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Monday, Aug. 28, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Minority head's hasty exit left turmoil for successor
Rosita Dorsey might have left the University of Kansas, but she left her desk at the office of minority affairs cluttered.
She resigned with two positions vacant, so interim director Marshall R. Jackson will have to spend much of his time working to find people to fill those slots.
owing to this man's sins these
But he will have other worries, too.
But he will have our help. According to several students who went to Dorsey for help, she wasn't the most open, caring person to turn to in a time of need. Our minority students don't need the additional aggravation of having to deal with an administrator who cares little about their problems.
One student, Tia Williams, went so far as to transfer to the University of Missouri because of the way she said Dorsey ignored her.
Of course, Dorsey didn't rub everyone the wrong way, and it would have been impossible for her to please every student on campus.
repeated attempts to find a reason for Dorsey's May resignation have failed.
still, one would think that she would have tried harder to work with the students whom she was supposed to serve rather than turn them away from the University.
She does have a right to her privacy, to be sure, but the University, especially the minority community, has a right to know whether she resigned for personal reasons or because there was something wrong with the office of minority affairs.
Jackson, the interim director, has a chance to correct any mistakes that Dorsey might have made. His goal to create a Kansas City area outreach program to keep high school and junior high school students in school is a positive step toward increasing KU's minority enrollment.
Let's hope that now that Dorsey is gone, minority students will want to stay there they get here.
David Stewart for the editorial board
Vending machine removal was necessary at Watson
When students return to Watson Library this fall, they will find that all of the vending machines in the building have been removed. The machines were removed this summer in an effort to limit the damage caused to books by the carelessness of students.
Although we may complain that it is seemingly impossible to research a term paper without experiencing the mind-altering effects of the Mountain Dew caffeine high, we must realize that we brought this on ourselves.
And it's not as if we weren't given a chance. A two-week cleanup campaign five years ago, including efforts to educate the public about the cost of carelessness, failed to alleviate the problem. Rules, which are designed to protect the University's investment in books, are simply ignored.
Other universities have experienced the same problem. Wichita State University and Kansas State University removed vending machines from their libraries for the same reason.
When the University must fight for every dollar it gets, it should not have to spend money replacing books damaged by chocolate stains and Coke spills; library employees should not have to play food police.
Those of us who frequent the stacks become desensitized to the mounds of aluminum cans and candy wrappers that must be brushed aside before we can study. The garbage does not get there by itself.
The vending machines are gone, but the problem is not. It can't be too difficult to put a contraband ham and cheese sandwich in your backpack. Students should show some respect for the books, which their tuition money helps buy.
The decision to remove the vending machines from the library probably will not solve the problem. But when students consistently ignore the rules and the result costs the University money, something must be done.
Stan Diel for the editorial board
The decision, although regrettable, was a good one.
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.
News staff
David Stewart...Editor
Ric Brack...Managing editor
Daniel Nieml...News editor
Candy Niemann...Planning editor
Stan Diel...Editorial editor
Jennifer Corseer...Campus editor
Elaine Sung...Sports editor
Laura Husee...Photo editor
Stephen Kline...Graphics editor
Christine Winner...Art/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Linda Prokop ...Business manager
Debra Martin...Local sales director
Jane Miedford...National sales manager
Crisi Hughee...Marketing director
Jill Lowe ...Marketing director
Taml Rank ...Production manager
Carrie Staninka ..Asst. production manager
Margaret Townsend ..Co-op sales manager
Gwendell Dough ..Growth manager
Jeanne Hines ..Sales and marketing adviser
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Safely enduring KU's coupon zone
Winding my way through the crowd that had gathered along the sidewalk outside of the Kansas Union for three days last week, I felt like the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound.
The seemingly endless number of people giving away coupons and hawking their goods and clubs nearly drowned me in a sea of colored paper and credit card applications.
The Union itself offered no safe harbor. The crowded lobby was flooded with students, all going a different direction.
I've decided that there are at least six strategies for dealing with the over-zealous coupon freaks and salespeople that line Jayhawk Boulevard like potholes every time we pay fees.
