Page 4 University Daily Kansan, November 17. 1981
Opinion
Stockman under glass
Anti-Reaganists across the country—and surely here in Lawrence—were amused by the squirms of Budget Director David Stockman last week as he weathered the fallout from a lengthy article about him that appears in the December issue of The Atlantic Monthly.
According to the article, based on a series of interviews done over a 10-month period, Stockman became convinced last spring that President Reagan's package of spending and budget cuts was not a practical cure for America's economic ills.
At one point, Stockman was quoted as saying that "we didn't add up all the numbers" when he and others put together the economic program and pushed for its passage in Congress.
Such admissions—they can be called that because Stockman never claimed that he had been misquoted—were greeted by Democrats with smirks and a certain smugness that the embarrassment of a Bert Lance or a Billy Carter could come to the as-yet-unattainted Reagan administration. But no gloating or anger should blind onlookers to the fact that it took a big man to do what Stockman did, namely stand before the harsh lights and barbed questions of an inquisitive press and publicly admit to being a victim of his own "poor judgment and loose talk." No excuses, of no passing a heavy buck.
Stockman didn't even blame the interviewer, William Grelder of the Washington Post, for what he said was a simple misunderstanding of what was on the record.
It's too bad, in a way, that Stockman is suffering so much from his "careless ramblings," because in them he spoke the truth.
The Reagan budget plan has indeed sprung a few leaks, and any dream of balancing the budget by 1984 has long since faded away, as Stockman predicted. He also took a stab at the Pentagon, which he characterized as "a kind of swamp" of billions of dollars worth of waste that "can be ferreted out if you really push hard."
And, using that "unfortunate metaphor", Stockman called the approach of across-the-board tax cuts a "Trojan horse" to bring down the tax rates of the wealthiest taxpayers, which it has become.
As was pointed out in the aftermath, all these statements were really only echoes of things Stockman and other administration officials have been saying privately, and sometimes publicly, for months. Unfortunately, he who first steps into the big spotlight with such revelations must squint into the rays and take the heat alone.
In response... Credibility, responsiveness goals of Perspective Coalition
Lenter's note: This column is the response from the Perspective Coalition candidates, David Adkins for student body president and Jamie Johnson for the to the Kansan's endorsement for those positions.
By MICHAEL J. REGIER
A combination of changes in the University administration and in the internal workings of Student Senate provides an unprecedented opportunity for student senators to restore credibility to student government in the coming year.
A new chancellor, executive vice chancellor, vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been named in the last two years. Fortunately, these administrators place a premium on active learning and encourage students to participate in formulating University policies and setting long-term goals to a degree not previously enjoyed.
Students, then, have an obligation to elect student leaders who can best use these opportunities to effectively address student needs and articulate student concerns. The ability of next year's student body president and vice president to articulate the opportunity will determine whether Senate is to regain its credibility within the student body and the University itself.
This year we have two candidates who can meet this challenge in David Adkins and David Welch of the Perspective Coalition. David Adkins, candidate for student body president, brings to the ticket a varied background in University governance. He is currently serving his second term as a Numeramaker senator, and he will be able to represent Senate Executive committee, vice chairperson of the University Council and Student Senate executive committee chairperson.
Adkins' past experience includes chairing the Student Senate Communications Committee, serving as a representative to the University Daily Kansan Board. This experience provides Adkins with a solid foundation from which to direct the many facets of student government.
Balancing this ticket is David Welch, Perspective candidate for student body vice president. Welch is a Numerakamer senator, as well as a graduate of the University has served on several University and Senate committees. Welch's personality and governance experience would enable him to be an effective chairperson of a body whose meetings, without proper leadership, can too easily digress.
With their combined knowledge, experience and understanding of the issues, Adkins and Welch offer a fresh approach and decisive course of action for the upcoming year.
The Perspective Coalition feels that issues of interest to students can best be grouped into three areas: campus issues, financial issues and leadership issues. The Perspective Coalition has spent several months researching these in with students, faculty and administrators.
Adkins and Welch have the experience necessary to be effective representatives of student opinion before these bodies. They actively support the Associated Students of Kansas, and in addition to its efforts they would create a new Student Senate staff position to deal exclusively with the legislation that directly affects the University's participation in establishing the University's legislative priorities and long-term budget objectives is essential.
Many previously unadressed areas of interest are included among campus issues, such as pre-enrollment, sexual harassment, undergraduate advising and faculty evaluation. Many students are concerned about what form pre-enrollment will take, Adkins, currently serving as the only instructor in the Pre-enrollment Committee, has consulted with student leaders at other universities to ensure that the system selected for KU is flexible, cost-effective and as uncomplicated as possible.
