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Thursday, August 27, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
No more smokescreen
Tailored lawns and bushes provide the University of Kansas with scenery appealing to the eye. Modern library and research facilities provide resources to stimulate growth of the mind.
And now, University officials are looking out for your health.
And now, University officials are looking for your heart. On July 7, acting Executive Vice Chancellor Del Shankel set into motion a policy to protect the health of those who have chosen not to smoke cigarettes.
His action, in essence, bans smoking in confined areas, such as elevators, restrooms and cashier waiting lines. Smokers are also asked to refrain from smoking in designated areas if non-smokers are present.
But more than that, the policy respects the rights of non-smokers. The harmful effects of second-hand cigarette smoke have been documented, and are disputed primarily by the smokescreens of tobacco growers and lobbyists.
Yet, the policy also establishes guidelines to accommodate smokers who can't seem to kick the habit on campus.
And what do smokers have to gain from the new smoking policy? Now they won't have to suffer the icy stares from nonsmokers when they strike the match.
Quality, not quantity
Students attending the University of Kansas should demand excellence from the University, its professors and its classes.
In the past, KU's quality of education has kept Kanshis in the state and has drawn large numbers of out-of-state students.
Now, the quality that attracted students could be damaged by the masses of students. The future of KU's quality of education was uncertain last semester and seems even more uncertain now
Some KU administrators have estimated that enrollment at the Lawrence campus could stretch to 25,000 students this fall. Students are popping up everywhere, sitting on classroom floors, ready to pounce on any decent class opening they can get.
This fall, KU initiated a stricter admissions policy for out-of-state students. Even with the policy, however, KU saw an increase of about 950 out-of-state freshmen over fall 1986.
increase of about 10%. Maybe the new policy should be accompanied with a slight tuition increase for out-of-state students. Current tuition for in-state students is a bargain. For out-of-state students, it's a steal.
KU has to recognize its enrollment limits or everyone will suffer. Now, the University of Kansas must admit all Kansas high school graduates. Many college freshmen, from Kansas and elsewhere, lack the necessary preparatory classes to be successful at the university level. KU should not admit students who have failed to prepare themselves adequately for a university, regardless of where they live.
That's not the ticket
Selling lottery tickets is a losing proposition for Kansas businesses.
About 1,200 outlets have signed up across the state to sell tickets for the lottery, which may begin sometime in October. Lottery officials hope that 2,000 to 4,000 outlets will be the final total
total.
Perhaps the sales will bring traffic to the stores, but consumers will buy lottery tickets with money that otherwise would have been spent on food, clothing or incidentals.
And the people who will be serious customers will be the ones who cannot really afford to be.
who cannot really afford to be.
The wealthy will not be the ones slapping down the dollars for tickets. This effort to gain revenue for the financially troubled state will be financed by those with few dollars in their pockets.
So when the cashiers ring up ticket purchases, feeble hopes are being sparked with money that could be better used.
being sparked with money that could be better used.
being sparked with the idea of a business that offers Lottery officials have set up incentives for businesses to serve as ticket outlets. Retailers receive a 5 percent discount when they buy a book of tickets, and the cost of low-tier cash prizes that the business will award to winners is subtracted from the purchase price as well.
price as well.
So the average price to the business of a $300 book of tickets will be $165, according to the director of public information for the Kansas Lottery. Unused tickets will be bought back.
No waste of space, no inventory, no spoilage.
No waste of space, no infancy, no sponging.
But selling a loaf of bread would make more sense.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin...Editor
Jul Warren...Managing editor
John Benner...News editor
Beth Copeland...Editorial editor
Sally Streff...Campus editor
Brian Kaberline...Sports editor
Dan Rettmann...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 Derfelt ... National sales manager
Ronthe Clark ... Classified manager
Ron Weems ... Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Suffer-Filth Haut, Lawn, Kan, 66045.
College lifestyles fuel clique war
There are many questions that face freshman as they stumble into life at the University of Kansas.
For example: Which floor is the cafeteria on? Why does it seem as though all the residents in Naismith Hall are Chicago Cubs fans? Do sorority girls really have the biggest, best bows on campus? Do those people in Hashinger actually attend this college, or is there a free methadone clinic in that building? Is an over-the-road trucking job my true calling? Finally, why did my parents leave me here?
