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Tuesday, October 20, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Preferred professors
Give hope to your favorite professor
You know, the one you tried to convince that the computer ate your research paper. Or that you deserved the extra half-point on your midterm. Or that you really were sick at home during the pop quiz on that gorgeous fall day.
The professor who said no.
And they should feel obligated
The one who pushed you to do your best and did everything possible to help you. The one who wouldn't take excuses.
Seniors can vote Oct. 28 and 29 to give the HOPE award to the outstanding educator of their choice.
Professors who have done an outstanding job educating students deserve to hear about it, and they deserve public recognition.
Twelve semifinalists have been selected already by the seniors. A series of interviews this week will narrow the number of candidates to four. The winner will be announced Nov. 14 at halftime during the KU-Oklahoma State game.
Maybe that will help outweigh the days when their paperwork is mountainous but their doors remain open.
Or the days students tell their professors that it's too pretty a day to have a pop quiz.
Big Mac boxes
The Earth's ozone layer eventually may become no zone, but not if Berkeley, Calif., can help it.
The Berkeley City Council recently voted to ban foam packaging used by fast-food restaurants in the city because the material is thought to deplete the Earth's ozone layer.
Why not ban the packages everywhere? Restaurants have used paper packaging before, and there is no reason they can't switch to it now.
Even though the foam packaging is a small percentage of the total amount of ozone-damaging chlorofluorocarbons, it is a simple thing to change.
McDonald's has acknowledged the cries of ecologically-conscious city governments and agreed to phase out the styrofoam boxes.
However, Berkeley and McDonald's cannot stop the harm themselves.
Why couldn't Lawrence join the fight to save the environment and protect people? After all, the ozone layer is the Earth's guard against the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays. Is a Big Mac carton worth depletion of this valuable umbrella?
On campus, the Kansas Union and other cafeterias serve hamburgers and other sandwiches in the harmful styrofoam cartons. A switch to paper packaging likely would inspire the Lawrence City Commission to follow suit.
And if Lawrence were to ban the boxes, it might spark a chain of more cities to be concerned about this growing problem.
This is not just another one of Berkeley's protests that has made the conscience-raising city well-known. It is a serious problem demanding action from all.
Lawrence should help carry the torch
Correction
Because of an editor's error, Forrest MacDonald was incorrectly identified Monday in the Mailbox.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin ... Editor
Juli Warren ... Managing editor
John Benner ... News editor
Beth Copeland ... Editorial editor
Sally Streff ... Campus editor
Sponsor Katherine ... Sponsor editor
Dan Ruettimann ... 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 Knipp ... Production manager
David Derfert ... National sales manager
Angela Grizzle ... Classifier
Ron Weems ... Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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JIMBROGMANJINCNNATERCREEDR087
THE PRESS AND THE CANDIDATE
Students drown in deluge of books
It was already four in the morning. The prevailing silence was broken only by the soft breathing of my sleeping roommate. As I looked over, a wave of envy and self pity swept through me.
I let my drooping eyes scan over the ton of books strewn around the desk, the slick paper-back covers gleaming sinisterly in the light. My overworked brain was only sure of one thing: I would die if I did not get some sleep. I crawled into bed and slept like a prisoner just released from a concentration camp. Yes, just like Elie Wiesel.
The next day at 6 p.m., an hour before the Western Civilization examination, I hardly touched dinner because of the butterflies in my stomach. After throwing a few No.2 pencils and pens, blue books and a couple of textbooks into my backpack. I huffed and puffed to the test center.
The other students were as sloppily dressed and appeared as frail as I did. The puffy eyes with sagging bags and dark circles, the untucked clothes, the messy mops of hair — all were distinctly the result of excessive knowledge of civilization.
The atmosphere was electrifying tense. People were walking in funeral voice voices, in the room of Fessor of Power.
The exam started. Some scribbled furiously; a handful rubbed their eyes unbelievably and read the questions again. The nervous nibbling of pens and pencils was prevalent, and so was the muttering of curses. Some students simply were grinning sheepishly.
After the exam, praises to God, accompanied by huge, exaggerated sages of relief, could be heard loud and clear in the aisles. St. Augustine would have jumped for joy at the resurgence of the students' faith. Friedrich Nietzsche probably would turn over in his grave if he saw the scene.
That was the final of Western Civilization 105, a test on 25 great works. That also signified the end of a two-part program — one of the toughest and most challenging programs, we have to take before they can walk down the hill.
