4
Friday, September 9,1977
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed column represent only the views of the writers.
Merit is a demerit
Administration rejection of a faculty plan to modify sabbatical selection procedures was inevitable but unfortunate.
was inevitable but not
Board of Regents guidelines state that
sabatical leaves one or two semester leaves of
absence from administrative or teaching
must be awarded solely on the basis
of merit. The faculty plan proposed
including other selection criteria, but
administrators, citing the Regents policy,
turned a deaf ear on the faculty request.
The request centered on using the following criteria in making two-thirds of all sabbatical awards: the amount of time elapsed since the applicant's last sabbatical, the number of sabbaticals already received by the applicant, and the immediate of opportunity for the applicant to pursue his objectives. Those criteria usually are defined because the course to do advanced study, conduct research or gain professional experience. Under the faculty request, "exceptional merit" would have been used to make one-third of the awards.
AT FIRST GLANCE, why not award all sabbaticals on merit alone? The problem is that merit ultimately is intangible.
The University Committee on Sabbatical Leaves, which is charged with determining
the relative merit of competing applications, faces an impossible task when it must determine whether one application has more "merit" than another. If both are truly outstanding, or if all of the applications are equally meritorious, the selection process is patently unfair.
patiently unfair.
Merit is in the eye of its beholder. It changes as often as the sabbatical committee's membership changes.
the stipimenb. T. F. Srinivasan, professor of mathematics and a vocal opponent last spring of the satirical committee, has given a further objection to the merit policy. To Srinivasan, not only has competition replaced merit in award decisions, but those decisions are weighted in favor of a "research emphasis. Proposals to take a leave to write a play or manuscript aren't looked on favorably."
The administration was handcuffed in considering the validity of the faculty proposal, but the proposal makes sense, and it deserves the Regents' attention. Reducing merit to apply in one-third of all applications may be extreme. However, there is little doubt that merit alone is too ambiguous to be the only way of determining who gets to advance his career and who doesn't.
Speeders take note: A new device has been added to the arsenal of radar equipment employed by the Kansas Highway Patrol Department in their thankless campaign to keep drivers under the 55-miles-an hour speed limit.
Radar sparks a war of the road
THE KR-11 is the latest development in the cat-and-mouse game between highway patrolmen enforcing the law and drivers with a stake in speeding, such as truckers, traveling salesmen and tired vacationers—people on the road
The device, which is produced by Kustom Signals Inc. of Chanute, is called KR-11. Operated by a small computer, the KR-11 does everything except the speeding ticket for the officer. It measures the speed of the patrol vehicle regardless of the speedometer reading, zeroes in on the target vehicle in and calculates the calculations, provides a digital display and printout and then takes a picture of the speeding car - faster than a bat's blink.
Since the KR-11 operates on a frequency more than double that of conventional radar and does not start working until a suspected speeder is in sight, the device disarms almost all radar-detecting equipment on the market.
Johnson well-qualified for FBI could reverse bureau's decline
Frank Johnson, a federal district court judge from Alabama, has been nominated as the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The financial comedy of Bert Lance's errors had all but obscured the Carter administration's talent for occasionally matching the right man with the right job.
The FBI has fallen on hard times during the last few years. Fueled by disclosures of indiscretions and illegal acts committed by past directors, especially J. Edgar Hoover, the public is justifiably alarmed that a nation's top law enforcement agency is staying within the law in doing its job.
J. EDGAR HOOVER, FBI director from 1924 until his death in 1972, is largely responsible for the erosion of public
John Mueller
Editorial Writer
confidence. Hoover ordered hundreds of illegal wirestaps and break-ins, secure in the knowledge that his private files could be used to blackmail potential opponents.
Early images of Hover and his "G-men" battle public Enemy No. 1 or Communist spies have vanished. Gone are the fury of warfare and the FBI is swallowed by viewers as reflecting reality. The heroic images have been replaced by ones of Hower, viz., in a scene from the 2013 movement, bugging the bedroom of Martin Luther King Jr.
As temporary FBI director, L. Patrick Gray also contributed to the erosion of public opinion about the notoriety during Wategate as the man who, after being implicated in destroying evidence on the scandal, was left by the court to "twit slowly in the wind."
civil rights, Johnson's record shows him to be well ahead of his time. Controversial rulings have been made against his classmate, Gov. George Wallace, to utter campaign objections about Johnson, who, in 1955, was the youngest federal district judge in the United States.