I felt like a salmon swimming upstream, but I'm sure the fish have more fun. They are going to spawn: I was going to pay fees.
The simplest solution is to walk on the other side of the street. Once you get past the "coupon zone," dash across the street and into the Union to pay your fees.
I kept telling her that I subscribed to my hometown paper, worked for the Kansan and didn't need another paper.
If you don't mind getting into fights, the best move for you may be to throw some elbows. The thought crossed my mind more than once as a saleswoman from the Kansas City Star and Times grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. Rather than just verbally abusing me, she felt it necessary to get her point across by shaking me.
"Get some REAL news," she said before throwing me back to the crowd. So much for that sale. If you don't have the will power to just say no, or
Brett Brenner
Assoc. editorial editor
the person giving out the pizza coupons is cute, then you may want to consider the dump maneuver. This is done by taking the coupons and then dumping them in the first available trash can, assuming it isn't already overflowing.
My favorite solution is the "never make eye contact" strategy. This is done by shoving your hands as deep into your pockets as possible, looking at your feet and never looking up. If they make eye contact with you, you might as well run. The drawback to this approach is that you tend to run into a lot of people.
Another easy way through the crowd is to buy two of something, anything, and hold one in each hand, making it impossible to take any coupons.
A friend, back from a recent trip to New York City, had perhaps the best solution. He said he treated the coupon pushers and newspaper salesmen like bums on the street of Manhattan.
"I just ignore them," he said. "Maybe they'll go away."
Thursday morning the local newspaper had the coupon zone all to themselves. Granted, there weren't many students left to bother, but they had a pure monopoly.
He was right.
The group that wins the best booth award is the only group worth stopping for, Solidarity for a Democratic China. They weren't only selling cool T-shirts but they also have a worthy message.
The prize for best free giveaway, or the most sexist, depending on your frame of mind, was the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and their "Dream Girl" calendar. Camped out in front of Hoch Auditorium, far from the maddening crowd, the Pikes had no trouble giving out their calendar.
KJHK wins the award for loudest speakers, (and best new logo), nosing out KLZR. It was a new experience for most students to hear Madonna and the Cure at the same time, adding to the atmosphere outside of the Union.
The Young Socialist Alliance wins the award for most ironic display. They had their table set up between the Wichita Eagle-Beacon and KU's successful Ultimate Frisbee club.
I stopped to see what was happening at the YSA table when a student with a serious bent on getting involved would tell by the enormous number of broaches she had collected), began to peruse the YSA literary selections. He made his choice and began to add it to his stash when the Young Socialist behind the table said, "We charge a dollar for those."
A lesson in flight is a lesson in life
My experiences during fee payment have taught me at least one thing: Free enterprise and competition are alive and well, even for the Young Socialist Alliance.
Brett Breanner is a Wichita senior, majoring in political science and journalism.
I was 2,000 feet in the air, speeding through space in a 172-Cessna Skyhawk airplane and completely fooling intelligent people into thinking I knew what I was doing.
My feet pushed the rudder pedals, my sweaty hands clinched the yoke, and my eyes kept shifting from the instrument panel to the windshield. I looked like I was flying the plane. The instructor, his hands folded and his feet completely off the pedals, said I was飞ying the plane.
Seconds before, Tom, my flight instructor at the small Florida airport where we took off, had just thrust control of the airplane into my jet.
All I wanted to do was experience one flying lesson, and now Tom wanted me — a man who can't even drive a stick-shift car — to level the plane.
"You enjoy this, don't you?" I asked my flight instructor as my heart felt like it was about to burst through my shirt. I was in the process of out how to make the plane rise or plummet.
"You betcha!" yelled H. He laughed. The photographer laughed. I prayed I would live.
Placing control of the plane into a rookie's nervous hands is one of Tom's tricks for first-flight students. He wanted me to feel the rush of
In truth, I really didn't know which pedals turned the plane or what buttons to push to keep the plane from hurting to the ground in a ball of blood. Then the yoke and pushed the pedals out of despair.
