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Friday. October 7,1977
University Daily Kansan
Comment
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN-
Unsigned editorialists represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Signed column represent only the views of the writers.
Walker spurns students
Clyde Walker, University of Kansas athletic director, this week made some heavy-handed, indefensible attempts to cover up his proposal to pay for Memorial Stadium renovations by raising football ticket prices.
The idea of raising ticket prices was broached at Wednesday's meeting of the KU Athletic Corporation. Walker tried to persuade a Kansan reporter before, during and after the meeting not to report details of the proposal.
Walker's reasoning was that the proposal was not a final plan, and he said some people might be upset at the idea of higher ticket prices. He added that he would be willing to discuss the renovations in detail in about six weeks; his construction probably would be started.
SUCH A BLASTANT attempt to hide plans to finance a $2 million construction project at a state university is difficult to fathom. Of course, we cannot afford the higher ticket prices; objecting is their right.
It is clear, however, that Walker would rather lay his plans to raise ticket prices behind closed doors, then spring the invitation for a tour. It is far too late for discussion or dissension.
Contrary to Walker's philosophies, the athletic programs at KU are run for the benefit of students, not high-paying alumni or members of the inner circle of athletic power. Plans to raise student and general ticket prices must be public information.
THE KUAC's comfortable status as a private corporation running the sports program of a public university gives Walker a cocky self-assuredness and can give him a virtually free hand in making decisions. But there is no ethical excuse for his ongoing desires to make in secret decisions that affect students and the people of Kansas.
Perhaps Walker is aware that some people may object to portions of the renovation plan that would remodel Victory Club seats, which are sold to free-spending athletic program supporters; establish a VIP seating section, or earmark $50,000 for construction of a wall around the south end of the stadium.
But Memorial Stadium is state property. The people who sit in it are citizens of the state of Kansas, and the players who perform there are students. We scratch them are students at a state institution.
MEMORIAL STADIUM is a public building. Students pay heavily to support the athletic programs in that building. They have an unalterable right to know what decisions are being made—and what buildings are being considered—about their buildings.
This episode is just the latest in a series of attempts to buildup KUAC decisions past the student body. The KUAC has a chronic habit of closing its meetings, and it was at one time not an official football team, sidedered, in secret, a plan to move the KU-Missouri football game to Kansas City, Mo.
Students have wheeled out four seats on the KUAC, and if not for those seats the public would be largely in the dark about athletic department decisions. Not surprisingly, the four student members were dismissed because they posed the plan to raise ticket prices; the plan, however, received preliminary approval by an 8-5 vote.
The KUAC attitude to athletics, and Walker's attitude toward students, raise some serious questions about intercollegiate athletics. KU athletic officials sometimes say that they will simply stay home. After all, that would make room for more VIP seating.
Amazing. And amusing. Rep.
Larry McDonald, D-GA., a member of the John Birch Society, was able to talk nine other congressmen into supporting his resolution to impeach U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young.
The resolution, introduced Monday, accused Young of 21 offenses that supposedly merit impeachment.
According to the U.S. Constitution, an official must commit "high crimes and misdemeanors" to be impeached. McDonald accuses young of being a victim of assaults and lying himself with "world revolutionary forces."
Young's impeachment absurd
The resolution also noted Young's statement that the British "invented racism," his support of "reds" in Mozambique, and a reference to Cuban forces in Angola as a "stabilizing influence," his advocacy of increasing foreign aid to the Marxist governments of Haiti, Jamaica and other behionic crimes.
The resolution lists as impeachable offenses Young's failure to oppose the admission of Vietnam into the United Nations, his expressed support for North Korea, black guerrillas in Rhodesia and his reference to Sweden as a country of racists.
APARENTLY ANDY has been a bad boy and McDonald wants to thrash him behind the conressional woodshed.
Young definitely has made a fairish remarks, and McBroom's his foreign policy statements—but that's no reason to impeach him.
