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University Dalvi Kansan, March 22. 1983
Opinion
Wolf at Med Center door
Through much of the budgetary agonizing now going on in the Kansas Legislature, there seems to have developed a feeling that the state's universities are crying wolf in their plea for dollars.
Evidence to the contrary was all too concrete in the recent warning from Richard von Ende, executive secretary of the University, to the Board of Regents' Fiscal Affairs Committee: If the KU Medical Center does not receive $1.7 million before June 1, the entire hospital could be shut down.
At the very least, the Med Center would have to cut back its staff or close some sections of the hospital.
The reasons behind the drastic warning seem to stem from an array of errors. First, the 1982 Legislature overestimated the amount of turnover that would occur on the nursing staff. The Med Center now needs $1,125,935 to pay this year's nursing salaries. Then,
Gov. John Carlin cut $1.2 million in 1982 appropriations that the Med Center had not yet spent. To top it off, the Med Center did not include that $1.2 million in either its 1983 or 1984 budgets.
At this point, it doesn't really matter how things got so botched. What is crucial — that is, crucial if the state doesn't want to see the returns on its long-term investments in the Med Center drop to nil — is that the governor, and then the Legislature, allow the Med Center the finances it needs to continue operating. Given recent decisions made in the Capitol, this may be too much to expect.
If the state chooses not to allocate the needed money, the University will be the least of those hurt. The real losers will be the residents of Kansas, who will no longer have the services of one of the finest medical institutions in the Midwest.
Generic approach to living not a new trend in America
Some people say we are besieged these days by a no-frills, back-to-basic approach to life. I
True, we are living in an increasingly generic age. We eat genetic corn flakes for breakfast, IGA white bread for lunch and genetic spaghetti with genetic (meatless) sauce for supper, after which we wash the dishes with generic cheese using a generic Brillo Pad for the touch spots.
Gas station attendants have stopped wiping windshields and started selling generic 3.2 beer, and Penn State, the national champion in college football, wears generic uniforms.
Some say that generic is an idea whose time
MATT BARTEL
has come, indeed, we even have t-shirts that feature a black stripe across the bottom with the legend. "This t-shirt is 100 percent cotton and is good for everyday wear."
The trend is real; no aspect of life will remain unfouled by this phenomenon if it goes unchecked. A chain of generic hamburger stands is already in the works; imagine, if you will, generic sports, no frills universities with geography sensors, generic music and even genic sex.
Certainly, this will take time to develop, just as it has thus far. But we have really always been generically inclined fans of blond; discount stores have been with us for decades. Is there a difference? We might smile when you like Woolworth, TG&Y and — smile when you sai this — Sears and Roebuck?
Our love of low-budget runs deep; in fact, it can even be traced to our beloved founders during the American Revolution. The Constitution that our forefathers wrote in 1787 was certainly not overburdened with specifics; it was simply an operator's manual of sorts, outlined who was allowed to do what and how to go about it.
In fact, the name of the country set forth in the Articles of Confederation could never be accused of being flamboyant. What could be more generic than the United States of America?
Is this, perhaps, one of the qualities that makes America great? If so, maybe the National Geographic Society should draw a black line from every person who would prove above it. "This country is made up of a variety of peoples and institutions and is acceptable for everyday living."
We do not hold the monopoly on mononyl. If a black stripe is drawn through the United States, then surely the Soviet Union merits a red one, South Africa a white one and the United Arab
We could do much worse. Some nations of the world use names that actually imply something they are not. Greenland, for instance, is certainly anything but green, and the British may be fine people, but one could hardly call a place where it rains every day "Great" Britain.
The best names, I submit, are those that provoke a warm feeling among inhabitants and outsiders alike. A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but if this nation is truly great, why not come up with a label that accurately describes the package?
How about Freeland? that one should get to the heart of the patriots among us. Or perhaps he is a leader in some way.
Greater Technologico would appeal to the scientific community, and would also have the higher number of syllables required for such a large country. Veraguiz would be good for a high score in Scriable, while calling it Georland gumbo (a.k.a. a very ugly French person), Brett and Tirebble, all at the same time.
Or, if we want to recognize the corridors of power in which public policies are made, we could call it Corporate General Governments of North America.
We are not saving any money by maintaining a generic name. We are not impressing anybody with either our creativity or convictions, and we are not promoting the kind of warm but strong image we like to see in our nation as long as we are referred to as the USA.
It is time for Congress to act, to take stock of what makes America great and try to make that the predominant image in every utterance of our nation. We need the color and interest that is lost on genericism.
Then again, maybe what is great about America is generic . . .
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and should not exceed 500 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 position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters.
Letters Policyv
Overeducated alter job outlook
Bv PATRICIA McCORMACK
United Press International
High school dropouts and new holders of doctorate or undergraduate degrees in the arts and humanities share a bleak job outlook these days.
The former have too little education; the
Pitbull is too much — or so it seems along the job
Pitbull.
Holders of bachelor's degrees in the arts have skills that may not be marketable.
Help also is sprinting for the supereducated,
those who hold a doctorate in a subject such as
medieval history, music, American poetry or
French literature.
