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Wednesdav. September 16, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KU's fraternities and sororities should open their houses and welcome changes recommended and requested by the Lawrence Fire Department.
Fired
Some houses must upgrade their fire prevention mechanisms to comply with the city's new, stricter interpretation of the fire code, which is part of a program that officials started after an April 26 fire destroyed part of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
They have been warned.
Although the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house has been rejuvenated recently, memories of that blaze should still burn brightly in the minds of those who live in fraternity and sorority houses. The fire department inspected all the Greek houses over the summer and isolated areas of improvement for many of them. The fire department has done its job. Now the houses must comply, regardless of the cost.
The University of Kansas could assist in making the greek houses fireproof. For example, KU officials could offer the house members advice on the best and most efficient way to correct fire code violations.
The fire department would not inspect houses, make recommendations and then follow up with inspections if the program was not important for safety.
All residents should take precautions before a fire strikes. Buy a smoke detector. Install it.
Crusty roles
In the past 20 years, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically, but the world of politics has shown us once again how far we are from abolishing these limiting roles.
Elizabeth Dole announced Monday she would resign as transportation secretary to join her husband, Sen. Bob Dole, on his presidential campaign. Her resignation comes after much urging from the senator's supporters.
The Doles have been the epitome of the two-career couple. As a Cabinet member, Secretary Dole has been both influential and effective. Working in a time of many difficult transportation issues, Dole saw the airlines through deregulation, called for more consumer information on airlines and issued stricter airline safety laws. Her job is as demanding and as important as the senator's.
By resigning, Dole is rebuilding the gender barriers she helped to break as the only woman on Reagan's Cabinet. Elizabeth Dole herself said she thought it "curious" that candidates' wives were expected to give up their government positions but that the candidates themselves were not. Why doesn't the senator give up his position? After all, it's his campaign.
Elizabeth Dole is a strong, able woman. Her work has been essential to our country's well-being. It is a shame to see her reinforcing outdated gender roles.
Double parked
At the University of Kansas, students, faculty and even visitors are used to paying for parking. But paying twice? For the same space?
Parking Services has come up with a plan to provide parking for campus visitors while saving the expense of parking booth monitors' salaries. Meters will be installed in lot 91 between the Kansas Union and Memorial Stadium. About half of the lot, which is currently yellow-zone student parking, will have meters at 25 cents an hour. Visitors should be very happy.
With parking as tight as it is, students will undoubtedly need to park in the metered spaces when the non-metered spaces are filled. The metered visitor spaces will be open to students, provided they pay the 25-cent an hour fee — even if they already paid for a yellow parking sticker.
A $40 yellow-zone sticker is no small expense. If a student with a yellow sticker parked in the metered area for just 20 eight-hour days, he would have paid for his $40 parking sticker twice
There is a need for visitor parking space. Lot 91 may be a good location for visitors. However, lot 91 is one of the largest parking lots available to drivers with yellow stickers. The lot could be, and in the past has been, made available to visitors without making the students pay twice. Parking booth monitors at the entrance to lot 91 could admit visitors as they pay and students who have already paid.
Parking Services will only save the cost of the parking booth monitors' salaries at the paying students' expenses.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin...Editor
Julill Warren...Managing editor
John Benner...News editor
Beth Copeland...Editorial editor
Sally Streff...Campus editor
Brian Kabelline...Sports editor
Dan Rußtimmann...Photo editor
Bill Sketel...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 Derft ... National sales manager
Angela Clark ... Classified manager
Ron Wrenne ... Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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CINCINNATI CENTER FOR EDUCATION
Gaffes litter '88 campaign trail
By DONALD M. ROTHBERG
Associated Press
Bob Dole's trip to Managua, Bruce Babbitt's media buy, Pat Robertson's libel suit and Joe Biden's quick opposition to the appointment of Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court — were they good ideas or bad?
Or how about the Southern primary?
Campaigns often are best remembered by the ideas that turn sour. It's 14 months until Election Day 1988, and the candidates have already produced a bumper crop of questionable deei-
Dole might benefit eventually from his impromptu confrontation with Necaraguan Presi-
tory.
After the session between Ortega and a congressional delegation that included the Kansas Republican and four other legislators, Dole commenting that he had used the visit for a "proposanda rally."
Maybe Dole's mini-debate with Ortega will play well with U.S. voters. But it also might give his rivals an opportunity to ask whether he really expected to have a serious discussion with Ortega.
Later, the four Republican senators and one House Democrat issued a statement saying the meeting "was not a serious discussion; it was a staged media circus."
