UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
NOVEMBER 21,1978
Legal plan acceptable
A faint hope lingers for KU's proposed legal services program.
The Legal Services Governing Board agreed Sunday to ask the administration for court representation in the legal services program. But the board will act without support from Mike Harper, student body president.
When the board submitted a proposal two weeks ago to Harper that included court representation, he said he did not think the administration would accept a proposal if it included court representation during the first year of the program, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 1979.
SO IN AN EFFORT to compromise with the administration, the board has now decided to ask for limited court representation. The board wants to allow a legal services attorney to represent students in court only as defendants during the first six months of the program.
In their earlier proposal to Harper, the board had wanted to have court representation for student defendants and certain plaintiff cases from the beginning of the program.
Despite the compromise,Harper has
asked the board to send their proposal directly to Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor, instead of sending it first to Harper and then Shankel.
"If I submit it to the administration," Harper said, "I'll just be getting more response as to what they will accept and what they won't accept."
IN EFFECT, Harper is bowing to administration pressures without concern for the wishes of students. Student Senate surveys have indicated that a majority of students want court representation in a legal services program.
The board's compromise seems to be a fair proposal that would offer students an excellent service while providing the administration with adequate time to evaluate the program's effectiveness.
Any hope for court representation in the early stages of the legal services program now seems to lie with the board's compromise. It is a proposal that both administration and students should find acceptable, and Harper, as top student leader, should strongly back it.
Colleges should lead surge of independence
By CRAVEN E. WILLIAMS
BY CRAVEN E. WILLIAM K.Y. Times Features
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C.-Many colleges and universities lay claim to the word "independence" is a wispy ideal that belies many of us who do. In fact, some of us who cleave to the term "independence" may soon see that the word has been sapped of vitality.
I do not mean to say that our great state universities do not have an important role to play or that independent college students play only that there is a crying need for a truly independent college which stands on its own ground. It is the spirit of independence to its students.
It would have been easy to give in to voices that say we should seek and accept federal funds. It would have been easy to recommend accepting the philosophy that freedom is crucial to touch and to learn must knot to bargain government intrusion.
At Gardner-Webb College, we think we best serve our 1,400 students by not accepting direct federal funds. Just a few weeks ago, our board reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to neither seeking nor taking any additional federal grants. That was not an easy decision.
IT WOULD have been easy to suggest overlooking horror stories about faculty members who have been granted tenure at some institutions because multi-million dollar research grants would have been avoided, the outcome of grievance procedures.
Truly independent education must not give in to those voices. Truly independent education instead must be committed to asserting its independence.
Such a reaffirmation of independence blends harmoniously with the essence of independent education. Independence is the solid rock of the Christian faith.
It is the pivotal focus of the liberal arts, and as never before, it is the earnest plea of the American people, who want to reestablish their right to direct events in their personal lives, political activities and economic endeavors.
In short, the American people want and need to retain a sense of control over their environment.
**THAT is what "independent" should mean. If independent colleges are not ready in every respect available, the state sector as we have known it and as it has contributed to the strength of higher education, will be severely threatened, if not completely destroyed.**
We must send from our campuses into primary, elementary, and secondary schools teachers who do not have to be refreshed on the merits of individuality.
We must send to our pupils/ministers who do not have to be preached to about the practicalities of autonomy and independence.
We must supply young executives who know the value of productivity, profit and results.
It is time to do more than pay lip service to the principle of independent education. It requires students to know that voice which does more than cry in the wilderness. Truly independent education can be a Taj Mahal in the middle of a desert. If the trend is ever to be turned around, we need it.
That is our goal at Gardner-Webb. I think the cause of independence should find its loudest and most informed advocate in the independent college. I think the independent academic community and the independent community share the same goals for our society.
Although it may be idealistic, I envision a splendid coalition between independent colleges and independent business. How fine it would be for the advocates of educational freedom and the advocates of economic freedom to be jointly joined as educational entrepreneurs.
Craven E. Williams, who received his doctorate from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va., is president of Gardner-Webb College, one of seven institutions of higher learning supported by the North Carolina Baptist State University. His article is adapted from remarks delivered recently to the college's board of trustees.
Presidents of both parties have for two decades found no problem more intractable than by the inflation. The collective crusade against rising prices has seen an array of solutions—but none has proved effective.
Carter disappointing in inflation fight
And now the task has passed to Jimmy Carter, the latest at of least five presidents to grapple with inflation. Last month he went on the offensive with a voluntary program limiting price increases to 5.75 percent and wage increases to 4.85 percent.
A week later Carter announced heavier weapons, which he said were instituted more to bolster the dollar than fight inflation. But his target again was infation, which had undermined the dollar's value on foreign money markets
The Federal Reserve's discount rate, the rate it charges to loans to commercial banks, was raised from 8.5 to 9.5 percent in March. The central bank's requirement was raised 2 percent and a $30 billion war chest was provided for immediate relief to the sagging economy.
