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Wednesday, January 19, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
All races are affected when scholarships cut
The Black Coaches Association is mistaken in turning the NCAA's elimination of a basketball scholarship into a racial issue. The issue affects all who play the sport.
Though a boycott was averted over the weekend, the issue is far from over. And it's far from merely a sports issue, judging from the Justice Department's offer to mediate the dispute.
The BCA is claiming that, because about 64 percent of Division I men's basketball players are African American, the cut scholarship hurts African American players most. The NCAA contends that it does not have the resources to continue funding the extra scholarship. Given the enormous revenue college basketball generates, the NCAA's position may be questioned. But it is difficult to see how the NCAA is motivated by race.
According to NCAA figures, Indiana University graduated 75 percent of its white players and zero African Americans between 1983 and 1987. Indiana'a graduation rates are not atypical. The coaches' argument that one lost scholarship denies minorities an education is undermined by the low graduation rates among minority athletes.
Another problem is the implication that the only way a minority has a chance to get an education is the extra scholarship. The NCAA represents one of many opportunities for minority students to obtain a college education. If a student wants to play ball, the student probably can find a way to get the money to go to school wherever he or she wants.
Increasingly, today's issues focus on questions of race. This issue should not. Everyone suffers when scholarships are cut.
CARSON ELROD FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Greek hazing deters potential candidates
It used to be executed publicly on a lawn or up on campus, but today it is shrouded in secrecy and often denied by the participants. Each year it claims the lives of unsuspecting victims such as Texas Tech student Jed Halverson, who lost his life this past week, and rivets repugnance in the public.
It is called hazing.
The real question is why it has persisted in the face of national fraternity and sorority restrictions against it and a public repulsed by it. Initiation and hazing occur annually on this campus, especially at the beginning of the spring semester, just as it does at many other universities. Fortunately, the KU Greek community has not experienced a hazing-related tragedy in years.
Inevitably the argument is made that "the house that hazes together stays together." It may be justified if one considers that initiation and hazing of pledges are the events that have the largest turnout among fraternity and sorority members. But what is the value of members as brothers or sisters if the only events they truly can be counted on to attend are ones in which they humiliate new members?
The threat of hazing has turned more than a few quality candidates and quality people, away from joining a greek chapter. Young men and women choose instead to live in a scholarship hall or volunteer for a community service organization, things greek chapters strive to ingrain in their members. Hazing deters many of the achievers greeks seek to fill their ranks. If you look at the people that are sacrificed for hazing, it makes little sense to support its proliferation or existence.
CHRISTOPHER LIVINGSTON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
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From Kirk to Picard, Star Trek's message of harmony remains
Fifty years from now, students will write dissertations on Star Trek. We sometimes laugh at those television shows now, with their enthusiastic fans and goofy trappings. But in the future, historians will find Star Trek to be an important pop culture window into the late twentieth century American mind, illuminating matters such as race relations.
In 1967, Star Trek aired an episode entitled "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." It featured two aliens resembling bizarre mimes, with their faces divided down the middle in black and white. One alien's face was white on the left side, the other on the right. The mime aliens hurled vicious insults at one another, physical blows, and finally destroyed themselves. The Enterprise crew was shocked that anyone could hate so deeply on the basis of skin color.
The episode is a maudlin television reflection of Martin Luther
King's "I Have a Dream" speech, given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial only four years previously. The mime aliens represented the insanity of basing one's judgments and identity on race. The crew members were symbols of a hopeful, colorblind future.
Worf discovers a community where Klingons dwell side by side with Romulans, their blood enemies. The community is led by an elderly Romulan who has taught the groups to forget their differences. Worf discovers to his horror that the Klingons know nothing of their cultural heritage, and aggrily dismantles the community.
Twenty-five years later, Star Trek
The Next Generation aired two-part
episode revolving around Worf,
the Enterprise's Klingon security officer.
One reviewer called Worf a
"metaphorical angry black man."
This Next Generation episode says much about the troubled state of race relations in the 1990s. Gone are the appeals to racial harmony of the old Star Trek series. The supposedly deluded old Romulan is a metaphor for the misguided efforts of Americans to ignore racial differences. Now many Americans celebrate differences and embrace their disparate cultural identities in an increasingly balkanized social landscape.
If Dr. King were alive today, he would be cast as the tired old Romulan. Diversity and division are all the rage these days, and King would face
many Worfs. They are everywhere, from angry young people who mistake King's nonviolence for passivity, to vehement critics of "cultural genocide" who oppose programs like interracial adoption. They would tell King that his vision of racial reconciliation is unrealistic and even harmful. Difference is strength, they would say, and an America free of racism and prejudice is a pipe dream and a sham. The mime aliens had a point.
How would Dr. King respond? He would probably point out the high costs of our infatuation with difference, and he would remind white and Black Americans of their similarities and common interests. Precious few of our leaders, white or lack, talk of community and interracial solidarity nowadays. We could use a more old "Romanuls" like Dr. King.
Brian Dirkel is a Conway, Ark. graduate student in history.
Tasteless speech still free
The battle the Templin Hall residents are fighting is far from inane. What is appalling is that those in the journalism profession at KU have been thus far unable to see what is really going on. The students are fighting a battle for free expression. Granted, their choice in a door hanging may not be overly tasteful, it may even be quite offensive, but it is protected by the First Amendment.
