UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
NOVEMBER 7,1978
Once should be enough
Congratulations are in order to Clark Bricker, professor of chemistry, for winning the HOPE award given by the senior class of 1979.
His selection marks him as an outstanding instructor and a great attribute to the University of Kansas. This was the third time Bricker has won the award, having received it in 1966 and 1970.
But the selection of a pa- t recipient points to a problem rooted in the guidelines governing the HOPE award. Current policy allows professors to be eligible for the award every three years.
IT IS A policy that should be changed to make past recipients ineligible for the award.
The honor of being a HOPE award winner—just once—should be sufficient. The award implies a dedication and commitment to teaching that will continue long after a professor's selection.
To select past recipients is an honorary redundancy, marking no new academic accomplishments and only confirming that past seniors were apparently correct in their appraisal of an instructor.
Moreover, the guideline change would allow a greater chance to recognize instructors from small departments, who, because of the small numbers of students they teach, never have a chance for selection. Such instructors, although highly qualified, are at a disadvantage.
THE AWARD guidelines are determined each year by a special HOPE award committee appointed by senior class officers. The committee has the power to set any eligibility policies it desires.
Although current guidelines will prevent an annual domination of the HOPE award by an individual professor, they are still too broad. Once should be enough for any HOPE award winner.
Florida newspapers bet credibility on referendum
By MARY HOENK Contributing Writer
ST. PETERBURG, Fla.—Two opposing forces are placing beds on whether this state's voters will approve a measure to give them a chance along a 18-mile strip of Miami Beach.
At one end of a political crop table, a procasin faction *cashins* will generate huge tax revenues and boost the economy. At the other end, the once fashionable Miami Beach area. At the other end of the table, opponents say casinus will develop the state and breed crime.
Beyond the pros and cons of the casino issue, however, perhaps the biggest gamble has already been made. Companies that publish eight of the state's largest casinos are jeopardized their credibility, and have contributed $144,000 to an anti-casino fund.
The newspaper involvement began with Alvah H. Chapman, president of the Miami Herald Publishing Co., who agreed to be a fundraiser for an anti-casino group at the request of Florida Governor Reubin Askew. The group, called No Casinos, Inc., organized an effort to combat a media blitz by a pro-casino group, Let's Help Florida.
THEIR ACTIONS have stirred a controversy questioning a newspaper's role as a public watchdog and an investigator. The controversy lies the propriety of any newspaper offering financial help to a political cause, spawning accusations of biased coverage of the truth.
Chapman, who personally contributed $7,500 to the anti-casino force, talked to other executives in the news industry asking for contributions.
ONE OF THOSE executives, Jack Lake, publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, says Chapman called him in early September wanting to know if the Times Publishing Co., the company which publishes the St. Petersburg paper, would contribute $0,000 to No Casualty.
Lake agreed to the contribution, and the company board backed his decision, with the company eventually contributing a total of $25,000. It was the first time the Times had contributed money to any group involved in a referendum.
Lake says he made his decision on the ability of the Times Publishing Co., to contribute as one of the top 25 corporations in the state, and on the fragile condition of Florida's industry, which is dominated by large corporations that might logically affected by economic conditions.
"We need to expand industry in the state of Florida" Lake says, "and I don't think casino gambling and new industry are compatible."
LAKE WAS not alone. Similar justifications have been given by executives of most of Florida's largest newspapers, including the Miami Herald, the Orlando
Sentinel St. Fort, Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, the Miami News, Palm Beach Post-Times, the Tallahassee Democrat and the Tampa Tribune And Times.
Several large newspaper corporations have been big contributors. Knight-Ridder, publishers of the Miami Herald and the Tallahassee Democrat, have been a major contributor to the Tampa papers, papers with $2,500; Cox Newspapers, publishers of Miami News and Palm Beach papers, gave $2,500; and the Chicago Times, also given $2,500. F.L. Landrieau newspapers, also gave $2,500.
does this affect a street activity in coverage of the gambling issue? Certainly, a corporate decision," Lake says. "We never thought there would be an effect on the way reporters handle the news. We never thought it would be controversial."
THE DECISION by the newspapers collectively has indeed become controversial—to the point where Let's Help Florida has a formal complaint against the Miami Herald and Chapman for their support of the anti-casino campaign.
The gambling propositions have asked the National News Council, an unofficial watchdog committee which investigates complaints against news organizations, to determine whether the money resulted in biased coverage of the pro-casino campaign.
And Let's Help Florida has not been alone in questioning the newspapers' decisions to shut down.
"I don't think the place of newspapers is in the political arena," Scott says. "I understand what Lake is sayin' concerning the current state of political wrongs overrides the place of neutral press."
ALTHOUGH REPORTING of the gambing issue at the Times has not been tainted, Scott says, it has been a "stunning blow" to Times reporters knowing that much of the public has a perception of the newspaper printed biased reporting.
She says a strong editorial position has been effective on past issues, and she questions why the publishers of the *Ladies' Weekly* and an editorial stance to influence voters.