Carter disappointed everybody as an inflation fighter. The business community doomed voluntary controls to failure and worried about the next step, mandatory controls. The government failed to implement mandated mandatory controls. Economist predicted a recession.
John F. Kennedy instituted voluntary wage and price guidelines in 1962, when inflation threatened to climb over the 1 percent mark. His brightest moment came when he dishaused the big steel companies from a price increase.
AMID THE HUE and cry it became clear Carter had proposed something that was new. His predecessors had, at most, been more cautious.
It was, however, only after the mid-1960s, when Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" and the expanding War in Vietnam created huge budget deficits, that inflation became a serious problem for the first time since the
Inflation rose from 1.9 percent in 1965 to 4.7 percent in 1968—still modest for current standards. Many economists
now think Johnson erred when he failed to raise taxes to reduce the deficit. Only the Federal Reserve made a gesture against inflation, tightening the money supply and raising interest rates.
Rick Alm
Johnson finally called for a tax increase in 1967 and supported voluntary wage and price standards. But he was opposed to the new rules.
WHEN RICHARD Nixon took office in 1960, inflation was accelerating. He tried faster money policies, but prices were rising.
Nixon surprised the nation Aug. 15, 1971, when he announced a 90-day wage and price freeze. After that, he introduced the most elaborate controls since World War II. He also signed the Affordable Care Act, a needed approval from the cost of Living Council.
The program succeeded in holding inflation to 3.4 percent in 1971 and 1972. But when the unpopular controls were relaxed in 1973, post-up wage and pressure pressures price saxing and prompted a new 60-day freeze on prices.
More controls were imposed as inflation climbed to 8.8 percent, until then a post-war record, after the freeze expired. In 1974, Nixon decided controls were not working and cut growth. Big inflation soared above 11 percent—another record.
Nixon then attempted to control inflation by tightening the money supply. The economic slowdown, however, sank into a recession in 1974-75, the longest and deepest since World War II.
Gerald Ford inherited the inflation problem when he took office in 1974. He initiated his much-maligned "Wip Inflation Now"~or ~*WIN*~ "program, which restored reliance on yolgantism.
INFLATION EASED in the aftermath of the record 1974 price burst, dropping to 7 percent in 1975 and 48 percent in 1976. The chilling effect of the recession, not the WIN program, was the most important factor in slowing inflation. And, at 4.8 percent, it was still considered a problem.
carter entered the fray in 1977 when inflation returned to the levels of early 1974—more than 8 percent at present. His two programs have the modest goal of reducing inflation below 6 percent next year.
The record of five presidents in the last 18 years has not been good. They have tried voluntary guidelines, tight money policies and controls, but inflation has defied each solution.
Presidents find inflection so difficult because, although they must accept responsibility for it, their power is insufficient to conquer it. Uncommon as it is to think of limited presidential powers, it must be recognized that important decisions affecting the rate of inflation are made by the president and both independent of the president, and by the private sector.
Presidents, moreover, can rely only on their personal appeal to influence thousands of wage and price decisions in the private sector, where market conditions tend to be more persuasive than the patriotic admonishments. Business and labor groups can, separately or in concert, sabotage a president's stand against rising prices.
Presidents find public opinion the most formidable obstacle in fighting inflation. Anti-inflation programs tend to be unpopular because they require a degree of sacrifice. The public, they find, often prefers the disease to the cure.
Pemisans in this cirrus do not engage in combat. His legacy to the 40th president is likely to be a familiar crisis, rising
Kansan Farber article labeled special interest
To the editor:
I'm tired of seeing Kansan special interest editorials in so-called news stories. Pam Manson's article on Myron Farber, who is recent reporter, fills this category all too well.
First, it is amazing that the Kansan can cover a story about a speaker at a gathering of a journalist's fraternity in Birmingham, Ala., when it would never deluge to cover a similar professional gathering in Lawrence, Ohio, by participating in activities at the Kansas Union last spring.
I doubt the Kansan would cover a speech in Birmingham by the president of the
United States on Page 1, as it did its own fraternity meeting. The Kansan has no concept of special interest journalism, has little interest in a respected belief in its own importance, or both.
The story itself, and its relationship to truth, also bears mentioning. According to Manson, "Farber wrote two articles in which a Dr. 'X' was implicated as the
Probes for hidden meaning ridiculous
Organized sports as we now know them are not long for the world.心理 implications behind them are
In a recent Time magazine article, Alan Dundes, an anthropologist at the University of California in Berkeley, said that the "unequivocal sexual symbolism of the game" made it clear that football was a homosexual ceremony. And he calls the consistency of imagery presented in the sport "nothing short of amazing."
