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KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, SEPT. 17, 2015
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Petition for the Underground to add a BBQ joint. #GiveMeBrisket
The Jayhawk fanbase has completely unrealistic expectations for our football team. There. I said it.
To the girl who only cares about hot pizza, try morning after cold pizza shuttle and you'll find the meaning of life
Another day, another office hour where no one shows up. #TALife
Oven mitts should not catch on fire yet it somehow happens in sellards
This is a junior level class. We know what a Boolean search is
It's pretty sad when the restrooms inside a building are nicer than the building itself. Sorry, Wescoe.
Strong Hall reeks of memory foam and sadness
Lawrence Restaurant Week or, as I like to call it, food-that's-too-expensive-for-students week.
I feel like "American Horror Story" has gone downhill with every season. And now that Lady Gaga has been cast in it just confirms this feeling
I have a love-hate relationship with the Stairmaster that is KU campus.
The next time you wave at someone who wasn't waving at you just start to na na instead.
Shoutout to the person who glued a quarter to the ground outside the underground.
Dear professor, you've recycled the same lecture for a week now. Can we learn something new?
College: where the squirrels are more popular than you
Walking past classrooms with the door open and making eye contact with 30 people at the same time is so fun
READ MORE AT KANSAN. COM
Fraternity house layouts need to be considered in campus rape culture
ANISSA FRITZ
@anissafritzz
Over the last year, it seems as though cases of sexual assault occur on an all-too-regular basis. Editorials, news reports and opinion pieces of all kinds have addressed the victims, perpetrators, alcohol, drugs and the scene of these incidents. Not all cases of sexual assault are the same or black-and-white as we would sometimes like to believe.
What hasn't been addressed as a possible factor as to why fraternities specifically seem to be a popular location for these cases of sexual assault is the layout and structure of these houses.
study. Numerous studies and articles have been done in an attempt to pinpoint what the exact cause of these horrifying numbers is. But there is no one solution, just like there is not only one problem.
Nearly one in every five women will be sexually assaulted in her life, according to a Department of Justice
Other studies have shown that women in sororites are 74 percent more likely to experience rape than those who are not a part of the Greek community. If a woman is in a sorority, she is not automatically going to be sexually assaulted. If a man is a member of a fraternity, that does not mean he is a rapist. And if people choose to drink alcohol, that does not translate to them getting sexually assaulted later that night.
But the question still stands Why do these instances seem to happen more to those in Greek life?
The Defensible Space Theory
brings up the point that "a residential environment whose physical characteristics — building layout and site plan function to allow inhabitants themselves to become key agents in ensuring their security." This relates to the idea that for humans to feel secure, the physical structure of where they are plays a key role in their safety.
Partly because of this, something that needs to be taken into consideration is the layout of fraternity houses.
A typical fraternity has a main entrance that leads to a formal living room that is closely connected to a library, a dining room and a kitchen that's connected to a house mother's apartment. There are stairwells and staircases that go both up and down — up leading to sleeping dorms and individual bedrooms, while
ne bottom floor is usually occupied by a basement, chapter room and other rooms that could be used for things like movie theaters or weight rooms.
A house with this many rooms and narrow hallways and stairwells that can sometimes closely resemble those in parking garages is confusing enough while sober. Once alcohol is added, these houses can turn into winding mazes.
Uncomfortable situations are awkward enough to get out of, but things can get dangerous when someone doesn't know how to exit the location. The Defensive Space Theory states that alcohol can be disorienting on its own, but when placed in an even more confusing layout, finding your friends, cell service or the doorway out can seem more difficult. And the only person
one can turn to in this situation is a fraternity member of the house — a member who knows the way out along with all the nooks and crannies that are easily ignored by passers by.
The layout of these fraternity houses is not the cause of rape culture alone. But with alcohol, the wrong timing and someone who does not have good intentions, these houses can turn into traps for someone who is already dazed and confused, and thereby forcing them to depend on and trust someone whom they maybe shouldn't.
The numerous rooms, the tight hidden stairwells and maze-like hallways can invite malicious acts that could turn an individual into a statistic.
Why society should value beauty less
- Edited by Rebecca Dowd
RACHEL GONZALEZ
@KansanNews
The Dove Real Beauty Campaign features women of all body types and skin colors, emphasizing the subjective nature of physical attractiveness. The central message of this campaign — and many similar to it — is uplifting.
The problem is that, at the same time, Dove is reaffirming to its audience that "beauty" is still physical and still important. In actuality, beauty needs to be based judged on values, morals and beliefs. Not the color of your hair or how well you contour your face.
Society as a whole needs to stop emphasizing "beauty" as a scale of worth. To do this, we must do away with the notion
that everyone has free access to the quality of beauty.
