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Tuesday, September 20, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Anti-hazing cause deserves more than lip service at KU
It's called the human squeegee, and it works on the same concept as the squeegee people use to clean the windshield of
It requires three fraternity pledges. On a cold marble or linoleum floor, active members mix spaghetti, cottage cheese and several cans of dog food with water to make a runny, smelly confection.
One pledge, clad only in underwear, lies on his back. Two pledge brothers take hold of his hands and feet and pull him across the food. Using his body as a squeegee, the food is pushed from one side of the room to the other.
The human squeegie is a tradition that takes place in at least one of the University of Kansas' 28 fraternities. It precedes the
Through a tide of insults, a senior yell that the floor is not clean enough. That's part of the tradition. It also the cue for another set of pledges to take their place and squeegee the food back across the room.
It's easy to criticize that occurs somewhere else. Ask any fraternity or sorority members how they feel about hazing, and they will all say that they disapprove of the idea and that their national organizations have specific rules prohibiting it. Some smirk as they say it. They know hazing still occurs at KU!
That's why it was reassuring to see several hundred representatives from KU's Greek community turn out for an event.
David Westol, a Michigan attorney who has spoken on hundreds of college campuses around the country about hazing, estimated that one in every two fraternities across the country continues to haze训. In the last 11 years, he said, hazing
Westos's speech provides an opportunity for KU Greeks. It offers a chance for those who continue to haze to talk about their chapter's philosophies and ask tough questions about why they haze.
Does hazing build stronger brotherhood or sisterhood? If hazing builds such a strong character, why aren't active members subjected to such things has the human squeegie during hell week along with the pledges? What could the consequences be on the chapter and its members if someone were hurt or killed while being hazed?
The answers reached should be clear. Hazing hurts people. No matter what rationale is used to justify it, it is wrong. And the answer is that you don't know.
Michael Horak for the editorial board
When a charity isn't charitable
Recent newspaper reports reveal an uncharitable truth about public contribution to charities through professional telephone solicitors: The charity often receives only 4 cents out of every dollar donated. The professional solicitors pocket the rest.
Small charities, eager to raise money but handicapped by a lack of resources, entrust the job to professional solicitors.
The telephone solicitor raises funds using the name of the charity and its cause, but gets to keep the lion's share of the
The donor is almost never told that only an insignificant proportion of the money will reach the charity. Instead, emotional stories are given on the phone to elicit the donor's sympathy and contribution.
Fiscal irresponsibility is not the only shortcoming of telephone solicitations. Professional solicitors often give misleading information.
The Lawrence Consumer Affairs Association recently investigated the United States Organization of Disabled Athletes' claim of approval by the U.S. Olympic committee. Investigations proved that claim to be false.
KU students are a special target for solicitors. Although giving to help a needy cause is a virtue regardless of the size of the contribution, students should whom they give to with care.
When students have a solicitor on the other end of a telephone line, the best option is to ask questions. Charities and non-profit organizations are good options.
When in doubt, verifications about the charity and the causes it works for should be made with the local Consumer Affairs office.
Simply saying yes to a solicitor may get him or her off the phone, but students should be aware that it could also be supporting a company's inflated expenses more than a real charity.
Muktha Jost for the editorial board
News staff
Todd Cohen . . . Editor
Michael Horak . . . Managing editor
Julie Adamson . . . Associate editor
Stephen Wade . . . News editor
Michael Merschel . . Editorial editor
Noel Gerdes . . . Campus editor
Craig Anderson . . Sports editor
Dave Niebergall . . Photo editor
Dave Eames . . Graphics editor
Jill Fleury . . Artificial features
Tim Ehlen . . General manager, new adviser
Business staff
Greg Knipp ... Business manager
Debra Cole ... Retail sales manager
Chris Cooper ... Campus sales manager
Natasha sales manager
Kurt Measermann ... Promotions manager
Sarah Higdon ... Marketing manager
Brad Lenhart ... Production manager
Michelle Garland ... Asst. production manager
Michelle Gladstone ... Sales and marketing adviser
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Mom,apple pie,insider trading Greedy deserve the just rewards for extra level of ambition
Looking up from his paper, Slats Brobnikook head and said, "I see that there is another one of the same."
Are the bloodthirsty networks and the press at it again?
'No. I mean the Securities and Exchange Commission. They charged another bunch of those inside traders from Wall Street. Why are they always picking on those guys?'
That is a silly question. What they did was illegal.
"So is spitting on sidewalks and double parking
of cars?"
Sure it is. They used information to get the edge, to make vast sums of money.
"What's wrong with that? Isn't that the American way, making all you can?"
"Hey, don't you think most people would use insider information to make a fast back if they had
But that's the whole point. Most people don't have access to inside information.
"Well, whose fault is that? I say it's their own fault. If the average mope don't have the initiative to get some inside information, why pick on the guy who does?"
Mike Royko
I hadn't thought of it that way.
"Then you should. You think getting insider information is easy? No, it takes hard work. I read about that on a morning paper a day. They ain't clock-watchers. So aren't they supposed to respect hard work? Just look around."
