Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, July 22, 1983
Much ado about sports
The firing of coaches is common in the sporting world. It is something that some coaches live in fear of, while others accept it as being part of the job.
With the firing of Jo Jo White as assistant basketball coach, we see the face of KU sports shift toward a new look — again. Since last fall, there have been plenty of changes.
The changes began at the very top of the KU sporting pyramid, when Monte Johnson was hired as athletic director last November to replace Jim Lessig, who had resigned.
The next change was football coach Don Fambrough, Fambrough served as head coach for two four-year stints, from 1971 to 1974 and 1979 to 1982.
After last season's 2-7-2 record, the decision was made to fire Fambrough and hire a new coach - Mike Gottfried. And while some players remain from the Fambrough years, Gottfried is well under way to molding his own team.
The next big shift came with the end of the basketball season when Ted Owens was fired after 19 seasons. During Owen's tenure at KU, the Jayhawks won 348 games and lost 182. But last year the team posted a 13-16 record.
This firing was particularly upsetting to some of the players and fans of KU basketball. Even when Larry Brown, a coach with proven ability was hired, the situation was less than settled.
One of Brown's first moves was to retain White and Bob Hill as his assistant coaches. This move produced a sigh of relief among the players and fans. Unfortunately, the calm did not last.
But while White and his contributions will be missed, it is too early to cry that the basketball program is again on shakv ground.
So much is made of the hiring and firing of coaches. But compare this with what happens when a professor is fired.
Unless there is some great outburst by fellow faculty members or students, little note is made of the changes in the academic staff. With coaches it's different. We all follow the change with such interest, and sometimes we make too much of it.
Certainly the media are guilty of this, as are students, alumni and university well-wishers. Sports are indeed an important part of university life. But certainly no more than academics.
Play is really a sad comedy of errors
Reagan: It's time you straightened out your act and stopped spreading the red philosophy among innocent people. Let's have some peace for a change.
Andropov: Yes! It wouldn't hurt. Sometimes I wonder what peace tastes like. It's been so long.
Reagan: If you would show a little bit of compassion and understanding we could start the process now, and then I could spend more time on my ranch.
Andropov? I'm all for it and I would rather have you in California than in the White House
Reagan. There is no time for nasty cracks.
Don't try to aggravate me or I will be forced to
crack up.
Andropoe: I promise to be serious now. You know, sometimes I think it's not really nice of us to send our troops to other countries to test our strength against each other.
Reagan: I have often thought about that and I always give them aid to rebuild.
government invited us to put some method in its
madness.
(Chorus)
who give them advice. Andropov: That is a kind thought on your part but what if we left them to their own fate and didn't intervene at all?
Reagan: It's not a bad idea but I just don't trust you. Besides, those ignorant people can't govern themselves. They depend on us to regularly intervene and put in a new dictator or
Andropov? That reminds me of Afghanistan in a way because that is what happened. The
The Third World
The Third World
Where has all the peace gone?
Gone, gone a wandering.
Where have all the peacemakers gone?
Gone, gone, gone!
Reagan: So as we were discussing earlier, we should go ahead and negotiate on who should pull the boat.
Andropo : Wouldn't it be nice if we both pulled out of our playgrounds and lived happily
SEEMA SIROHI
thereafter. We could even stop the economic warfare and trade with each other. By Leun '11 I knew that it was a bad idea.
Reagan: If there was peace between us, the rest of the world would have peace too. I wouldn't have to come up with any more MX missile-type ideas.
Andropev: And I wouldn't have to spend so much on defense try to match all that.
Reagan: So first you pull out of Afghanistan ...
Andropoe: Only if you promise to leave El Salvador alone.
Reagan: I can't. They need us down there to curb the rebels.
Andropoev: We are doing the same sort of social work in Afghanistan. So there
Reagan: I hope you do realize that Central America is in delicate shape right now and our presence is crucial indeed. And having your devotee, Castro, in the area doesn't help. He is
Andropov: Red isn't such a bad color
Reagan: I won't have any of that.
Andropov: Come on! Surely there are other ways of looking at the world besides the Republican one.
Reagan: Yours truly doesn't think so. I am getting tired of this, I think I'll take a vacation because we don't seem to be making any progress
Andropov: I think I will visit my doctor
The Third World
Where has all the peace gone?
Gone, gone a wandering.
same, gone at a later date
Where have all the peacemakers gone?
