4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
THURSDAY.AUG.30,2001
TALKTOUS
Kursten Phelps
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Christina Neff
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Brendan Woodbury
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EDITORIAL
Studies are more important than Hawk Week
Sorority recruitment should return to week before school starts
By moving sorority recruitment into the school year to free up Hawk Week, the University demonstrated backward priorities.
In change from previous years, sorority recruitment (formerly known as "sorority rush") is being held this fall on the first and second weekends of the school year, including Labor Day. Recruitment will culminate with bid day, when prospective members accept their bids, or invitations, on Monday.
The University has given various reasons for pushing for the change, but commonly cited is the opportunity for the women to participate in more of the Hawk Week activities. Hawk Week is an opportunity for new students at the University to participate in activities and get to know each other and the campus and begin to find community at the University. The administration sees these activities as an important part of building a University-wide community, which is a laudable goal.
However, the new weekend times for sorority recruitment are going to interfere with both prospective and active sorority women's studies. The activities last through each day, and the recruitment chairwomen and coordinators stay up through the night making preparations for the next day. The nature of the process guarantees there will be insufficient time for homework and studies — indeed, this is why recruitment has been held before school until now.
Sorority recruitment is a major event each school year, and it is always time-consuming for those who take part in it. It will almost certainly conflict with some activity, no matter where it is positioned on the calendar. That is unavoidable.
However, the University chose to create that conflict with the institution's primary purpose
Yet the University positioned it to conflict with the institution's primary purpose students' learning and education in order to avoid a conflict with a lesser priority, the building of a University community. Although the Hawk Week activities are important, they should not take precedence over classes and the education of women in sororities.
The decision has already been made for this semester, but the University should re-examine its priorities and return recruitment to its traditional time during Hawk Week next fall.
Brett Norman for the Editorial Board
PERSPECTIVE
Protesters were inconsistent, but then again, who isn't?
Friday night's "Reclaim the Streets" protest saw the beginning of the end of the capitalist system and briefly delayed downtown traffic.
Protesters blocked off Massachusetts Street between Sixth and Seventh streets一 and the police let them.
The event became a block party, with people unloading couches from U-Hauls. Boy, they sure reclaimed the heck out of a publicly owned street.
They were there to protest everything from sweatshops to attention deficit disorder. Protesters wearing Adidas T-shirts and Nike shoes hung signs in front of American Eagle Outfitters — a company whose policy it is to not use sweat shops.
And to the Birkenstock-wearer on the front page of the Lawrence JournalWorld: Although your sandals come in a variety of earthy tones, a corporation still made them.
A pamphlet circulating at the action encouraged breaking down hierarchy and tyrannical top-down structures.
But U-Hauls don't rent themselves. And somebody had to organize this event. Isn't an organized protest the product of a hierarchical, top-down structure?
Debbie McAvoy, a barista at La Prima Taza, soI'd me coffee and described the protesters as "conform-
John Audelhelm
Columnist
opinionkansan.com
Commentary
ists for nonconformity ... It looked like a wacky Gap commercial."
Later I hiked up to visit local activist Dave Strano at a residence known as the "Pirate House," 300 W. 14th St. I assumed I would be shunned for wearing Abercrombie &-Fitch-esque clothes. I couldn't have been in for a more pleasant surprise.
I stood around the kitchen chatting with Dave, who was in Friday's action, and activist Lowell Fletcher. I was struck by the fact that everybody did their own dishes. I haven't seen a sink that empty in a long time.
A nice guy named Paul was sitting on the back porch eating stew. He invited me up and described the house — a place where hitchhikers, touring bands or anybody else could crash for the night if they needed to. And it didn't matter what you were wearing.
Dave said the house was not a party house. He described it as a venue for
pands and the discussion of ideas. When the house does have parties, residents limit drinking — hence the lack of beer cans lying around.
How many fraternities, sororities, residence halls or apartments could claim any of these attributes?
Dave excused himself and apologized when he went to give a fork for his lentils — which he admitted were corporate-made. He argued his points with anarchist philosophy and liberal maxims such as "I'm not free until everybody is free" — which I agree with while I'm up here in my ivory tower. Lowell made his points with market theory and information about the World Trade Organization. He trumped the heck out of my free-market platitudes.
I don't know why I was so surprised, the barista had told me the protesters were laid back and friendly. I had never met Dave Strano before and who was I to judge him?
We all have inconsistencies, I guess. Dave and his lentils were just willing to admit it.
Later, I went back to my air-conditioned apartment and cooked a steak
Audlehelen is a Des Moines, Iowa, senior in journalism and political science.
LETTERSTO THE EDITORS
ST. LAWRENCE GARAGE
Dear editors.