All of these questions are legitimate, but the one question that is most pressing is where do I belong among the many lifestyles offered in Lawrence?
The two general categories that students fall into are independent and Greek. There is usually no love lost between these two groups, but they have been peacefully coexisting for years. There are numerous reasons to be in either group, but I have seen some sure signs exhibited by members of both persuasions that tell the story of why they made their personal decision.
"I hate Greeks because I know I couldn't get into a room if I wanted to" individual is a trait among some GDI's. If you're not athletic enough, good-looking enough or are constantly drunk and your grade point average reflects that very fact, you may be one of these people. However, you can take heart in the fact that although you may not be Greek material, you'll also not cut out to join a leaper colony, either. Many independents see little difference between the two.
First, there are many different types of independents, or GDI's, as many prefer.
Next up is the cappuccino-drinking, Vespa-driving,
long -haired, barefoot, politically
seous nipple. This is truly a rare breed of independents. They live for poetry readings at the Glass Onion and the chance to heckle some overbearing, loud-mouthed ultra-conservative. This group prides itself on being one that is unconcerned with material gain, but is dedicated to promoting peace and harmony throughout the world. Their religion may fall along the lines of "Why tear down a tree to build a church when you can simply worship this new vinyl siding at half the cost?"
This group has suffered terribly since the Reagan era was ushered in. Membership has declined, and some seemingly devoted followers were proven to be frauds when they were spotted driving mid-size Buicks and eating unhealthy foods.
Finally, there are those few independents who don't join fraternities because of a rare disorder called Sororophobia, or the fear of partying with hot chicks.
Now it's on to the different types of Greeks that bless our world ...
but Dad will buy him a BMW if he makes it to his junior year. Candi drives a convertible Rabbit, and if she gets a 2.0 this year she'll get a Mustang (convertible, of course). Tosh loves beautiful women, corduroy baseball caps and a hip Spuds T—shirt. Candi is fascinated with the latest fashions, digs safe sex, and bright colors intrigue her. Tosh finches when the word "minority" is uttered within earshot, while Candi merely shifts her weight and looks a bit uneasy.
We shall first study the most prominent and most repulsive (at least to GDI's) greek. We have all seen both him and her. His name is Tosh, hers, Candi. Tosh drives a Honda Prelude his first year,
The other breed of greek is what I affectionately term the "conscientes objector." This individual speaks freely with independents, and she doesn't even have to be a cute girl, either. This Greek may not be one of the "beautiful people" in the house, but he or she never bad—mouths independents or people from other houses. He is laid back and doesn't need hostility at this point in his life. She follows the "people are people" philosophy. When they walk on campus, one can't tell simply by looking that they are Greek.
Now that you have become acquainted with the different personality types, you should be honest with yourself and seek out your peers. The worst that one can do is not in any group at all.
We all know the type of individual who everyone has seen but nobody knows. The individual who responds to enthusiastic greetings with "hey," must lead a dull life. Don't be the kind of person that could lean against a blank wall and have made no impact upon its face. Join in the fun and enter our little Cold War at KU.
Jon Gregor is a leavernorth junior double-majoring in political science and broadcast journalism.
MR BADGER HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN or ROAD TO NOWHERE? by A.D. long
Reinhard Becker
West German graduate student Reinhard "Georg" Becker is a Voelklingen, West Germany, graduate student.
K·A·N·S·A·N
MAIL BOX
Faulty news judgment
Does anybody know where Wunsield is? An article in the University Daily Kansas (Aug. 24, 1987, “Rudolf Hess killed himself, officials say”) provides us on page two with the answer: Wunsield is in northern Bavaria, West Germany. Moreover, we learn that five people were arrested after defying the order of Northern Bavarian officials who banned any pro-Hess demonstrations in that area.
What's so exciting about this incident? Amazingly enough, Wunsiedel has built a dubious reputation by now. On that page in the Kansan, Wunsiedel rates as the second news brief.
Much has been written about agenda setting and the role of journalists as gatekeepers. It's up to them to provide the public with information they consider important. I think the article in the Kansan is a typical example of the sometimes weird idea journalists have of their role.