The standard of beauty is constantly changing. What was considered beautiful in the 1980s is completely different than what is considered beautiful now. Because of this, not everyone can always be "beautiful" and not only should this be okay, but it should be accepted.
Our society has agreed upon a definition of beauty that requires certain physical traits. And biologically speaking that isn't possible. If one were to replace beauty with another adjective and apply it universally to people as a whole, it would be strange.
Take the adjective "energetic," for example — no one says "everyone is energetic in their own way" because not everyone is energetic and certainly not all the time. But according to Dove's campaign, everyone can be beautiful all the time.
It's easy to accept that a lot of good qualities are not universal, but not beauty. Perhaps this is because society merits us and we merit ourselves on the basis of beauty. It seems that we are constantly supposed to be reaffirming the fact that people are beautiful.
Photos of little girls with terrible diseases often go viral on Facebook with captions that often read something along the lines of "she's so beautiful!" or "share if you think she's still beautiful."
While these comments are certainly well intentioned and uplifting, those girls' strength should not be equated to beauty. They are incredibly
strong, admirable people, but by society's standards they may not be beautiful and there should be absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Today society values beauty
"I don't know if you're beautiful, funny, smart, friendly, musical, caring, diligent ... But I know this. You are valuable. You are interesting. You are worth loving."
NATHAN BIBERDORF Author of "Not Everyone is Beautiful"
over all other characteristics. It seems intuitive that it shouldn't be this way, that
physical attractiveness is not an accurate measure of worth. A much more encouraging Dove commercial may feature women holding signs that say "I'm a great musician" or "I'm the funniest person I know."
As Nathan Biberdorf puts it in his article "Not Everyone is Beautiful" published in 2014, "I want to tell you something, whoever you are. I don't know if you're beautiful, funny, smart, friendly, musical, caring, diligent ... But I know this. You are valuable. You are interesting. You are worth loving. So forget about 'beautiful.' It's become an ugly word anyway."
Edited by Dani Malakoff
Increase money for NASA space research based on importance to KU and society
JENNY STERN
@jenilikeswhales
"The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!"
This quote from science fiction author Larry Niven playfully reminds us that some of our most important innovations have come from having a space program. Space and space research is an integral part of the University and an important recipient of public funding.
The University has more connections to space than one might think. Among Kansas alumni are three astronauts, one of whom is currently a professor here.
Joe Engle is a former NASA
astronaut and Enterprise and Columbia shuttle commander; Ronald Evans was a former NASA astronaut and pilot for the Apollo 17 moon mission; and Steve Hawley, a KU professor of physics and astronomy and director of engineering physics, is a former NASA astronaut and shuttle mission specialist.
Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930, was also a KU alumnus. Although not scientific or technically in space, Scott Bakula, another alumnus, was an actor in Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Not only our history has space imbedded into it, but also our future. This past summer, KU News reported that a KU startup company received a grant from NASA "to further develop an unmanned aircraft system collision avoidance radar." Lei Shi, a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering, founded the company based on technology he co-invented with his faculty adviser, Christopher Allen, according to the news release.
This is just one of many grants KU has received from NASA. Additionally, Jessica Creamer, a recent doctoral graduate of pharmaceutical chemistry, is currently completing postdoctoral studies at NASA's Jest Propulsion Laboratory.
Even after leaving the University, you will still have inherent ties to NASA and space research. According to the nonprofit Penny4NASA, "cellular phones, MRIs, and fuel cells to name a few could not have been possible had it not been for NASA research and development."
We fund this research through tax dollars. NASA
currently only receives .48 percent of the U.S. annual budget. This equates to about half a penny for each dollar we spend on taxes.
Penny4NASA — and I — argues that that funding should be increased. An increase would allow one penny per dollar to go toward exploring new frontiers.
The influence of private companies is not enough to sustain our exploration. NASA has the advantage of increased regulation and oversight, the ability to pursue long-term projects without concern for profit and a long history with space research.
Ian Ferguson, writing for Art. Mic, gives the example of NASAs Webb Telescope: "Had the Webb telescope been a project in a private company, funding would have stopped years ago. NASA continues to pursue this
project not because they hope for a return on their investment, but because they see the social utility in such a project." Limiting science to shortterm projects interrupts innovation and stunts progress.
Whether it is because of the University's strong connection to space or because NASA will never be able to be replaced by private companies, citizens should vote to 'sustain our space program. In Neil Armstrong's (slightly altered) inspirational words, "It's one small penny for mankind, but worth a million for mankind."
Stern is a senior from Lawrence studying ecology and evolutionary biology.
- Edited by Maddy Mikinski
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