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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 1985
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
College sports are not what they used to be.
The Saturday game no longer plays out the competition between rival schools. The contest now is a commodity produced by coaches and players.
After Saturday's game
Their suit may be the first to test the National Collegiate Athletic Association's "satisfactory progress" rule. The rule attempts to guarantee that college athletes work toward a degree and don't merely major in eligibility.
Some suggest that schools need to adjust to the changing realities of college athletics. They advocate a degree program in professional athletics. Others say it is better to have losing teams or no teams than to compromise a school's academic standards.
The recent legal wrangling between the University and two football players underscores this change. The lawsuit and injunction that permitted Lynn Williams to play Saturday resembles more than anything a suit by an employee to regain his job.
Both arguments skirt the issue. A pro sports degree program would mislead college athletes about their pro prospects. On the other hand, academic purists don't recognize that at many schools, including KU, many sports would not exist without support from revenue-earning teams, usually football and men's basketball.
The players' suit signals a growing awareness by athletes that their playing time is more important to their future than their academic performance.
Schools must recognize that college athletics will not return to being just a game. At the same time, they can't allow athletic departments to set academic standards.
Schools also have the responsibility to guarantee that one group of students — the athletes — are not exploited by
win-hungry athletic departments. The satisfactory progress rule is a tentative step in this direction.
The rule pressures athletic departments to make sure that players graduate. It should also pressure schools to pay extra attention to the special needs of their athletes.
KU has moved recently to do this, but needs to do more. The advising process, for example, could use more attention.
Advising for athletes is handled primarily by schools and departments, not by the Athletic Department. That some advisers do not understand the intricacies of NCAA regulations should not be reason to change this.
This simply could mean that an athlete's schedule would have to be approved by both the student's adviser and the director of supportive educational services. No athlete could add or drop a class without the approval of both.
Instead, all advising should be supervised by supportive educational services, which now oversees athletes' academic progress.
The process rests mainly with the athletes. The advice they get from their advisers is the same given to other students — go to class, know the professors, pay attention. As with other students, they can follow it or ignore it.
The goal should be student athletes who leave KU with a degree — not just with their eligibility depleted.
But advising is only part of the process. The University also should more consistently monitor athletes' progress in class and more aggressively press tutoring for athletes in academic trouble.
But if they ignore it and fail, it won't be because those who cheer their efforts on the field did not support them in the more difficult game that begins when time runs out on Saturday afternoons.
When sin pays
There is some room for the hopeless sinner.
The increase in federal taxes on liquor affects only distilled spirits, not wine or beer. A gallon of 100-proof lollipop will
And the state and federal governments collect on the penance.
At least, it seems, in the eyes of the federal and state governments. Taxes on liquor and cigarettes became higher yesterday. These are commonly referred to as "sin taxes," because the more a person sins, the more a person pays.
The increase in taxes originally was to offset a decrease in the federal cigarette tax, but Congress rescinded that decrease because it needed tax revenues.
pence.
The Kansas Legislature in its 1895 session increased the state's tax on a package of 20 cigarettes by 8 cents and the tax on a package of 25 cigarettes by 10 cents.
cost $2 more, and 90-proof liquor will cost $1.80 more. Liquor thus becomes one of the highest taxed products around, with about 20 percent of the purchase price going to state governments and about 29 percent going to the federal government.
One local liquor store manager recently suggested that the federal government wanted to use the increase in liquor taxes to legislate morality and make more money at the same time. The same assertion could be made for the increase in cigarette taxes.
The idea is simple. Some people won't think the vice is worth the price, and use of cigarettes and liquor will decrease. But those moral reprobates—the ones who just have to sin—in turn will finance government projects.
And this is good. The federal government in particular could use the money to pay for one of its sins, the federal deficit.
Rob Karwath Editor
Duncan Calhoun Business manager
John Hanna Michael Totty
Managing editor Editorial author
Lauretta McMillen
Campus editor
Susanne Shaw
General manager, news adviser
Brett McCabe Sue Johnson
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Love emerges as the force that makes the work of Gordon Parks pulsating, vital and varied.
Love sustains Gordon Parks' art
Parks, an internationally acclaimed photographer, poet, writer, composer and filmmaker, cites an abundance of love as the source that keeps his creativity fresh.
"She was the greatest force I had," he recalled. "She tried to put an awful lot into me before she died — telling me that I must not let anything stop me."