Joel
Zeff
Staff columnist
adrenaline when I guided the plane upward and downward. He wanted me to figure it out for myself. He wanted me to react.
Granted, we were high enough in the sky that no matter what I did, Tom could fix it before we became lawn ornaments somewhere near the airport. Still, I did it. I was flying.
"It's the thrill and the excitement of experience, the spice of life." Tom told me. "That's why people learn to fly. They want to find out what Orville and Wilbur were thinking. It's the challenge."
I didn't believe him when he first told me about the challenge, but after feeling the controls of the airplane I knew what he was talking about.
It was just the excitement of banking the plane to the left at 100 mph and feeling the aircraft respond. It was the feeling of being suspended in air,
It was the thrill of flying over a clogged highway and laughed at all the suckers stuck in traffic.
When Tom was telling me about the challenge, he was also talking about his theory on life. His
and laughing at all the suckers stuck in traffic.
When I see you telling me about the challenge
theory: take control, don't hesitate to take a chance and straighten the plane yourself. If you falter, someone will usually be there to keep you from becoming a lawn ornament.
It's a simple theory that can be used to teach flying lessons, start a new job or begin college.
"Anyone can learn to fly — some might get frustrated — but it's just a matter of dedication." Tom told me. "When you learn to fly, you find out what freedom is."
I was still looking out the window when I noticed the plane felt like it was pointed straight up.
"You're going too high." Tom said, bringing me back to reality.
"Now you're going too low." Tom said.
Up in the sky, it was quiet. No one screaming or honking their car horns. It was just us, free to make our own decisions.
I brought the plane back to a level position, and my flight instructor commanded me on my eyehand coordination. I didn't have the slightest idea what I was doing, but I smiled like I did.
Our lesson was almost up, so we headed back to the airport. I felt like a kid at the amusement park asking my mother if we could stay 15 minutes longer. I didn't want to leave.
As we were walking back to his office, Tom asked me if I knew why people wanted to fly.
> ♥ Joel Zeff is a Kansas City, Mo., senior majoring in journalism.
Rape victim's strength commended
A warning: This isn't going to be easy to read.
But it is about a woman with great courage and dignity, and as terrible as the story is, her courage and dimity are things for us to think about.
You won't see the woman's name here; it is not this newspaper's policy to print the names of rape victims. This particular rape victim happens to be 85 years old. She had a stroke when she was 82, and since she has lived in a nursing home. The Woman's Journal (WL) is in Waikiki, Oahu — is where the ray took place.
Because of her stroke, the victim does not have use of the muscles on the left side of her body. The woman is able to feed herself but is not able to cut her own food.
"The left side of her body is dead weight," said one of her daughters. "She has to have at least one able-bodied person to assist her with any moving around. She can't turn over or sit up by herself."
According to court testimony, the rape was committed by a man who worked in the nursing
Bob Greene
Syndicated columnist
name — an orderly (or nurse's assistant) named Nyika Muhammad Al-Bakri, also known as Willie Lee Brown, age 48, of North Chicago. According to Pat Sheridan, administrator of the nursing home, Al-Bakri was caught in the act of raping the 19-year-old woman when a staff nurse walked into the woman's room. Al-Bakri allegedly fled; the nurse who had walked into the room reported what she saw to the officials of the home, who notified
against the accused assailant?
If the rape was terrible, a terrible decision was imprinted; Should the 85-year-old woman testify
"She's a very private person," said the volunteer who worked with her. "And trials are very public."
"They wheeled her into the courtroom and brought the microphone to her," one daughter said. "She was in her wheelchair, facing the judge. She sat in the wheelchair, and she answered the questions, and when the state's attorney asked her to describe what happened, she did. Simply and clearly, she told me. The daughter went there. She would have given anything not to be there. But she did it."
Lake County Court Court Judge William Block found Al-Bakri guilty of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault. The judge said, "There is no question in my mind she did not consent and she could not actively resist." Judge Block sentenced Al-Bakri to 17 years in prison.
▶ Bob Greene is a columnist for the Chicago
Tribune.