The outcome of the gambling referendum could have broad effects on the role of newspapers, and their actions definitely set a precarious precedent for the press.
If voters do pick the no-casino faction as the winner today, newspapers that contributed to the anti-casino fund must decide if victory was worth their loss of credibility.
Mary Hoenek is an Iowa City, Iowa senior majoring in journalism at KU. This semester she is attending a weeklong internship with Modern Media Institute in St. Petersburg.
Larry Berner, a second-grade school teacher in the tiny northern California town of Healdsburg, is indistinguishable from his fellow teachers except for one thing.
That fact has made Berner a statewide symbol in the most recent struggle over homosexual rights, California's Proposition 6, by far the most broad-reaching and impactful movement patterned after California's new trend toward government-by-refendum.
Berner is a homosexual and he doesn't mind admitting it.
Calif. bigots would deny human rights
proposition 6 would forbid school boards to hire, and require them to fire, any teacher, administrator or counselor found guilty of "public homosexual activity" or "public homosexual conduct." The wording of the proposal is deliberately vague, making it inapplicable to anyone accused of sympathizing with homosexuals. It would be one of the most broad restrictions on human rights ever enacted in this country.
bined with his vote on agricultural use value and the reappraisal it would necessitate, this would mean a 23 percent increase in residential property tax in Douglas County. Elsewhere in the state, the percentage of residents who would have been as much as 130 percent.
SINCE ANITA BRIST first gave up orange juice to lead the anti-homosexual crusade to victory in Dade County, Fla., in 1977, the gay rights movement has suffered a long string of similar setbacks across the country.
Correction
Local ordinances protecting homosexual rights have been shot down not only in Florida but also in Wichita, St. Paul, Minn., and Eugene, Ore.
DEPARTMENT ON AGING-Vagel's vote on a motion to reconsider HB 2173 has a vote to kill the Department of Aging.
All of this is the brainstorm of California State Sen. John Briggs, the Howard Jarvis of the bigot crowd. Briggs, who finished fifth in a five-way race for the Republican nomination, said this summer began the Proposition 6 campaign as a tool to gain voter recognition.
But the efforts there pale when compared with the anti-gay crusade being waged in California. Previous elections have overturned ordinances ensuring rights for homosexuals, but this new proposal would by law deny homosexuals those rights.
AS BRIGGS recently told the San Francisco Examiner: "By the time our campaign for morality is over I'll be a very well-known man in this state."
Needless to say, Briggs has achieved that goal, although probably the way he had intended. As with any campaign exploiting a weakness, Briggs needed a犯法。他要 Berryer。
Berner, 38, had jokingly helped circulate petitions for the Briggs Initiative, as it is sometimes called, and had written of his adventures for a local gay publication. The
In May a group of trainee presented 300 signatures to the local school board, demanding that Berner be fired. Although sympathetic with the parents, the board refused to allow those of nothing worthy of dismissal, and instead voted to endorse the Briggs Initiative.
press and then Briggs, picked up the story. Briggs had at last long found a scapegret for his horse.
The Kansan indefinitely omitted a paragraph from Jim Supica's reply in Monday's paper to a Kansan endorsement. His article should have read:
MEANWHILE, Berner has been a man fighting for his life.
"I don't have a personal life anymore," he said. "I've spent the last year of my life fighting for rights everyone else takes for granted and that makes me pretty angry."
The tragic part of this little drama is that it is so unnecessary. The Briggs Initiative, begun as a publicity stunt by a headline-hungry politician, has turned into a witchhunt that is exploiting the fears of voters. State laws exist that could be applied in the case of any teacher improperly, and the state could also ban homosexual teachers would serve as role models for impressionable young minds is absurd.
As a lesbian who attended Catholic schools from first grade through college said, "If teachers were role models for sexual preference, 'I'd be celibate',"
THE BRIGGS forces are using the role model argument as a cover for the model argument.
Yet, in San Francisco, the country's most gay city and the city that Briggs referred to as a 'moral garbage dump', police officers were often child abuse in 1972-73 by homosexuals.
moisteres, a notion that Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" crusade made sense.
Clearly then, the Briggs Initiative is gaining support through other means than its faulty arguments. That support is coming from sheer, unadulterated bigrity—the kind inspired by a fear of things one doesn't understand.
Recognizing that, most of California's politicians are shying away from Proposition 6. Conservative heroes like Ronald Reagan and Howard Jarvine have refused to support the initiative, and after a scandal involving their officers are falling behind in the opinion polls.
Still, most observers have declared the race too close to call. But if the initiative were to pass it would not be a total disaster. Many lawyers in California think the law should be declared constitutional in the courts before it ever was implemented.
Most importantly, however, if the initiative were approved it would make a major statement about the attitudes of the American public. A "yes" vote on Proposition 6 would reveal a populace embracing the tenets of unrestful bigotry.