Young has committed no "high crimes and misdemeanors."
He simply has said whatever he thought needed saying,
Escapist movies capture money
Last summer was good to the movie industry. Figures that were released last week showed that moviegoers spent more on big screen entertainment last summer in history. Box offices took in gross profits of $2.25 billion dollars, a figure that doesn't include the profits from popcorn, soft drinks and other consumer products that tempt the fan who pauses near the refreshment stand.
What did Americans choose to shell out their inflation-plagued dollars for this sum? What do they are surprisingly varied.
"The Deep" and "The Spy Who Loved Me," adventure pictures of questionable artistic merit, also were big at the box office. And "Smokey and the Bandit," in which Burt
"Star Wars," of course, was the No. 1 box office hit of the season. The film has grossed over $150 million so far, and the final tail will far surpass even that dianow-studded figure.
Editorial Writer
Lynn Kirkman
Editorial Writer
Reynolds plays a good old boy who is chased from Texasarkana by the Eagles. Gleason, was a surprise winner. Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" is reported doing as well in Europe as it is in the United States.
EVERYBODY LOVES a success story. But the summer also left some disappointments for filmmakers who bet their bundles on films that didn't make money. Failures included "Ideal" and "MacArt: 'Rollercoaster'," "MacArt: 'The Heretic'."
taping up the winners and losers probably will provide food for thought for psychologists and sociologists who help us interpret American culture. A brief look at the
scorecard indicates that the odds for success have tipped in favor of escapist films. Pictures that offer fantasy, adventure such as soapy sex apparently involve the occult and violence and the occult.
Whether that indicates some portentious national trend that we are becoming less accepting (cf hard action and more inward entertainment is something entertainment is something that time will allow us to judge.
And because the Hollywood formula for success often calls for mixing proven genres in hopes of attaining an even tighter grasp on our hearts, minds and imagination, we find a combination of several types of pictures making a bid at the box office.
**WHAT IS far more certain is that Hollywood will repeat itself and we will be seeing more of the same in the future. The most successful success" has a companion in Hollywood: "Nothing breeds like success." Hollywood is, first of all, a business-wise community that responds to the prospect of making money.
A sequel to "Star Wars" already is in the works. We won't have to long to find out what will happen to Luke
and Leia, the lovable 'droids and arch-villain Dhar Vader. Burk Reynolds probably has at least two pictures left in him, despite a performance in "Deliverance" that raises the hope that he is capable of doing so.
By next summer we may be flocking to see "Moon Chase," the new hit in which a secret agent with a Southern drawl and a Jewish 'droid wearing swim fins are pursued through deep space by a portly sky diver. By next summer she is beautiful maiden who is tertially insecure and punctates her conversation with "la-de-dah."
It sounds like another winner, Hollywood. What do you think?
Ross McIlvain
Editorial Writer
regardless of the consequences.
his remarks often offended people and nations, many of whom have rededicated social value.
They often were true. That should count for something.
And as for his foreign policy stands, they may be the sort of thing that enrages an arch-duck or Donald. But they aren't crimes.
calls the truth as he sees it.
Remarks of debatable wisdom
are not impeachable offences
Even if a person doesn't always agree with You, he has to admire a politician who
is bound to fall sooner or later,
peacefully or bloody. America
should make friends with the
emerging government and try
to influence it toward
intrinsic values and
procedures.
THEY MAY HAVE MORE merit than most people realize. For example, it is true that the black insurgents in Rhodesia are mostly Marxists. But there a simple reason for that. The United States, a nation that symbolizes capitalism, supports the government that oppresses the Marxists. They have to go to either the Russians or the Chinese for help. If the United States were to impose such a government training and moral support, they probably would be pro-capitalist and pro-American.
By joining nine other congressmen in a flying red squad to purge Young, McDonald has shown that the holy flame of American reactionaries "not gone from the fight would be hilarious if they weren't in the U.S. Congress."
