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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, April 26, 1983
Cosmic greeting card
When the car won't start, the bathroom light burns out and the 24-hour money machine breaks down, it is comforting to remember that American technology gave us Pioneer 10, which was launched in 1972 and passed Pluto's orbit yesterday.
It is easy to forget this astounding space robot — after all, it's 2.8 billion miles beyond the sun, hurtling away from earth at about 30,000 mph.
But every day, for 11 years, Pioneer 10 has been humming along, sending back transmissions to earth from its eight-watt transmitter. It could have been destroyed during its trip through the asteroid belt, but it wasn't.
It could have been destroyed while passing through the intense radiation around Jupiter, it's original destination. But it passed Jupiter nine years ago.
Now, nothing but stars are left to stop Pioneer 10. No wind, no moisture, no pollution. Nothing. When it passes Neptune in June it will become the first man-made object to leave this solar system.
Or does it? Those on Earth will have no more contact with the space ship. But will others?
NASA predicts it can keep in contact with the spacecraft for another 10 or 15 years. After that, Pioneer 10 goes on alone toward eternity.
It well could be that this little robot, with its transmitter the power of a Christmas tree light, could be mankind's most important invention. Carrying an engraved greeting designed by Carl Sagan, Pioneer 10 is an invitation from Earth. In the near future, someone — or something — might RSVP.
Corporate colleges growing
By MAXWELL GLEN AND CODY SHEARER
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Almost any American born after 1945 probably knows that television irreparably damaged the movie-house business. Once Americans began to watch movies and other entertainment in the comfort of their living rooms, fewer bothered with the cost and inconvenience of theaters.
A similar movement toward direct service now haunts, of all industries, higher education. Rather than enter a traditional four-year college or graduate school, a growing number of employers require students to own a vehicle and financed by an American corporation. Some might call it a short-cut to job security.
Of course, ever since General Motors established its "institute" in Flint, Mich., 64 years ago to produce auto engineers at assembly line speed, American businessmen have often donned the robes and mortar boards of university deans. But the declining competence of college graduates and rising cost of retraining them have led many more companies to establish their own degree programs. The working assumption is that the corporate college can better train potential employees than traditional academic institutions.
According to the American Council on Education, 140 U.S. companies — from America's largest manufacturer — had no plans to buy the firm.
— now offer academic credit for an aggregate of 2,250 courses. Before the deadline is out, employers could be perusing materials that boost a "bachelor of Science, Security Pacific Bank,
As yet, the Ivory Tower's new rival poses no mortal threat to its long-standing ascendance. Most corporate colleges still cannot award degrees (in most cases as insufficient array of course offering and library volumes hinders accreditation). In fact some, like McDonald's
Hamburger University, now seeking accreditation, encourage their charges to enroll in programs offered by the university.
Meanwhile, the typical corporate course offering — "Better Business Letters," "Advanced Business Equipment" and "Food and Beverage Cost Control Services" — wouldn't throw a scare into Yale's Bartlett Glaimtati or Notre Dame's Theorede Hesburg. On the whole, traditional colleges remain much more deadly earnest.
Yet the corporate dons are decidedly serious about filling a gap, not only for their employees but for anyone seeking college-level training. At the graduate level, moreover, they see an enormous opportunity to meet company needs. For instance, Wang Computer's three-year-old Institute of Graduate Studies conferred its first five masters degrees in "software engineering" last spring. While the institute's enrollment is still only 35, both faculty and students know that the highly-specialized Wang degree is worth more than the paper on which it's printed.
Academia's response to the corporate college try has been understandably confused. While many institutions, particularly large research universities, have recently boosted efforts to arrange agreements with corporations for both grants and contracts, they've otherwise ignored the potential of corporate colleges. The inaction mirrors academia's schizophrenic approach to students, who can face a number of students to gainful vocation while purveying more timeless lessons beyond profit and loss.
