Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, October 28, 1980
Berman in 2nd District
The race for the State Senate seat in the 2nd District comes down to a choice between an incumbent with a proven record and a challenger with no legislative experience.
Arnold Berman is the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee and has been instrumental in obtaining legislative support for the University of Kansas.
Berman has helped get funds for KU in such important areas as salary improvements for faculty and staff, construction of new campus buildings and improvement of library and research facilities.
In the future, Berman has said, he will
work to expand the state scholarship program and to secure funds for a satellite library, which the University needs.
It seems obvious that Berman has accomplished many important things for KU. The alternative is Republican candidate Jane Eldredge, an unproven candidate who would have no seniority if elected.
Eldredge has blamed Berman for the state's budget woes, yet she hasn't offered any alternatives.
The KU budget totals more than 10 percent of the state's budget, and the University needs a senator like Berman who can effectively represent higher education in the Kansas Legislature.
Branson choice in 44th
If Winter is not a conservative in sheep's
Whether it is Jessie Branson or Wint Winter Jr., the issues and opinions in the 44th District look the same. It is the candidates who make the difference.
Branson, a Democrat, and Winter, a Republican, both say they are for 100 percent graduate student fee waivers and increased KU faculty salaries. Both oppose raising the drinking age and nuclear power.
clothing, he is politically ambitious. Winter, who comes from a politically active family, moved into the 44th District a year ago. Although political ambitions cannot be dismissed prima-facie, district needs must come first.
Branson, who has lived in the district 25 years and has demonstrated a concern for public welfare through her volunteer work, has more exposure and sensitivity to her District's particular needs.
Branson and Winter may speak on the same issues and express the same opinions, but candidates can and do make a difference. Branson is the difference worth voting for.
Solbach for re-election
The distinct difference between 45th District Rep. John Solbach and Republican challenger Kent Snyder appears to be the commitment of each to the district.
On the other hand, Snyder's main goal appears to be getting himself elected. The district he runs in seems incidental.
Simply, the incumbent Solbach, a longtime Lawrence resident and a one-term representative, has proven his commitment.
Much of the 45th District is rural. Solbach lives on several acres west of town. He has shown his concern for the District by listing as his main priority his opposition to a controversial tax reapraisal that would raise resident taxes considerably.
But Snyder, a 21-year-old real estate salesman, was a resident of the 44th
District just a year ago. In fact he had planned to run there, as evidenced by the fact that he registered a campaign committee for the 44th with the Secretary of State's office. It wasn't until this summer, after 44th District favorite Wint Winter Jr. entered the race, that he moved to the 45th District where he registered as a candidate.
Solbach has proved to be a responsible and smart legislator during his two years in Topeka. He is, furthermore, consistent in his views, refusing to change his vote just because he is in the minority.
Solbach should appeal to students because of his drive to secure approval to self-help amendment to the landlord-enant act, which would no doubt benefit renters in disputes with landlords.
Solbach's record merits his re-election.
It's Amison in 46th
The race in the newly created 46th District lacks an incumbent, even though Democrat Betty Jo Charlton has served briefly in the 44th District as an appointed substitute for Mike Glover.
Willie Amison, Charlton's Republican opponent, is not facing someone who has had the mandate of the people, and he is offering himself as an option to this appointee. His enthusiasm and willingness to learn and serve the people of the 46th District make him worthy of the job he seeks.
Charlton, who, like Amison, is a KU graduate and has lived in Lawrence for years, has not shown the vigor and involvement Lawrence needs in its legislators. Her voice has not been heard above the legislative din.
Amison, on the other hand, has shown a vocal sincerity in his campaign. The 32-year-old elementary school teacher admits that he doesn't know everything about every issue. But he seems more than
willing to learn and study the complexities of Kansas issues and then make decisions based on his constituents' needs and concerns.
Although a member of a traditionally conservative party, Amison questions the value of the death penalty, opposes the raising of the 3.2 beer drinking age and strongly supports continued funding for social programs for the aged, handicapped and unemployed. As a black, he can provide much needed minority insight and representation.
His goals are aligned with those of the University of Kansas because he names much needed faculty salary increases as his highest KU priority. And he favors a self-help amendment to the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act if it is sufficiently specific as to what repairs can be made by a tenant.
Amison is offering his services and willingness to learn to the people of the 46th District. He deserves an opportunity to put his enthusiasm to work.
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KU has no real tie to South Africa
No doubt the KU Committee on South Africa thinks of itself as a noble group fighting for a noble cause. They are against the apartheid policies of South Africa that keep black South Africans segregated, poor and without many basic human rights.
The committee, which is not formally recognized by the University, has chosen to eight apartheid protestors at the university to be apartheid supporters at the university. The main target has been the
BRETT CONLEY
Perhaps it would be different if these companies made most of their profits from
Kansas University Endowment Association, which is, according to the committee, supporting South Africa with millions of dollars in investments.
