Page 4 University Daily Kansan, September 4, 1980
Opinion
Kuby protests were fun
When students rights' activist Ron Kuby left the University of Kansas last month to go to law school at Cornell University, KU officials said goodbye to a hell-raiser and hello to sleeping easier at nights.
To be sure, Kuby was a man for all causes at KU. Among other things, he was actively involved in movements to foil draft registration, to halt KU investments in South Africa, and to repeal a policy regulating banners at University events.
And wherever there was a will, there was Kuby.
In fact, it was Kuby who got the entire banner controversy started. At last year's commencement, he unfurled a banner and was then arrested by KU police. Kuby was not about to tolerate such a thing, but KU found out the hard way.
Kuby sent engraved invitations for his trial for the charges stemming from Commencement. The entire episode
threatened to turn the legal process into a circus. Several days after the invitations were mailed, the charges were dropped.
Kuby's unorthodox actions infuriated some, convinced some and bemused some. Undoubtedly he was the symbol of protest at KU. And if someone was complaining about something, one just assumed Kuby was involved somehow or somewhere.
Soon, the banner policy that led to Kuby's arrest will be examined by the Kansas Board of Regents. The policy likely will be made more specific. Kuby won't be around to see the results, but his efforts to change the policy appear to have been a success.
This is not to say that Kuby didn't have help—many others protested against the banner policy too. And protests will continue to occur. The only thing is that they won't be as fun.
Revamping KU Judiciary would correct stern image
For years, the University of Kansas' Judicary system has been viewed as a close relative to the American court system. But the University has challenged the judge's ruling and is related than Charles Manson and Sandy Duncan.
Those who organize and regulate the University Judiciary system seem to have accepted its role as a simple grievance procedure with no powers worth mentioning.
If plans to simplify the Judiciary system are approved by the University Senate executive
BILL MENEZES
committee, the entire Judiciary system, including grievance procedures such as Affirmative Action, the Parking and Traffic courts and appellate divisions, would be revamped.
The proposed plans, descendants of a study presented to SenEx in January by Francis Heller, a KU professor of law, would attempt to alleviate problems of access and information that the University's internal conflict solvers have had in the past.
The most significant changes, and the ones needed the most, would take place in the Judiciary's hearing and appellate divisions. If the plans were approved, these divisions would finally be treated as they should be: simple forums to resolve conflicts within the University community. Despite prevailing opinions, the courts have ruled that a law capable of fairly imposing and enforcing sanctions against parties they found to be at fault.
However, those who used the hearing and appellate divisions, and some of those who ran them, had come to think of the divisions in those quasi-official terms, for some unknown reason. University, all powers of sanction rest with the chancellor and the Kansas Board of Regents.
The Judiciary never had more than the power of declaratory relief, a kind of verbal spanking. But it compounded its semi-powerful image, and the problems that followed, by adhering to rigid procedures and an abundant use of legales in its written communications and its operations.
Perhaps these will become things of the past if the new plan is passed. There is even a passage urging the operators of the revamped system to avoid "the formalism of the legal process" in its written statements. Clearly a step in the right direction.
The plan has some gaping holes, however. The participants in the process, through its rules and procedures, have to deal with them.
same due process rights as the participants in any state or federal court. Yet the Judiciary rules do not address the problems that have arisen concerning counsel for its participants. Each part of the judicial system, but in general, limited community the Judiciary serves, this alone has not been enough.
Witness the hearing for Professor Carl Leban, who this spring brought charges in the Judiciary against former Chancellor Archie R. Dykes. Leban charged that Dykes violated the civil conduct code of the community by cloning of associate professor Norman Forer's suspension last December.
Dykes had the convenience of using the University General Counsel's office to present his defense, while Leban was given a choice of hiring a lawyer or being assigned a law student from Legal Aid to press the case. While KU law students are surely nice people, it's doubtful whether any of them would have the time and resources to present Leban's case nearly as well as General Counsel. But he chose to delegate general counsel Vickie Thomas, who handled the case for Dykes, had the added incentive of defending her boss. Quite an incentive, to be sure.
Another feature of the Judiciary that would not be compromised on renovation is its fascination with secretaries.
All records concerning Judiciary cases are kept secret, and by its own rules. The proceedings themselves may be held in secret or transmitted unanimous agreement to the contrary is reached.
But because the Judiciary does not really have any power to abuse, the secrecy probably does not remain an issue. It becomes more a matter of protecting the privacy of individuals rather than a matter of keeping the eyes of the community from viewing the proceedings.
