4
Opinion
University Daily Kansan
Monday, Sept. 23, 1985
We congratulate Daniel Bays, director of the center for East Asian studies, for bringing to KU a $500,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc.
Henry Luce, the founder of Time magazine, his family and now family foundations have made study of Oriental Christianity the occasion for many previous gifts to many scholars. So the offer of this grant is in character.
Chinese Christian studv
The grant is to be used for a six-year study of Christianity in China. Bays has studied the subject before, and in fact, his knowledge is a sure reason for the foundation's decision.
Nor is the subject as esoteric as it may seem. Christianity is alive and well in China. Obviously it lacks the structure and the architecture that it has in many countries, including other Communist ones. But it is there.
Moreover, Christianity in China has been integral to the opening of China to the West in recent centuries. Huge missionary efforts have gone into Bible translation and schools. The history of Western involvement in China cannot be written fully without regard to Christianity.
Understanding China today means accounting for the place of Christianity there. It has been a carrier, participant and occasional victim of cross-cultural events. It is one of the lenses through which Westerners and Chinese look at each other.
In announcing the Luce grant, Chancellor Gene A. Budig said, "It underscores our role of an academic leader in the humanities."
Budig was alluding to the Hall family grants announced at the opening Convocation for study in the humanities. And he is right. The University's reputation is greatly enhanced through such grants.
And what's even better, the study of Christianity in China promises to enhance relationships between people in different parts of the world.
Bands have always enjoyed playing to highly enthusiastic crowds here.
Live music in Lawrence
Lawrence has been a mecca for live music for 20 years.
The town needs a patron saint of music or at least a wealthy patron.
But today, Lawrence is a live music dry hole.
The Jazzhaus is an excellent forum for local and national jazz and blues groups. The Rock Chalk Cafe features local bands of all persuasions. But both of these tavern lack a crucial element - space.
But these are the exceptions.
A new club, The Outhouse,
has been gaining attention on
the southern outskirts of town.
return as Cogburns, with all bands banned.
But these are the exceptions. The Lawrence Opera House has straggled along amid increased ticket prices and declining attendance. Off the Wall Hall died and was reincarnated on a soapstring budget as the Dynamo Ballroom — only to die again and
This sad note is not due to a lack of willing musicians or fans. There are at least 30 bands in Lawrence. Fans crave dancing to good live music. But few places exist in the city for bands to play for pay.
No wonder private parties seem to be getting louder. Without halls in which to play, musicians must set up their amplifiers in houses and play parties for free, or for prices that barely cover expenses.
Time has come for someone with an eye for profits to set up a new bar where music fans can see and listen to live bands regularly. And if such a place emerges, it's time to support it. Lawrence residents need a place where they can have fun without worrying about cops, city commissioners with audiometers and stiff fines.
Student aid and the draft
Should freedom of education be denied to those who refuse to register for the draft?
The Solomon Amendment of 1982 stipulated that anyone desiring educational assistance must present university financial aid officers with letters from the Selective Service acknowledging that they had signed up.
Last week the Selective Service announced that it would no longer require universities to verify that students seeking financial aid have registered with its office
While students seeking financial aid no longer have to provide the letter, they must still sign a statement confirming they have registered before they can receive financial aid.
It seems the letter requirement is no longer needed because more than 99 percent of the male student population had signed up and the extra paper work caused more trouble for school administrators than it was worth.
Some say a student who doesn't sign up has no business
being aided by a government he refuses to fight for. But the fact that a student is morally opposed to violent acts of aggression should not be sufficient reason to deny him the means of gaining an education.
The draft statement is an affront to those who refuse to sign up for the reason that they can't justify the potential of being part of another war they cannot fight in good conscience.
Last week, a University of Iowa student government group voted to allocate $7,500 for students who were denied financial aid because they chose to keep their consciences to themselves and not bend to strong arm tactics by the Selective Service.
We support their efforts and urge the same sort of understanding at KU for the minority of students who would like to withhold any commitment to making war until the war we wage is deemed by them justifiable.
Rob Karwath
Editor
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Campus editor
Susanne Shaw
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Reagan betting the farm on computer
My computer is much too much like my children. It doesn't always do what I want it to do when I want it done. Not unlike my independent-minded offspring assigned to set the dinner table, my computer sometimes simply acts on its own schedule.
Please don't get me wrong. I love my computer. It's basically a wellbehaved and mannersly computer. It's just that. . . well, let me give you an example.
For the longest time, my computer simply would not talk with another computer owned by an organization with which I do considerable computer communication. I pleaded, cajoled and otherwise begged. Nothing. I blamed the other computer for being inhospitable to my well-behaved little angel. Finally, I was at my wit's end, and I guess the little devil could tell. It just started doing what I had been pleading with it to do for weeks.
Lately, every time my computer and I have one of our intermittent falling-outs, I think of something the experts in war technology call SDI Strategic Defense Initiative. We ordinary sorts call it "Star Wars," a term President Reagan deacts.
