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Tuesday, November 24, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Giving thanks
The yearly holiday season draws near as blustery weather drives indoors.
In this festive time of year, turkey, family and thankfulness should fill our thoughts. But the semester is rushing to a close, and there are many demands on us.
Thankfulness seems 'versome in these busy times. There are travel plans to make' cases to pack and studying to do.
But really, we have 2. Simply that we are part of a community of learning it. able. And more basic yet, we have food, clothing and places to .
It is strange that it is at the holidays that our nation is reminded of a group of people who daily gather food scraps and newspapers. That group is our nation's homeless.
The homeless are not just far away in the metropolitan centers of the country. They are in our state — our rural, family-oriented state. Granted, our cities attract them more than do our small towns because of the availability of services and shelters.
But those unfortunate people do exist. Those who society names the homeless live near us — each with a story of defeat, brokenness and frustration.
In a few days, most of us will enter a warm house and will be met with the aroma of Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps we will remember the plight of those who are not as lucky as we. Perhaps we even will offer some food, clothing or time to those who are struggling for sustenance.
Touch-tone enrollment
Wouldn't it be nice to sit back in your armchair, pick up the telephone and just punch in the courses you want to take?
Wouldn't it be nice to punch a few more keys on the phone to add or drop courses, find an open section or listen to information about other courses available?
Wouldn't it be nice to eliminate having to endure the endless lines of add-drop period?
What looks like merely a dream may become reality for KU.
Some University officials are pondering the advantages and disadvantages of installing a telephone enrollment system at KU. Unfortunately, the system probably won't be developed here for at least five years.
KU certainly has made some improvements in enrollment. The current system probably seems a godsend to those who remember trudging through Allen Field House having cards pulled for the classes they needed. But maybe it's time to progress further.
The phone system has fared well at several other schools, including Georgia State, which has about 22,000 students. But administrators should research and scrutinize thoroughly the system before sinking money into it. If any bugs still exist with phone enrollment, KU should be wise enough to learn from other schools and make sure unforeseen problems are prevented.
Sad sack
The following is a news release by Tony Redwood, KU professor of business and chairman of the KU Athletic Board. His release is reprinted with the endorsement of the Kansan editorial board.
I consider the decision to fire Coach Valesente a bad one. It is not sound from the perspective of the athletic program. It reflects poorly on the integrity of the University. it denies Coach Valesente the opportunity to see his program through to success.
The history of the football program at KU this past decade has been one of revolving coaches and a quick-fix philosophy. It has not worked.
So we hired a head coach two years ago who has tried, with our explicit encouragement, to build the program back from scratch. He started with a near-empty barrel of players. He has recruited quality student athletes who have the capacity to succeed both in the classroom and on the field.
Further, the University community from the top down has worked with him to develop the appropriate academic support mechanisms. With his redshirt program, he took the long-run view, knowing that the first few years would be tough. Everybody associated with KU athletics knew it would take time to achieve success and we knew that first the proper foundation had to be laid.
But memories are short. Apparently we lack the courage at this institution to plan a course of action and to stick with it. Certainly to the outside world, this decision certainly must call into question our commitment to the academic dimension of intercollegiate athletics. Despite protestations, it is difficult to interpret it any other way. It would seem that the philosophy of winning at all costs has again prevailed.
I salute Coach Valesente. He has more class and more integrity than his detractors.
For my part, I decry the decision. It is unprincipled.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin ... Editor
Julie Warren ... Managing editor
John Benner ... News editor
Beth Copeland ... Editorial editor
Sally Streff ... Campus editor
Brian Kabellern ... Sports editor
Dan Riettlmann ... Photo editor
Bill Sket ... Graphics editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Bonnie J. Hardy ... Business manager
Robert Hughes ... Advertising manager
Kelly Scherer ... Retail sales manager
Kurt Messeramith ... Campus sales manager
Greg Knipp ... Production manager
David Dernett ... National sales manager
Angela Clark ... Classified manager
Ron Weems ... Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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BEFORE YOU GO HOME FOR THANKSGIVING. REMEMBER:
Polish activists cool to reforms
By CHARLES J. GANS
The Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland — Communist Party leaders appear to have toned down a bold package of political reforms in the face of opposition from party ranks and signs of a slowing pace of change in the Soviet Union.
The party Politburo last week published its political reform proposals in a report to be presented to the Central Committee for approval at a full-membership meeting tomorrow.
The plenum comes four days before a nationwide referendum in which the government is trying to win support for its economic and political reform policies.
Before the report was published, Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski told foreign journalists that the political changes would not be superficial or cosmetic and that past attempts to reform the economy were hampered by a lack of accompanying political changes to increase public participation.
Among changes approved by the Politburo are easing restrictions on forming associations, opening up more managerial posts on a competitive basis for youths and non-party members, providing constitutional guarantees for private property, and setting up a social committee to monitor human rights.
But some Western diplomats and opposition activists say the party leadership's final recommendations are disappointing when compared with an earlier draft.
Solidarity national spokesman Janusz Onyzkiwicz said there were some promising and quite interesting proposals in the earlier draft, but the final report was vague.
"It won't raise any enthusiasm, and it won't be considered the political opening everyone was waiting for," he said.
He said the report did not even mention Solidarity's minimum demands, including setting up an independent citizens' body to monitor implementation of the economic reform.
The Solidarity free trade union movement officially is outlawed, but its leadership has been active.
