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Thursday, November 13, 1986 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The check is in the mail
Cutting red tape isn't easy. And there is a lot of it facing many students who get Pell Grants.
The Pell program, which gives about 6 million students nationwide between $150 and $2,100 a year, is a useful one. The system is flawed, though, and needy students get bogged down in a bureaucratic process.
Forty percent of KU students who get Pell Grants get their checks several months after they expect them because of mistakes in the filing process. Most times these mistakes are the fault of the student applicant. And the correction process is long and tedious.
rethinks.
It's about time that both students and administrators find an easier, faster way to file the forms and make the necessary corrections.
On the federal level, steps are being taken to improve the
process. Congress passed a bill Oct. 17 that created new financial aid laws, which might soon alleviate some problems for students. These laws may allow universities to correct Pell information and order the Pell check, then inform Pell afterwards, instead of waiting for the Pell program to go through the process. Pell has also started its own program to speed up the correction process.
Once it is approved by the Department of Education, KU should consider trying a similar program. With the electronic program, corrections could be made overnight.
About 60 schools are participating in a program this fall that allows schools to correct Pell Grant information on computers.
For now, all we can do is wait for a new system, and for many, wait for a check.
Joining the nuclear club
sixteen posters showing the potential damage and destruction of nuclear war are displayed in Strong Hall. Most people pass by the exhibits without stopping to look because the thought of such a war is too terrible.
But even as the United States and the Soviet Union make plays at cutting back, several other nations are expanding their nuclear arsenals, and others have recently acquired nuclear arms or the ability to build such weapons.
China, France and Britain all have nuclear arsenal, but those countries would probably be affected by any arms agreements the United States and the Soviet Union might reach.
But it is the smaller countries such as India and Pakistan that are suspected nuclear weapons nations that may be a greater cause for concern. Whether these countries could be persuaded to join any arms agreement is hard to tell.
These smaller countries don't seem to hang under the cloud of the mutual destruction doctrine that the United States and the Soviet Union do, and the power of nuclear destruction may be quite tempting to a country that has been embattled for longer than anyone can remember.
The situation only seems gloomier when one considers how hard countries such as Iran, Iraq and Libya have tried to acquire nuclear power.
But these frightening images are all the more reason the superpowers must push for disarmament. We must lead by example and work to bring the rest of the world into line.
The thought of Moammar Gadhafi with his finger on the button is scary beyond belief, but it is a scenario that may not be all that far from reality.
Taking off the blinders
For the last 10 years, liberal arts courses have taken a beating. Regarded as vague or fluffy majors by many job-hungry college students, the liberal arts were shunned for business, engineering or other vocational majors, which were consider sure meal tickets.
College students today are still job-hungry, but more and more of them are either majoring in the liberal arts or supplementing vocational majors with liberal arts electives.
Corporate employers want graduates with a broad educational background. It's not enough be the best computer programmer in your class; you should also be able to write a coherent paragraph, have an understanding of how your business is organized, and work well with the other employees.
Employers are complaining that the traditional vocational majors are too specialized. They want to hire potential long-term employees, who can be counted on for their flexibility as well as their job skills. A four-year undergraduate degree, theoretically, should prepare you for your entire career, not just your first job. Rather than gamble on the long shot that they keep the same type of job for their entire working life, many students are adding liberal arts courses so they have the option of changing
Concern for their career is the only reason for the liberal arts boom; classes in ethics, literature, classical studies, music and history provide students with lessons on life, and how to deal with the ethical and moral problems they face and will continue to face.
It is to be hoped that more students will consider taking liberal arts courses, either as a second major, or as an elective. Not only does it give a student a better rounded education, it can provide a welcome change of pace from the other three or four major courses in the semester.
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there is that stupid. I also doubt any of the voting public caught visions of Daschle and Fonda at a socialist granola orgy.
Off-year politics take on new look
Politics can be entertaining, but so can the criminally insane, so that's not a definite plus.
Daschle was a bit upset about all the anti-Fonda rhetoric and fought back with an ad of his own. He accused Abdron of holding a fund-raiser in Hollywood and having movie stars attend, insinuating that Abdron would rather hang out with his socialite buddies than help the people of his state. he and Joan Collins are "just sals."
Christopher
Cunnyngham
Columnist
Grandpa — the family wit — would lean back in his chair, look at me, smile and with a twinkle in his eye say, "Politics suck." What a card Grandpa was.
Imagine the brilliant reparle that these servants of the American peo-
up in the off years just so we can watch politicians slam each other. These should be financed by the government. (If we're going to finance the contrast and SDI, we might as well finance something interesting. I am also for government financing of the Weekly World News.)
