Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, November 23, 1981
Minus 10 points
Perhaps you were under the impression that pulling all-nighters was strictly a pleasure of student life. When people go to work in the real world, they never have deadlines weighing on their minds or have piles of work they can put off until the very last minute, right?
Wrong.
Just took at the members of the U.S. Congress. Many of them were burning that midnight oil over the weekend in an attempt to reach a compromise on an appropriations bill needed to keep the government from running out of money. They had a deadline of midnight on Friday. Needless to say, they didn't make it.
The House was in session until 8 p.m. that night, the Senate until 9 p.m. By that time, it must have been clear that a compromise bill would never be passed before the clock struck 12, so the meetings adjourned.
This is analogous to a student cramming to get a paper done and suddenly realizing that it is humanly impossible to finish by 8:30 the next morning, especially because he hasn't done any of the reading. So what does he do? He goes to bed and prays that the professor will be somewhat understanding.
This is not to say all the legislators gave up so easily. Like those students bucking for A's at any cost, negotiators for the House and Senate met late into the night.
struggling to come up with a funding bill that would be acceptable to both chambers and to the president. Reagan, like a cranky professor, had already threatened to veto any bill that wasn't up to his standards, namely, that didn't cut an additional $3.3 billion from domestic programs.
However, progress was still slow, and both houses ended up meeting on Saturday and Sunday. What a way to spend a weekend.
Well, we can have some sympathy for our legislators. But when it comes right down to it, they have quite a few luxuries that we students don't.
For instance, once the initial deadline was missed, the government was technically out of money and theoretically should have shut down. Practically, however, business went on as usual. Even White House officials conceded that no one would notice the difference, at least for the time being.
Furthermore, the bill that Congress is working so hard on is needed so urgently only because the legislators have been remiss so far this semester. Except for a measure covering its own operations, Congress has not yet passed any of the regular spending bills for the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.
Now, how many students could get away with behavior like that? Seems as though Congress should at least be docked a few points for turning in late legalization.
On the critical list
Rights granted to animals are denied to human fetuses
By virtue of an annual gift subscription to the Wilderness Society, an organization dedicated to protecting America's wildlife, I am especially pleased to announce that many causes wanting my "generous support."
My Guaranteed Student Loan would be gone in less than a month if I usefully gave to save whales, wolves and their persecuted comrades from harm.
But somehow, even without my money, these pro-wildlife groups continue advocating animal rights. It seems a lot of Americans spend a great deal of time and money protecting animals, wild and domestic, from painful deaths.
Change from dogs and cats to the rights of human fetuses, however, and many of the
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HENRY
same people start whistling a different tune. Their justification is simple: according to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision, a human fetus is considered only "potential life," and therefore has no "human rights." Legally, it is as being as trimming the garden hedge.
If only the issue were that simple. Abortion, however, continues to arouse controversy. Leading medical experts disagree as to when human life begins. Some people claim abortion is murder, while others believe it is reasonable to say that in some instances, actually a positive action.
A far more reasonable approach to abortion would be to grant the human fetus those same rights and privileges afforded animals, most notably, the right to a painless death.
Unfortunately, the aborted enjoy no such rights under current abortion methods. What's more, they have precious little opportunity to speak in their own defense. Their "potential life" is usually ended in one of several ways.
Whether the scientific community can someday clearly determine when human life begins is anyone's guess. And frankly, the question (and the possible answer) is far too emotionally charged to be used by either side as conclusive evidence.
Abortions performed in the first three months of pregnancy, or first trimester, remove the fetus from the uterus with either a knife or a vacuum suction pump.
the womb. This salt solution acts as an acid and poisons the fetus. Usually, the heart stops beating after an hour (the beating heart is, of course, a painful reminder that "potential life" may not be merely important after all), and the fetus is delivered stillborn.