Absolutely no rational explanation exists for why it should have been so ornery one day and so cooperative the next. Computers, like kids, are that way. Even the best of them.
The president doesn't detest the concept at all. He champions it. From the day two years ago the president proposed the idea to
Congress, the press, dub it "Star Wars," and the that name has stuck.
It has occurred to me if the president knew my computer, he might think better of spending $1 trillion on a set of weapons systems that must be controlled by computers instead of people.
It took me six weeks to persuade my computer to call Kansas. Imagine what it's going to be like when "Star Wars" is all built. A White House study group says the system will require about 10 million lines of written instructions.
If the computer decides to ignore a few hundred thousand of those instructions at Zero Hour, "Star Wars" presents a problem. We can't
Robert C.
Maynard
Oakland Tribune
tell the enemy to come calling another day.
In early tests of some components, a few celebrated glitches have already occurred. enough to remind you of the delicate balance between scientific promise and actual performance.
Some scientists and defense contractors understandably like to assure us almost anything is possible, including pinpoint accuracy in outer space. They face formidable hurdles, put this way by a Livermore
Laboratories physicist, Cory Cull III,
"What you're asking us to do is like
asking the Wright brothers to build a
400-passenger, coast-to-coast, all-
weather aircraft only a day after
Kitty Hawk. No one should under-
estimate the difficulties."
Nor should anyone underestimate the cost. The most conservative estimate is a half trillion dollars, and the most expensive estimate is a trillion dollars or more.
All that to buy what? To buy a shaky shield. If it worked as advertised by its proponents, it would obliterate incoming missiles. If only one percent of the likely onslaught got through, that would be enough to eradicate our principal cities.
Put another way, we are spending a trillion dollars for a system that has to be perfect on its first day of trial without, obviously, a test under combat conditions. Its first and only test would hold civilization in the balance.
Meanwhile, just the preliminary tests and experiments are beginning to show signs of having a hefty fiscal impact on the federal debt. "Star战争" must promises to become one of the biggest gambles this country has ever taken.
It's a gamble that is this simple. It's betting a trillion dollars that a computer will respond perfectly to millions upon millions of commands without a glitch.
That's the equivalent of my betting the whole farm my computer will dial right through to Kansas the very next time I tell it to, or that my kid is going to set the table tonight right on time. Fat chance.
Float tank purges closed-mind blues
Floating Out of Bounds, from 1969 toward a new quest at tuning in the Other Mind to attain a higher consciousness.
Now tell the truth
Out of Bounds was so disgusted with the lot that we shipped ourselves off to a "float center" in East Lawrence last week for guidance from the supreme source.
Aren't you sick and tired of all those people on campus that are suffering from the "i can't get out of the 1960s blues?"
The Other Mind.
That's right. The place where the Beatles went to write songs.
There — in a womb-like environment kept at room temperature — you come in contact only with yourself. There, it is possible to reach the Other Mind where your thoughts line up straight and where your heart is louder than the Fourth of July.
The folks who run float centers are thoughtful people. They provide customers with a towel and all-natural soap to cleanse yourself with before entering naked into a dark coffin-like vat full of super-salary water where you float suspended.
Gary Smith Staff columnist
Charles Gruber; 1425 New York St., recently opened the first Lawrence float center in his home.
He told Out of Bounds that the ride would be safe and our questions would be answered as we lay in the tank made famous by the movie "Altered States." He assured us, however, that if we fell asleep we wouldn't wake up chewing on the neck of a gazelle like the star of that movie did.
We entered the isolation tank, closed the hatch and floated easily on 10 inches of water more salty than any dead sea on Earth. The total darkness was made less threatening by soft music pumped underwater for ears suspended just below the surface.
Then Gruber turned off the tunes and the Other Mind took over.
"Do you know that the 1980s ended almost 16 years ago?" , the omnipresent Other Mind voice said. "Well
"There, you remember I'm sure, the beast of the 1960s blues reared its ugly head. As the united throng of conscientious anti-racists marched up the hill — waving signs and acting united — a naïve lad tossing a softball with a friend was heard to murmur, "Some people just can't seem to get out of the '60s."
some people don't. And they're having a rough time of it in 1985. So pity them and don't judge them harshly.
"Why, don't you remember last spring? There they were, 300 antiapartheid protesters marching Out of Bounds up the hill on 15th Street in front of Jayhawker Towers on their way to get arrested on West Campus.
"He obviously doesn't realize that people have been searching for higher consciousness and protesting injustice ever since we crawled out of the sea. If he keeps that attitude until his softball days are over he'll never
"You should pray for that boy every day at Out of Bounds Headquarters, for it's an ugly curse to limit oneself so much by 12 pieces of paper with boxes and numbers.
be conscious and will never have the curiosity to delve into the powerful mysteries of the Other Mind.
"Other Mind out," the voice ended, as Gruber slowly turned up the music again.
