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Monday, October 19. 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Summer session
Summer means vacation, baseball and tanning. But is that it? Summer has traditionally been a full three-month break for those involved with education. It was initiated to allow children to help on the farms during harvest.
The Los Angeles Board of Education voted last week to put all public school students on a year-round schedule starting in 1989. The National Association for Year-Round Education implies that time spent away from school is time wasted, and that learning only occurs in the classroom.
Is summer break widely observed simply because it's traditional, or does it have advantages for students?
For young children, it often means more time with family and lots of time spent playing. For junior-high students it can mean camp or sports or time-intensive clubs. For high school and college students, summer often means working to pay for college. Summer can also include internships or jobs the help define skills and interests. In addition, many students travel during the summer — resulting in a broader understanding of the world.
Classroom instruction is the most structured form of learning, but children shouldn't be chained to their desks for 13 or more years in the hope that they will be better prepared to function in the "real world."
Formal education is not always preferable to experience.
Court order
The Kansas Supreme Court recently set state precedent by handing down strict guidelines governing child-support payments.
In the past, child support varied from court to court, according to how each judge handled it. The new guidelines give judges a standard by which to decide child-support cases. Along with setting guidelines, the ruling calls for increased payments by the non-custodial parent. The new guidelines will bring fairness and definitiveness to an otherwise ambiguous issue.
The guidelines will go into effect by the end of the month. They will pertain to all new cases as well as to past cases which are reviewed by the courts.
Many lawyers and judges oppose the guidelines because they say the ruling will clog the courts with renewed child-custody battles, floods of requests for increased payments and problems collecting those payments. But despite the short-term inconveniences, Kansas needs such guidelines in order to guarantee the future of child support. The courts may be overburdened for a short time while the problems are ironed out and the new rush of cases are thinned. But in the long run, the guidelines will ease the problems brought on by the arbitrary manner in which child-support cases have been solved in the past.
Child support is too important an issue to be decided by the personal whims of a judge. The new guidelines will promote justice and consistancy.
Nobel cause
The voice of reason finally is being heard over the clash of arms in war-torn Central America.
Eighteen months ago, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez proposed a framework for ending the strife that has plagued the region for so long. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to gain acceptance for his proposal.
The Arias peace plan was signed by representatives from Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica in Guatemala City Aug. 7. While there remains much to be done, there is, at last, real hope for peace in Central America.
For his efforts, Arias was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week. In addition to recognizing his individual accomplishment, the award also buttresses the peace effort in its own right by giving it greater credibility.
President Reagan, who has called the plan fatally flawed and has announced that he would seek additional aid for the contras, should take notice. The hope for peace in the region rests not with our efforts to oust the Sandinistas from power in Nicaragua but with dialogue and diplomacy between the region's governments free of outside interference.
Nancy Reagan recently stated that one of her ambitions for her husband's last months in office was to see him win the Nobel Peace Prize.
He didn't get it.
He that I get it.
Instead, it went to a man whose plan Reagan would prefer to see die — and it may, if the president is successful in reviving support for the contras. It is time to recognize, as the Nobel awards committee has, that peace in Central America demands conciliation, not militization.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
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KU's inferiority affects faculty
The University of Kansas has once again, received a four-star rating from the New York Times Guide to Higher Education. Americans are still encouraged to believe that KU is a "cornfield Berkeley." We must remember that this rating is based upon services delivered to the student. What about the star rating for the quality of services delivered to the faculty?
The University of Kansas deserves a two-star rating at best and perhaps even one star for salaries and benefits to its faculty. We are rated 47th out of 50 states for the percentage of health plan costs paid by the employer, and our average salaries are eight percent lower than our peer universities. Is it any surprise that the New York university KU is an excellent buy for the money? Hardly.
To help remedy this problem, the chancellor has embarked upon a budget campaign known as "Margin of Excellence." A colleague rightfully pointed out to me that this campaign name misleads the public. If we are below the average, the margin that the chancellor hopes to remedy is one of inferiority, not excellence. The political rhetoric creates a Norman Vincent Peale label for positive thinking, but this attitude smooths over deep-rooted problems.
With the KU faculty so disgruntled and now considering unionization, would we be surprised that the chancellor and his staff are now embarking upon a crisis budget campaign? Yet, what is overlooked is that the chancellor cannot capture past income losses under his leadership; he only
can hope to bring us to an average level amongst our peer universities.
Many KU faculty are angry about the current state of affairs, but where does the guilt lie? Is Chancellor Budig to blame for the current state of affairs? Most certainly the Kansas Legislature and the majority of Kansans are pleased with the chancellor's efforts. I would argue that Budig has little power to influence faculty salaries and benefits. Yet, it is the chancellor that KU faculty have depended on for receiving their fair share of rewards. Budig is unavoidably a middle man who cannot ultimately fulfill faculty interests. His work eleven years ago was mainly to remain a member to the Board of Regents. The Margin of Excellence proposal exemplifies the fact that the KU faculty is at the mercy of crisis budget campaigns and periodic fund drives that are embellished by appeals to the alumni to sustain KU's excellence. This approach is adhocism at its finest, but what else can the chancellor
do?
The KU faculty needs leadership that can represent its interests. To argue that Gene Budig and any previous or future chancellor can serve the faculty's financial interests is political folly. If you believe that Budig has done a poor job, then he might be fired, but how many people honestly believe that a new chancellor will do a better job for the faculty? No chancellor could have prevented the faculty's recent loss of health benefits. It is a no-win situation for faculty to accept the same political power relations that annually come at their personal expense.
KU faculty members need a structural change, and unionization is an alternative. KU administrators are against such a move, because it questions and challenges their legitimacy in delivering services to the faculty. The administration is constantly boasting about KU's reputation while sustaining the internal contradiction that it demands quality performance from its faculty without due compensation. You cannot expect the KU leaders who administer and then help reproduce this contradiction to resolve these inequities in a meaningful way. For too many years, KU faculty have worked within the administrative system. It is time for us to have representation external to the power structure that has failed us. The State Legislature needs to bargain with someone who represents faculty interests without serving the Board of Regents.
Jim Mayo is a professor in the School of Architecture and Urban Design.
K A N S A N
MAILBOX
Watchdog censors
records has blackbailed some artists to the point of nonexistence.
The labeling of rock 'n' roll records, which the PMRC advocated in an effort to "protect their children" at first glance appears to have some merit but, in actuality, the labeling of those
It seemed ironic that the most important facts presented by Jello Biafra, in his lecture Monday night, were omitted in the Kansan article.
The new wave of censorship brought on by the PMRC, a group of senators' wives who have appointed themselves as watchdogs over the record industry, is not to be taken lightly.
"There are executives that own chains of shopping malls across this country that have stated that they will evict any record store that sells any album with any label." He said.
Which results in the blackballing of those artists from a large part of the market.
The labeling of rock 'n' roll records implies discrimination since other forms of music are爱
The PMRC has also asked the record industry to "re-evaluate the contracts" of rock 'n' roll performers that they deemed as having "no artistic merit."
I'm glad that Biafra and friends stood up to the PMRC.
Frank MacDonald, Kansas City, Kan., senior
Academic despair
Your Oct. 8 editorial, "Fighting chance"
suggests that KU may be about to fire football
cannon at the University.
I used to be Arthur Young Distinguished Professor (of Business) at KU, and for some years taught a thousand or so sophomores each year. Last June, at considerable financial sacrifice, I took early retirement out of despair with KU's lack of any real concern for undergraduate education. Coach Valesente's working here was one of the few things that made me hesitate. He gives a damn about the academic progress of students who play for him.
It would be entirely consistent for KU to fire
it, remain fond enough of KU to hope that it
doesn't.
Arthur L. Thomas, Lawrence resident
katz
k.l. thorman
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed