Wednesday, October 4, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
5
Section A · Page 5
Opinion
For comments, contact Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Letters to the editor Fire standards sufficient in KU residence halls
This letter is in response to the Sept. 11 column by Amanda Sears, "Prevention key to hall fire safety." In her editorial, Ms. Sears attacks the safety of students living in campus residence halls in the instance of a fire. I feel it is my duty as a staff member at McCollum Hall to rebut her claims.
Ms. Sears states that there are "students crammed into residence halls — many with mediocre fire safety measures." Well, maybe she doesn't know this, but the university doesn't round up leftover students and force them to live here. The students who live in campus housing choose to do so on their own accord, and KU residence halls never operate above maximum occupancy.
She also makes the assertion about many halls with mediocre fire safety measures — as if the fire procedures differ from hall to hall. While the majority of campus residence halls still don't have sprinkler systems, they all have the absolute best fire procedures available. Students' well-being is always our number one concern.
The title of Sears' editorial indicates that prevention is the key to hall fire safety. This is where she is absolutely correct. The very first program of the year that hall staff put on is the annual fire safety program. Every resident is required to attend this meeting where the Lawrence fire marshal speaks to the students about fire safety issues. Each resident learns exactly what to do and what not to do in the instance of a fire alarm. They learn where the fire exits are and also of the procedures that are required not only of them, but of our staff, too.
When a fire alarm is sounded at a residence hall, a staff member immediately dials 911, and the Lawrence Fire Department arrives, on average, in three to four minutes. A room fire can be contained for 20 minutes when the door is shut. At the same time, residents are required to leave their rooms and exit the building. To make certain that this happens, a staff member keys open every resident's room and checks inside to make sure the occupants of that room have exited. As a matter of fact, it is illegal for any resident to remain in his or her room during a fire alarm. These procedures are also identical in the residence halls that do have sprinkler systems.
Sears mentions the Seton Hall residence hall fire that killed three
students and injured 62 others. This is an example of what can happen when these safety measures are not in place. The fact is that people do die as a result of fires.
Unfortunately, it is also a fact that KU residence halls do have fires. And lastly it is a fact that thanks to the hard work of student housing staff members, KU residence halls have an exemplary safety record in the instances of fires. In fact, during McCollum Hall's first fire alarm, it just so happened that while staff members were doing room checks that one of them found a resident who, at the time, was incapable of being removed without assistance. If it had not been a false alarm and staff members weren't working hard to check rooms, as was the case of the Seton Hall University fire, the outcome could have been disastrous.
Finally, Ms. Sears states that in an attempt to save "precious dollars," sprinkler systems won't be added until each residence hall undergoes a massive renovation. Strange, though; I wonder how massive renovations that will cost millions of dollars for each building are a sneaky attempt for the university to "save precious dollars."
Sears states that in installing sprinkler systems, "The Greek system has set an example for the University to follow." The fact is that those greek houses were unsafe, and they didn't add the sprinklers until they were required to do so. That's some example to follow.
I think it's too bad that Sears and the editorial board harbor such ill will towards student housing when we're doing the best to be the safest place for students to live.
Trint Homewood Sedgwick junior
Columnists reveals ideological ignorance
In his Sept. 28 column ("Liberal reveals himself"), John Audlehelm actually reveals little more than his fundamental misunderstanding of liberalism and conservatism.
Throughout, he regurgitates the old lie, propped up and propagated by the mainstream media, that liber als protect the little guy and want to limit the power of government - when in fact the exact opposite is true.
He acknowledges that our "political system is built on the limitation of power" but then blames conservatives for Big Government and charges them with assaulting people's rights. But it's liberals who are trying to destroy our Second Amendment freedoms. It's liberals who daily violate the 10th
Amendment, enabling the federal government to usurp the power of the states. It's librarians who've created the cradle-to-grave welfare state. It's librarians who demand 40 percent of our incomes to fund their asinine social programs. It's librarians who tell us we're too irresponsible to plan our own retirement, too stupid to properly educate our children and too greedy to deserve a tax cut.
Mr. Audleheim has obviously been well-indoctrinated. And as a future journalist, he'll certainly thrive in the left-wing morass into which journalism has sunk, dufitfully serving up liberal legs to legions of unsuspecting readers. New York Times, he's on his way!
John H. McCool
Evansville, Ind., graduate student
Liberal overtones plague entire Kansan
I just wanted to make a few comments on last week's column "Liberal reveals himself" by John Audleholm and the current state of this publication.