Financial issues are another area of great concern to most students. Cutbacks in student loan programs and educational grants must be offset by the University whenever possible. Increasing the number of student jobs on campus is important to provide more and more actively seeking private support for the University are a few of the choices that Perspective supports.
Perspective believes that success in addressing these student campus and financial concerns is contingent upon strong leadership. Consequently, leadership issues are central to the success of an institution. It must be heard in the Kansas Legislature, in the governor's office and at the Board of Resents.
Despite their determination to restore credibility to student government, Adkins and Welch fully realize that this task cannot be accomplished by a well-educated and enthusiastic student senators. The Perspective Coalition is comprised of 37 candidates representing all organized living groups as well as off-campus students. The experience these candidates bring to the coalition and their work can only enhance the coalition's ability to bring a new perspective to Student Senate.
The choice that students will make Wednesday and Thursday is an important one. By voting for the Perspective Coalition students can begin the process of making a difference and responsiveness to their student government.
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RICHARDSON 81
Reality shatters myth of 'Supermom'
Feminism is treading in turbulent waters these days. It is among the many "isms" being swallowed by a tide of conservatism. And now, we see it being drowned by the hands of some of its own proponents, indeed, "mother" of feminism herself, Betty Frieda.
"I want to help women break through the mystique I helped to create," Friedan wrote in an excerpt from her recently published book, "The Second Stave."
What? The author of "The Feminine Mystique," whose book gave life and focus to the feminist movement of the '60s and '70s, is having second thoughts?
Yes.
The Feminine Mystique" was a bitter reaction against the post-World War II image of women as solely and completely fulfilled through marriage, good or bad, and motherhood, successful or unsuccessful. The book hit home with many American women.
Now, after more than 20 years of working with the feminist movement, Friedan has done some re-evaluating. For both proponents and opponents of die-hard femininity, Friedan's ensuing rejection of these is "the feminist mystique" comes a shock.
Yet Friedan's observations are timely. A whole generation of women have had unprecedented career opportunities, largely brought about by demands of feminists for economic and social independence. Now, as a second generation is entering or preparing to enter the career world, is the time for such reevaluating.
Are the women of the "new girl network," who have established themselves in well-paying jobs of "real" responsibility, satisfied and fulfilled?
result of trying to live according to ideas promulgated by feminists themselves, ideas that Frieden incorporates into an image she treats as feminist mystique" or "the myth of Superwoman."
The answer is an overwhelming "no." Friedan says. Strangely enough, the problems faced by female executives, administrators, Ph.D.s, doctors, lawyers, or others who are caused by man who raises them or by any old 'boy network' characteristics.
Far more often, it seems, they are the
Friedan quotes the renowned columnist Ellen Goodman: "We were supposed to be the first generation of superwomen. We were the women who would—in fact, should—have dazzling careers and brilliant, satisfied and remarkable, well-adjusted children."
Yet something went wrong. That generation of women who made it to the top
REBECCA CHANEY
reflected not the satisfaction and fulfillment expected of them, but "brittle disappointment, a disillusionment with 'assertiveness' in the rewards of power." *difficult to Friedan.*
What went wrong? Perhaps it was that these women believed too sincerely that they could "have it all." The primary result of the feminist movement seems to have been the emergence of the idea that women can attain fulfillment through a career and family by combining the two in a way that few people, men or women, are able to.
Such ideas can lead only to bitterness and disappointment, as Friedan's examples attest. Women climbing the career ladder find they may have waited too long to have the children they only recently realized they wanted. Others cannot understand what a marriage or to work personal relationships while they were working 60-hour weeks.
Men who put their careers above all else rarely achieve satisfying family relationships, yet many women who put their careers first fully expect to.
Somewhere along the line, there is a trade-off. There are only 24 hours in a day, and women, as well as men, who do not realize this are bound for disappointment.
Surely we all know someone of that first generation of career women, perhaps our own mothers. Even worse than the disappointment is the guilt that can result from trying too hard to "have it all"—the what-ifs. Would I have achieved greater things in my career if I hadn't been tied to family responsibilities? Would I have been a better mother (or father) if I hadn't put so much more of my energies into my career?
There can be compromise and balance between job and family, but it seems that it is much harder to come by than most feminists have previously been willing to admit.
