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Tuesday, October 17. 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
State deprives professors by denying privacy rights
The attorney general thinks that the addresses of all state employees must be made available to the public. Not surprisingly, most state employees disagree, with good reason.
The attorney general's opinion of the Kansas Open Records Law says that the names and home addresses of public school teachers should be made available upon request.
Winter is exactly right. Receiving a paycheck from the state should not deprive someone of his right to be left alone. State employees are not elected officials who have thrust themselves into the public spotlight.
The University's interpretation of the opinion makes the home addresses of professors and other KU employees available upon request. Addresses do not have to be released to people for the purpose of selling something or for student employees.
In effect, the attorney general's opinion deprives public employees of the same right to privacy afforded to workers in the private sector.
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, in a letter to the Legislative Research Department requesting an amendment to the Open Records Act, said "I understand that . . . home addresses of teachers and other employees of school districts, professors and all classified employees of the state are now available to anyone, including those who are using the addresses for commercial purposes.
"In my opinion, a person who agrees to go to work for the state of Kansas, a school district or other government agency does not, merely by that fact, give up the right to privacy with respect to their home addresses. It appears to me discriminatory to treat public and private employees differently with respect to the availability of their home address."
Public employees, whether professors or other KU employees, should be entitled to the same protection from bothersome sales representatives and other harassers. They should not be discriminated against just because the state treasurer signs their checks.
Daniel Niemi for the editorial board
The rest of the University should consider emulating the greek population's generosity during the American Red Cross blood drive last week.
Greeks should be praised for donating most blood
Greek donations to the blood drive accounted for nearly 80 percent of all the blood given by the University. Panhellenic, the governing body for all sororities, actively promoted the drive throughout campus, meeting its goal of 750 of the University's total of 875 units of blood. This amount is more than one third of the Red Cross' weekly goal for the Wichita area, which includes Lawrence.
Karen Brown, blood services consultant for the Red Cross, said that the organization relied heavily on the generosity of the University community and that blood was always in demand. Last week, a strong showing from the greek population, which accounts for 6.16 percent of the entire student population, produced nearly 80 percent of the Univeristy's total blood donation.
Blood is always needed, and because of a large response by the Greek population, the University can be proud of its contribution. The potential for the University to increase its donation in future years is enormous.
If a minority faction of the University, such as greeks, is capable of producing such a substantial portion of donated blood, what would keep a campuswide organized effort from increasing the total blood donation?
The great amount of blood collected this year will be sent to 130 hospitals throughout Kansas and Oklahoma. The opportunity to increase the amount of blood donated at KU is substantial, and all organizations and living groups should strive to motivate their members as the Greeks have done this year.
Thom Clark for the editorial board
Members of the editorial board are David Stewart, Stan Diel, Brett Brenner, Ric Brack, Daniel Niemi, Craig Welch, Kathy Walsh, Deb Gruver, Thom Clark and Tiffany Harness.
David Stewart...Editor
Ric Brack...Managing editor
Daniel Niemi...News editor
Candy Nieman...Printing editor
Stan Dell...Editorial editor
Jennifer Corser...Campus editor
Elaine Sung...Sports editor
Laura Huser...Photo editor
Austin Witner...Arts/Feminist
Tom Ebbel...General manager, news adviser
Linda Prokop ... Business manager
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Jerre Medford ... National/regional sales director
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Margaret Townsend ... Coord. Creator
Ed Nighpat ... Creative director
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Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Take a chance, make a date
Before I start this column, I think it might be a good idea to tie up some loose ends about my last one.
First, I didn't choose that headline: "Ask him, he's dying for a date." I I'm not sure whether readers perceived the "him/he" to be me, or if they thought I was advising women to ask men out.
Well, the "him/he" was not me. Nor was it any other guy I know. In fact, I really didn't say anything about men at all, much less about some guy dying for a date. But yes, I was trying to convince women to consider asking men out — for everyone's benefit, but especially for women. I hope you readers didn't misread that column as badly as those editors who chose that "cutesy" or "catchy" headline.
So that means there shouldn't have been any women sitting around that weekend complaining that they were bored, that there was nothing to do or that they were tired. It would be good place to distinguish between "alone" and "lonely."
The American Heritage Dictionary defines "alone" as being apart from other people. You can be alone at home or even when you're surrounded by people at a bar, a movie, in class, etc.
On the other hand, "lonely" adds to that isolation the painful consciousness of it. It's the negative emotional response to being alone. And it usually stems from a continued or frequent isolation or from a desire not to be apart from other people. I sum it up by saying that "lonely" burts.
Which brings me back to my last column. Women should ask men out.
