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Opinion
In athletes' best interest
College athletes beware. The U.S. Congress is attempting to look out for your best interest.
At least we assume that that is why Sen, Arlen Specter, R-Pa., introduced a bill that would continue to limit pro football recruitment of college athletes.
Specter's bill would give limited antitrust exemption to the National Football League so that it could maintain its ban on recruiting of a college athlete until the athlete reaches his senior year.
The bill was prompted, Specter said, by Herschel Walker's decision to join the professional ranks for more than $16 million after only three years as a collegiate athlete.
It is gratifying to know that there are people,concerned about what happens
to "student"-athletes, but certainly more attention should be focused on what happens while they are in school.
So far, we know of no bill to force college coaches to toe the line during recruitment of high school athletes or of any bill to help ensure that college athletes receive the four years of education due them while they bring in crowds and revenue for their alma mater.
In fact, there is often little that distinguishes an athlete of Walker's stature, who draws hundreds of thousands — or millions — of dollars for his team as a college athlete, from his professional counterpart who does the same.
The main difference is that as a professional, he will be paid.
A view of the gatekeepers shows importance of words
A lot of events happened at the University Daily Kanran two weeks ago. I tried to explain some of those events in my column last week, but I wrote it when I was angry, and it showed. My column was, from the Opinion page, "untimely rippr ripp". But that's another story.
This story is about two things: a columnist's firing and journalistic taste. The two stories are interrelated, yet sometimes the connection seems quite arbitrary to me. I'll try to explain
Before I go further, however, you must understand what happens between the time a columnist gets a story idea and the time you read it.
Let's say that I want to write a column unraveling one of the great mysteries of life. First, research it as well as can be expected. Then, write it, in column form, into a video
HARRY MALLIN
display terminal in the Kansas office. It stays in my office until I call it back, it revise it or do it yourself. It works for me.
When I think that I have a good finished product, I show my story to the first gatekeeper, the editorial editor. After he reads it, it passes on to another writer, and the gatekeepers — the copy editor and the copy chief.
Why “gatekeepers”?” A gatekeeper, in the traditional sense of the word, sees all that passes. The gatekeeper is responsible for the security of whatever lies beyond that gate.
In much the same way, the editors of a newspaper are gatekeepers. They correct errors of fact, style of and help the story become a proper literary effort. They edit words with the right meaning and set the measure of journalistic taste. They are the guardians of the newspaper's credibility.
Three people see my story. Three at the very least though, because at any time my story may become too hot for the front-line gatekeepers to handle it. The editors of the hands of the editor is where the buck stops.
The gatekeeper system is a tried-and-true method. It seems almost inconceivable that
something libelous could get through that set of guardians. You'd be amazed, though.
One columnist recently wrote something that has been termed "lbelous." Personally, I don't think it was ibel. I thought it was funny. It was a columnist's best-selling book. The column made me laugh.
But the columnist was fired. Different reasons were given for her termination, but I think she
That's my opinion, of course. But what is the purpose of this page? It allows those of us who can manage to get a point across by writing to do so. We can give our opinions may be, we who can write write them.
Sometimes those opinions are called no-nos by the guardians. But when they let something slip through, it's a different story.
In a way, I suppose both are at fault. The writer may have been oblivious to the flaw and the gatekeepers may have passed over it in the flood of copy that they read every day. It's a situational question that must be answered by those involved.
Much like any other job, it's usually wherever the flaw originated that the sacrifices are made. The guardians make the sacrifices and do their duty to the community. They are chosen because of their ability to do just that.
The guardians set the line of taste. One day, a humorous cheap shot leads to the end of a columnist's job.A another day, a columnist writes a story about an ice cream made of snow and it's printed without a whimmer.
And finally, on a fateful Thursday, my column was not only mysteriously missing a paragraph, but the word "fornicate" was changed to "get acquainted." The deleted paragraph was about the famous campus sayings of what will happen when a virgin graduates from KU.
Good, clean fun. But one of the gatekeepers got scared and thought that the Kansan had received an important message.
It was as if the Kansan had changed from the
was of Kansan on one day, to the Kansan Science M
Museum.
That week a lot of personnel and policy changes took place at the Kansan. But perhaps the most profound change took place in my mind. A change that makes me a little more confident is that I will make a little more prudent toward the guardians of the integrity of the Kansan.
The University Daily
KANSAN
The University Day Kansan (UBSP 60-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Ft St., Day Kansan, Kansas, 66205. Subscriptions to this journal for the summer sessions, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holiday, and final period. Second charge postpaid at Lawrence, Kam 604L. Subscription by mail are $15 for six months to $24 in Douglas. Postmaster's address: 950 E. 40th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64103. Semester paid through the student activity fee. POSTMasters send changes to the Student Activity Center, 703 N. 25th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64103.
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Students deserve referendum
For a fleeting, foolish moment just Wednesday night, I almost believed that our student was having an emergency.
I attended my first — but not my last — Student Senate meeting. And there I saw a vivid display of reckless rubber-stamping and an engagement of the student body that left me mournful.
You and I have been insulted by this august body. The Senate, with its usual callous indifference for anyone outside its hallowed ranks, decided that the student body should not be voted to vote on a $2 increase in its activity fee and an added $1.30 privilege fee for Robinson Center.
