UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kanan
editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
the editors.
September 11. 1979
Plants root of issue
On the city commission's docket for this evening is the appearance of one Fred Pence, a former mayor of Lawrence, who plans to come before the commissioners to pose a question about plants.
Pence, owner of Pence's Garden Center, and several local businessman, agree that last week's plant sale, sponsored by the KU Commission on the Status of Women, constituted unfair competition.
They maintain the sale created unfair competition because the KU group operated without a license and with few overhead costs, such as renting high-cost costs. The sale was set up in a tent on the east side of Memorial Stadium.
However, Sally Turner, president of the women's commission, counters that the group incurred a $700 charge for renting the tent. And the group had its plants certified for sale, with prices competitive to area discount houses. The proceeds from the plant sale will bring lecturers to the University.
PENCE HAS GONE so far as to send letters containing signatures of persons who own local plant and gardening businesses to Chancellor Archie R. Dykes, the Kansas Board of Regents and Gov. John Carlin.
Pence and those who support him need to be reminded that it is students, along with faculty, staff and their businessmen, keep Lawrence businessmen solvent.
HIS FOLLOWERS also should realize that money earned through plant sales, such as this one, as well as through car washies, candy sales, baking sales and the like, help fund programs and philanthropic projects beneficial not just to the University but to the community.
So it is a question that concerns more than just plants. It's a query about the rights of students to sponsor fund campus groups or to start campus groups to which they belong.
He did acknowledge, however, that several student services, such as the bookstore and the food service, which might be considered in competition with local businesses, obviously would not be closed.
Despite objections from local merchants, we hope neither city commissioners nor the chancellor will deny students that right.
Dykes has initiated a review of campus events, such as the plant sale, and has termed it "highly doubtful" the sale would be sanctioned again.
GOP 'opinion poll' seems a little fishy
Ah, the lure of an opinion poll.
An, the lure of an opinion poll.
To read George Gallup's or Lou Harris latest findings and smile knowingly publicly American public they chanted to queen.
I've had such fantasies. My opinions are as valid, I think, as anybody with average intelligence. I most always cooperate with multiple choice questions. We have great unpredicted." Unfortunately, George is unpredicted. About telling their clients what I think
But, while riffing through my roommate's discarded mail, I found something that set my opinion juices trickling: the National Republican candidate is taking a poll. It not just a poll, but an Official 1960 Presidential survey.
The results of the poll, says an NRCC letter, will select the person most likely to defeat Jimmy Carter and "recapture America." Wonderful. It's a poll with a mission.
That in itself isn't particularly interesting, except for the format the NRCG used like an abstract political convention in which each person who receives a letter "vote" for the Republican candidate in 1980. That prospect should be delightful for those people who have a penchant for being asked their opinions.
SIXTEEN GOP hopefuls are listed on the computerized poll card, including big names like Gerald Ford and lesser-role like Robert Ray, the governor of Iowa.
An accompanying letter stamped with the signature of NRCC chairman Rep. Gayle M. McCormick persuaded the reader to be a part of this "historic" poll. In his best sales approach, Jaqt tries to make registered voters aware that he will actually have a more monumental effect on the political process than any other group had in the 112-year history of the NRCC.
COLUMNIST melissa thompson
Actually, that is a little bit on the exaggerated side of truth. What Jagt suggested is false, confused. That's okay. So is everybody. Admitting to confusion, however, is not good for the image of a 123-year-old woman. It leads to undermine the "illusion" appeal.
A LITTLE image primping can be forgiven, but Jakt shouldn't mislead his people so. That poll simply isn't good enough to win convention delegates. The results are just another ingredient that will be thrown into the political blender. In the end, no one can say whether it helped to override over its stab of executive office seekers.
The NRCC's biggest presumption, however, is not in painting such rosy goals for its data. It comes with jags' Taji and Tebo, who are intended to cover the cost of processing the ballads.
Now isn't that a cost the NRC should pay itself? It is avowed purpose seems to be winning control of the White House and putting down the irresponsable and reckless "democrats."
This alleged presidential balloting is one of those junk mail pieces that deserves little thought or action—even if it is a chance to express an opinion. So, I get the feeling they wouldn't process my vote if I did not send in the money.