The answer: ignorance. They don't know any place else to go where there is a collection of men who are trying to
And it does. It hurts men and women to the point where they go out to drink, believing they're having fun but not remembering that fun the next day. Their heads and stomachs tell them that they overdid it.
Yeah, there's fear of rejection, but guys have that, too. And just because you noticed that good-looking guy in your class don't assume that he noticed you. And even if he noticed, he might be just as shy as you think you are. And this nice guy might not go to bars or parties. Instead
Sure, some do have fun; and some do meet some really nice people. But if that were the case every time, then why do women continue to go to bars "to meet guys?" Didn't they "meet guys" at all those other parties and bars? Or is it that the guys they met weren't really their type? And if these guys at these bars and parties weren't the type they wanted to meet, then why do they continue to go?
Richard E.
Felton
Staff columnist
If he's with other guys, it can be intimidating to attempt to talk to him. But a guy also has to wait until the woman he's interested in is sufficiently alone so that he can talk to her.
you'll find him out running or cycling, playing tennis or basketball, lifting weights, attending recitals, his car, shopping for food, studying, attending movies or a gym. You can either be alone or with a grown - just like you women.
And if they're alone, there should be little problem starting a conversation. In New York City, (where many people eat alone), one can obtain a dinner date while reading the menus posted on the windows of the restaurants that line the streets of Manhattan. Even if you've eaten there before, you simply ask, "Is the food, (or, more specifically, the fettucci alfredo), here any good?" And he or she will answer, "I don't know. Would you like to join me?" or "Yes. Would you like to join me?"
If that's how we're to choose our friends and our mates, we're in trouble, because then we resort to the same old datin activities. And unfortunately, most dating activities — movies. TV, dining, drinking, studying and kissing
And if they don't ask you to join them, you then ask if they're dining alone and would they like company. Which brings me to express the purpose of dating.
Dating is just a way for two people to get to know each other. And that's especially important if the two people don't take the same classes, work in the same place or live in the same dorm or apartment complex. Otherwise, the only people you'd date or marry would be those with whom you associated at school, work or where you live.
— aren't conducive to the kind of conversation which allows people to get to know each other. And perhaps that's a large contributor to the 60 to 80 percent divorce rate.
Couples tend not to get to know each other until after they're married. And then, too often, they don't like who they married. They find out too late that they married the wrong person in the first place.
Richard E. Falton is a Lawrence law student.
NY station still at crossroad
People who live in New York City, for some reason, think that the rest of us are just salivating to read about the details of what is going on in their town. New York has a mayoral election, and New Yorkers assume this holds some interest for the rest of us. New York has a spate of ugly crimes, and New Yorkers assume that those crimes will seem more immediate and symbolic to us than the crimes in our own towns. New York decides that a new nightclub is hot, and New Yorkers assume that we are desperate to hear about it.
Having said all that, I must concede that one piece of news coming out of New York is worth thinking about, no matter where we live. Not because it specifically applies to our lives but because it points out so dramatically the difference between what New York was and what New York is.
the news concerns Grand Central Station, the most famous railroad terminal in the world. According to news reports, the marble waiting room in the station has been sealed off behind a plywood wall. Spokesmen for the station (officially it is called "Grand Central Terminal") say this must be done for a renovation project. Objective observers, though, say that the real reason is to deal with the fact that so many homeless people have, in recent years, made the station their living quarters.
"We're on the verge of chaos at Grand Central," one advocate for the homeless was quoted as saying. "These people have nowhere else to go. Some of the subway entrances in the building are literally packed with people trying to sleep."
A station official responded by telling a reporter, "You've got to remember that we have to take care of our customers. That doesn't mean that other people can't come in and enjoy the beauty of Grand Central and have a cup of coffee and rest a while. But Grand Central is not a living space."
"As a bullet seeks its target, shining rails in every part of our great country are aimed at Grand Central Station, heart of the nation's greatest city. Drawn by the magnetic force of the great metropolis, day and night great trains rush toward the Hudson River, sweep down
This is all the culmination of a situation that has been building for years. The very words "Grand Central Station" have always been sort of awe-inspiring; Grand Central Station was the big time, the destination so many Americans secretly yearned for, even if they knew they would never get there. In the early days of network radio there was a nighttime drama with the title "Grand Central Station," and in the 1930s people all across the land would sit by their radios and listen to the show's opening:
Bob Greene
Svndicated columnist
its eastern bank for 145 miles, flash briefly by the long red row of tenement houses south of 125th Street, dive with a roar into the two-and-a-half mile tunnel that burrows beneath the glitter and swank of Park Avenue, and then . . . Grand Central Station! Crossroads of a million private lives — a gigantic stage on which are played a thousand dramas daily."