News coverage might also be responsible for questions such as the following, which a taxi driver asked me in Kansas City, anxious to know more about Germany, by inquiring of a real German: Why did Hitler start world War I and World War II? Well, I should have answered, he did not exactly start both wars, but his followers are about to plan another one in Wunsiedel, West Germany.
The incidents in Wunsiedel are deplorable acts. But they are also manifestations of people who have learned nothing from history (Rudolf Hess probably had time enough to learn his lesson.)
The article lacks additional information. The news, taken from the wires of the Associated Press, lacks the information that the majority of Germans have learned from history.
Thus, I consider the way journalists select and place news to be misleading. It might be this kind of news coverage that kept many Americans from spending their vacations in Europe — daily reports of terrorism in Paris and Madrid in recent years might have been responsible for many canceled flights to Europe.
If a writer opens a vein then hearts should bleed
The boy called home the other evening from Washington, where he has a summer job that involves some writing and editing. He mentioned that he'd heard Adam Meyerson, editor of "Policy Review," comment that most writers hated writing. That brought to mind Red Smith's old observation that writing is easy — all you have to do is sit down at a tweaker and open a vein.
The boy asked whether I thought that way, and I said, "No. I enjoy it. The hard part is the thinking. The best part is after you've got the first draft done and you can concentrate on the writing, the polishing."
writing, the polishing.
After he'd hung up, I realized I had fallen into the oldest fallacy about writing — the assumption that there is a clear distinction between writing and thinking, the word and the thought, and once you've thought about something (wordlessly, somehow) you sit down and perform the mechanical task of putting it on paper.
'Taint't so. Words are thought — its coinage and instrument and test and, yes, thought itself. That may be why writers are so often tongue-tied; we keep rearranging sentences even as we speak them, thinking them through again. Thought and its expression are part of the same process; writing is thinking.
What makes writing difficult is that it involves thought, and thinking is work. Is there anything so easy to put off as writing? H. L. Mencken once explained that living for a written was a kind of personality disorder. His theory was that "an author, like any other so-called artist, is a man in whom the normal vanity of all men is so vastly exaggerated that he finds it a sheer impossibility to hold it in. His overpowering impulse is to gryrate before his fellow men, flapping his wings and emitting defiant yells. This being forbidden by the police of all civilized countries, he takes it out by putting his yells on paper. Such is the thing called self-expression."
When it's done well, the writer feels like a sculptor chasing留身 defy at a block of stone. If done poorly day after day, stroke after stroke, the effect on both writer and reader is more like
The enduring charm of Mencken's work can be explained by his ability to transform that original impulse into words that make sense and feeling — even after half a century. The first steps in the writing process may be painful, as one watches what seemed a great idea fail the test of words, or turn into something entirely different.
that of the Chinese water torture
If the form that emerges is mishapen and without substance, the sense of defeat is total, and the only saving hope is that some editor with good sense will crumple up the product and see that it lands in the wastebin instead of in print. The great service of editors is to save writers' embarrassment. There are few things more painful for an editorial writer whose taste has advanced beyond his talent to go back and read some of his own stuff from years back; maybe that's why I would rather anticipate future editors than读 old ones. But that's unavoidable around this time of year, when the editorial writer's annual convention approaches, and we are obliged to provide samples of our work for others to examine — all too well.
This week, I've been examining the editorial pages of three other papers — all respectable, not to say deadly at times — and what they most lack is that Menckenesque sense of serious fun. Either it has been lost in the writing or thinking, or it was never there. When it does burst through, the reader is rewarded, enthralled, and like the writer, impelled to think despite himself. But it doesn't hapen often enough.
they get it. That's something editorial writers should remember when feeling called upon to open a vein. And if that thought doesn't comfort, well, a writer can still be forgiven for hating to write — just as long as he doesn't let the writing show it.
does *Hope* C. Hall diagnosed this condition in the Montgomery Advertiser about 30 years ago when he noted that editors in general seemed "tired and unhappy." Grover C. Hall Jr., being Grover C. Hall Jr., couldn't understand it. "What's the matter with em anyway?" he wanted to know. "They've got the greatest job in the world."
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed