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Tuesday, November 10. 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Shocking
In Jackson County, Mo., serving time is easy. All you have to do is show up, then you can go home.
Criminals who are sentenced to weekend terms are often turned away because of overcrowded jails. The criminals are credited with serving the time for simply showing up.
Prosecutors often sentence young people and first-time offenders to weekend terms as "shock time" and as a part of plea bargains. The practice of sending the defendants home began in the late 1970s, but prosecutors and judges were informed of the defendants' releases. The early-release practice is now common, but judges aren't being notified.
The purpose of a weekend jail term is a good idea. Keeping first-time offenders and teenagers out of further trouble is a vital aspect of the sentencing process. It also allows those who have committed minor crimes to work during the week and earn money to support themselves and their families.
However, the program is not being carried out. Criminals see the prosecution process as laughable; a joke is being made of the justice system.
Instead of simply turning away the criminals when there is not room in the jails, an alternate system must be implemented. For instance, criminals should have to do community service for the weekend they were scheduled to serve time.
"Shock time" must be carried out in order to it work Letters criminal free without any recourse is in itself shocking
A nickel too much
New and improved doesn't always mean better
KU officials plan to purchase 21 new and improved copiers for the library system. The copiers are supposed to meet all the needs of copy seekers. The machines will be capable of reducing and enlarging and will even flash instructions on a display screen
And, customers will be allowed to use the card or coin system to pay for their copies.
But to receive all the benefits of new and improved copiers, customers must also pay a price, a higher price.
In some cases, copy prices double. Now, on the old battered machines, copies cost 5 cents. The new system probably would cost cash customers 10 cents a copy and card customers 6 cents a copy.
KU libraries need more copy machines. So, the University is making a sound investment by purchasing them. But the price isn't right. Most students use the library copiers to copy notes, information from books for tests and papers, and assigned readings.
Most students probably go off-campus for their fancy copying. At KU, most students need quick copying service at a low cost. University officials should forget about the new and improved
University officials should forget about the new and improved coniers and simply buy new coniers in the old style.
When every penny counts, five extra pennies on a regular basis may be a substantial dip in the pocketbooks of many students.
Home work
The little man spoke up against bureaucracy and won.
Michael Fargo recently was threatened with eviction from his federally subsidized apartment in Clinton Place, which houses elderly and disabled residents.
Fargo has a neurological disorder that causes seizures, and he receives Social Security disability payments.
The reason wasn't that he had been lying about his income or putting holes in the walls.
No, it was that Fargo worked on his computer from the apartment part-time for pay.
This was against Department of Housing and Urban Development rules, he was told. The apartments were only to be used as private dwellings. A Douglas County district court ruling ordered that he be exited.
But Fargo spoke up, fought back and recently won an out-of-court settlement. The bureaucrats recognized the logical solution.
Fargo will drop an appeal of the case, and he will be allowed to live in the apartment and work from it as well.
And the apartment managers will deduct the $100 a month additional charge that they had added.
And perhaps Fargo will one day develop his business so that he will be able to move out of federally subsidized housing.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin...Editor
Jull Warren...Managing editor
John Benner...News editor
Beth Copeland...Editorial editor
Sally Streff...Campus editor
Brian Kabourline...Sports editor
Dan Ruittmann...Photo editor
Bill Skeet...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 Messersmith...Campus sales manager
Greg Knippe...Production manager
David Doyntell...National sales manager
Angela Clark...Classified manager
Ron Weems...Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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"ACTUALLY, GETTING IT IN WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO GETTING IT OUT!"
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
For many years, KU football has faced hard luck and high hurdles, many of them self-imposed. This season will be no exception. In the long term, a competitive football program still is possible, but it will take patience and support from KU fans and leadership from our University administrator.
At the top
First, the fans must support Coach Valentees . . . for the long term. Decades have passed since KU has had a long-term football coach. Coaches have been fired, and coaches have left from lack of support. Coach Val is worth our support. He is well qualified, having been a college and pro coach for nearly 25 years. He is far more skilled in player personnel but is totally dedicated to his role. He give him enough time, four more years, before we judge him, he will be successful in fielding competitive teams. And he will stay at KU and enjoy that success.
For too long we've been told that KU could have a quality football program along with the quality academic program for which KU is already known. The chancellor's predictable, well-balanced, and the past simply will not satisfy those who aspire to excellence in all phases of our University.
More important, the process of developing a competitive football program starts at the top—with Chancellor Gene A. Budig. He is the chief executive officer of our University. And he is the one person who could unite and lead the University in correcting the embarrassment of our football program.
The chancellor must make a formal, public commitment to organize and lead the effort to build a successful football program that will complement the success of other KU programs.
Step forward and lead, chancellor, or admit that you are not interested in competitive KU football. Do it, please, because other disappointment supporters of KU football will soon recognize that the problems of the past haven't been poor coaching staffs. They've been the result of poor University management, poor support and poor leadership.
The responsibility for Jayhawk football lies at the top.
J. David Holt, Parkville, Mo. resident
Needless union
Those who might be tempted to do so probably think the local group would be in control of its own actions and destiny. Not so. When the public school teachers were granted the right to bargain, a majority of them thought it meant just that — the right to bargain, never anticipating that they'd be forced, by a militant minority and the higher-up officers, to turn thousands of children out in the streets. Probably a majority felt guilty in doing so.
