OPINION
The University Daily KANSAN
February 14, 1984 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daykan Kamen (USPS 606-649) is published at the University of Kaman, 118 Stauffer Fitt Hall, Lawrence, Kan. Kamen daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer session, excludes holidays. A graduate course fee of $150 is required by mail are $13 for six months or $27 in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $35 for a year outside the country. The university are a 64% female paid through the student activity fee. POSTMART. Send address changes to the university office.
DOUG CUNNINGHAM
Editor
DON KNOX
Managing Editor
SARA KEMPIN
Editorial Editor
JEFF TAYLOR ANDREW HARTLEY
Campus Editor News Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER Business Manager
PAUL JESS
CORG MORAN
Retail Sales Manager
National Sales Manager
General Manager and News Adviser
JANCE PHILIPS         DUNCAN CALIHUO
Campus Sales Manager   Classified Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser
Conversion futile
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants the University of Kansas to convert from uranium to lowergrade fuel in its nuclear reactor.
NRC officials say that the uranium is a threat to everyone on campus because terrorists could steal it and use it to build explosives. Because of the threat, officials say the only sensible thing to do is to convert the fuel.
While the NRC's arguments may be valid in some respects, the cost of changing the uranium to lowergrade fuel does not justify the reduced risk.
The reactor is not used much because certain analytical techniques and development of radiation sources such as gamma rays have taken its place. Even though it is not used much anymore, the cost of keeping the reactor open would be less than of closing it.
KU does not have the $100,000 it would take to convert the fuel or the
$750,000 needed to close the reactor in compliance with federal regulations. KU officials are reluctant to ask the Kansas Legislature for money because the reactor is not used enough.
NRC officials may be correct in saying that terrorists could steal enough uranium from several universities to make explosives, but the chance is not great. Uranium is radioactive and a thief simply could not pick it up and carry it out of the building.
The KU reactor also uses less than three kilograms of the highly enriched bomb-grade uranium much less than the 15 to 20 kilograms needed to make a bomb.
In the 23 years that the reactor has been operating, its security has not been threatened. Because it is not economically feasible to convert the fuel or close the reactor, the advice of the NRC should go unheeded.
Just one from the heart
Today is a day for paying a little more attention to loved ones. Feb. 14 may be quite ordinary in every other respect, but that is why the idea of Valentine's Day has some merit.
The occasion reminds us to take time to tell special people that they make a difference to us.
When broken relationships are a frequent experience, it is worth celebrating those in our lives that work — the rich, rewarding ones that have come after time, struggle and effort.
Of course, the spirit of commercialism does its best to tell us the most appropriate way of letting someone know why we think they are special.
But if the dollar signs flashing in the eyes of local florists, candy vendors and greeting card merchants can be overlooked, we can still make the day a special one.
We can convey a message to loved ones in our own way. We just have to
make sure that we make the effort and take the risk.
In a world where swear words are easier to speak than words of endearment, Valentine's Day provides opportunity to say things often felt but too seldom spoken.
It is a day marketed and celebrated as a time for "lovers" — those special people who do more than just add a little happiness to our days. These people, generally few in number, make the difference in our lives.
They are the ones who know our faults almost as well as we ourselves know them — and still find us worth loving.
The ones who like us not "because," but love us "although."
Valentines, whether they are a box of chocolates, a few pieces of red licorice, a bouquet of roses, a beautiful card or a simple note, are a way of telling those we love and those who love us that our lives are different, better and fuller because they are part of our world.
Outdated Olympic labels
The Olympics, in those olden days,
were the ultimate in amateurism.
The family of Jim Thorpe spent decades trying to win back Olympic medals taken away from the famed multi-sports athlete . . . because he once received a $10 bill or some such trifle for playing in a baseball game.
Despite this, the United States . . .
hews to a rigid definition of amateur
so totally out of touch with reality
that it permanently dooms itself to
second place in any Olympiad
involving the Soviet Union.
We are now living in another age, one in which the designations amateur and professional have become meaningless, certainly in international competition.
The Soviets, as anyone knows, except our Olympic fathers, regularly place full-blown professionals on the fields, on the rinks, in the arena and in the rings for Olympic contests, while we struggle along with those able to escape the official taint of 'professional.'
This amateur foolishness would be bad enough if only fun and games were involved. But the Olympics is much more than that.
These games affect, whether we like it or not, our overall national prestige. The Soviets, their satellites and the Third World know it. It is time our own Olympic authorities learned this reality.
The Newport (R.I.) Daily News
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-space and should not exceed 300 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include his class and home town or faculty or staff information. The Kansan also individual individuals and groups to submit guest columns. Columns and letters can be mailed or brought to the Kansan office, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters and columns.
Cheating doesn't pay
A columnist's job is complicated and it often involves separating fact from fiction. The following stories, collectively titled "The Legend of the Second Blue Book," are difficult to classify.
Believable, yet sprinkled with a dash of folkloric exaggeration, I thought you'd enjoy them as much as I did.
Story number one: The student goes into his final with an "Aminus." The final will decide his test. The test consists of two essay questions.
The first one is a stumper, but he knows the second one. He fills his first blue book with assorted scribbles.
Then, he begins the second blue book with what appears to be the last sentence or two of the answer to the first question. Turning the page, he writes "2" at the top and begins his detailed answer to the second question. He only turns in the second blue book.
LETTERS POLICY
Ingenious? Perhaps so, but read on.
Story number two: The student takes a test made up of two pages. He picks the page about which he knows best, and spends all his time on it. When the test is done, he slips the uncompleted page into his notebook and hands in the completed page.
A few days later, he gets a postcard from the professor telling him he got an "A" in the course and having for lost having the first blue hat.
Once outside, he looks up the answers and completes the first page. Then he steps on the page a few times with a dusty shoe. He gives this page to a friend who has a later class in the same room.
The friend turns in the page to the professor, saying that he found it on the floor in the back of the room. The professor asks if he has uncompleted test. He gets an "A."
I can almost hear the wheels of
thought turning in your heads Here's another one for you.
Story number three: The student goes to the final and begins writing a letter to his mother in a blue book. He begins the letter by saying that he has finished his exam and is waiting for a friend to complete the same exam.
He apologizes for not having written lately, but he has been studying for this final "The professional" standard, which has high standards," he writes.
completes the test and mails it to his mother in Kansas City.
At the end of class, he hands in this blue book and leaves with the unused one. He goes to his text,
When the professor finds the blue book with the letter, he calls the student, who apologizes and calls his mother, telling her to mail the completed blue book directly to his professor. The professor receives a blue book in an envelope post-marked "Kansas City."
And, of course, the student gets an "A. Improbite!" For some reason, I don't doubt it has been tried with some success. Some students will go lengths to get a decent grade (I hear that some even study!)
Take, for instance, a friend of mine who was doing okay in a certain class, but hadn't had time to study for the final. He went to the classroom and sat in the back row, in front of an open window.
After the questions were passed out, he slipped a copy through the window to a friend waiting outside and saw the same class the semester before.
Just before the test ended, his friend slipped the completed blue book to him through the window. He knocked it open and bothering to open it up and proofread
A few days later, he got an angry call from his professor who called him a cheater and told him he failed the test.
"Why?" asked my friend.
"Wasn't the answer correct?"
The professor calmly replied that the answer was fine. It had been typed immaculately.
Small gain may soon be big liability
WASHINGTON — Taking the Marines out of Lebanon and apparently out of danger provides a short-term political gain for President Reagan, but it may turn into a long-term liability.
Certainly if American soldiers were to continue dying in Lebanon through election day, Reagan would suffer worse damage. But the cost does not end Reagan's vulnerability in the foreign policy area.
The presence of American troops in Lebanon — and the continued deaths — was the political lightning
United Press International
CLAY F. RICHARDS
rod for a number of military and foreign policy issues that Democrates will use against Reagan in the campaign.
Voters may have difficulty understanding whether we are doing the right thing in Central America, or having enough and how many are overkill.
But to many of those same voters, the death of one American on foreign soil is the wrong policy, especially when they don't understand why the Marines are there in the first place.
So it will be harder for the Democrats to get at Reagan, but they think he still has many areas of vulnerability.
First, they argue that Reagan's decision to remove the troops shows that he had no clear policy in the war. He said all of the facts when he sent them in.
Then they will argue that the decision came too late for the more than 260 Marines who died in Lebanon. The mission in Central America, and possible solutions, is equally unclear.
The Democrats will speed up their attack on Reagan for failing to reach an agreement with the Soviets on an arms limitation treaty.
So there are many long-range benefits the Democrats will receive in return for the short range plus the extended benefit of taking the troops out of Lebanon.
The Democrats aren't home free on the foreign policy front. The same polls that show voters are concerned that Reagan is pursuing war with Iraq are more likely to get us into war also show some other results.
If the Democrats are going to successfully exploit Reagan's vulnerabilities on foreign and military policy, they are going to require a much more equally understandable new program. Such a program has yet to emerge.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Enjoy college life
I would like to respond to the letter in the University Daily Kansas Feb. 7 that was written by Mary E. Coffey. As I understand the letter Miss Coffey, you have lived in Birmingham, Mich., for 15 years.
To the editor:
If that is true, I have one question for you. Is Birmingham so "boring" that you must resort to Detroit to do your socializing? I think you'll find in birmingham has a lot more to offer than be beautiful, downtown Birmingham.
Since the state of Kansas does have a drinking law that requires no alcohol to be served after midnight at any time during the week, that is probably the reason that the bars and liquor stores close up, not because the "kiddies" must go to bed.
Or do you have to go to bed at midnight just because you can't drink in a bar anymore? I certainly don't feel obligated to make it back to my dorm by the "witching hour."
So you want to dance at night also. Well, have you tried the nightclubs in Lawrence? You obviously have the local taverns on the weekends.
You are correct, however, in that KU has an excellent journalism program. If another reason you chose KU is so you could get some done, I can tell you first hand that I had gone to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, you would not have done any partying either.
I would also guess that most of the radio stations you listen to at the University of Kansas are not in Kansas at all. Most of the large stations are in the Kansas City, Mo., market not the Kansas market
I do have a suggestion Miss Coffey. I suggest that you get out more and start to enjoy college life before you graduate and have to go back to Birmingham, Mich., "Rockin' USA."
Kenneth Leathers
Hampton, Va., freshman
A growing trend in news coverage
The Feb. 6 article on Jack Bremer's report on El Salvador made me acutely conscious of a phenomenon of which I have been uneasily aware since I came to Kansas about seven years ago.
To the editor:
What I am writing about is the very sketchy, selective information we in the United States receive from other countries for our mass media.
Our eyes are on Nicaragua and El Salvador now. They sound like nasty places to be, and no doubt they are for many people.
Bremer mentioned that 421 murders occur there every month, and that kidnappings are regular events.
We hear about the Kissinger committee report, and our government's economic and military participation in the situation.
We hear vague stories about leftists and rightists and CIA-backed groups, and that is about all we know.
Did you know that in Antiquia, the wealthiest department (state) in Colombia, the statistics on violent crimes were higher than those in El Salvador? That's right folks.
While I was there from August 1983 to January 1984, the Colombian, Medellín's conservative news media, sent a letter to 12 murders a day in the city
None were reported in the United States news.
Some of these were by "death squads." The MAS — Muerte a
Securadestrores (Death to Kid-nappers) was responsible for killing hundreds of suspected “leftists” — mostly poor farmers.
The population of Antioquia is about comparable to that of El Salvador. Had you ever heard of Antioquia?
Many were by terrorist and guerrilla groups, and not included in the statistics are the terrorists and others killed by the military.
There are other things about Colombia many of us didn't know. Colombia has a president, Belisario Betancur is the most respected statesman in Latin America. He is head of the Contadora Group, which has made real progress in mediation in Central America.
I seem to be very confused about the new church complex that has been proposed about the St. Lawrence Center.
He is a sincerce, but shewed as only an Antioqueno can be, diplomat for world peace. If he were in the United States, she would have named him Mar of the Year.
Timothy Goring
Lawrence graduate student
My family does live there, and has for 24 years. Colombia is not only cocaine, coffee, violence and mountains.
To the editor:
The point of this letter is that newspapers and television news don't really tell us what Latin America is like.
After reading this letter, you do not really know much more about Colombia than you did. The violent death statistics are only a tiny, tiny part of life there. If I had the opportunity, I would still go there to live.
Not a party spot
Many residents of the Engel-Crescent neighborhood have made the point that the area already has fraternities, sororities and residence halls creating a lot of noise and disturbance.
The neighborhood doesn't need a church to cause more problems. Well, I don't know about anyone who is not one of the local party spots.
To the best of my knowledge, the police have never been called in to disperse riotous church-goers. Unless the St. Lawrence Center has applied for a liquor license, I don't think the residents in the neighborhood have too much to worry about.
Another point seems to have gone over my head. In planning the church, the planners seem to have had some realizing of zone zoning and building ordinations.
I also have to wonder whether the residents don't like the foose and activity of a college, why did they attend that neighborhood in the first place?
In addition, the property is legally owned by the St. Lawrence Center. However, the neighbors still object. This raises a question: What is the point of having such laws, ordinances and codes if they are going to be protested and eventually disregarded and ignored?
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having these regulations?
The St. Lawrence Center is frequented by many students, both Catholic and non-Catholic, for many such, such as studying or counseling
The Center does a lot of good for Lawrence in general, and the University, in particular. In supporting the Center, it would seem that you are also supporting the students who use it.
Jim Williamson Topeka sophomore