The journey toward the grand finale had not been an easy one. Besides shelling out hundreds of dollars for the course and for the accompanying 3-foot stack of books, I have not had a decent weekend. My "dates" ranged from Hesiod of WC 104 to Simone de Beauvoir of WC 105.
It is a fact that reading programs on great writers and philosophers do the students an abundance of good by instilling an awareness of how civilization in the Western world has been shaped — albeit by force. But I personally find the program too packed with reading assignments.
Days spent on reading the essays resulted in only a 50-minute discussion. Then, methodically, each topic was "temporarily forgotten" until the heaviest comprehensive final.
Western Civilization is a grueling course that even U.S. students who are somewhat familiar with the authors or issues, find tedious. There have been instances where foreign students are forced to change their majors after several attempts to have Western Civilization printed permanently on their transcripts. Some even have to change universities.
Recently, the School of Business decided to implement the course as part of its graduation requirements. However, business students have an option — they can take history instead. In majors such as biology, where knowledge of civilization is a vital tool for future careers, the departments or schools affected should consider advocating similar alternatives.
The only comfort is that no matter how nasty Western Civilization proves to be, it will eventually be over. 1, for one, completed the course sane and sound.
The trick is to keep up with the reading. And I tried to learn something from these legacies instead of just remembering the authors' names and the number of books read. "For it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know."
By the way, Socrates said that.
Janet Neo is a Johor Bahru, Malaysia, sophomore majoring in journalism.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAILBOX
Ridiculous plan
I think it's just plain ridiculous for the University to construct any new building without providing adequate and fairly convenient parking for the faculty and staff who will work in that building. How about one or two levels of underground parking beneath each newly constructed building?
T. Hunt-Ward, department of physics and astronomy unclassified staff member.
retail space downtown.
Mediate the mall
By attacking both the developers and the Downtown Improvement Committee in a recent editorial, the Kansan did a grave disservice to its readers. This is a complex issue that deserves more than your casual reference.
The Downtown Improvement Committee is working to maintain the economic vitality of downtown. If Lawrence is to keep its downtown alive, a suburban mall is not the answer. But, developers see our town as a prime target for a large retail mall. So the committee hired a consultant to mediate between the developers and the city in its efforts to incorporate more
Also, as required by Plan 95, the city needs to show progress in its struggle to keep the retail center of Lawrence downtown. Hence, a zoning study was commissioned.
To answer the question posed by the editorial, a Dillard's really would make a difference. If it was in a suburban mall, it would mark the steady flight of downtown merchants to that mall, as illustrated by Aggieville in Manhattan. On the other hand, if the city and developers work together, Lawrence could have the best of both worlds — downtown.
Mark L. Gillem, Walnut Creek, Calif., Steve Shogrin,
Lawrence, Clint Burdett, Lawrence, Cheryl Heinrichs,
Omaha, Neb. All are four-year architecture students.
No business
A response to an article written by reporter Mark Tilford about Jello Biafra:
Yo, Mark. Dude, ya know I really see where you're coming from. That Jello Biafra guy has no right criticizing our great leaders! This country was made for big business and should be run by it as well. So what if we really don't know what's on going. As long as I can drive my BMW to see Huey Lewis, things will be great. So thanks for that great article about that freak.
James E. Rix, Mission Hills senior
Wage rage
The State of Kansas has, in my opinion, discriminatory wage practices. The classified
civil service employees are given a small percentage pay raise while the unclassified employees are given a much larger percentage pay raise. The historical argument for this is that the unclassified (upper administration) employees work for the Board of Regents, and the Board of Regents negotiates their pay raises and benefits, while the classified civil service employees work for the State of Kansas, and the State Legislature determines their pay raises and benefits. The checks are cut on the same computer; the money comes from the same sources (state taxes and income). Therefore, all are working for the State of Kansas and as such should be treated equally and fairly when pay raises are given.
The Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) fund pays a very low rate of interest to the classified civil service employees on the funds put into it by us, which is mandatory, with no choice given us. If we quit, we get what we put in and the interest on what we put in. The retirement system for the unclassified employees pays a much higher interest rate, and if an unclassified employee quits, he gets what he put in, plus what the State of Kansas put in, which was just increased, and the interest on all of it. This is unfair and discriminatory!
Is this legal? I seriously doubt it. I would like to see it challenger and taken all the way to the court.
There is an old saying that goes, "What is good for the goose is good for the gander." Perhaps this should say, "What is good for the goose is good for the gander at the goose to see who stole the egg."
Glenn Hodge, Lawrence resident and classified civil service employee at the University of Kansas.
BLOOM COUNTY
bv Berke Breathed