After the first trimester, the preferred method is an injection of saline solution into
Although scientists can't agree on when human life begins, there is broader consensus about fetal development. Apparently, some researchers believe it will develop during the first trimester. A fetus develops sensitivity to touch on its hands, feet, genitals and anal areas, and begins to swallow by the tenth week, according to John McGill at the University of California at Berkeley.
Noonan, a law professor interested in the ethics and legality of abortion, extensively reviewed current medical literature and concluded, as have others, that "beginning with the presence of sense receptors and spinal responses, there is as much reason to believe that the unborn are capable of pain as that they are capable of sensation."
By this stage of development, reflex actions enable the fetus to move. Often, this movement is brought about due to discomfort. An injection of saline solution would undoubtedly make a fetus' final movements vigorous, indeed.
In a recently published essay, George Will nationally syndicated columnist, observed that "most pro-abortion people have a deeply felt and understandable need to keep the discussion of abortion as abstract as possible."
It's little wonder. "A woman's right to choose" makes for palatable dinnertine discussion; vacuum suction pumps and saline solution do not.
When more Americans are concerned about painless deaths for animals than for humans—"potential" or otherwise—something simply doesn't add up.
Further, the suggestion that women, before having abortions, be shown photographs of first-trimester fetuses has been met with a chorus of opposition. "The sight of something that looks so much like a child complicates the 'ask of trying to believe that there is nothing there but 'potential' life,' Will concluded.
What is mystifying is how easy it is for many pro-abortion advocates to put a check in the mail to save baby seals from being skinned alive while, at the same time, more than a million and a half abortions are performed annually in the United States.
Besides, such photographs could easily transform an abortion into a moral choice, the diary of a girl in France.
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The glossy pages of the University's new brochures show KU's red-roofed halls framed against the white winter sky. KU students are shown either cuddling on benches or wrinkling their brows while in the throes of intellectual enlightenment.
Students need more 'honors' treatment
Potential students who read the brochures are assured that KU offers some of the best uni-
Judging from KU enrollment figures, the brochures do a good job of attracting high school seniors. But upon their arrival, many students were disappointed. Some even witnessed the old built-and-switch con game.
First of all, KU's benches are too cold for cuddling. The pictures of KU in winter leave out the wind and the ice. And as one KU engineering senior thought as he sat through his sociology course, "I think we need an industrial complex; if KU offers the best in undergraduate education, what could the worst be like?"
To be fair, top KU officials have maintained for years that they want to better the education of students—who, after all, are responsible for the University's existence. And next semester, administrators will take a step toward backing up their words with action.
In the new program, KU will assign faculty and students to guide them through their studies.
Deanell Tacha, vice chancellor for academic affairs, designed the program and she said it would help identify exceptional students and encourage them to be outstanding.
The program could help KU with at least one problem. The University attracts plenty of good students. In fact, it is among the top ten in recruiting National Merit Scholars. But once KU has the good students, it doesn't seem to know what to do with them.
For example, three years ago KU courted two students I know with dinners, desserts and dictionary when they were high school hotshots. But once the students were safely in the admissions and records files, they had trouble finding challenging courses and good advisers. Finally, they left the University for good. Nobody seemed to notice.
Perhaps the University scholars program can insure that fewer students will be able to tell the same story. At least it is a step in the right direction.
But like the KU Honors program, it seems to embody a kind of supply-side theory of education. Students who are already advantaged get more advantages, such as smaller classes and better instructors. But merely average students, as usual, are left out in the academic
Merely average students probably will never know the excitement of holding a book Faulkner
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HERRON
signed in some bookstore when he was poor and infamous. And they will never have classes in a professor's book-lined apartment on a rainy fall day.
In fact, it is possible for merely average students to take most of their first classes from graduate students and never meet any professors at all.
And in some departments, undergraduates take classes from other undergraduates.
For example, one KU junior found herself teaching her first KU math course less than three years after she enrolled in her first KU math course.
It would not be fair to say that all nonprofessors are bad teachers and all professors are good teachers. But most professors have a greater depth and breadth of knowledge than the juniors and seniors who teach in some departments.
