OPINION
The University Daily
KANSAN
October 25, 1983 Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
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MARK ZIEMAN Editor
DOUG CUNNINGHAM    STEVE CUSKIC
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ANN HORNBERGER Business Manager
DON KNOX Campus Editor
DAVE WANAMAKER MARK MEARS
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Manager
General Manager and News Adviser
LYNNE STARK Campus Sales Manager
JOHN OBERZAN Advertising Adviser
Request was fair
Downtown, unlike the song of years ago, doesn't have something for everyone.
Indeed, the recent debate in the Lawrence City Commission shows that various proposals for downtown redevelopment have little if anything that will satisfy each of the various factions.
The groups that are interested in downtown redevelopment seem to be these;
- Downtown merchants who want redevelopment to happen, but want it to be a private effort.
- These merchants who want a public redevelopment project — one with city backing and taxpayer assistance.
- Neighborhood groups, such as the Old West Lawrence Association and the East Lawrence Improvement Association.
- Ordinary Lawrence citizens
Some city commissioners were sniping a few days ago about one of those ordinary citizens, who has since identified herself.
Someone — undoubtedly someone sneaky — had asked State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, to request an opinion from the Kansas Attorney General on whether two commissioners — who also have
businesses in the downtown area bad a conflict of interest.
For shame. Surely Mayor David Longhurst and Commissioner Mike Amyx wouldn't let the fact that they own businesses in the area affected by one of the downtown plans color their thoughts about the proposals.
Perhaps the men are indeed of the opinion that the better plan is one proposed by Town Center Venture Corp.
Whatever the motivation of the commissioners, there certainly is nothing wrong with a private citizen asking for a legal opinion on whether a conflict of interest exists. Some people in Lawrence have at least intimated that to ask for such an opinion is to sabotage the project, which is simply not the case.
Discovering the motives of the two commissioners would, of course, be difficult. The bottom line seems rather simple, however. Longhurst, with some support from Amyx, wanted to kill the plan by Sizerel Realty Co. Inc. a few months ago.
Moreover, the commission has talked with Sizeeler Realty for about a year on the downtown project. It seems the commission could at least discuss Town Center's proposal for a few weeks before rushing head over heels to adopt it.
Hunger in America
In the first two years of his administration, President Reagan cut 3 million schoolchildren from breakfast and lunch programs and severely cut funds for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food supplemental program, which helps to feed low-income mothers and their young children.
A group of physicians, who revealed the results of the studies to Congress last week, said that these same people have been hit hard by the recession and high unemployment, which aggravated the problems.
One of the physicians, J. Larry Brown of the Harvard School of Public Health, told Congress that administration leaders said that
These figures may come to haunt Reagan yet. Studies covering Massachusetts, New York state and Chicago have showed that the number of people — especially children and the elderly — suffering from inadequate diets, and consequently damaged health, is on the rise.
they believed people would have an adequate income in the long run and therefore not be too hurt by the cutbacks.
"But the problem is that a child does not eat in the long run and an elderly person does not have a long run." Brown reminded Congress.
Although Reagan has appointed a special task force to study hunger in America, he has continued to oppose restoring the reductions to the supplemental food programs as Congress has asked.
Reagan cannot seem to justify spending more on these social welfare programs simply to ease the pain and suffering — and now health problems — of those whose lives have been hurt by the cutbacks.
The situation is sad and yet ironical. Reagan dearly wants a strong military and national defense, yet he is willing to allow American children, who will someday be protecting their nation, to grow up on poor diets that will damage their health for years to come.
An annoying device
There is, we suggest, one thing America needs more than a 5-event cigar. It is a car alarm that sounds off only when it's supposed to, and turns off the same way.
As an anti-burglar device, they are admittedly a blast. The thing is, though, they can be set off by vibration such as that caused by a heavy truck pounding by, or even by another car touching bumpers with the protected one. There's still another way as well, but because it
might give dim-witted pranksters a way to get their jollies, we'll keep it to ourselves.
