4A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY,OCT.30,2001
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EDITORIAL
PERSPECTIVE
Now,if only we could get rid of credit card bills
University should ban credit card solicitors and newspaper tables on KU sidewalks
Student Senate is in the process of considering a bill that would recommend the University cut down on the harassment, and temptation, students face on their way to class from solicitors. Senate wants to ban credit card companies from soliciting business from students on campus. If Senate recomends removing the threat of debt, it should encourage the University to ban all solicitation on campus.
When walking to class on Jayhawk Boulevard, many students are harassed by groups and organizations, especially out front of Wescoe Hall. Solicitors often stop students to try to sell them a product or service or sign students up for an activity or organization.
This can be annoying to students who are scurrying to class or don't want to spend their time on camus dodging salespeople — but nothing has previously been done about it. Credit card companies and newspapers are two of the most visible businesses that solicit on campus. Newspaper representatives may make fewer appearances as the new newspaper readership program provides newspapers for students without a subscription. But credit card companies still have a captive audience of students.
Some senators are trying to pass a bill to recomend a ban on credit card companies soliciting on campus, partly because some senators feel the credit card companies are exploiting the financial naivite of students. If Senate decides to ban credit card solicitation on campus, it should also ban all types other types of solicitation on campus.
Brett Norman for the editorial board
Part of the richness of the university experience is that groups and individuals have the opportunity to speak on campus, share ideas and promote their own causes and viewpoints. Senate should always speak up for free speech. There are certain activities that should be protected on at a public university. Student groups should be allowed to set up tables and recruit and inform students. However, credit card solicitation isn't beneficial to students.
Peddling products does not better the University or the student's education, and therefore are not appropriate for as part of the university experience. While Senate doesn't have a responsibility to save students from self-imposed financial catastrophe, it does have a responsibility to be fair in applying the same rules to all groups.
Senate is still in preliminary stages of discussing the proposed bill to ban credit card solicitation. The passing of this bill would be a great help in keeping the University a better place for students. The University should ban of solicitation from all non-student groups if it bans credit card companies.
Safe gay sex vs. unsafe straight sex: blood screening misses the real risk
The FDA and Red Cross refuse blood donation from men who have had sex even once with another man since 1977. In Friday's Kansan ("Safety outweighs FDA's 'discrimination'", Oct. 26), John Audelhelm wrote that this ban was justified. He argued that when a man chooses to have sex with another man, he participates in a high-risk behavior analogous to using intravenous drugs or traveling to parts of Europe and Africa. The trade-off for engaging in high-risk behavior is losing the privilege to give blood.
Audlehelm's side of the story couldn't be farther from reality. Unfortunately, the FDA makes the same mistake he does.
While gay men are a de facto high-risk group, gay sex is not a high-risk behavior. Unprotected gay sex is a high-risk behavior, just as unprotected heterosexual sex is a high-risk behavior. Safe sex, be it between two men or not, is a low-risk behavior.
Consider two hypothetical cases
Donor one is a gay male. He has safe sex in a long-term monogamous relationship. The man gets tested regularly for HIV, and his partner tests regularly for HIV as well. When donor one
Joe Jarvis
Guest Columnist
opinionansan.com
Commentary
decides to give blood, he's turned away for being a "high risk" donor. Donor one can't even give blood autologously (reserved for self-use only in case of future emergency).
Donor two is a heterosexual and participates in unsafe sex. He does it with multiple partners. He doesn't get tested for HIV.And, he doesn't know his partners well, so he has no idea what the partners' HIV status is. When donor two gives blood, the FDA and Red Cross accept it because he is a "low risk" donor.
The FDA mistakenly confuses high-risk groups with high-risk behavior. Laying risk on a group perpetuates stereotypes that heterosexuals are inherently safe blood donors, while gay men are tainted goods with the "gay disease."
Audlehelm's criticism of Queers & Allies couldn't be more misplaced. Queers & Allies' fight to change the FDA's donor screening is a fight to make the blood supply safer for everyone. That we feel comfortable accepting blood from heterosexual donors when we don't know their sexual practices is appalling.
Fortunately, the FDA screens all blood for HIV with three very reliable tests. These same tests — which are good enough for the FDA to filter blood from unsafe heterosexuals—could just as effectively filter blood from safe homosexuals.
This double standard is the irony of the situation. People accept the FDA's discrimination against gay men because it fits our stereotypes. If the FDA bans gay men, then the blood supply has to be safe because AIDS is a gay disease, right? In reality, we would all be safer with a fairer blood screening process. Change won't happen until the public changes, though, and that's why we should applaud the efforts of Queers & Allies.
Joe Jarvis is a senior in political science from Lenexa.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LIBRARY PERVERTS
Dear editor,
Dean editor, The library on a university campus should be a safe haven, but Watson library is not.
Just a few hours ago, I was sitting in a chair by the window on the fourth floor, enjoying procrastinating on my research paper while reading the third Harry Potter book. After about an hour, a man came and sat cattycorner from me. I didn't even look up. After another hour, I happened to glance over, and noticed that he was exposing his penis and testicles to me. I froze in shock and then quickly put my book in my bag and walked to the counter in the next room.
