Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, October 16, 1980
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A student research center is one of those perennial projects, always in this or that committee, always a plank in somebody's platform, never achieving the necessary approval or fund raising to bring it to birth
Center no solution
Perhaps, before the Student Senate becomes too eager to dip still deeper into student pockets to finance the center, it needs to ask why the idea has so routinely failed.
Possibly a reasonable increase It is hard to swallow an increase in student fees to finance a resource center to be used primarily by senators. If a large percentage of them are too lazy to come to Senate meetings, who, in her or his right mind, would guarantee that they would burn enough calories to make use of the center?
Possibly it should have.
No matter how enthusiastic a few Senate zealots are about the "well-researched" proposals such a center could spawn, history seems to indicate that would not be the case.
And information the center theoretically would provide for non-senators can be gotten now from other sources. Heaven forbid that the Senate allow a duplication of services, that ugly monster who rears his thorny head during budget hearings.
If student senators or other students really care about the topic they are researching, they can locate information on it. That's the essence of scholarship. They don't need an expensive "professional" to do the job for them.
Money is not the answer to sloth. Rather,
it can perpetuate it.
To not understand Cage is to appreciate his talent
By DAVID STIPP
Guest Columnist
The University played host recently to a prominent composer, John Cage, who opened this year's Humanities Lecture Series. Before the lecture, J. Bunker Clark, professor of music at Fordham University, added the audience that he was the most influential American composer since World War II.
Clark's estimate of Cage's importance is very likely accurate. I checked it out for myself by looking up Cage in a modern history of music, where I found him taking up a respectable number of words somewhere between the old masters words and the piano smashers. Cage was even credited as the creation of a musical composition "Four Minutes and 33 Seconds," in which the performer sits for four minutes and 33 seconds in front of a piano while the audience listens to itself.
I've even tried to increase my appreciation for the contemporary idiom by participation—one day I tried to play some modern music in the piano store downtown, but they took away my hacksew before I could really get warmed up. Then I tried to speak with someone to speak at KU. I was understandably excited. I figured that by directly experiencing Cage's emanations I would have a chance to get out of
Despite the fact that Cage is well documented in the annals of music history, I have had some difficulty learning to appreciate his music. One of my more musically erudite friends laughs at me when I tell him I can't understand how silence can be great music. He tells me that I'm mired in one of the stagnant backwater sounds and yet I'm not attempting to acclimate myself to modern music by wearing ear muffs while playing 33 rpm Liberace records at 78 rpm.
the stagnet backwater and channel myself back into the mainstream. I was not disappointed.
DURING THE FIRST part of Cage's talk it seemed to me that not even Cage in person was going to be able to show me how to hear the beautiful sonorities and haunting melodies I knew my friend could hear in his music. As Cage talked of breathing Philadelphia through an halation, I felt like we were both trapped to fear that the wads of insensitivity in itself was embedded hopefully thick.
But then I had my second great insight of the evening: The only way to save Cage's art from certain death is to ignore it completely! That way there could be no risk of killing it by inadvertence or understanding it. Clearly, the best way to appreciate John Cage is to banish him from the mind.
What does he mean by octopus solo, I wonder how many runways in airborne bargehouses was creatively used?
I was just about ready to put on my ear muffs to see whether they made any difference when something Cage had said earlier gave me pause. He said that only the works of artists he couldn't understand had remained vital to him. Then I understood in a flash: Nobody understands Cage's music or lectures! That's why we need to silence it. At last I was beginning to see the light.
BUT AS I WALKED home after the lecture I began to worry about my new insight. Since I was beginning to understand Cage's work, I reasoned, wouldn't it necessarily become dead to me? A new backwater seemed to loom ahead. I wondered if I would be taking a new-born baby that was readily turning blue.
I did not hesitate to put my new insight into practice. The next day when my friend asked me whether I had learned to appreciate Cage, I confidently assured him that I had
David Stipp is a graduate student in journalism.
Letters to the Editor
Reggie's whiff wonderful
To the editor:
Reggie at the Bat
The thoughts of most Royals fans can be expressed in the following poem:
Twas the night of the playoffs and all through the stands.
All the fans were abounding with high-flying bands.
The Royals had two, then one out to go,
And Quisénberry ready to wrap up the show.
Up came Reggie Jackson with a 20-coupe bat,
With a Royal 1-4 score, he thought that was.