That's entertainment. More scathing than "Crossfire" and more fun than McNeil-Lehrer. We could get Dan Rather to host and Vanna White to introduce the guests. We could turn it into a syndicated television show in which politicians debate, for a pleasant change, non-political issues.
Republican; "You are a knee-jerk liberal with ideas that sound vaguely socialist to me."
We could have Cuomo vs. Bush: Which blender is right for you? Evolution vs. Creationism: Why the hell was there a Reader's Digest condensed Bible anyway? This of course could be complemented by an argument on my pet theory that many parents want creationism taught in schools simply because it would make tests so much easier. A sample question: Name the early stages of man's primitive development. Answer: Adam. It makes such things as spelling Australicophthus so much simpler. For the premiere of this show, I suggest we bring in the two
shining stars of this year's slash-and-burn-blitzkreig-bop election commercials — Republican Senator Jim Abdner and Democratic Senator Tom Dashlec of South Dakota.
These guys are living proof that Don Rickles could have had a long and successful political career on his ability to call someone's mother a hockey puck.
ple would favor us with.
It is rare that candidates from both parties manage to so completely insult the intelligence of the voting public. It's kind of a special moment.
Abdron got the ball rolling early by attacking Daschle's association with Jane Fonda. Daschle invited Fonda to speak at a Senate hearing on the farm problem that figures so prominently in many states, including South Dakota.
This, on the surface, sounded like a reasonable political play on Abdon's part. After all, Fonda's activities had been understated and adored by some to be anti-American.
But did he paint a vivid portrait of a senatorial candidate consorting with a dangerous misguided liberal? No. He attacked on the grounds that Fonda advocated not eating red meat, one of South Dakota's biggest exports and moneymakers.
I've never met anyone from South Dakota, but I really doubt anyone
But Dasche got the last laugh. He won. Maybe because he, more than Abdnor (but just a little more), credited the people of South Dakota with having some intelligence. Maybe the voters really got into "Barbarea." I don't know.
Cuomo gathers Mo-mentum
Does anybody remember Big Mo? Sure you do. He was a character who was introduced to America by Geroge Bush in 1980.
Mike Royko
Chicago Tribune
That's when Bush hoped to be the Republican candidate for president and after every primary he would prattle about how Big Mo — whose full name was Mo Mentum — was behind him.
As it turned out, Big Mo was with Ronald Reagan, and Bush had to settle for being, as George Will describes him, a lap dog.
And Big Mo has been with Reagan since, no matter what he said or did. With Big Mo behind him, Reagan could do no wrong, even when he didn't know what he was doing.
At least that's the way it was until Tuesday, when the Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate.
It happened so suddenly and decisively that I had to wonder: Had Big Mo abandoned Reagan?
Of course. it looks to me like you have changed loyalties.
So I went outside, put a wet finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing, and, sure enough, I soon found Big Mo sitting on a park bench.
He shook his head. "That's because you don't understand. Sure, I. Big Mo, was with Reagan. But that doesn't mean I'm with all those other characters."
"I assume that you're talking about Tuesday?" he said.
What's up? I asked him.
But what about the rest of the Republican Party?
You mean the Republican senators who were beaten?
"Sure. It takes me, Big Mo, a while to build up a head of steam. It's not like in the old days, before TV and primaries, when I could save my energy for a convention. Now I have to hoof around New Hampshire with all those mopes."
"You got it. And now it's time for me to start looking around for someone."
I see. You're already looking ahead to '88.
"Sure, they were on their own."
So it was Reagan all along?
"Look, I don't have time to mess around with every rinky-dink in a blue suit and a power-red tie who goes on 'Meet the Press.'"
Then give me a tip. Who's it going to be? Dole? Bush? Kemp? Laxalt? Robertson?
Jane Fonda sent Daschle a bunch of steaks as a congratulatory gift — he was assured that they were South Dakota steaks from South Dakota cows.
He shook his head. "Forget it."
But what other Republicans are there?
"Who says Big Mo has got to be
with a Republican? I'm non-partisan."
You mean it could be a Democrat? He leaned forward. "Let me tell you a secret. I'm not a leader. I'm a follower."
I get it You were with Reagan because you thought he was a winner.
"Right. I looked at him and told myself, this guy has got it. When he talks, people listen, even if he's not really saying anything. When he makes a speech, he can bring a lump to your throat, a tear to your eye, and he doesn't look like he used a blow dryer on his hair."
What does a blow dryer have to do with it?
