Opinion Page 4 University Daily Kansan, January 16, 1981 The field house frolic When you were participating in the mayhem at the field house this week, did you notice how quickly the class cards disappeared for certain popular courses, such as fiction writing? Did you notice how many students wanted to take such courses but found themselves up the proverbial creek? And did you notice how, after students had picked up their cards, some classes had enough cards left to stretch to the moon and back? Not-so-popular courses, like Albanian History of the 15th century. It seems that the enrollment circus is fine—for the fortunate few who pull their cards first. Woe to the student whose name comes in the last bunch of letters to enroll. The "good" courses are long gone. Supposedly to address this problem, for the past few semesters, the idea of computerized, call-in pre-enrollment has been tossed about. But even call-enrollment would eliminate only the hassles of the field house. That type of pre-enrollment wouldn't face up to the real enrollment problem—that KU enrolment is tailored to the convenience of the instructors and departments, and not to the students' needs or desires. Most agree that enrollment should be changed, but when that change is made, let students finally have some input into the process of selecting classes, times and the number of sections offered. Survey the student body before the timetable is drawn up to find out what's wanted and what's not wanted. Students do many things on campus; it's about time they had a meaningful role in programming classes. A radical concept? Perhaps. So was the idea of a university atop a hill in the middle of nowhere. And true, that University has managed to survive more than 100 years without a student-based pre-enrollment process. But if the University is to fulfill its function of serving the students, then it's time a few traditional concepts, like the luck o' the surnames, be eradicated. Not only would students avoid the game being played at Allen Field House each spring and fall, but they just might also find spots in the courses they want and need. Plus-minus grading concept shouldn't get passing grade A new plus-minus grading system takes effect this semester. A student receives 4 points for an "A" under the system, 3.7 for an "A-minus", 3.4 for a "B-plus" and so on. Use of the system is optional for the different schools of the University. The movie has drawn praise from students, administrators and professors. The Kansan editorially endorsed the system this fall, saying, "There's no reason to reject it." I can think of a few. Students will end up JANE NEUFELD regretting the system, because it's geared toward lowering their grades. Students must think they have an even chance of getting a higher grade as well as a lower one. Dream on. Professors are a gim-faced, steeleyed lot, and they are not going to pass up applause. They're not picking it out of their silly little fingers. They're not going to raise grades if they can help it. A recent Kanan article gloried that grade inflation had not struck KU, because a study showed that the average GPA at KU was only slightly higher than the average GPA of a decade age. The plus-minus grading system is a simple way to cut down on grade inflation. Instead of giving a "B," a professor can hand out a "B-minus" or a "C-plus." Then they can pat themselves on the backs again next year and smirk about KU, by God, is still a tough university and is not buckling under to the inferior minds of today's pathetic students. Grades are subjective in almost every case. Perhaps a course that used all multiple choice or true and false questions and graded on straight lines could claim objectivity, but that's a rare class. Many professors also use a puzzling instrument known as "the curve." The curve can leave 2 percent of its victims with "A/s," or 90 percent, or zero percent. I haven't figured out the curve yet, but I suspect some of its determinants are made in a darkened room with incense burning and low chanting in the background, while the professor reads pig entrails to assign letter grades to the names on his class list. Professors are human. Total objectivity is impossible. Still, a straight letter-grading system gives them a margin of error. The difference between an "A" and a "B" is certainly clear-cut and easier to judge than the difference between an "A-minus" and a "B-plus." The new system also makes the 4.0 semester obsolete. Straight "A's" aren't going to drop from the sky anymore, so there's no point in trying for a flawless semester. Although 4.0's are useless anyway and will cause your friends to snarl at you and your enemies to hurl turtl invective in your direction, they do provide your parents with an opportunity to call up all the neighbors and, in a tear-channeling class, arrange chattering cats and shopilining to a semester of all "A's". They knew all along it was just youthful high spirits instead of stupidity that resulted in last semester's 1.9. It's a small difference. Still, I don't want to mess with Mickey Mouse plumes and minuses on my grades. I don't want professors selecting from 12 grades instead of five. And I don't want my 'As' "changed into "A-minuses" so that professors can smile smugly about how tough their classes are and shake their heads over the ineptitude of their students. The plus-minus system encourages subjectivity, enabling a plus to be tacked on for reasons from "she wears slit skirts and sits in the front row" to "he has a good attendance record," and minuses to go with things from her face at my jokes" to "I don't like her face." A rose is a rose, an "A" is an "A" and a "B" is a "B." The days are past for gold starts for a good job and staying in at recess for a bad job. Phases and minuses are an ugly throwback to grade school days when GPA didn't mean anything. It does now, but students will have to adjust to seeing fewer "A's" and more "Aminuses" and "B-pluses". Students who've never even been close enough to an "A" to know what it looks like will not escape, either. They'll be bringing home minutes instead of straight grades. Forget it, Mom and Dad. Junior is never going to bring home all "A," because dour professors are going to prove how tough they are by not handing them out unless a student gets a hundred percent. There's no such thing as an "A-plus," so an "A" will take its place as representing perfection. An "A-minus" will stand for excellence. Ronnie arrives in Washington No easy answers to porno problem When feminist author Susan Browmiller launched her battle against pornography two years ago, it was a fight full of fury. Led by Women Against Pornography, a group Browmiller helped start, hundreds of sign-bearing