Qooked listen for the sign and saw one he liked,
and chuck it on the ump and the ump said
STEEERHIKE!!!!
Reggie backed out; he thought he was cool. He thought the young fireman was playing the fool.
But Quik knew his stuff, gave a fastball a lift,
And the Bronx Born responded with a mighty
thrust.
Sweet began to pour from Reginald's brow.
He had to hit jack it; here right and now.
Quiz stepped back on the mound, upping the pace.
Ready to give Reggie his final face
*The rest is part of class ball!* let's
*The Royalsmania* toasted with champagne
part of baseball's lore.
But in the Big Apple there was no victory cup.
In the ninth, mighty Reggie — finally screwed.
Glen Huschka Great Bend sophomore
ASK lobbying role
Bille Menzes' column in the Oct. 3 University Dalby Karan merits some undating.
To the editor:
The author discredits the Associated Students of Kansas for ineffective lobbying against a proposed fee imposed on KU students for the construction of a new medical library building
During the recent ASK legislative assembly held at Kansas State University a resolution opposing the fee was submitted to the assembly. The resolution was written by Dale Gillough from KKU.
The resolution was not passed by the assembly, but for a very good reason. Many delegates may have felt as I did, that the resolution, if
passed, would be in direct section of section four of the Constitution of the Associated Students of Kansas. It states:
"The Legislative Assembly shall not: a) intervene in strictly internal matters of the member institutions."
Michael L. Snider
ASK Campus Director
Washburn University
The ASK Legislative Assembly did, however, adopt the following resolution, which states in part: "The Associated Students of Kansas (shall) continue to work for legislation that will prohibit the use of student fees to pay for academic buildings."
The point of all this is that ASK represents a unified effort for all students at Kansas' public universities. Therein lies the strength of ASK. For without that unity, ASK is reduced to a fractions mess, robbing the organization of its ability to respond to student issues.
To require students to pay for the construction of buildings they will never see completed, let alone have the opportunity to use, is grossly unfair. But it was difficult for me to see how an internal fee at KU would affect students here Washburn, Kansas, State University, even though I felt the KU students were subjected to an unfair and capricious tax.
The medical library is certainly included under this resolution, and the KU ASK representatives still have the support of the students of Kansas in their efforts to check the fees.
Not being one to criticize wit or sarcasm, I thought very well of the "Undercover" ad which ran today. However, in terms of responsible behavior, this movie is not the erotic film festival ads that ran last semester.
To the editor.
I did learn in editing that the paper is responsible for the entire content of the particular article. I also adde. The Knowledge-oriented responsibility to gather the dollars. Clean it up, kids.
Ad tasteless
Bill Venable Overland Park senior
Bill Venable
Can't we come in?
Life without Royalmania can be lonely
My breakfast companion last week put it bluntly: There simply was no room at her table for such unpatriotic talk, and, if the defamation was a hoax, grapefruit, grapefruit in hand, to do a James Cagney.
fearing the wrath of this Royalmaniac, I resigned myself quickly and quietly to my Grape-Nuts. It was indeed October in Kansas once again.
Wrong are those visions of amber waves of grain flow through the Kansas autumn or of leaves falling in tranquil showers of gold and rust. No, the only things dropping in a Kansas October are Geoge Brett's slams to the left field of the real-life autumn are only blue, blue, BLUE.
BUT THIS YEAR is different. It's worse. It's American Dream time in the cow town, a perfect scenario for Baseball Comes to the River City. And more than ever before, if the Royals don't strike your fancy, you might as well not call yourself an American.
royals fans are corn-fed folks, bred to hate stripes and "foreign" places east of the Mississippi. They like their baseball year 'round, as big and rich as the western Kansas prairie.
Not that the Royals aren't a damn good ball club or that baseball isn't a damn good game or that a spot in the World Series isn't a damn good game. The Royals are one of the best teams years in Kansas not a Royalmaniac make.
BEING A NON-BLUE BLOOD isn't easy though. It's akin to being an American at the Moscow
so can man a kid reared on Vikings and Twins in a city that straddles the Mississippi possibly relate to this Royals fever? No way. It just can't be done.
