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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, February 22, 1983
A promise unfulfilled
With a speed that can be described only as bewildering, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin reinstated former defense minister Ariel Sharon to two important committees in the Israeli defense establishment.
In so doing, he once again raised the specter of last fall's slaughter of hundreds of civilians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps of Beirut. Begin had already caused an outcry when he retained Sharon temporarily as a minister without portfolio after an Israeli commission investigating the massacre recommended Sharon's dismissal.
Five of the Israeli Cabinet's 19 members, who must approve the reappointments, did not attend the Cabinet session dealing with the appointments. Apparently they wanted
no part in the confirmation of Sharon but were unwilling to oppose Begin openly.
The Begin government has said it believed the commission wanted only Sharon's resignation as defense minister, not his removal from the entire Israeli defense structure. But the restatement, so soon after the commission recommended Sharon's dismissal, violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the commission's intentions.
When the commission was formed, the government said it would follow whatever recommendations resulted from the investigation, even if it meant the resignation of Begin himself. But that promise, and the intent it conveyed, rings hollow all the way from Jerusalem to the empty rubble of south Beirut.
Wilcox Collection condition reflects University disregard
or anyone in Lawrence wants to look at Greek and Roman art, he looks at photographs in an art book. Once, people could experience the art more directly by seeing the University of Kansas' Wilcox Collection, which consists of plaster casts, as well as some original pieces, of Greek and Roman art. But that opportunity is gone. perhans forever.
gone perhaps. For years, the Wilcox Collection, established in 1888, was on display at old Fraser Hall. But ever since old Fraser was torn down in 1965, the
JEANNE FOY
collection has been hidden from view in "temporary" storage, where about 20 percent of the collection was destroyed.
Last semester, the collection began to be moved from the leaky and dirty building that had inadequately sheltered it for so many years, and preparations to display it in Lippincott Hangar, Wilcox Collection, Elizabeth Banks. The collection will never be displayed again.
The display date has been pushed back to spring 1884, when banks may be doing research in Greece. If she is gone, work on the project will be suspended, and the University cannot guarantee the collection will be displayed by then anyway.
The classics department and the University have $12,500 to pay for installing and restoring computers.
But the delay in installing the collection is
more than a monetary one. The Wilcox Collection was neglected for 18 years and that indicates a large amount of indifference on the part of university administrators about the fate college students.
Banks said that over the years, various possible sites for the collection have opened up, but were rejected by the University. Moot of the Alcox Collection was denied space in Sooner Hall.
When Old Fraser was torn down, the University promised the classics department a space in the new humanities building, Wesco Hall. But building plans for Wesco had to be reduced, and administrators never fulfilled their promise of a new space for the collection.
The Wilcox Collection has suffered not only from indifference, but also exquisite bad timing. The University finally will begin work on the project during a time of severe fiscal restraints. A lack of $17,000 may sound the death toll for the collection.
The University is planning to ask the Board of Regents for the money, but Banks said she doubled the money would be granted because the college would be used were not designated for this type of use.
Something more than money is needed. Support from the administrators is needed badly. If the Board of Regents cannot provide the money, how hard will administrators explore other possible sources of funds? If the money is granted, how much time and energy will the University spend preparing the collection for display?
Greek temples and art in Athens are being destroyed by pollution, KU's collection of Greek and Roman art is being destroyed by indifference. The destruction could be stopped if administrators would show some interest in displaying the Wilcox Collection to the public.
America's energy still an issue
Whatever happened to the energy crisis?
Former President Carter once termed fighting U.S. dependence on oil imports and slowing the depletion of a dwindling resource "the moral equivalent of war."
President Reagan, however, acts as if war was never declared.
Considering the emphasis that the last three administrations placed on the energy crisis, it is strange that President Reagan did not even have to project in his recent State of the Union address.
Granted, the current oil gut makes the shortage of energy supplies a less immediate concern than when gasoline costs were spiraling upward, but it is foolish to think that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries no longer controls the world oil market, or that energy resources will abound forever.
a scarce resource. He conceived an ambitious energy program and made fighting the energy crisis a top national priority.
The United States still depends on imports for one-third of its oil. And while foreign oil production declined 25 percent from 1975 to 1981, U.S. oil production was cut in half. The United States, with 6 percent of the world population, still consumes one-third of the world's oil.
