4A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY.OCT.2,2001
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EDITORIAL
Thanksgiving means family, not KU football
Rescheduling game helps department,but not students involved
When the decision was made to cancel the Big 12 Conference football games the weekend after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the idea of a Kansas - Wyoming make-up date should have been scrapped immediately.
Playing this game will be a detriment to everyone involved. The student athletes, the band, the cheerleaders, the flag corps and countless others will all be expected to attend the game and miss their chance to be with family for Thanksgiving.
PERSPECTIVE
Optimists might argue that playing this game could give the team a shot at what could be its ninth win, thereby securing a bowl bid, by having a winning record. But if the Jayhawks did qualify for a bowl, they would do so with their sixth win. In all likelihood, though, the Jayhawks will be shooting for win number three or four when Wyoming, or some other team, rolls into Lawrence.
The game will be an attendance nightmare. Students will be gone. Area residents will be out of town or at home with family. Very few will brave the elements to watch two mediocre teams play with nothing on the line.
Is anyone besides the Athletics Department and the players' families clamoring to see one more Kansas football game? Can't we just move on to a sport Kansas is competitive in? (read: basketball) What could possibly be the motivation for rescheduling this Toilet Bowl?
Money is always a factor. If the game were canceled, the Athletics Department would offer ticket holders the option of receiving a refund for their season tickets, luxury suites and stadium seats or picking another game. Refunded tickets would mean money lost. Financial considerations have won out against the best interests of the students involved.
While some fans wouldn't mind seeing the game on TV during Thanksgiving weekend, (most people in their post-meal comatose state aren't even actually aware of what teams are playing.) the game between these cellar-dwellers will not get TV coverage, except a ESPN Sportscenter clip showing a three-quarters empty Memorial Stadium.
Playing a football game during Thanksgiving weekend won't provide entertainment for many fans and will keep students away from their families. This game would be better left unplayed.
Andy Knopp for the editorial board.
This month will shed light on domestic violence epidemic
October is a vitally important month because it is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence is a silent tragedy. It is easy for many people to forget how prevalent the problem is. It is a phenomenon that is uncomfortable to think about and can often seem to be a problem beyond our control.
It is easier just to ignore it or convince ourselves that it is someone else's problem and none of our business. Domestic Violence Awareness Month is important because it reminds each of us to pay attention and care for one another, to speak out against the suffering and combat the silence.
It is easy to assume that Lawrence is too small, too quaint and too quiet to be part of the domestic violence epidemic, but violence in the home occurs everywhere.
Women's Transitional Care Services of Lawrence is on the front line of the battle against domestic violence and the silence that so often surrounds it. WTCS provides safe shelter to local women and children who are survivors of domestic violence and a crisis line for people seeking shelter and counseling. It also provides several support groups for survivors, including one for survivors of domestic violence in same-sex relationships, along with education to the public.
In this one shelter, 130 women and
Shay O'Brien
Guest Columnist
opinionkanan.com
Commentary
117 children sought refuge from abuse in just nine months (July 1, 2000-March 31, 2001). In 1998 there were 18,966 reported incidents of domestic violence statewide, 26 of which resulted in murder.
These numbers only reflect the reported cases of domestic violence. Many more incidents remain behind the closed doors of homes.According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey, only 59 percent of victims reported the violence to the police in 1998.
In the United States, a woman is beaten or killed in incidents of domestic violence every 15 seconds. That is 240 women every day.
It is also important to note that the University of Kansas contains many women of the highest risk age group. Women between the ages of 16- to 24 years-old experienced the highest rates of domestic victimization at 19.6 per 1000 women.
There are plenty of things you can do to help put an end to this tragedy. In October, WTCS will be highly visible. We invite you to pay attention, ask questions, sign up to volunteer, pick up a purple ribbon at a local business and wear it. You can attend the "Womyn Take Back the Night" march and rally at 5:30 p.m., Oct. 25 at Buford M. Watson Park. You can learn the WTCS crisis line number, 843-3333, and give it to a woman who might need it.
Remember that October is the recognized month for awareness, but domestic violence happens every day of every year. Take the information available to you during this month and use it to protect and care for the people of your community. This epidemic is not too large to be conquered by a community of people who care for each other.
All of us are responsible for breaking the silence. If you see domestic violence occurring, call the police. If you know a woman who is suffering abuse, reach out to her, give her information about the services offered by WTCS, and most importantly, be supportive and encouraging. Don't be judgmental.
O'Brien is a project assistant at the Institute for Academic Access from Lawrence. She is also an advocate at WTCS.
Free for All 864-0500
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For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
As for the statue in front of Lippincott Hall, think about this every time you go by. One is saying, "Did you just touch my butt?" The other is saying, "Why yes, I think did."
I would just like to say that I think that BET kicks major booty.
Women are like cigarettes, you don't get very far by lightening their butts on fire.
I just wanted to say that I'm sitting at my math class before class, with the lights off and it's very quiet except for the soft ringing of the Camponite bell in the background. Isn't life great?
Just because I live in a residence hall doesn't mean I'm paying for my friends. I'm paying for a place to live. Actually the government is paying for me to live here.
I love Wescoe. I think that it is a beautiful building and it is a lot of fun to walk through the middle.
You know, sometimes I just wish a man on a white horse would ride in and carry me away into the sunset. That would be very beautiful.
To Meghan Bainum, thanks for putting hedonism into perspective. You can love your friends.
ticket-buying adults drinking far away from their homes is great. People can only be trusted to drink responsibly in parking lots immediately before major sporting events – that's my motto!
I don't understand that sign all around campus that say KU students when they party have zero to five drinks or don't drink at all. I don't know which campus they polled, but definitely not ours.
I think the best thing about the business career fair was the SPAM Frisbees they gave out.
If everything in life is coming your way, then you're driving in the wrong lane.
Man, I was at the bar the other night and my roommate made out with my other roommates mom. That is just not cool.
If anybody thinks they're as tough as me,
just bring it on. I will kick your butt, I will fight
you to the end.
What's a slanderous statement?
ticket-buying adults drinking far away from their homes is great. People can only be trusted to drink responsibly in parking lots immediately before major sporting events – that's my motto!
--ticket-buying adults drinking far away from their homes is great. People can only be trusted to drink responsibly in parking lots immediately before major sporting events – that's my motto!
I would like to have friends with benefits, but my girlfriend says no.
I am so dumb. I meant to call my friend and when he answered, or I thought it was him, I asked him if he fornicates with chickens. And when the guy hung up on me, realized it was the wrong number.
I never go to the bathroom during hockey games because I heard if you miss a period, you're pregnant.
Isn't devout agnostic an oxymoron? Kinda like jumbo shrimp?
Sometimes when I walk down the street, people ask me why I'm so Portuguese and I respond by the telling them,"Hey, why are you so jealous?
端
If you are happy every day of your life, you wouldn't be a human being, you'd be a game show host.
To the people sitting in the sun outside Wescoe advertising stuff, that must suck.
I just made my first martini and it is incredible.
ticket-buying adults drinking far away from their homes is great. People can only be trusted to drink responsibly in parking lots immediately before major sporting events – that's my motto!
PERSPECTIVE
Alcohol at football game OK, so why not at home?
Ah, the hypocrisy of fall. Politicians run for office. Seniors tell freshmen to do their homework. And in a small corner of Kansas, football fans are allowed to imbibe beverages of their choice in 10 designated parking lots.
We, as KU supporters, are supposed to gurge happily now that we are allowed to consume alcohol before home football games. But the "Proud to Be a Jayhawk" areas are anything but a source of pride. They are simply another asinine chapter in the University's ridiculous Prohibition-era alcohol debacle.
Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of the new policy is that it exposes the ideological inconsistency that underpins the University's alcohol policy. For example, a group of 27-year-olds cannot have a barbecue outside Stouffer Place that includes a cooler of beer. However, there is no problem with exactly the same behavior if it takes place outside Memorial Stadium and within three hours of a football game.
Robert Chamberlain Columnist opinionkanansan.com
Commentary
You see, the thought of adults drinking right outside their on-campus homes is intolerable, but the notion of
Moreover, as if the inconsistency of the policy is not enough to trigger the gag reflex, the University's willful blindness to the actual practice of KU students causes retching every time. Instead of approaching the reality of college drinking with an honesty that could encourage responsible drinking, the University stuffs its head in the sand and pretends that its pronouncements make a difference.
No one is afraid to drink on campus. The chances of being caught are negligible, the consequences of being caught are minimal, and the rules concerning
Instead of turning resident assistants (you know, that guy you never see who lives in the single room halfway down the hall) into pseudo-cops, let the police handle problems.
drinking are basically unenforceable. The University makes itself look like an ignorant, out-of-touch buffoon, and thereby fosters some of the very behaviors it seeks to avoid.
Drunk and disorderly, assault and battery, minor in possession or contributing to the delinquency of a minor charges all carry hefty fines and community service. It makes a stern note from the complex director pale in comparison, doesn't it?
But consider the alternative: Let everyone who can buy alcohol consume it in their on-campus place of residence. People who drank responsibly would have no problems at all. However, any illegal conduct would not be handled by the Department of Student Housing, it would be handled by the KU Public Safety Office.
More importantly, admitting that people are drinking enables the University to provide role models for responsible alcohol consumption. Currently,
RAs can neither drink with their residents nor frequent drinking establishments where their residents may be present. This has the effect of completely divorcing RAs from the residents' social lives and thus eliminates them from the pantheon of individuals that a resident would consult in a crisis.
But in a more open, realistic University, RAs could party with their residents and offer sage advice about the lag time between tequila shot and tequila effect, the importance of refraining from jumping on police cars and the magic of two aspirins and a big glass of water.
There is, however, a bright spot in this dismal gray of KU prudishness. It shows the University can change. Twelve months ago, I would have never believed that the University would allow tailgating in 2001. But it happened. One can only hope that the trend toward reasonable alcohol policies continues, and that one day, the University will match its policy with reality.
Chamberlain is a senior in political science from Topeka.
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