These students are the best and brightest in their disciplines, but are they really qualified to teach after taking a few college courses? If the students are qualified, why does KU have professors? And if the students are not qualified, why are they teaching?
At any rate, students should be able to expect more from KU after they have been told they are entering one of the best undergraduate institutions in the country.
Of course, because nearly 24,000 students are enrolled at the University, it is impossible to ensure that there will be one full professor for every 18.5 students. And very few universities can claim that they have such a student-faculty ratio.
However, there are other ways to give average students the individualized attention that is desired.
As a result, those students had many of the same professors and the same classes. They knew each other's names. And professors were well-versed in the topics, perhaps care — whether students came to classes.
The homeroom system was not perfect. The administration struggled at first with juggling all those freshman schedules. And the homeroom system did not increase grade point averages as much as its proponents said it would.
For example, in the late '70s, Florida State began to introduce into "chicle" cars a feature about 20 years ago.
By grouping freshmen who take almost universally required classes such as biology, English and introductory math, KU would finally be able to teach the factory-style education they now offer receive.
On course, the system may not be entirely successful, and it certainly would be a lot of trouble.
The Florida State system will be feasible at U, if the University final moves into the 20th floor.
But later studies found that the system gave students a sense of community. Students felt that the system provided them with something real.
But it would be a step in the right direction. And the system would show that KU cares about the education of all students—even those who score below 35 on the ACT test.
There also was evidence that students retained more of the knowledge they gained in their homerooms than students who sat alone in crowded lecture classes.
Letters to the Editor
Splained across the top of page one was an eye-catching story that reported how the University of Kansas saves money—lots and lots of it—by providing teaching assistants to teach undergraduates.
The Nov. 10 issue of the Kansas contained a marvelous juxtaposition of articles that nobody seemed to notice and that vividly illustrated how sometimes other sciences cannot see the forest for the trees.
Administration has odd sense of priorities
To the Editor:
And then on page two—in a seemingly unrelated article—was a report of where the men were.
By failing to see any connection between the two stories, the Kanas missed a wonderful opportunity to highlight the KU administration's endless promotion of research and up-to-dateness at the expense of the undergraduate education.
The new $24.7 million building would probably be built on the site now occupied by the Military Science building, which would have to be torn down, as he put it, "It's pretty old and pretty small."
In this article, Jim Ranz, dean of libraries, explained that KU needs yet another library because, he said, "We are well behind our peer institutions in available space."
There is clearly no real need for a new library, though it certainly may create the need for itself.
Moreover, the cost of the new library would be more than enough to pay the annual salaries of 200 professors (or if you prefer, 800 TAs) for five years!
would be graduate students and research faculty—not undergraduates!
Such mindless promotion, however, not only helps deprive the student of a high-quality undergraduate education, but also helps deprive the student of quality buildings in which to receive that education.
Be it “pretty old” or “pretty small,” the Military Science building is nevertheless a perfectly good piece of architecture that would be hard to match these days in terms of quality of craftsmanship and stateliness of design. And indeed, old Fraser and old Blake halls were two of the loveliest buildings in the state before they were razed to make way for their “up-to-date”
Here, not only the student loses out, but all posterity.
Eric Brende
Toneka junior
Kansan staffers, try next step to a stop. I say back from the trees. Who knows? You may do more than that.
Clothes speak louder...
Regarding Cindy Campbell's Nov. 16 editorial:
OK! OK! I'll quit clamoring for "red silk and rhinestoned women in heat" to attend my 8:30 a.m. lecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Plaid Bermuda tent shorts (or it short tent)?
To the Editor:
Those broadly tailored Bermudas, especially on broadly tailed women, make me wonder what these "self-expression" females of "competence and authority" are saying about themselves.
Letters policy
Frankly,I just don't want to know
Ross Hutton
Prairie Village law student
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and phone number. If the writer signs as a volunteer, the letter should include the class and home town, or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit or reject letters.