C
Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, September 11, 1980
The ode to a commode
Employees in Summerfield Hall are suffering a humorous case of the toilet-bowl blues.
Ever since Summerfield was built in 1959, the third floor has had only one bathroom—not unisex, of course—and it was designated for men. For the few women on the floor, it was hardly a consolation that women's bathrooms were on other floors.
The problem became more stopped up as more women employees were added to the staff. So women employees at Summerfield started a petition to remedy their situation. Evidently, their efforts were successful because the sign on the third-floor bathroom now reads "women."
However, the problem hasn't vanished as far as the men are concerned. And
preso, Summerfield has plunged into the "bathroom controversy." The controversy has the building buzzing.
There is hope yet. If enough money can be raised for an addition to Summerfield, an extra third-floor bathroom will be included in the plans. That would solve the problem.
In the meantime, the men, who still constitute the vast majority of the school's staff, have no bathroom on the third floor. While the men are not flushed with anger, they're not extremely pleased, either.
The controversy has generated several proposals. One proposal calls for a unisex bathroom. Another calls for portable toilets in the hall.
permaps the niw Ti-D-Bowl is the only one who can save Summerfield now.
America, there are those in Washington who would have us believe that we must accept difficult and painful solutions to our nation's problems. But I say poppycock!
They ask: How else can we restore America's prestige overseas? Simple, I say . . . build a bigger army and everyone will have to respect us.
They inquire: How else can we revitalize our economy in an age of dwindling resources? I say, simple ... get government off of business's back and trust our corporations to take care of the future.
Computer zaps Miss Kansas; dreams fade with odds game
The magazine never told her differently
The magazine never lost her dare.*
In all, Leann spent 3½ hours one day with the photographer, shooting at locations throughout Lawrence.
Two weeks ago, Lean Foam got a call from People magazine. They wanted to take her picture and arranged to send a photographer to Lawrence from Chicago.
Leann, the 181 Miss Kansas and a KU senior, figured people was taking photographs of all 50 Miss America contestants. After all, the pageant was just nine days away.
He took a couple of pictures of her near a barn outside Lawrence, including a series of
BLAKE
GUMPRECHT
She also possed in a cairnforton and later in the Kansas Union bookstore.
her sitting on a plank fence. She wore an Izod shirt, cutoffs up the side and a pair of thongs. She also posed in a corriedief of Lawrence and held the Kansas Union bookstore.
The photographer then wanted some "natural" poses. He took a few of her playing backgammon with her roommate in their apartment and several more while Leann played the piano at the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house.
Leann never gave the photo session a second thought.
But last Monday morning in Atlantic City the picture began to come together. Today she's still trying to sort out the events that led to her getting more publicity than any of the other candidates—even the eventual Miss America, a college senior from Oklahoma City University.
A reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer told her the startling news. It seems that a statistics professor at Northern Illinois University had admitted that Leann would be the next Miss America.
It was the start of a bizarre week.
The professor, George Miller, 57, made his predictions by plugging the height, weight, measurements, hair and eye color, talent category, college major and age of each of the contestants into his Amdahl 470V/A computer. Neither he nor the computer ever saw a picture of any of the candidates or watched them perform.
Learn, a psychology major from Wichita, saw the people magazine article later that day and was swarmed with attention until she left Atlantic City four days ago to return to Wichita.
Based on those same eight characteristics of 21 past Miss America winners, Miss Kansas was chosen the 2-1 favorite to win the 1981 crown. None of the other contestants was even close.
"I'd be surprised if she doesn't rank in the top five," Miller, who claims he correctly picked last year's winner, said before the competition began last week.
At first, Leann didn't think the prediction was
a big deal. She figured the publicity would die down quickly. In fact, she kind of enjoyed the attention.
"It was neat," she said upon returning to Kansas. "I was excited about the publicity."
but it's moracunical. The media wouldn't leave
where she went, the followed.
She was the favorites.
Leann estimates that she did more than three dozen length interviews. Papers from New York, Philadelphia and even London did features on her. ABC TV interviewed her on camera for Friday's network news. And, of course, there was the two-page spread in People.
"It got to the point," she said, "where every time someone started coming over, I knew what happened."
The pace never slowed.
After each preliminary event during the week before the pageant, the crowds were there. After the evening gown competition. After the personality interviews. After the swim suit competition. After the ballet rendition of Kiki Ma in the Rain," playing piano and singing, for the talent competition.
"After every event, a bunch of reporters would come up and ask me how I did and how I felt," she said. "I had no answer answers than once, but he always asked it a specific point to come over and ask me.
"People were watching everything I did. They wanted to see how I did, how I looked, whether I'd mess up—because the computer had said I was going to win."
Of course. Leann didn't.
The only celebrate she did on Saturday night was for her 21st birthday, which fell on the night of the pageant. She wasn't even one of 10 semifinalists.
