by a foreign brassiere.
It's called the "Wonderbra." I found out about it via an article in the New York Times written by Emily Prager, who comes right out and states that she does not have any cleavage.
This is why she was interested in the Wonderbra, which is apparently a legend in the fashion community. It has been manufactured and sold for more than 30 years in Great Britain, where it is extremely popular because it makes women appear to have a larger, more uplifted set of fashion accessories.
KANSAN STAFF
The Wonderbra is not yet sold in the United States, but it will be soon, so Emily Prager got hold of one and took it out for a test drive. Her goal, which she freely admits, right in the New York Times, was to get men to talk her breasts – not in the sense of walking up to them and saying, "Hil How do you breasts like this weather we're having?"; but in the sense of talking to her while looking down at her breasts, the way guys often do, as
though the breasts had urgent safety information written on them.
So we have three facts to consider:
1. Please make me stand.
This is why life is so complicated for men in the 1990s. If you DO look at a woman's breasts while you talk to her, she could conclude that you're a Neanderthal testosterone-oozing slimbag or a U.S. senator. If you DONT look at her breasts, it could turn out that she's a reporter for the New York Times, and you are actually hampering her efforts to carry out her journalistic duties.
I've been aware of this ever since my early adolescence, when my friends and I would spend hours gaping idiotically at pictures of breasts in somebody's older brother's collection of Playboy magazines, which were always stored under his mattress. What was ironic about those magazines was that they also contained droning essays by Hugh Hefner, outlining the tenets of the intellectual philosophy of the Playboy Man; meanwhile, several pages away, the Playboy Man, who was actually in ninth grade, was staring at the tenets of Miss August with lust-engorged eyeballs and an IQ in the rutabaga range.
1. Breasts make men stupid.
The Wonderbread makes breasts grow.
males cannot look at breasts and think at the same time. In fact, scientists now believe that the primary biological function of breasts is to make males stupid.
BEN GROVE, Editor
States. Look at what happened to Great Britain. At one time, there was no Wonderbra, and Great Britah ruled the richest and most powerful empire on Earth. Now, there is Wonderbra, and Great Britain is a pathetic, shrunken nation with an economy based almost entirely on selling blurred photographs of Princess Diana working out.
Emily Prager did eventually get a man to talk to her breasts. I am not surprised. Males have a lot of trouble not looking at breasts. What is worse,
Coincidence? I think not.
Imagine what will happen to this nation if large numbers of American women start using the Wonderbra. The male half of the population will be nothing but mindless drooling. Zombies of Lust, Granted, this also is true now, but it will be even worse.
What can we do about this threat? A nuclear strike against Great Britain would probably be overreacting. A better idea would be to send over a delegation of top leaders to look into the Wonderbra, so to speak, and if we don't hear from them in a week, then we launch a nuclear strike.
3. The Wonderbra is coming here.
This is very bad for the United
BILL SKEET, Systems coordinator
Dave Barry is a syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald.
2. The Wonderba makes breasts even more noticeable.
Editors
Asst Managing Editor...Dan England
Assistant to the editor...J.R. Clarke
News...Kristi Fogler, Katie Greenwald
Todd Seiffert
Editorial...Colleen McCain
Nathan Olean
Campus...Jane Duffworth
David Dersey
Photo...Doug Hesse
Features...Sara Bennett
Wire...Allison Lippert
Frelessance...Christine Laue
JUSTIN GARBERG Business manager
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
JENNIFER BLOWEY Retail sales manager
LISA COSMILLO, Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILL SKEET Sutanne coordinator
Business Start
Campus sales mgrs ..Jason Eberly
Regional Sales mgrs ..Yaw Tarvley
National and Coop sales mgrs ..Robin King
Special Sessions mgrs ..Shelly McConnell
Production mgrs ..Laura Guth
Gretchen Ketterlehndt
Marketing director ..Shannon Reilly
Creative director ..John Cartton
Classified mgr ..Kelly Connelys
Teaoseats mgr ..Wing Chan
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
3. The Wonderbra is coming here.
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 Wisconsin have to sign off with their university logo.
photographer. They can reserve the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 113 Stauffer Flint Hall.
College Republicans want equal coverage
Universities across the country are compared on many levels: their acceptance of different points of view, their academic standards, and their social atmosphere. University student newspapers serve a vital role in defining truly excellent universities. The University of Kansas has been blessed with a newspaper that serves this vital role well. The KU College Republicans have begun to question the journalistic integrity of the University Daily Kansan. Our questioning goes beyond the snickers and sneers our fellow students display toward the Kansan; the concern we have for the Kansan is of a concrete nature.
In the past, we have had no major problems with the Kansan. Recent events, however, demand that we
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
reveal our frustration concerning the Kansan's coverage of politics. During the fall of 1993, 3rd District Congresswoman Jan Meyers and House Minority Leader Bob Michel visited Lawrence. The Kansan staff was informed of this visit and invited to interview both representatives. The Kansan had ample opportunity to interview Jan Meyers. As the representative of the University of Kansas and the city of Lawrence, Meyers holds an important position in this community. The Kansan missed this opportunity to introduce Douglas County and University to their new representative in the U.S. Congress.
On Jan. 18, 1994, the Kansan failed to meet with the congresswoman once again. The College Republicans are greatly disappointed with the Kansan. The Kansan neglected their duty to the student body. The Kansan editorial board called upon
We certainly hope that the Kansan can live up to its potential and its own standards in the very near future. The KU College Republican
the congresswoman to vote for NAFTA, but did not provide an outlet for an explanation of her vote in favor of the bill. The Kansan was notified at least three separate times of the event in a period of at least 10 days prior to Jan. 18. As a national leader in health care and welfare reform and a major force behind the Whitewater investigation, Meyers is obviously a prime individual to interview. These disappointments leave us to question why the Kansan interviewed Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Jim Slattery in his first visit to the campus on Feb. 21, while the paper missed two opportunities to interview Congresswoman Jan Meyers, an equally important figure in national and regional politics.
meetings are always open to the Kansan staff and the entire University of Kansas. We are very proud of the accomplishments of the Kansan. We hope that these accomplishments will include fine political coverage of upcoming events throughout this election year, including our next meeting with Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Bill Graves as well as subsequent meetings with gubernatorial candidate Fred Kerr and attorney general candidates Carla Stovall and Wint Winter. There are many points of view at the University of Kansas, and the Kansan provides an important forum for these views to be read by the student body. Our only hope is that these views will be given equal coverage.
Jeff Bullins
Wichita senior *
Peter Lane
Overland Park senior
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