I decided that it wasn't. I went downstairs to the main circulation desk and told them what happened. They called the police and I waited, keeping a sharp eye out for the man. The police arrived and questioned me, but my description was less than satisfactory. Truth be told, I was not looking at the man's face.
I told the staff what happened, and one of them left to go see if the man was still there. He wasn't. That was to be the end of the matter.
at the man's face.
The police searched the building, and eventually brought a man down and placed him about twenty feet from me on a bench, and asked if he was the man I had seen. I didn't think it was, but the officer informed me that the man had a criminal record of exposing himself. I was horrified at being face to face with someone who I was supposed to identify as a flasher. That man now knows my face. But he wasn't the one who had exposed himself to me, so they rightfully let him go.
Does anyone have a problem with there having been at least two sex criminals running loose in Watson library at 6:45 on a Sunday evening? Since my freshman year I have heard all kinds of creepy stories about what happens in the Watson stacks. Well this wasn't even in the stacks. It was right out in the open. I am scared to go back there.
then they see the rest. Perhaps we should restrict access to Watson only to students and faculty. I am aware that these things do happen, that I could have just as easily been flashed on Massachusetts Street and that there are sickos out there in the world. I just think perhaps we shouldn't let them roam our library. I am not a weak person, but I am scared to return to Watson. There is something fundamentally wrong in that, so I believe a change is in order.
I should feel safer in that library than anywhere in the world, and it hurts me to feel otherwise. I do not criticize the way the library staff or the police handled the situation. I am upset that anyone can just wander around our library when they like it.
As a political science major, John Audlehelm should know the job of a State Senator is to represent his or her constituents. In his article appearing last Tuesday ("Senator's stance on female suffrage reflects still prevalent gender roles," Oct. 23), he argues that it would not be "morally" correct to recall Kay O'Connor from her present seat as Kansas State Senator because she merely "spoke her mind."
Dear editor.
Hannah Ballou
Topeka junior
SENATOR RECALL
However, in comments made to Finn Bullers and printed in The Kansas City Star, she not only said
Kelli Wilhite
Olathe freshman
that she would not vote for the 19th amendment if it came up today, which is ironic in itself, but she also stated that "it was more important to stay true to her convictions than simply mirror the views of her constituents." O'Connor also related her opinion that men, in essence, should be making the decisions for women, and if they were "women wouldn't have to vote." With this statement she is justifying the recall effort since she is arguing her own incompetence not to mention the incompetence of every other woman.
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For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
Three interceptions in two plays. Trent Green is the worst.
About a week or so ago, Big Jay was waking around on campus, and I had this huge urge to run over and tackle him.
The girl sitting next to me in my philosophy class looked like she had anthrax.
A11
Hey, what's better than roses on your nano?
Tulips on your organ.
Gene Hackman's a schmuck. That's right, a schmuck.
If men ruled the world, Hallmark would make a "Sorry, what was your name again?" card.
If Brenden Fraser is acting in a forest and no one is around to hear him, does he still suck?
Regarding the girl who had a crush on the guy in her Spanish class: My name has four letters, and it starts with an "A."
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Thanks for the lovely rose, boy in the Volvo.
Yeah, I work at the GSP front desk, and all the employees think GSP needs to be in the Free for All because we put up with a lot of crap.
四
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My girlfriend just broke up with me. Any cute girls out there looking for a guy on the rebound?
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Now I know football had nothing to do with Late Night, but I still think Terry Allen should have performed "Leaving on a Jet Plane."
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There's nothing I hate more than a cold toilet seat.
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I broke up with a guy last night, but he was too drunk to remember, so now I have to do it again.
A friend of ours just got engaged. We're so excited!
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I would like to thank the person in the Parking Department who did not give me a ticket, but just a warning. Thank you for having pity on my humble soul.
The best food to go with beer is parmasean cheese and chocolate.
The Sunflower Showdown? The way Kansas played last Saturday in Manhattan, it was more like the pansy showdown.
Sometimes people dance in the Third World country of Onomotapeia plus 10,000 times of brick. Uhhh.
Why is the hottest girl in architecture dating a guy with no teeth? What is up with that?
Hey Vanessa, it's Ryan. I think I left my virginity in your bed last night. Can you check for me?
I'm in Manhattan, and four guys wearing purple shirts just called me gay.
Happy Halloween.
Merry Christmas.
Have a blessed merry Ramadan.
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna.
If Bob Uecker in Major League doesn't spell Oscar, I don't know what does.
Flag dude rules
Free for All rules, too.
On Saturday night, I was watching Wild On in Mexico on the EI channel and Brook Burke, the hostess, was wearing a Kansas Jayhawks T-shirt.
There should be Hallmark cards that say "Thanks for driving my drunk ass home."
Yesterday, I saw Kirk Heinrich eating a muffin. That was one lucky muffin.
One day I was talking to Snop, and he was like, "You man, what goes with gin?" And I was like, "Juice, man. Juice goes with gin."
We call Nick Collison yummy tummy because he has one.
Happy anniversary to Cecilia because Wednesday is our seven-year anniversary of being best friends.
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You know what it is they say about pot smokers ... oh, I can't remember.
To the freshman who videotaped me getting my minor at the Pike house on Friday, screw you.