When will they ever learn?
Will they ever return?
Report on education needs to be acted upon
By PATRICIA McCORMACK
United Press International
Homework for the nation's 17,000 school administrators:
Read "A Nation at Risk" from cover to cover. It's not light summertime reading, but doing the assignment may be vital to improving the health of each administrator's respective school.
That's what the top school busses are being told in an action plan mailed out this week by the American Association of School Administrators
American Association of School Administrators.
After they read the report, the people
"A Nation at Risk" documents education's faults. Those faults threaten the nation's security, productivity and the well-being of its people, the commission said in awarding a failing grade to schools, especially inner city ones.
The 16-page action plan from the AASA is
to enhance the Excellence Report. Using it to
Improve Your Service.
responsible for the day-to-day operation of the nation's public schools are told to see that teachers, supervisors, parents, businessmen, government and labor people read up, too.
Why the reading homework from the AASA?
Gary Marx, associate executive director,
answered.
"Otherwise, how's a person to know firsthand?"
"News reports of the commission report were excellent, but people involved should not rely on second-hand accounts."
The AASA action plan also urges school administrators to lead the "readers" in the formation of study groups in each community.
"Reading the report is the only way to see what it contains," he said.
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State publicity film causing needless furor over funding
Three top Kansas Republicans have requested an investigation into Mrs. Carlin's participation in the production of "This is Kansas," a publicity film for the state.
The recent hullabaloo about the professional aspirations of Karen Carlin, wife of Kansas governor John Carlin, reeks of pointless political mud-slinging.
Mrs. Carlin's $12,000 salary from the Travel Industry Association pays for her work as film adviser and fund raiser. She intends to raise $90,000 for the production of the 20-minute film.
Republicans also urged an investigation into the duties of her 14-year-old son, who gets about
KIESA ASCUE Guest Columnist
$200 a month for cleaning the grounds around
Cedar Crest, the governor's mansion.
Most recently, an article proclaimed that the governor's wife had the audacity to write fund-raising letters on mansion stationery and to make promotional phone calls from her home. Some members of the press have swarmed on the story like hungry bees, sucking every ounce of nectar from the driest of buds. Media-wise Republican leaders know how to manipulate the press, and reporters eager for stories and scandals have blown the Karen Carlin tidbits into a continuing saga of ridiculous proportions. The First Lady deserves more credit, and less bad publicity, than she has been given in some papers.
Those leaders who protest Mrs. Carlin's employment seem to think that a governor's wife's place is in the home, if not in the kitchen.
If Mrs. Carln wants to raise funds for a film, why shouldn't she? Her role as wife of the governor should not exclude her from pursuing her own interests and supporting her own causes. Certainly, when she solicits funds she steps from her role as wife into her role as a
professional. She should be allowed to do so without being ousted with criticism
If she used stationery from the mansion, critics argue, then businessmen who want to make brown points with the governor could be influenced to give money to the film.
Use of the stationery might be imprudent. However, such use probably stems not from a lack of ethical standards, but from a reluctance on Mrs. Carlin's part to define herself and her home solely in relationship to her husband's position.
She probably just didn't think about the stationery that's available around her home as paper that would wield power. Eternal favor to businessmen is special favors to businessmen who invest in his wife's interests
The furor could be understood, perhaps, if Mrs. Carlin was trying to raise money for an Xerated film, or if she offered privileges in return for contributions. However, the film that she endorses will celebrate the state that her husband leads. Her role as a fund-raiser fits doubly well because of her status in the state, if the two roles must be considered together.
She has done no evil through her efforts to encourage people to help her promote Kansas with the film.
Attorney General Robert Stephan, who may be in contention with Carlin for a job in the next election, has agreed to interview Mrs. Carlin on the matter. He plans to determine whether the First Lady has broken any conflict of interest laws.
If he decides that her need for the profession of her choice should go unfulfilled, his motives, and the conflict of interest laws, must be reevaluated.
The investigation began on July 5, and even Stephan agrees that it has slouched along for long enough.
The story broke on the ebb of a wave of criticism about a swimming pool proposed for Cedar Crest. Taken altogether, recent inquiries into the family affairs of Gov. Carin represent a blow to Democrats. Republican glory pigs who root eagerly at any chance to flip a little mud at the governor.
chance to tip a fireplace. That mud misses the target. The wives of famous men deserve to choose professional lives of their own.
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