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Page 4 University Daily Kansan, September 10, 1981
Opinion
Providing real answers
What happens when a KU student is approached by a professor who wants sexual favors in return for good grades? For that matter, what happens in the reverse situation, when a teacher is approached or threatened by a student?
Until now, probably not much.
Victims of sexual harassment typically are reluctant to complain about their situation, either out of fear of being blamed for the incident themselves or out of skepticism that anything can be done to help them.
But if the student-faculty policy is to offer any true protection, it cannot be a halfway measure.
In hopes of dealing with this problem, KU faculty and administrators have been working on a sexual harassment policy for the University. SenEx is currently looking over two policy drafts, one for employers and employees and the other for faculty and students.
Right now, the policy defines sexual harassment as "the use of the authority vested in an employee . . . to compel a student to engage in sexual relations," or to retaliate against a student for refusal to comply with such a demand. The policy also makes a vague reference to preventing the solicitation of sexual relations by a KU student for the purpose of "influencing" the performance of a University employee.
The employee policy is required as part of KU's Affirmative Action program, and many of its guidelines are predetermined by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The student-faculty policy, however, is optional, and the administration deserves praise for having the courage and initiative to create it.
That may be fine for starters, but it's clear that much more is needed, and should be expected, from such a policy.
Some of our more outspoken faculty members are correct when they say the policy as woreded would protect a student or a professor from no harassment short of rape. There are many ways, however, to intimidate or harm someone. For instance, the employee policy also includes "sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature" in its definition of sexual harassment.
KU administrators and faculty are concerned that such an expanded definition will encourage abuse by students, who may only "imagine" they are being harassed.
But fears of abuse could be countered with the establishment of a sensitive and competent grievance board, like the one set at Yale University, designed to hear complaints of sexual harassment. When the board feels a student has a case, it acts as mediator between all parties and tries to determine the facts. If a claim is deemed unjustified, the board explains to the student what alternative courses of action may be taken.
This arrangement gives students somewhere they can go for confidential counseling and help. And there is no reason such a grievance board couldn't handle complaints from the faculty as well.
Whatever plan is adopted at KU, the harassment policy under consideration here will have to be made more comprehensive. A cry for help shouldn't have to be a cry of rape to be heard.
High school diploma useless if not backed by knowledge
A public school education today is failing to make the grade.
Some high school graduates cannot read at a grade-school level or do basic mathematical computations. No longer does a high school diploma mean that students are competent in basic skills, but only that they have been warm bodies in cold desks for about 12 years.
Declining test scores may be one indication that a diploma isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Since 1972 the number of college-bound high school seniors who scored 680 and above on the APitude Test has dropped 46 percent on the verbal portion and 22 percent on the math portion.
A high school education is a joke, but no one is
KARI
ELLIOTT
laughing. In fact, public opinion is highly critical of schools.
There are many reasons for the decline in the quality of public school education, but the most important one is that it is not
In a recent Gallup Poll, nearly half the respondents said schools were doing a poor or only fair job. Fifty-nine percent of teachers should be better trained; 60 percent said they would be better trained in a more orderly atmosphere. About 70% of academic basics needed to be emphasized more.
Horror stories of teacher incompetence run across the country. A fifth-grade teacher in South Carolina, who had taught for nearly 30 years, could not correctly define "aggritarian" or Chicago, a third-grade teacher wrote on the book: "Put the following words in alphabetical order."
But incompetent teachers deserve only part of the blame. Even the most talented, inspired and caring teachers would have difficulty doing their jobs when violence and threats of violence are concerned.
In 1979, about 110,000 teachers, 5 percent of the U.S. total, reported that they were attacked by students, an increase of 57 percent from the previous year.
Counteracting school violence has become such a problem in Southern California that the Los Angeles schools now have the third largest police force in the county.
But having a peaceful school with fantastically competent teachers won't do any good when students don't give a damn about their education.
Test scores will decline when students would rather watch television every night than read books.
Television age children expect all their classes
to be fun and entertaining. If the teacher isn't Steve Martin or Lily Tomlin, students fall asleep or cut the class.
But television is not the only culprit.
If students would put even half the energy into their studies that they do into athletics, test scores would probably rise. If students spent more time at school, do on their part-time jobs, grades would improve.
Making a high school diploma valuable again is going to take the efforts of students and parents.
Administrators must support teachers through effective and fair disciplinary procedures. They must not drown teachers in bureaucratic paperwork that takes time from teaching and lesson preparation. Principals and superintendent must be just as competent as their faculty.
Teachers must be knowledgeable at least in their subject areas. Competency testing is a step in the right direction, but these tests will tell only if teachers are literate, not if they are good teachers. The most knowledgeable teacher won't understand or can communicate that knowledge. Other qualities like sensitivity, understanding or flexibility won't show up on a competency test.