Carter realized the danger of U.S. dependence on the sometimes-hostile Arab nations for our energy needs. He realized the danger of wasting
Reagan, on the other hand, has weakened many of the energy programs Carter established. In 1881, the Reagan administration eliminated five large synthetic fuel development programs and slashed the Synthetic Fuels
DAN PARELMAN
corporation budget by about one-third. The synthetic fuels program was designed so that an alternative to OPEC oil and dwindling oil supplies could be developed.
And Reagan has cut funds for the Department of Energy by 20 percent.
Neagan's alternative to Carter's energy program woofely lacks inductions to conserve energy and develop alternative energy sources, two major thrusts of Carter's program.
Reagan also has begun the accelerated decontrol of natural gas prices. The other main elements of his energy policy are the streamlining of the procedures for nuclear power plant construction and expanding energy development in wilderness areas.
But such worthy ideas as federal development of mass transit systems, tax breaks for businesses and individuals that conserve, the development of synthetic fuels and solar energy, and an import fee on oil are glaringly absent from Reagan's energy plans.
The tenor of his program is to remove the government from the development of energy and let the oil industry determine the United States' future. However, the goal of the oil business, as with any business, is not to do what is best for the country, but to do what makes the most profits for oil companies.
the government must take the initiative in developing energy alternatives and encouraging conservation.
Carter's administration assumed that responsibility, Reagan's administration has shirked it.
It is time to remind the American people that, yes, there is an energy crisis, and, yes, with the people's help, the government will fortify the American energy position.
REMARKABLY PRECISE!
WHO ARE THEY?
REAGAN'S DISARMAMENT NEGOTIATOR'S!
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KANSAN
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Financial aid-draft rule twists purpose of grants
The U.S. government is playing dirty pool with college students. Using the power of money to persuade is an old tactic, and the Reagan administration is demonstrating that it can stain educational dollars with the same blood of war that has disrupted our economy and a trail of corruption.
On Jan. 21, the Reagan administration announced that as of July 1, 1983, students will be required to furnish proof that they have received a Bachelor's degree, receive financial aid from universities.
Proponents of the rule say that Uncle Sam should not have to pay tuition for anyone who isn't willing to comply with federal law. But they argue that the resources do not who do not have the resources to pay their own
MATT BARTEL
way, and by withholding this aid to non-registrants the government is only penalizing the poor while leaving the school door open to wealthy non-registrants.
Already financial aid administrators and anti-draft activists are expressing concern over the measure.
According to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators newsletter, many recent registrants who are waiting for their acknowledgment letters to arrive from Selective Schools will not be able to enrol in institutions cannot disabuse aid without such letters.
Although the rule allows institutions to hand out aid to students whose acknowledgment letters have not arrived, the difficulty of reclaiming that money should the student turn out to be a non-registrar makes it unlikely that any such procedure will be used.
NASFAA also expressed concern about the administrative burden this will place on financial aid offices at universities across the country. For instance, many of the companies complaining that the offices will have to be redesigned in order to track a student's compliance from one year to the next.
This burden certainly is not justified. Should the government be allowed to draft universities into enforcing its selective service laws? Does the government have the right to make a student's education dependent upon his willingness to register for the draft?
The United States Student Association, a national lobbying organization, also opposes the new rule. Janice Fine, USSA president, said the rule was yet another example of a neutral agency being forced to do something that was not its mandate. In that case, the agency was required to base the case as the use of Internal Revenue Service and Social Security files to track resisters during the Vietnam War.
It is time that this country came to grips with the real problem with military conscription. Those who argue about how to enforce an unenforceable selective service law fail to question the validity of such a law in their rush to enlist an ever greater number of supposedly neutral agencies.
The registration of draftees is against every moral and constitutional principle we have in this country, and yet it continues to live, under the guise of "security," and in an environment of military paranoia that shows no sign of letting up under the Reagan administration.
We must not allow our universities to become arms of the government in any form. What will be next if we do? Mandatory military research? Should we have a military computer, files to FB1 search computers?
The attachment of more and more of the private sector to government control and enforcement of its laws eats away like a cancer at the quality of a free society. The acid rain of subjugation has once again begun to fall, and we must not be washed away by it.
Letters to the Editor Cartoon too violent
To the editor.
I would like to express my extreme dissatisfaction with your "Bob" on page 4 of Wednesday's Kansan. Not only is it tasteless, but it has the danger of condoning violence as a means of solving a problem — a tendency too frequently observed in this country.
Hiroshi Nara,
Ihrosu Nara,
Lawrence graduate student