It was thrilling in the imagination, and undoubtedly it was pretty thrilling in reality. Which is why it has been such a shock in recent years to go into the station and see the rows of people sleeping on benches, into the restrooms and know that you may encounter unfortunate men and women bathing in sinks. It is a shock to hear of harassment and demented drug sales right in Grand Central Station.
You can't blame the homeless people for wanting a place of dryness and warmth, and you really can't blame New York for having to deal with the tragic dilemma. Estimates of the number of homeless people living in the station have varied from 150 to 500 to 1,000 during the winter, but the situation has challenged the sensibilities and the consciences of even the most goodhearted New Yorkers. It is one thing to yearn for a humane solution to homelessness, wherever it occurs; it is another to realize that the fabled railroad station has turned into a shelter, into a place where many people feel not only uncomfortable but in potential danger from the most unstable of the terminal's new residents.
Those of us who live elsewhere may not care much who the mayor of New York turns out to be, or what the hottest night club of the moment is. But it's kind of melancholy to think of what New York used to be and what New York is today, symbolized so starkly by Grand Central Station. "Crossroads of a million private lives — a gigantic stage on which are played a thousand dramas daily." When those words were written as the introduction to the old-time radio show, they probably weren't meant to sound so sad.
Unless the new station rules, there is a temporary waiting area into which a person may be admitted only after displaying a train ticket.
> Bob Greene's is columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
LETTERS to the EDITOR
Mid Night Court fails
What happened to tradition? The University of Kansas' first basketball scrimmage is supposed to signify the beginning of another great season of basketball. The Athletic Department tried to change this tradition by making "Mid Night Court" into a concert with the KU basketball team as a side show. It failed.
As a long time KU fan, I support the team in all they do. Part of this tradition is watching them entertain us apart from playing basketball and volleyball, but we allowed 30 minutes of this; first we had to sit through two concerts.
If you had walked onto the track, you could have found hundreds of people standing around waiting for the real show to begin. Finally the concert ended. I've never been able to be cheered when the lights came back on.
Allen Field House is not a concert hall. I'd be one of the first to admit that Shooting Star is a great group. We weren't allowed to hear this, however, because the sound was horrible. The field house is the home of KU basketball, not screeching guitars.
At 11:15 when the KU pep band struck their first note, the crowd came alive. It was now time for what everyone had been waiting for. During the 45 minutes before the first tip-off of the season, we witnessed some great entertainment from the team, pep band, pep squad, and crimson girls. This is "Mid Night Court" is all about. Let them put on the show. We like it that way.
I applaud the basketball team for their part in the entertainment. Watching Jeff, Rick, Mike and Freeman lip-sync made those in the field house roar. The skit was hilarious. They may not win acting awards, but they are who we came to see. Rick dancing — it said enough. This is what "Mid Night Court" is all about. Fun KU loves the Jayhawks. This year's team did an excellent job and put on a great show and scrimmage — a sign of what's to come this year.
I realize the crowd was diverse, but the special alumni-family student crowd was missing. Maybe some changes are needed, but I think the department should do that because that the best show is the one put on by the 'Hawks themselves. Bring back the tradition.
Lisa Hicks
Cawker Citv Junior
Not everybody is white
Integration? Most people think that means that minorities should drop their cultures and learn ours. Why is it that minorities should have to be forced to write "the white way?" "White" is not a synonym for "right." I don't think anyone can know how it feels to be a minority on this campus unless that person is a minority. I have been to many parties where I was the only White person. I actually thought I knew how it felt to be a minority. But when I got to the door to leave, I realized I had no idea what it's like because the second I walked out that door, I was a majority once again. For the minorities on this campus, no such door exists.
Unless we put ourselves in situations where we can feel what they feel, even for a second, we will never be able to change some of the attitudes on this campus, it is hard to understand when we walked through to also be opened for minorities, so that they too can feel comfortable here.
NOW beats the Noid
Elizabeth R. Arnold Sioux Falls, S.D., sophomore
The National Organization for Women has done some pretty inane things since its birth, but their most recent declaration of total war against Domino's Pizza deserves special mention. Molly Yard has just edged out the Noid as a pizza's worst enemy.
One can only assume that when NOW says it is "pro-choice," they aren't talking about food. The feminist menu will no longer include pro-life pizzas, and that's fine for them. Undoubtedly their campaign against Domino's will reach all new lows in peaceful protest, but it's all well within their rights. I just wonder if proabortion leaders gave any thought to the inevitable that zealots of any political persuasion bring upon themselves when they try to tell people what they should read, think or eat.
No matter how you alice it, NOW has bitten off more than it can chew.
Kevin Furlong Chicago, Ill., sophomore