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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, October 23, 1980
Regents right on energy
The Regents are to be applauded for their approval of a second feasibility study on the use of renewable energy sources at the University.
They also are deserving of praise for their "conservationist" method for funding this study and their similar reaction to the one that preceded it.
The second study will be paid for with money left over from the first, which examined the possibility of building a new coal- or refuse-burning power plant at KU to replace the one that now operates on natural gas.
The new plant would have cost $10 million to build, a price the Regents correctly considered to be too high.
The second study approved last week will determine the costs and benefits of modification of the present system in order to fuel boilers for steam heat with wood.
About 75 percent of the buildings on campus use steam heat produced with the natural gas.
If the study results in a positive case for the wood-fueled boilers, the system could be in operation within two years to supply plenty of heat from area renewable energy sources at a start-up cost of $2.5 million to $3.5 million.
That almost certainly will prove to be a bargain, as the price of natural gas continues its steady climb. The past five years' 400 percent increase in the cost of this fuel needed to heat classrooms and residence halls is bound to show up in higher tuition and more expensive housing contracts.
The Regents are wise to plan ahead. Although this October has blessed Kansas with moderate temperatures, the winter wind inevitably blows chill and cold.
Robinson's family plan lacks publicity needed for success
By JUDITH DORSEY
Guest Columnist
It is a well-guarded secret that the families of faculty, students and staff have access to the new recreational facilities at Robinson Gymnasium for a price. The price for a semester's worth of healthy fun in great facilities is modest—£7.50 if you are the family of a student, $15 if you are related to a staff or faculty member. It is not the cost, but the unpublicized fact that passes are available which is the problem.
It was obvious at the beginning of the semester that Robinson had been completed before guidelines on its use had been written and circulated.
In those first weeks, a call to the gym ask who could and could not have access brought answers that covered the political spectrum, from extreme right to far left and moderate: Students could not bring their families ever; any staff, faculty or student could bring any family anytime the building was open; family members could come at certain times on certain days.
People who arrived at the gym on those weekends, with their children in tow, were either met by a sympathetic door watcher who let everyone in because "we don't have regulations yet," or they were met by some surly employees who had to leave the faculty could use the facility, and even they had to produce an ID card before they could be admitted.
On one of those days of regulatory uncertainty, a staff member brought his wife for an hour of racquetball. They had arranged for a babystay but had not anticipated the greeting they received at the southwest entrance of the building.
The wife was neither a staff or faculty member, nor was she a student. She was not admitted. Her husband, who had a staff card, attended the equitable court, but he would have to play alone.
Irate, and admitting later that anger had made
him obnoxious, the husband called Acting Chancellor Del Shankel, who thought the couple should be admitted and signs should be posted explaining the regulations. The employee in charge said "no" and threatened to call a police officer. The couple left.
Recently the husband spent $15 for a family pass. He was only the 18th person to purchase one, a sip that the passes are not selling very well. The reason it's because no one knows that they are for sale.
One lifeguard commented that unless more people use the pools during the weekends, she and her co-workers would miss them.
Anyone who frequents the gym on the weekends knows the building is not bulging with an overflow crowd. The pools are empty; the weight rooms are comfortably occupied; and the lacquettball courts are usually signed out, getting the difficult if you sign up a day in advance.
For a small fee, KU families can have access to a country club environment. The pass gives the family use of the pools, the field house, the gymnasium, the pool area and sauna. Family members must be accompanied by a person with a University ID card, and children must be accompanied by a parent. Children are not allowed in the weight room, but with a parent, they can be anywhere
The gold passes may be purchased in room 104 at Robinson.
The facilities are open for the Family Plan Program only during certain times: Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 to 10:30 p.m.
Perhaps if more people knew about the plan, more people would use the gym. The guards wouldn't have to argue with people; the lifeguards could be busy, and families would enjoy some recreational activities together. A few well-planned announcements and some posters in Robinson would tell people all they need to know.
So, those of you at Robinson, spread the word. Judith Dorsley is a graduate student in Journalism.
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Saudis' sandcastles house U.S. oil
To avoid economic mayhem, the one nation in the Middle East that the United States cannot afford to lose as an oil salesman is Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is the largest salesman of oil to the United States and has shown a readiness to slightly increase supplies when disruption of the flow of other nations' oil
the importance, therofe, of the Saudis' foreign policy cannot be overlooked.
In general, the Saudis seem to have taken the view that any major loss of supply in oil to the Western nations would bring economic and social devastation. The Saudis themselves and their Arab neighbors.
The Saudis said recently that the oil supplied to the United States would be increased to compensate for the loss of oil that resulted from Iranian revolution and the Iran-Iraq conflict.
While the free flow of Saudi oil is merely important for the United States, it is crucial to Western Europe because it is dependent on energy consumption, a percentage of its total energy consumption.
From the Saudis' perspective, they must maintain what only seems to be a belligerent stance toward Israel. If they did not make occasional hostile statements about Israel's annexations, Arab unity, already fragile at best, would fracture.
Because Saudi Arabia and its neighbors are better off soaking in petroltdants from the
importing nations than they would be if they kept their oil in the ground, they oppose aggressive moves, such as those by the United States to night threaten to disrupt their oil revenues.