Disregarding for a moment the fact that the black African rebels have a right to majority rule, American support of the former president is purely pragmatic standpoint. The white minority government
Increasing black unemployment potentially explosive for Carter
Although no one can be certain about what the correct answer is, the silence should not be a cause for complacency.
By ROBERT S. BROWNE
The intractability of the depression-level unemployment rates in the black community is emerging as a main cause for concern by the Carter administration. Although it appears to be an issue with fire, it is explosive overnight, and the President is well advised to address it sooner rather than later.
Since at least 1974, thoughtful social observers, noting the alarming unemployment rates and being asked to be asking, "Why is the black community so quiet in the face of these levels of unemployment?" We were rioting and building place such as we saw in the late 1960s.
about the gravity of the problem.
The official August figures for black unemployment was 14.5 per cent. The rate for black teenagers was 40.4 per cent.
In every category, black unemployment figures were substantially above those for whites—white teenage unemployment was only 14.7 per cent—and the over-all ratio of white to black unemployment was 2.4 to 1, continuing a dismaying upward trend that makes a discovery of the last decade and a half of affirmative action programs designed to eliminate racial discrimination in the workplace.
The causes for the deterioration of black employment conditions may be due to the lack of demand sides of the market.
place, and they often interact with one another.
On the supply side are such factors as the low skill levels and poor training that characterize so large a portion of the population, a legacy of the population, a legacy of the racism of previous generations.
These deficiencies, which have become more pronounced as advancing technology has steadily reduced American labor, have led to become self-perpetuating as the factors on the demand side of the market—racism, economic stagnation and the flight of industry from the inner city—job opportunities that the black youth has been coming on.
Letters Policy
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typed and include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include the writer's class and home town, and the location. Letters should not exceed 500 words in length. The Kansan reserves the right to edit letters for publication.
Chinese group member rebuts charges
To the editor:
In his letter titled, "Suspected agents split Chinese group," Kansan, Oct. 4, Shek-Lean Woo (Sam Woo) said that certain "spies" were the organizers of the Free China Club (FCC), thus giving a very distorted impression of this club's nature.
Letters
The FCC consists of almost 90 freedom-loving student members and is registered as a legal organization at KU. FCC advocates strong support of the Chinese students to further the unification of Chinese students at KU, we use our policy to encourage FCC
members to participate in the activities held by the Chinese Student Association (CSA). We have no intention to split or merge with any other group, want to emphasize our position as an independent group with an absolute right to schedule and communicate interference from outsiders.
Sam's arguments are wholly inaccurate and even absurd. On behalf of all FCC members, we
proclaim that no FCC member was ever commissioned as a "spy" or as an "agent" by the government. This is not to mention the absurdity that we are "scaring Chinese students away from joining CSA." If there are any exceptions, it should think is a spy. We would appreciate an answer to this question. If there is none, then Sam's letter is simply an attempt to manage the FCC's reputation.
The claim that FCC is "damaging the image of CSA's leader" is another absurdity. Since Sam Woo was the president of CSA in 1976, we may ask whether Sam Woo had his image damaged. How can he justify such provocative argumentation?
Sam Woo also accused FCC of deliberate competition in social activities. Yes, we had a "movie showing on the same day that CSA had their picnic," but those who came back from Atlanta for a afternoon all got a chance to enjoy the movie in the evening.
Surely it is not worthwhile to refute each charge made by Sam. However, we cannot remain silent when he mistakenly calls our Republic of China's national birthday, the national day of China, and many foreigners are aware of the establishment of the
Republic of China under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen on Oct. 10, 1911, following the overthrow of the Manchu Empire. We wonder how Sam could be ignorant of such a fact. Insult may well account for a pretense of ignorance.