AMY HOLLOWELL
Olympics. It's like being a New Waver at a Lawrence Well show or a woman in a crowded men's room. Sadly, not digging the Royals dooms one to a solitary October in the sunflower
Even the most amicable outsider suffers the near-belligerence of these zealots. Simply a sigh at breakfast could mean a grapefruit in the face. An under-the-breath "I don't really care" in a discussion of biased coverage brings growls and clenched teeth and fists.
Picking the Yankees in the pool at a playoff party recently left a non-blue blood standing alone, chatting with the dogs, not even welcome at the bar for a refill.
LOYAL TO THE THEAT that gave us Rod Carew, Tony Olivia, Bobby Allison and Harmon
Killibrew, it's hard to worship the cowpokes n blue.
There is, however, admiration for those guys in this outsider's heart. They've slammed their way into the big series with the power of the champions, devouring the Eastern crust as if they were a band of beasts. Likewise, their fans are digging in, feeding as heartily on the World Series.
EVERYBODY'S IN on it, from the bus driver to the professor to the reporters working under a Series deadline. Close those books, hang up these phones, turn off those typewriters, forget their politics, it's the third week in October, time or the Fall Classic.
What else could keep a crowd of college worm glued to the television on a Friday night? Walt else could bring soap opera loyalists to change the midterm era. Its gotitude only the Royals.
And then what of those not struck by the Royals bug? We live on, strangers in this straight land, taking midterms as if we were simply midsemester, studying nights while the mammals are active. But I don't know about ABC. We'll quiet here on the sidelines and let the cowbells do their stuff.
This is, after all, October in Kansas, and he American Dream has come to town.
Last June, Del Shankel, then the executive vice chancellor, appointed Mike Edwards as the director of the affirmative action office at KU. The appointment sparked controversy because shankel did not hold the position of vice president and candidates had been acting director of the office.
Affirmative Action has negative effects too
It should be made clear that although Shankel did not follow affirmative action hiring procedures, he did not violate the spirit of affirmative action guidelines. Because Edwards is black, his appointment was seen as furthering the goals of Affirmative Action.
According to the KU handbook of affirmative action procedures, the goals of affirmative action procedures are "to help ensure equality of employment opportunity in all job categories; to help ensure that students receive a higher degree ofiversity; to help the best qualified persons available ... to help University employees who are responsible for hiring others to avoid illegal discrimination practices . . ."
THERE SEEMS to be little question that, when followed, the affirmative action hiring procedures do help achieve the goals stated above. However, the Edwards case has created controversy because it has pointed out the double standard that exists when the University chooses to ignore those procedures when hiring a member of what is termed an affected class.
The affected classes include women, Hispanics, veterans and other groups who traditionally have been discriminated against in hiring.
To ensure that members of the affected classes are no longer discriminated against, the procedures state that position must be advertised extensively either nationally, if there is an external search for candidates, or locally if there is to be filled from within the University.
EVEN IF A department wants to promote a person to a higher position that is vacant, it
cannot do so unless it goes through all of the appropriate advertising and paper work. For filling administrative, faculty and other unclassified positions this means a department must file a job description with the appropriate vice chancellor's office. Then, after advertising the position, applications must be accepted for a minimum of seven days.
Our records of recruiting communications in the form of letters, ads and announcements be kept to ensure that follow specific
BRETT CONLEY
Before the job can be offered to a candidate, a department must submit a pre-offer summary, a form that outlines the entire recruitment and selection process used by the department. Only employees who receive office confirmation by proper procedures were followed can the job be offered to a candidate.
guidelines during the searching, screening,
interviewing and evaluating of candidates.
These promotions and the Edwards' appointment point out the basic problem with Affirmative Action. It assures equal employment opportunity, but the guidelines often mean that there is no equal opportunity for candidates who are not members of an affected class.
OF COURSE, if a member of an "affected class" is appointed to a position, the above guidelines and accompanying paper work are not required. In fact, the University in the past has produced many successful students who search the search to bring about more equal representation of minorities in higher positions.
In the Edwards case, for example the University did not conduct a search and therefore it had no way of knowing whether there were other qualified candidates of any race or
The University has, in effect, it is not worried about extending equal employment opportunities to everyone. To ensure true equal opportunity, the University should have a policy that it will conduct searches for all jobs that come open. This will insure that minorities have the chance to be considered for all position, and it also will ensure that people who are not members of affected classes are also given equal opportunity.
The University Daily KANSAN
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