The tank worked. We felt renewed and prepared to tackle the world's problems without being sick and tired of those cursed with the 1960s blues.
Out of Bounds is now prepared to deal properly with those who get angry but can't protest a clearcut wrong such as racism and who can't push their Minds Out of Bounds simply because it would be too much like 1969.
And if you're ready to put down that softball and play a little Other Mind hardball you may want to try floating. It costs less than the better drugs available and it's better for you.
For consciousness-raising wasn't discovered in 1969, it only found at that time its mass appeal. It's now 1983 and about time young people began enjoying their Other Minds again without feeling outdated.
Verbatim
Exercise course is favorite fitness fad
First came jogging, then the leotards and dance music of aerobics. Today, the most popular fitness craze on campus might be HPER 108: Physical Conditioning, a one-credit, one-se semester class that boasts 17 sections this fall.
The class, which is taught by graduate students, is exercise physiology and meets for two hours twice a week. There is no textbook. The students set goals for weight loss, strength, endurance and fat-muscle percentage for the semester. Then, they sweat, stretch, lift and run to meet those goals.
Wayne Osness, chairman of the department of health, physical education and recreation, talked about the Physical Conditioning class last week with columnist Julie Comine.
When was Physica Conditioning first offered here?
OSNESS: We've had Physical Conditioning probably for the last dozen or so years. We didn't have as many sections then because in our older building our weight room was very small. When we moved into the new building three years ago, the number of sections went from two or three to where we are now.
Do you think that fitness classes should be a basic part of a college education, like literature or foreign language classes?
OSNESS: Our entire program, made up of what we call "service" courses, is elective. At some schools, students are required to take physical education. We don't believe that's the way to go. We want our courses to be so good and have such a reputation that students will want to take them. The last time I checked and looked at the numbers, the average student on campus took a
semester and a half of elective activity classes. If students take the
thinks because they want us to be that — not because they have to — I think it makes us more accountable for the kinds of things we offer.
What does the course entail, what types of activities?
OSNESS: Our goal is to establish a lifestyle — an avenue to fitness and health for people to pursue later on
It involves a total fitness component: work with muscle tone and some strength building. We're concerned more with lighter weights and less intensity, so one can maintain good muscle tone.
It also involves flexibility exercises. . . and it involves body composition, with a caloric expenditure that helps reduce the number of calories stored.
Could a student who's not in the best of shape survive Physical Conditioning, or should someone be in relatively good shape before he enrolls in the class?
Wavne Osness
OSNESS: The course is designed for people who are in poor shape because we want to help those people learn what they need to know to make good decisions about their physical condition. But we also try to make it challenging for those who are taking the course for a second, third or fourth time.
How are the students graded?
OSNESS: It depends to some extent on the instructor, but primarily you are graded on your ability to reach your goals and to effect change in your body over time, and also to some extent on your performance level.
You mean students have to pass certain "tank" tests, test strengths?
Is that fair for those students who aren't crack athletes?
OSNNESS: The grade is not based on performance alone. What we don't want to happen is for the athletes in the class to get the As and the sedentary people to get the Bs and Cs. We want to make sure every student has an equal opportunity for success. If athletes come in and decide that they are already in good shape and that they aren't going to work hard in the course, they just won't get a good grade.
Are there many varsity athletes who enroll in Physical Conditioning? OSNESS: The athlete in season, chances are, wouldn't take, this course. On the other hand, we do have quite a few athletes who take quite a "service" courses. We don't recommend it because they don't need it. On the other hand, some of them need it for other reasons, such as eligibility. You'd expect that if a football player took a conditioning class, he'd probably do pretty well, regardless of how he'd do in English or math. We're not at all concerned about that. This isn't a grade mill. Certain people have
aptitudes for certain kinds of things
and if your aptitude happens to be in
a physical way, then I guess you
deserve to get the better grade.
Have you seen more women recently enroll in the class, and if so, what can you attribute that to?
OSNESS: Oh yes. I think it's a change in philosophy. This is my opinion, but several years ago the aspiration level of the females on this campus was not as great as far as getting themselves in the type of condition that they could or should be in. Then there are always some remnants of the social moves that say that women shouldn't sweat. But that's virtually been eliminated from our social scene here on campus.
We've all heard the stories about college students gaining weight: The "freshman 15," the high school athlete who suddenly isn't partici- pate in a game, or the student this course helps combat the image of the chubby college student?
OSNESS: No question. It is true that after an athlete establishes a pattern — which includes eating a certain amount, exercising a certain amount — they reach a stability. But often when they come to school, they cut out physical activity and change their eating habits.
What kinds of long-term effects can this have on a person?
OSNESS: All of those things mean that a person will grow heavier and heavier. What's interesting for us to study are the psychological changes that occur. Gradually, a person who gets out of shape realizes that they're not what they used to be. They can't do some of things they used to be able to, they don't look as good as they did, and their self-image begins to be affected.