Opinion
University Daily Kansan, April 19, 1982
20 percent surprise
Students who haven't read the newspapers closely will have a little surprise in fall 1984, when they sign their tuition checks—they'll be paying 20 percent more.
That means that on the Lawrence campus, students from Kansas will pay $68 more a semester.
And out-of-state students will pay $732 more than they did this semester.
Of course, this year's surprise tuition increase wasn't made as abruptly as last spring's 22 percent increase. Students had more time to react. But strangely, they didn't.
Some relieved officials speculated that this year's students were simply more reasonable than last year's. But it could just be that students were less informed.
Of course, students were represented on the Regents Committee by David Adkins, KU student body president. But it seems impossible for any student—even a student
body president—to voice the opinions of all Kapas students.
The tuition increase itself is not unreasonable. After it is implemented, students would again be paying the 25 percent of their education costs that was originally planned.
Last Friday, for example, one Regents official made this statement:
But attitudes of some who approved the increase are disturbing.
"It is hard to predict just how many students we would lose . . . but one thing we do know. There will be an additional $10 million in revenue from the increase."
It probably wouldn't have mattered much if more students had been consulted about the increase—it would have passed anyway.
But it is disheartening that, yet again, students were treated as a mass of mindless revenue-generators.
That much was no surprise at all.
Letters to the Editor
Man's charity revives faith
To the Editor:
After reading the article, "Low interest loans for housing lifetime goal of man in poverty" by Susan Brosseau in the April 7 Kansan, I felt a deep desire to correspond with Mr. Puckett. My reply extends an appreciation for a man who hove every student at KU can also appreciate
Dear Harry Puckett.
Learn:
I learn a KU student. I read the article written by
Susan Brosseau about you in the school
newspaper. I am so pleased to hear the story of
your life. I think it is wonderful that you loved
my mother so much that you kept a house for
her to live in. You must have made your mother
very happy and proud to have had such a considerate son.
From the sounds of the article, you have made many people who were in need of a place to live very happy by providing them low-interest loans for housing.
I want you to know that even though I have never met you, I have the greatest respect for a person of your high character. I hope that by hearing about your life and the way you have used your life to truly help others, I can do the same.
In a time when so many people seem to have lost sight of the most important things—taking care of their families, being thrifty, helping others—they restore my faith in the human spirit. P.S. Keep reading science fiction to keep your imagination fertile.
Kathy Doughty,
LaGrange, Ill. sophomore
Is a fetus a 'person'?
Concerning Jeff Thomas' editorial on abortion. It is amusing that Mr. Thomas thinks to settle the controversy over abortion by defining abortion as merely the removal of "living human tissue." His calm and logical reasoning seems flawless . . . or does it?
Mr. Thomas claims that appendices, livers and lungs are living organisms much like a fetus and cannot be removed without removing another. Somehow, though, Mr. Thomas, in his expert medical opinion on the fetus, failed to mention a few facts. Only a fetus, not an appendix, a liver or a lung, will grow into the fetus.
Ah, but is this fetish a "person"? Mr. Thomas goes on to ask, as he shifts easily from medical to legal expert. He contends that in order for him to be granted permission nationally, the fetish must be proven to be a "person."
At this point, to my dismay, Mr. Thomas departed from calm logic and became quite vague and nebulous. He also chose at this time to give emotional, though not at all typical, reasons as to why a woman should have the option of having an abortion. The story was, in fact, very sad, but surely Mr. Thomas doesn't expect anyone to believe that it was at all representative of the majority of abortions done in this country.
I was happy when Mr. Thomas again took up the guise of a calm, clear thinker and constitutional interpreter. He points out that the child in his example, Francine Speck, was a French girl. The same person who later named Francine was not a person and was not the same as the child. The child, Mr.
Let's turn Mr. Thomas' own logic back on himself, as cruel as that might seem. Prodding him to follow his own line of thought a few extra minutes later, he says, "Francine gain her interest in science or music? Did she reach for a harp soon after birth or refuse to sleep unless she was holding a physics text? It seems unlikely. In fact, at birth, she, Francine, would have had little sense of self, of past or of future."
Thomas says, has a mind that took an early heart that never gave up on music until she began creating music at an early age.
Nor would she have shown some of the other signs of being a person, as Mr. Thomas defined a person. It is doubtful that she exhibited much intellect or pondered any great hopes or dreams. On the whole, Francine was no more a "person" at her birth had she been only a hour before as a fetus, or a piece of living human tissue, as Mr. Thomas would have referred to her.