Paul Bushkirk, holdover senator, proposed that the activity fee increase be put before the student body in a referendum that would have been held March 9 and 10. Let the record show that it also was Bushkirk who tried, without his last semester to convince the Senate that there was need for a student referendum on KU's participation in the Associated Students of Kansas.
Wednesday night's action marked the third referendum proposal by a senator during this academic year. It also marked the third time the Senate has said, in effect, that the student body is too dense to make a rational and intelligent decision about where its money is to go.
Several other interesting parallels come to mind. Not only has the Senate stifled a referendum vote three times; in doing so, the Senate has thrice refused to take a roll-call vote on the topic. In other words, the Senate en masse votes for President Obama and senator going on the record, they display their usual lack of guts and tenacity by weasling around it.
Think back to last fall, to the student body presidential elections. Remember how the candidates appealed to the student body to get out and vote? Remember how the candidates complimented us students on our obvious good judgment and taste?
Well, welcome to 1983. Now that elections are over, folks, we are excess baggage on the bureaucracy bandwagon. We prepared to get
TRACEE HAMILTON
thrown overboard — with a thud. Our opinion is not only judged to insequential, it is also wrong to judge them as unjustified.
The Student Senate Finance and Auditing Committee raised a hue and cry over the proposed referendum, and I can understand why it spends weeks sifting through tons of bills and spends a lot of time deciding which groups provide the most service to the student body.
But the importance of that committee would not be lessened by the referendum. The committee would still have sifted through the results, and if the outcome has been given a chance to legitimate the results.
The issue is not so much this particular referendum as it is referendums in general. The Senate, ladies and gentlemen, takes 65 cents of your student activity fee, yet its first objection to
a referendum was that the money was unavailable. The Senate should foot the bill, in my opinion.
Several senators, most notably Tom Berger, graduate student senator, said that the referendum would be biased toward certain groups. For example, would the largely undergraduate student population vote to give his Graduate Student Council a fee increase?
It's an interesting dilemma, but I think the students on this campus realize that graduate programs here are in serious trouble and that it would be a mistake to pull student body support from this group. And besides, undergraduates, too, would ante up for this increase.
ASK also trembled at the idea of students passing judgment on its many and varied good works. But the Senate, in true puppet form, mindlessly and overwhelmingly approved the nickel increase that ASK has been pushing for, and that the Finance and Auditing Committee denied.
The Senate approved that 5 cent increase knowing full well that it put undue pressure on our fellow ASK members to approve a similar increase next year.
The Senate leadership, with a few long-time Consensus cronies, is able to command the Senate to roll over and play dead at will.
Some good ideas are coming out of the sense, such as one to improve campus lighting, proposed by Charles Lahworn's Student Services Committee. But until someone within in the university lumbronne body to task, it will continue to on students' rights and to still students' voices.
Letters to the Editor
Column on snow sculpture tasteless
To the editor.
The Feb. 16th article "Affluence breeds intolerance" written by Matt Bardel, was both ridiculous and in poor taste. Bartel complains that we are becoming "intolerant towards ideas and ideologies" and he complements that an example of this is that some close-minded person deliberately and maliciously kicked over his 7 feet snow sculpture of a nen...
Hurrah to the individual who knocked it down
Bartel cites, as another example of his argument, that many students were intolerant towards the 40-ton "Salina Piece" sculpture simply because they thought it was ugly. Bartel is to remember that the sculpture was moved because it was believed to have been in an unsafe place.
Bartel's main point is that we are becoming intolerant to certain ideas and ideologies. I would hope that students would become intolerant towards trashy ideologies and tactlessness, and Bartel has yet to learn of the distinction.
Stilwell junior
My own opinion is that the "Salina Piece" was in poor taste, along with Rartel's article and his book "The Wizard of Oz."
Statue was offensive
To the editor.
Regarding Matt Barrel's Feb. 16 column, "Affluence breeds intolerance," Barrel displayed anger because "insensitive" person failed to recognize his philic snow monuments as art. Instead, this person took the initiative to destroy the public disgrace. This snow mound was rightly destroyed, no doubt to prevent ladies and children from stumbling onto it, in addition to eliminating the affront to that person's dignity.
As a publicized proponent of expansive experimentation, risk and diversity, Bartel reveals himself through his mound to be nothing more than a harasser seeking to offend the decency of much of the community. However, he has argued that surely have wished to ensure him his lawful right to enjoy this mass of snow in a private setting — perhaps a walk in freezer.
Unfortunately, such expended effort in building this snow pile resulted in no sculpture, no work of art. A piece of art directs man's thoughts and actions toward some good. Instead, this snow construction was publicly exhibited to intentionally provoke irritation as its end.
Additionally, it remains regrettable that such a sterile object as the Salina Piece, which Barrel defends as art, could even be considered to be placed on University property while the Wilcox collection of reproductions and original Greek and Roman classical art receives no house on the campus.
Some may be thankful that Bartel did not resort to exposing himself on his front lawn in what he may term a “more personal display of art.” However, he did indeed expose himself in an equally repulsive manner, going so far as to advertise his repugnant act in this newspaper. May he be assured that undoubtedly many readers along with myself will commit him to memory with the fitting association the mere mention of his name will bring.
Bob
Richard McDonald, Kansas City, Kan., senior
Letters Policy
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.