In the final analysis, however, students must want to get a good education. This might mean adjusting their priorities to include academics as well as athletics and after-school jobs.
In order to attract competent people into education, salaries must be comparable with those in other professions. A beginning engineer with a bachelor's degree will make about $23,000 a year, while a first-year teacher's salary is about $12,000.
The short-term benefit of a little extra cash for Saturday night's date may seem important now, but not when the functionally filterer is running. A job that pays more than minimum wage.
School athletics let student and teacher get to know each other outside the formal classroom setting, but athletics not dominate a student's life.
Parents also must do their part in helping their children receive a top-notch education. They must do more than making sure Suzie or Johnny can enjoy every day, although that would be a good start.
In addition, parents must provide a good learning environment at home. Have books, magazines and newspapers in the home and allow children to watch television all evening would set a good example.
The majority of students aren't going to make a career of basketball or football, but they will be interested in it.
The responsibility for a good education must be shared by everyone associated with public schooling in a high school diploma becomes completely worthless, can a college degree be far behind?
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Hell not so verv far from the Hill
Midway through my college years, I wandered away from the normal four-year road and awoke to find myself alone in the dark wilderness of Academic Idleness. Death itself can scarcely be more fearsome than that place! From there, I found myself down the path to the Academic Inferno, the place where none had ever left—alive.
I thought myself doomed for certain when a spiritual presence materialized in front of me. It was Plato, founder of the Academy, ancestor of my great University. Plato extinct from history. Advisor to rescue you. Before you fall among those punished for their academic sins, you
A Welcome
should know the torments in store for you. Thus I am here to guide you through the Academic Inferno, where those of the dead are brought to the second death, not of the body, but of the mind."
With no place else to turn in that gloomy realm, I followed Plato, who led me to the gate of Hells itself. "Abandon all hope ye who enter here," the gate warned, but my eyes upon a red sandstone block crumbling in front of him, "Once it read, 'Whoso findeth wisdom findeth life,' " Plato told me, "but none you will meet here heeded that advice."
While we passed through the outskirts of Hell, my Guide told me the Inferno consisted of nine concentric Circles leading down into the central Pit. As we entered the First Circle, I saw hundreds of people engaged in some sort of work. Some were sowing salt; some were scooping up river water with a sieve; some were comparing apples and oranges.
My Guide told me these were the souls who had not seized upon the opportunity presented by God.
said, but neither are they rewarded, so they die death the same simple tasks they did in life.
The First Circle
In the Second Circle I found those Legislators and Community Members who had not supported the University. They, too, are unpunished in the Periphery of Hell, for, as Plato told me, ignorance is its own worst punishment.
First I saw bodies lying across the road so that no one passing through could proceed without stepping on them. I asked who these poor souls were and was told they were the Administrators who had used the University only as a stepping stone to positions of greater fame and income, and for that, they must act as Hell's own stepping stones.
Beyond the Periphery lay the towering spires of Dis, capital of Hell. Here in the Third Circle began the punishment of evil University Administrators.
Next we passed a crevassage in which hundreds of fearsome red serpents strangled the host.
DON
MUNDAY
told those crushed by the coiled monsters were bureaucrats who had allowed red tape to complicate and even prohibit academic growth.
I rushed past the crevassure only to stumble upon a horde of headless bodies. Their leader carried his head tucked under his arm, and to speak to me, he held the head out at arm's length. When I inquired about his condition, he replied:
"Iin life, I foolishly allowed athletics to take the place of academic pursuits. I paid athletes to play basketball when I made students pay to learn to read and write. For trying to turn it around, I had to schachie, I must now wander without my head, for I never used it when I had the chance."
I was so frightened by the headless mob that I ran ahead from my Guide and soon found myself lost in a flaming courtroom marked by Red Zone signs. Here in the Fourth Circle were those who had tormented faculty and students alike. Here were those of Parking Services—those with malice toward all, with charity toward none—meeting their just fates. The court, presided over by grotesque demons, judged the Parking Officers, and then Furies whipped them into eternal pain.
Just as I thought I would go mad from the cries of anguish that surrounded me, my
The Bureaucrats
Guide found me and led me into the Fifth Circle, which was reserved for the sinful faculty. Scarcely had we entered the Circle they dismembered bodies squirting in the sand.
"These are the professors who once cared about teaching, but who in their old age allowed TAs to do their work," Plato said sadly. "By allowing themselves less and less contact with students, these professors separated themselves from their livelihood. So it is with them in Hell, with their limbs separated from their bodies."
Next I passed a land where huge boulders dropped without warning from the stormy sky and crushed the spirits of professors. These were those instructors who had graded too harshly, who had in life crushed the hopes of many a student by excessive use of a savage red pen. In death, these teachers have no control over their own fates because of other heartless demons, who toss great boulders like those teachers had tossed D's and F's.