It is difficult to believe that any conscientious, dedicated faculty member of a highly respected educational institution would consider joining a union, thereby setting up a barrier, invisible but very real, between himself and the administration.
agency issue but were led by a militant few and the higher-up officers into a fiasco that cost each of them thousands of dollars, all to no avail. That's the way it always will be.
In the recent football players strike, 90 percent of the players weren't involved in the free
For the commercial labor force, construction and assembly line workers and craftsmen in general, organization was essential to bring the work day from 10 hours down to eight and the workday from ten hours down to eight. Occupational working conditions and wages. These goals could have been accomplished in no other way.
So, which do KU faculty wish to be known as, highly respected professional people or just union members?
Thomas C. Ryther, professor emeritus of journalism
We're different
There has been a dangerous idea floating around in American culture for some years. The rather popular idea that the Soviets are "just like us." In the Nov. 2, issue of the Kansan, under the editorial "Peaceful people," I found it once again.
What makes this such a dangerous idea is the fact that the Soviets are not just like us. Despite any parallels one can draw between the United States and the Soviet Union, they are different, and in some instances diametric. The histories and cultures of both nations are unique unto themselves.
This doesn't mean we can't achieve goals together, indeed we must for the sake of future generations in more ways than one. But to treat them as people, we need to "seeth" it is an insult to them as well as to ourselves.
The first step in making progress is to eliminate our own ethnocentric bias and respect the Soviets for who they are instead of pretending they are just like us.
Louis H. Lietzen, Leavenworth junior
Cross and blue
It seems grossly unfair that under the new health care program, part-time employees at KU, which include lecturers like myself, actuality to pay more than our full-time colleagues.
The way I figure it, because I am making way under $16,999 and also because I am a smoker who chooses not to lie about my vices, my new Blue Select premium comes to $36.37 a month. That's $436.44 a year — about half my monthly paycheck — which I now have to cough up from the bowels of Wesco Hall. Even if I were a nonsmoker, I would still have to pay $346.44 a year under the new plan. I'm not sure a faculty union would have allowed me to work; I would have at least protested vehemently on my behelf and given me more ample warning to cut back on things like food, clothing and shelter.
Obviously, I am not voting for the group which calls itself Independent Faculty. Independent of what? Other faculty? A quick look at the names of those who advocate no union reveals them to be for the most part ex-administrators, ex-chairpersons or department heads, and very senior faculty near retirement. These are among the highest-paid people at KU. They can afford to talk abstractions like "colllegiary." A smile and a pat on the back will not make me feel any better when I can't pay my utility bills on time, or when I have to think twice before reaching for the telephone to call my mother long-distance. Am I blue? Am I cross?
You bet I am!
Of the two pro-union groups, I am voting for KU-AUP because KU-AAPU will represent the college faculty exclusively. KU-NEA may have good intentions, but its constituents are primarily K-12 teachers, whose priorities and academic concerns are different from ours. I personally know most of the people who are behind KU-AUP. Not only do I trust their expertise to look out for my best interests, but I also like them as human beings. They are indeed "the voice of reason for our profession."
I hope KU-AAUP wins the union vote on Nov. 17 and 18. If not, we will have only ourselves to blame when the ongoing drama in Topeka continues to feature lecturers and other parttime employees at KU in such pathetic non-speaking parts as sacrificial lambs.
Paul Stephen Lim, lecturer in English
Security matters
The article "Tempiin petitions security system" in the Oct. 16 issue ignored the opposing view espoused at the Association of University Residence Halls meeting. The president of Templin Hall, Cotter Brown, made the case that the men of Templin could take care of themselves. He also included Joseph R. Pearson Hall in his arguments. It was pointed out that one of the reasons for a security desk was the risk of rape. Ross Nigro, president of AURH, and Brown explained that men do not get raped, at least not that often. They seem to be forgetting the documentation of rapes of men that occurred last year.
It is suspicious that JRP and Templin are the ones being reviewed for security desk removal. It was revealed that Lewis had the lowest vandalism rate. Why not take the security desk out of Lewis? The proposal to remove security desks from Templin and JRP smacks of discrimination. It perpetuates the myth that men can take care of themselves but that women can not.
There are many other reasons for maintenance, security desks. They should remain in Templin and JRP to maintain continuity among the halls. For guests to be able to walk into Templin they have to check in at Hashinger Hall. After a fire has been checked into the hall could be vital to determining who was in the hall. The problem of vandalism by non-residents also comes to mind.
The check-in procedure takes only a few minutes. It is a simple system that helps insure students and also their guests. Are we to sacrifice the opportunity of theseotypes or the sake of convenience? I hope not.
Bonnie Johnson,
Hashinger Hall president, Shawnee, Okawa, junior
A different picture
I read the article entitled "The Purple Pig" in the Nov. 2 issue of the Kansas. It seemed to paint a very pleasant picture of the establishment. As a resident of the community in which the tavern resides, the article didn't mention the other side of the story.
Music from the tavern can be heard in the surrounding homes as far as a mile away until it closes. There is a continual littering of the area. Nearby elderly neighbors had to put a gate up to keep people off of their property, and their signs are used for target practice. The tavern also has more than its share of disturbances, which are met by Leavenworth or Douglas County police.
You have pained a quiet, picturesque tavern, but in reality most of us wish it wasn't there. I hope that your stories will not be so one-sided in the future as to portray only one side of a story.
Kathryn Egbert, School of Engineering secretar
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed
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