Friday, September 9, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Dec. 23 finals take cheer out of Christmas season
Finals ending just two days before Christmas — it's a depressing thought.
The decision to start classes a week later than the other Regents schools and extend finals to Dec. 23 was the result of a compromise by members of the University Calendar Committee.
Apparently some of the members wanted a longer summer break while others wanted a longer winter break. Because the Board of Regents requires 8 days a semester, no days could be spent outside in August or September to lengthen the summer by starting classes a week later.
But shortening summer break by a week could not possibly have caused as much inconvenience as extending finals until Christmas weekend. Students will have to rush to reach their destinations in time for Christmas — which they must make if there are weather delays — and professors will be faced with the possibility of grading exams during Christmas to meet deadlines.
All this could have been avoided by starting classes a week earlier as the other Regents schools did, just as KU has done in the past.
instead, when Kansas State students are heading home for the holidays, many of us will still be cramming for exams. While we're cramming, we can look back on the extra week of freedom we had in August and wonder if it was worth it.
Julie McMahon for the editorial board
Meters cheat hall residents
Free parking is a rare thing at the University of Kansas. Parking service staff add 85 parking meters around the loading zones in the campus.
Now it costs 5 cents for 12 minutes, 10 cents for 24 minutes and 25 cents for an hour to park in what used to be free for 20 cents.
minutes. 48-hour daylight hours.
Parking Services will charge a $2 fine for each hour after a meter expires, and tickets will increase to $6 if they are not within 48 hours.
Meanwhile, students who live in the residence halls and have paid for parking stickers no longer will be able to load or unload in that zone for even a few minutes without paying extra for it.
A nickel for 12 minutes may not seem like much. But it adds up for financially overburdened college students. A convenient place to load and unload things is a necessity and shouldn't be a paid luxury
And because the zones have 10-hour time limits, the zones are placed in jeopardy. The meters may encourage people who do not live in the residence halls to park there, thereby causing more congestion in an already crowded area.
While Parking Services can enjoy the convenience of handing out tickets by merely looking for the 'expired' signs on the meters and collecting the revenue from those tickets, students are often forced to deal with the inconvenience that only adds to the University's parking problems.
Christine Martin for the editorial board
Other Voices
Loan action should be taken
As though it weren't enough to too many college graduates default on their student loans, word now comes from the General Accounting Office that the lenders who extend the government-secured loans also are gouging Uncle Sam.
A federal watchdog agency says that the loan act should be rewritten to allow the Secretary of Education to charge interest on overpayments made to lenders and also to require students to present auditors to certify the loan accounts and interest billings.
Congress could and should do that before the current session expires.
The Arkansas Democrat Little Rock, Ark.
News staff
Todd Cohen                Editor
Michael Horak             Managing editor
Julie Adame              Associate editor
Stephen Wade            News editor
Michael Merschel          Editorial editor
Noel Gerdes             Campus editor
Craig Anderson           Sports
Dave Niegelberg         Photo editor
Dave Eames              Graphics editor
Jill Jones               ArtFeatures
Tom Elten              General manager, news advisor
Business staff
Greg Knipp ... Business manager
Draeb Cole ... Retail sales manager
Chris Cooper ... Campus sales manager
Linda Prokop ... National sales manager
Kurt Messerlin ... Promotions manager
Sarah Higdon ... Marketing manager
Brad Lenhart ... Production manager
Michelle Garland ... Asst. production manager
Michael Hanen ... Gaspard
Nikita ... Sales and marketing adviser
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and less than 200 words and must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University of Kansas, please include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and less than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to request or denounce an Inquirer student. If can be mailed or brought to the Kansan, the Kansan's Quarterly is the student's opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University. Only Kansan Editorials are the opinion of the Kansan editorial board.
The University Daily Kansan (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 St. Stephen Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64103. Inbound students begin registration on Sunday, Saturday, Sunday and International and Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage is paid in Lawrence, Ks. 60044. Annual subscriptions by mail are 450. Student postage is free.
**POSTMASTER:** Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Stuart-First Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045
The Non-thinker.
Mexican election just not for us
South-of-the-border system doesn't translate very we
one other day, I was talking to a Mexican friend, about U.S. politics, and she made a very interesting comment. She asked me if I thought Ronald Reagan was "on the take" — stealing as much money as possible from the public coffers before his term ended.
I quickly and dutifully informed my friend that no such corruption exists in the United States and that Mr. Keller has underhanded acts of Mexican presidents. For instance, many Western diplomats believe that top Mexican officials made off with billions of dollars during the administration of Portillo, Portillo, and President from 1976-82.
This type of corruption is not suspected of U.S. presidents, although one occasionally wonders how Romie can afford to pay all those joke money he spends on the military and by fat military contractors feeding at the Pentagon trough, and National Security Council personnel reap the profits by selling overpriced weapons to the American public.