It would not be a pleasant spectacle
PROPERTY TAX—An amendment that would have protected homeowners and renters from a shift in the property tax onto residential property fell only three votes short of the required two-thirds of the House. Vogel voted against it. Com-
Kansan errors bad, but not racist
I am sure that you and the staff of the University Daily Kansan had your ears thoroughly blistered (to understate a bit) regarding the review of the recent Natalie Cole concert in Allen Field House. Although I think many of the broadsides fired at the Kansan because of the review of the work, I don't think I serve as instruction. I also think some of the accusations were unfounded, based upon illogical reasoning, and totally ridiculous.
To the editor:
From reading the review, it was obvious that Melissa Thompson was ignorant of Natalee Cole's music style and repertoire. Thompson, for starters, muffed the titles of several of Cole's songs, identified the song "Mr. Meldy" as cole's current hit single (which it was not), badly butchered the song with it. The result is Cole's songs and committed various other factual sins—all that have been pointed out in letters to the Kansan to date.
However, these mistakes were jumped upon by Chris Gardenshire and Sharron Parker, to name two, and unreasonably many, of the stereotyping blacks as being excessively sexual, with bizarre modes of dress. These differences in perception let me explain my reasons for thinking this.
She also disregarded semantic and diplomatic etiquette by referring to the clothing worn by concertgoers as 'costumes, eating specifically a gad dressed in a three-gripe suit, ruile dressed in tough cape and gold lame evening bag.
I disagree with this assumption. When Natalia rubbed her hips, she was singing a song entitled "I've Got Love." The effect is great. But the mood of the song. This is a practice
Natalie is referred to in the review as "stripping off her jacket," and "rubbing her hands over her hips seductively." Gardenshire and Parker are citing this article as basis for concluding that the article refers to the sexuality of blacks in a negative sense.
indulged in by all performers, white and black, male and female—witness Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt and Peter Brampton. Elvis Presley's prime reason for shaking his hips was not to keep his legs in shape. No one uses these examples to stereotype whites as being more masculine; his wills is labeled as sexually sexual because of a description of Natale rubbing her hands on her hips is irrational.
Tompson tried her hardest to point the positive aspects of the concertgoers' dress. She said that few people came to the concert in case it looked good." It seems quite natural to me that the man dressed in the aforementioned three-piece suit would strut around the Field House. Expensive attire, not available, not hidden. Yet this passage is used to, in Gardenshire's words, promote "the old stereotype of black dresses extravagantly to such affairs." Well, it isn't malting, and it's as a race that dresses up when it goes out.
*Mention is made in all the letters about "racial slurs" present in the review. In reading the story, I failed to detect even the word "black," much less any slurs referring to blacks outright. The slur was more misjudged. There were no outright racial insults present. Whether or not the review is racist is in the mind of the reader. Neither the writer nor the KansanDesire be called to be careful this article by anyone who is blaming human being, or intended to be racist, are much more blunt methods for accomplishing that purpose.
That is the situation as I see it.
As for the people that wrote to proclaim, essentially: "The concert was great—Melissa Thompson should have said it was great—the she's full of shit," for her independent she should thought processes. The she should submit to a frontal lobotomy.
Springfield, Mo., sophomore
KANSAN letters
Kansan has failed to cover minorities
To the editor:
The University Daily Kansan's editorial page has become an open forum to speak on the recent controversy concerning Melissa Thompson's review of the Blacks' response to the negative response by such representative groups as the Black Student Union and the Blacks in Communication, I would like to take the opportunity to speak in defense of both face-to-face interactions.
Defense of Melissa Thompson is my first priority. I felt that her review was not very good, as is the general consensus, yet to persecute her for her attempt to unfair. She was chosen at an early stage; it skies from the top and therefore experienced less than ideal conditions. Had the Kansan selected a journalist more suited and prepared for the assignment, even at the last minute, more accurate coverage may have been the
This individual has suffered enough for her admitted naviate. You "armchair" journalists who blame her need to be awakened to the difficulty of expressing 11,000 opinions in one review. As well, you need to be awakened to the tree issue at
Lost in the ire created by the less than desirable review is the critical point attempted by Chris Gardenhue, president of Blacks in Communication. I am in full agreement and support of his feelings that the Kansan has failed to make a dedicated effort to cover newsworthy events created by minority authors. The Amendment and fair, equal representation should be able to understand buy, and many people's frustrations.
It is the newspaper's responsibility to present the news to its readers. Minority readers, non-minority readers a broadened perspective on what is important, hence why they are part of it.
I think now is the time for the Kansan to upgrade this area of their journalism so that perhaps the socialization of all groups at KU will be less frequent. We'll take everyday activities. Without this consideration towards their wishes the Kansan may be perceived as a first-class university newspaper.
Bob Schaumberg Fairway senior
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Purchased at the University of Nanaimo daily. Almost every day Mail and Messages through the U.N.A.C.E. system are delivered to the library. Posted weekly in the journal, Posts
Managing Editor Jerry Sass
Editor
Steve Frazier
Associate Business Manager
Assistant Business Manager
General Manager
Business Manager Don Green
Editorial Editor Barry Massey
General Manager
Riek Musser
Karen Wendecott
Bret Miller
Advertising Adviser Chuck Chowing