Some feminists have reacted vehemently to Friedan's book, calling it revisionary or appeasing reformism. Her findings have upset their ideals that women can indeed "have it all" if enough social legislation such as the Equal Rights Amendment is enacted.
It must be frightening to these women to realize that those who have lived out such ideals are now questioning them or rejecting them.
The importance of Friedan's insights lies in a refusal to continue encouraging women to deceive themselves in thinking that choices no longer have to be made.
There seems to be a craving for romanticism (as evidenced by the deluge of attention given to the royal wedding and to the announcement of the Princess of Wales' pregnancy) among many of the same women who are determined to have a successful career outside the home.
Yet one the other—home or career—must take priority. For men and women, that is an unavoidable fact of life. It would be far more conducive to fulfillment to make this choice consciously than to find out too late that the decision has been made for us.
it will be interesting to see whether Betty Friedan's latest work has the influence on this second generation that "The Feminine Mystique" had on the first.
Letters to the Editor
Freedom of the press extends to campuses
To the Editor:
This letter is in regard to Bert Coleman's comments in the Nov. 12 story concerning the Kansan's endorsement of Loren Busby and David Cannellata:
Dear Bert:
Dear Dear,
First of all, let me say that no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to take a away the Kansan's right to freedom of the press.
How naive can you be? You may consider yourself as president of a "play" Senate, not dealing with the "real world," but a college paper still has the same right to freedom of the press that any other paper has. Just because the reporters and other stakeholders in a newspaper don't mean that they should be denied rights provided them by the Constitution.
4
You made yourself sound like a child when you said, "They are not entitled to our money if they don't pay their taxes."
Come on, Bert, you don't actually think Student Senate is going to stand by and let you try to take fund away from the Kansan just because you're still sore about the allegations made about the job you are doing in office, do you? Right or wrong, those stories are just another way the Kansan is exercising its right to freedom of the press.
I'm not saying that I agree with the Kansan's endorsement, but I didn't agree with the Chicago Tribune's endorsement of Dewey either. But that was the owner's right.
Bert, I'm sure you have read the Constitution of the United States—this applies to everyone. Just because we are in college doesn't mean we are no longer allowed our rights. And just because Student Senate funds the Kansan, that doesn't mean the paper must be in fear of losing
its funding just because you don't agree with its onions.
Sarah Swanson.
That endorsement was on the editorial page—that means it is an opinion of the editor and other staff members of the Kansan. Just an opinion! For you to think that an endorsement by the Kansan is an "improper influence on student voters" is an insult to the intelligence of those same voters. I think we are old enough to make our own decisions. We voted for you, didn't we?
Sarah Swanson
Oakley senior
TAs victims of system
Lisa Massoth owes the graduate teaching assistants at KU an apology. The implication of her front page story (Nov. 10 Kanasan) is that we do blame for the problems with teachings at KU.
To the Editor:
In some respects, the elements of an adequate interpretation of situation were in the story, but some statements were wrong or misleading. A lengthy point-by-point response to her article is warranted, but because of space constraints we will be brief.
Over a year ago, a number of graduate students attempted to call attention to the very situation that the Kansan has only now discovered. Given the conditions of employment at KU, it is a wonder that there are so many good, conscientious, dedicated TAs rather than the reverse. None of the explanations in the story except one really addresses the crucial issue.
This University, like any other, relied on TAs for purely economic reasons. Tas are caught needing teaching experience to get a little closer to the needs of their little alternative to accepting the conditions KU of
fers. A quick comparison will reveal why TAs are essential to KU.
None of the other arguments made about the quality of education, the altruism in helping graduate students finance their education, or the notion of incoming professors necessarily having more teaching experience or being better prepared than TAs are valid if fully analyzed. We, the undersigned, call on the Kansan to redress the slander of the graduate student body by conducting an investigation into a deserving student that should be called to the attention of the public.
The average starting salary for an incoming assistant professor at the University is about $20,000 per academic year, for which he teaches two courses per semester. A TA in a generous department makes $5,000 per academic year for teaching the same number of courses. Quick calculation will show that KU gets four times as much teaching for the same amount of money using TAs rather than assistant professors, much less professors of higher rank.
Robert John
Tim Knapp
Kathryn M. Falkenstern
Dan Wildcat
Dana Apple
Dean M. Bran
Kathleen Stanley
Gary Carter
Mebrigans Najafizadeh
A Kardak
Vincent Serravalo
Craig Procnier
Robert J. Wazienski
Graduate teaching assistants
David Willer
Bob Antonio
Professors of sociology