In kindly considering the potential plight of in the industrialized nations, the Sudan have not made much effort to fight this.
solve many problems in less developed nations, and any cutoff of the services provided by the revenues could result in social unrest. Realizing this, the Saudis have attempted to stabilize the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' cartel by preventing gargantuan price increases at price meetings. By doing this, the Saudis maintain more attractive prices for the importing nations.
One of the goals of the Saudis and OPEC is to maintain buyers' interests by keeping prices competitive with other sources of energy. After all, who needs petroleum from oil shale at $35 a barrel when the Saudis are selling their oil for $30 a barrel?
As the Saudis make the big step from the 16th to the 20th century, the United States
serves as an arms salesman in lieu of a Saudi military-industrial complex. So far the sales have been strictly "defensive" in *in order not to frighten Israel*. In the arms sales, the Saudis have to beware of potential price gouging by the arms salesmen, principally the United States. This international tit-for-tat allows the United States to maintain a reasonable amount of payments deficit and to keep the dollar respectable in European money markets.
Arms sales to the Saudis are important to maintain the balance of terror with Israel and possibly Egypt. As long as the Saudis, Syrians, Jordanians and Libyans think they are secure, negotiations with the Israelis on Palestinian autonomy can continue.
The Saudi, however, now have reason for worry on their Persian Gulf shore. Speculation that Iraq wants to assert itself as king of the gulf must cause Saudi underlings to scratch their turbans and phone the Defense Department for another order of defense when they hear unpredictable Iranian leaders talking about more Moslem revolutions.
These nervous reactions are the result of the makeup of the Saudi leadership. It is somewhat clannish. Any revolution would leave them soiled and sandy.
Back in the United States, defense planners must ask themselves how quickly the Marines should be sent in if one of the Saudi sheik's sand castles were stepped on.
Letters to the Editor
HOPE selection slants toward well known
To the editor:
Seniors! Did you already "help choose the 10 seminifinalists" for the Honors to an Outstanding Progressive Educator (HOPE) award? Did you also stop to think why the names of some of the professors you consider to be excellent teachers never appear in the top 10 list? Well, I did, mainly after noticing that the names of certain seminifinalists were in that list year after year.
Now I am not saying that those professors do not deserve to be honored, but rather that, given the questionable (to say the least) validity of the procedures used to nominate the winners, they are being honored at the expense of other equally outstanding educators.
The present election system does not just measure the quality of the candidates, as it should. It is largely, if not totally, dependent upon the quantity of students the candidates are teaching. The teachers, professors who teach small classes, but it turns the award into a meaningsless ceremony. For example, consider two outstanding professors: one is teaching 300 students while the other teaches only 35. Obviously, when it comes to getting votes, the former has a much greater chance of winning the latter. And this, remember, is only because he is known to more students, not because he is better.
You might now start to understand why some of those good teachers never make it to the seminalists' list. You also might have noticed that most (not all) of the nominees belong to a department that has a large number of undergraduate majors or that they teach large classes (e.g. third floor Wescos). Again, being known to more students, they have an advantage over their colleagues who teach in smaller departments.
The linguistics department, for example, with an enrollment of only 20 undergraduate majors, has several excellent professors. Yet none of them will be long as the HOPE nomination never will be as long as the HOPE nomination
system continues to operate the way it does. But they are not the only ones affected by the present system. A great many other fine teachers and students have been affected similarly because they are not that well known.
I think it's time we start doing something about it. I realize that the task is not an easy one, that in this particular instance it is quite difficult to learn. We have classes that will always vary in the number of students), but it is worth the effort. If nothing else, we could change the name of the award to make it more specific. In this way, a nomenclature would be needed for being outstanding AND better known.
It would only be fair ai-v-a vis those fine lesser known professors, would it i+1 HOPE to see you?
Barcelona, Spain, senior
Cage lecture
Unfortunately, the Kansean chose not to print the information supplied by KANU and myself, that the John Cage lecture was broadcast Oct. 12. The film will be interviewed by KANU's music director, Tim Cameron.
There were a number of students who could not get into the Spencer Museum auditorium to hear Cage speak, and I was particularly anxious that they be informed of the broadcast.
To the editor:
Nevertheless, for those who missed it, a tape of Cage's lecture, "James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet," is now deposited in the Music Library in Murphy Hall, and anyone may hear it, depending on the availability at the time of a tape machine.
J. Bunker Clark
Professor of History
Professor of music history
E
It is regrettable that the selection of the recipient of a distinguished award such as
To the editor:
HOPE for Balfour
Honors to an Outstanding Progressive Educator (HOPE) should be an arena for politicking. However, because others on campus have been adamant in their support of one candidate or institution and because I also have a concerned interest in the selection, I am compelled to give my own opinion.
William Balfour (division of physiology and cell biology) is almost certainly the best example of a concerned, capable educator that I have seen during four years at the University of Kansas. Both in the capacity of University ombudsman and of professor and premedical adviser, Balfour displays an uncommon concern for the welfare of his students. His interest includes not only his students' academic well-being, but extends into their personal lives as well. He somehow manages to make each of the many students he sees feel that he is as much their friend as their instructor or adviser. In the past he has been myopic admirer, his interest in me has ranged from visiting me to watch a private recital to offering a no-interest loan so that I could ease my work load. For me, he has been not only a trusted mentor but a valued friend.
So, seniors, if you care enough to mark a ballot, vote for the HOPE award. And if you vote, consider Balfour.
E. Kirk Ludger
Moody's
Letters Policy
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