Then I met a group of teachers whose heads were reversed on their bodies, so the only way they could see where they were going was to walk backward. These, I learned, were those who had emphasized publication and research over teaching, and for having their priorities so reversed, physical reversal was their punishment.
That group gave way to the Sixth Circle, where Plato warned me to meet my peers. This was Inner Hell, where students themselves were punished.
First I saw students crying in agony because they had just missed feeding time, the only sustenance offered in all Hell. These were the students who had consistently been deprived of food and were condemned to always be late for the thine that could relieve their gnawing hunger
Also in the Sixth Circle were students digging holes in the red earth. They were the Ditchers, who must forever dig holes in Hell just as they dug holes in their education by skipping classes. Beyond them were students impaled on thorny buses; their skin was
ripped off by savage birds. These were the students who had turned the dorms into living hells, who had vandalized the halls and made others suffer from their noise. These sinners were tormented by the vandalization of their rooms and by the terrible din of a million earth-battering stores; the noise was such that neither Palor nor I could even approach them.
Beyond that was the Seventh Pt, filled by the Wayward Greeks, who were punished for the crimes of fraternities and sororites. I saw the Hazers, whose bodies were ripped to shreds by razor-tootled demons, and the Eltists, who had in life snubbed all others. In freedom to wander throughout Hell, yet they most lowly sinners there refused to talk to them—an ostracization that was the greatest possible punishment for Greeks.
Then we entered the Eighth Circle, where
The Elitists
those from the professional schools met their fates. The Medical Students who had become doctors solely for the money were struck by a multitude of leprous diseases. The Misguided Journalists were struck blind, for they had been blinded in the search for Facts and Truth by Impure Motives. And then there were the Liberal Arts Sinners, who had never decided upon a true course of study and had instead opted for a generic education. They were punished by forever acting as busbuses and checkout clerks at Hell's K Mart.
Finally, we found ourselves at the Ninth Circle, a putrid, blood-red sea spurting with flames. Here we were punished the greatest sinners of all—the ones who had been satisfied with just getting by, despite the tremendous potential of the University. Here, beneath the water, A's instead of A's had settled for C's instead of A's found themselves drowning in seas of a different kind.
My Guide and I crossed the sea on a rocky bridge and found ourselves on an island in the very center of the Inferno. Here in the Pit, a ghostly red Campanile rose out of the gloom,
surrounded by hundreds of gargoyles that had once adorned Dyche. The creatures called out to me, and I was sore afraid—a fear infinitely compounded when Plato told me I must demand that Campanile, an act absolving me of my sins. "Your salvation is up to you," he said.
The Ninth Circle
Somehow, I followed him up the winding stairwell inside the tower as the crushing sound of bells around us played a dirge. The air was so strong that I was on the verge of fainting.
Suddenly, a cool breeze tickled my face like a feather and I looked up to see myself no longer in the bowels of the Infrobe but instead in the shaded grove east of the true Campanile. Its gentle dawn chimes wafted across the valley, and I realized I had time yet to study before my 8:30 class. Filled with a new spirit that could carry me forward to Graduation, I ascended the Mount once more beneath the glimmering Stars.
Letters to the Editor
Hazing not restricted to Greek groups
To the Editor:
I am writing in response to an editorial printed in the Kansan on Sept. 3, concerning the issue of *Homosexuality*. I wish to congratulate you.
Cindy Campbell correctly identified hazing as a "ridiculous practice" with very serious repercussions. In labeling it a Greek tradition, however, she should have been more expansive.
Harassment and hazing were a part of many of her readers' acceptance into peer groups in junior high and high school. Shortly after the founding of KU, intense class rivalries developed that resulted in ludicrous restrictions being placed upon incoming students. Most of the students had been exposed to physical activities often alluded to when hazing is discussed were brought straight back from
boot camps between World War II and the Korean War. I am afraid that the Greek system cannot claim full credit for this destructive pastime—any individuals undergoing a maturing process in a group in which seniority is important concept will be sorely tempted to haze.
I can only speak factually for the organization of which I am a member. However, I believe what I write will be echoed by others in the Greek system. Certainly, our national fraternity and the National Interfraternity Council have issued strong anti-hazing rules over the last ten years. It is important to me, however, to see that recognition go to the individuals within houses who have worked hard and achieved success in "cleaning up" their nudge programs.
Not only do I see no purpose in mental harassment or physical hazing, I will not risk the consequence of liability or of endangering the positive achievements of my organization, damaged, and we recognize and respect the more informed and independent men whom we pledge.
Overall, there is an increasing tendency today to firmly associate the terms "Greek" and "hazing." To do so is not only a great injustice to members of Greek houses, but also clouds the real heart of the issue—the practice of hazing present in many different kinds of organizations.
Peter Sloan
Leawood senior
Sigma Ch fraternity