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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Monday, Nov. 11, 1985
Closed-door politics
The Student Senate Elections Committee on Thursday night voted to use Oct. 21 enrollment figures in apportioning Senate seats for the Senate's Nov. 20-21 elections.
When it came time to discuss the apportionment issue, the committee went into an executive session and banished all non-committee members, including a Kansan reporter, from the meeting.
A meeting that was supposed to be open became closed.
But few students will know exactly why
The University's Senate Code says groups bound by the code -- including Student Senate and its committees -- must follow the state's open meetings laws.
The open meetings laws are supposed to guarantee that representative bodies carry out their business in public, for all to see. Such a body can
work behind closed doors only in narrow, specifically defined circumstances.
The committee's closed-door session failed to fall under those exemptions.
Instead, the committee chose to ignore the Senate Code and conduct an important debate free of scrutiny, both from its opponents and the public.
These political high jinks may permit one faction or another to achieve short-term victories. But they also underline the credibility of the committee, its officers and the Senate as a whole. It does so just before an election.
In fact, if such undemocratic practices as carrying on debates in secrecy and flouting the Senate's own principles are going to continue, then student voters will be justified in demanding that the culprits be removed from office.
Talking to the Soviets
As Summit Fever heats up, the rash of recent bizarre incidents in East-West relations and the public posturing of the principal players have overshadowed the really significant news — the United States is talking to the Soviet Union.
The two sides still disagree about the number and kind of weapons that should be cut. But at least both are talking about reductions. The negotiators in Geneva can get down to details.
The Soviet proposal last month to cut offensive weapons by 50 percent was met by a similar offer from President Reagan. The Soviets even agreed to extend the Geneva talks to consider the U.S. proposal.
The trip last week by George Shultz, secretary of state, to Moscow was the first visit by a senior Reagan official to see a living Soviet counterpart — Vice President Bush was always a tad late when he arrived on the funeral circuit.
Shultz spent two days with
Eduard Shevardnadze, Soviet foreign minister, to discuss possible cultural, educational and commercial exchanges that Reagan and Premier Mikhail Gorbachev can agree on when they meet.
But the focus continues to be on arms control. Both sides are realistically skeptical that a comprehensive arms accord will be reached. They also want to have some agreement
— no matter how tentative — to show the folks back home after the public relations pomp and puffery fades.
Regardless of the outcome, at least the leaders of the world's two most powerful nations will have talked and eaten and maybe even joked around a little together.
It's better to disagree face to face than to try to read minds around the world. With mutually assured destruction at the touch of a button, intercontinental misunderstanding could be as deadly as intercontinental missiles.
Blanket on the press
South Africa's bold attempt to restrict media coverage isn't fooling anyone.
But journalists are tougher than that. Those who have covered the South African story have faced danger, death and prison, yet they don't plan to stop.
President Pieter Botha may think that throwing a blanket over the press will make South Africa's racist reputation go away.
In the past 14 months, more than 800 people have been killed in riots and demonstrations against apartheid, and the press was there to tell the world about these horrors.
According to some in South Africa's government, the constant presence of journalists has catalyzed the increased violence.
The press didn't make up the deaths or the situations that brought them about, any more than history books invented the Holocaust.
Learning about apartheid and the violence it has spawned has prodded other countries to condemn South Africa's practices.
Violence has now spread into white areas, and international concern over the instability of the white regime has weakened the economy. The South African government is getting shaken up and it doesn't want the rest of the world to know.
Botha's back-door censorship of the press may hush a few voices in his government, but the monumental effort to curb the press will be in vain.
Violence over South Africa's legal segregation won't be quelled by a restricted press. Both may think that trying to kill the bearer of bad news may ease the pressure to end apartheid.
But the press will still find a way to shine a spotlight on the crimes of apartheid, and Botha's government will be held accountable.
Rob Karwath Editor
Duncan Calhoun Business manager
John Hanna Michael Totty
Managing editor Editorial editor
Lauretta McMille
Campus editor
Susanne Shaw
General manager, news adviser
Brett McCabe Sue Johnson Retail sales Campus sales
Megan Burke
National/Co-op sales
John Oberzan
Sales and marketing adviser
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In a hurry to read this? Just wait
Combine tons of sugar, a load of caffeine and gobs of adrenaline. Toss in a lump of clay and shake it for 20 hours. Don't ever let it rest.