JOHNSON JUST isn't the type to oppose civil rights or bow to political influence. On
Johnson applied the U.S. Supreme Court's 1944 desegregation decision to transportation, an extension that assisted the Montgomery bus boycott organized by King.
Johnson's rulings helped abolish the poll tax in Alabama; required the integration of Alabama; jurors established a formula that became part of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite threats on his life, Johnsen to bow to political influence.
Republicans traditionally are not supposed to be strong in supporting civil rights. But in casting his lot with Republican Johnson, Carter has appointed a man whose strongest interest on the bench has been the importance of conditions for minorities.
BUT ONE ISSUE doesn't make a man. Johnson combined
his civil rights activism with landmark designs designed to improve Alabama's prisons and mental hospitals. He also extended the equal-protection law to women and fitted the principle of "one-man, one-vote" to legislative reapportionment.
An FBI source recently was quoted as saying he had not heard one negative comment against him, to Gov. Wallace praised "Maximum Frank," who earned his nickname by taking a law-and-order stand by sending criminals to long prison terms.
Carter and Griffin Bell, U.S. attorney general, took more than seven months to convince Johnson he should accept the offer. They knew that the administration took in making its selection and the persistence with which it sought Johnson are pervasive. Johnson's separation from political pressures in the Deep South and his pacing rulings are commendable. When Calvert, then governor on Jan 1, Johnson will be well qualified to replace him.
Dave Johnson
editorial Writer
who want to get where they're going in a hurry.
enforce a law that has been publicly embraced by ecologists, energy wizards and politicians, but that in practice is ignored by almost everyone. As drivers, we want to be more generous, expensive and wasteful, and yet we continue to push our vehicles beyond the 55-miles-an-hour speed limit. A recent survey checking driving times at the Kansas Turnpike shows that the drivers exceed one-third of the drivers exceeded the maximum legal speed limit.
Now devices such as the Furz-buster, which emits a high-pitched beep when a motorist applicates its hands to the rendered almost useless by the KR-11. Even the effectiveness of the Citizen Band radio is being challenged by unmarked or no-lens carads. And the battle goes on.
SO WHO IS AHEAD in the turmike race? The manufacturers of sophisticated radar and sonar are that's who. And like the
manufacturers of defensive armaments, the radar suppliers will continue to profit from two competing sides who, despite their mutual agreement that the race is absurd, continue to buy equipment to outwit each other.
What the technological warfare demonstrates is that highway patrolmen are obligated to
Perrums the solution will be the adoption of a system used by highway patrolmen in the Republic of South Africa, a country not mobile. Speevers are photographed by a device, similar to the KR-11, that shows the license plate of the vehicle and the speed at which the vehicle was traveling. The driver drives on the spot, however, the photograph is sent to the home of the car's owner.
A careless speeder could receive several tickets on a cross-country jacket and not be caught. A speeding home. A stack of $20 to $30 speeding citations would bring home the economic wisdom of driving within the speed limit to most reckless car owners.
No doubt the enforcement methods of the South African patrolmen are drastic. But surely it would be useful to report Robert Bennett's expensive media campaign to convince drivers to slow down. Sometimes the most compelling arguments for Governing Law is attached to the pocketbook range than the head.
Record distorts speeches
N. Y. Times Features
By WILLIAM A. STEIGER
Four years ago, the Record contained 38,500 pages and cost $8.2 million to print, in fiscal 2016. The same number of pages at a cost of $14.6 million.
N. Y. YEAR ELENDA WASHINGTON BORDER federal law, the Congressional report is supposed to be "b substantially a verbatim report of proceedings" of the Senate and House of Representatives. But 70 per cent of the Congressional Record now consists of remarks never uttered in either chamber.
A single page this year costs $317 to produce, a little over a decade ago the cost was under $100 a page. If the price keeps
According to the Congressional Record, Hale Boggs addressed the House on Oct. 18, 1972; tragically, he had disappeared in Alaska two days earlier in a plane crash.
Forced health insurance called outrageous
To the editor:
rising and nothing is done to reduce the extraneous material members toss into the Record, or the fact that it could become prohibitive.