At this point, I'd like to insert my own emotional example . . . Some weeks ago, I read an article about a young woman living in a college dorm. She gave birth in her room. Not wanting the baby, she put it in a brown paper sack and dropped it out of a bathroom window. The child fell something like four stories, but lived.
Tell me, Mr. Thomas, was that child a person? By your own words, it was not, and so, the woman did nothing wrong. Then why does the girl want to cry? Why does the ground wrap your heart—or doesn't it?
Perhaps, Mr. Thomas, it would have been better if the woman had had an abortion a week earlier or a month earlier. But it didn't really matter? It? After all, the child wasn't a person yet.
I've heard that a fetus that is only a few months old will react to its mother's different emotions and I've heard that the same fetus, when aborted, will often fight to breathe and to
When is it a person, Mr. Thomas? At what
time will you be able to live? Will you
decide Can anyone decide?
David R. Eland,
Hoxie senior
Mavbe it deserves the benefit of the doubt.
To pose or not to pose
To the Editor:
I was glad to see Diane Olmsted's letter in the April 13 Kansan responding to Lisa Bolson's March 29 article. I agree wholeheartedly with Diane, but I think there is a major question that has not been raised: What if Playgirl were on campus, looking for "Men of the Big Eight"? There are those men who wound jump at that Chicago and I am sure there are also those who would not.
At least to me, it is clear that not "every man" would secretly desire to be in Playgirl, nor would any man be looked down upon for not having this knowledge didn't men and women be treated the same?
Let those who want to pose for either magazine do so. Let those who wish to contain their secret desire without action do so. And let those of us who wish neither alone.
Roy Leban, Lawrence senior
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Schlafly talks smoothly, slants truth
Tomorrow night, America's queen of anti-feminism will rise in the Kansas Union to deliver her doctrine, and the chances are that many in her court won't be reverently
As soon as the news broke several weeks ago that Phyllis Schlafly, chairman of STOP ERA, would speak on the KU campus, murmuring that she will pass without demonstrations by local feminists.
Schlafly believes that every woman in this country already has the opportunity for full liberation: "The right to care for her own baby is a fundamental need, being financially supported by her husband."
Expect picketers outside the Kansas Union.
do with the money. Of all places, they gasp, the unthinking Schaffy speaking on a university
Expect picketers outside the kansas union. After all, the queen probably expects no less. Phyllis has worked against the Equal Rights Amendment and demonstrations against her have become routine. Just as routinely, she dismisses them as the noise of "emotionsally distraught" people, "sharp tongued, high-pitched whining complaints by unmarried women."
In fact, it seems to be Schaffly's impenetrability, her supreme confidence that she's "fulfilling God's mission" for her life, that is most maddening to those of us on the other side of the fence. Some of the frustrated have even been arguing that Schaffly shouldn't be paid to speak on the Hill. They say that Schaffly will only channel the fee into her Eagle Forum, a clearing-house for conservative funds and ideas. Others don't care what she'll
If she performs as her reputation promises, Schiflafy will be unfloppable. Meticulously rehearsed and insulated within her convictions, she'll only smile graciously and perhaps chuckle at leeches and hostile questions. She may glide hindrance and fear to risk for the world, but she's about as likely to lose her composure as she is to disclaim her husband and six children.
But if not on a campus, where? Educational institutions should be the first forum for irritating, divergent counts, and Schaffler certainly qualifies on those counts. As for why students should not have the income to any cause. There no reason here to single out Schaffler. Let's give Phyllis,
JEFF THOMAS
a Phi Bhi Kappa, her podium and an unin-
terrupted chair. We ask her as possible,
let's give her views to test our own.
You see, Schlaffy's greatest wrongdoing tomorrow night won't be the target most people would go to the Kansas Union aiming for. Her uncle, a former Army nurse and narrow sexual roles isn't her Achilles heel. Instead, if she speaks in her usual lexicon, her crime will be to repay our attention with twisted rhetoric, to taunt us for respecting her own speaker with misleading tricks of the tongue.
When a reporter tracked down Dr. Emerson, she found an angry Thomas I. Emerson, a professor at Yale Law School. "No, I didn't chance to hear Emerson's correction, and would do a great deal to improve opportunities for women workers."
For example, in 1974, Schalfay opened fire on the ERA on William F. Buckley's talk show, "Firing Line." "When Dr. Emerson came to estify at the Missouri hearing, he conceded that ERA will do nothing for women in the field of employment," she told viewers.