This recipe makes one hyperactive, edgy person. They're the ones I can't seem to avoid. Here's another recipe:
Take a long line, a phone's busy signal, a scheduled meeting and a pair of uncomfortable shoes. Combine these with the person created from the first recipe and you get a creature who drives me up a wall.
The artificial stimulants may not even be necessary for such a character, but I'm one of the many targets for those people who won't stop running. We're caught in a society that demands instant gratification in more ways than I can imagine.
We're being pushed off the sidewalks by carriers of the "Now Syndrome." They knock over anyone who slows their pursuit of immediate satisfaction.
People often act as if they're living in a continual two-minute warning. The prevalent attitude is "nothing is more important than what I need now and nothing should interfere with my getting it."
Rick Zaporowski Staff columnist
This need includes the demand for people, services and products. People in Lawrence, for example, are arguing for the right to continue to apply for and buy firearms without buying to wait to use them.
Then, an anxious woman could call her husband at his office and make the following request: "Honey, on your way home from work tonight, could you pick up a five-minute Personal Pan Pizza, a box of Minute Rice, some Jiffy Pop popcorn and an
It's all part of a speed-hungry trend. People want to pull the trigger on a whim the instant the desire hits them. They want your complete attention upon eye contact and they'll interrupt your most important conversations because they need an answer immediately.
labeled this fashionable behavior as assertiveness. I call it impatience and presumption.
It's OK to be rude if you're after something you really want. We've
This speed craze feeds on itself then spreads to the people who, for example, would rather chew their food 30 times each bite instead of swallowing it whole.
What does a working woman do if she is married to a man who wants his dinner on the table between 5:10 and 5:15 p.m. so he can watch the sports at 5:22? She feeds him fast food.
Last week, I was sitting in a car at a drive-through window of a fast-food joint and I overheard the woman behind me impatiently ordering. The lady wanted to know whether she could order five salad bars to go because she didn't have time to get them herself.
I wanted to grab the microphone and respond to the woman myself.
"Ah, sure lady, we'll give you your five salad bars. How many cherry tomatoes do you want on each plate? Now, lady, do you like the crunchy leaves from the inside part of the lettuce head or the greener, more flavorful leaves from the outside?
And should I pick the shaved carrots
out of our lettuce mixture? Thank you, please drive through."
The "Now Syndrome" often keeps me away from cafeteria lines. If it takes me more than 10 seconds in the Wescoe Cafeteria line to decide whether I want Twinkies or Zingers, about five people will cut ahead of me, and in the process I'll be smashed against the Hostess fruit pie rack.
I don't blame anyone for wanting to move quickly through a line, wanting to get fast service in a restaurant or wanting to avoid waiting in a dentist's office. Anyone who depends on a tightly scheduled datebook can't wait around for dawdling people.
But a fast-approaching appointment is no reason to presume that the streets should clear for your car and that people should immediately cater to your needs or else face being trampled.
Let's take a deep breath and quit watching the second hand on the clock. Contrary to popular belief, people have been known to actually see the hour hand move. It doesn't take a quick eye. You just have to be patient.
Mailbox
On the evening of Nov. 5, we attended a speech by John Law, sponsored by the School of Journalism and the department of political science, with the intention of learning more about the Israel-Arab conflict.
A biased perspective
We had hoped to hear an unbiased perspective from someone who was portrayed to be a reputable journalist. Instead we heard very strong opinions that implied an extremely biased view.
It's unbelievable that the School of Journalism and the department of political science financed a person who posed one-sided propagandist views that we were not prepared to bear.
Karen Megged
Lawrence junior
Laurie Weber
Chicago junior
The wrong address
I'm confused about Myra Hinman's express mail letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing the nomination of vice chancellor Deanell Tacha as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Since when does someone who is complaining about civil rights violations and sex discrimination write to Sen. Strom Thurmond?
His chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee aside, how can Professor Hinman (or her counsel) be sure that the good senator from South Carolina won't accept the accusations as a recommendation?