And it's amazing why sports really exist.
Well, at least Dundes attempts to use a few examples to back up his findings, even if the examples are feeble. The hugging between players and the famy-patting that also goes on in other sports are both obvious examples, he says.
"FOOTBALL IS A ritualized form of homosexual rape. The winner feminizes the losers by getting into their zone and assaulting them."
If Dunedes is serious about his accusations, someone had better warn Pete Rozelle, National Football League commissioner. He obviously doesn't know what his job really involves. And all those beer and razor-blade companies who spend fortunes on weekends and Monday nights must be told, too. What will their families think?
What will they think of next?
And, of course, there are the sexual uniforms and that erotic football jargon: "score" "down" and "miling on".
To think that Superbowl Sunday was on the verge of being declared a national holiday.
Probably knowing that he's backed himself into a corner.
physician who had used curare . . . on the patients in experiments at the hospital. As a result of these articles, the Bergen County, N.J., prosecution opened the case. . ."
Mario Jacevachelle was indicted for the murders and Farber was subpoenaed for all his notes and as a potential witness. He was also charged with murder in which he was instrumental.
Dundies tries to get out by explaining that he's really talking about a "healthy outlet for male-to-male affections." But he doesn't.
WHY Couldn't SOMEBODY leave football alone? But, football, like everything else nowadays, had to have a hidden meaning. Dundee' s antecedent new theory is only one of the many theories behind right, tight and meaning on trivial happenings or pieces of culture.
The examples are everywhere; on the playing field, on the job and especially on the college campus. Probably any one of these students will want to read a novel has some hidden meaning. And by reading carefully and looking for symbols, that meaning shines brightly.
By looking hard enough, it's possible to find meaning out of practically anything. We've known for some time now how secure our lives are. How secure our lives are. There are meanings behind everything we eat, do or think. What a wonderful time we
EVEN CHILDREN ARE not exempt. "Goldilocks and the
On-the-job examples are common, too. For every occupation, there must be psychological explanation. Race car drivers, those pathetic people, have secret death wishes. Persons who become carpenters must have unhappy lives at home so they learn to work out their agression on the job. Defense attorneys at one time all were caught stealing bubble gum from drug stores, and then being ordered not to do so. Columnists never were allowed to speak at the dinner table when they were young, so they now must air their grievances on paper.
Three Bears" can be nother a children's story; it 's got to have a meaning. It 's probably a story of intrafamily relationships and how outsiders can disrupt family life. Why not why child abuse. Baby bear is consistently taken advantage of. His perridge is eaten, his breast is broken and his sleep is入shed. And this is a story we tell to children.
**FROM THE RIDICULOUS to the aburd.** But Dundes may have gone just a little bit too far in this never-ending
His theory has received some support. "I think Dundes' ideas are very profound. My hunch is that 'right on', says San Francisco Jane Jacobs, who is, of course, a resident of Berkeley. That seems to meet its reception in the Berkeley area has not been good.
Roger Theder, a University of California football coach, says it well: “It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.”
According to Farber, as reported by Manson, "I had no first-hand information of the alleged murders. The order to turn over the evidence was made. I didn't make any distinction about confidential sources." How could any judge make a distinction between what was necessary evidence and what was not, or how would looking at the information Farber had?
Ridiculous.
That the Kansan story failed to mention the personal suffering endured by Jasclevich is not surprising. It is even less surprising that the Kansan neglected to mention the $7,000 advance Furber received upon upcoming book on the Dr. Murders.
This was a murder case, and a man's life was being tried. Farber and the New York Times decided they, not the court, should determine what was admissible evidence. What if a judge in Lawrence decided what ought to be published? Lawyers are a news story on a murder case closed since 1966, if it cannot lead to the truth?
Rest assured, seekers of truth! It seems
the facts in the case will come out, as interpreted by Farber, for those of us who are willing to buy his book. I guess the judge and jury had been patient enough to let him pass.
But they chose not to, and Jascalecue was freed, in large part because of lack of evidence. The decision by the Times to make the Farber affair a constitutional test of the legitimate right of confidentiality is unjustified.
It is unjustified by the harm it could do to the right of the accused to a fair trial, a right every bit as protected in the Bill of Rights as the First Amendment freedoms. A blanket of protection, covering any journalist from his involvement in any legal situation, would no more than allow him similar power to lattices, criminals and candidates for public office.
I will close by asking the Kansei to remember the words of Myron Farber, as she did in her book "To serve the purpose—to serve the American public." When will the Kansei serve the public by saving its opinions for its editorial page and getting back to the job of covering the news
The facts of the situation (the immense importance and direct involvement of the police in the trial) makes this attempt to stretch the right of confidentiality to fit *Tarber* a dangerous individual.
Robert Green Hays senior
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