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Tuesday, November 3, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Political games
Kevin Pritchard is attracting a lot of attention, but it is not because of his performance on the basketball court.
The controversy is sparked by his ability to adequately do his job as a student senator, which may be impaired by the time demands of basketball.
Student Senate has an attendance policy that has been in effect since the late 1960s. The rule states that if a senator has two unexcused absences or four absences — excused or unexcused — he will be automatically dismissed. The senator may appeal the suspension within seven days and be reinstated, but after two more absences, the senator will be permanently dismissed.
The mandatory attendance policy is a necessary one. If senators regularly miss important meetings, they are not representing the constituents who elected them.
The petty politics and name-calling by both the Senate and Pritchard supporters are immature and irrelevant to the issue. The question is not whether athletes should be allowed to be senators, it is the ability of one senator to do his job effectively.
The purpose of the Senate is to allocate the money of the student body. If Pritchard can balance the demands on the basketball court and those in the Senate chamber, so be it. But if not, one or the other must take precedence, without regard to his status as an athlete.
He should play by the rules
Multiplying woes
The fact that 3,000 classroom spaces, opened by students who dropped classes, were not taken this semester should open some eyes. If KU has overcrowding problems, why were so many seats left unfilled?
The problem seems to lie in the University's add-drop system. KU unofficially shortened the add period from four weeks to two weeks this fall, while the drop period remained at five weeks.
The problem should be obvious. If students have five weeks to drop classes, they will remain in a class as long as they are uncertain about their preferences. This period allows students time to make an objective decision about their progress and whether to drop.
Yet, if only two weeks are allowed to add classes, students who have dropped one course in the fourth week cannot add another because the add period has expired. Or, students who choose to drop in the first week cannot expect to add another course, because the desired class still has no vacancies.
A solution offered to the University Senate Executive Committee, which will decide the course of the add-drop policy, is to limit adds and drops to the first two weeks of classes. But how can a student make a prudent decision about a class in two weeks, especially if the class meets once or twice a week?
It makes more sense to switch the add-drop period and allow more time to add than to drop. If allowed three or four weeks to drop, students could make a decision about a class and, if necessary, add another during a four or five week add period.
Short add-drop periods may clear time-consuming paper work, but they force decisions based on little information about a class.
Which is more important, some extra paper work or a student's education?
State of the state
The attorney general for the State of Kansas is in Latin America.
Unlike former Kansas Gov. John Carlin, who traveled to China to open trade possibilities, Bob Stephan has not gone south to revive Kansas' economy
Unlike Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, who visited Central America as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Stephan has no role in the allocation of U.S. money to the war-torn region.
No. Stephan's jaunt to Latin America will enable him to visit with justice officials in three countries. His efforts to determine the state of Latin America's justice network is admirable. But will Stephan's diplomatic pilgrimages reap tangible dividends for his state? It's doubtful.
Stephan's other international sprees have taken him to China, Taiwan, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. Now he can add El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to his list.
Admittedly, his plane fare does not come from Kansas coffers. The Commission on United States-Latin American Relations paid the tab, but who compensates for lost time?
Every 10-day trip Stephen spends learning about the state of the world detracts from the state of the state.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin . Editor
Jull Warren . Managing editor
John Benner . News editor
Beth Copeland . Editorial editor
Sally Streff . Campus editor
Brian Kaberline . Sports editor
Dian Rheilmann . 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 Dorfelt...National sales manager
Angela Clark...Classified manager
Ron Weems...Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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Today is only Tuesday. Translation: I have a project due in three days, and I haven't finished reading the 600-page book.
Common sense cut from curriculum
With three weeks before Thanksgiving recess,
every day is Tuesday. That is, I wake up knowing
that despite my work of days past, I have a deluge
of work ahead of me.
This semester, more than any other, I've assessed my Education. Coincidentally, I have two professors who insist that today's students are woefully unprepared to study classic literature, history and art. My generation, one professor insists, would much rather listen to Madonna than read poetry.
Shameful.
Ignorant-student themes are reinforced by periodic studies. You've read them or their prototypes before. A cadre of high school juniors is asked basic questions about historic events. Researchers shake their heads as the results are tallied. Fifteen percent of the respondents say Mussolini invented the automobile.
