4A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY, SEPT. 4, 2001
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TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
EDITORIAL
Help riders get on the bus
Route maps and pick-up timetables would make systems easier to use
KU students are served by excellent mass transit systems. A small improvement to the systems would vastly increase their benefit to the students. Route maps and pick-up times for the University's KU On Wheels program and the city's Lawrence Transit System should be posted at each bus stop on campus.
The University and Student Senate are rightly proud of the campus bus system. KU On Wheels, run and financed by students, has successfully moved students around campus and alleviated the traffic burden for many years.
With the addition of the new Lawrence Transit System, the "T," these benefits have been extended across the city. However, the added service comes at the price of added complexity.
That buses are useful for the hundreds of students who ride them every day from Daisy Hill to Mt. Oread and back is evident to anvone walking on campus.
These students figure out at the beginning of the semester which bus to take on what day at what time, and they take those buses for the rest of the semester. For this purpose, the bus system fold-out brochures are perfect. The student sits at their desk the day before classes start and figures out the buses to take.
With route maps and pick-up times posted at bus stops, the bus systems could be more than this.
College students are notorious for not planning ahead. For those whose schedules develop hour by hour, planning out the night before which buses to take is not an option. If the bus systems could accommodate this need for flexibility, they could serve more students.
PERSPECTIVE
With route maps and pick-up times posted at each stop, students with irregular schedules could just walk to the closest bus stop, and figure out how to reach their intended destination. Students working on campus at night could walk to the bus stop to find out the pick up time and then return to a safer place to wait. Students who usually walk could go to the bus stop as soon as the first drops of rain fall.
Posting the information should benefit the bus system as well. Sometimes students board buses just to ask the driver which bus is the right one, halting the flow of people boarding, frustrating them and the driver as well, and delaying the bus.
For years a car was a necessity to reach common destinations such as the movie theater or Target. The "T" now reaches most places students want to go. With the addition of route maps and pick-up timetables, coming to college without a car might become a realistic option.
Cynthia Malakasis for the editorial board
Disorient yourself-get out and explore Lawrence
Have you spent time contemplating that here in Lawrence things are going on everyday that you don't know about, yet? How many times in your life have you pushed yourself to try something new or different?
It may be time for you to take action on both- so many amazing things happen every day in our community that one should never be bored, or afraid to get out there and explore. How long are you going to live here before you move on to another town, another community, another life? While here, we should take advantage of the experiences available to us and learn something new.
Luckily, you don't have to do much work to meet this goal: an introduction to the community has been created for you, placed on your doorstep, and now all you have to do is pick it up.
At KU, in the 1980s a group of students created a publication that aimed to make students more aware of the community that surrounded them, open their eyes to new places, events and ideas. They sought to establish a progressive presence in the larger Lawrence community through an organized, informational, annual magazine appropriately titled, the Disorientation Guide. Fortunately for you, it's back.
Breeze
Luetke-Stahlman
Columnist
opinionkansan.com
Commentary
Created by a collective of students old and young, members of the Lawrence community ranging from high school to professional, those skilled at writing, editing, photography and exploring Lawrence each in their own way, a new "Disorientation Guide" was created for today. Included are resource guides to alternative health, community organizations, campus organizations, places to get out in nature and features on often overlooked Lawrence history.
The back page lists all locally owned businesses for you to discover and support. Special features include a "To Do" list of things to experience before leaving this town; a graffiti gallery; informational articles about recycling, Alternative Spring Break, the case of Leonard Peltier, the REAL dollar local currency, a local mushroom hunting club and many more. People from throughout Lawrence contributed, each putting out there something they think is worth your time. All that's left now is for you to take some of their advice.
According to Webster's Dictionary, "disorientation" means to cause one to lose perception of place or identity. Leave your comfort zone, leave Mt. Oread and go out there to question your reality. You are a member of the Lawrence community and what exactly does that mean? Find out. Available free in every residence hall, scholarship hall, fraternity and sorority on campus, as well as downtown, it was printed by Student Senate (with your student fees) because it believed making this information available to students was in line with their goals. So pick it up! And then tell them and your friends what you think, because the next edition is going to be that much better if you contribute. If you do everything right, you should have a story or two to tell...
Luetke-Staklman is a senior in economics and American studies from Olathe.
PERSPECTIVE
We aren't all White Christians, thanks
When told that the starving citizens of Paris lacked bread, Marie Antoinette replied, "Let them eat cake."
When confronted with evidence of offensive and overt Eurocentric bias within his lectures, a KU physical anthropology professor replied, "Drop the class, then."
Far from being simply amusing and anecdotal, this incident brought several of the more disturbing aspects of current education to the forefront. First, in this age of increasing multiculturalism, can our University afford to condone the teaching of arcane and racist sentiments? Second, should our University continue to employ professors who lack the desire to interact with students?
In Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen observes, "The message that Eurocentric history sends to non-European Americans is: Your ancestors have not done much of importance." Approximately two hours of my class lecture time have already been devoured by a professor explaining how the development of science was exclusively the province of Christian Western Europe. Statistical analysis is complex enough; imagine trying these difficult computations without benefit of Arabic numerals.
Commentary
Jessica Krug
Guest Columnist
opinionakansan.com
My lecture class learned that, the development of science within Christian Western Europe was historically inevitable, given the supposed logical nature of Christianity. Perhaps my understanding of logic is flawed, but I always thought that religious belief was grounded in faith. To paraphrase Loewen, how is it logical to believe in one male god, who is sometimes divided into three parts, and whose followers eat crackers and drink wine with the belief that they are consuming the body and blood of the god?
ties, according to information from last fall) didn't receive the memo, either. Far from being quaint, or even tolerable, this ill-informed rhetoric denies the right of all non-White non-Christians to view their contributions as valid, or their own experiences as significant.
Every so often, this professor makes spurious claims that the class is composed solely of Euro-American students from Christian backgrounds. Maybe I just didn't receive the memo informing me that the Middle East was now in Europe. Perhaps 20 percent of KU students (who are ethnic minori-
The professor spent approximately 15 seconds listening to my grievances before telling me to drop his class. Unfortunately, if I want to study this topic at KU, that is not an option. If our esteemed faculty doesn't have the time to discuss vital issues with the students, then no amount of professional expertise legitimizes their professorships.
We all have a right to an education free from perspectives that degrade us. We all have a right to an educational environment that affirms the importance of diversity. We all have a right to instructors who are accessible and reasonably sensitive. If certain ossified members of the faculty insist upon remaining as out of touch with the diverse climate in which they teach as Marie Antoinette, then our options mirror those of citizens of pre-Revolution France.
How to submit letters and guest columns:
**Krug is a sophomore in anthropology and linguistics from Kansas City, Kan.**
Letters: Should be double-spaced, typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest Columns: should be double-spaced, typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be e-mailed to opinion@kanan.com or submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Erin Adamson or Brendan Woodbury at 864-4924.If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the reader's representative at readersrep@kanan.com.
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed. For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
I just want to say thank you to the guy who gave me a ride home today from Summerfield Hall in the rain. You are awesome.
Are we allowed to vote someone off our floor?
I bet if Mario Kinsey handed a purse off to running back Duncan, that they would rush for more yards.
Did anyone else realize that according to the Kansan, Kinsey and Duncan stole puses?
The Kansan and the University community deserve a better movie reviewer in the paper. This dude who's writing articles is the worst. I revolt. Give me someone new, please.
I just called to say that we just definitely need better complainers about the movie reviewers. Ya'll deserve better.
So we can't do rush before school because it interferes with Hawk Week, but we can do it during school when it interferes with class. Right.
B
Wow! I'm having my first porn party and watching my first porn and there's lots of popcorn.
My mom came to visit KU, and she was very impressed by the foliage around the campus. I think a lot of time we don't look at the full value of foliage. God bless America and KU for the foliage it provides.
I just wanted to say thanks to the University for dogging the greek system by moving recruitment since we are the only ones who participate in Hawk Week. You wouldn't have even had 100 people at Traditions Night if it wasn't for the greeks.
I'm just calling because I think that maybe KU can have a chance to get some national fame because they have this new show that's going to be aired on CBS called America's Stupidest Criminals and those football players who ordered a pizza with that stolen credit card would definitely qualify to be on that show.
I make Taco Bell two days ago, and it still
make me sick. Everyone avoid that stuff.
顧
Is there a social stigma attached to shaving unibrows?
I just wanted to say that I'm sick of hearing everyone complain about capitalism that come into Lawrence because without capitalism, to all the townies in Lawrence, it would just be another northeastern hick town in Kansas like Eudora and DeSoto.
To my roommate who l'oh, walked in on him having sex tonight, read the sexual etiquette article on Thursday in the Kansan.
Can we still make fun of Chenowith?
I just wanted to say that socks with sandals are not now, nor have they ever been, an acceptable thing to wear.
Help,I'm stuck in the bathroom.
All the DJs in Lawrence are horrible. I've yet to hear a good DJ who knows what hip-hop music really is.
例
Anybody who says they are ashamed to be a man because of all the perverted stuff that men put in the Free for All, needs to be a woman because that's what makes me happy to be a man.
At high noon on September 5, Q-ACK will make his first appearance at Wescoe Beach.
You should kill two birds and get tanned.
You should kill two birds and get tanned.
OPINION EDITOR'S NOTE Haiku for All
Beginning tomorrow and running through Friday, Free for All is soliciting haikus
A haiku is a simple poem. There are five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third. They need not rhyme.
As with the comments in the Free for All, all topics are accepted, but slanderous statements will not be printed.
A bad example of a haiku is below:
A bad example of a haiku I
Cell in your hea
Can you
Wake up, open the paper
See your words in print
Brendan Woodbury is a senior in organismal biology and political science from Prairie Village. He is associate opinion editor.
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