One thing will not have changed, however, and probably never will. There remains no effective way to press a grievance, like Leban's against the chancellor within the university system. Declaratory relief from a judicial system that has no real power to do more than say in its own feeble way. "You were right and he was wrong," is not very satisfying.
The remodeling of the other facets of the Judiciary, the Parking and Traffic courts, for example, will probably help simplify the procedures and make them more accessible to those who need them. As for the hearing and trial courts, it is perhaps safer they might as well replace the Judiciary's 89 members with someone's grandmother, because the function and results would be the same.
the problem of not being able to press cases effectively against the chancellor still remains. Somehow it's difficult to imagine Acting Chancellor Del Shankel be cracked over the head with a thimble for violating someone's civil rights.
Dining out difficult for handicapped
When so-called normal people see hand-capped adults being fed in public, they usually get turned off. They may not realize it, but they seem to think that anyone who must be spoon-fed or served at a restaurant is not necessarily fitful for many people to accept that it is natural and normal for some people to be fed by others.
Handicapped people, including me, have become so accustomed to this situation that we tend to forget that it is unusual to depend upon them. When we are alone, or until we are reminded by others watching us.
Few people understand how complicated a meal can be for a handicapped person. I have come to realize that eating in my company may shock to friends who don't know what to expect.
After some unanimous moments, they understood the order—under what seemed like laser beam
On several occasions, a nice woman has offered to take me to a restaurant. Going out to dinner with a "normal" person is both an ego trip and makes for excellent conversation. But problems can make the event a mixture of frustration and pleasure.
When my friend, whom I hadn't known long, came to me for dinner, she nearly broke her back trying to load me into the car and to put my collapsible wheelchair in the trunk. Then we drove to a small, out-of-the-restaurant that is conveniently be freeqre for older customers who didn't know either of us.
But ordering food was almost the last straw.
When the waiter served our water and brought us the menus, I had to ask for a straw with which to drink it. My speech is strained and nearly unintelligible to strangers, so I had to rely on my friend to decipher the message and to pass it alone to the waiter.
My ordering row was all blue. I rushed for me. My companion came the moment for me, and I asked if I could study it. I did not order by preference alone! In making my choice, I also had to consider which foods she would be able to feed me most easily. This done. I tried to articulate my request to both the waiter and to my date. By now, they had teamed up to translate my message.
observation from disrupted patrons sitting around us. My date and I now had time to nervously attempt to chat as our meal was being prepared.
From the time we entered the restaurant, it
FRED
MARKHAM
seemed as though everyone's eyes were fixed on us. They appeared to be thinking, "I wonder whether they are married or whether she is just married," and "Why did they come to a public place?"
The food finally arrived, but as soon as the plates had been placed down on the table, the next ordeal began. Now, my friend had to feed not only herself, but also another person. And she had to feed me in front of dozens of restaurant patrons. From the first bite, tension mounted.
We wanted to converse. Yet that task can be embarrassing for someone with my handicap. Those of us with severe cases of cerebral palsy have problems swallowing and choke easily. Thus when we eat, most of our concentration must be on chewing and swallowing nearly.
This leaves little opportunity for deep conversation.
From my encounters at restaurants, I have learned to become more acquainted with a person before getting to the dining-out stage. Of course, there are no barriers to overcome when I dine out with women who also have cerebral palsy.
meet us nappens, one of us will jerk occasionally and food will go flying all around us, but we manage. One time, a woman and I went to an Italian restaurant. She had cerebral palsy, but she could feed herself. We decided to order food because it was not so easy to be easily handled even by "normal" people.
was a large one. They probably were just as amused as we were.
Needless to say, our audience on this occasion
Eating in public can and should be easier for the severely handicapped. First, the handicapped must develop a positive attitude and be more friendly to others. The entitled to be there just as much as anyone else.
A different manner of eating does not mean that I must be hidden away at mealtime. In fact, it is not so much my problem as the problem of those around me. Handicapped people must take it upon themselves to abandon their feelings of not belonging. And an excellent way to escape them is to out and hide help so they become accustomed to setting handcapped people out in public.
Most of the people who I have encountered in restaurants have been sympathetic and willing to understand. People are by nature good; they just need to be educated at times.
Waiters are almost always kind people, and so are restaurant proprietors whose environments are sometimes left in disarray by handicapped people.
But there are some people who still need to gain an understanding of the handicapped's problems at restaurants. And it is for the benefit of those people, as well as for me, that I will show you how to deal with them under any situation—even when the maire'd calls for help. "Guess who's coming to dinner?"
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