4 Monday, December 7, 1992 OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN IN OUR OPINION Remarks of Reds' owner require immediate action The racist and anti-semitic remarks made by Marge Schott, Cincinnati Reds managing owner, adds another chapter to a lengthening book of woes for Maior League Baseball. Schott has been accused of referring to players as "niggers" and employees as "money grubbing Jews." This has caused questions to resurface about baseball's commitment to minority relations. Since the firing of Al Campanis, Los Angeles Dodgers executive, in 1987 over comments which were derogatory to minorities, baseball has made attempts to include minorities in management positions. This has included the hiring of managers Hal McRae of the Kansas City Royals and Don Baylor of the Colorado Rockies. However, Schott's comments come at a most untimely period for baseball. Owners continue to hand out astronomical, multi-million dollar contracts while handing their commissioner his pink slip. With no agreed-upon leaders, baseball owners are left scrambling for cover while avoiding the responsibilities of making tough decisions. Consequently, owners have continued to avoid financial responsibility in signing unrestricted free agents. The financial hardship this creates is compounded by the negotiating of a new television contract after next season. Predictions are that this contract will be significantly smaller than the one covering the past two years. And with the multitude of problems baseball already faces, the sport now is left to decide the fate of Marge Schott. Baseball can neither risk the scandal nor the perception that it tolerates racism or bigotry in any form. Furthermore, while baseball cannot force Schott to sell her portion of the Reds, it can remove her from day-to-day operations. Major League Baseball cannot tolerate the type of attitude a person like Schott brings to the game. Her association with the sport must end. THE EDITORIAL BOARD QUOTES OF THE WEEK "Drunk people tip better. They don't mean to, but they do." — WICHTA SOPHOMORE AND PIZZA DELIVERY MAN TIM JONES ON THE ADVANTAGES OF LATE-NIGHT DELIVERIES. "I get to sit in the student section, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time." — FORMER KU BASKETBALL PLAYER DANNY MANNING ON HIS RETURN TO ALLEN FIELD HOUSE. MANNING HAD HIS JERSEY, NO. 25, RETIRED DURING HALFTIME OF THE GEORGIA GAME. "A lot of students expressed that they didn't think the University cared about them. It didn't really surprise me." — GREGORY LEON FROST, ASSISTANT TO THE REGISTRAR AND MEMBER OF THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENT CONCERNS TASK FORCE. THE TASK FORCE REPORTED LAST WEEK THAT AFRICAN-AMERICANS WERE UNDERREPRESENTED IN THE STUDENT BODY FACULTY AND STAFF IN THE STUDENT BODY, FACULTY AND STAFF. "Id like to say some positive things. But we stunk it up for 20 minutes." — KU COACH ROY WILLIAMS ON THE JAYHAWKS' FIRST REGULAR-SEASON BASKETBALL GAME. KANSAS LED BY 30 POINTS AT HALFTIME BUT WON BY JUST 11. KANSAN STAFF ERIC NELSON Editor GREG FARMER Managing editor TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser Asst. Managing Almee Brainard News Alexander Bloemhoof Editorial Stephen Martino Campus Gayle Osterberg Sports Shelly Solon Photo Justin Knupp Features Cody Halt Graphics Sean Teals BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator Editors SCOTT HANNA Business manager BILL LEIBENGOOD Retail sales manager JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser Business Staff Campus sales mgr ...Angela Gleveren Regional Sales mgr ...Melissa Tertip National sales mgr ...Brian Wilkes Co-op sales mgr ...Amy Stumbo Production mgrs ...Brad Broon Marketing director ... Ashley Langford Creative director ... Valerie Spicher Classified员 ... Judith Standley **Letters** should be type, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. **Guest columns** should be type, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be The Kausan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kausan newsroom, 111 StaFFer Flint Hall. Spring opinion page offers opportunities OK, OK. Enough already. Almost everywhere I go on campus, people accost me about the editorial page. "How could you write such things? What do these idiots know about what they are writing." "If I was working on the opinion page I would never write anything like that. How do you get on this board to begin with? I have never seen anything about it before." So, do you think you can do it better? If so, now is your opportunity to prove it to yourself, your friends and the University. Contributing to the Kansan is an excellent way to do that. This week the, University Daily Kansan will be accepting applications for the editorial board, columnists, strip cartoonists and opinion cartoonists for the opinion page for the spring semester. Now, perhaps many of you are thinking that you have to be a journalism majoring to qualify. Not true. This university is composed of close to 30,000 students, only a small fraction of which are journalism students. It is very important that all persons are given the ability to express their views and help add to the public discourse. This is your opportunity to contribute to the University discussion. It is also an excellent opportunity to see the inner workings of a newspaper and what exactly goes into producing one. During the spring semester, the editorial board will be composed of about 15 to 17 people who will meet to EDITORIAL EDITOR STEPHEN MARTINO Nothing frustrates me more than to hear people complain about things that they have the opportunity to change. And if you think that you can improve the editorial page of the Kansan, now is your opportunity to try. This page is about you and your fellow students. discuss issues which will be presented in the "In Our Opinion" section of the opinion page. It is vital important that all