Unfortunately, viewers didn't have the ability to watch on a screen as the tablet or Smartphone turned on, so the face of the faces
Later, Schlafly wrote that a Prof. Freund said the ERA would prohibit "rest rooms segregated by sex." The girls room and the boys room would become "The Room," she began writing.
Paul Freund, a Harvard Law School professor, was surprised to hear Schlafly's claim attached to his name. "I have not stated, in my words, that I would require the sharing of rest rooms," he said.
Of course, all speakers make mistakes over the years. But Schlafly calls the line from carelessness to dishonesty, to intentionally misleading her audiences. One attorney, Gail Falk, twice within one month caught Schlafy changing the meaning of her article on the ERA—even after she personally corrected Schlafy.
Missatlements, half-truths, and butchered quotations have become the tools of an apparently sincere conservative. Phyllis Schlafly is using progananda in the place of rationality.
As recently as January of this year, Schaffly told readers that "the real reasons" for passing the ERA were "to give funding for abortion, to give homosexual privileges, to give massive federal child care and to force us into a gender-free society." She borrows the claims of feminists that have nothing to do with the ERA and hooks them to the proposed amendment.
And so she continues her twist-and-frigate campaign. When Phyllis can't find the weakness in her opposition or the authoritative backing for her own position, she simply becomes a foe. And she is in Lawrence as a mercenary in her fight against feminism, but we should keep in mind that she'll be giving us only the Truth According to Schiffy, hardly the full story.
Murphv's laws affect consumers, too
Everyone has heard of Murphy's Laws, those little gems such as "If anything can go wrong, it will," and "Nothing is as easy as it looks." But now, we can add a corollary to the list: The exact number of whatever you need to buy does not exist.
In any other combination, yes. But not the combination you need.
Usually, U.S. consumers are perfectionists.
We're always asking for safer cars or colas that don't make us fat or keep us awake. But don't you think that a society that can produce the Smurf could package things so you don't have to buy extras?
The problem became apparent last week, when I tried to buy shoalcles. Shoalcles should
DAN TORCHIA
be easy to buy. But the manufacturers are tricky. First, they have more color variations
The packaging is misleading. They wrap both the sets tightly, so it looks as if you're getting two separate laces, rather than two complete sets.
white face, rather than my face.
The first set I use. The second set I lose.
Sheoacles usually hold up for a long time. So what do you do with the second set, beside throw it in the sock drawer? Hang it around your car's rearview mirror like a high school graduation cap.
An afternoon's wandering through Gibson's convinced me that there are a lot of things that are包装错了.
Batteries are a good example. Only nine-volt batteries are sold singly. The rest are sold in pairs. That's fine, except that most products that feed batteries require odd numbers.
I once had a cassette record that took five C-sized batteries. I would buy six–three packages of two—and leave the extra. Or I would save it to use next time, and it would be as dead as the bathtub. I told Robert Conrad, that macho duke who dares us to knock the battery off his shoulder, explain this?
There are some things that come in pairs that should be sold alone. Shoes and socks are a good example. Have you ever driven down the road and seen one shoe lying by the side? Did someone lose both or just one? Hopefully, the person lost both because one shoe is useless.
In a democracy such as ours, a person should be able to walk into a store and purchase an extra shoe, just as someone can go to an auto parts store and buy a replacement part.
"Brown Bass loafer with a low heel, with an optional penny," one could say, or, "I need a white Nike with a blue stripe, and in a set of three肩饰 with the alligator on 'on'."
One could, of course, buy a set without having to worry about extras.
Socks are another problem. Socks should be sold in three instead of pairs. When you've lost your wallet, a cashier will probably
There should at least be a store where you could buy another, just like a lost shoe. One store
But where are you when you need them? And where do the staples go when you finish your homework?
A variation to Murphy's law is: Whatever you can buy in the right quantity is never around when you need it. Thumbtacks, for example, are always sold in the right quantity—a lot.
Bic Value-Pac, which was supposed to last the semester, when you are about leave for that semester.
There is a further variation to Murphy's law that is particularly relevant this time of the year. The exact numerical requirements for assignments can never be met.
That means a required eight-page paper peters out to five-and-a-half pages or seven-and-a-fourth if you triple-space and use a 5-space line. Or an oral presentation will fall several minutes short of the required time, especially when several people are involved.
But the beautiful thing about Murphy's laws is that they have another side. Whatever you can't find when you need it can usually be borrowed from your roommate. Failure to meet requirements can usually be blamed on someone else. And even though you may not be able to buy something, you can tear the package and get a discount for damaged merchandise.
Which is something to think about the next time you break a sheolace.
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