The Kansan editorial board has made a grievous error. In the Kansan Report Card ("Our Lady of the Parking Garage," Aug. 27), the board failed the St. Lawrence Center's parking garage project because "Isn't there a better way to ease the suffering in the world than making sure people don't have to carpool to church?" This remark is so blatantly ignorant and condescending that I hardly know where to begin.
First of all, anyone who regularly attends services at St. Lawrence knows that the parking situation is absolutely atrocious. Why is it wrong for a church to collect money in order to build a parking facility that will make it much easier for parishioners, students and Lawrence residents to come and go? Surely this will encourage more people to attend services and have an opportunity to participate in the St. Lawrence community.
parking garage. A new building with classrooms, music rooms and other facilities to aid St. Lawrence students is also being constructed. Money will also be used for other purposes designed to enrich students' religious educations. Those who attend the center look to it for spiritual growth, and this project is one way to ensure that the St. Lawrence Center will offer superior Catholic education programs for many years to come. Some day these students just might help to "ease the suffering in the world."
More importantly, the Kansan is apparently unaware (or chose to ignore) that this project is also raising funds for far more than a mere
The Kansan should have been more careful before getting all giddy about pointing out a supposed hypocrisy of a local religious institution. It completely missed or ignored a large portion of the facts.
ice. Second, looking at the amount of money devoted to the building of the parking garage in comparison to the annual budget as a whole, this was simply an uninformed comment on how the St. Lawrence Center wastes money on creating parking space as opposed to feeding the poor.
Andy Miner Beloitjunior
the Kansan made a blanket comment about the misuse of church funds without gathering all of the facts. First, the St. Lawrence Center invests far more money toward student education and community serv-
Dear editors.
The St. Lawrence Center, unlike the University of Kansas parking department, is trying to fix its parking problem. Every Sunday, the parking attendants (including me), park and double park cars to prevent church goers from being ticketed. The City of Lawrence has been kind enough to allow us to double park cars as long as there is a fire lane in case of emergencies but the problem is still there. We need four times the amount of parking spaces necessary to provide adequate parking. So we would appreciate it if before making negative comments you would be professional enough to find out the facts.
By the way, the actual total being raised for the parking garage facility is closer to $6 million. Any donations would be appreciated.
Frank Tra Wichita senior
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Free for All 864-0500
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.
Have you ever wondered why all the foot-
ball players have one-syllable names?
As if KU doesn't make enough money off of incoming freshmen, they're going to over-sell our parking passes and then charge us $35 when we park in the wrong spot. Uqahhh!
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Hi, I'd just like to apologize to the professor of my 9:30 a.m. class this morning. Yes, it was Tuesday. Yes, I was hung over, and yes, expect more of the same.
I'd like to order a pizza with a stolen credit card, and by the way, have it delivered to my house. Thanks a lot.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the hippies that shut down Mass. Street on Saturday night are the smart ones because they don t pay $80 to wear a shirt that advertises for the company they bought it from, made by a 5-year-old kid in a third world country, just to be popular.
I heard a rumor that freshman girls like guys in backward hats, is this true?
Holy crap! A girl talked to me today.
I nanks to the new recruitment schedule, I couldn't study for my test on Monday. I got a 62 percent. It sucked.
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You know, I'll bet the first convenience stores were nothing more than caves where you could buy sticks and rocks and microwave burritos.
you know, I bet Naughty Spank Lobster would be a great name for a rock band.
I'd like to talk about the parking on 12th and Louisiana. The parking is strictly for tenants only — especially for residents with children — and people who want to park around the University should buy parking permits and park in their lots instead of taking up the parking for its residents. Thank You.
Have you ever woken up at 3:00 in the morning with the best Free for All quote ever and thought, "no need to write it down, I'll remember it" and then spent the entire next morning with a vague recollection of chickens and panty hose?
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So I think to myself, "If I call the Free for All 50 times in one day, is at least one of them going to be published?"
I can'twait until all the students who call in the Free for All about partying have to leave campus because they failed out, and it frees up more room for all of us who are coming to school for an education.
Now that I'm back on campus, I'm considering investing in a pair of binoculars.
Has anvone ever tried to cook a giraffe?
I spent $1,500 on tuition, and I've already spent $600 on books and camping. What's wrong with this picture?
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I'm an alumni, and I haven't been there for a few years, but dude, where was Free for All 10 years ago? This rocks.
What happened to the cute little Jayhawk who forecasts the weather on the front page of the Kansan?
I could care if they sell alcohol in the stadium. It's cheaper if I bring my own in.
Instead of attacking each other back and forth, I propose that we listen to and respect each other's opinions. We can learn a lot from each other.
Lawrence could be a lot more liberal and open-minded if we put a wall between here and Johnson County.
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I'm wondering if there is any way you guys can put escalators going up 13th and 14th streets because I'm starting to get real tired walking those hills to class.