First of all, it is completely unnecessary for a member of the Kansan staff to admit to being liberal. Any informed reader can easily detect the extreme liberal views implanted in almost every article.
Even the sports page presents facts without some political or social distortion. When I turn to the sports page on Monday, I want to read about the game. I'm sorry if it isn't very convenient to interview football players but I, who represent the majority of sports fans on campus, would like to hear what the players think. Instead, the readers were forced to observe a column hardly at all about football but about pregame parties. The columnist even went as far to bash some Bush supporters with the unusual liberal propaganda of the fat, rich guy.
It's really no surprise that this staff doesn't want to interview the players or give the football team any good press. Football is extremely competitive and aggressive. Liberals despise both. If it were up to this newspaper staff, the competitive nature of capitalism in America would not exist.
I completely understand Audlehelm's right to be a liberal. Everyone has the right to be ignorant. It is really impossible to make any justifiable case for liberalism, and Audlehelm proves this point again and again.
First of all, it is ridiculous to think liberalism is not accepted here. Liberals are everywhere on campus, and they don't exactly hide either.
tics threaten our civil liberties and that Democrats are fighting that. Excuse me, but last I checked it was liberal Democrats such as Al Gore who want the government to be more powerful, more regulatory and, of course, more expensive. It is the Democrats who want to control health care and control education. Our rights of choosing these things are threatened by Democratic proposals. Also, our natural right to pursue happiness is being increasingly threatened by taxes. Cutting taxes is a so-called "risky scheme" by Democrats.
He says that recent trends in poli-
He thinks that women should have the right to have an abortion. Fine, most Democrats are pro-choice. He says that if a government can keep her from having an abortion, they can make her 'have one as well. That is just insane. First of all, there is a fundamental difference between the two. In most conservatives' minds, it is not the right of a woman to destroy human life inside or outside her womb. It's funny that he brings up how we don't want to go to China when Bill Clinton and many Democrats have put our national security at risk by accepting campaign donations in return for tons of military technology and secrets.
He says that when the government gets too powerful, scary things can happen.
Good point! Vote for Bush and other Republicans to create a smaller government for the people and return many powers back to the state and local levels.
His main point is that he can't stand the moral overtones of Republicans. It is no wonder he feels insecure or threatened when someone would even dare mention something about morals or family values. The leader of the Democrats, Bill Clinton, certainly represents a good moral leader for our country and all Democrats, doesn't he?
Maybe John feels guilty about something but I really think he could someday become an enlightened conservative.
Brett Powell
Osawatomie freshman
Handbills directed at Allen are justified
In Thursday's editorial ("Handbill accusations off-target"), the editorial board claims that Terry Allen alone was not responsible for the players' punishments, but that is just incorrect.
would be interested to know if the editorial board even saw a copy of the handbills distributed, because all the handbills contained were facts, no real "accusations" other than the fact that the punishment was not appropriate (which Terry Allen seems to agree with). The handbilling did promote awareness of the incident and changed some attitudes, just as the editorial says was the goal of the handbilling, and also criticizes the handbilling for not doing. Finally, the editorial board correctly identified the fact that the issue at hand is a systemic problem and there are many parties to blame, which was one of the messages of the handbilling.
Terry Allen was indeed the person who decided that the punishment for sexual assault should be running stairs (interesting that he assumed the players were guilty). 1
More discussion of these other parties and factors is entirely appropriate. Many students are not going to simply forget this whole ugly incident ever happened.
Students need to open their ears for GTAs
While I applaud the Kansan's editorial board for recognizing that the difficulties between undergraduates and their international teaching assistants often do not originate from differences in English proficiency, I must disagree on the root of this supposed problem, and, consequently, the methods to solve it.
The KU English proficiency exams should not be made more difficult; they are hard enough already. Every graduate student teaching at the University of Kansas knows English very well.
International GTAs must become less apologetic about their English (for the GTAs from Brooklyn, Boston and Louisiana who speak funny yet never have complaints filed against them do not have to apologize) and teach their classes the best way they see fit.
Undergraduate students must realize that English is spoken with many different accents, and if they can not adjust their ears in a university setting, their education and their grades will suffer.
Line University must make it clear that, for those seeking out an excuse for earning a bad grade, international students will no longer be an easy patsy.
Once this happens, there will no longer be any complaints, everybody (including the GTAs) will benefit from the education KU has to offer, and there will no longer be a need for articles about this subject in the Kansan.
Partha Mazumdar Pittsburgh, Penn., graduate student
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