Yet it would be unwise to understimate the drawbacks of a corporate-educated work force. Corporate-sponsored schools will likely turn out highly-specialized technicians trained to do the company's bidding and earn its pay, but unable to see much less properly. If you want to be a Mr. Chips to worry about the impact of assembly-line minds on industrial creativity and national productivity.
Whether America's college students see it that way, however, is another matter.
Workers suffer waiting for recovery
Look at the average American's face. Why isn't this man smiling?
The improvement of the economy over the first quarter of 1983 has been marvelous. The gross national product grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent, the best it's done in two years. Infation during the same period was about 0.5 percent. But despite this, the stock market continues to hit record highs.
So, why is the man on the street scowling?
In his mind, gains in GNP will be soaked up by big business and big government. The little man will be left standing below, longing for a little hope to trickle down from above.
And he's justified for feeling this way. Historical statistics show that the unemployment rate is the last thing to improve after economic recovery has begun.
Economic recovery leads to a more optimistic business environment. When businessmen are optimistic they want to invest and expand. To do this they must borrow.
It's tough being a "lagging indicator."
Businesses pile up inventories during a recession. When the economy picks up again, businesses can sell off these inventories and satisfy the increased demand without having to hire more workers. A solid recovery is needed before significant gains in employment can be achieved.
But the government needs to borrow to finance its astronomical deficit. The money left over will not be enough to fulfill the private demand for loans.
And because of the current unprecedented federal deficits, a speedy recovery is the last thing the government wants. The Reagan situation is hopping for a slow, steady recovery.
Interest rates will skyrocket and the recession
will be felt once again. The recovery will be aborted
man on the street. Uncle Sam wants YOU
do your duty and fight the war against economic
crisis.
Assuming enough able-bodied young men and women (Unele Sam is not sexist in this case) enlist in this crusade against recovery, what can they expect when they return from the detention?
Let's ignore the costs in welfare and unemployment benefits and assume a steady
recovery that is slow enough to eliminate federal deficits.
The economy then should be ready to accelerate to full speed at full employment.
Today, an unemployment rate of 6 percent is considered full employment. Martin Feldstein calls this a "noninflationary" unemployment rate.
One could also call it 7 million people.
Many economists believe today's high levels of unemployment reflect a problem more serious than just a temporary recession. The existence of labor shortages in many occupations confirms
Jobs are available. Potential workers are available. But they don't match up. Unemployment will stay high until people change to fit the jobs required by modern society.
Is it any wonder that the man on the street is not smiling?
Critics of economic theory charge that it is too cold, that it neglects the human element. Too much emphasis is placed on resources, efficiency and stability, they say.
The goal of economic theory is to achieve the most efficient use of resources, and human capital.
A "stable" economy in which 7 million people are unemployed is not an efficient use of resources.
Just ask the man on the street.
Letters to the Editor
Delusions about Soviets dangerous
To the editor:
"mry peace, peace, but there is no peace
shall we listen to the sound of that siennil until
the light fades."
— Patrick Henry, "A Call to Arms," 1775.
The linked KU and Soviet flags and the inner drawing of a Jayhawk and baywock bear clasping hands in the April 22 Kansan, as well as the professed aim of Athletes United for Peace (nuclear freeze), reflect the dangerous self-illusion that Patrick Henry was decrying in 1775.
Proponents of such exchanges will applaud them as worthwhile because they demonstrate that we are, after all, just people with our humanity in common. If so, then why the overt political overtones and the pacifist political rhetoric? The truth is that the leaders of such activities cannot be united in unanimate political purposes, manipulating sporting events for their value as propaganda. The truly sad thing is that the Soviet leaders, who have expressed an occasional interest in crushing the world, are delighted to let naive Westerners do their propaganda for them.