NRCC shouldn't be using its grass roots contributions to pay office expenses. The money should go to the people who are supported by the contributors.
Isn't putting your office expenses and ideological expenses together on the same budget line a little bit reckless?
That's okay, NRCC. I think I'll wait for George or Lou to call.
It's tough to be an environmentalist in Kansas.
Environmentalists lonely in Kansas
True, it is not as hard here as it is in the resource-rich, but economically deprived Northwest. There, a woman related, one of the questions a landlord asked her in request for her availability as a tenant was, "You are one of those Storm Clubbers, are you?"
And it may not even be as hard to be an environmentalist here as it is in the Northeast, where environmental awareness is as im­
pressive and clothes and clothets from the L.I. L. Bean catalogue.
But in either of those two extremes, the environmentalist at least has plenty of company.
In Kansas. it's a lonely business.
Take, for example, the Sierra Club. Last year, a handful of concerned souls tried to organize a branch of that politically motivated group. Fifteen people (in a town of nearly $50,000) showed up for the first meeting. Thirty-five others responded. The club fled past the club's booth at enrollment.
OR LOOK AT THE heroic efforts of the KU cycling center in Boston, a recycling center has. Mouth after attack, club members hung around the glass bin, waiting to divide and smash the glass of the bike.
That project, incidentally, became "economically unfeasible," and the Topeka-based buyer hauled the six-month collection of glass to the landfill.
Besides being a thinly populated field, environmentalism is also a confusing one.
COLUMNIST byczynski
Everyone seems to like the lable, whether or not it fits.
lynn
In the Kansas City and Topeka phone center, a technician called Environmental (Whatever), that includes a mechanical contractor, a carpet distributor, a plant shop and an air conditioning unit.
It is enough to make Eufel Gibbons spin in the wind. The National Environment Council is another funder, has a large membership, larger than the Lawrence Sierra and Ecology Club com-
BUT IF YOUR interest is in saving the planet, don't rush to join. The KEC coalesced last year when the beverage container industry people decided a bottle thrown away pathway containers was becoming dangerously popular in the Legislature.
Already the group is sending its envoys to Tepa to push a counter-proposal that would not eliminate waste and litter, but it would make more money to pick up after the litterbugs.
Lawrence has rounded a bend in its history and is facing the straightaway of its future. In five years, the population is exerting pressure on the boundaries of the city will inevitably follow.
In 1972, Davis, Calif., found itself in the same position—dealing with a boom. But Davis residents weren't satisfied with the technology and prohibiting billboards and flashing sighs.
DAVIS CARRIED IT further: strict standards were enacted for energy conservation in new buildings; bicycle paths were built to traverse the city; malls were totally unacceptable and 21st Street skirts became nearly impossible to build.
Today, Davis is a shady oasis in the California smog. Bicycles are the predominant form of transportation -37,000 vehicles. There are no gas lines and no traffic irons.
But there is one big difference between the two cities—the environmental movement is alive and well in Davis and still founding for a footlocker in Lawrence.
Energy consumption in Davis has dropped sharply from 1973 levels—a 38 percent decrease in natural gas consumption and a 14 percent decrease in electricity use.
IN NORTHERN Idao, in an area of vast streams, the U.S. Forest Service permits amateur rock hounds to run for the gnas that run through the government-owned forest.
Davis and Lawrence have much in common. Both are home to large universities; population figures are very similar; and Davis is known for its areas (Davies is 15 miles from Sacramento).
Veins of garnet cross the tributaries of Emerald Creek, and they can be uncovered by digging into the stream banks, shovelling the rocks into a sieve, and washing in the lime.
It's a dirty business—stream banks are levastated and the clear water begins toook like the Mississippi River.
His wife, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, took another stab at the stream bank, her shovel entering into roots and sending a shower of soil into the stream.
"It's these environmentalists. They test downstream every day," he said, with a note of increduliousness in his voice. "And as they close the stream to miners, they close down the stream to minerals."
One man, his coffee can nearly run to the black unpulled gametes after only a few hours of work, complained about the Forest Service's restrictions.
