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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, September 29. 1980
Enrollment gains help
The final enrollment figures for the University of Kansas have been completed, and as expected, the University once again has re-written the enrollment record book.
The results, which were released Thursday by KU's office of admissions and records, were late as usual. Yet there are now 341 more students gracing the University's campus.
This fall's enrollment, including enrollment for the College of Health Sciences, is 26,745, an increase of 518 students.
The figures prove that KU is one of the Midwest's better academic institutions. While many universities have suffered enrollment declines, KU has consistently increased its enrollment each semester.
Experts have long said that the 1980s will be a time when enrollment declines hit
colleges and universities across the country. KU not only has avoided declines, but also has registered record enrollments.
The institutions that stand to suffer in the next few years are the state's private schools. As inflation continues to crunch the economy, more students will be forced to attend public institutions of higher learning if they wish to receive a college education.
The reason is simple.
If tuition at private schools is not already out of the ballpark, it soon will be. This development certainly won't hurt KU's prospects of keeping its enrollment at reasonably high levels in the future.
The University's enrollment figures determine the allocation KU receives from the Kansas Legislature. KU's allocation will increase accordingly.
That fact has to make KU officials happy.
Letters to the Editor
Kansan reporting is biased; Derby Day snubbed unfairly
The Kansan is reportedly one of the finest campus newspapers in the nation. I do not argue that point, because I frequently have found toonth articles in the Kansan.
To the editor:
What I do take offense to is the occasional bias demonstrated by the Kansas in its failure to report on stories that I believe would be of much interest to its readers. The latest incident is the lack of coverage of the Sigma Chi annual philanthropy project, Derby Day.
This year the event was held Sept. 17. Attendance at this event was more than 5,000 people, almost all of whom were students. People were admitted with their $4 donation.
We raised more than $5,000 for charity for the second year in a row. This gives us the distinction of having the most successful philanthrop project ever at KU. All the profits we make are donated to the Wallace Village in Colorado, a home for minimally brain-damaged children.
All Sigma Chi chapters in the nation participate in this year's year, our donation was the largest of all chapters.
The last two years we have suggested to the Kansan that they cover our event. Last year we held the event at a ranch just outside of town. We were told that because it wasn't on campus, it would not be covered. This year the event was held at Potter's Pavilion (on campus). When we went to the Kansan to inform them of our event, we were sent to several departments. It turned out that the one we needed to talk to was out for lunch at Potter's Pavilion. I was the event was "overlooked, sorry!" Maybe the editors ought to read their own paper. We took out substantial advertisements in the Kansan on Sept. 15 and 16 and a half-page layout on Sept. 17 detailing our event.
The problem of biased reporting is not simply limited to the Sigma Chi's event; there are many other organizations that are not getting the recognition they deserve. The Kansan is a newspaper for students. Why don't you report on the activities the students are sponsoring?
Randy Chilton Wichita senior
Senate not boring
Much of the apathy toward the Senate has been brought on by the senators themselves, as most everyone knows. For example, I went to the Student Senate offices to talk with student body vice president Matt Davis. During our conversation, he complained about complications during the past year. He suddenly became very uncomfortable and had quite a bit of trouble replying with a satisfactory answer.
To the editor:
For an organization with so many important responsibilities, I have seen too many people take the issue of Student Senate lightly. Are people really aware that the Senate allocates about $400,000 a year? Senate alone spent about $400,000. Is this an organization to yawp at? No.
Later that same week, I attended a Senate meeting to see how the meetings were run. After the meeting, I got the floor to speak.
to reduce the size of the Senate was presented to the senators. They had two speakers for and two against. One would think that a legislative action of this magnitude would cause some debate from the floor. However, the petition was passed with absolutely no argument from individual Senate members. Most of them just sat around and gossiped during the presentations of pro and con, and then went with the majority when the vote was taken. Frankly, I think there is more debating taking place within the Kansan than there ever was in the Senate.