Parks, who now lives in New York City, on Sunday was given the Life Achievement OZZI award of the 1985 Carnegie Hall Festival by the Kansas Film Institute.
Parks' work for 20 years as the first black photographer at Life Magazine, in addition to his other work, has taken him all over the world. Looking weathered but not worn by his experiences, he proudly celebrated his Kansas roots when he received his award in Downs Auditorium in Dyche Hall.
"I feel as if I've come full circle," Parks told the audience who had come to honor him and view his 1969 film, "The Learning Tree."
"I started out in Kansas and everything I got came from here in a
Michelle Johnson Staff columnis
sense," he said. "A source o.
inspiration came from this soil."
The film version of "The Learning Tree," which Parks directed, was adapted from his book of the same title. The book has been described as a semi-autobiographical account of growing up in Kansas amid both bigotry and love.
The film heralded Parks as the first black director in Hollywood. He also wrote the screenplay and the film's score.
In Parks' 1966 autobiography, "A Choice of Weapons," he describes how instead of brandishing knives or guns to survive violence, he turned things around and used his talents.
The distinguished photographers Parks worked with at Life Magazine taught him how the camera could be used as a powerful social tool.
Parks has used all of his weapons well and has never succumbed to boredom or frustation. He has spent his life growing as an artist in several disciplines.
"I've learned what kind of weapon it could be in hands of someone who could use it the right way," he said. Photos of brutal street gangs and of poverty in Harlem are among some of his most haunting photos.
In addition to his photography, Parks has written autobiographies, novels, sonatas, poetry, a ballet, symphonies and screenplays, and he is working on another book.
Parks is a self-taught man; he never finished high school. Although he has received 14 honorary college degrees, he fondly refers to his honorary high school diploma as the "one I have to lean toward."
He said his career was sustained by the love of his family while he was growing up. "They spoiled me, fed me, prayed for me," he said of his 14 siblings, all of whom have died.
Parks also has valued the love of his four children and his three ex-wives, with whom he maintains good relations. He's also maintained a sharp sense of humor about life and love and writing.
"When I get so-called writer's block, I just keep writing. I can't afford writer's block — I have too many ex-wives," he said.
many EXAMPLES, the love of his work,
however, pushes Parks toward perfection.
"When I wake up in the morning, I know I'm going to be doing something that I like. It's all a joy," he said.
Television could serve as sex educator
Whether through the eye of a camera or the voice of the pen, Parks has managed to quell the bitterness toward the people who have wanted to destroy him because of his color.
"I'm not angry," Parks said. "I'm still here, but some of the people who have used the knife or the gun are gone."
The teen-ager explained her unintended pregnancy by saying she was afraid of the health risks of the pill. Pitiful as that may sound, since the health risks of childbirth are far greater for most young women than use of the pill, it is a common view.
Not long ago, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology commissioned the Gallup organization to conduct a poll on American attitudes toward contraception and health. It turned out that 76 percent of the women and 62 percent of the men feared that there were substantial health risks in using the pill. Few knew that the risks of dying in childbirth were greater.
Despite the ignorance of many Americans about contraception, the Gallup poll discovered a massive endorsement of the idea of much more sex education for American children.
No wonder. One teen-age woman in 10 in the United States is going to get pregnant this year and most of them will be like the young woman afraid of contraception. Meanwhile, in Sweden, sex education is commonplace and teen-age pregnancy is a third of what it is in our country.
Robert C.
Maynard
Oakland Tribune
If ever there were a medium that could help, it is television. It is, after all, the ubiquitous educator. Yet the television networks have suddenly gone bashful in the face of a monumental crisis, a crisis to which television has contributed more than its share.
Who would guess that the people who produce those steamy scenes on "Dallas" and "Dynasty" and who concoct on daytime soap operas limitless sexual encounters would turn out to be bashful about sex?
Well, they are. What's more, they are bashful about accepting money for advertising contraceptives. You would think the networks, considering the behavioral models with which they present this country, would be only too happy to help educate their audiences about birth control.
Not so. With more of the stance of the ostrich than the peacock, the three main networks refuse to have anything to do with advertisements and public service announcements that educate young America about the dangers of pregnancy and the availability of relatively safe contraceptives.