Analysis
Babbitt decided last spring to spend $250,000 on a massive media buy in Iowa in order to boost his name recognition in the state that holds the first caucuses of the 1988 campaign.
The former Democratic governor of Arizona certainly needed a way to get lowans to pay more attention to him.
But he might have spent too much early. Not even the politically acute folks in Iowa were paying that much attention that early. So the police had to be an an and Babbitt must have also ran in the polls.
Robertson was outraged when former Rep. Pete McCloskey of California, a fellow Marine officer during the Korean War, said that the television evangelist had avoided combat by having his father, a U.S. senator, intercede for him.
Not only did Robertson denounce the accusation, but he also sued McCloskey, a step that guaranteed that the question of his military service would remain alive throughout the campaign.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden was assured a central role in the debate over Reagan's nomination of Bork to
succeed Justice Lewis Powell.
Bork's conservative views make him anathema to many civil rights and feminist groups.
Long before the first testimony for or against the nominee, Biden declared his opposition, a step that some thought was taken in unseemly haste. He would preside over the confirmation hearings
It also played to a major criticism of the Delaware senator — a sense that he is impetuous.
But when it comes to ideas that have unintended consequences, none may match the Southern primary, the brainchild of Democratic politicians determined to give the region a stronger voice in determining their party's next presidential nominee.
Foremost in their minds was the belief that if nearly all Southern states voted on the same day, March 8, they would support someone from the conservative wing of the party.
The trouble with that strategy was that the conservatives who looked best to the Southernners, Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia and former Gov. Charles Robb of Virginia, aren't running.
That leaves the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the least conservative contender, as the candidate best positioned to win the most delegates in a Southern primary.
Flabby thighs weigh on women worried about choosy men
Donald M. Rothberg is the chief political writer of the Associated Press.
Dear KU freshmen women:
Beware not the infamous Freshmen 15. If it so happens that you gain some extra pounds during your first year here, so be it. It men as well as women have more weight during these college transitory years.
Jennifer
Forker
Staff Columnist
If you remain at your present post-high-school weight, congratulations! You're certainly in the minority.
But please, oh please, don't dwell on your weight. I hate to hear women worrying about their weight. And I especially hate to hear those Twiggy types. You know them: They were born without thighs or hips but have legs that reach to their navels and say things such as, "Oh, I feel so fat. I can't eat dessert for the next 20 years."
Hey, ladies, life is just too short for this self-deprecating, nit-picky talk. We shouldn't spend so much precious time worrying about those extra circumstances not dwell on our positive characteristics instead?
Rarely, though, do I hear people say, "Gawd, I have the greatest smile." Or, "You know what I like about myself? I'm an optimistic person who looks for the good in others. I'm proud of that."
I have this motto about dieting, which I call the "Hot Fudge Sundae Theory." It goes something like this: Forget it; it eat that hot fudge sundae today, while you can. Who knows what will happen to you tomorrow? You could hit by a truck and in your last, dying breath, exclaim, "I
should have eaten that hot fudge sundae last night."
Truly, this is how I justify the numerous chocolate sundaes that I consume. And I eat ice cream without guilt.
cream without glitter.
We women are too critical about our bodies and too anxious about our weight. I think men, not all, but many, have influenced these perceptions. I have witnessed countless young men point out a woman who has a slightly enlarged rear. The same men then exclaim, "Check out the skillet butt." Or, "Hey, hippo hips!"
It disgusts me because, while they're quick to point out robust female buttocks, they fail to notice their own bells, which creep over their shins. A giant gain weight while in college, isn't that amazing?
But God was unfair. While women tend to gain weight in noticeable areas, such as the buttocks, hips and thighs, men seem to gain extra pounds in their midsections: in the easily hidden stomach.
Men can camouflage beer-induced cellulite with baggie shirts. Their rears never seem to be
wretched, at least in the early weight-gain stage.
We women can't hide the dimpies in our thighs unless we forego short-shorts and creeping miniskirts. And wouldn't that be a shame?
I have another motto. It goes something like, "Live for yourself and forget what other people think about you." That's not to imply that I have a hateful or thankless attitude toward people.
Too often, though, we allow others to decide how we will regard ourselves.
Me. That's a personal topic, and one that I think I am qualified to evaluate, thank you very much.
planned to evaluate, thank you very much.
Women, don't allow these cruel, opinionated men to tell you to shed some pounds. Lose weight for them or try to lose pounds to appease some loud mouth.
Critical men like that are merely demonstrating their insecurities. Who wants to be a spring
To anyone who craves to devour a hot fudge sundae, please don't pass it up. You might not have another chance tomorrow.
BLOOM COUNTY
bv Berke Breathed