Steve Linscheid
Verbatim
Lawrence third-year law student
Held accountable Student coordinates class
The University of Kansas differs from many universities in that it employs undergraduates as teaching assistants, or TAs.
L.J. Buckner, Topeka senior,
has been a TA for Arthur Thomas,
the Arthur Young distinguished
professor of business, since his
junior year at KU. He is the TA
coordinator for BUS 240, Financial
Accounting I. He talked recently
with Kathy Flanders, staff columnist,
about teaching classes as an
undergraduate.
How long have you been a TA?
BUCKNER: This is my third semester. I'll do it next semester, too.
I've heard BUS 240 is one of the largest classes taught in the business school. How large is it?
BUCKNER: I was informed by an ex-assistant to the dean of the business school. I talked to him about a stats test, then he called me up in the spring and asked if was interested in being a TA. I said sure. I was a sophomore at the time.
BUCKNER: It starts at 300 students in each class, and there are two classes. But about 75 dropped out so far.
How did you get the job as an undergraduate?
BUCKNER; I don't like to glamorize it. I make sure the handouts get to the proper place.
There are tons of them - handouts for every class. I post homework scores. I just make sure the things Professor Thomas wants are getting done. People are supposed to
So what are your duties?
go through me before talking to him — that's what makes me coordinator rather than just a TA — but it doesn't have to work that way.
I also spend five hours a week in the help room in Wescoe. I help students with their homework. I also do teaching recitations on Fridays and attend the lectures.
What's the Friday recitation about?
BUCKNER: On Friday all the TAS — there are 12, including me— hold recitations that are 50 minutes long. What we do is talk about or do problems on a certain topic. The limit is 27 in each session, but it has gone down to about 23 or 23. That's an average.
Is it unusual for an undergraduate to be a TA?
Does being a TA make you want to teach when you get out of school?
BUCKNER: No, it quells my interest. I wanted to at first, but the monetary rewards are not enough in the real world.
BUCKNER: Not really. Before I was a TA, there were TAs as Juniors and there are junior TAs now.
What is it like to teach people who are at your own level in school?
BUCKNER: One reason our program is so successful is that we don't teach down, we teach with them, because we're at the same level. It was not that long since we, the TAs, were in the same spot, asking for help.
The first day of teaching recitation I was nervous for all of five minutes. We're all familiar with the subject.
L. J. Buckner
So what do you want to be?
BUCKNER: I don't know. Rich, famous and important, right? No. I'll start out as a CPA, but I can't know from there.
How much time does the job take?
BUCKNER: It's budgeted to the University for 16 hours a week. But it varies. It's probably anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week, depending on how smart I am on getting it done. My disorganization can make it take longer.
What are the students' reactions to your not being a grad student?
is your not being a grad student?
BUCKNER They don't disrespect me — they feel I'm confident in what I'm doing. There haven't been any negative remarks to me because I not a grad student. What we do, we're able to do. we don't have a course grade. We don't have a course support, not just to Professor Thomas, but also to the students. That's basically what matters.
o d e s s n r
r l u i t
Are you working any other jobs?
BUCKNER: I have a part-time job in Topeka, and I work every night in Lawrence.
It's unique in comparison to
other universities. Others have professors or grad students — they don't have students teaching students. It's unique to KU, and it's successful. They learn a heck of a lot of accounting in the semester. We throw it at them and we help them at it.
Why was the program developed into what it is today?
BUCKNER: On the face of things, the major selling point of some universities is their student to teacher ratio. Our class ratio is 500 to one. So because of that ratio, we developed an adequate support staff of TAs and graders. We have a staff of 18 along with the professor. The way we do things, it's not that important to have a full professor.
The people on the staff aren't' people who get C's in accounting — they got A's, and they did well in most of their courses.
What's the biggest gratification you receive from the job?
BUCKNER: The biggest gratification is having someone come into the help room and come to me with a problem they don't understand. I give them five minutes and they leave the room understanding the problem they had when they came in.
I just do the job. I don't like to dramatize what we do. It's setup in a logical fashion and it works. There's not much more to it.
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