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University Daily Kansan, June 21, 1982
Opinion
What about the people?
During the past few days the media has been flooded with facts and figures concerning Britain and Argentina's recent power play in the South Atlantic. The news consumer has had available to him everything he ever wanted to know about British and Argentine interests in the Falkland Islands, as if he really cared.
We all know all about the losses suffered by the Royal Navy, the trials and tribulations of Margaret Thatcher, the frustrations of Argentina's foreign minister Nicanor Costa Mendez and the protestors rioting in the streets of Buenos Aires.
What we don't know anything about is the suffering, trials and tribulations, frustrations and fears of the native Falkland Islanders. What has happened to the compassionate, human interest side of journalism?
This lack of information concerning the inhabitants of the 4,700 square miles of rocky, barren South Atlantic archipelago is not the fault of hometown newspapers and radio stations. Rather, the big-time, multi-million dollar news organizations who have
correspondents in the field are the perceptrators of this editorial blunder.
Among the lengthy diary-type stories of one wire reporter's tale was the earth-shattering news that London police arrested a man for sealing himself in his auto with glue outside Number 10 Downing St. in protest against Argentina. In a much briefer report our wire machine rat-tatted out the sketty facts of soldiers looting the homes of Island civilians, taking food and destroying personal property.
With the open hostility resolved, the story of the colonized Islanders, who's homeland has been ravaged by their "fearless" leaders of both Argentine and British origin off and on since their beginnings, will probably remain an overlooked sidebar to lead news stories concerning their worth to their particular sovereign of the day.
Granted, the scenes of Vietnamese boat people and Cambodian refugees were not the loveliest sights to go along with dinner-time conversation, but at least they were there to remind us of the human side of war, as opposed to the impersonal, strategically planned, "official" dollars and cents side.
Hot summer weather raises KU temperatures
Normal life at the University of Kansas has been disrupted!
Faculty members are rushing to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Employees are leaving work in the middle of the day or huddling together in dingy basement rooms and circulating petitions criticizing the KU administration. WHAT ON THE Hill could have caused such an
Why, the loss of Kansans' most valuable summer resource: the air conditioner.
Already hot temperatures grew even hotter when a June 14 Lawrence Journal-World articles published in *Journal of Environmental Science*
John Scarffe
activities. According to the article, a heated discussion is warming up between red-faced librarians and cool-headed KU administrators in air conditioning in most buildings until July 1.
The librarians say this policy squanders the productivity of the staff and shows a lack of planning. They argue that utility dollars should be used for air conditioning instead of excessive winter heating. The temperature settings in buildings last winter were at 75 to 85 degrees.
KU's administrators say it isn't their fault. They would not have allowed last winter's temperature settings to be placed so high if they had known the Legislature was not going to pick up $180,000 of KU's unexpectedly high $757,56 utility bill. When funding fell through, they had no option but to shut down the air conditioning until July.
THEN CAME THE 30-signature petition from the librarians and the ensuing newspaper article. It is almost as if the Kansas Legislature had taken over with a request before the Jayhawks noticed summer.
The librarians must face a summer of high temperature settings in stuffy buildings, as well as facing stewing administrators. Students, suffering through smelly classes full of sweaty bodies, must keep awake through the increasingly muggy Kansas heat.
The administrators must face heat from steaming students, employees, legislators and alumni because of uncomfortable rooms and the high cost of keeping everyone cool and calm.
Although it's questionable whether KU's spring into summer has really been much of a disruption, after all of this hubbub, everyone at the University is surely in for a roast.
THIS ALREADY swelling scene smells even worse when snuffing in KU's future. It looks as if the University has joined the rest of the state in its summer over for good. Robert Cobb, executive director of the International World article that KU employees should brace for more sacrilege in years to come.
While "sacrifice in years to come" sounds pretty oppressive, it might not be all that foretold. It is a real test of the heart.
in switching on air conditioning or heating. In the face of overwhelming energy costs, it doesn't seem to be asking too much, especially for Watson's librarians, who know that money is needed for cataloguing 350,000 books, as well as running the air conditioner.
Unfortunately, this kind of sacrifice will not totally solve the budget problems. To ease the heat, some energy-conscious planning might also be necessary. For example, closely watched temperature settings could make everyone more comfortable and save money, too.
Air conditioner temperature settings should also be watched. For example, temperature settings have already been to low this summer in Flint Hall, where a new air conditioning system was being tested. One day the girl sitting next to me had even put on her jacket. Such practices are bad and costly. More reasonable temperature settings could knock a few backs of the energy bill.