"Hey, I'm all for the environmentalists," she interrupted. "If it wasn't for them, there'd nothing left."
ONE OF THE problems with the environmental movement in Lawrence is that the law prevents schools from solving problems. But it is staring straight at the immense challenge of maintaining that law.
Joni Mitchell warmed long, long ago back when KU students were barricading the streets. You don't know what you've got it, ull 'tis paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
But here, environmental awareness languishes.
Scrimmage policy excludes student
We had all assumed, of course, since Mr. Pugh was a graduate of students attending college, that we could stroll over to Memorial Stadium Saturday to watch the Jayhawks' scrimmage. We were there before the game.
What we ran into, instead, was another case of how the students have been forgotten about sports. We were denied entrance to watch the football team prepare for its season opener because we were neither members nor fans of the Williams Educational Fund. The Williams Fund is the organization, com-
Naturally, both of these groups should have been allowed to view the scrimpage if they are in a position who have an interest in the team be turned away from the gate, unable even to watch games.
Spies. Pittsburgh was sending spies to the University of Kansas to seize control. The spies sold their ideas and soldiers held on don't really think we were too suspicious looking, but nonetheless we were held at the university.
THE IDEA that Pitt is going to send spies from Pennsylvania is dubious enough, but it is aaid state of affairs when the students are given the opportunity to prepare for the football season, while those who contribute money to the program may. It especially hurts when most of us feel as if the $2 we spent on a season ticket this year was donated by outreach out of a student budget anyway.
If the idea of shunning the stueneus in favor of the monied contributions is more appealing, it but it's nothing new. There are similar interests of student mistreatment in schools all over the world.
COLUMNIST
david
preston
And it is nothing against those who contribute money—in KU's case, the Williams Fund. Those people do the University a duty to support them in getting benefits they receive. But to discriminate against the students, who have just as much responsibility in the University as anyone else, is absurd.
BUT CONSIDER the pilgrim of the students at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. It is a fine academic school, one of the first colleges established in the United States. Students from this campus on the edge of old, restored Williamsburg. The football stadium on campus is a brick structure complete with columns and a serpentine wall, all of which fits in well with the other buildings, and it is one of the few fans who come watch the Indiana play.
THE MONEY, the students and faculty
All it was fine until last year when college officials and alumni, their hopes bouried by a couple of good seasons, decided to try to build a new campus. The efforts were going to raise $4 million to expand the stadium to seat 30,000 in hopes of having more seats for Maryland and Virginia Tech, to Williamburg. More seating and larger schools as opponents would mean more money for the team.
When the idea was presented to the 4,500 students they reacted negatively to expanding the football program, and especially to enlaring the stadium, fearing that it would become an ugly steel monster of ancient oaks and 18th century buildings.
In North Carolina, students also suffered defeat at the hands of the athletic directors.
said, could better be used to upgrade academic programs or increase teachers' pay. Regardless, it appears that the students are going to lose in their drive toward college. Boycoting a day of classes and staging two demonstrations have done no good.
The biggest event yearly in the Atlantic Conference is the post-season basketball tournament for that section's avid basketball fans. This spring the university of North Carolina won the regular season championship on the court and was also the tournament in nearby Greenville with great momentum. UNC students, however, couldn't go to the tournament at all.
The ACC allotted 2,191 tickets for each of the seven conference schools at the olsenium in Greenbush, but of that 2,191 tickets were 143 for those who had given UNC o those contributors who had given UNC
more than $8,100. Since a similar practice was used at most of the ACC schools, the result was a stuffy and somewhat salient achievement, none of the nation's finest basketball conferences.
ONCE AGAIN, it seems, the university officials felt more of a responsibility to alumni and contributors than it did to the university's students.
All of which brings us back to Saturday's sermon. It was certain the question would use the same method as the questionnaire use of University funds, but it was a principle which, if overused, could have very poor results.
College athletes are supposed to be representatives of both the alumnies and the golfers. But they are against either is wrong, but to discriminate against the students in favor of the money invested in the sports.
And in an era of misplaced priorities in college athletics, it is sad indeed to see KU indulge in a win-at-all-costs philosophy at the expense of its students.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
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