members of the University community — international, minority, Greek, independent, nontraditional, graduate and many others — be represented on this board. Often people ask me why a certain position was taken by the editorial board on any given issue. My response is that, given the make-up and investigation of the editorial board, we thought it was the best decision. Take time and contribute. However, personal experiences and knowledge go a long way to forming opinions, and the more people and experiences we have, the better off we are. Columnists are the ones people love to disagree with. You get your picture and your very own chance to say anything, well just about anything, you like. Once again, we are looking for a good mix of columnists who can communicate well with the student body and the community. Some people enjoy taking on campus issues, while others like national and international issues. No matter what your tastes, though, the Kansan needs dependable columnists who will inspire discussion and intelligently argue their views. The Kansan has been lucky in the past to have columnists who have accomplished these goals. But now it's time to bring in new ideas and perspectives to carry on that discussion. Editorial editor Stephen Martin is an Atofat junior major in political science. The *Kansan* is also looking for cartoonists to draw strips and opinion pieces at the top of the page. Both of these positions are integral to the function of the opinion page. Someone said, "A picture speaks a thousand words." If this is true, then cartoonists at the *Kansan* have the most to say because hardly anyone writes 1,000 words. This is yet another opportunity to get involved. Next semester will prove to be an exciting one. A new president will take office, Student Senate elections will be held, plus national and campus controversies are bound to take place. Applications are available in the Kansan news room, 111 Stauffer Flint Hall. They are due by 5:00 p.m. Thursday, and interviews will be held on Friday. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Respect rights of all humans Thursday is the 44th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ing the rights of every human being. There are far too many people whose governments, including our own, do not abide by this convention adopted by the United Nations and a majority of countries around the world. Chances are that many of you aren't aware of what the declaration is, or that it even exists. However, it is an inherent document in protect- I am calling on you, the students, faculty and staff of the University, to act and try to help ensure that people are treated with equal dignity, respect and courtesy regardless of race, creed, color, religion, sex or political affiliation. Your voices were heard last month in the presidential election and helped change our nation. Don't allow that right to be wasted. Danielle Holmes Secretary KU Amnesty International STAFF COLUMNIST Aargh! Finals loom before us. It is time to crack open those dusty books and start cramming as much information into our brains as we can possibly retain at least until the end of next week. Some of what we learn will actually be with us forever. Unfortunately, much of it will filter through as useless information. KATE KELLEY Final exams should test more than trivial facts You know the stuff I am referring to, trivial data you must be able to spew forth simply to prove you possess a short term memory. Once you take the test, the information is gone, and you will never need it again for the rest of your life. I think the brain has only so much memory capacity, much like a computer. When its megabytes are overloaded with data, it goes hawire and just starts throwing things out at random. That is why it is important to be selective about the information you store in your system. In preparing for final exams, each instructor should cut to the chase and ask himself, "What information is essential for students in order for them to live richer and fuller lives?" And if you still cannot come up with anything but trivia for us to memorize, make sure it has enough vowels to be useful in a crossword puzzle. Kate Kelley is a Fort Leavenworth Junior majoring in English. 501 Bluez I also love those quotation identifications. Now, before both my current literature teachers take this personally, let me say that almost every lit teacher I have ever had required this. It must be some sort of English department rite of passage we all must live through, much like acne and childbirth. Novels and plays are not so bad. I can usually remember the context of the story enough to figure it out. But poetry, which I rarely get anyway, just will not stick in my brain. I think age has a lot to do with it. I can remember ever word of "The Raggedy Man," which I had to learn in the third grade. But I did not remember a single line of any poem from a class I took last summer. (Sorry, Dr. A.)! I am also annoyed at having to memorize major specific data that is not related to my field of study. I have taken many classes that have broadened my horizons but have left me with tons of trivial information. I have had to learn by heart all the parts of a grasshopper, the cranial capacity of Cro-Magnon man, and the entire periodic table of elements, none of which could I tell you today. The only odd terms I do recall are those multi-vowel words that show up in crossword puzzles. You know, the practical stuff. Take dates, for instance. In how many jobs do you really have to know the dates of historical events? Do we ever hear this conversation?" Doctor, we are losing the patient. One thing can save him. Quick, what was the date of the storming of the Bastille?" "Uh... July 14, 1788?" "Wrong! He is gone." No, unless you are teaching a class on the French Revolution, you don't need July 14, 1789, on the tip of your tongue. You can always look it up.