"Blow dryers are out. Big Mo is never going with anybody who tries to look and talk like a cousin of the Kennedy clan."
"Not all of them. There's one Democrat who has everything Reagan has — lump in-the-throat, tear-in-the-eye sincerity. The fatherly manner. And he's got something that Reagan never had. Brains. Of course, Reagan never really needed any. In politics, if you've got charisma, you can always hire brains."
So, tell me, who is this ideal Democrat?
Then that rules out most of the Democrats.
You've got to be kidding. Sure, he's dynamite on TV. He looks mature and strong. But what about ideology? It's just the opposite of Reagan's.
"Forget ideology. The Democrats have wised up. They've picked over the Republican ideology and are taking what they can use themselves. Their mainstream ideology is not going to be much different than the Republicans' mainstream ideology. And they're not going to let
"Mario Cuomo."
themselves get McGoverned or Mondaled again. At their next convention, all the extremist specialinterest whackos are going to be in the back row or standing in the alley. It's the Republicans who are going to have the problems."
Republican extremists?
"Sure. You know what the single most powerful group in the Republican party is today? The religious fundamentalists. Wait'll they really get going, giving everybody the fisheye who they suspect of being a humanist and saying it's sinful for a kid to see 'The Wizard of Oz' because only God could give the Cowardly Lion courage. I mean, how would you like to be a Republican candidate when the litmus test is whether you think the Tin Man could have a heart?"
It would be an interesting campaign issue.
"Sure. Can you see Bush trying to take a position on whether the Straw Man could have a brain?"
He might be able to speak from personal experience.
"See, the four biggest problems that the Republicans are going to have are: one, most Americans aren't fundamentalists and don't want anybody sticking religious views down their throats; two, the Republicans don't have anybody who looks like Reagan or sounds like Reagan, and millions of people voted for Reagan because he was Reagan, not because he was a Republican; three, most of the issues from six years ago aren't going to be issues in 1988; and four, the Democracies will finally have a candidate who looks and sounds like a grown-up."
So Big Mo is going to be with Cuomo. You know, that will break Bush's heart.
"Maybe the Wizard of Oz will give him a new one."
What to do when mud starts to fly
WASHINGTON — There was a lot of negative comment during the political campaign that mercifully ended last week about all the "negative advertising" — candidates using much of their effort and money to knock each other.
Arnold Sawislak
UPI Commentary
In any case, there is an argument to be made for campaigns that criticize.
Not that negative campaigning is something new in U.S. politics. Some historians have suggested that George Washington, who was unanimously elected president in his first two terms, really decided to go home to Mount Vernon when political critics started calling him "tyrant" and "dictator."
It is entirely within the rules of civilized campaigning to criticize a candidate's voting record or a challenger's positions on the issues.
It is legitimate for an incumbent to question whether a challenger has the qualifications for the office being sought or a challenger to criticize the incumbent's attendance record on important votes.
But just as there is a difference in football between "a clean hit" and "a cheap shot," there is a difference in politics between legitimate criticism and mudslinging.
It would be nice to report that candidates who play dirty politics always or at least usually lose. Some do, but the really sad truth is that when one candidate starts slinging mud, the other frequently gets down in the slime to reciprocate.
It is dirty politics to pretend that a legislator who voted for everything in an anti-drug bill except a capital punishment clause is a friend of the dope pushers. It is mudslinging to insinuate that a candidate is a homosexual because she is a feminist or he is a civil libertarian.
It is as off base to suggest that a member of Congress who votes to cut defense spending is a communist sympathizer as it is to claim that a legislator who supports more money for the Pentagon is a warmonger.2
There were a number of campaigns like that in 1986, and the fact that some candidates got elected with dirty campaigns probably means that "political consultants" the new horde of professional campaign managers — will be at it again in 1988.
So what is the voter who is offended by such tactics to do?
One possibility is to refuse to vote for any candidate who runs for office by crawling through the mud. Another is to pay no attention to candidates when they begin such tactics.
In that connection, here is a modest and only partially whimsical suggestion about what to do if a campaign gets dirty.
Find a shoebox or other container of similar size and cut a slot in the top. Every time a candidate or a candidate's supporter does or says something you think is out of bounds, drop a note or a newspaper clipping into the box. Sometimes before Election Day, open the boxes and separate the slips and clips into two piles. Vote for the candidate with the smaller pile.
And if both campaigns are so sad you can't bring yourself to vote for either candidate? Aside from staying home from the polls, about the only recourse is to move to Nevada, which gives its voters the civilized ballot choice of "none of the above."