The mentioned illustrations in the Kansan were not probably offensive to many people. To put this in perspective, imagine that you were doing research in old Kansans from the 1930s and came across a similar issue with linked KU and Nazi flags, and an inner drawing of a Jayhawk shaking hands with the Führer. Most people would be horrified at such popularized fraternization with a despicable totalitarian regime, and would wonder at the ignorance and apathy of anyone who would accept such things. I see no significant difference between our hypothetical situation and that of the present. Both regimes have engaged in genocide, both are or were totalitarian, and both have or had the intention of conquest. The only significant difference is nuclear proliferation as a current reality on the international scene. I cannot believe that most people tolerate such representation because it is all a mind game to pacify the Soviets. In fact, I would argue that the opposite is true. It is clearly, by intent or accident, an attitude which allows the continued Soviet nuclear and conventional arms build up to unanswered by the United States. For example, we have not built a bomber since the B-25 and we have not answered the Soviet SS-20 deployment in Eastern Europe. The figures themselves indicate that we have gone from
nuclear and conventional superiority to inferiority since 1968.
John Andra.
John Andra.
Wickie renhomers
The facts indicate, as they did in the initial American fight to overthrow oppression, that the opponent has the intention of our servitude. My upsets me is the casual attitude most people my age take toward such a prospect. I present the facts: If we were to kill someone by the hunter, the most warlike and oppressive major power in this century. I am sorrowed that most of my peers probably don't care.
Plav to be commended
To the editor:
The chief official of a country town is disturbed when a visiting evangelist, his own cousin, begins to lead prayer meetings in the nearby hills. Chanting, dancing women participate so enthusiastically that the official fears they may be indulging in sexual orgies. Both fearful and hopeful, he dresses himself in drag to spy on the women, his mother among them. When they arrive, the woman has to shred parts of his body. His mother carries his head into town. The playwright who exploited that grusome subject matter Europides in "The Bacchae."
It was interesting to read that Dennis Quinn thinks they used to give prizes to better plays than Sam Shepard's "Buried Child." He objects to that play's "exceedingly sordid subject matter." His concern reminded me of another play whose plot I will give.
Other playwrights who have written on murder, incest and family tragedies include Aeschyus, Sophocles, Seneca, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ford, Racine, Pirandello and Tennessee Williams. If we judge plays by their subject matter, Shepard is in good company. The play, the playwright, the director of the local production and the cast are to be congratulated. To be chosen from among 460 schools for a showing in Kennedy Center is as much cause for celebration as to win a bowl game. Mary Davidson.
administrative assistant, department of English Showing well-handled To the editor:
I would like to answer some of the criticisms of the presentation of the Magna Charta that have appeared in the Kansan recently. I am employed
Those who complain about the sale tables don't seem to realize that, a even if the hall had been empty, only two or three people can stand in front of a document that's a foot square anyway; b. the revenue helped make the whole thing possible; and c. it makes for very smart security to make an escape route as circautous as possible. As for the complaint about the library putting up historical documents of its own, thus creating congestion, I can't believe that anyone who reads them might mention Mention Class was by now that there was even more to see than the document which, the same writer complains, was in a language she couldn't read anyway.
There were two ways of having Magna Charta — the official way or not at all. The official way meant maximum security (the public didn't see half of that), protection of the document against harmful light and limitation of its appearance to a few hours for a few days. That meant putting it in Spencer Library and regulating traffic by the complex means that were taken.
Most of the complaints have been about the physical arrangements. In other words, why wasn't the display of a centuries-old, fragile and extremely faded document that previously only left the United Kingdom during World War II arranged to their convenience?
by the department of special collections at Spencer Research Library was working behind the scenes in a minor capacity for three of the four days it was on display. If things had been mishandled, I would simply keep my trap snip; but I think they were actually handled quite well.
I admit that it would have been better if people had not had to stand in the cold, but they weren't out there because a bunch of big shots were casually reading the thing over lunch; they were out there because people like themselves who had also walked in line were looking at it. I think the vast majority of people who saw Magna Charita — and even those who were turned away (an act which still brings tears to the eyes of several Spencer librarians) understand that given the tremendous logistics of handling in four days more people than use the department in a year, at the same time what that person did in itself, the library did a remarkable job in presenting the most extraordinary event in Lawrence's history since Quantrill's Raid.
Michael Gebert,
Wichita senior
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