Sam's charges, we believe, might mislead all the foreign students at KU and our American friends to unknowable horror. Unknowable horror is the facts are the touchstone of any argument. Sam, as we know, is not a Communist, nor is he an agent from mainland China. He is, however, a very active devotee of communism at KU, instilling pro-Communist ideas into those who seek to and creating conflicts among students from Free China.
Chou Yean-Wan Taipei, Republic of China graduate student
Dancer defends performance To the editor:
Chou Yeuan-Wan
Iwas rather surprised to see a write-up of my performance at Off-the-Wall Hall in your paper. I wonder if the person who wrote it was even watching when I danced. I do not think that I have ever "silenced" in my entire dance career and, thus, that I did certainly would have asked for the correct spelling of my name, which is as you see it (below).
Nejat
105 E. Eighth St.
Park opposition selfishly based
To the Editor:
If Ross McIlvain is so emotionally concerned about the individual's basic right to his land in the Fint Hills, he can return his land to its original owners, the Plains Indians.
His reasoning in opposition to the Tallgrass Prairie National Park is so selfish as to be almost humorous. If the area is large enough, the government shouldn't the government have a responsibility to provide the opportunity for more than a "hateful of families" to appreciate it? The Flint Hills have been kept so well fenced that we don't need them to appreciate their ecological and historical significance.
The proposed park is a miniscule remnant of the former tallgrass prairie ecosystem and on some of the remaining tallgrass. It is probably more lenient to landowners than any other national park proposal ever made. He says that cattle grazing will not harm it, yet claims it will last forever unchanged in the Flint Hills.
The question seems to be whether to "save the Flint Hills" for a handful of families to do with as they please, or to save the Flint Hills" for the title to 210 million Americans.
John Parsons Berkeley, Calif., graduate student
Buffeted year after year in a futile search for a way to break into the system, black youths pass from hope to despair, and their incentive to acquire skills that empower them to generation gradually is consigned to the human scrap heap of social deviance, whether by the passive forms of drugs and mental illness or through the more active rejection of the street crime and other felonies.
Unfortunately, there is little likelihood that this tinderbox situation soon will be defused substantially. The administration should attempt to attempt to stimulate the economy by orthodox fiscal measures combined with modest targeting of some employment directly to the pickets of and persistent unemployment.
Inadequate as these efforts are, however, they are under continuing attack from the right, which views inflation and budgetary deficits as a greater threat than black unemployment.
Thus, monetary policy throttles fiscal policy, and the administration's commitment to a balanced budget by 1981 becomes the quid pro quo for improving community's support.
On the left, the articulated concern of black leadership has attracted an emerging coalition that is using its influence to other liberal groups—
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essentially, the coalition that was responsible for Jimmy Carter's election—that is focusing its efforts on the Humphrey-Hawkins full employment bill.
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The obvious appeal of the full-employment concept is that it is one great asset for a host of awkward and related economic and social problems that do not lend themselves to piecemeal solutions.
Laudable as this notion is, however, the enthusiastic observer is well advised to temper his optimism. It is far from clear that sustained full employment is achievable without serious modification of our ability to cope with stress, modifications for which there is as yet little indication of popular support.
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A genuinely effective full-employment program probably will require some, perhaps all, of the following: a degree of economic planning to which Americans are unaccustomed; some degree of mandatory job assignments; a government incentive in traditionally felt to be the preserve of private enterprise, and at least some limited control over wages and prices.
These are not necessarily evil practices, but they do represent a significant evolution away from the state which traditionally has characterized America, and the resistance to their adoption is still strong.
It is increasingly apparent, however, that left to itself the economy is not going to solve the problem of black unemployment, nor will the various income-maintence proposals be proposed, really address the problem of enforced idleness.
It is no longer a question of government intervention versus nonintervention.
Rather, it is a question of on whose behalf the government will intervene.
People want work, not a dole, and it is up to the government to take whatever steps are necessary to provide this work.
Robert S. Browne is president of the Black Economic Research Center.
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