I now realize that the degrees and types of corruption are not the only things that set the Mexican and U.S. governments apart. Mexico had looked nothing like what's going on here right now.
Well, on second thought, Mexico had a problem with voter apathy (my friend's father liked none of the Mexican candidates). Also, Mexico presidential candidate Cuautemoc Cardenas looks somewhat like Michael Dukakis, and I bet Cardenas speaks Spanish about as well as Dukakis does.
Brad Addington
Staff columnist
methods by which Mexico and the United States choose their head bonchos, and with good reason. I present here some rules of Mexican presidential politics and explain why most of them would not
■ In Mexico, the president serves for six years with no opportunity for a second term.
If we adopted this rule, the president no longer would waste the last months of his first term campaigning for re-election. He could instead devote his attention to the important affairs of government. Or, as in the case of Reagan, he could reduce the essential task of expanding his joke repertoire.
In Mexico, the ruling party's presidential candidate is chosen by the acting president. This dedoza, or chosen one, usually is a member of the president's administration.
This would give the Democrats and the Republicanians yet another incentive to get into the White House. Not only would the ruling party be on the government gravy train, it wouldn't have to move on the same level. Then again, the ruling party would lose the prime-time coverage that comes with a convention.
Also, recent history shows that this system could
pose serious problems for some people. Take George Bush, for example. After seeing who he selected as a running mate this year, Republicans wouldn't trust him to pick a winning GOP candidate at the end of his term. And Reagan? Anyone that he might have chosen as the GOP candidate would have already resigned from his administration and written a kiss-and-tell book.
Even we were to adopt this rule some day, it would be too late for George Bush.
in Mexico, there is no electoral college,
it is selected are selected by the opioid
Over the years, many people have argued for doing away with our electoral college. True, sometimes the electoral votes can make a difference in how much money is received, but this system serves a very important purpose: focusing on the electoral votes draws attention away from the embarrassingly low number of people who cast their votes.
In Mexico, the presidential candidates often provide vaccines with mounds and mounds of free
I don't know about Mexicans, but people in the I don't know about Mexicans, an unethical way of learning to speak and use English, to make this practice unfesible here. The candidates would go crazy trying to decide whether or not they should learn English.
Brad Addington is a Tecumseh
Brad Addington is a Tecumseh senior majoring in journalism and Latin American
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
KJHK amateurish
I am a graduate student in broadcasting and have more than 27 years of experience in radio. When I came to the University of Kansas and discovered KJIK, I was surprised, embarrassed and angry. I do not understand what I'm doing. The ranking, student-run daily newspaper can allow its student-run radio station to be such a miserable disgrace. The programming is not targeted for the majority of the 18-to-24-year old student body, and the programming execution is a joke. Amouncers talk off-mike, broadcasts and present the fundamentals of announcing are nonexistent.
I was anticipating great change after reading the article in the Kansan on Aug. 29, but I have been disappointed with the results. I think Jerryki should be more aware of what it takes to far enough, KJIR should have the same standards of excellence as our newspaper. The music should be targeted to reach the majority of KU's student body, and there should be an effort to give students the opportunity that could find jobs in the radio industry. A
journalism student who has worked for the kansan has a better chance at getting a job in newspapers than a JKHK journalism student. The JKHK experience is professional and prepares the student for the "real world," but the JKHK experience is not professional and really does he student harm. It gives him an unrealistic impression of the way radio really is in the newspaper.
I also do not understand why non-students should have positions at KJHK. KJHK should be our student laboratory for improving broadcast-strength of music programs, and of step music buffers who are not KU students.
It is my opinion that now is the time for KU students to demand from the administration and the KJIK student staff a radio station that will serve the many and not the few. A radio station must have a programming program and production execution as the Kansai KU students, it's time to speak up!
Jack Porteous Topeka graduate student
Thrash has value
I am writing to express my support for "thrash" music and the KJHK program "Monday Night Thrash." I am a fifth-year senior in architecture and have enjoyed listening to the
program in the late-might hours while I worked on my designs. I considered the content of the show fresh and exciting, a step away from the common, an exploration into the new. Without "avant-garde" bands such as those featured on the program, the music industry would stay.
There is a need for stations such as KJKH and shows such as "Monday Night Thrash". They provide the means by which the contemporary music scene can be taught. But it is sometimes controversial — people often are afraid of new things that they find difficult to understand. But if we let this fear paralyze our progress or keep us from exploring them then we are doing a disservice.
I was not a dishair listener of KJHK when I first came to the University, but as I grew and my interests grew bad he had to offer. Now with the format change, and particularly the elimination of "Monday Night Thrash," that student who follows KJHK's approach of an opportunity to make his own decisions.
New program director Jerry Howard claims that he wants a professional atmosphere. I to believe that professionalism has a place at KJHK, but need it come at the expense of
Let's not take away the only alternative that we have.
David Lisinski
Olathe senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
VOL
7