"You think this young guy Michael Milken, who
I see guys having a beer just like us. What do you see?
"I see guys reading the sports pages and looking at 'Wheel of Fortune' on TV."
Syndicated columnist
they just charged, spent his time that way. You"s they were out, out there hustling for inside information, doing takeovers, using their God-given nano waits like sapes in their talking about which things were up.
"And what about family values and friendship and lovalty?"
-Help family with n/a of 4-
"Shouldn't members of families help each other?"
"Well, Milken helped his brother and his brother helped him. So they charged the brother, too. And they charged some of the Posner family, just because they helped each other. So what is it with the Reagan administration? Don't it believe in the American family? Or in friendship?"
Of course.
"That's not what I've been hearing. I hear that if you can do something for your kid, or your grandkid, you do it. If there's someone working in your family business who can help you, he does it. When you can, you make a phone call or two. And if you can, what kind of cold-hearted no-go-good are you?"
That does seem to be the prevailing mood.
"Sure. So here are the hard work-ing Wall Street guys who happen to be in a position to know how to do it."
Are they supposed to be stupid and ignore it, or smart and use it?"
The law says they should ignore it.
"Then ain't it matter that it's better to be stupid than smart?" Since when is it against the law?
It's very confusing. But I think the idea is that by taking advantage of their special position, they profiled at someone else's expense. Do you think that's fair?
"Who said life is fair? Go ask any American Indian. Their raw deal is what made this country
But we must follow the law and observe the rules.
when they the laws and the rules are *stolen*. When that happens, you get a patriotic like @joe_blew. Danny Quayle get chewed up in a feeding frenzy. And now we got these fine patriots on Wall Street, just following the American tradition of edge on the next guy, and they're in deep do.
I hadn't thought of it that way.
Aren't they going to extremes?
"Then you should. I think that before he leaves
you must be the wizard." Milker and Boesky and the rest of them pardons.
"Come on. They didn't break into an office and blow a safe, they didn't rob a bank, they didn't heist a Brink's truck, they didn't rob a bank, they didn't mug some old lady on the street or snatch a gold chain on a subway. And they sure as hell didn't shoot anybody."
You know, I'm starting to see your point.
"OK, say after me. I pledge allegiance . . . "
■ Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist who writes for the Chicago Tribune
Bevond fingerprints
When moving into McCollium this year, residents were not given keys to their personal vehicles. You can also value private possessions (such as checkbooks, cash and other item of value) is very important. Leaving valuables lying around in your house may affect insurance and could lead to many serious problems.
I agree completely with G. Mianakon's letter from Sept. 14. However, I don't feel that the problem at McCollum Hall is limited to having fingerprints on the hall I.D. cards instead of having essential items. The problem is much larger than that.
Many people who live at McColllum didn't get bunk beds. After being told that no more bunk beds were available, some people brought them in. Then the space was gone and that there was no space to store the original beds, even though an entire wing currently is unused and easily could be used to store the
These are two examples of the many serious problems at McCollum. All of the problems are caused by the employees of McCollum wasting their time doing worthless things and ultimately, the people in charge of McCollum not doing their job.
Debating censorship
According to Clay Belcher (Mailbox, Sept. 12), fundamentalists efforts to ban Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech differed from censorship. I take encouragement from this. When would be censors deny what they're really up to, they pay a back-handed tribute to the conventions of democratic
Belcher's argument is legalistic and evasive rather than substantive. He claims that censorship "means" action by the legislature to selectively ban private expression. That is why it is important for governmental censorship are carried out by the executive branch rather than the legislative.
His argument also is wrong in substance. In common usage, the core meaning of "censorship" is "any attempt to extinguish ideas by suppressing their expression." The involvement of government is not necessary. In fact, in U.S. history the most famous and successful efforts against censorship were initiated by the Hays office, a private institution established by Hollywood distributors in the 1930s.
But who cares what you call it? In a democracy, the virtuous response to offensive speech is good counter-speech, not suppression. When you want to attack someone, you can't see it, they're saying that they don't
trust you to make up your own mind. And they're saying that their ideas are more important than the filmmaker's ideas. No matter what goes by, the suppression of films is an issue.
David Burress
David Burress
Assistant professor of economics
Wanna get someone really mad? Criticize the music they like. The recent reaction over JKHJ is a sharp reminder. It's because music lovers listen all the time that a structured playlist is so offensive to them. A rotating playlist figures on the average listener being around for about two hours. These days a machine can present it with an acoustic heapy, and that is why JKHJ will be training the machine wag buttoning radio peons. JKHJ should inspire people to arm beyond that level.
It has in the past, boasting record company executives, top-rated DJ's coast to coast and major-market news and sales figures among its users. And it's not just numbers; it is the 30-second commercial sounding donor announcements that have Ask. yourself. "Why should I listen to a student-run radio station instead of a professionally run station if I can sell me things and play similar music?"
Training button-nushers
Let's keep the "L" in Liberal Arts.
Steve Smith
Steve Smithers
KJHK 1978-81
Assistant promotions director
for VMAC Chicago
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
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