But if you've ever been scared out of your socks by one going off in an empty auto near yours in a supermarket parking lot, or even if you've just been in the neighborhood when that happened, you know how great a boon to the nerves of mankind an automatic shut-off of one of those things would be.
—Boston Herald
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LETTERS POLICY
Movie hype will not help Glenn
WASHINGTON — P.T. Barnum, who is credited with the hustler's creed "There's a sucker born every minute," solved the problem of a gun in his museum by posting a sign that read, "This way to the Egress."
Barnum's less sophisticated patrons, thinking they were about to view some exotic creature, went inside and found themselves on the street.
In the mountebanks' Vahalla, Old P.T. must be grinning with glee over the publicity being generated for the new motion picture "The Tick." The flick is entirely worthy of the man who got rich convincing Americans they should pay good money to look at ordinary midgets and elephants
None of this goes to the question of whether "The Right Stuff" is a good or bad movie.
But the notion that the movie is going to have a galvanic effect on the presidential aspirations of Sen.
ARNOLD SAWISLAK
Walter Mondale, asked whether he had seen the movie, apt responded that while he had not, he had read the book and was glad he
ARNOLD SAWISLAK United Press International
John Glenn is covered with the fingerprints of some Hollywood flack operating on the premise that nothing is better promotion than controversy, or really if possible, manufactured if necessary. And the idea is The Right Stuff is just what make John glenn president clearly is the latter.
didn't have to run against Yeager. For older moviemakers, it need only be said that actor Sam Shepard has done for Yeager what Gary Cooper did for Sgt. Alvin York in another era.
First, Glenn is not the hero of the movie. He and the rest of the early astronauts are well-treated as featured players, but Chuck Yeager, the test pilot who was the first to break the sound barrier, is the star.
The second point about the political implications of the movie is the fact that it does not depict Glenn as a stainless steel superhero.
For people who like their movie idols to be taciturn, self-effacing and maybe a bit riffish, this John Glenn may appear. The next picture wife, as a priglig "Dudley Do Right," too upright and upight to forgive his
colleagues for having a little fun and recreation.
The most likely effect of this movie on Glenn's political career is that it will reinforce the positive feelings of people who already are for him and solidify the misgivings of those who are against him.
If Glenn was a politician seeking name recognition, the movie obviously could be an asset to his campaign. But the Ohio senator already is far better known to the public than John Kennedy was at the start of his presidential drive and almost surely has equal or higher
name recognition than any other Democrat in the field.
A last observation. In the months to come, a lot of people in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and other primary states are going to be seeing a lot of Glenn in the flesh, on television and in newspapers.
They will be seeing the John Glenn of today, and it should not be overestimating the common sense of the public to believe that impression will do more to decide how the JFK fictional creation of a John Glenn who lived two decades ago. Furthermore, it won't cost four backs and up
Not enough thought, analysis
NEW YORK — The welcome concern about thinking and writing and rigor in education, much of it by college teachers and administrators, has failed almost totally to focus on college education itself.
It is common to assume that college teachers stress analysis and thought, and that blame for the inability of many students to think critically about problems, and write clearly lies in the high schools and elementary schools.
Yet to a considerable extent it is college education that is failing. Traditionally, college teaching has stressed the spirit of inquiry that is the essence of liberal education. Regardless of course, teachers courses and programs pursued the liberal arts approach or method. Issue-oriented, this approach involved questioning, searching and investigating.
MILTON
LOEWENTHAL
In short, college teachers largely
Professor
rejected the nuts-and-balts, or rote-learning, approach and insisted that courses be rigorously analytical. Accordingly, students were required to do a considerable amount of writing, and "objective" examination questions — true-false, multiple choice, fill-ins, identification techniques — which stressed mere factual recall, were frowned upon.
Too many teachers seem to rationalize the acceptability of the
However, as mass education has become widespread, as admission standards have lowered, and as budgetary pressures have enlarged student-faculty ratios and increased class size and teaching loads, college teachers have been taking the line of least resistance.
nuts and bolts approach to subject matter rather than undertake the difficult task of trying to achieve an objective. The same thought and analysis as possible
Substantial written work — especially analytical writing — is too often minimal, if it exists at all, and "objective" exam questions abound. Indeed, it has become increasing important to courses from the kind of high school teaching that has been the target of so much criticism.