The winner, Miss Oklahoma, Susan Powell,
was a 25-1 shot, according to the computer.
A winning throughout with those odds would pay
$30 for a $2 ticket to win.
"I wasn't really surprised when they called the top 10," Leann says. "I heard that they interviewed some of the judges who said they weren't going to let a computer tell them what to
In the end, only one of the computer's top
packets has the answer, the second runner-up-
rupts the judge's 'top'.
If it's any consolation, Leann will always know that she was, in fact, the epitome of 21 years of Miss Americas—even if it was a computer program that declaration instead of a panel of judges.
"The more I thought about it, the more I thought it might hurt my chances," she said. "A lot of the other girls thought it had an effect. I don't know. But it does kind of make me angry. If he had kept his mouth shut, maybe things would have turned out differently."
However, Learn says she's not bitter. She just wishes that Miller would have kept his prediction quiet, except to tell a few witnesses.
"I guess," she said. "I just never thought of it that way."
But she could have been happier.
I say, by golly America, there are simple solutions in a complicated world.
They inquire: How else can we meet the social needs of the people? Simple ... create more jobs by cutting social programs and giving taxpayers a break.
THE SIMPLE CANDIDATE
RONALD
REAGAN
40e Buntos '80
KANSAN
But then, such simplistic ideas and views, such as loyalty, seem to have had their day. What the people do is a matter of choice.
Reagan has answers for America
Until the People's Republic of China accepts Taiwan as an independent entity worthy of existence—and it will not in this election year—its friendship should be accepted with the harshest scrutiny. This does not include casting aside a 30-year old-age like an old shoe.
Loyalty to one's allies, another evidently "simplistic" virtue, presents more problems for Reagan critics. Loyalty, it seems, is an archaic concept, at least as far as Taiwan is concerned. The same applies to China, where cannot be ignored should try to remember the millions in Taiwan who also cannot be ignored.
Ronald Reagan may have a reputation for shooting from the hip, but those of his detractors who criticize his "simplicit" views of the world are simply shooting from the holster itself.
If holding a so-called simplistic view means believing that a preservation of the balance of power is essential to world peace, then history behaves in a simplistic fashion. History has proven that a balance of power prevents major conflicts. But because Reagan says the balance should be preserved by bringing U.S. armed forces up to scratch, critics call him simplistic. A recent study found that Carter administration, held that a fiasco such as SALT II, with its outrageous disparities in weapons limitations, would have been a major step toward lasting peace had it been passed.
Sure, the world is a complex thing with which to deal. The problems facing the next president of the United States will be as difficult to solve as those facing any previous president, including Jimmy Carter. What Reagan's critics should have viewed are some fundamental principles. If Carter had followed them, he would be a sure bait in November, instead of an even-money shot.
BILL MENEZES
Western Europe? That really would improve our relations with the Soviets. After all, how can all those millions of Russians be ignored?
The same "reasoning" pervades discussion of domestic issues. Perhaps stressing old-fashioned values such as hard work and strong families is more useful in the current era than the thought of less government because it would
In truth, there are more simplistic views in the attacks by Reagan headhunters than in Reagan's proclamations. The best example, of course, is the preposterous fear that a vote for Reagan is a vote for World War III. Elect him and he'll drop the big one, no doubt about it. It doesn't matter on whom, just who ever happens to be messing with the United States at the time.
leave them with fewer spoon-fed benefits and with more pressure to get off their butts and earn a living by working instead of just walking out to check the mailbox.
Making government a simpler operation, one of Reagan's primary goals, would solve problems in many sectors of American life. A reduction of the bureaucracy and more autonomy for state and local governments have long been supported by Reagan. In 1976, Carter crowded that he would reduce the bureaucracy "to no more than 200" federal agencies. Of course, he established two huge, virtually worthless, bureaucracies: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. So much for streamlining.
This argument is simplistic, more so than any
other, because it lacks rationale. The argument is really just something that Reagan detractors say to each other to assure that they are doing the right thing. After all, nobody wants a nuclear conflict. It is also a good excuse for those covering at the thought of a peacekeeping mission in the Middle East or Holocaust camps these people quivering, the mention of a daft simply shakes them to pieces.
But back to simplicity. It is not as easy to start a nuclear war as the anti-Reagan forces think, Dr. Strangelove notwithstanding. It is rather simple to think it could never happen, but even if we were wrong, our enemy would stand up to the Soviets were to be elected. Hasn't anyone ever heard of John F. Kennedy?
The real "viewer with simplicity" is Carter. He has really shown a flair for foreign policy during the Iranian hostage crisis. According to an Associated Press report on Carter's flip-flipping policies, the president said in mid-April that he would not campaign until the hostages were free and back at home. The president would "concept of duty." Within two weeks after this statement, Carter began campaigning again, saying the hostage crisis had become "manageable."
Now that was simple, wasn't it?
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