When they first put those pictures up, they probably had no intention for them to become symbolic speech. However, as soon as a sexual harassment charge was made, the picture(s) in question definitely became a form of symbolic speech.
The real issue here is the protection of symbolic speech, and according to recent Supreme Court cases, it is included in the protections provided by the First Amendment.
The pictures were removed because they violated a Residence Hall Contract that prohibits door hanging in public areas and do not comply with
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Clearly, hanging a picture is not "of a sexual nature." The picture was most likely "of a sexual nature," but it is incredibly vague what contributes to an "intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or academic environment." Essentially, the University Policy on Sexual Harassment contains what amounts to a highly controversial speech code prohibiting freedom or expression guaranteed to every student in their Student Rights and to every U.S. citizen in the Bill of Rights.
Let's consider the implications of the speech code contained in the "University Guidelines" through a hypothetical example. Assume that I must walk past a particular office everyday on my way to class in Wescoe. One day, I notice that posted on the office door is a sign that reads, "MEN! STOP RAPING!!" Feminine POWER." The sign really makes me uncomfortable. I feel as if I'm being blamed for something I'dn't do. Why blame me? I haven't raped anyone.
censorship of the Templin residents, we will have to force the person responsible to remove the sign. Granted the Templin residents choice of expression may not have been sensitive or liberal-minded, but a failure of the Kansan to recognize the implication of censoring symbolic speech is simply unacceptable.
If we are to be consistent with the
The best way to teach those Templin residents something productive is not to censor them or call their battle "inane" but to counter with powerful speech of your own. The residence hall could offer talks on sexual harassment or have meetings with a chance to speak out on why such forms of expression are offensive.
University Policy on Sexual Harassment. The part of the policy used by the Kansan and other Templin residents to condemn those responsible for the pornography prohibits verbal or physical conduct when "such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or academic environment," (Spring '94 Timetable). The policy not only prohibits "actions of a sexual nature" but also expression of the same nature.
Plain and simple, do something productive and intelligent. Don't fall back on an extremely controversial speech code to teach someone a lesson. Silencing them will only make their cause that much stronger.
Roaches preferred to fish
Steve Church is a Lawrence senior in philoseomy and anthropology.
After experiencing several dysfunctional relationships last year, I've decided that I want a solid relationship. I want a pet. I'd like to get a guard dog and name it "Slasher" or "Butch," but I have this slight problem.
"Fish in aquariums are the only pets allowed in residence and scholarship halls," states page 29 of the Housing Handbook. So the dog's out of the question. And theoretically, if I name the cockroaches scutting around my residence hall, housing officials will confiscate my "pets." But if I request pest control, I'll probably be sharing my room with Kafka's Gregor Samsa, post-metamorphosis, until May.
Fish! I will never, ever have fish in aquariums, fish in my coffee mug or fish anywhere else in my room. I abhor seafood, living or dead. It all goes back to My Childhood.
I got my first pets in second grade.
Sea Monkeys can be purchased at select toys stores nationwide. They are happy, crown-wearing creatures that
resemble humans. They cavort joyously in a special Sea Monkey Tank Or so the package said.
The tank had weird cloudy bumps on its sides. I looked through one and saw a peach-colored blob. I set the tank down to see what the blob was, but it disappeared. Puzzled, I picked the tank up. The blob reappeared. It was my finger. When I realized the bump had magnified, pangs of apprehension hit me. How cute could a creature be if it needed a magnifying tank to be seen? But I forgot ahead.
"Mix in Water Purifying Crystals."
No problemo.
"Fill tank with water," the instructions said. Easily enough.
"Stir gently," the instructions commanded. I tried to, but some water sloshed out. As it turned out, those few deaths were nothing compared to what was to come.
Two days later, the crucial moment arrived. It was going to go pretty quickly, according to the directions. It went quicker than I would have ever imagined. I opened packet number two, Sea Monkey Eggs, and dumped the contents into the water.
"Let stand for 48 hours." Pardon me? 48 hours! Sea Monkeys were supposed to be instant, not time-release pets. But then I began to see reason. These were going to be my first pets. I certainly didn't want to endanger their fragile lives with polluted water.
I looked closely into the tank and saw little creatures swimming by. But wait! These weren't cute creatures. I
didn't see any crowns or flippers. Not one smiled or cavorted joyfully. All I saw after squinting closely were little white specks. I had a tankful of lint,
I looked at the tank. The white dots drifted to the bottom of the tank like snow. They didn't get back up.
My illusions were crushed. All I had was Sea Monkey Food that looked like smashed ants.
Sea Monkeys are brine shrimp, I found out later. They smell bad when they die. They die easily. Several more attempts at growing Sea Monkeys resulted in one Sea Monkey that grew to 1/4 inch long. Unfortunately, Flipper got stuck to the feeding spoon and dehydrated on my dresser.
As you can guess, aquatic organisms bring back painful memories for me. It looks like I'll be alone in my residence hall world. Except for Gregor. But he's sleeping under the bed.
Allaha Aorra is an Overland Park freshman in biology and English.
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