Analysis
for political prisoners last year. Solidarity does not recognize the validity of the law that declares it illegal and demands restoration of the official status it had before Poland's December 1981 martial law crackdown.
A Western diplomat, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said that the report seemed much more tentative than the previous draft and thought to find any kind of overture to the opposition.
"I would tie it to whatever happened in Moscow," he said, referring to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Nov. 2 speech marking the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and the sacking of Moscow party chief Boris Yeltsin.
In his speech, Gorbachev called for "revolutionary self-restraint" in the drive to reconstruct the Soviet Union, warning against succumbing to the "pressure of the overly zealous and impatient." Yeltsin was dismissed after criticizing the slow pace of reforms in the Soviet Union.
In Poland, proposals in the earlier draft prepared by Juruzelski's advisers and approved by Poliburo leaders in September would have gone beyond any introduction so far by Gorbachev.
The draft said the ruling party faced a crisis of confidence and must have the political courage to strike at the root of the bureaucratic-centralist style of exercising power.
Among its most dramatic statements, the draft said the party did not demand a monopoly for rule.
It raised the possibility of a legalized socialist opposition, including setting up independent political discussion clubs and allowing two other groups of political parties to put forth alternate programs.
These unorthodox formulations are missing from the final version written after the Moscow
Other proposals have been softened. The final report calls for a gradual transfer of economic powers to local authorities.
It recommends making local council elections more competitive by dropping preferential ballot listings for some candidates, but omits a proposal for direct election of town and city executives.
The draft warned Communist hardliners that there could not be a place in the party for bureaucratic conservatism, fear of change and enthusiastically appealed to former members who quit the party after the 1861 martial law down to return to help the reform movement.
The new report tones down the criticism of opponents of reform within the party and issues a challenge to their agenda.
The new report also attacks the political opposition more sharply, warning that the party will firmly oppose attempts by "enemies of democracy" to exploit broadening democratic freedoms.
A source with close party contacts said there was strong pressure from conservatives to weaken proposals that would have reduced the power of the party apparatus.
The draft was reportedly sharply criticized by the party organizations in three key provinces — Warsaw, Gdansk and Katowice — in closed-door debates.
"I think it's a setback for Jaruzelski, who wanted to go farther but couldn't after receiving a double blow from above (Moscow) and below (the party ranks)," said Wojciech Lamentowicz, an opposition activist expelled from the party after Poland's 1981 martial law crackdown for leading a grassroots reform movement within the party.
"It is a step back on some very hot issues," he said.
But a second Western diplomat said the party, by drafting the reforms, was responding to public opinion and offering significant liberalizations without being forced to. He said it would be unfair to judge the package simply by what was finally left out
"All these things are a step in the right direction," he said.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
Charles I. Gans is based in the Warsaw bureau and has covered events in Poland as a correspondent for The Times.
Smoldering issue
In the spring of 1986, the Kansas University Endowment Association responded to over a decade of student protest concerning investment in media by publicly adopting the Sullivan Principles.
These principles were a code of conduct for businesses operating in South Africa. And while the move was the first recognition by the Endowment Association that our University's money supported a genocidal regime, it fell far short of the full divestment demanded by students and faculty.
the Endowment Association had failed to register as a Sullivan signatory, but Seymour refused to name that corporation. When asked about when the Sullivan divestment provisions would be enforced against this black sheep of the Endowment Association portfolio, Seymour explained that the Endowment Association had adopted no timetable for implementation of the principles.
In early 1986, after meetings between members of the KU Committee on South Africa and Endowment Association President Todd Seymour, it quickly became apparent that the Endowment Association's Sullivan announcement was more a public relations ploy than any real change in investment decision-making. Seymour was unfamiliar with the details of the Sullivan categories of compliance.
Recent events confirm that the Endowment Association's Sullivan card was a sham. In 1986, we reminded Seymour that the Rev. Leo Sullivan had put a May 1887 deadline on his code of corporate conduct. If progressive change had not occurred in South Africa by that date, he would renounce the principles and call for complete divestment. Seymour claimed to be unaware of the deadline when we spoke to him in May 1986.
We were told that only one industry linked to
Well, May 1987 has come and gone. And conditions in South Africa have not improved by anyone's measure. True to his word, Sullivan publicly abandoned his role as an advocate of gradual reform within the corporate pillar of apartheid, renounced his own set of principles he held and called for corporate development from and economic sanctions against South Africa.
Is the Endowment Association aware that their South African investment policy has been repudiated by its author? No comments in the
local papers that I've seen. My question is, what now, Todd? You've recognized the moral implications of your investment decisions by adopting a conduct assessment code that did not consider economic returns as a factor. Will the Endowment Association continue to remain sympathetic in words while in action serve as an apologist for anapheth?
The only change brought by the May 1986 Sullivan announcement was a reduction in campus protest and anti-apartheid activity. The KU Committee on South Africa is now apparently defunct. While student sentiment for divestment remains high, the organization necessary for its realization has fallen on hard times. I guess the Endowment Association has some reason to consider their Sullivan policy a success.
The Endowment Association has not demonstrated a shred of concern for the human consequences of their investment decisions. Public image has always been a higher priority. And through their hushed financial manipulations, we are all a party to the crimes against humanity the Africanans continue to perpetrate in the African subcontinent.
It's time the Endowment Association woke up to the world they've helped to create. If they don't, it's time students once again reminded them
them. Dwaine Hemphill, Lawrence law student
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed