OPINION The University Daily KANSAN January 23,1984 Page 4 The University Daily KANSAN Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas The University Daily Karen (USPS 60-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 181 Shaffer Fint Hall, Lawrence, KA 76053, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer session, exe- dus on holidays, and final periods. Second class posting paid at a L.A. cost of $12 per student are $14 for each day. By mail are $15 for each day. Students registration are $14 a semester fee through the student activity fee, POSTMASTER. Send address changes to studentsregistration@usps.edu. DOUG CUNNINGHAM Editor DON KNOX Managing Editor SARA KEMPIN Editorial Editor JEFF TAYLOR Campus Editor ANDREW HARTLEY News Editor PAUL JESS General Manager and News Adviser DAVE WANAMAKER Business Manager CORT GORMAN JILL MITCHELL Retail Sales Manager National Sales Manager JANCE PHILIPS DUNCAN CALIHOU Campus Sales Manager Classified Manager JOHN.OBERZAN Sales and Marketing Adviser Put the city first One can find a few reasons to support Mayor David Longhurst's call for an American-Soviet summit in Lawrence. But one can find many more reasons to criticize the mayor for his ill-considered proposal. Longhurst's invitation to presidents Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov to meet in Lawrence leaped into the spotlight again last week when the mayor received a response from the White House about the summit meeting. Praise be. Naturally, the White House wants to make at least a few small gestures to avoid being characterized as anti-pace. The president, consequently, appreciated the offer. Imagine that. What was the White House going to do, say it was against peace? But whatever the value of that gesture, he is doing far more harm than good. Moreover, the city is beset by other problems. For one thing, Longhurst was elected as a commissioner of Lawrence. He was selected by the other commissioners to be mayor of Lawrence. What should be done to help the needy pay their heating bills? And what help can be offered locally to those who do not have enough food to eat? Not Kansas. Not the Midwest. Not the United States. And most certainly not the world. Longhurst has wasted crucial opportunities to talk about the city. His comments to the Midwestern Governors' Conference last year dealt not with Lawrence or the Midwest, but about nuclear war and a summit meeting. Consider alternatives The time has come for the mayor to resign his post as commissioner of the United States. Let's hope he does it soon. Despite a bleak past, cluttered with debts and mismanagement, the University of Kansas Medical Center finally is becoming productive. Compared with a deficit of millions of dollars a few years ago, the Med Center recently boasted an estimated $2 million balance for this fiscal year. And officials seem to be seeking more progress through plans to market the Kansas City, Kan., hospital and college. Despite the improvements at the Med Center, past and present problems are not as obvious as end-of-the-year balances. Because of relatively low salaries, many of the hospital's well-known doctors have fled to higher paying jobs at other institutions. This flight will have an effect on the nation-wide prestige of the The success of the Med Center's increasing revenue is irrefutable. And although attempts to market the hospital's vast resources should have begun years ago, it must begin now with the utmost fervor. College of Health Sciences and on the prestige of the hospital itself. In the recent past, the state has had to help the Med Center with financial problems involving accounting problems, enormous utility bills and a faulty air-conditioning system — just to mention a few. At one point the problems got so bad that some state legislators considered selling the Med Center to a private hospital corporation to rid themselves of the persistent headache. And as if in response to this threat, Med Center officials went into action to devise plans to market the hospital and increase its profitability. Selling the Med Center would have been difficult and destructive to the University of Kansas and to the state. But to prolong past miseries would be more difficult. The state has no immediate plans to sell. But officials must bear in mind the alternative legislators have. They must continue the progress — for themselves, the state and the University. U.S. teacher shortage Enrollment in teacher colleges and education departments has declined drastically over the last 10 years. . From 1972 to 1982, the pool of new college graduates qualified to teach dropped sharply from 317,000 to 139,000, according to the National Education Association. How much of this can be attributed to reduced demand is uncertain; certainly a large part. Collective bargaining has generated community stress. One solution some states are considering is no solution at all. It is to relax teacher certification requirements so that liberal arts graduates without an education major or teacher training can be recruited. Is that the way to improve the quality of teaching in our schools? Hardly. for bright students beckon in other fields, the potential teaching candidates may often be limited to poorer academic achievers whose job prospects are not so alluring. ... If attractive job opportunities Providence (R.I.) Journal The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced 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 status of the Kansan. The Kansan also invites 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. LETTERS POLICY Safety needs more attention The brightly lighted picture windows that decorate the front of Watson Library are silhouetted beacons against the night sky. Inside, the outlines of students can be seen, nestled in the soft cushions of the modern furniture that sits on the fifth floor of the library. Every consideration has been taken to enable students to take advantage of the library's superior facilities, which include a periodicals desk, a copy center, an extensive reference desk and a lounge. The library environment was designed to make study space as me full use of all the library has to offer, but my ID does not provide me with the means to walk safely on campus at night. accessible as possible, with everything from large tables to private study carrels provided for the convenience of students. Unfortunately, Watson Library — at night — is inaccessible to me. My student identification card allows Staff Columnist HELAINE KASKEL Beneath the illumination of Watson's interior is a dark and dangerous path leading from Jayhawk Boulevard to the library's expensive, 2-year-old front steps. On each side of the path are stone benches surrounded by trees — benches which are picturesque in daylight but provide the perfect cover for an attacker at night. Although large amounts of time and money were spent to make Watson's exterior impressive, applications are restricted to make it safe and accessible. The areas on either side of the library are no safer than the pathway that leads up to it. Blake, Fraser and Stauffer-Fint halls are each enhanced by shrubbery and decorative architectural structure. Unfortunately, the adornments that make the campus so attractive in daylight are only host to a possible threat at night. I am afraid. But I am also angry. The recent Student Senate election was a forum for the promises of one coalition that intended to allocate $30-40,000 of Student Senate funds to improve lighting on campus. That promise was lost in the avalanche of dirty politics that followed the election. Along with the loss promise, KU students seem to have lost sight of the issue of better lighting on campus. There is no outeyt against the money spent on the bright lights that make the parking lot of the K S "Boots" Adams Alumni Center sale for night pedestrians — despite not being frequented in rarely frequented by students. "there is no protest against the fact that the 1,000-acre KU campus has only 12 blue-lighted emergency phones — phones that are placed mainly in well-lighted, well-traveled areas, while Watson Library remains cut off to many students by darkness. Facilities planning estimates put the cost of additional lamp posts at approximately $750 each — a small cost considering that facilities operations requested a $250,000 general budget for the 1863/4 fiscal year. women's issue — men are just as susceptible to the outrage of a violent attack. Nor is it an issue that women can control, the responsibility of the Student Senate. Safety on campus is not simply a The issue of better lighting on campus demands the attention of every student who needs to walk to Malotl Hall to work in the labs at night and every student who walks through the blackness of Sunnyside A joint effort involving financing by the Student Senate, the Kansas University Endowment Association and the University administration is needed to raise the money necessary to make the walkways of the KU campus safe for nighttime pedestrians. If that effort is not made, the beauty of the KU campus will be forever tarnished in the eyes of those who become victims of violence — violence that could be prevented or at least deterred by better lighting on campus walkways. I am afraid, as are many other students. But until more students are angry, as well as afraid, the issue of better lighting on campus will remain shrouded in the same obsessive that clocks the camps at night. RECENT REAGAN APPOINTMENTS Stop military-related action A university, as a public institution, has the responsibility to operate in the public interest by engaging activities that benefit humankind. If, after careful inquiry, it is found that certain activities do not contribute to the well-being of humankind, then it is the duty of the University to have these activities discontinued and prohibited. Military-related activities at the University of Kansas are among those activities that should be closely examined. Here are some of the University's military connections: - Military research contracts totailed nearly a quarter of a million dollars in fiscal year 1983. This represents nearly a 40 percent increase over FY 1980. The bulk of the research is conducted by faculty and staff in the School of Engineering and/or associated with the University. The University's profit organization, 'incorporated to serve the University . . .' The University now actively is seeking to increase military research. *The Kansas University Endowment Association (KUEA) has millions of dollars invested in corporations involved with nuclear weapons and other military business. By tabulating corporate stock holdings from KUEA's 1982 tax statement, one finds that the association has invested more than $3.7 million in corporations involved with nuclear weapons and at least $4.7 million in other corporations with conventional military contracts. Oread Labs, a private corporation owned by KUEA, is setting up a Center for Bioanalytical Study. Meanwhile, Department of Defense obligations for biological research in U.S. universities have increased in real terms by 24 percent from FY 1980 to FY 1982. Will this new center be researching biological and chemical weapons and their effects? *The Reserve Officers Training Corps program is continuing to expand at KU. The number of people participating in the ROTC program increased 27 percent from fall 1981 to fall 1983. - The Federal Government (National Credit Union Administration) has forced KU Federal Credit Union to become a branch of the Air Defense Credit Union of Fort Bliss, Texas. The Air Defence Credit Union is a military personnel credit union and but one member of the Air Force or active or retired military officers. *The Center for Research, Inc. (CRINC), located in the Space Technology Center, is the primary administrator of military research contracts on campus. Its latest annual report reviewed by the U.S. government research grants totalling $997,244 in FY '83 — 60 percent over the previous year. Furthermore, CRINC was selected by the U.S. Air Force to be the lead organization in a consortium of universities in a research program directed at advanced systems in command, control, communications and intelligence (C31). According to an April 9, 1983 article in the Nation, the upgrading of the strategic portion of C3I would "provide precise details on the results of a U.S. nuclear attack and then, in the words of one Air Force report, 'support the retaliatory process.'" - The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is in all probability secretly gathering information on foreign students on campus. According to an article in First Principles (Nov.