AS THE LIBRIARIANS pointed out, a room at 75-85 degrees is too warm in the winter because most students wear warm clothing. An 80 degree classroom full of sweaty students, each dressed in two pairs of socks, two t-shirts, thermal underwear and a sweater, is kind of silly. It also promotes illness when the soaked students are exposed to the cold.
Energy expenses could also be cut by concentrating air conditioned summer activity in a smaller area. Since the number of students and staff at each campus is much higher in all the buildings on campus are not needed.
Summer activity could be primarily confined to buildings and areas such as Spencer Research Library that contain rare books, art objects, animal colonies, computers and certain chemicals. These areas have to be maintained at a constant temperature anyway.
MOVING SUMMER activities from their traditional areas, however, would not be popular. Some faculty members might be uprooted from their classrooms and moved to audio-visual materials halfway across camas.
Then, during the hottest part of the day, KU employees and students could run their own air conditioners rather than the University's, and those who needed to, could return around 7 or 8 in the evening. Although air conditioning would still be needed in the hottest part of the summer, energy costs would be slashed by decreased use during peak hours.
This upsetting factor would have to be softened somewhat by other changes and accommodations, such as hiring more student assistants to aid in temporary moves. Summertime schedules could be encouraged. Employees could be encouraged to start work earlier in the day and go home by 8 a.m. or noon.
THESE KINDS OF schedule changes could also be implemented in the Timetable. Students might grip about having a 7 or 8 a.m. class, but it's certainly preferable to class at 2 p.m., when the temperature could be above 100 degrees. With the decreased number of summer classes, most could be held between 7 and 1 a.m. and 7 and 10 p.m.
These suggestions might sound a bit radical, but now that KU is jumping into the summer fire, some quick cooling measures need to be taken. If you want to keep it well, be cool alternative rather than hot debates.
Israel defends her right to exist
Although Israel's withdrawal from Sinai was a powerful affirmation of the possibility of peace in the Middle East, the subsequent invasion of Lebanon stands as a grim reminder to the Arab world that it must also undergo lingering suspicions of Israel "softness" in the wake of Camp David have been thoroughly laid
Patric Quinn
to rest by the brisk and businesslike manner in which the Begin government has carried out the long-overdue thrashing of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
the right to maintain Soviet missiles on the island of Wight. The laircause must be excused by the government.
ISRAEL'S CONTINUOUS conflict with the PLO leads many observers to the mistaken conclusion that the key obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the thorny issue of Palestine self-determination. In fact, Arab subsidy of the PLO has less to do with the lofties of Palestinian autonomy than with the Arab community's pledge to annihilate Israel. A commitment to nation-building is that limited to the financing of terrorism is a curious commitment indeed.
The United Nations, that absurd organization so continually dismayed by Israel's persistent survival, has wasted no time in issuing the standard condemnations of "Israel aggression." It would seem the United Nations is adhering to the idea that a state can maintain Syrian-made missiles in Lebanon the Bakka Valley, a contention logically equivalent to insisting that the Irish Republican army has
The Camp David agreements clearly demonstrate the extraordinary lengths to which Israel will go to obtain peace once its opponents concede its right to exist as a state. The current conflict in Lebanon demonstrates equally clearly the inevitable Israeli response to any organization dedicated to the extermination of the Jewish people. It is astonishing that any segment of world opinion can expect Israel to accept genocide as a necessary price for peace.
ANY EVENTUAL solution of the present crisis must include provisions ensuring that the PLO will be denied renewed control over southern Lebanon. Nothing less will serve to guarantee that a PLO would remain thereby avoid a recurrence of the existing situation. The United States should join with Israel in
demanding a strong United Nations peacekeeping force in the region.
The United States should also publicly reaffirm its commitment to Israel's security, a commitment that has received scant attention from our government in recent years. In a time when allies are becoming increasingly hard to find, we can hardly afford to ignore our only stable partner in the Middle East. It is time to stop the spread of the ination fiction that the Arab nations are doing us some sort of favor by selling us oil at obscenely inflated prices.
FINALLY, THE United States and the rest of the world must exercise every possible diplomatic effort to force the Arab community to publicly accept the fact of Israel's existence. No negotiation can take place between two sides when one party expresses its intent that progress will be made in the Middle East until negotiations begin between Israel and her opponents.
As we pursue peace in that troubled part of the world, we must use as our model the Camp David accords. We cannot allow the administrative nightmare of United Nations negotiations to impede the peace process begin when two committed leaders sat down and started to talk. They were armed and lurged of the modern Middle East, Egypt alone is serene. That serenity is the direct product of the vision of Amar Sadat, and we must not allow that vision to die.
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