women toured Times Square, the heart of New York City's erogeneous zone. They were angry and they had a right to be. When I took the same tour while in New York last summer, however, it seemed that things had changed. Sure, I saw the same ugly jungle JUDY WOODBURN rubber replicas of women's genitals and the puddies of leftover semen on the floors of peep shows. For the same $5 fee, I saw WAP's slide show that featured women being hung, whipped or beaten bloody, all of them looking as if they enjoyed it. I faced the taut-lipped, silt-edy stares of g-string clad dancers who resented WAP's intrusions. reason for the fight to have waned so in energy. Recent studies presented by the American Psychological Association has helped bolster WAP's claim, "Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice." Two separate studies by universities have indicated a strong connection between pornography containing explicit sexual violence and actual crimes against women. But I also saw that the twice-weekly tours had dwindled to an occasional one or two a month. The angry throngs of women had become a quiet group of five trying to stay out of trouble with store owners who were tired of women who did not come to buy. That's a far cry from 10 years ago, when the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography concludes that there was no material and subsequent exposure to pornographic material and subsequent aggression. So where has the enthusiasm gone, the sense of purpose that led Brownmiller to pour $5,000 from her own pocket into the cause? Where are the names of the people who were written about in Time and People magazines? At first glance there would seem to be no Since my stomach-turning visit to Times Square, I think I've run the gamut of feelings a woman can have about pornography, ranging from utter disgust to fear and anger. And I've pondered seriously what I could do about it. But the feeling that returns over and over is one of powerlessness, because I'm afraid there's just too much power out there. And the volunteers at WAP was any indication, a lot of women are beginning to wonder about what can be done, too. When Brownmiller and others first trained their sights on pornography (and it should be remembered here that they were referring to art as well as literature and literature), they thought they had a solution: Just get the government to censor it. Simple. Brownmiller declared flatly in several national magazines that the First Amendment should not extend its umbrella over pornography. Her statements drew heated criticism from civil libertarians, and deservedly so, because the obstacles to defining pornography and its impact on protected speech are just too overwhelming. The Supreme Court itself has been wrestling with a definition since 1857, when it decided in Roth vs. United States that obscurity was not speech and could be prohibited. It still hasn't come up with anything that works. When the Court revived its definition in 2016, it allowed community standards of prurence, but it did not seem to generate any more convictions. KANSAN (USPS 550-640) Published at the University of Kansas daily August through May and Monday and Thursday during June and July except Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Second-class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas 6045. Subscriptions by mail are $15 for six months or $27 a year in Douglas County and $18 for six months or $35 a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $2 a semester, paled through the student activity fee. Postmaster: Send changes of address to the University Daily Kansan, Flint Hall, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. 60454. As Aryeh Neer noted in The Nation, attempts by some females to shift the definition's emphasis toward violence and away from sex seem equally futile. David Lewis Managing Editor Eilen Iwamoto Editorial Editor Don Munday Art Director Bob Schand Campaign Editor Scott Paust Associate Campus Editor Gene Wyrus Assistant Campus Editor Ray Formanack, Susan Schoemaker Assignment Editor Kathy Jamailal Sports Editor Kevin Bertels Associate Sports Editor Tracee Hamilton Entertainment Editor Shawn McKay Business Manager Terr Pry Larry Leibengauer Retail Sales Manager Harry Light National Sales Manager Kaye Winkew Campaign Sales Manager Kave Winckee Production Manager Kevin Knox Transportation Manager Amanda Cornell Travelsboo Manager Nancy McKean Staff Artist Rian Knakey Staff Grapher John Hankmanker Retail Sales Representatives Jody Awendale, Juliette Beiler, Judy Caddwell, Julia Callow, Bill Gromon, Business Manager, Management, Assessment, Reimbursement, Residential Housing, Howard Smillity, Thinie Shutter, Loren Hemmes, Terry Knoester General Manager and News Adviser Chuck Chowins The television series "Roots" has been banned for inducing a Jamaican man to rape a white woman to "pay her back" for what had been done to blacks for so long, and a boy in Detroit was reported to have shot himself in the head while playing Russian roulette after seeing "The Deer Hunter." But it would be ridiculous to suggest that all these movies be censored. General Manager and News Adviser . . . . . As a journalist, I must look askance at any attempt to change the First Amendment from the protective shield it is into a selective screen for filtering out what somebody else deems offensive. I know all too well that my column—other women's protests—could be the next thing. Consequently, many women, including the WAP, seem to have backed down on their calls for governmental control. As my WAP guide explained in a tired voice, "We have careful not to bring up censure, or our efforts against unconstitutional or we won't get anywhere." The question remains, then, how do we get anywhere? The WAP has opted for participation in occasional protest marches and lots of newsletters to women who must pay $10 to receive them. Volunteers talk vaguely of "increasing awareness." Community efforts at resourcing pornography entrepreneurs pick up and needle their wares to employers. That's not to say that there aren't a few glimmers of hope: Like the small middle-class community that succeeded in closing a newly opened porn theater by offering its owner donations and community patronage if he would feature general admission flicks instead. That town was lucky, though; it didn't have much of a market for porn in the first place. The sad and frightening thing is that porn don't mean anything when enough men continue to want the trash. For now, as much as liaisons to admit it, we suffer through nightmares of a seedy store on 42nd Street. We continue with the result or call in because by that store's lawyery wages. And we do little what we can. ---