For example, 20 years ago a typical college course concentrated on analyzing concepts and problems, and students were frequently required to write analytical papers and take two or three essay exams. Today, particularly in large courses will too often stress memorizing of facts and require little or no analytical thinking or writing.
Ironically, this disturbing tendency has accelerated at a time when substantial analytical work is most needed in college. As students with less preparation enter college, more intense and insistent emphasis on abstract thinking may interfere if they are to receive a degree that has any real meaning.
The primary explanation — or excuse — given for this situation is that many college students are not in a position to do substantial college work. That may be a good reason to develop problems at a slower pace and to repeat more often, especially in lower level college courses, it is not reason for not making the maximum effort to stretch students as far as they can go.
Moreover, it is often argued that college teaching at mass institutions can hardly be effective without more successful remedial courses in
English and mathematics. Remedial work in such skills as grammar, sentence structure and computation should certainly be maximized and, as much as possible, be reinforced in regular courses. But the most critical need is for remedial thinking — and that can be achieved only by using every college course to pursue it relentlessly.
In this regard, proposals to exercise quality control over college teaching — either by administrators or by faculty governing bodies — have generally been rejected, and even resented, on grounds of academic freedom. But academic freedom, in both history and purpose, is important to college and post-apartheid views and does not pertain to legitimate efforts to evaluate and control the nature and quality of the teaching effort.
It is fashionable to argue that college education for the masses was an ill-conceived experiment that has failed. To judge by the performance of many college graduates, the experiment certainly has failed. But there is little or no basis for concluding that it was ill-conceived. That can be determined only when college faculties have made coordinated efforts to stretch students to the limit of their potential in analytical thought and expression.
We are very far from that point. Indeed, given the current state of teaching, the proposal to use professors as primary advisers in reteaching schools runs a significant risk of making a bad situation worse.
Copyright 1983 the New York Times. Milton Leowenthal is a professor of law and criminal justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.
Peace group is nearing last chance
PANAMA CITY, Panama Disappointing results from the latest Contadora peace initiative for Central America left members of the group predating that the next meeting may be its last chance to obtain negotiated peace in the region.
The organization — made up of Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico and Panama — has been seeking a negotiated settlement in strife-torn Central America since its formation last January.
The most recent round of talks, which ended Saturday, were billeted by a Panamanian Foreign Ministry spokesman as "the most serious attempt yet" at achieving the group's basic objectives of disarmament and the withdrawal of military advisers from the region.
In this round of talks, the foreign ministers of the Contadora group hoped to give some strength to their 21 point "Document of Objectives."
United Press International
cluded in the document are a call for all military advisers to leave the region, an immediate cease-fire and eventual disarmament.
JOHN E. NEWHAGEN
"The next meeting could be the last," said a member of the Panamanian foreign ministry said as the group headed to Tamar with a brief document.
"The intensity and number of armed incidents, the acts of terrorism and sabotage, the destabilizing actions, the accusations and mutual recriminations and the flow of arms used," he asserted, "the pessimistic document said."
Acknowledging the deteriorating regional situation, the communiqués exhorted the governments of the United States and many countries of the Document of Objectives
The immediate goal — that leftoft Salvadoran rebels stop (gighting the U.S. backed government and that guerrillas halt their attacks on the Marxist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua — is still a long way off.
Nor has there been any visible progress in achieving the withdrawal of some 200 U.S. military advisers from El Salvador and Honduras and of Cuban and Soviet advisers from Nicaragua.
When the group was first formed, the essential problem was the festering civil war in El Salvador, but in less than 10 months rebels backed by the United States have laid siege to Nicaragua and the American military has deployed nearly 4,000 troops in Honduras for maneuvers slated to last a full year. One of the ideas behind the Contadora movement was for Latin American nations to solve Latin American problems without the presence of the world superpowers. But the Contadora group has been unable to obtain a cease fire from countries as small as Honduras and El Salvador.