The ads and announcements in question in no way promote promiscuity. They are directed toward the fact that this is a sexually active nation. Ads or no ads, that is not likely to change soon. What we can change, with the right effort, is the fact of a devastating epidemic in teen-age pregnancy.
Those commercials and public service announcements could go a long way in such an effort.
Sorry, say the big three networks, too controversial. In fact, only a small minority in Gallup's survey found the idea of sex education offensive. The majority welcomed it as necessary.
Are the networks listening to the data or to their old-fashioned fears? The evidence points to the latter. CNN and a host of local television stations have been accepting the
controversial commercials for months with no noticeable adverse effect.
The mind of a network television executive is a remarkable piece of work. He helps preside over a medium that thinks nothing of having shows such as "Dallas," "Dynasty" and "Miami Vice" flood the airwaves with violence and sleazy sex scenes.
That same executive, confronted with a tasteful reminder of the availability and necessity of contraception, grows bashful and timid about controversy. It is as if there is nothing controversial about primetime and daytime television.
Meanwhile, the young women of America continue to become pregnant at the most rapid rate in the industrialized world. The social cost of that fact is written large in our cities, where more than half the births today are to unmarried teenagers. How much effect a change in network policy might have is unknown. The sad fact is that the executives are too frightened to find out.
Mailbox
A fine football mess
It's another fine mess KU has got its football players into, Stanley. My apologies to Ollie but I cannot stop laughing about the lame excuses Lynn Williams has voiced in the media about his academic screw-up.
To make matters even more ridiculous, Chris Lazzarino's column ("If Williams is right, he's got a good case") came to the defense of this poor victim. But Lazzarino overlooked the major flaw in Williams' excuse: Williams allowed someone else to choose his classes, and in doing so has no right to complain about the consequences.
Lazarino suggests that the NCAA satisfactory process rule is unfair; I suggest the rule is fair because it forces athletes such as Williams to make their own career choices and live with the consequences.
The rule intends to create student-athletes out of athlete-students. To fulfill this goal, colleges must now relinquish traditional decision-making for athletes, and athletes must now actively pursue degrees.
If an athlete is capable of choosing
a college athletic program in which he will participate, then he is capable of serious career choices. The majority of college students face these same career challenges; so too should college athletes.
The time to lead athletes by the hand has ended. Not all athletes are like this, though. But too many once found it easier to register for punt courses rather than for serious courses that provide challenges.
Remember Kevin Ross? I am a recent Creighton University graduate. In light of the Ross spectacle, which also fed off the gullible press, I believe the NCAA rule is absolutely fair.
Ross cried to the media that Creighton officials misled him and consequently ruined his education and future in the NBA. However, once Creighton officials were compelled to publicize his academic progress to protect their reputation, it was obvious Ross never intended to pursue an education and that he repeatedly neglected to cooperate with those who attempted to assist him.
Semester after semester, Ross signed up for intro courses, indica
Creighton officials admitted guilt on their part, and the press came in for the kill. But Creighton also suggested that Ross would have to take responsibility for his actions. The press barely mentioned this perspective.
John F. Healy
Omaha, Neb., graduate student
If Williams knowingly allows someone else to make his academic and career choices, he cannot wag the finger when he is unhappy with the consequences. I suggest he face the same responsibilities expected of any other student. It's only fair.
Prudent questions
ting he never intended to face the challenge of a college education. He deliberately loitered in college while playing basketball and then blamed others when his choices caught up with him.
The Kansas University Endowment Association has long maintained that divestment from South Africa was illegal because of the Prudent Man's Rule, "a Kansas law that says a prudent man should consider safety and returns on his investments."
Times change. Given the present atmosphere of ever-escalating civil strife in South Africa, is it not prudent to assume that the financial climate there cannot fail to be seriously undermined? Setting aside for a moment the obvious moral problem involved, is it not prudent to question the financial wisdom of mining companies or Pompeii for once the rights of man and the interests of business are the same.
Bryant Freeman professor of French and Haitian Creole
Draft registration resisters are "cowards" and "yellowbellies" whose message is that they "refuse to defend" the United States (Victor Goodpasture, Sept. 27)?
Polluted logic
Look at Grenada, Lebanon and Nicaragua. Defense? Or this administration's adventuristic American muscle-flexing, shrouded in pompous, inflated catch-all phrases like "national security interests"?
Talk about polluted logic. Ren Hall
Iowa City, Iowa, sophomore