Student body president Greg Schmacke argued in a recent letter to the editor that the Kansan has failed to present solutions to the problems it presents about Senate. In lieu of that, I would like to propose that the people who plan to run for Senate this fall be those who really want to do something with and about Senate, not those who run for the sake of popularity and prestige. That is possible, then maybe we can dispel some of the rumors about Senate and eliminate most of the apathetic attitudes of the majority of KU students.
Michael Greenberg
Omaha, Neb., freshman
Preacher is bother
To the editor:
I am amazed at Ira Bound's assertion that preacher Cindy "speaks on the right side." I also are amazed at the attention that Jed and his circus have received. It does not take a devout Christian, a devout atheist or anyone in between to tell the difference between a prophet and a clown. Perhaps clown is not a good word, though, because these people are dangerous if taken seriously. They are of the same breed that used to burn witchs in Salem.
I hate to see them taken seriously because I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a highly intelligent, reflective and philosophical man. I believe the meaning of his life reduced to a campus side show.
Bond asked, "What was going on in the minds of the many guests. sober faced on lockers?"
Nothing, Cindy had absolutely nothing to say that appealed to the mind. She was all superstition and threats. She appealed to the emotion of fear. She could not answer any serious questions about the Bible, and I believe that any objective onlooker would soon realize that any girl was somewhat sick and perhaps in need of help.
If you want to be saved, consider this: Who was Jesus' savior? Hirsel. If you want to follow Jesus, then, start by realizing that you are your own savior. Don't look to a mindless, graceless brob of prophileism for power. Without his mind, man has no saving power. Your mind is your salvation.
If I may address those "sober-faced" onlakers, let me say that there is something very seriously wrong with your own image if I am to be intimidated by the mindless preaching of Cindy.
Kansas City, Kan., senior
Kevin Helliker
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The railroad. For those who remember, it was smoke and steel in service of an era of expansion. For us, it is a symbol of nostalgia for a past we never knew. For the farmer, it is an ever-lossening link to markets that can't afford to be lost.
In a decade where progress is measured by miles of pavement, the freight railroad finds itself caught by faltering profits and the energy crisis. It is pulled between the priorities of the state and the federal good depends on salvency and the protests of farmers whose livelihood depends on rail.
The only railroad in Kansas
Farmers, crops are getting derailed
For small farmers who operate on the thin edge of economics, loss of rail service can translate profits into losses.
Consider the case of the new-defunct Rock Island Railroad. When the railroad declared bankruptcy last March, it raised eyebrows in urban areas and costs in the agricultural sector. Farmers' brains were the most alarming market, were forced to finance the higher costs of trucking their produce.
In a market where undifferentiated competition draws the fine line between demand and supply, individual farmers have no choice but to sell at a market price that doesn't promise profits.
The Rock Island Island's collapse rebounded hard in Kansas. John Hanson, transportation expert for the Kansas City Board of Trade, estimated that 72 percent of the loss was from losing from 11 to 23 certs a bushel on their grain.
"We have farmers trucking 400 miles to Kansas City and back, and the secondary roads in Kansas won't take the heavy truck traffic." Hanson said. "It is a hell of a problem."
It is elementary economics. If Kansas had to
shoulder the transportation of Kansas' three harvests—milo, wheat and corn—then increasing amounts of money would be required for road maintenance. Yet road repair revenue, financed through a state tax on gasoline, is reduced because of decreased gasoline consumption.
The General Accounting Office put a federal perspective on the problem in its July 1978
*Excessive truck weight is a major cause of highway damage, the report reads.* Five.
SUSAN
SCHOENMAKER
axle tractor-trailer loaded to the current 80,000 pound federal weight limit has the same impact on an interstate highway as at least 9,600 automobiles."
Rather than waiting for an imperative to force their hand, Kansans should support the regeneration of their railroad before economics cuts off all answers.
The 1974 energy crisis taught us that if we approach long-term problems with short-order politics, we're begging for more and greater problems. Short-sighted solutions to transportation led us into our current crisis; skilled and expedient answers are what can save us.