IF "VULNERABILITY" is the main reason for forced health insurance for foreign students, we would lose a lot of students, whose "vulnerability" may be even greater than some foreign students, are not forced. It does not take great imagination to visualize a student as American students are forced to buy health insurance.
It is reported that the increase in the fee this year, from $156 to $209, is in part due to the loss of the company had with KU last year. And it is fact that if the number of students under the plan increases, it is less likely that the company will
We see this ruling as a means to head off the prospective increase in health insurance premiums by Blue Cross-Blue Shield in the next few years at the expense of foreign students.
It is outrageous that the Kansas Board of Regents mandated that all foreign students at Kansas schools buy health insurance plans starting this fall semester.
KANSAN Letters
The reason, given by Clark Coan, dean of foreign students, in the Lawrence Journal-World, is that foreign students have greater "vulnerability" with respect to expenses. The example given by him when he called up dad in Salina and say "Hey, I need some money," when some health costs crop up.
Most foreign students were angry and bitter when they went to Hoch Auditorium two weeks ago and were unable to obtain maternity materials they purchased health insurance first.
In the application form for the health coverage specially made for foreign students at the University of Kansas, students were informed only of the semi-annual and annual plans. The monthly plan, which is also available, was not permitted.
lose money. And, subsequently it will be less likely that fees will increase in the future.
Mandatory purchases of the coverage by more than 1,500 foreign students will certainly help head off the increases. Moreover, no forceful opposition from these students who have already lived under numerous immigration rules
Cross-Blue Shield coverage—may join the plan and KU will be less vulnerable with respect to student bills of uninsured students.
IT CAN BE EXPECTED that if there is no increase in the fee, at least the same number of students would cost 3,670 KU$_i$ students bought Blue
We are resentful and bitter.
We think this ruling is unfair and unconstitutional and hope that our fair-minded, freedom-loving American friends will sympathize and agree with us.
Varkarn Smakoses
Kulaya Koravkovi
Montira Pichaikhannanong
Thailand graduate students
and constraints can be expected.
We are resentful and bitter.
After reading John Mueller's article in the Sept. 1 issue of the Kansan, I felt compelled (as I'm sure did many others) to admit that I was pressing my disappointment directed at the publishers of the Kansan and expressing my disgust that this article, which was apparently based on a study by the University, was allowed to be published.
Debunk of Elvis draws defense
The article was totally absurd! In reading it, I found myself confused to whom my teacher is Howard Hughes or "the King."
To the editor:
If Mueller would have invested a small amount of time in research before writing his article, it would have saved him the embarrassment he must now feel in the public. The public does not buy articles written on pure fabrication.
First of all, what is wrong with "being white and singing black"? Societyly acceptable or unacceptable? Music is music; music what it is today and
In 1974 I went to Kansas City to see the Elvis concert. He looked fantastic! It was only in his last years that he began to gain weight. He had been weigh conscious for years.
paved the way for Elvis to become the King of Rock and Roll. Contrary to Mueller's article, the Beatles' main influence was Elvis Presley, not Chuck Berry or Little Richard.
By the way, Mueller, from what source did your medical diagnosis come — the National Enquirer? It is really odd that the cause of Elvis' heart attack was never mentioned, that is, the same cause that was printed in your article.
Elvis Presley had one of the most fantastic voices I have ever heard. He could capture audiences from "Peace in the Valley" to "Way Down." This is not just my opinion either, Mueller, this has been stated by many professional artists. After all, to reach Elvis Presley's level of musical brilliance he must be more than "grating hips."
I suggest you read "Elvis, a Biography" by Jerry Hopkins. Here is by an accomplished journalist who actually does some research before publishing!
In this book, you will see all sides of Elvis Presley, including that talented, generous, caring side of Elvis that made us all admire and love him, with the exception of those few who were so jealous of him and his success that they would lower themselves, failate stories about them, boost their ego. That is called an inferiority complex, Mueller.
I'm not painting Elvis Presley perfect, but shooting a TV set because he didn't like Robert Goulet? Come, now! Did this also come from the car or the National Enquirer?
Melva Underwood
2200 Harper, Lawrence
Editor's note:
Cost is but one reason why reform of the Record is badly needed. Unlike the British and Canadian Hansards, which are verbatim accounts of parliamentary sessions, the Record is more accurately described of what actually happens in the House and Senate.
Eddor a shoe.
