THURSDAY DECEMBER 5, 2012
4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2002
Jay Krail
editor
864-4854 or jkrail@kansan.com
Brooke Hesler and K rie Ramsey
managing editors
864-4854 or bhester@kansan.com and
kramesey@kansan.com
Laurel Burchfield
readers' representative
864-4810 or iburchfield@kansan.com
Maggle Koerth and Amy Potter
opinion editors
864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Amber Agee
business manager
864-4358 or advertising@kansan.com
Eric Ketting
retail sales manager
864-4358 or
advertising@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibsen@kansan.com
KANSAN EDITORIAL BOARD
Matt Fisher
sales and marketing adviser
864-7866 or mfisher@kansan.com
Campus beautification starts with student litter
There's a squirrel on the path near Robinson Center that loves to stare at passing students while perched on the rim of a trash can. This squirrel either has no fear of flying trash, or, as the litter around the pathway might suggest, the squirrel seldom has to bother with trash being thrown at it.
On a campus as beautiful as ours, it is shameful that littering is as ever-present as it is. A walk to class reveals the extent of the problem. Last year alone, the University of Kansas spent $81,886 dealing with daily loads of trash, said Steve Green, associate director of finance for Facilities and Operations. It is ironic that at the same time that editorials push for compost heaps and recycling grows in popularity, campus litter still seems to multiply.
Where's the environmental advantage if recycling bins aren't filled? And how can anyone expect recycling and other programs to have any effect if the student body cannot master the simple concept of a trash can?
The problem is that only a small number of dedicated people have pushed for beatification and environmental programs on campus. To their credit, they've been largely successful. Everything from recycling centers to compost heaps have
been proposed. The difficulty arises because these programs were most likely implemented without the acknowledgment, let alone support, of the student body.
Littering is fundamentally different from many other issues in that it suffers from a lack of interest. Along with a lack of support, it also lacks any real opposition. Littering is an issue of convenience. No one wants campus to be unsightly; it is simply less convenient to find a trash can than to throw trash on the ground. Or why use a recycle bin when a trash can is right there? Why use a trash can when you can leave trash underneath your seat?
The only way progress can be made in cleaning up campus is to raise consciousness of environmental issues, especially littering, among the student body. The space of opportunity for concern about campus and the environment is a narrow one, so students should exert peer pressure to avoid apathy. Think twice next time you leave that trash under your seat or flick that cigarette butt on Wescoe Beach. But please, try not to hit the squirrels.
Greg Holmquist for the editorial board
Free for All
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
All the sexist comments in the Kansan about guys blowing freshman girls back to their senior year reminds me exactly why I am a lesbian, mmkay?
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
I am death, stealer of pies
I hope not to hurt Kate's feelings, but hippies were a generation that fought to end the war. Hopefully, Kate knows that we're at a war right now, and she should be stopping to fight that instead of arranging the flowers on her desk.
I can spell that without any R's: T-H-A-T.
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There's nothing quite like coming home for Thanksgiving break and finding out that your room has been converted into an office. It sucks.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
A monkey is OK, and a fez is OK, but put them together; comedy gold.
Big brown. Big brown bear. Big brown bear,
blue bowl. Big brown bear, blue bowl,
beautiful baboon. Big brown bear, blue bowl,
beautiful baboon blowing bubbles. Big brown
bear, blue bowl, beautiful baboon blowing
bubbles, biking backwards. Big brown bear,
blue bowl, beautiful baboon blowing bubbles,
biking backwards, bump, bam. Big brown
bear, blue bowl, beautiful baboon blowing
bubbles, biking backwards, bump, bam, black
bugs, banana boxes, bop. Blup.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
We just decided that Quentin Tarantino ranks up there in the 100th level of the ugliness scale.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
Have you heard of Turducken? A duck inside a chicken inside a turkey? What a strange phenomenon.
Yeah, Shredder was a legitimate badass
I was just calling to let all those curious out there know. My boyfriend bought me a vibrator this weekend. I just want to state for the record that it's very,very,very overrated Do it yourself and save the $20.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
My roommate just told me that he masturbated at work today when he was bored. I never want to shop there again.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
My girlfriend started asking me to call her Woogle while we are having sex. Is that normal?
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
Are there any men out there with only one ball? If you only have one ball and you're a man, please give me a call.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
I am visiting a friend of mine in Iowa. I just passed a place called Pizza Pit. Pizza Pit! What is going on?
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My friends introduced me to brandy and it's great.
Am I fat? I mean I'm just wondering, because I'm 5'7" and I weigh about 115 and my boyfriend says I'm fat. Should I stop eating so much Easy Mac?
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(sung) I work at Burger King making bigger whoppers. I have a paper hat. Would you like an apple pie with that? Would you like an apple pie with that? Ding, fries are done, ding goes the bell, there is a bell, can't eat the bell. I work at Burger King making bigger whoppers. I have a paper hat. Would you like an apple pie with that? Would you like an apple pie with that?
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
I'm a man and I think that Frodo Beggins is kinda sexy. Does that make me gay?
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Hmmm... what should I do on my very last day to be underage. I think I'll get drunk, because all the fun is taken out of it once you're legal.
Why do people take their beer to the bathroom? It just doesn't make any sense.
middle of Kansas and open up to the idea of what actually exists around you. Don't just look for diversity in the color of people's skin, their sex, or their ethnicities.
How many showers does it take to get the Sharpie off of a man covered in Sharrole marker? The world may never know.
Good work to the Kappa Sigma boys who paint the letters in front of their house. It's looked great this year guys, much better than in years past.
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There's this girl in my calc class who didn't take the tag off of her shirt. It was $14.50 at Did Navy. I can't decide if I should tell her about it or not.
STAYSKAL'S VIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Take a look around and see a diverse KU student body
After writing this, I've thought about putting a disclaimer on the top — Yes, this is a column about diversity, but I'll try not to bore you out of your skull.
COMMENTARY
I have often contemplated joining the ranks of those countless other University Daily Kansan writers who have expressed their concerns about diversity. Every time someone opens the Kansan lately someone seems to have an opinion about diversity. I never could really agree with these opinions.
It's almost always the same complaint: there isn't enough diversity on this campus, we need more diversity, but the University of Kansas could never, and will never equal diversity.
There needs to be a different opinion out there, maybe one not so pessimistic.
Meagan Kelleher
opinion@hansan.com
I started out at my computer, but being holed up in my room couldn't really give me the bigger picture of what KU is really about. It was not until I left my room and looked at people that I saw the diversity around me.
As I wrote this on Wescoe Beach, a fully-bearded guy in khakis with a set of headphones firmly strapped on sang aloud from whatever CD he was listening to. As he strutted around, doing his impromptu concert for one, there was a group of students studying on the steps.
I saw diversity everywhere on this campus. It may sound a little utopian, because if you came to this campus with a set picture in your head, it may be difficult to force yourself to see what diversity we have here.
There were people sleeping underneath trees, with art boxes and philosophy books. There were students reading Rolling Stone next to students reading The New York Times.
We have been taught that diversity means only a diverse group of races or sexes or ethnicities. I am not implying that racial diversity is unimportant, but I am saying that a racially diverse campus does not equal a diverse campus on the whole.
Countless articles and columns stress how important it is for more minorities to come to KU. There have been arguments that even the school's curriculum doesn't offer an appropriate amount of diverse classes or requirements.
Last Monday, in a story in the Kansan, ("Minority faculty goal unmet") Chancellor Robert Hemenway said that a "diverse university created a learning environment that would be beneficial to students because they would be prepared to work in a diverse world."
KU's effort to recruit more ethnic professors is well-intended,but if we think adding 200 minority professors will make us truly diverse,then we are misguided.
I would just like to point out all the diversity we are missing out on. Just like beer goggles impair people's view of the people around them, sometimes our opinion goggles block out what we don't want to see.
Ignore your initial reaction to the idea of diversity in a state university in the
This is one form of diversity, but not the only one that matters.
The way we present ourselves to the world is the way we want to be seen and everyone's ideas are different.
KU students wear everything from sandals in 40-degree weather to stocking hats in the middle of summer.
There are students who, for unknown reasons, listen to Christina Aguilera, and students who for equally unknown reasons listen to Jethro Tull.
There are students who are greek independent, liberal, conservative, and non-traditional. Embrace these qualities. We are diverse and this diversity shouldn't be ignored.
Take a look and see what we are.
Start to look at people as more than skin color and sex, or what country they came from. We are more than that, in fact, the essence of a human being doesn't revolve around what they physically are. Diversity should be defined as what we are as people, not what we are as physical organisms.
It is our minds, ideas, fashion sense, music tastes that make us truly diverse.
It may not seem like I am the best person to be spreading a message of refined diversity, being a white girl from the Midwest.
But I have eyes just like everyone else and if I can see what makes each and every person on this campus unique, then you can too.
Kelleher is an Omaha, Neb. sophomore in journalism.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Story overlooked Yoder's ethics during KU campaign
Even though the accompanying picture was very good, the Kansan's recent story on past student body presidents ("Past presidents become today's leaders." November 25, 2002) was, for a number of reasons, quite surprising.
First was Kevin Yoder's accusation that "the Delta Force coalition he was running against in 1998 provided similar [e.g. juvenile] challenges."
That Yoder said this is no shock; however, that the Kansan's copy editors let it slide is. Even a cursory look at the archives found at kansan.com or Watson Library would have revealed that Yoder's machine-backed campaign was rife with campaign and ethical violations (including actions which forced the resignation of the Kansan's opinion editor), yet the Delta Force coalition we ran against not only did not commit a violation but operated a campaign with maturity and apitomb.
Second was the article's focus on how past student body presidents eventually
become political leaders.
While it is true that a few past president have achieved some success in politics, an article on the lives of those courageous KU students who led coalitions against the machine would have wielded greater results.
Such a story could have featured, among many others, Bob Bennett, who became the governor of Kansas (something no former KU Student Body President has achieved), or James Logan, who recently retired after a distinguished career as a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
Erika Nutt Donner
Erika Nutt Donner
Class of '99
Jason Fizell
Class of '98
Breeze Luetke-Stahlman
Class of '02
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M.A.'97
Eric Rush
Class of "01
Former members of Delta Force
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