With a little closer study of the committee's claims, however, it becomes obvious that while it may be fighting for a noble cause, it has totally overbawn and misrepresented the associating the Endowment Association with support of South Africa and its apartheid policies.
All the association actually has done is buy stocks and bonds from companies that have investments in South Africa. This is quite expensive, spending money directly in South Africa.
The committee has gotten significant publicity with its claim that the Endowment Association has invested millions of dollars in South Africa. The committee has made it sound as if the Endowment Association has invested heavily in South African diamond and gold mines and is buying Krugerrands daily.
At the end of 1979, the Endowment Association owned stocks worth $1.3 million in IBM, $80,000 in Exxon and $725,000 in Philips. Of the $26.8 million the Endowment Association owned in stocks, $8.1 million was in companies that had investments in South Africa.
The Endowment Association is being attacked because it has invested part of its millions in companies such as IBM, Exxon, Phillip Petroleum, General Motors and ITT.
South African investments, but IBM, for its assets is only 1 percent of its assets in South Africa.
Yet the South Africa committee is calling the Endowment Association an imperialist organization and an enslayer of humans whose goal is to if it's stock in such companies as IBM and GM.
What the South Africa committee seems unable to realize is that the Endowment Association has an obligation to invest its tens of millions of dollars in the most safe and profitable way. It is preposterous to ask the Endowment Association not to include blue chip stocks such as Exxon and ITT in its massive portfolio.
If such a divingulture did happen, the only group affected would be KU students. U.S. companies are not going to quit investing in this technology because Association refuses to purchase their stocks or bonds. However, the elimination of such stocks and bonds would substantially weaken
the earnings and growth potential of the Endowment Association's investment portfolio, which provides funds for many student scholarships, grants and loans.
The KU Committee on South Africa would have a valid argument if the University were indeed investing funds directly into South Africa. But that is not happening, and the South Africa committee is wasting a lot of time and effort on a campaign that would have no tangible effects on black South Africans—even if it were successful.
If the KU Committee on South Africa really wants to do something about the situation in South Africa, it should aim its efforts at organizations that are directly involved. If they are upset with U.S. companies that in their attack toward those companies and not toward the Endowment Association, which is merely investing its money in the most prudent manner, and which is not spending its money to support a racist regime.
KU drives maintenance duties into ground
I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Facilities Operations, that department that keeps the campus Parent's Day perfect year round, has gone too far.
It's one thing when FO pulls out its fleet of lawnmowers at 7:15 a.m., when it's nearly freezing outside and the last blast of grass stopped growing weeks earlier. I just shake my
I chuckle when I see the FO street cleaner washing Jayhawk Boulevard in the pouring rain. Even the sprinkler warfare, which occasionally prevents me from leaving Flint Hall
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GUMPRECHT
or drenches me when I'm too dumb to close my car windows on a sunny afternoon, only warrants
But there must be a limit to this maintenance madness.
many, after two days of wind and rain had battered the campus, the FO army launched a new battle. Their mission was to remove the rotten leaves from the grass that had been watered and manicured carefully.
You'd think the oaks and sycamores were dropping litter, not leaves. Crisp, colorful leaves make it fun. Couldn't FO have waited until most of the leaves had fallen?
Mount Oread at times borders on being sterile—as sterile as the outdoors can be—because of the administration's insistence that FO keep the campus perfect to impress dignitaries, tourists, parents and, of course, high school seniors.
FO receives an annual budget of $824,114 just for grounds maintenance—more than the departments of microbiology, anthropology, classics, continuing education and geological services, and others receive. That figure doesn't even include other FO responsibilities such as carpentry, janitorial work or building maintenance.
The University of Kansas campus is reputed to be one of the most beautiful around. I used to study there.
I know of golf courses that spend less time caring for their greens.
That says something about the University's priorities.
FO has 38 full-time employees in grounds maintenance—including four horticulturists and one florist—and 36 student and seasonal employees.
No doubt enrollment would plummet if a brown spot of grass was spotted in front of Watson Library, or if a pile of leaves could be resting under a tree come December.
KU probably would get bad reviews in Horticulture Quarterly, Maintenance Monthly and all the other important journals. The University might even face expulsion from the ‘prestigious’ American Association of Universities as a result. Gasp!
So I guess I'll just get used to straining to hear my professors over the relentless d of power laughed at.
I soon expect 'keep off the grass' signs to
lodge around campus — they'll just install
patio furniture.
I've concluded that the administration's real quarrel with the distribution of literature on campus isn't political. They just realize where most of the handouts end up.
It wouldn't surprise me if the University commissioned a botany professor to invent a substance to keep those damn leaves on the trees.
Next, they'll install heating ducts under the campus so snow flakes will melt as soon as they hit the ground. Last winter the plows and shovels were out before the ground was even white.
Maybe they could construct a geodesic dome over the campus. Then there would be no rain. No snow. No seasons. But good pictures.
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