Although planning and politics have lagged behind transportation needs in Kansas, there are signs of improvement.
foresight out of failure. Farmers, aware that the fate of the railroads may determine the future of their fields, have met the crumbling com- and with forceful calls for its revitalization.
Admittedly, farmers look more to their pockets than to a transportation philosophy, but the government is beginning to listen. County, state and federal officials from 27 counties in four states, including Kansas, have joined to form the Midwestern Port Authority.
Borrowing from a legal mechanism that allows governmental control over water resources, the Midwestern Port Authority has the eventual goal of purchasing a long-term lease for freight service through northern Kansas.
State governments in South Dakota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin are purchasing their own rail, joining states such as Ohio, Maine, New York, Michigan and Vermont.
More and more states are buying up track as energy becomes a larger figure in the transportation equation. Because railroads are up to four times more fuel efficient than trucks, states are less willing to let the market make up their minds on transportation.
Backing them is the Rock Island Transit and Employee Assistance Act. The legislation transfers $25 million previously allotted for the City's bus system to track by groups other than rail companies.
But that is only a beginning. The railroads, which have maintained a hold over the hearts and history of America since the 1890s, must be guaranteed a place in an energy-efficient future. The only future we can afford is one that preserves the best of our past.
As you can imagine, it is vital for the handicapped person to know the nature of the psychological and social barriers that might exist between him and his "normal" classmates.
When a disabled student attends a large university, he has many doubts and apprehensions about what others might think or say. He often wonders how they will react to his helplessness and especially to his speech, which is strained ani, to some, unintelligible.
Attitudes toward KU's handicapped varied
There were about 40 respondents to each of several subjective questions. My first question dealt with a person's first encounter with a handicapped person—a critical encounter, in
With this in mind, I decided to circle around the KU campus. My purpose: To ask some of you how it feels to work at the KU campus.
It is not easy to understand how to interact
with the students in a way that promotes
understanding.
If the handicapped person is able to establish an open relationship with classmates, perhaps they will be less inhibited when they encounter other severely disabled people in the future.
One person said he believed he was witnessing God's will, and another said she was thankful to God that her family had no handicapped members. Finally, a number of people alluded to "shying away," "withdrawing" and "feeling uncomfortable" in such situations.
Answers varied. Nine respondents said they "pitied" or "felt sorry" for such people. Eight said they admired or respected the courage and motivation of anyone who was willing to suffer. Six answered other answers. Other answers included "unneasness," "fear," "inhibition," "sympathy," and "curiosity."
"What are your first opinions of severely handcapped people such as me?" Please be brief.
But I do not want pity or sympathy—just
queen, sincerity, openness and understanding.
What do you think?
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their backs.
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After all, as our physical appearance will indicate we are not perfect, either. But we will be very happy with our appearance.
FRED
MARKHAM
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A consistent response was given to my second question: "What would most keep you from being acquainted with a severely handicapped individual?"
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with yours. Further, we might not be so brave or courageous as one might think. Consider the alternatives. It's no fun hiding from society or vegetating mentally.
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Fifteen people indicated that they were held back by an inability to communicate with a
handcapped person. This is possibly the greatest problem affecting people with serious speech impediments such as my own. Because it's more difficult for me to speak than it is for you, I am willing to suffer through the embarrassment if you are willing.
A little bit of strained communication for me is more precious than the hours of effortless exchange so many people take for granted. In short, I enjoy people and want very much to break the communication barrier that stands so cruelly between us.
Almost everyone who was questioned said that handicapped people should pursue as much education as possible, and that they could con- tinue society, even in a competitive job market.
With some notable exceptions, there seems to be greater positiveness in wanting handcapped people to succeed in professional pursuits than in being interact with them on a personal and social basis.
One thing is sure. We must begin tearing down whatever psychological inhibitions stand in the way of communicating and understanding. This is made possible by the no-hand-capped and the hardcapped.
Letters Policy
Letters must be signed and must include the writer's address and phone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University, the letter should include the writer's class and home town or faculty or staff position.
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