The education establishment throws all kinds of lifelines to the dropouts by helping to prepare them for jobs through special training. Public high schools offer catch-up courses at night school. Community colleges put out welcome mats for dropouts, too.
College placement offices are among the sources of help for liberal arts graduates who are all thumbs when it comes to parlaying their education into a paycheck.
The Ph.D.s are victims of the depression in higher education. Due to inflation, recession and other factors, college jobs that would be waiting for them aren't opening up in sufficient
To help such scholars. Harvard, Stanford and
New York universities offer programs to retolte them for jobs in business. So does the University of California at Los Angeles and the universities of Pennsylvania: Texas at Austin and Virginia.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that some associations, such as the Modern Language Association, sponsor workshops, counseling and job referrals for its super-educated members who can't get jobs in their arts and humanities specialties.
The University of Virginia's Career Opportunities Institute offers six-week courses in business and career development that consist of instruction in accounting, finance, management marketing information systems and business policy.
Ph.D.s, says an Institute brochure, have qualities and skills that business and government value in employees. For example, Ph.Ds are accustomed to tough competition and have experience in foreign languages. Their community interests include issues that they are asked at analyzing complex issues.
They are super in gathering complete information Those with bachelor's degrees in the arts or humanities also can receive help for getting a job in business.
The Association of American Colleges, Washington, D.C., surveyed recruiters from the top 100 companies of the Fortune 500 and 106 other firms. The result is a book, "Consider Your Options: Business Opportunities for Liberal Arts Graduates" (Association of American College, $3).
Of the companies surveyed, 69 percent said liberal arts graduates accounted for at least 10 percent of their new employees each year.
And 92 percent listed communication skills as very important in their review of potential employees' qualifications.
More than 66 percent reported that their companies offered at least introductory training to all newly hired employees.
Christine Gould, who conducted the survey and wrote the book while she was an intern at the AAC last summer, made these points:
- Unaware of the ways in which their talents could be used in business, liberal arts students often approached these careers with hesitation and uncertainty.
— Business recruiters looked for people who approached their careers with confidence and experience.
Gould, who majored in Chinese studies a Georgetown University's graduate school, went to work for the federal government after she completed the book.
The book contains interviews with liberal arts majors at the bachelor's degree level who in the last seven years went on to business. They hold a master's degree and are executive recruiter, trust officer and treasurer
They talk about their decision to aim for a business career and about the liberal arts skills applicable to their jobs.
Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
Protest story missed other viewpoint
The story by Sara Kempi and Susan Stanley (Student groups protest Kanan news coverage, March 10) was a perfect example of why those "sign-wielding demonstrators" were marching
The article reports as if it were a matter of fact that the student magazine Praxis refused to print an article about El Salvador by Gary Smith. However, neither of the two people who wrote the Kaisan article bothered to contact the student magazine Praxis with regard about why, or even whether this was the case.
The fact is that Gary Smith's article was not printed in Praxis. It is also a fact that there were several criticisms of Smith's article brought by
Praxis participants during our editorial meetings, to which any interested parties are welcome, and in which Smith participated. Smith submitted his article to Praxis as his unbiased first-person impressions of El Salvador. Several of us felt that because Smith was an American in a foreign culture that doesn't speak the language of that culture that he couldn't help being unconsciously biased by his political views. We were also the introduction to his article needed to acknowledge that, rather than assume his neutrality.
Meanwhile, after several weeks of discussion about whether to print Smith's article as submitted or with some sort of introduction in the February issue of Praxis (it didn't make January because of time and space limitations) we had to find another page spread in the Kansan with article and pictures. That is why Smith's article didn't run in Praxis.
Now I must ask, what was the reason for including this incident in the story about the demonstration? Was it a feeble attempt at presenting both sides of the issue? Or was it a back-handed attack on the members of Praxis? Either way it was exactly the kind of shoddy journalism that we have come to expect from the Kansas.
you can slide by with just about anything, but it is my impression (perhaps mistaken) that most journalism students have higher goals than that and consequently I expect more from them. Maybe I expect too much. Maybe it's just too easy to leave the poorer stories out of your clip book, and maybe you had a class and didn't have time to do more research. Maybe it's the editor's fault, maybe the story was only worth one tenth of the page, or maybe it's when you called, maybe you're not sure you want to be a journalist, maybe you don't give a damn.
It is truly unfortunate that the complacent atmosphere on this campus has apparently anesthetized at least a portion of the staff of the Kansan. It was with the hope of stimulating, and yes, perhaps even provoking those journalism students who remain conscious of the tremendous obligations that go along with being part of the Kansan community. I participated in the demonstration. To get the truth you have to dig deep, but many of the articles I see in the Kansan are just expediently dug shallow graves.
Somewhere in Iran are two very graves. They hold the bodies of two recently executed former KU students. The pages of the Kanman diary show the nature of the system they died fighting against.
I guess if your big aspiration as a journalist is to write for the Tatter or the National Enquirer
Alan Atkinson.
Sorman, Okla., graduate student
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