-Dec. 1982), the CIA has secretly recruited professors and others at 100 or so major American universities. The article stated, "The primary function of these part-time agents is to help the CIA site and then recruit foreign students who might be interested in joining the agents of the CIA ... as they advance on a career back home." Clearly, the University of Kansas is rapidly becoming entangled in the web of the military-industrial complex. Now is the time to set up an emergency command center and other issues and make recommendations for corrective action. Failure to assume this responsibility would be a grave disservice to the University community and the people of Kansas. C. Henry Coon received his Master of Urban Planning degree from KU in 1979 and is a member of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Wearing pants I would like to thank Wayne L. Johnson for his revelations in the editorial "Feminism hurts society." (Jan. 17, 1984). It is enormously useful to learn that "women who wear pants" are supportive of, if indeed not responsible for, broken children, child abuse and pornography. To the editor: Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty that President Jimmy Carter negotiated with Leond Brezhnev. Having worked as a social worker and behavioral counselor with abusive families, it found no particular difference between homes or child abuse. United Press International It is my experience that employed women referred to children's protective services are more amenable to learning effective child rearing techniques than are unemployed women. Unemployed women, on the other hand, are generally lower in selfesteem in addition to being more isolated and passive. Passivity in these women sometimes results in outbursts of anger spawned from isolation and inadequate assertive skills. In cases where the father is the primary abuser passivity and isolation usually preclude the mother Mark Highsmith Sanibel, Fla. graduate student from interfering. As an aside, I believe "women who wear pants" are less susceptible to physical and surgical injuries arising from "men who wear pants". In spite of my beliefs I recognize that my experience and knowledge is limited. I must, therefore, bow to those authorities such as Johnson who unequivocally have the answers. As I continue to enjoy my stay here at the University of Kansas I will certainly try to be more cognizant of "women who wear pants." Resumption of arms talks is far away WASHINGTON — It may be a long and even colder winter on the U.S.-Soviet negotiating front, despite President Reagan's appeals for a resumption of dialogue between the superpowers. To hear Ambassador Paul Nitzze, chief U.S. negotiator on medium missiles, tell it, the Kremiln is deadly serious in having broken off its weapons and sending arms talks, and the outlook for a return to the bargaining table is gloomy. The Soviets suspended all arms negotiations after the United States went ahead with a NATO-sponsored plan to deploy Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in Europe, something Moscow had vainly tried to stop. "You know our feelings about the negotiations as a whole," Nitze told reporters, "and that is that we think the negotiations should resume are prepared. They walked out we ready to go back at any time." The president has offered to go "halfway" in reaching what he called "practical, fair solutions on the basis of mutual compromise." The Soviets have now been begin stationing nuclear missiles manned by Soviet forces in East Germany. Such weapons also are expected to be stationed in Czechoslovakia, another Warsaw Pact country. The Soviets he had seen nothing from the Soviet to indicate they would return to negotiations soon, and in turn the Russians were utterless about having broken them off. Reagan, Nitze and others were in the vanguard in 1980 against the HELEN THOMAS As a result of conservative-led opposition, the SALT II treaty has never been ratified by the Senate. But the irony is that it is being observed by both sides in their own interests in a dangerous world. The president said that the United States is safer now, and that its military buildup with the B-1 bomber, the submarine/launched Trident Missile, and the MX3 super in place, has made the world safer. At the same time, he said, "Living in this nuclear age makes it imperative that we do talk." Certainly Reagan is correct that the West was sleeping while Hitler built his blitzkrieg war machine, and Europe was at first unprepared to meet the challenge of the German armies sweeping the continent. But the United States has been building ever more devastating nuclear bombs since the 1940s and by any stretch of the imagination, few could argue that the thousands of munitions dropped during the war did not be capable of instant and massive retaliation, which the Russians know very well. The question is how much is enough, and is any number of weapons enough when the superpowers operate in an atmosphere of nuclear weapons, plunging the world headlong into an unstoppable arms race.