According to a lengthy story by the Knight-Ridder News Service, doctors said
the cause of Presley's heart attack was "straining at the stool," resulting from constipation. The source for the television-shooting incident was Newsweek magazine.
Letters Policy
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten and include the writer's name, address, phone number, and email address. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include the writer's class and home address, and his full position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit letters for publication.
THE DAILY misrepresentations appearing in the Record do a disservice to all. Because so many unuttered speeches do the Record, it is steadily declining in importance as a document of legislative history. At the same time, it is an average for legislators gain remarks or for never-spoken remarks and instant recognition from voters to whom they send reprints.
Only occasionally is it obvious that a speech was not really made. According to the Record, Rep. Hale Boggs, D-LA., addressed the House on Oct. 18, 1972; tragically, he had disappeared in Alaska two days earlier in a plane crash.
It is easy to carry on the deception. In early 1975, a representative offered us support in supporting an amendment to the oil depletion allowance, "I speak," "he began, 'because I cannot remain silent on this matter.' Have a nice piece; but they were nice to me on the floor House."
It is ironic that the Record's account of the debate on a new House ethics code contains unspoken words. Eight of them specifically said, "I rise" most in support or strong support, but one with reluctance and one with serious reservations.
The present standards can have serious ramifications.
ONE MYTHICALLY thanked the chairman "for the opportunity to address this body on the question of the ethics code"; another, also absent, chided his colleague and into the night about and around the issue before us."
Officials in federal agencies look to congressional debate for
guidance in writing regulations for congressional mandated programs. Prearranged collocation, House or Senate often are used expressly for this purpose.
When an unstated argument has been printed without rebuttal, the content can be clouded forever.
In 1971, for example, the Record showed that Edith Green of Oregon and John Erlenborn of Illinois, both house members, had apparently been appointed to give comments on the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Rep. Green's inserted and unspoken remarks said Rep. Erlenborn's substitute cut the heart out of his campaign, clearly present on the floor, made no attempt to counter the claim.
L
Within two weeks, the Labor Department released an opinion based on this "debate" which, of course, had the relevant language was dropped in conference, thus averting damage in this case. But in an era of increasingly complex legal ability of arrest in interpretation by falsification.
SEVEN YEARS AGO, during debate on the Legislative Reorganization Act, Rep. Bob Eckhardt of Texas and I proposed that members be allowed to correct only grammatical and typographical errors in the Record, not the actual plan. Under that plan, statements not actually spoken would be printed in a distinguishably different type face. The proposal was rejected.
In₂ learn can then
During the 94th Congress more than 70 members from both houses co-sponsored a bill to have the Record show unspoken speeches in a different type face. The Rules Committee of both houses ignored requests for hearing.
More reception to calls for action has been the Joint Committee on Printing, chaired by Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Nev. That committee's staff and Government Printing Office represent a group of state agencies concerned legislators over the last two years. Although they content that use of a distinguishably different type face would be expensive and time-consuming, they have suggested an alternative: undergo a predeceded and succeeded by a printed designation, such as brackets or stars.
IN FEBRUARY, this suggestion was followed, with legislation introduced calling for the printed designation. It has received broad support in both houses, with more than one-third of the House as co-sponsors.
Prompt action can permit the first Record of the 95th Congress' second session, which begins in January, to be an honest one.
A majority of the Joint Committee on Printing has endorsed the new approach, the Senate Leadership has said it has no objection to it, and the Committee is instructive in providing a guidance from the House leadership, has proposed a modified version of it.
The way has now been paved. Perhaps we are nearer to the day when the Congressional Record will in fact be "substantially a verbatim report of proceedings."
William A. Steiger, a Republican, represents Wisconsin's sixth district in the House of Representatives.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily August 13, 2004
June and July are expected Saturday, Sunday and holiday Sunday. June and July except Saturday. Sunday and holiday Sunday.
69045 Subscriptions by mail are $10 a semester or $15 a year outside the county. Student information is available at www.cu.edu.
A year outside the county Student information is available at www.cu.edu.
Editor Jerry Seib
Jerry Sellh
Managing Editor
John Sellh
Editorial Editor
Steve Brunzweig
Camusiana
Marilyn L. Brown
Business Manager Judy Lohr
Assistant Business Manager Patricia Thornton
Advertising Manager Diane Gunzinger
Director of Marketing Don Green