Moreover, I've deduced from an art history class that ignorance plagues more than my generation. It touches our century. During the unit about Gothic architecture, I studied a handful of cathedrals, all with complicated vaulting, ornate facades and shimmering stained glass.
As the professor projected the slides on the wall, I began to compare the contributions of antiquity to the contributions of our automated age. Sadly, I pitted Sainte Chapelle, the pinnacle of Gothic architecture, against Wescoe Hall, a local example of 20th century architecture.
I bit my lip when I considered that the modern-
day example was originally intended to contain a parking garage. When money fell short, the building was converted into classrooms. This illustrates flexibility in architecture, but I hardly think Sainte Chapelle could have doubled as a horse barn.
Embarrassing
So here I sit on a Tuesday morning and evaluate my Education. Have 17 years of schooling taught me the fundamentals of history, geography, literature, math and science? Probably not. Have I suffered because of educational inadequacies? Probably not.
Soon, my Tuesday will lead to Friday, improbable as it seems now. On Friday, my education will take a rest as I head for my hometown, McPherson, population 13,000. Perhaps I'll see my high school friends. One is a checker at Wal-Mart; another restocks the salad bar at Dillons.
Perhaps as I drop by my father's hardware store, I'll run into the farmers I knew from my after-school job there. Farmers, who are some of the most intelligent people I know, talk of low grain prices, high interest rates and an economy that makes their trade a hardship.
store closing on Main Street. Anymore, the fiveblock business district contains more vacancies than businesses.
On Friday and Saturday, high school students will climb into Monte Carlos and Trans Ams and drag Main Street. They'll snigger at their cleverness as they hide Milwaukee's Best under car seats and sneakips of warm beer when they muster the courage. Before slipping home after curfew, they'll pop a Halls Mentholatum into their mouths to mask the foul beer breath.
At home, my mother will tell me of another
On Sunday, I'll pack my car and reflect on my weekend. Despite my homesickness, the three-hour drive back to Lawrence will return me to a civilization of my peers. My Education resume.
At the University of Kansas, I have learned to speak broken Spanish. I've read Dante and Darwin. And I know why the sky is blue.
But in a brief 22 years, I have learned how to fix a leaky faucet. I can make change from a $20 bill. I know why manhole covers are round. It's what my father, a Texan from a large, Depression-era family, calls "walkin" around sense."
I've learned that sometimes life is unfair, that 14 hours of working in a field does not ensure financial success. And I'm still learning the value of budgeting money.
In May, I'll be proud to walk down the Hill as a testament to my Education at the University of Kansas. But on those Fridays when I go home to McPherson, I'll be reminded of the Education I've received from my parents, from the hardware stores and from an economy that creates hardships.
Beth Copeland is a McPherson senior majoring in journalism.
Tenant justice
Another landlord tenant story appears in the newspaper. It seems Lawrence is a breeding
In response to the letter from Eric Tishkoff, the tenant who suffered due to the actions of his landlord and apartment manager, I would specifically like to comment on his statements: 'I do not have the means or time needed to take legal action. In any event, current laws favor
landlords to the extent that win or lose, tenants stand nothing to gain."
I agree with Tishkoff that an imbalance exists favoring landlords. An important reason for this is that landlords are organized and unified. There are well-financed and well-organized landlord organizations at local and state levels. Until recently, no such organizations existed specifically for the interests of tenants. It seems only natural that when landlords are being heard and tenants are not, it would be reflected in our laws and as a feeling of helplessness among tenants.
Apparently, landlords have found enough reasons to take the time to organize themselves. Landlord organizations have been instrumental in the defeat of bills favoring tenants and the success of bills favoring landlords.
From all the complaints I have heard from tenants, ample reasons exist for the unification of tenants.
Poor treatment of tenants will continue only if tenants allow it. Tenants are not the victims of landlords or arbitrary laws. They are the victims of an attitude that says there is nothing they can do because landlords are too powerful. This attitude in effect surrenders the power an individual has to make a difference in any situation.
The solution is for tenants to unify and organize as landlords have done. No real changes favoring tenants will occur until this is accomplished. This idea is central to the recent formation of the Lawrence Tenants Association.
Gregg Stauffer, Lawrence sophomore and president of the Lawrence Tenants Association
AS THE KATZ DEADLINE NEARS,
OUR CARTOONIST GETS NERVOUS.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed